A SERMON Preached before The Honourable House OF COMMONS At their late solemne Fast Wednesday March 27. 1644. BY GEORGE GILLESPIE Minister at Edinburgh Published by Order of the House PSAL. 102. 6. When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appeare in his glory LONDON Printed for Robert Bostock dwelling at the Kings head in Pauls Church-yard Anno 1644. TO THE READER DIvine providence hath made it my â—…ot and a Calling hath induced me who am lesse then the least of all the servants of Christ to appeare among others in this Cloud of publike Witnesses The scope of the Sermon is to endevour the removall of the obstructions both of Humiliation and Reformation two things which ought to lye very much in our thoughts at this time Concerning both I shall preface but little Reformation hath many unfriends some upon the right hand and some upon the left While others cry up that detestable indifferencie or neutrality abjured in our solemne Covenant in so much that a Gamaliel and b Gallio men who regarded alike the Iewish and the Christian Religion c are highly commended as examples for all Christians and as men walking by the rules not onely of Policy but of Reason and Religion Now let all those that are either against us or not with us doe what they can the right hand of the most High shall perfect the glorious begun Reformation Can all the world keep downe the Sunne of Righteousnesse from rising or being risen can they spread a vaile over it And though they digge deep to hide their counsels is not this a time of Gods over-reaching and befoolling all plotting wits they have conceived iniquity and they shall bâ—…ing forth vanity d they have sowne the wind and they shall reap the whirlewind Wherefore wee e will wait upon the Lord that hides his face from the house of Iacob and will look for him And f though he slay us yet will we trust in him g The Lord hath commanded to proclaime and to say to the daughter of Zion Behold thy salvation commeth h Rejoyce with Ierusalem all yee that mourn for her For i behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation But I have more to say Mourn O mourne withâ—…erusalem all yee that rejoyce for her k This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy for the children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth It is an interwoven time warped with mercies and woofted with judgements Say not thou in thine heart the dayes of my mourning are at an end Oh wee are to this day an unhumbled and an unprepared people and there are among us both many cursed Achans and many sleeping Jonahs but few wrestling Jacobs l even the wise Virgins are slumbring with the foolish Surely unlesse wee bee timely awaked and more deeply humbled m God will punish us yet seven times more for our sinnes and if he have chastised us with whips he will chastise us with Scorpions and he will yet give a further charge to the Sword n to avenge the quarrell of his Covenant In such a case I cannot say according to the now Oxford Divinity That Preces Lachrymae Prayers and Teares must be our only one shelter and fortresse and that wee must cast away defensive armes as unlawfull in any case whatsoever against the supreame Magistrate that is by interpretation they would have us doe no more then Pray to the end themselves may do no lesse then Prey Wherein they are contradicted not only by Pareus and by others that are eager for a Presbytery as a o Prelate of chiefe note hath lately taken I should say mistaken his marke but even by p those that are eager Royalists Pardon me that I give them not their right name I am sure when all is well reckoned we are better friends to royall authority then themselves Yet herein I doe agree with them that Prayers and Tears will prove our strongest weapons and the onely tela divina the weapons that fight for us from above q O then fear the Lord ye his Saints O r stirre up your selves to lay hold on him s Keep no silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth O that we could all t make Wells in our dry and desertlike hearts that we may u draw out water even buckets full to quench the wrath of a sin-revenging God the fire which still burneth against the Lords inheritance God grant that this Sermon be not as water spilt on the ground but may x drop as the raine and distill as the dew of heaven upon thy soule A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of COMMONS At the late solemne Fast March 27. 1644. EZEK. 43. 11. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done shew them the forme of the House and the fashion thereof and the goings out thereof and the commings in thereof and all the formes thereof and all the Ordinances thereof and all the formes thereof and all the lawes thereof and write it in their sight that they may keep the whole forme thereof and all the Ordinances thereof and doe them IT is not long since I did upon another day of humiliation lay open Englands disease from that Text 2 Chron. 20. 