Sion Apoc. 14.1 and if you demand to what Hierarchy they belong they follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes and follow no man farther then he follows the Lamb according as that ancient Follower of the Lamb exhorts them 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. In this Head they are an united Kingdome of God and of Christ living all under his Laws and submitting to no Decrees contrary thereunto This Kingdome Philopolis has not yet been destroy'd and I am confident never will be Philop. I hope so too But in the mean time the summe of the Success of the Kingdome of Christ since the beginning of the Apostasie it seems is this That from thenceforward the Kingdome of Christ for about 1260 years became the Kingdome of Anti-christ excepting the Succession of those Regiments of the Lamb who had his Father's name written in their foreheads Apoc. 14.3 4. and to whom alone it was given to sing that new Song before the Throne as being redeemed from the Earth and having become pure Virgins in whose mouth there was found no guile Bath These are those Philopolis of whom it is also written John 1.12 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And from the carnal man are hid all the Mysteries of Regeneration That new nature is a new Song that he can never learn before he be truely regenerate let him lay about him as stoutly as he will with his unsanctified Reason and externall Institutes Sophr. And from this Ignorance or rather Antipathy of life is that War and Persecution raised against the innocent Souldiers of the Lamb. Accordingly as it is noted by the Apostle Gal. 4.28 Now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise that is the children of the spiritual birth Ver. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now Cuph. XXVI The Kingdome of Antichrist how warrantably so called and whether the Pope be that Man of sin spoken of by the Apostle I and ever will be so I think O Sophron especially while they that are born after the Spirit give such ill names to them that are born after the flesh What a marvellous reproch is that of Philotheus to call the Rule of the Church for above a thousand years together the Reign of Antichrist Sophr. Why Cuphophron would you have Philotheus wiser in judgement and expression then the Spirit of God himself who has called that Monster that would corrupt and wast the Church so by the name of Antichrist as also generally did the ancient Fathers And I pray tell me whether the false Prophet the blasphemous Horn with eyes the two-horn'd Beast the Whore of Babylon the Man of sin be less harsh Appellations then that of Antichrist And these assuredly belong to the Hierarchy of Rome Cuph. The blasphemous Horn with eyes the Whore of Babylon and the Man of sin methinks are as reprochfull Titles as that of Antichrist and if the Bishop of Rome could be proved any of these especially that Man of sin it would be hard to fend off that other more ordinary imputation which they so whinch at Euist. It was the generally-received opinion of the Church that the Man of sin described in the Epistle to the Thessalonians is that famous Antichrist that filled the Christian world with his noise and terrour Philoth. And that this is the Pope with his Clergie O Cuphophron you that are so scrupulous of the right Rise of the Kingdome of God in the Reformation have a peculiar obligation to believe the Rise and Continuance of the Pope's Sovereignty being by such odious and wicked means as nothing worse can be imagined For that he had no such universal Sovereignty left him by Christ as he pretends to is a thing acknowledged by their own best Historians as by Guicciardine for example in the fourth Book of his History Euist. You mean Philotheus what was left out of all the Latine French and Italian Copies of Guicciardine and was published and printed in those three Languages at Basil by it self in the year 1561. A notable specimen of that foul play which is usual with that Church for the maintaining their own Interest Philoth. I mean the very same Euistor And this I think is very observable in that Excerption that although the Historian rejects the famous Donation of Constantine to Pope Sylvester as a Fiction Some saies he questioning or rather affirming that Constantine did not so much as live in the same Age with Sylvester much less by deed of Gift pass away part of his Empire to him as the City of Rome it self and many other Cities and Countries in Italy namely at that time when changing the Seat of the Empire he betook himself to Byzantium which afterward from him was called Constantinople yet in the conclusion he adds this Nemo tamen negat Imperii Constantinopolin translatione ad Pontificum potentiam viam esse patefactam ex eâque originem habuisse Then which nothing can be a better Commentary on those passages of the Prophecie of the Man of sin 2 Thess. 