Rome the Imperiall City and not onely so but even grow famous too in Caesars Palace the Apostle tooke notice else-where of a great doore and effectuall which was opened unto him when yet there were many adversaries 1 Cor. 16.9 which plainly imports great successe in despight of great resistance when the Dragon lay in waite to devoure the Churches man-childe as soone as it was borne he was frustrate of his hopes notwithstanding all his rage the childe was caught up to the Throne of God Revel. 12.5 So in Dioclesians time when there was set up an Edict in the Market place for the utter extirpation of Christianity the whol world soon after turned Christian See then how great and singular a blessing it is which God affords unto any people when he raiseth up store of precious and choyce Instruments to Preach the Gospell among them Howsoever we may haply despise the day of small things and make but slight account of such a mercy yet it is a favour certainely of as much worth in the intendment and consequence of it as the kingdome of heaven amounts unto It s a sign that God is comming to Keep his Court of residence where he sends out harbingers to take up roomes and to prepare lodging and entertainment for him When Saviours come upon mount Sion the next newes is this That the Kingdom is the Lords Obad. v. 21. God abates nothing to a people of the height of his favours when he vouchsafes unto them this mercy Jer. 3.14 15. It s promised as a speciall token and pledge of Gods matrimoniall love Return unto me ye back-sliding children for I am married unto you how doth that appeare I will give you Pastors according to my own heart which shall feede you with knowledge and understanding and would you know of what consequence that is vers. 17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord the Lord Raignes to be sure and hath a Throne where he is pleased to plant a faithfull and powerfull ministery and where the Lord Raignes there is 1. The greatest Honour and advancement that can befall a Nation It s that which makes a Country to be the land of Immannel Esay 8.8 A glorious high Throne Jer. 17.12 A Crown of glory and a Royall Diadem in the Lords hand Esay 62.3 In a word this is it which lifts up a people as high as heaven Mat. 11.23 Let Italy glory in this That it is for pleasure the garden of the world we shall never neede to envie them whilst it may be truly said of great Britain That it is the Court and presence Chamber of the great King this is the Churches peculiar honour The name of it shall be called from henceforth The Lord is There Ezech. 48 35. 2. As the greatest honour so the greatest safety and protection attends where the Lord Raignes The Church it is the Kingdom of heaven upon Earth and it is a strong City having Salvation for its walls and Bulwarkes Esay 26.1 It may indeed before assaulted and battered but cannot be overcome it may be endangered but not destroyed Christ must be plucked out of heaven and the Scepter wrested out of his hands before the Church can miscarry 3. The Kingdome of heaven is a storehouse of all blessings temporall Spirituall and Eternall the blessings of the heaven above and of the deepe that coucheth beneath Irriguum superius irriguum inferius the upper springs and the nether springs yea all Gods fresh springs have their course here Psal. 87.7 Christ hath unsearchable riches of grace and glory and he makes them all over together with himself to those that receive him That State can never be bankrupt that possesseth him who is the possessour of all things looke over all the world and consider what good thing we would have in reference to our private or publike well-fare whether it be riches honour wealth peace liberty policy plenty prosperity or whatsoever else which heaven can afford they come in as additions with the Kingdom of God Mat. 6.33 We value our Magna Charta much our civill rights and liberties we count them precious and yet they are but for this life but the grand Patent and Charter of heaven Feoffes us in the promises of the life that now is and of that also which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 To winde up therefore this clew Wheresoever the Lord is pleased by the Ministery of his Servants to establish himselfe a Kingdom among men there is a Throne of honour a myne of wealth a store-house of blessings an Ocean of comforts In a word there is the spring-head where all happinesse flourisheth and all misery withers 2. Here 's matter of comfort and encouragement That wheresoever the Gospell is preached there the Kingdom of heaven comes in and no opposition can keep it out The Prophets are wont to make this as a ground of greatest comfort even in the midst of sad times How beautifull are the feete how welcome the accesse of those which bring this good tydings unto Sion Thy God raignes Esay 52.7 We may feede upon this cordiall even on our solemne Fast in our greatest mourning in the midst of all