Heaven of Heavens that love should not passe knowledge but seeing I am warranted to speak of love according to dimensiones of Height Breadth Depth Length But imagine in the capacity of knowledge and understanding ten thousand millions of new created Heavens and Worlds at the East end of this Heaven that now is and ten thousand millions of new Worlds created at the West end of this Heaven that now is and let your knowledge run along to the North and the South and to the thirty two points of the foure Cardinall arches here would be great Height Length Breadth and Depth of love yet I am sure this love should not passe all knowledge for the understanding of man will go along through all these to multiply and multiply againe and againe and yet all love within knowledge What then must himself be if we could separate God and Gods Love Again conceive so many multiplyed new Worlds new Heavens new Earths new Seas new Forrests Woods Trees Reeds Herbs Grasse Stones and all the rest multiplyed and conceive so many worlds of men and new created Angels and let all these millions of VVoods Trees Forrests Herbs Grasse be all made pens and let all these thousands millions of new created Seas Fountaines Rivers be all Ink and all these thousands millions of Heavens yea of Heavens Aire Earth be paper and let these thousands of millions of men and Angels write Books and Psalms of praise of this infinite and incomprehensible Lord and let their wits be enlarged in the capacity of so many thousand millions of degrees of understanding above what they now have according to the former multiplied numbers and let their wits for all eternity conceive new expressions and most heavenly conceptions of the infinite excellency transcendent glory incomparable goodnesse and matchlesse and boundlesse highnesse greatnesse omnipotence of this never enough admired and adored Lord of this high and loftie one who inhabiteth eternity and yet all these should not passe knowledge for you and I and any ordinary understanding of no great capacity may know all this and therefore all these should not say any thing to expresse this Love and this Lord who passeth all knowledge O if we could be drawn to a higher measure of Love and to put a greater price on this Lord then we do 2. From this we may easily see the comparison betwixt this Lord and Peers of created nothings And if all Nations be before him as nothing as lesse then nothing as it is said by himself Es. 40. 17. Then say O smal base nothing of a Creature O highest O excellency of all things in the Creator O little and really small creature O great and surpassing great and incomparable Creator O man poor man that living lie and that dying and expiring nothing but O infinite all O unspeakable and infinite glory of uncreated being O man a breathing fable a living and a laughing vanity O self-sufficient and al sufficient life of solid happinesse O creature a dying vanity and a weeping nothing a nothing rejoycing eating drinking sighing dying O highest Creator O eternity of ever-living and ever-joying life O self-living immortality of endlesse and uncreated joy O created sparkes and poore drops of creature-goodnesse and creature-mercy O Sea O boundlesse world of worlds of infinite goodnesse and bottom-lesse mercy in the Creator of all things O shamed and despised royaltie of Princes of Earth and Clay O never enough admired glory of uncreated royaltie in the incomprehensible God! O fair Sun O beautifull Moone but rather O confounded and shamed Sunne and Moon Esa. 24. 23. and O infinitely fair and glorious Lord who made Sun and Moon O pleasant Roses and Lillies but O pleasanter Lord the Creator of Roses and Lillies O mighty and powerfull Kings and Emperours but most mighty and matchlesse King of Kings O foolish and unwise men O unstedfast and changeable Angels O Lord there is no searching out of thy understanding O unchangeable and unmoveable mover of all things O peeces of Breathing Laughing and then dying Clay O creature of yesterday of the last by-past hour for the world is not of one weeks standing to him seeing a thousand yeers are to him as one day But O Lord The ancient of dayes Daniel 7. 13. O Father of eternity Esai 9. 6. O King of ages 1. Tim. 1. 17. And King of time O weak men O mightlesse and infirme Heavens which shall wax old as a garment O eternall Lord O what an Arme of omnipotency is in him who shall with a shake of his right Arme move the Heavens and loose all the fixed Stars and cause them to fall out of the Heaven as Figs fall off a Fig-Tree shaken with a mighty Winde Revel. 6. 13. O all you created Gardens and Orchards and Paradises be ashamed blush and hide your selves beside the Tree of life which beareth twelve manner of fruit every moneth Every Apple growing on this Lord who is the Tree of life is life eternall O Gold O Silver O Rubies O precious Stones much desired by Adams sonnes What are you to him whose City is fairer Revel. 21. 