He hath the best nobility and deserves the greatest praise that first makes his fathers house glorious that first begins a noble family Be it your care to make your City your Country your familys and your fathers houses noble and glorious I have observed it to be an ancient custom in this City upon the day of your solemnity to present the new elect with some speeches and withall with escouchions or shields and in them some divises which hang all the year in his parlour to hint and remember him of his duty I have prepared you one out of my Text against to morrow and with my speech I present it to you out of the pulpit It 's a very plain one as you see and not much charged You see here the pillar in the middle hath many nails fastned in it and every nail beareth somewhat upon some hanggarments upon others the ensigns of your Authority upon others vessels of gold and silver and iron and brass and earth and wood and all instruments of musick This is your monitor You must bear up all honest persons and all just causes You must bear even til you break again and lay out all your power and strength for the glory of God the honor and safety of the City and Kingdom the good of the Church the advancement of Religion and the pure worship of God And thus going on the Lord wil establish you as a nail in a sure place And hereafter you shal be set higher Ere long every nail shal be plucked out and laid before the great Master of the assemblies at the great and dreadful day of judgment Then wil the Judg of all the world take a strict view of all the nails that ever he fastned in any place And the great question at that severe day of examination shal be what service have you done What burdens have you born in the Church and Common-wealth Then shal the empty rusty and unprofitable nails be put into the bag and thrown down int◠the pit of hell But such as have been useful and have born the burden and heat of the day and done good and acceptable service in their places they shal be advanced and set up higher they shal be fastned in the wall of the new-Jerusalem the holy City be overlaid with pure gold and set with precious pearls and shine in glory for evermore Now the Lord God the great Master of the assemblies make every one of us more profitable and serviceable in our places and stations Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 PSAL. 84. 4. Blessed are they that dwel in thy house they wil be stil praising thee Selah REVEL 2. 10. Be thou faithful unto the death and I wil give thee a Crown of life The VVheel turned by a voice from the throne of GLORY Described in a SERMON At the Green-yard in NORWICH upon the Guild-day Iune 22. 1647. By JOHN CARTER Pastor of St. Peters of MANCROFT LONDON Printed by J. Macock for M. Spark and are to be sold at the sign of the blue Bible in Green-Arbour 1647 TO THE Right VVorshipfull Mr. John Vtting Maior of the City of Norwich IOHN CARTER Humbly Dedicates this poore and unworthy piece and as he preached the Sermon at his request so now he presents it to him for his use with apprecation of all Grace honour happinesse and good successe in his Government 1 SAM 2. 30. Them that honour mee I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed To those Magistrates in the City of Norwich who were so highly offended and exasperated at this Sermon Galath 4. 16. Am J therefore become your enemy because J tell you the truth THE WHEEL EZEK 10. 13. As for the wheels it was cryed unto them in my hearing O Wheel THis is a voice your ears can tel you so much yea and that a mighty voice a great cry Concerning it here are three things remarkable the parts of the text 1. They word which was cryed O Wheel 2. To whom the word was cryed to the wheels as for the wheels it was cryed to them 3. The witness in whose presence the word was cryed in my hearing These are the parts and particulars of the text I wil not fall upon them presently I shal lay them aside a while and according to my plain and usual way I wil dispatch 3. things 1. I wil speak something of the sence and meaning of the text 2. I wil give you the sum and substance of all in one general proposition of Doctrine to which I shal make some general application 3. And then in the third place I wil return to the parts of the text and handle them I wil search the particulars more narrowly for such observations and instructions as may be of further use and then I wil conclude all with special application to the time place persons and present occasion I am to speak you see of Wheels and of a wheel my discourse is like to run all the way upon wheels Now the good spirit of God be upon us all that we may drive prosperously and all our motions may turn to the glory of God the edification and comfort of all our poor souls Amen 1. And first I am to expound and open the text As for the Wheels When Ezekiel was among the Captives in the Land of the Caldeans by the River Chebar walking up and down by the waters of Babylon he saw broad-waking a glorious vision wherein the Lord shewed to him the things which were shortly after to come to pass And as Pharaohs dreams when he was asleep so Ezekiels Visions when he was awake were doubled because the thing was established and God hasted to perform it He first sees the Vision by the River Chebar Chap. 1. He sees it again with some considerable alterations additions and amplifications in this 10. Chapter To represent and set before your eyes the whole Vision and exactly to describe every part every apparition every wonderful and dreadful sight which our Prophet beheld would take up more time and require more skil then falls to my share I shal therefore only point to a few of the most general and most remarkable things which may serve to give some light to the text and to let in the Doctrine To our purpose He saw in the firmament which was clear as the terrible chrystal viz. above the starry heavens he saw a glorious throne as it were a Saphire-stone and upon the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man the son of God sate above it Chap. 1. v. 26. Under his feet there were four living creatures so they were called in his first vision Chap. 1. 5. here in this 10. is an interpretation they are called Cherubins they had faces wings hands and feet Below by the feet of these Cherubins were wheels four wheels in all according to the number of the living creatures These wheels were dreadful to behold by reason of their