our teares this may excite us to some expressions of thankfulnesse and strains of gratulation The Lord raignes saith the man after Gods own heart and what then let the earth rejoyce let the multitudes of the Isles be glad thereof Psal. 97.1 If any other people in the world surely wee of this Island have great cause to rejoyce and be glad in this regard howsoever it be with us in other respects yet blessed be God it may not it cannot be denyed but that the Lord raignes and hath had his Throne among us for a long time Tertullian observed long since that Christ set up his colours and came in as a conquerer before the Roman Eagles could spread their wings here and S. Hierom hath an expression to this purpose That the Court and Kingdom of heaven is as open at great Brittaine as at Jerusalem and although in the generall Apostacy of Antichrist the Kingdom of heaven was here fast locked and barred up for many hundreds of yeares yet it was afterward by the happy reformation in the dayes of our Fathers here also as well as in other Churches set open againe according to that prediction Revel. 15.5 After this I looked and behold the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in heaven was opened I neede not tell you what store of excellent and glorious Instruments the Lord then raised up both of Magistrates and Ministers nor how mightily they carried on the work though against a world of opposition It sufficeth that we all know that the foundation of the Temple and Tabernacle of God was layd and the street and walls of the heavenly Jerusalem built though in troublous times and from that day forward to this the Lord that
like manner when men are so lazie and languishing so cold and slack in dealing for a Kingdome It s a shrew'd argument against them that sure they are not in earnest they do but play with Religion the precious treasures of heaven are set before them and they resent them not at all or but a very little make no great haste are not a whit sollicitous take no paines about the matter as if the things were of no great importance they are very moderate and delicate in making towards them neither that high hand that holds th for t h nor that blood that bought them nor that worth that is in them workes much but all is slighted God comes waiting upon them with calls and calls and with gracious offers and is not regarded hence no doubt is this black cloud risen which darkens the heavens over us The glory of God and the Salvation of our soules we do nothing many of us but jest and dally with them I have read of Anastatius the Emperor that he was by the hand of God shot to death with a hot thunder-bolt because he was luke-warme in the Catholique cause and not zealous against the Arrian faction 6. In other things where the least overture of gaine honour pleasure appeares how eager are we panting after the dust of the earth as the Prophet speakes and ready to run our selves out of breath for it if a rich purchase may be made a profitable bargaine driven an honourable and wealthy match gotten or any such other secular Commodity which we are affected with oh then we are all upon the spur upon the wing no haste no alacrity no labour or diligence is thought too much or but enough now there is violence upon violence all oares and sailes must now be plyed and shall we be thus earnest for frivolous unconcerning low things which we may have and be never the better want and be never the worse and yet carry our selves in matters of eternity as if we were all Stoicks and had no passions about us Ferventissimi in terrenis frigidissimi in caelestibus shall we be red hot as fire for earth and key cold as any Ice for heaven 7. If all this will not move looke upon wicked men how violent a bent have they to sinne Their hearts are fully set to doe mischiefe Eccles. 9.3 They inflame themselves with Idols Esay 57.5 They are as swift Dromedaries traversing their waies Jer. 2.23 Their whole force is evill and their course not right Jer. 23.10 How violent were the Israelites for their Idolatry when they offered their sonnes and daughters unto Devills Deut. 32.17 Had they so much devotion for Idols and have we so little for the true God what care did they not take what cost did they not cast away when they made haste as David hath it to poure out meate and drink offerings to another God Psal. 16.4 and shall we esteeme our true God and Religion at such a low under-hand rate as if gold and silver were too deare and precious then to be offered up upon the sacrifice and service of them as if hell and lyes were pearles never over-bought but truth and heaven meere trash and nothing worth since they would doe any thing for the one and we nothing for the other 8. Looke upon your enemies how more then Hyperbolically violent they are in carrying on their designe of Rome and Hell how furious is their march how resolute are their spirits how quick their endeavours how do they compasse sea and