2.6 7. And now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time and again Onely he that now letteth will lett untill he be taken out of the way and then shall that Wicked one be revealed c. It was the presence of the Emperours at Rome that hindred the Bishop from discovering his Luciferian Ambition and from shewing himself to be the first-born of all the sons of Pride Euist. This is very consonant to the sense of the Fathers who took the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the entireness of the Roman Empire as if the breaking of it would be the bringing in of Antichrist and the Corruption of it the Generation of such a pestiferous Monster But this receding of Constantine to Byzantium is but the first beginning of the completion of this passage of the Prediction touching the removall of that out of the way that hindred the visible growth of Antichrist supposing the Pope to be him It was the Inundation of the Barbarians that did more effectually second his design For Italy being overrun by these though there were for a time also Western Emperours yet they ended in Augustulus and Constantinople became the sole Seat of the Imperial Majesty Which being raised to an extraordinary magnificency was so agreeable to them that after when the Barbarians were driven out of Italy the Emperours never cared to return to Rome but ruled Italy by Exarchs placed at Ravenna who sent meaner Governours under the title of Dukes to reside at Rome Wherefore the meanness of this Secular Power there made the Ecclesiastical shine
description of this future state of the Church from innumerable passages of the Holy Scripture What can be a more glorious or desirable state of the Church of Christ then that described by Isay ch 11. v. 4 c where speaking of Christ's Reign With righteousness saith he shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the Earth and he shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Childe shall lead them The sucking Childe shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Childe put his hand on the Cockatrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy on all my holy Mountain For the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Philop. This is an excellent state of the Church indeed Philotheus Sophr. Psal. 87.3 Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God Philoth. Isa. 2.2 c. Again chap. 2. And it shall come to passe in the last days that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it And many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths For out of Sion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem And he shall judge amongst the Nations and rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn war any more O house of Iacob will the Nations say come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Sophr. Like that concerning the new Ierusalem in the Apocalypse And the Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it Apoc. 21.24 and the Kings of the Earth do bring their glory unto it Philoth. But that of the Apocalypse seems more expresly to allude to that of the 60 th of Isay Ver. 1 c. Arise O Sion shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee For behold the darkness shall cover the Earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising And at the latter end of that Chapter The Sun shall be no more thy light by day Ver. 19 21 22. neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Thy people also shall be all righteous they shall inherit the Land for ever the Branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation I the Lord will hasten it in its time Sophr. I believe to this time also may belong that of Isay 30. Isa. 30.26 Moreover the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound As also that of Zacharie Zach. 12.8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble amongst them at that day shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them Euist. The Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Drusius renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sicut Dii understanding thereby Angels Bath John 1.11 As it is said in S t. Iohn that to as many as believed on him he gave power to become the sons of God And our Saviour Matt. 11.11 though he declared that among them that were born of women there had not risen a greater then Iohn the Baptist yet notwithstanding saith he he that is least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then he Philoth. That is a shrewd Note of Bathynous his upon the Testimonie of our Saviour touching Iohn and such as should urge a man to search deep into his own Conscience as well as it will instruct him how little hitherto there has been of the Kingdome of God in the World But in the mean time Philopolis I think it is pretty plain already what in the general the state of the Church will be in those glorious Times we speak of viz. That there will be spiritual Strength and Righteousness and Peace and Ioy and Security from Wars within the Church and from any Persecution of God's people This for the Quality of the Church VII The Extent thereof But for its Extent it is insinuated that it will be exceeding large as if it would spread over the face of the whole Earth Isa. 11.9 For it is said The Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea and that is far