33. Howbeit the High Places were not taken away for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their Fathers Though a the Sunne of Righteousnesse be risen with healing in his wings yet the land is not healed no not of its worst disease which is corruption in Religion and the iniquity of your holy things I did then shew the symptomes and the cause of this evill disease The symptomes are your high Places not yet taken away many of your old superstitious ceremonies to this day remaining which though not so evill as the High-places of Idolatry in which Idollâ—… were worshipped yet are parallel to the High-places of Will worship of which we reade that the people thinking it too hard to be tied to goe up to Jerusalem with every sacrifice did b sacrifice still in the High places yet unto the Lord their God only pleading for their so doing antiquity custome and other defences of that kinde which have been alledged for your Ceremonies But albeit these be foule sports in the Churches face which offend the eyes of her glorious Bridegroome Jesus Christ yet that which doth lesse appeare is more dangerous and that is the cause of all this evill in the very bowells and heart of the Church the people of the land great and small have not as yet prepared their hearts unto the Lord their God mercy is prepared for the land but the land is not prepared for mercy I shall say no more of the disease at this instant But I
the Governuor will he bee pleased with thee or accept thy person Will thy Governour nay thy neighbour who is as thou art after an injury done to him bee pleased with thee if thou doe but leave off to doe him any more such injuries VVill he not expect an acknowledgement of the wrong done Is it not t Christs rule that he who seven times trespasseth against his brother seven times turne again saying I repent u David would hardly trust Ittai to goe up and downe with him who was but a stranger how much more if hee had done him some great wrong and then refused to confesse it And how shall wee think that it can stand with the honour of the most high God that wee seem to draw neare unto him and to walk in his wayes while in the mean time we do not acknowledge our iniquitie and even accuse shame judge and condemne our selves Nay x be not deceived God is not mocked This is the first necessity of the duty which this Text holdeth forth The Lord requireth of us not onely to doe his will for the future but to be ashamed for what we have done amisse before The other necessity of it which is also in the Text is this that except we be thus ashamed and humbled God hath not promised to shew us the pattern of his house nor to reveale his will unto us Which agreeth well with that Psal. 25. 9. The meek will he teach his way and vers. 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord him shall he teach in the way that he shall chuse and vers. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that feare him and hee will shew them his Covenant There is sanctification in the affections and here is humiliation in the affections spoken of as necessary means of attaining the knowledge of the will of God Let the affections be ordered aright then light which is offered shall be seen and received but let light be offered when disordered affections doe overcloud the eye of the minde then all is in vaine In this case a man shall be y like the deaf Adder which will not be taken by the voice of the charmers charming never so wisely Let the helme of reason be stirred as well as you can imagine if there be a contrary winde in the sailes of the affections the ship will not answere to the helme It is a good argument hee is a wicked man a covetous man a proud man a carnall man an unhumbled man Ergo he will readily miscarry in his judgement So Divines have argued against the Popes infallibility The Pope hath been and may be a profane man Ergo he may erre in his judgement and decrees And what wonder that they who receive not the love of the truth be given over z to strong delusion that they should beleeve a lie It is as good an argument Hee is a humbled man and a man that feareth God Ergo in so far as he acteth and exerciseth those graces the Lord shall teach him in the way that he shall choose I say in so farre as he acteth those graces because when he grieves the spirit and cherisheth the flesh when the child of God is more swayed by his corruptions then by his graces then he is in great danger to be given up to the counsell of his own heart and to be deserted by a the holy Ghost which should leade him into all truth But we must take notice of a seeming contradiction here in the Text God saith to the Prophet in the former verse Shew the house to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their iniquities And Jerem. 31. 19. Ephraim is first instructed then ashamed And here it is quite turned over in my Text If they be ashamed shew them the House I shall not here make any digression unto the debates and distinctions of School-men what influence and power the affections have upon the understanding and the will I will content my self with this plain answer Those two might very well stand together light is a help to humiliation and humiliation a help to light As there must be some work of faith and some apprehension of the Love of God in order before true Evangelicall repentance yet this repentance helpeth us to beleeve more firmly that our sinnes are forgiven The soul in the pains of the new birth is like b Tamar travelling of her twins Pharez and Zarah faith like Zarah first putting out his hand but hath no strength to come forth therefore draweth backe the hand againe till repentance like Pharez have broken forth then can faith come forth more easily Which appeareth in that woman Luke 7. 