Haman's Vanity

A Sermon Displaying the Birthlesse Issues of Church-Destroying Adversaries

The trembling period of time (wherein we now breath) is very like that Day spoken of by the Prophet Zachary in cap.14. v.6 & 7. In that Day the light shall not be cleare nor dark, but it shall be one Day known to the Lord, Not Day, Nor Night.
With such a strange mysteriousnesse doth Divine Providence ballance the Scales of the Church and her Adversaries attempts, that oftentimes the most criticall Believers stand amaz’d and unresolved: For the light is not so cleare that we can infallibly foresee what God will presently doe; Nor yet is it so dark that wee can peremptorily conclude, God will doe no more; Such a mixture, such a variation there is in Gods present dispensations, that we are like a Ship which is no sooner freed of one wave but is as immediately lifted up by another: This one Day (as that Scripture speaketh,) Is Not a Day (i) Not such a time of perfect successe as that wee can long rejoyce, and say, Now there is an end of All our Feares; Nor yet is it Night; (i) such a time of palpable losse, as that we need to dispaire and cry out, Now there is an end of all our Hopes.
And verily through such Dubious Methods doth that deep and unsearchable providence wheele and drive on his own great counsels and designs (perhaps) for these Reasons, That his minutes of vengeance might glide unexpectedly on his Adversaries, And the seasons of deliverances might be most welcome to his Servants, And the decisive events be most properly glorious to himselfe; There being no other Hand of good mens preservation and of wicked mens confusion, then that, which to our shallow sense, seemeth to neglect both.
In such wavering and likely-unlikely times, two duties doe chiefly concerne us; One is a constant respect to divine commands: The other is a fixed resting on divine promises: Whatsoever the Temporary events may be, wee must be carefull to doe our work, and then bee confident that God (in due time) will finish his: Perhaps the Churches of Christ may suffer yet longer, but they shall not thus suffer for ever; For that mighty Angel which came down from Heaven in Revel.10:1. though He was cloathed with a cloud, yet He was cloathed with a Raine how too, which ye know was Nuncius fæderis & Serenitatis.
And (Right Honourable) if you will once more cast your eyes on that place in Zachary, peradventure you may finde as strange an Evening-time, as just now you did a Day-time; (It shall come passe, faith the Prophet there, That at Evening-time, it shall be light;) O the wonderfully superlative thoughts and acts of God! How high and contrary are his times of working to weak mans times of expecting? When we are most confident of good, then behold evill is upon us! And when we are expecting nothing but darknesse; (for what is the evening but a Sepulcher prepared for the light?) Then behold at the evening time it shall bee light: So wisely doth the great Soveraigne of the world reserve himselfe, and times; that yet he can and will create the light of clearest mercies, even then when his Church is setting into the evening of darkest miseries.
All this is truth, and your selves have lived to handle much of it by experience: which therefore should oblige and excite every Member of your House to be more thankfull, and more faithfull, and more seriously Active for the lamentably Massacred Churches of England and Ireland; Be confident of it, that whosoever may be the enemies, and whatsoever may be the hazards; yet Christ and his Church will be the Conquerours: Him and his Church and his cattle I still commend to the utmost of your cares and service; How much and how farre you are for these, so much and so long God will be for you. Whose eternall wings for ever shadow your persons, and prosper all your pious endevours, So prayes
Yours and the Churches, Servant,
Obadiah Sedgwicke