18. And the building of the Wall was of Jasper and the City was pure gold like unto clear glasse He saith not there was abundance of gold in the City and multitudes of precious stones but the City was all gold and precious stones a City like Rome Venetia or Constantinople in which Timber Wals Stones Streets all the buildings were nothing but precious stones and gold were admirable O all fair Rivers and Seas what are you but pooles of dead water being compared with a pure River of water of life proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22. 1. Every drop of that water is an heaven O created welbeloveds you are black and the Sun hath looked on you when you come out and stand beside the Standard bearer amongst ten thousand Cant. 5. 10. Oh who are sick of love for this Lord O for eternities leasure to look on him to feast upon a sight of his Face O for the long summer-summer-Day of endlesse ages to stand beside him and to enjoy him O time O sin be removed out of the way O Day O fairest of Dayes dawne O morning of eternity break out and arise that we may enjoy this incomprehensible Lord And therefore O come out of the Creature 3. Make not Clay and the Creature whose mother is purum nihil pure meere nothing your last end Alas make not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus a post-horse to ride your own errands or a Covenant with the most high Lord a Chariot and Stirrop to mount upon the height of your carnall and Clay-projects this is as if one should stop the entry of an Oven with a Kings roberoyall Let God onely God be your last end 1. He is the living God The words Chajah and Havah to be and to live are neere of kindred together for living is the most excellent
it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is that they be such as feare and tremble before the God of Daniel feare is indeed put for the worship of the true God so is God called Gen. 31. 42. The feare of Isaac but it is not the word used here a devout man as Simeon is called one taken up with a religious feare {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Luke 2. 25. Act. 8. 2. nor are the words used here those which doe expresse Jobs fearing of God Job 1. 1. though I know the words doe expresse trembling and feare and also horrour and dread such as was given to creatures and false Gods and therefore from this none can inferre the conversion of this King to the true knowledge of Jehovah God also is called kajam an induring and standing God from Kum surrexit and well rendered to the sense by the Seventy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Eternall GOD in opposition to all falling and fading time-gods and Kings of clay and so hee is a God to whom Daniel did with a great deale of reason rather tender the honour of prayer then to King Darius or the supposed deities of Persia or Chaldea who are not standing gods induring for ever but come out of times wombe and decay and fall as creatures also doe Lastly his Kingdome that is his People and Servants such as Daniel and his Church and his dominion shall endure to the end Gnadsopha which is not so to bee taken as if Gnad did signifie a date or term-tearme-day at which time the dominion of God should have an end for 2. Samuel 6. last verse it is said Michol had no childe Gnad jom mothach even till the day of her death that is shee never had any Childe for the sence cannot bee that shee had any Childe after the day of her death so Psalme 48. 14. For this God is our God for ever and ever hee will bee our guide Gnadmuth even till death it is not intended that the Lord shall cease to bee their God and guide after death which is contrary to expresse Scripture Matth. 22. 32. Rev. 7. 16 17. and Matthew 28. 20. I am with you {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the end of the world the sense is I am with you for ever for at the end of the world Christ doth not leave his owne servants I know Gnad otherwise doth often signifie a certaine definite time as Psal. 132. I will not sleep untill I finde a place for Jehovah Gnad emptsa makom and 1 Sam. 14. 9. Psal. 73. 17. Psal. 105. 19. 2. The words containe this generall a Proclamation royall of a great King and for particulars 1. Who giveth out the Proclamation From my face a Decree goeth I Darius make a Decree 2. The parties to whom to every dominion of my Kingdome 3. The matter that they feare and tremble 4. The object before the face of the God of Daniel 5. The reasons of the Decree for Law without reason is will not Law men goe to heaven or hell with reason 1. He is the living God and this is form his nature 2. He is eternall then from his government his kingdome such as 1. time 2. violence 3. wisedome cannot destroy but such a Church and Kingdome as shall endure for ever and his dominion endureth to the end I make a Decree This Darius the Mede called Nabonithus succeeded to Belshazzar the sonne of Evil-Merodach about the yeare of the world 3393. others 3442. and did reigne 17. or 19. yeares And having advanced Daniel to great honour by force of a wicked law cast Daniel to the Lions and God having miraculously delivered Daniel from the Lions this King giveth out a Law that all his Subjects fear and serve the God of Daniel Whence observe 1. All Princes are obliged to governe and rule for the Lord and his honour 1. So Scripture speaketh it shall be in the last dayes Esay 49. 25. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens thy nursing mothers Psal. 72. 10. The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents I would the King of this Island were in this Text ver. 11. The Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts yea all Kings shall fall downe before him 2. Princes are Gods Standard-bearers they beare his sword by office Rom. 13. 4. and they hold Crowne and Scepter of him as great Landlord of all powers 3. In a speciall manner they are second Gods Psal. 81. 6. Nor do rulers judge for men the judgment is the Lords 2 Chro. 19. 12. All rulers in the act of judging are Gods deputies even though their second calling be to be sent by a King and therefore see what judgment God himselfe would pronounce if he were on the bench that same must they decree except they would make the deputed mouth to belie the minde of the great Lord who sent them 4. The Lord hath entrusted Christian Rulers with the most precious thing he hath on earth he hath given his Bride and Spouse to their tutory and faith 5. What sweeter comfort can the Ruler have either when his soule lodgeth in an house of groaning and sicke bones and the image of death sitteth on his eye-lids or in the day of his greatest calamity then to looke backe and smile upon such an old friend as a good conscience and to say as Job doth ch. 29. 13. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widowes heart to sing for joy c. Vse 1. You are entrusted by God with an honourable Virgin a Kings daughter Psal. 45. 9. Now then for her Fathers sake and for her Fathers blessing deale kindely with her As you love the Bridegroome take care of the Bride You have now amongst your hands Christ his Crowne his Israel his glory Esay 46. 13. his Prerogative Royall be faithfull Tuterers and active Factors for the Priviledges Lawes and Liberties of the high Court of heaven Vse 2. If this be the place and relation that Princes have to Christ and his Church then can the Lord have given no power to any Ruler to waste and destroy the mountaine of the Lord For 1. All royall power given of God Deut. 17. 18 19 20. in the first moulding of royall highnesse was a power to rule according to that which is written in the Booke of the Law and so there can be no royall power to the contrary truly royall 2. That power cannot be from God as a lawfull power the exercise and acts whereof are sinfull I speake of a lawfull morall power 3. If such an uncontrollable power as cannot be resisted be of God then are Princes given to the Churches and people of God as judgements of God then are all Christian States actu primo made slaves by God in the very intention of God the giver and of the gift at what time hee giveth them a Nurse-father to feed and
being and it is most agreeable to reason that JEHOVAH who is the first being and hath being of himself should be the living God And you do not finde man called living man though man have a life as God is called the living God he is the living God because all life is originally in him Psal. 36. 9. With thee is the well of life Joh. 1. 4. In him was life all heat is orignally in fire and in other things at the second hand all light originally in the Sun and other things have light by loane onely and light in other things is from the Sun by a sort of grace 2. He is the living God in opposition to dead Idols who Psal. 115. want life 3. And have mouthes and speak not eyes they have but see not you need not be afraid of the Paâ—ists gods of wood and silver and gold But because I haste to an â—nd The use is 1. If all things that live and we mortall men borrow our life from God we are to correct three errours 1. We take this borrowed breath for our proper heritage and we make this lifâ— our Idol and our last end hence all is done for this life men betray the cause of God for their life men desert the cause of God Parliament Countrey and Religion for a life to them and theirs men kill and destroy for life men rise early in the morning and go late to bed at night and eat the bread of sorrow for life but oh little do wee for the living God and a communion with the living God in the best life the life of grace Our second error is that as our life is but a borrowed thing we do not think on two things 1. The paying of the annuall of this borrowed sum even the dedication of our life actions wayes and purposes to God and his honour Secondly we doe not think of paying back again the principall sum and who hath the sum in his hand and his soul in readinesse to render to God 2. But like bankrupts we minde not to pay except we be arrested and then the soul is taken from money but if we do not render it the ghuest is pulled out but doth not come out anima ejicitur non egreditur Who liveth as having no morrow who walketh as if death were alwayes at his right side 3. We love best the worst of our life we are much for the time-accidents and the clay-accidents of this life such as are court honour riches pleasure ease some sell Religion to be free from plundering others to keep a whole skin and to go to heaven as they imagine without losse of bloud comply with Papists Prelates Court and the Times And for that which scarce deserveth the name of Life men give as the Lyer saith Job 2. 