land to Spaine France Holland Denmarke whither do they not dispatch their Emissarie what vaste treasures do they not lay out what expence of blood do they stick at what stones do they not roll what conclusions do they not try what project have they not hammered what corner of the earth have they not searched even till hell from beneath was moved to meete them and all to drive their desperate and pernicious designe to cast downe if it were possible Jesus Christ out of his Throne and to set up Belzebub in his roome hedging fencing planting watering what could they have done more for that wilde vine that false Antichristian Religion and Church which is the vine of the earth and not of heaven it having no rooting growth nor blessing thence Rev. 14.11 If there be any to whom the Syrens voyce sounds sweete Heark what Father Campian professeth of himselfe and his fellow Jesuites Quamdiu vel vnus quispiam e nobis supererit qui Tiburno vestro fruatur fruatur that is his word whiles there was any of them left to enjoy a Tyburn tippet as old Bishop Latimer was wont to speak whiles any of them remained for the gallowes torment and imprisonment they vowed never to desist nor let fall their weather-beaten cause and what shall we be coole and moderate when they are so extreame violent Acrius illi ad perniciem quam nos ad salutem Shall they be more zealous to procure their owne and others destruction temporall and eternall then we for our owne and others Salvation 9 If we be resolute we shall prevaile and carry away the prize which we are contending for This should have been a doctrine entire of it felfe I onely touch it and but lightly too as a motive to quicken us up What will not men do upon uncertaine and often most unlikely hopes to advantage themselves but we have this hope as an Anchor sure and stedfast That if we be violent for it this Kingdome is ours none can hinder us of it such as sell all shall have the pearle Mat. 13.44 Those that shrinke not from Christ in his temptations for feare of the Crosse when he comes in his glory they shall sit upon thrones and raigne with him Luke 22.28 and for the publique cause now depending whiles we continue faithfull with and stout for God feare not the issue let the oppositions be what they will all those great Mountaines before Zerubbabel shall become a plaine Zach. 4.8 The Lord reignes though the earth be never so unquiet he will bring about his designe when men and devills have done their worst What though the pillars of the Land tremble and all the foundations of it shake as in an earth quake what though we be in danger whiles we are so violent for heaven to lose all we have on earth as the Orator sometimes told the Athenians yet we shall not have an haires harme If we serve our God with reverence and godly feare we shall receive a Kingdome that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 Unto the which God of his infinite mercy bring us through the Merits of Christ Jesus who hath purchased it for us To whom c. FINIS Die Mercurii 29. Maii. 1644. IT is this day Ordered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament That Mr Harman do from this House give thankes unto Master Hall for the great paines he tooke in the Sermon he preached this day at the
once and improving the miseries of the times by dilatory proceedings dead pay false musters betraying of advantages and letting opportunities of action slip with other stratagems and feates of pollicy very depths of Sathan profound as hell which I have not wit enough to reach If there be any such Judas's masked devills here let me informe them If their bosome intelligencer their Consciences I meane be asleepe perhaps it may arouse them a little that thunderbolt Esay 29.15 Wo unto them that dig deepe and seeke to hide their Counsell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say who seeeth and who knoweth us and let them take that along with them too Esay 30.33 There is a Tophet prepared of old its deepe and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone kindles it and let me tell them yet further If this fiery gulfe be not for such I do not know whether it can challenge any guests 5. There be others zealous in Religion but not enough they have like the Laodiccan Angell and Church some heate which makes them luke-warme but they are not violent their dram of zeale is tempered with so many ounces of discretion that the operation of it can scarce be discerned they are Orthodox in opinion not much exorbitant in conversation owne the great cause of the Kingdom set their faces towards heaven are not against Reformation but then they must not be over-driven you must not put them out of their owne pace they like not a Jehu's March It s good to be zealous but not too much say any what they will doe what they can their affected moderation will never suffer them to exceede the middle temper of that wise Statesman in Tiberius his Court who to be sure