and wide And again that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established on the top of the mountains Chap. 2.2 and that all Nations shall flow unto it Also in that expression A little one shall become a thousand Chap. 60.22 and a small one a strong Nation c. To which you may adde what is foretold by Daniel chap. 2.32 And the Stone that smote the Image became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth And again chap. 7.26 But the Iudgement shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it to the end And the Kingdome and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdome under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Accordingly as those voices in Heaven do declare upon the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Apoc. 11.15 The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever Philop. These things Philotheus in the general are very plain and clear But are there not more particular Prefigurations in the Prophetical Writings touching the state of the Church you now discourse of Will the one and twentieth Chapter of the Apocalypse afford no more Particularities then thus Philoth. Probably it may VIII A more particular description of the
repugnant to humane Nature and Vertue and Righteousness so harmoniously agreeable thereunto For this Rectitude of spirit that belongs to the true Israel of God is the possession of so perfect Pleasure and Happiness that the Soul of man feels it to be her peculiar Satisfaction and that the state of Vice and Sin is a state of Diseasement and Unnaturalness not onely plainly and demonstratively repugnant to right Reason but most hideously and harshly grating against that inmost and most Divine and delicious sense of the Soul which is the Repullulation of the pure Love and is the Excitation of the Life of God in the humane Nature whereby we have a natural delight in all the ways of Goodness Purity and Righteousness This is the natural Sanity of the Soul the contrary her Disease this her state of Sobriety the other a mere fit of Drunkenness And therefore methinks the World should not continue in it for ever but that even the Misery and Confusion of this drunken state should forcibly awaken them at length to follow Peace and Righteousness Which time methinks the Prophet Isay may seem to point at Isa. 24.18 c. where he saith The windows from on high are opened and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolved the Earth is moved exceedingly The Earth shall move to and fro like a Drunkard and shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the Host of the high ones that are on high and the Kings of the Earth upon the Earth This I conceive Philopolis is under the effusion of the last Vial. Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Sion and in Ierusalem and before his Ancients gloriously that is to say Apoc. 4.4 in the new Ierusalem before the four and twenty Elders in white Raiment and with golden Crowns on their heads And in this Confusion the Earth will be not onely upon the account of their Wickedness but Ignorance also and gross Errours in Religion For mankinde are held down in these things by an hard violence to their own Reason and Nature as well in Popery as Turcism and Paganism those Religions being not onely groundless but foolishly fabulous and contradictious to all sound Reason But when the windows from on high shall be opened upon them and the heavenly Grace and Truth showred down and the pure Light of the Gospel let in upon them the Foundations of the Earth shall shake under them and they will finde the falseness and unstableness of the Fundamental Frauds and Lies of men which shall utterly perish and all those that cleave to them This therefore Philopolis by way of Prudence and Sagacity may be presumed That those days having shone upon us that Daniel has foretold when many shall run to and fro Dan. 12.4 and Knowledge shall be increased this liberty of searching after Truth and the success of finding it will contribute very much to the ruine and subversion of those stately Structures of Lies which Superstition or false Policy has so magnificently built up and would have all men to bow to as to the golden Image Nebuchadnezzar had set up But that Illustrious Heros on the white Horse Apoc. 19.11 13. the Word of God and right Reason will trample this Image under foot And the meaning of the Scripture even in the Propheticall passages thereof will be so plainly understood against Turcism Papism Paganism and Iudaism or what-ever Religion in the world or Irreligion even against Atheism it self that I am persuaded this very Advantage alone will be of infinite consequence for the converting of Souls to Christ. There will be such an assured sense of all the Visions of the Apocalypse besides those of Daniel that this one peculiar Privilege of Christianity in having the whole Scene of Divine Providence and of all the Affairs of the Church of God and indeed of all the World so far forth as they respect the Church so lively set off and prefigured for so many hundreds of years nay for some thousands this I say alone