what hath made England so rich What but this The Lord hath given England rest and the inhabitants have been as fixed nayls in a sure place To apply this shortly Is a fixed and setled condition such a sweet blessing And is it so grievous to be driven from our habitations Then Let us sympathize with our brethren the poor servants of God that in Germany Ireland and in the North and West of England are plucked out of their pleasant places and now are tossed as a ball from place to place and with Noahs Dove cannot find rest for the sole of their foot Alas Alas for our poore brethren the deare servants of God! What miseries do they endure They wander up and down in the desert out of the way and they find no dwelling place hungry and thirsty and their soul faints within them Or as Job They flee into the wildernesse desolate and waste they cut up mallows by the bushes and juniper roots for their meat the springs and fountains if at least they can meet with any are to quench their thirst Oh let our bowels be troubled for them Let 's relieve them to our power and let us pray for them earnestly and incessantly that the Lord would bring home his banished again and restore them to their country and to their habitation and settle them as a naile in a sure place And for our selves learn we to esteem and prize our own happinesse in these associated Counties We sit every man under his Vine and under his Fig-tree and none makes us afraid We enjoy peace and plentie and libertie and proprietie and friends and all in our own Land where we were born And above all we have the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the Gospell and the Service of God and the promises and the Communion of the faithfull Oh let us praise the Lord for his goodnesse Let us walk answerable to so great mercies let us make use of our standing and improve all our advantages to the glory of our bountifull God and let us pray unto the Lord incessantly to fasten us still as a nayl in a sure place The fourth and last particular now presents it self to your view viz. The end and use of this nayl Erit in solium gloriae He shal be for a glorious throne to his Fathers house And concerning this many things might be spoken but because I have held you too long already I shall only commend unto you in a word this Observation To what end we are fastened in our places Let Magistrates Ministers and every one here present duly consider wherefore they serve namely to bear burdens for the honour of God and for the glory of their Countrie and Citie and fathers house Joseph made his fathers house glorious he enriched it with the wealth with the treasures of Aegypt and made it famous and renowned through all the world as it is to this day Our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ who is the Nayl spoken of Zach. 10. 4. He is the glory of his fathers house even of the people Israel I speak first to the chief Magistrate and then to every one in his place Know that you ought not to be for your base private ends for your own honour and wealth but you must be men of publique spirits you must be for the good and for the glory of your Citie and your Countrie of the Church and Common-wealth You must endevour the publique good before your own You must be content to bear any load of pains or charge to procure the wealth and prosperity of the Kingdom that the reformation may be perfected true Religion established Popery superstition and the proud tyrannicall Hierarchy may be utterly extirpated the rights and priviledges of Parliement and the liberties of the Kingdom preserved That the Kings person and authority in the preservation of true Religion may be defended that the peace of the Kingdoms may be continued that delinquents may be brought to condigne punishment that England may be made a sure place a happie Nation a famous Kingdom Know that you are set for a throne of glory Be all of you for the honour of your Citie for the glory of Norwich Make it famous and happie this year Mind not your own things but the publique benefit The devise of Alphonsus King of Arragon was this A Pellican pecking her brest and drawing out blood wherewith to feed her young the word Pro lege pro grege So should every good Magistrate not count his blood dear for the welfare of the people The Motto of Aelius Adrianus the Emperour was Non mihi sed populo A man set in authority should not be for himself for his own profit or ease but all for advancing the common good Abate of your excesse make lesse and fewer feasts and do more good for the publique Lay lesse upon your backs and do more for the publique I know what people are ready to say for themselves That if Mayors and Sheriffes shall not make as great feasts at Sessions and other times as others before them they should be disgraceed and talked on all the Town over they should be counted covetous and miserable and people would say they knew not what doth belong to their office and it would be a dishonour to the Citie Alas alas my beloved Is it for the honour of your Citie to have Sodoms Character That pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse is in her Gentlemen if any shall jeer you for not feasting as your predecessours as if you knew not what belongs to your places Answer them as once Themistocles did who being at a sumptuons feast and not singing with the rest of the jovial company and meeting with some checks for his silence he said unto them I confess I have not learned to sing to the pipe at feasts but I have learned rempublicam ex parva magnam facere to raise a Common-wealth from a poor estate to a flourishing condition So do you answer all the world You have not learned to squander away vast sums of money in rich clothing sumptuous and excessive feasts but you have learned to lay out your money better and to part with your estate freely even to the utmost farthing for the publick safety and good I beseech you be for a throne of glory be all for the honor of your City and Country Usually you shal hear men boast much of their Country City Progenitors and they brag that they were born in such a famous place or that they are descended of such illustrious ancestors as if that were such egregious and singular nobility which consists in the vertues and noble acts of their forefathers Such cracks as these the Poet rightly reprehendeth and jerks Stemmata quid faciunt c. What is it to thee if thy progenitors were Noble Heroicall Vertuous If thou in the mean time be un-deserving unworthy and base Let me therefore tel you