47 48. shee wept much because she loved much she loved much because shee beleeved and by faith had her heart enlarged with apprehending the rich grace and free love of Christ to poore sinners this faith moves her bowells melts her heart stirres her sorrow kindles her affection Then and not till then she gets a prop to her faith and a sure ground to build upon It is not till shee have wept much that Christ intimates mercy and saith Thy sins are forgiven thee Just so is the case in this Text Shew them the House saith the Lord that they may be ashamed Give them a view of it that they may think the worse of themselves that they want it that they may be ashamed for all their iniquities whereby they have separate betwixt their God and themselves so that they can not c behold the beauty of the Lord nor enquire in his Temple And if when they begin to see it they have such thoughts as these and humble themselves and acknowledge their iniquities then goe to and shew them the whole Fabrick and Structure and all the gates thereof and all the parts thereof and all things pertaining thereto I suppose I have said enough for confirmation and cleering of the Doctrine concerning the necessitie of our being ashamed and confounded before the Lord I have now a fourefold application to draw from it The first application shall be to the malignant enemies of the Cause and People of God at this time who deserve Jeremiahs black mark to be put upon them d Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush When he would say the worst of them this is it e Thou hadst a whores forehead thou refusedst to be ashamed There are some sonnes of Belial risen up against us who have done some things whereof I dare say many Heathens would have been ashamed yet they are as farre from being ashamed of their outrages as Caligula was who said of himself that he loved nothing better in his own nature then that hee could not be ashamed nay f their glory is their shame and if the Lord doe not open their eyes to see their shame their end will
as they were abusively called are more upright in heart unto this present reformation then any of those who had assumed to themselves high degrees in the Church The hardest point of all is so to embrace and follow reformation as to be ashamed of former prevarications and pollutions But in this also the holy Ghost hath set examples before the Ministers of the Gospel I read 2 Chron. 30. 15. The Priests and the Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves and brought in the burnt-offerings into the House of the Lord They thought it not enough to be sanctified but they were ashamed that they had been before defiled A great Prophet is not content to have his Judgement rectified which had been in an errour but he is ashamed of the errour he had been in g So foolish was I saith hee and ignorant I was as a beast before thee A great Apostle must glorifie God and humbly acknowledge his owne shame h For I am the least of the Apostles saith he that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God And shall I add the example of a great father i Aug confesseth honestly that for the space of nine yeers he both was deceived and did deceive others Nature will whisper to a man to looke to his credit But the Text here calleth for another thing to look to the honour of God and to thy own shame and yet in so doing thou shalâ—… be more highly esteemed both by God and by his children Now without this let a man seem to turn and reform never so well all is unsure worke and built upon a sandie foundation And whosoever will not acknowledg their iniquity and be ashamed for it God shall make them bear their shame according to that which is pronounced in the next Chapter verse 10 11 12 13 14 15. against the Levites who had gone astray when Israel went astray after their Idolls and according to that Malach. 2 8 9. Ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people The fourth and last application of this doctrine is for every Christian The Text teacheth us a difference betwixt a presumptuous and a truly humbled sinner The one is ashamed of his sinnes the other not By this mark let every one of us trie himself this day It is a saving grace to be truly and really ashamed of sinne It is one of the promises of the Covenant of grace k Then shall ye remember your owne evill wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your owne sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Trie then if thou hast but thus much of the work of grace in thy soul and if thou hast be assured of thy interest in Christ and in the New Covenant A reprobate may have somewhat which is very like this grace but I shall lay open the difference betwixt the one and the other in these particulars 1. To be truly ashamed of sinne is to be ashamed of it as an act of filthinesse and uncleannesse The childe of God when he comes to the throne of grace is ashamed of an unclean heart though the world cannot see it A naturall man at his best looketh upon sinne as it damneth and destroyeth the soule but hee cannot look upon it as it defiles the soul Shame ariseth properly from a filthy act though no other evill be to follow upon it 2. As wee are ashamed of acts of filthinesse so of acts of folly A naturall man may iudge himself a fool in regard of the circumstances or consequents of this sinne but he is not convinced that sinne in it self is an act of madnesse and folly When the childe of God is humbled l hee becomes a foole in his own eyes hee perceives he hath done like a mad foole