is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the high and spreading power of the kingdom of Antichrist is a mighty impediment to the enlargement of the kingdom of Christ The way then to set up Christs Kingdom is to pull downe Antichrists there is a promise that Christs shall stand for ever but Antichrists shall have a fall and that the raising of Christs to its highest pitch shall be by the ruines of Antichrists After the prophecy of the fall of the whore Rev. 18. Rev. 19. Rev. 20. and the destruction of the beast followes the description of the glorious Kingdom of Christ It is with those two Kingdoms as with the scales in the ballance when the one goes down the other goes up or as it was with the houses of Saul David the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker 2 Sam. 3.1 but the house of David stronger and stronger the Kingdom of Christ goes up by Antichrists going down that waxeth stronger and stronger as this waxeth weaker and weaker Beware then of the connivence at Popery tollerations of Idolatry false worship downe with these cast Antichrist out of his saddle wherein he has sate too fast among us that Christ may better get up into his Stirrup to ride about conquering his enemies And let all you doe in these particulars be done 1. With faithfull resolutions to lay downe all your own ends and interests and to seek Gods glory 't was the Apostles complaint All men seeke their owne things Phil. 2.21 but no man the things of Iesus Christ So t is still we more seeke our owne things then those that belong to Christ and his Kingdome this should be the maine aime of every of us whatsoever falls to our selves to looke to this to doe our duty to Christ if that be not proposed first as our main end we shall never prosecute it cordially they are the prime principles of Christianity to deny our selves and take up the Crosse and follow Christ Mark 8.34 If these things be not first resolved on to lay downe our selves and to be contented with Christs Crosse and Christs yoake and that forme of Christs government which he has set downe in his Word and not what our selves fancie and to suffer what he will have us and to follow him whether he will carry us we shall doe little for the setting up of his kingdome while our thoughts are turn'd wholly on our selvs and our own interests and raising our owne fortunes wee easily forget Christ and fetting up his Kingdome 2. With zeale to God Ratione rerum agendum est non libidine Salv. de gub RescuÌ„re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione confligat Aug. de util cred In causa religionis nobis nihil ex arbitrio nostro indulgere licet sed nec eligere q od aliquis ex arbi rio suo in duxerit Teri. not to do things in a formall way only as willing to comply with the greater and leading part swim with the stream go with the crowd but to doe every thing you doe out of love and zeale to the cause you take in hand as being Gods cause When you goe about to reforme the House of God to doe it not because you are offended with this or that or this or that pleases your humour better but because God is offended with it or God is pleased with it that you may say truly as David and Christ both spake The zeale of thy house hath eaten me up not my owne humour but zeale to Gods glory and the glory of Gods House that there is in the heart a * Ignis quidam flagran assimi amoris Aug. Rom. 12.11 Nen me dâ—seret Deus si nihil fingâ— si offiâ—io ducor si veritatem amo si amiciriam diligo si multum metuo ni fallor Aug de util â—red fire of burning love kindled and flaming in you to God and his cause When you goe on in any other service to God to doe it with fervencie Be fervent in the spirit serving the Lord that will go thorow with the work God will not forsake you in it when done not out of formality but out of zeale and sincerity to Gods cause 3. With unity of affections as minding the same thing nothing more hinders the advancement of Christs Kingdome and Causes then divisions among his people The wicked unite themselves strongly against Christ Gebal and Ammon and Amaleck against Israel Herod and Pontius Pilate made friends that they might oppose Christ The multitudes all against the Apostles the Princes set themselves and take counsell together against the Lord and his anointed they unite themselves that there may bee no peace to Gods Church Vnitatem procurant ne pax sit How should Gods people unite themselves for Christ and goe on as the Israelites did to revenge the sin of the Benjamites Knit together as one man as we pretend to have the same head Iudges 20.11 and the same causes so we should have the same heart and the same ends A Kingdome divided against it selfe cannot stand if the Subjects of Christs Kingdome be divided 't is the way to ruine the cause and pull downe the Kingdome All the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem should be like the Citizens of an earthly City that is compacted within it selfe Ierusalem is a City compacted within it selfe Psal 12â— 3 stand close to one another in honest causes Psal 133.1 Gen. 45.24 Exod. 2.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 2.1 'T is pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity Brethren must not fall out by the way Fellowes must not be at variance The Spirit of God descended upon the Disciples when they were with one accord together in one place Peace among our selves is a means to advance righteousnesse in the world there is a sweet conjunction of these noted in Scripture Righteousnes and Peace have kissed each other follow peace and holinesse Psal 85.10 Heb. 12.14 Heb. 7.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ciem Al. Str. l. 5 Christ is said to be King of Righteousnesse and King of peace as 't is said of Numa he erected a Temple of Faith and peace peace among your selves will be a meane the better to advance faith and holinesse in the Church If we would doe great things for Christ we must be like-minded of one accord Phil. 2.2 of one minde as division is a work of the flesh while one sayes I am of Paul another I am of Apollos are ye not carnall 1 Cor. 3.3 Concâ—rdia res parvae creseunt discordia magnae dilabuntur Gen. 15.10 11. Psal 80.6 so it layes us open to great inconveniences discord drawes ruine upon great undertakings the ravenous birds came downe upon Abrahams Sacrifices when divided Priam and his sonnes laught at the divisions of the Grecians Thou makest us a strife unto our Neighbours and our enemies laugh among themselves Single Christians may doe something towards the