would not strike a stroke against the streame nor engage himselfe so far in any cause as might tend to his prejudice how-ever the world went he would be sure to save one Such is the polititian and wordly wise-man he will move no stone though never so needfull to be removed if he suspect that there lyes a Scorpion under it or if he apprehend the least feare that any part of the wall will fall upon himselfe well fare yet the Roman Consul that incomparable patriot who in his private and retired condition when he was removed from the Helme of the Common-wealth imployed all his force and strength to keep off those waves from the great vessell of the State which had well-nigh drowned the cock-boat of his owne private Fortunes 6. There be others zealous and violent for a while but they hold not out to the end The Philosopher sayes No violent thing lasts long It s true in Divinity as well as in Nature If the violent motion proceede from some externall artificiall cause and not from a rooted stirring principle within when that which is the cause is removed the motion arising from it ceaseth If our violent stirrings and heates of zeale be not from the right fountaine of heate the heart tract of time and other occurrances will be calm them by degrees and wear them out the stony ground set forward and put on with great animosity at the first but when difficulties and unlooked for dangers when a storme of persecution arose then they plucked in the tender horne their zeale cooled their courage abated their resolutions fell like leaves in Autumne In the beginning of this Parliament when the Lord tolled us on with fresh mercies and allured us into the wildernesse as the Prophet speakes that there he might give us the valley of Achor for a doore of hope when every day we were pasti miraculis as Cyprian speakes feasted with miracles in ordinary the Lord setting himselfe on purpose to ingage us firmely in his worke by divers rare and astonishing providences that all bridges might be cut off and that we might never thinke to retire backe againe At that time many that were not sound at the heart-roote joyned with us and who more resolute then they but when the wheele of Providence seemed to turne and many sad clouds began to gather and threaten a storme now they tacked about and set their sailes backe they were willing to follow us out of Egypt when they had seene the wonders and miracles of God at our departure thence but when they came into the wildernesse and met with Scorpions and fiery Serpents and great afflictions then their hearts fainted and they fell on murmuring as the unbeleeving Jewes and that mixed multitude did Numb. 11.4 A man might as well never own the cause of God as afterwards desert it whatsoever a man hath done and suffered for Religion and there be many that have done and suffered much It s al lost and forgotten when once he begins to looke backe Ezek. 18.24 Judas and Demas and Hymaeneus and Alexander the Copper-smith with other such flinchers what were they the better for all their hopefull beginnings when afterwards they declined their zeale-being all spent their violence tyred and all their alacrity lost It s not good beginnings but perseverance in Religion that takes this glorious prize and wins the garland Be faithfull unto the death and I will give thee a Crown of life Revel. 2.10 7. I may not passe over another sort without a gentle touch such I meane as are unfeinedly cordiall in the cause of God and zealous for it yet do not a little hurt to themselves and others and the Cause it selfe too through their indescreete and unwary managing of it they desire nothing more then this That Christ might raigne and weild the Scepter of his Kingdom according to his own hearts content in all the parts of the Land they are active in endeavours for Reformation and this deserves just praise but they step out of their bounds sometimes exceede the limits of their speciall calling in which the Will of God is they should containe themselves How happy were it for us if all would keepe within their proper spheare and wherein so ever they are called therein to abide with God 1 Cor. 7.24 But there be some that do {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} overstretch themselves beyond their line and Compasse 2 Cor. 10.14 They reach and straine after a perfect Reformation of the Church and that is well but they run before the Parliament and do anticipate the worke taking it out of those able and faithfull hands unto which God hath committed it and that deserves just censure That have a great zeale of God Oh that it were a little more according to knowledge We have all entred into the bonds of a Religious Conant with God in which among other things we have vowed our utmost endeavours to reforme Religion Worship Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches and withall to draw the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes to the nearest