unavoydable when the Lord cries to us by his Ministers and calls us to repentance as long as we hearken to his voice we have Christ to plead for us but when our advocate becomes our enemy how deplorable is our condition I fear I fear it is the man in white linnen that is now scattering coals of fire about our City and Country and the Lord is departing from us But yet before he departs from Jerusalem he calls to it O Wheel The Lords departure from Jerusalem is by degrees he doth not fly away in an instant no no the Lord leaves them as if he were loth to depart Observe a little his motions In the former Chapter Verse 3. The glory of the God of Israel went up from the Cherub to the threshold of the house that is from the Mercy-seat in the holy place to the door of the Sanctuary ready to go out and there the Lord tatries a while before he depart In this tenth Chapter verse 18. he removes a little further The glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house and stood over the Cherubims That is he went forward to the East gate of the great Court on the top of that gate aloft were placed Cherubims and there the Lord rested a while before he went quite away In the next Chapter verse 23. he removes yet further The glory of the Lord went up from the middest of the City and stood upon the mountain which is on the East-side of the City that is Mount Olivet and there he rests a while But why doth he abide upon mount Olivet Truly some are of opinion that the Lord stayed upon the mount to see the burning of the City and to triumph over it As did Nero when Rome was fired he gate him up to the top of a hill and there did sing and rejoyce at the spectacle The Lord had often called to Jerusalem and they had refused he had stretched out his hand and none would regard therefore now he sits upon the Mount and laughs at their destruction and mocks at the comming of their fear But I rather think and hope he staid a while upon the Mountain to be called back again Before he went out of the City he cryed to them O Wheel Oh Jenusalem yet yet seek me and I will be found of you call to me and I will return and dwell with you Neither here can you avoid the Application Doth not the Lord seem to be departing from England But he hath not taken his slight all at once he hath with-drawn himself by degrees In the time of the late prelaticall tyranny and persecution when the worship of God was corrupted the faithfull Ministers of the Gospell silenced all manner of popish superstitious innovations obtruded then God seemed to be gone to the threshold ready to go out of England but departed not When the Commotions and concussions began between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland threatning the breaking of both Then God seemed to be going still further from us from the threshold out of the door onward on his way from England but yet he departed not When the bloody intestine warre began between the King and his Parliament then the Lord seemed to be departing quite away then was thè noise of a whip and the noise of the ratling of the wheels and of the praunsing horses and of the jumping chariots The horse-man lifted up both the bright sword and the glittering spear and there was a multitude of slain and great number of carcasses and the Lord seemed to sit aloft upon his holy Mountain laughing at our destruction But blessed be his holy Name we find he is not quite gone there 's a little stay of his judgements I hope beloved Christians the Lord stayes yet upon Mount Olivet the Mountain of peace and he expects when we should call him back again Yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing The Voice of God from the Throne hath called to us a long time Oh Wheel Now let us call to Mount Olivet O Lord our God Depart not from us let us call him back with our true and hearty repentance with our thorough reformation with our team and prayers who can tell but God may yet repent and return and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Return Oh Lord to thy thousands in our Israel and dwell amongst us again Amen 3. At the last I come to the third and last Pair of O-s to wit the O of Calling Desiring And here I am to speak in the Vocative case and to call every one to their duty to set every wheel on turning and that for prevention of the dreadfull ruine threatned and as I go along I cannot but make it the desire of my heart that the word of God may take good effect O si ô ut inam And first in generall I call to all the wheels what was spoken from the Throne of glory in my hearing that I cry in the eares of every wheel O Wheel Turn turn for this is a word of command yea turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with fasting and weeping and with mourning and rent your hearts be humbled for all your irregular and preposterous motions and turn to the Lord by unfamed repentance a thorough reformation a holy conversation and newnesse of live Let thy Spirit Oh God come upon all these Wheels And O wheels roll run Sion-ward let your eyes your spokes your rings all turn heaven-ward Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear the Lord and keep all his Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children for ever Deut. 5. 29. In the next place more especially I call to the great wheels to the heads of the people to the Magistrates As for those wheels it is cryed unto them from the Throne of Glory O Wheels Turn regularly in your proper Sphaeres Judg you the people with just judgment Scatter the wicked O let the great wheels turn over them Let not swearers and drunkards and houses of drunkeness and prophaners of Gods Sabbaths Malignant Priests that begin to rake up their old Superstitions again O Wheels have you not eyes Do you not see what abundance there are of these Why do you let them lie so quietly O Wheels turn over them either mend them or remove them or break them In the 77. Psa ver 18. says Asaph the voyce of thy thunder was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in rota in the wheel so it is in the Hebrew O wheels let 's hear the voyce of thunder from you thunder against this wicked crue And oh Wheels accept not persons do justice to the smal as well as to the great Defend the poor and fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy deliver the poor and needy rid them out of the hand of the wicked Take heed what