Sam. 11.8 the Disciples every man according to his ability sent reliefe unto their Brethren which dwelt in Iudaea Act. 11.29 Nay the Macedonians went in this beyond their ability 2 Cor. 8.3 more then their estates would beare and they that were of the same faith all that beleeved sold their possessions for the supply of the needs of the rest of the Faithfull Act. 2.44 and such contributions they used to make in those dayes that every man had sufficient neither was any among them that lacked for as many as were in possession of Lands and houses sold them and brought the prices and laid them downe at the Apostles feet Act. 4.34 and distribution was made to every man according as he had need 'T is not enough to say wee are all subjects of Christs Kingdome in words but we must shew it in deeds otherwise it is but as Saint Iames speakes a vaine expression to say to one that is naked and destitute of food Depart in peace bee warmed and be filled Iam. 2.16 and yet not give them those things that are needfull for them If we serve Christ wee must love him if we love Christ then as he laid downe his life for us so must wee be content upon a necessity to lay downe our lives for the Brethren But much more then whoso hath this worlds goods and sees his brother hath need and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1. Ioh. 3.16 'T will be a sad evidence against us in the day of Judgement if we neither feed the hungry nor cloath the naked Mat. 25.43 and t is a terrible threatning Iam. 2 1◠hee shall have judgement without mercy who shewes no mercy Doe not delude thy soule Divitias dispergendo pauperibus abjecerunt talimodo in coelestibus thesauros tutius condiderunt Aug. prob ep 121. in accounting thy selfe a member of Christs body a Subject of Christs Kingdome and yet see another member another Subject perish before thine eyes and not relieve him but shutst up thy bowels of compassion against him Clemens tells us of the Elephants if one fall into a Ditch and cryes out the next that heares him presently gathers all the Heard and help him out If any poore brother be in distresse and cannot relieve himselfe Strom. l. 1. Cyprianus Christianus factus omnem substantiam suam pauperibus erogavit Hier. the whole Society must doe it Great are the exigences of our poor Brethren at this time in Ireland there is Christ naked and Christ hungry and Christ in prison and Christ ficke Christ in his poor Subjects Let us cloath Christ and feed Christ Reponam hunc thesaurū universum apud creatorem liberis autem meis relinquā thesaurum ipsum creatorem quod cùm dixisset erogavit omnia paupetibus Drus Haeb. Apo. Mat. 21.3 and redeeme Christ out of the hands of his enemies Let us not now looke upon our Cold with a covetous eye nor keep it with a griping hand nor be nice of our persons when Christ hath need of us and our wealth as Christ said when he sent for the Asse say The Lord hath need of him and they will let him goe When the Lord hath need of our persons and need of our purses let us let them goe be free in the causes of Christ we are not his Subjects if we helpe not him nor our fellow-subjects I know I shall easily have a pardon from you Honourable and Beloved if I be an earnest Advocate in these causes of Christ for which you have shewed your selves already so faithfull and zealous the Lord reward you for your care but give me leave onely to put you in remembrance of this as the Vision appeared to Saint Paul There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him Act. 16.9 come over into Macedonia and helpe us Christ hath long appeared to you and called for your help for Ireland the Lord I say will reward you for what helpe you have already afforded them but I beseech you let every Fast day wee keepe for them put you in mind of their pressing miseries and their bleeding condition which now begins againe to be desperate Let mee say to you in the words of the men of Gibeon to Ioshuah Iosh 10.6 Slacke not thy hand from thy servants come up to us quickly and savt us and helpe us As Salomon speakes of a word fitly spoken or spoken in season Prov. 25.11 it is a word upon its wheeles as the Originall inforces so it is with a worke a worke done in season it is a worke upon its wheeles an excellent worke that goes on to purpose Vse 3 If Christ be our King let me then stirre you up in a word of exhortation to performe the duty of good subjects unto Christ to helpe Christ into his Throne and maintaine him there and that partly in respect of our selves partly in respect of others 1. In respect of our selves to Crowne Christ in our owne hearts to set up his Kingdome within our selves the Kingdome of God is within you to set it up in our hearts we easily desire Christ a Saviour to save us but not a King to governe us Wee are ready to cry out with the Disciples Mat. 14.30 Lord save us we perish but as ready againe to say with the wicked Citizens Luk. 19.14 We will not have this man to reigne over us Alas wee must not expect Christ should be