4. skinne for skinne and all that they have for life but oh that noble accident of life eternity of life or rather that excellent substance eternall life is much neglected the life hidden up with Christ in God Col 3. 3. is regarded 2. How sweet is it to make God a friend sure and induring to thy soule who cannot die is it sure to trust in the Prince who returneth to his Earth the Earth whereof he is a landed heritor when he dieth Psal. 146. 3. Is it not surer to trust in the Lord who made the Heaven and the Earth vers. 6. Is it sure to trust 1. Tim. 6. 17. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in riches which deale not plainly and fairly with us nor go out the high way but are uncertain like a friend and you know not when to have him and when to want him Is it not better to trust in that living God that God who liveth for ever whereas riches is a dead and a dying God David speaking of his owne greatnesse valour in war through Gods strength and of Nations People and Kingdomes who served him yet looketh on one above all Psal. 18. 46. The Lord liveth and blessed bee my Rock this putteth me in minde of a Prince who heard of the death of many of great and noble friends in war and that this Duke and this Prince and this and this worthy friend was killed in war yet comforted himself with this vivit imperator sat habeo the Emperour liveth and I am happy enough But is not this better to a soule that knoweth God my father is killed my brother lost my Prince dead my deare friend buried but God liveth and blessed be my Rock yea but say thy God the King of Brittaine liveth yet his favour to thee may die before he die himself and then what hast thou Court Court is made of glasse and can glister and be broken in one houre the pavement of the chamber of presence is Icy and slidy and thou maist fall It is known to many the Courtier is as a compter laid downe in the compting Table to day for a thousand pound and taken up and laid downe in the next accompt for a farthing O but these two be sweetly combined The ever-living God and The ever-loving God how comfortable that I beleeve Gods love toward me is as old as God and that as God did never begin to be God so he never began to love me but as he is eternall so his love is eternall and I know the Court shall not change upon me And abiding or stedfast for ever This is another attribute of Gods blessed nature that Darius ascribeth to God He is a God eternall Daniel 7. 13. He is the ancient of dayes Psal. 102. 26. The Heavens shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them wax old as a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed 27. But thou art the same and thy yeers shall have no end I know now that the whole created masse of heaven and earth and all therein is but as a web of cloth and as a Sute of clothes and the best end of the web is old and moth-eaten and shall bee laid by as an old threed-bare Cloak ragged and holed when God shall endure for ever and ever 2. Time goeth not about God as it goeth about creatures there is not with him yesterday and to morrow and this yeere and the last yeere but his duration is an instant standing alwayes still you and I slide through moneths and yeeres and at length wee are over ears in time and under the water by death but he standeth still his being is in no flux or motion from first and last from time past to time to come because he is Revel. 1. 17. The first and the last and v. 8. The Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord he which is and which was and which is to come Imagine there were a verbe that doth involve an action done and ended yesterday and in doing to day and to be done to morrow and yet a compleatly perfected action that should expresse
ordinances of the Moon and Stars for a light by night which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roare the Lord of hosts is his name vers. 36. If these ordinances depart from before mee saith the Lord then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a Nation before me for ever I might alledge other Scriptures also as Jer. 32. 39 40. Ezech. 36. 26 27 28 29. Esai 54. 10 11 12. Esai 59. 21. Heb. 8. 7 8 9 10 11. Now then because God hath bottomed the eternity of his Church upon his own unchangeable counsell they must raze the acts of Heaven who can take away the Church of God I leave it to the thoughts of the judicious if the rooting out of the Protestant Religion bee a rationall purpose of intelligent men What if we should imagine a society of transported men should convene in Parliament and make Statutes thus We ordain as a Law and Statute that from the 22. of January the Sunne shall shine no more by day and the Moone and Starres shall give no more light by night also we inhibite and discharge under the highest pain of treason from this time forth the Sea shall never ebbe or flow again These or the like should be but the notions of sick imiginations acts of night counsels have been these first fire the City of London secondly cut off the Parliament thirdly leave not alive in Ireland a Protestant or their seed fourthly roote them all out of France and Germany fifthly destroy Scotland and their Covenant sixthly undoe all reformation of Religion in Brittain Secondly Consider the strength of the Church of God Numb. 24. 