Therefore hee is said then to m come to himself 3. The childe of God is ashamed of sinne n as an act of unkindnesse and unthankfulnesse to a sweet mercifull Lord though there were no other evill in sinne the conscience of so much mercy and love so farre abused and so unkindly recompensed is that which confoundeth a penitent sinner As the wife of a kinde husband if she play the whore though the world know it not and if her husband when he might divorce her shall still love her and receive her into his bosome such a one if she have at all any sense or any bowels of sorrow must needs bee swallowed up of shame and confusion for her undutifulnesse and treachery to such a husband But now the Hypocrite is not at all troubled or afflicted in spirit for sinne as it is an act of unkindnesse to God 4. Shame o as Philosophers have defined it is the feare of a just reproofe not simply the feare of a reproofe but the feare of a just reproofe that is servile this filiall The childe of God is ashamed of the very guiltinesse and of that which may bee justly laid to his charge the Hypocrite not so p Saul was not ashamed of his sinne but he was ashamed that Samuel should reprove him before the Elders of the people Christs adversaries were ashamed Luke 13. 17. not of their errour but because their mouthes were stopped before the people and they could not answer him A hypocrite is ashamed q as a thiefe is ashamed when he is found mark that when he is found a thiefe is not ashamed of his sinne but because he is found in it and so brought to a shamefull end 5. When the cause of God is in hand a true penitent is so ashamed of himselfe that he feares the people of God shall be put to shame for his sake and that it shall goe the worse with them because of his vilenesse and guiltinesse This made r David pray O God thou knowest my foolishnesse and my sinnes are not hid from thee let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of hosts be ashamed for my sake let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel The sorrow and shame of a hypocrite as all his other seeming graces are rooted in self-love not in the love of God he hath not this in all his thoughts that he is a Spot or Blemish in the body or Church of Christ and therefore to be humbled lest for his sake God be displeased with his people lest such a vile and abhominable sinner as he is bring wrath and confusion upon others and make Israel turne their back before the enemy O happy soule that hath such thoughts as these I have now done with the first part of the Text wherein I have beene the larger because it most fitteth the work of the day The second followes Shew them the forme of the house c. Before I come to the Doctrines which doe
Church a Enlarge the place of thy Tent and let them stretch forth the curtaines of thine habitations spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left b A great encrease of the Church there was in the Apostles times but c a farre greater to be yet looked for d Though the enemy did come in like a flood the spirit of the Lord hath lift up a standard against him e The Sea saw it and fled Jordan was driven back But when the Gospel commeth like a noise of many waters as the Prophet calls it vers 2. signifying an irresistible encrease it is in vaine to build bulwarks against it God will even break open f the fountaines of the great deep and open the windowes of heaven and the Gospel will prove a second flood which will over-flow the whole earth though not to destroy it as Noahs did but to make it glad g for the earth shall bee filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Thirdly in this Temple beside the Holy of Holies h were three Courts the Court of the Priests the Court of the people commonly called Atrium Israelis and without both these Atrium Gentium the Court of the Heathen so called because the Heathen as also many of those who were legally uncleane might not only come unto the mountaine of the house of the Lord but also enter within the utter wall mentioned Ezech. 42. 20. and so worship in that utter Court or Intermurale Unto which did belong as we learne from i Josephus the great East porch which kept the name of Solomons porch in which both Christ himselfe did preach Io. 10. 23. and the Apostles after him Act. 5. 12. by which meanes the free grace of the Gospel was held sorth even to Heathens and Publicans and uncleane persons who were not admitted into the Court of Israel there to communicate in all the holy things k For the sonne of man came to seek and to save that which was lost This utter Court of the Temple is meant when l it is said that the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery into the Temple and set her before Christ Now all this will hold true answerably of the spirituall Temple For first as m the uncircumcised and the uncleane were not admitted into the Temple among the children of Israel so all that live in the Church of Christ are not to be admitted promiscuously to every ordinance of God especially to the Lords Table but only those whose profession knowledge and conversation after triall shall be found such as may make them capable thereof yet as Heathens and uncleane persons did enter into the utter Court and there heare Christ and his Apostles so there shall ever be in the Church a doore of grace and hope open to the greatest and vilest â—…nners who shall seek after Christ and n ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward Secondly there shall be also somewhat answerable to the Court of the children of Israel o God can raise up even of the stones children to Abraham he will not want a people to trade in the Courts of his house and to enquire in his Temple Thirdly and as in the Typicall Temple there was a Court for the Priests so hath the Lord promised to the Church p Thy teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers And againe q I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding Fourthly and as there was a secret and most holy place where the Ark was and the Mercy-seat and where the glory of God dwelâ—… so Christ hath his owne r hidden ones s the children of the marriage chamber t who with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord There is also a time comming when God will open the secrets of his Temple and make the Ark of his Testament to be seene otherwise then yet it hath beene which shall be at the sounding of the seventh trumpet Revel. 11. 15 19. The fourth thing wherein Ezekiels Temple representeth the Church of Christ is in regard of the great strength thereof u It stood upon a very high mountaine The materiall Temple also in Ierusalem as it is described by Iosephus was a very strong and impregnable place Interpreters think that Cyrus was jealous of the strength of the Temple and for that cause gave x order that it should not be built above threescore cubits high whereas Solomon had built it sixscore cubits high The Romans afterward when they had subdued Iudea had a watchfull eye upon the Temple and placed a strong garrison in the Castle Antonia which was beside the Temple the Commander whereof was called y the Captaine of the Temple And all this for feare of sedition and rebellion among the Jews when they came to the Temple Now the invisible strength of the spirituall Temple is clearly held forth unto us by him that cannot deceive us Upon this rock z saith he meaning himselfe will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it The Princes and powers of the world are more jealous then they need of the Churches strength and yet which is a secret judgement of God they have not beene afraid to suffer Babylon to be built in her full strenth a There were they in great feare where no feare was for when all shall come to all it shall be found that the Gospel and true Religion is the strongest bulwark and chiefe strength for the safety and stability of Kings and States Lastly the glory of this Temple was very great insomuch that b some have undertaken to demonstrate that it was a more glorious peece then any of the seven miracles of the world which were so much spoken of among the Ancients But the greatest glory of this Temple was that the glory of the God of Israel came into it and the earth shined with his glory vers. 2. Christ c the brightnesse of his fathers glory walking d in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks is and shall be more and more the Churches glory Therefore it is said to her e Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Surely as it was said of the new materiall Temple in reference to Christ so it may be said of the new spirituall Temple which yet we look for f The glory of this latter house shall be greater then of the former saith the Lord of hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of hosts Christ will keep the g best
wine till the end of the feast and h he will blesse our latter end more then our beginning That which I have said from grounds of Scripture concerning a more glorious yea more peaceable condition of the Church to be yet looked for is acknowledged by i some of our sound and learned Writers who have had occasion to expresse their judgement about it And it hath no affinity with the opinion of an earthly or temporall kingdome of Christ or of the Jewes their building againe of Jerusalem and the materiall Temple and their obtaining a dominion above all other Nations or the like I shall now bring home the point There are very good grounds of hope to make us think that this new Temple is not farre off And for your part that Christ is to make a new face of a Church in this Kingdome a faire and beautifull Temple for his glory to dwell in And hee is even now about the work For first the set time to build Zion is come when the people of God take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof Psal. 102. 13 14 16. The stones which the builders of Babel refused are now chosen for corner stones and the stones which they choosed doe the builders of Zion now refuse Ier. 51. 26. They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner nor a stone for foundations Those that have any thing of Christ and of the Image of God in them begin to creep out of the dust of contempt and to appeare like starres of the morning Nay to go further then that the old stones the Iewes who have beene for so many ages lying forgotten in the dust those poore k Outcasts of Israel have of â—…ate come more into remembrance and have beene more thought of and more prayed for then they were in former generations Secondly are there not great preparations and instruments fitted for the work Hath not God called together for such a time as this the present Parliament and the Assembly of Divines his Zorobabels and Iehoshua's and Haggaies and Zachariahs Are there not also hewers of stones and bearers of burdens much wholsome preaching much praying and fasting many petitions put up both to God and man the Covenant also going through the Kingdom as the chief preparation of materials for the work Is not the old rubbish of Ceremonies daily more and more shovelled away that there may bee a clean ground and is not the Lord by all this affliction humbling you that there may be a deep and a sure foundation layd Thirdly the work is begun and shall it not be finished God hath layd the foundation and shall he not bring forth the head stone Zechar. 