must of necessity drive all the world to a firm belief that Iesus is the Messiah the Saviour of the World and that there is a God whose Providence watches over the Affairs of mankinde and that there is a Life to come and a blessed Immortality for all true Believers I tell you succinctly Philopolis the clear Completion of so many so weighty Prophecies and so many hundred years distant from the Event seems to me to be a more convictive ground of the truth of Christianity then all the Miracles done by Christ and his Apostles to those that liv'd in those days especially to as many as did not see them themselves and observe the Circumstances of them Philop. This is very considerable that you say Philotheus and I should be absolutely of your minde could I persuade my self that the Prophecies would be so vulgarly and universally understood by Christians For this skill added to Sobriety of Life and a sincere Zeal for the Gospel would be a marvellous Engine in their hand to bear down all before them and subdue all Nations under the feet of the Lord Christ. Philoth. Do not doubt of that Philopolis Wisedome is easie to him that understands Pro. 14.6 And the times are coming and will be at hand before the pouring out of the last Vial wherein the understanding of the Divine Prophecies touching the Affairs of the Church will be as common and ordinary as of the Childrens Catechism The ways of God and the faithfulness of his Providence corresponding to the Divine Predictions or Prophecies will be known to all from the greatest to the least And it will be an easier task to their Capacities then many of those things that have been heretofore Catechistically put upon them XV That there is no fear that either Familism or Behmenism will supplant the expected glory of the Apostolick Church Sophr. This Conjecture of yours Philotheus in my judgement is not at all extravagant as to the unhinging of the World from the false Religions they have been so long held captive under But when I have been thinking with my self on these things I have been often cast into a fear that the pure Apostolick Christianity may not then take place for all that but some other mode of Christianity which some pretend to be the Reign of the Spirit but is as errant a Nulling of that Christianity which was taught by the Apostles as that Christianity was of Iudaism if not more or as Mahometism is of both Euist. I believe Sophron has in his eye the Love-service of the Modern Nicolaitans with their more visible Off-spring the Quakers For indeed their Prophet in his Prophecy of
necessarily retain a gradual Imperfection throughout And they will be sure to pitch on that Degree that is most for their own ease and the satisfaction of their own Lusts. Sophr. This is a very searching Doctrine indeed Philotheus But what do you drive at an absolute perfection quoad partes quoad gradus as the Schools phrase it Philoth. I drive at an absolute Sincerity by this Doctrine O Sophron that a man should not allow himself in any known Wickedness whatsoever but keep an upright Conscience before God and before men Forasmuch as his own Conscience tells him by virtue of this Doctrine that if he be not wanting to himself God is both able and willing by the Assistence of his Spirit to free him from all his Corruptions And the Scripture plainly declares that this is the end of Christ's coming namely Tit. 2.12 That denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world Ver. 13. looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity according to that exhortation of S t. Peter Wherefore gird up the loins of your minde 1 Pet. 1.13 c. be sober and of a perfect hope in the grace that is brought to you through the Revelation of Iesus Christ As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to former Lusts in your ignorance But as he that has called you is holy so be ye holy in your whole Conversation in every thing you doe Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy And our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Matt. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect And S t. Paul to the Ephesians witnesses for our Saviour that this was the end of his giving himself as a Ransome or of dying for his Church Eph. 5.26 27. namely That he might sanctifie it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish like the Lamb's Wife in the Revelation which is the new Ierusalem Sophr. I must confess Philotheus these places sound at an high pitch of Sanctity which Christians are called to and yet fall so infinitely short of Philoth. That is for want of this Faith I plead for a Faith in the Power of God and in the Spirit of the Lord Iesus for the purging away all our Corruptions For the New Birth is the Son of the Promise and is that Isaac the Joy of the whole Earth But he is conceived by Faith in the omnipotent Spirit of God who from the four winds blew upon the slain in the Valley of dead mens bones Ezek. 37.9 and made them stand up a numerous Armie who gave the promised Seed to Abraham Rom 4.18 c. who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many Nations For he