8. He hath as it were the strength of an Vnicorn he shall eat up the nations his enemies he shall break his bones and pierce them thorow with his arrowes Why and the Church is but a feeble worme let it be so yet he saith Esay 41. 14. Feare not worm Jacob and yee men of Israel I will helpe thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee vers. 15. Behold I will make thee worme as thou art a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hils as chaffe vers. 16. Thou shalt fanne them and the winde shall carry them away and the whirle winde shall scatter them You have not seen such a miracle that a worme shall destroy a great mountain and blow it away as chaffe But it is Gods way that Omnipotence rides on a straw on a worme and triumph And how can it be but thus The Church is the weakest thing in the earth but in God incomparably the strongest Psalme 46. 1. God is our refuge and strength Gods strength is the absolute greatest strength and so overcome God and overcome the Church for a greater strength must overcome the lesse Where dwelleth hee in earth in Hell or in Heaven who hath strength above the strength of God they doe not flie to the strongest side who desert the Parliament and flie to Oxford they run but downe to Egypt but Esay 30. 7. Their strength is to sit still Thirdly the destroying of the Church is not a worke of reason or deep policie as men suppose they will but swallow downe and drinke the Protestants let them be doing and goe on Put the Church of Christ in a cup and drink her but you will be sick when shee is in your belly and had better drinke many quarts of lead or brasse melted and coming hot out of the furnace for Zach 12. 2 There is poison and death in the cup I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about The gall the wormwood the poyson of the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of his Temple is in the cup Drink who will they shall be sick and drunken and vomit and fall and die in their vomit and never rise again Pharaoh dranke of this cup but he was killed with it and made fishes meat Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazar dranke but they swelled hand and foot and died Herod Acts 12. had the cup at his head and tooke a draught of this wine but he was stricken with wormes Papists Prelates the Irish good Catholique subjects the Emperour Spaine Rome the Antichrist the powers of the earth are now drinking one to another and the cup of trembling goeth in a round to them all but consider how sick they shall be Zach. 14. 12. And this shall bee the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their eye-holes and their tongue shall consume away in their mouths Babylons cup-bearers and Atheists and Malignants to whom the morning of a sound reformation is as the shadow of death would then know how deadly a cup is now at their head Fourthly consider Gods promises to his Church There is a true Diurnall written from Heaven that God is to make a glorious Church in the end of the world Esa. 30. 26. Moreover the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And when the new resurrection shall bee I mean the in-coming of that elder sister the Church of the Jewes Rom. 11. 15. and when all Israel shall be saved What a glorious house shall he build for the Lord when that shall be fulfilled Esay 60. 13. And the glory of Lebanon shall come unto theee the fir-tree the pine-tree and the boxe together to beautifie the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious v. 14. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending to thee and all they that despised thee shal bow themselves down at the soals of thy feet and they shal cal thee The City of the Lord The Zion of the holy One of Israel v. 19. The sunne shal no more be thy light by day neither for brightnesse shal the moon give light unto thee but the Lord shal be thine everlasting light and the dayes of thy mourning shal be ended All which with many other places do make God say That the Church shall stand and never be prevailed against by the very gates of hell Fifthly Christ cannot leave off to be a King therefore his Kingdome must stand there is a seed and a reward promised to Christ for his labours Esay 53. 10. There bee Articles of grace concluded betwixt the Father and his Sonne which cannot be broken Sixthly there are in all the sufferings of the Church two things most considerable first a turn secondly a contexture a turne or returne Gen. 39. 21 22. Joseph was cast in prison But the Lord was with Joseph Gen. 49. 23. The archers have sorely grieved Joseph and shot at him and hated him but consider the returne vers. 24. But his