4. 7. 9. Christ hath put Antichrist from his utterworks in Scotland and he is now come to put him from his inner works in England His work is perfect l saith Moses I am alpha and omega m saith Christ the beginning and the ending n Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth sayth the Lord shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb sayth thy God I may adde three other signes whereby to discern the time from Revel. 11. 1. the place before cited First Is there not now a measuring of the Temple Ordinances and worshippers by a reed like unto a rod the reed of the Sanctuary in the Assemblies hand and the rod of Power and Law in your hand are well met together Secondly there is a Court which before seemed to belong to the Temple left out and not measured o from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which hee hath The Samaritans of this time who p serve the Lord and serve their own Gods too and do after the manners of Idolaters have professed as they of old to the Jewes Ezra 4. 2. that they would build with you that they will bee for the true Protestant Religion as you are that they will also consent to the reformation of abuses for the ease of tender consciences But God doth so alienate and separate betwixt you and them by his overruling providence discovering their designes against you and their deep engagements to the Popish party as if he would say unto them you have no portion nor right nor memoriall in Ierusalem Neh. 2. 20. Or as it is in the Parable concerning those who had refused to come when they were invited yea had taken the servants of Christ and entreated them spitefully and killed them the great King hath said in his wrath that they shall not taste of his supper and hee sends forth his Armies to destroy those Murtherers and to burn up their City Mat. 22. 6. 7. Luk. 14. 24. Surely a what they have professed concerning Reformation is scarce so much as the Pope did acknowledge when Reformation did begin in Germany However as it is our hearts desire and prayer to God for them that they may be saved so we are not out of hopes that God hath many of his own among them unto whom he will give b repentance to the acknowledging of the truth Lastly the time seemeth to answer fitly The new Temple is built when the 42 Moneths of the Beasts raigne and of the treading down the holy City that is by the best Interpretation 1260 yeares come to an end This computation I conceive should begin rather before the foure hundreth yeare of Christ then after it both because the Romane Emperour whose falling was the Popes rising was brought very low before that time by the warres of the Gothes and other barbarous Nations and otherwise which will appeare from History And further because c Pope Innocentius who succeeded about the yeare 401 was raised so high that he drew all appeals from other Bishops to the Apostolicall Sea according to former Statutes and Customes as hee saith I cannot pitch upon a likelier time then the yeare 383 at which time according to the common calculation 〈◊〉 generall Councell at Constantinople though Baronius and some others reckon that Councell in the yeare 381 d did acknowledge the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome only reserving to the Bishop of Constantinople the second place among the Bishops Did not then the Beast receive much power when this much was acknowledged by a Councell of 150 Bishops though setting in the Fast and moderated by Nectarius Archbishop of Constantinople Immediately after this Councell it is aknowledged by e one of our great Antiquaries that the Bishop of Rome did labour mightily to draw all causes to his own Consistory and that he doth scarce read of any Heretick or Schismatick condemned in the Province where he lived but straight he had his recourse to the Bishop of Rome f Another of our Antiquaries noteth not long before that Councell that Antichrist did then begin to appear at Rome and to exalt himselfe over all other Bishops Now if wee should reckon the beginning
of the Beasts reign about the time of that Councel the end of it will fall in at this very time of curs But I dare not determine so high a point Gods work will ere it be long make a clearer Commentary upon his word Only let this bee remembred we must not think it strange if after the end of the 1260 yeares Antichrist be not immediately and utterly abolished for when that time is ended he makes warre against the Witnesses yea overcommeth and killeth them But that victory of his lasteth only three dayes and a halfe and then God makes as it were a resurrection from the dead and a tenth part of the great City fals before the whole fall See Revel. 11. 3. 7. 11. 