considered not his own body now dead nor the deadness of Sarah's wombe he staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform This Faith therefore in the Promise of the Assistence of the Spirit of Christ in the new Birth is that which must renew the World into the living Image of God and make all the Nations of the Earth blessed which must bring the new Ierusalem from Heaven and will call down God himself to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men Phil. 4.13 I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Euist. Even wonders of wonders I think But this Faith Philotheus in the Power of God and in the Assistence of his Spirit to enable us to extirpate and mortifie all our Corruptions to an happy Resurrection to Life and Righteousness was not the Faith that our first Reformers were so zealous in How was it then I pray you that they should miss of so useful a Truth Philoth. They did not wholly miss of it XXXII The Doctrine of Faith in the Power of God's Spirit for the ridding us of Sin why not so much insisted on at the beginning of the Reformation Euistor in that they did zealously call to men to relinquish humane Tradition and to betake themselves to the pure Word and to the Belief and faith of the Gospel according to that more infallible Rule Wherefore that Faith which they preached having for its Object the pure Gospel of Christ the Doctrines according to Scripture this Doctrine of Faith in the omnipotent Spirit for the vanquishing of Sin being also contained in Scripture must be part of the Object of the Faith which they preached Euist. That is I acknowledge O Philotheus in some sense true But their zeal ran mainly out in declaring and crying up that part of Faith which respects onely Iustification in the bloud of Christ and free Remission of our sins Philoth. And it was very seasonably cry'd up as being a very plain Gospel Truth and such as was trode down under foot in the Church of Rome for the more absolutely enslaving the people of God and holding them under an hard Bondage in that Mysticall Babylon or Land of Egypt they laying many heavy burthens of Superstition upon them onely to advance the King of Egypt's Interest and so to extinguish the Light and Comfort of the Gospel Wherefore that Truth of Iustification by Faith being so accommodated to shake off the Roman Yoke it is no wonder it was so zealously insisted upon and so generally inculcated by the first Reformers Sophr. But this was not all Philotheus For severall things passed from some of them who were otherwise very successful Instruments in the Reformation that seem not onely to favour humane Infirmities and to dishearten men from attempting any such Conquests over our Lusts and Corruptions as your Doctrine animates us to but also on the contrary to savour much of rank Antinomianism as ill a disease as can seise on the Church of Christ. Philoth. I acknowledge O Sophron that Divine Providence might permit such misinterpretable Expressions in some of the first Reformers But you know Luther himself who is most suspected yet wrote against the Antinomians and the Harmonie of Confessions of all the Protestant Churches adjoyns the Doctrine of Sanctification or a Good life to that of Justification by Faith But that such a pitch of Holiness as we now treat of should have been exacted so zealously by the first Reformers from their Followers seems not congruous nor seasonable for those Times The over-severe Inculcation of such Doctrine in opposition to the false Righteousness of Romanism would have drawn away but few Auditours from that Church whose Sanctity was onely carnal They would have thought they had been
deface Teach us our Lusts to mortify In virtue of thy precious Death That while to sin all-dead we lie Thou maist infuse thy Heav'nly breath To Righteousness our Spirits raise And quick'n us with thy Life and Love That we may walk here to thy Praise And after live in Heav'n above Grant we in Glory may appear Clad with our Resurrection-Vest When thou shalt lead thy Flock most dear Up to the Mansions of the Blest An HYMN Upon CHRIST's Ascension The Historicall Narration GOd is ascended up on high With merry noise of Trumpet 's sound And Princely seated in the Sky Rules over all the World around The Tabernacle did of old His Presence to the Jews restrain But after in our Flesh enfold A larger Empire he did gain For suffering in Humane Flesh For all he rich Redemption wrought And will with lasting Life refresh His Heritage so dearly bought Sing Praises then sing Praises loud Unto our Universal King * Act. 1.9 He who ascended on a Cloud To him all Laud and Praises sing Captivity he captive led Triumphing o're the Powers of Hell And struck their eyes with glory dread Who in the Airy Regions dwell In Humane Flesh and Shape he went Adorned with his Passion-Scars Which in Heav'n's sight he did present More glorious then the glittering Stars O happy Pledge of Pardon sure The Application to the Emprovement of Life And of an endless blissful State Since Humane Nature once made pure For Heav'n becomes so fit a Mate Lord raise our sinking Minds therefore