a Saviour unlesse he be received as a King as Iephtah answered the Elders of Gilead Why come you to me now when you are in distresse Iudg. 21.7.9 if the Lord deliver your enemies before me shall I be your head Wee must not fly to Christ onely in the time of our distresse when our sinnes presse us and we see the mouth of Hell open to swallow us up unlesse withall when Christ hath delivered us from our spirituall enemies wee be contented to take him for our head for our Lord to rule and governe us as well as for our Saviour to save us O let us crowue Christ in our hearts not doe as the Jewes did set a crowne of thornes upon his head but set a Crowne of Gold upon his head a Crown of Soveraigntie acknowledge him our Lord and King feare and obey him Crowne him as Iehoiada and the people crowned King Ioash 2 King 11.11 12. they crowned him and compast him about with their swords in their hands ready to fight against all his enemies Set up Christ in the throne of thy heart and hold thy sword in thy hand to fight against all Christs enemies all thy own lusts thy rebelling affections that fight against Christ the King of thy soule 2. To help to advance Christs Kingdome in others to helpe to lift up Christ and to set up his Scepter over all the World God has promised to give Christ the Nations for his
as the Moon the fuller the Sun shines upon her the brighter she is the more the Sun is turned from her the darker she is yet at other times she has many obscurings But though she may have lesse glory she shall never be wholly destroied Mat. 7.25 The Church is the house founded upon the rock when the winds blow and the floods descend it shall stand it shall not fall as founded upon a rock so upon the rock of rocks Christ himself Mat. 16 18. upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall never prevaile against her Shake her they may and give her a wound in some of her members as now the Church bleeds at one veine in Germany at another in Ireland at severall veines in severall parts of the world As Pheti us notes touching the calumnis cast upon Basil by Philost orgius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Re. 11.11 yet she shall lift up her head again and shall be healed in her wounds and like the two witnesses slain in the streets after a time she shall live again the spirit of life from God shal enter into her and great fear shall fal upon them that see her Fourthly see it in Gods cause whatever is undertaken in Gods cause though sometime it may seem to faile in particular persons the cause of the poor in perverting of judgement the cause of religion by the insolence of persecutors and tyrants yet in other respects it does certainly prevaile 1. By a retribution of vengeance upon the heads of those that set to overthrow the cause of God Abel perished in Gods cause and yet even in the death of Abel Gods cause prevailed by bringing down vengeance upon Cain the murtherer the blood of thy brother crieth to me from the ground Gen 4.10 and therefore now thou art cursed from the earth The Martyrs perished in the cause of God and yet even in their deaths that cause prevailed by bringing vengeance upon the persecutors I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a loud voice how long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6.10 Wee need not doubt this prevailing of the cause of God in our neighbouring Kingdom how ever it may seeme for the time to goe downe in the barbarous and bloudy destruction of that poore people whose bloud cryes so loud from the ground as God cannot but curse the murtherers and whose soules under the Altar cry so loud as God cannot but judge and avenge their bloud on them who have so inhumanely and so unmercifully shed it 2. By way of improvement that cause prevails that improves it selfe by the opposition and violence it suffers under Gods cause like Sampson is victorious even then when we think it has received its deaths wound and like the Camomill Es 53.10 Ex. 1.12 Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses Est 8.16 Da. 6.26 Ezr. 6.6 it spreads more by being trampled upon or like the fire the more it is smothered and kept in by violence for the time the more forcible it breaks out and heats afterwards In shedding the bloud of Christ the cause of God seemed to suffer but you know what an improvement it received by it that bloud was it that was the fruitfull field of such a seed unto God 't was making his soul an offering for sin that made him see his seed In Egypt the cause of God seem'd to suffer when the children were commanded to be destroyed and their burthens were doubled yet we know that decree increased the people and doubling of their taskes hasted their deliverance By the oppositions of Haman the cause of God got better footing And by casting Daniel into the Lions den God came everywhere to be more feared and worshipt by a publike decree By the oppositions of Tatnai and Shetherboznai the building of Gods house prospered In burning and tearing the martyrs in the primitive times and in Q. Maries dayes the cause of God seemd to suffer yet we know how Martyrdom improves it the bloud of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church that is as the Bishop of Valence * To the King of France in a conference at Fountain Bleau So Tert. ad Scà p Quisque enim tan tam tole rantiam spectans ut aliquo scrupulo percussus onquirere accenditur quid sis in causa Et ubi cognoverit veritatem ipse statim sequitur once explained it people by seeing the sufferings of the Martyrs came more to look into and understand that profession then formerly they had done which made them with so much patience indure such torments and so at length to imbrace the same like the generating of the Phoenix out of the ashes not the egges of