13. Whether this killing of the Witnesses which seemeth to be the last act of Antichrists power be past or to come I can not say God knowes But assuredly the acceptable yeare of Israels Jubilee and the day of vengeance upon Antichrist is comming and is not farre off But now is there no other application to be made of this point Is all this said to satisfie curious wits or at the best to comfort the people of God Nay there is more then so it must be brought home to a practicall use As the assurance of salvation g doth not make the child of God the more presumptuous but the more humble neither doth it make him negligent h but deligent in the way of holinesse and in all the acts of his spirituall warfare so that i every man that hath this hope in him purisieth himselfe So answerably the assurance of the new Temple and of the sweet dayes to come serveth for a twofold practicall use even as David also applieth Gods promise of Solomons building the Temple 1 Chron. 22. 10. for thus hee speaketh to the Princes of Israel ver. 19. Now set your heart and your soule to seek the Lord your God arise therefore and build yee the sanctuary of the Lord God And this is beside the charge which he giveth to Solomon First then yee must set your heart and your soule to seek God forasmuch as you know it is not in vaine to seek him for this thing k When Daniel understood by books that the 70 yeares of Jerusalems desolation were at an end and that the time of building the Temple againe was at hand then he saith I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackloth and ashes O let us doe as he did O let us l Cry mightily unto God and let us with all our soule and all our might give our selves to fasting and prayer Now if ever m the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Secondly and the more actively you must goe about the bunesse n Be yee stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as yee know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord What greater motive to action then to know that you shall prosper in it o Arise therefore and bee doing And so I am led upon the third and last part of the Text of which I shall speak but very little The Doctrine is this Reformation ends not in contemplation but in action The pattern of the house of God is set before us to the end it may be followed and the ordinances thereof to the end they may be obeyed p Give me understanding saith David and I shall keep thy law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart q If yee know these things saith Christ happy are yee if yee doe them The point is plaine and needeth no proofe but application Let me therefore Honourable Worthies leave in your bosomes this one point more Many of the Servants of God who have stood in this place and could do it better then I can have been calling upon you to go on in the work of Reformation O be s not slothfull in businesse and forget not to do as you have been taught Had you begun at this work and gone about the building of the House of God as your first and chiefe businesse I dare say you should have prospered better It was one cause among others why t the children of Israel though the greater number and having the better cause too did twice fall before Benjamin because while they made so great a businesse for the villany committed upon the Levites Concubine they had taken no course with u the graven Image of the children of Dan a thing which did more immediately touch God in his honour But I am confident errours of this kinde will be now amended and that you will by double diligence redeem the time I know your trouble is great and your cares many in managing the warre and looking to the safety of the kingdom yet mark what David did in such a case Behold in my trouble a sayth he I have prepared for the House of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of Gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver and of brasse and iron without weight David did manage b great wars with mighty enemies the Philistines Moabites Ammonites and Syrians beside the intestine warre made first by Abner and afterward by Absolon and after that by Sheba Notwithstanding of all this in his trouble and poverty the word signifieth both he made this great preparation for the House of God and if God had given him leave he had in his trouble built it too for you well know he was not hindered from building the Temple by the warres or any other businesse but only because God would not permit him Set before you also the example of the Iewes when the Prophets of God did stirre them up to the building of the Temple Ezra 5. 1. 2. they say not we must first build the walles of Ierusalem to hold out the enemy but the Text saith they began to build the house of God f They were not full foure years in building the Temple and finished it in the sixth yeare of Darius Now all the rest of his reigne did passe and all Xeâ—…xes reiâ—…re and much of Artaxerxes Loâ—…manus his reigne before the Walls of Ierusalem were built a for about that work was Nâ—…hemiah from the twentieth yeare of Artaâ—…s to the two and thiâ—…tieth yeare And if b great Chronologers bee not very farre mistaken the Temple was finished fourescore and three years before the Wals of Jerusalem were finished It is farre from my meaning to coole your affection to the Iawes Liberties Peace and safety of the Kingdome I desire onely to warm your hearts with the zeale of Reformation as that which all along you must carry on in the first place One thing I cannot but mention The Reverend Assembly of â—…ivines may lament as Augustine in another case Heu heu quam trade jestino Alas alas how slowly doe I