Up to our proper Country dear And purifie us evermore To fit us for those Regions clear Let our Converse be still above Where Christ at thy right hand doth sit And quench in us all worldly Love That with thy self our Souls may knit Make us all Earthly things despise And freely part with this World 's good That we may win that Heav'nly prize Which Christ has purchas'd with his Bloud That when He shall return again In * Act. 1.11 Clouds of Glory as he went Our Souls no foulness may retain But be found pure and innocent And so may mount to his bright Hosts On Eagle's wings up to the Sky And be conducted to the Coasts Of everlasting Bliss and Ioy. An HYMN Upon the Descent of the Holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost The Narration WHen Christ his Body up had born To Heav'n from his Disciples sight Then they like Orphans all forlorn Spent their sad days in mournfull plight But he ascended up on high More Sacred Gifts for to receive And freely showr them from the Sky On those which he behind did leave He for the Presence of his Flesh To them the Holy Spirit imparts And doth with living Springs refresh Their thirsty Souls and fainting Hearts While with one minde and in one place Devoutly they themselves retire In rushing Wind the promis'd Grace Descends and cloven Tongues of Fire The house th' Amighty's Spirit fills Which doth the feeble Fabrick shake But on their Tongue such power instills Acts 2. That makes th' amazed Hearer quake The Spirit of holy Zeal and Love The Application And of Discerning give us Lord The Spirit of Power from above Of Unity and good Accord The Spirit of convincing Speech Such as will every Conscience smite Act. 2.37 And to the Heart of each man reach And Sin and Errour put to flight The Spirit of refining Fire Searching the inmost of the mind To purge all foul and fell desire And kindle Life more pure and kinde The Spirit of Faith in this thy Day Of Power against the force of Sin That through this Faith we ever may Against our Lusts the Conquests win Pour down thy Spirit of inward Life Which in our Hearts thy Laws may write That without any pain or strife We naturally may doe what 's right On all the Earth thy Spirit pour In Righteousness it to renew That Satan's Kingdome 't may o'repow'r And to Christ's Sceptre all subdue Like mighty Winde or Torrent fierce Let it Withstanders all o'rerun And every wicked Law reverse That Faith and Love may make all one Let Peace and Ioy in each place spring And Righteousness the Spirit 's fruits With Meekness Friendship and each thing That with the Christian spirit suits Grant this O holy God and true Who th' ancient Prophets didst inspire Haste to perform thy Promise due As all thy Servants thee desire An HYMN Upon the Creation of the World WHen God the first Foundations laid The Narration Of the well-framed Universe And through the darksome Chaos ray'd The Angels did his Praise rehearse The Sons of God then sweetly sung Job 38.7 At first appearance of his Light When the Creation-Morning sprung To deck the World with Beauty bright Within six Days he finish'd all What-ere Heav'n Earth or Sea contain And sanctify'd the Seventh withall To celebrate his Holy Name Then with the Sons of God let 's sing Our bountifull Creatour's Praise Who out of nothing all did bring And by his Word the World did raise O Holy God how wonderfull Art thou in all thy Works of might Astonishing our Senses dull With what thou daily bringst in sight The fit returns of Night and Day The gratefull Seasons of the Year Which constantly man's pains repay With wholesome fruit his Heart to chear The shape and number of the Stars The Moon 's set course thou dost define And Matter 's wilde distracting Iars Composest by thy Word Divine The Parts of th' Earth thou holdest close Together by this sweet Constraint Thou round'st the Drops that do disclose The Rain-bow in his glorious Paint Thy Clouds drop fatness on the Earth Thou mak'st the Grass and Flow'rs to spring Thou cloath'st the Woods wherein with mirth The chearfull Birds do sit and sing Thou fill'st the Fields with Beasts and Sheep Thy Rivers run along the Plains With scaly Fish thou stor'st the Deep Thy Bounty all the World maintains The Application All these and all things else th' hast made Subject to Man by thy Decree That thou by Man might'st be obey'd As duely subject unto thee Wherefore O Lord in us create Clean hearts and a right spirit renew That we regaining that just state May ever pay thee what is due That as we wholly from thee are Both Gifts of Minde and Bodie 's frame So by them both we may declare The Glory of thy Holy Name An HYMN Upon the Redemption of the World through CHRIST in his Re-introduction of the New Creature THe Lord both Heav'n Earth hath made The Narration His Word did all things frame And Laws to every Creature gave Who still observe the same The faithfull Sun doth still return The Seasons of the Year And at just times the various Moon Now round now horn'd appears The Plants retain their Virtue still Their Verdure and their Form Nor do the Birds or Beasts their guize Once change or shape transform 'T is