the Damme Out of the ashes of a few Saints multitudes of professours arise I shall present you these few grounds of this truth reasons of the point to be inlarged in your owne private meditations 1. The genius of Religion it is of a flourishing and improving nature As one said of Anthony that was at oddes with Augustus compound with him for his genius goes beyond yours The genius of Religion goes beyond that of all its opposites It was first in families after in Cities and so by degrees spread it self over the world The image in Nebuchadnezzars vision was smitten by a stone cut out without hands Dan. 2.34 35. and the stone that smote the image became a great Mountaine and fill'd the earth You have the interpretation of this in the following verses the Image in its severall parts represented the 4. Monarchies of the world which should all bee destroyed by a fift Kingdome which Christ should set up which should so improve it selfe from a small beginning as quickly to fill the whole earth notwithstanding all oppositions made against it 2. The power of Christ he is able to set up his colours and his Scepter there where no earthly King dares set his foot Pritannotum in accessa Romanis Joca Christo verò sub aita 'T was Tertullians observation Britaine was a place which the Romanes could not at such a time possesse and yet it was subdued to Christ Look by what motives people are brought in to Christ you must needs acknowledge a strong working power above all the strengths of men done by such contrary wayes to flesh and bloud If wee will follow Christ and be heyres of heaven Wee must deny our selves and take up our Crosse and suffer persecution and be hated for his name sake and hate father and mother c. and yet by these and the like motives more are brought in to Christ and submit to his Lawes then by all the rewards could be proposed to them 3. The course of Gods providence which shall still uphold it so as to
and the yeare of his redeemed ones comes then if there be none to help his own arme will bring salvation Do you what you can in a right way for Gods causes Christs Kingdom and when you can do no more stand still and look on with griefe that you can do no more and if you can contribute nothing else yet date lachrymulam shed a teare God puts the teares of his people into his bottle and in his time teares shall be like the water that turnes and drives the wheele Gods work shall go on and your teares shall help to drive it on as well as your noblest works It was Gods word in a work that met with greater opposition then yours now can Exod. 14.13 stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. It may be your strengths of the arme of flesh may yet be too great for God to work by the Lord saveth not by sword 1 Sam. 17.47 nor by speare for the battell is the Lords Gideon had too many while he had above three hundred Iud. 7.4 greatnesse of outward strength ecclipses and darkens the glory of Christs power in saving when God seeth that his peoples power is gone Deut. 32.36 then he strikes into the work and more shewes himself Let us not limit the holy One of Israel neither to meanes nor to times whether there be many or few that stand up in Gods causes wee are sure of this Christ shal reign till he hath put al his enemies under his feet We look too much on the instruments 1 Cor. 15.25 are ready to cry out if the foundations of the earth be shaken what shall the righteous do you are they that are our foundations Ps 11.3 you the preservers of the fundamental laws of the state and the preservers of the fundamentall laws of the Church if you be shaken it will indeed be a sad time to Gods righteous people yet let not that affright us neither we have a stronger foundation fundamentum fundamenti the foundation of the foundations the head stone of the corner the rock upon which the Church is built which shall never be shaken Goe you on therefore and let every one faithfully do his duty to Christ and leave the issue to God To conclude all this day is a day of humiliation and therfore a day of covenanting with God O that I might now engage you all here present this day in this covenant to take Christ for your King into your own hearts and then to set faithfully to this work of undertaking his causes against all those great oppositions which every day shew themselves when Iehojada made the covenant with the Lord 2 King 11.17 that the people should be the Lords people 't was to this end that they should undertake the Lords causes against the Lords enemies for presently they brake downe the house of Baal and his altar and his images and slew Mattan the Priest of Baal before the altar Let us make such a covenant to be the Lords people and so to undertake the Lords causes as Scipio once held the poynt of his sword to the brests of many gallants that were flying out of Italy and made them sweare upon that sword that they would not desert the cause God has great causes now Christ was never more engaged in great affaires then at this time O that I might perswade all that professe themselves Gods people to engage themselves to Christ to make vowes betwixt God and their own soules upon these sacred truths this book never to desert Christs causes but as faithfull subjects of his Kingdom doe all they can notwithstanding all oppositions to make Christs Kingdom flourish through the world Iudg. 5.23 and remember Meroz curse upon those that come not to the help of Christ against the mighty Christ can carry on his work without us but if we doe not our part deliverance shall come some other way as Mordâ—cai told Queen Hester Est 4.14 but wee shall be destroyed the curse will be upon every of us that set not in every one in his way and as God calls him to it to set up Christ in the midst of his enemies FINIS