an end and the Glass of Antichrist almost run and certainly the King of Sion shall be as publique in his glory as ever he was in his shame his Deriders little considering that while they willingly add to his shame they really though unwilling add to his glory for as he was not crucified in a corner but at Jerusalem the eye and center of the world so he shall descend from Heaven in Majesty with shouts riding on the Clouds as in his Charriot attended by millions of Angels and Saints his royal Favorites all eies beholding of him and every knee bowing to him Jude 14 15. Woe be to the great ones of this world then when Pilat that sat on the Bench shall stand at the Bar and our Lord Jesus that once stood at the Bar shall sit on the Bench when we shall see not Persons but Causes heard the Judges being judged and the judged being Judges when Emperors and Kings shall be brought not in Chains of Gold about their necks but in Fetters of Iron about their heels When the Peers and Powers and Potentates of the World shall hold down their heads and hold up their hands and cry guilty When most of all the Mighty and all the almost All mighty of the Earth that have disrobed Christ of his Title and robbed him of his honor shall be led up and down this Court q.d. as Tamberlain led Bajaret in an iron Cage through Asia to be gazed on and howted at by all the Saints Psal 149.6 7 8 9. 1 Cor. â— 2 as the Prisoners of the Law and Prizes of Justice what then will become of all those Politicians that make Covenants in Conscience and break Covenants out of necessity That like children stand on the earth with their heads and boldly shake their heels towards Heaven That set up the Kingdom of Christ no faster than they can rear their own Kingdoms of all those that had rather themselves should reign in a corner than that our Lord and Master should rule in the whole World Never thinking how those Crowns that now sit light on their Heads will ere long lye heavy on their Consciences For God though he suspends the execution yet he hath not altered the method of his Justice on such offenders It is a maxim of the Law Right sometimes sleeps but it never dies The reconciling Sion and Babylon Pride Oppression the intollerable tolleration of all kinds of Religions Bribery and Intemperancy are now acted on another Stage by other persons but they are the same sins aliena scena eadem fabula if that Headship that flattering Prelates in former ages took from Jesus Christ be yet taken from Christ and given to men in the Nations if Christs Crown be pulled off his head no matter whose head it warm in the world Mal. 3.15 Mal. 4.1 And as for this Nation in special my prayers to the Lord are that Holiness may not onely have a tolleration but an Authority amongst us against Licenciousness both of Judgement and Conversation that the Rulers of England may not say The time is not come that the Lords house should be built but rather hear God say is it time for you O ye to dwell in your sciled houses and this house lie waste Hag. 1. That they would expeditiously do the work of this age Because to every purpose there is a time and judgement therefore the misery of man is great upon him Eccles 8. That our Officers may not onely be Peace but that our Exactors Righteousness that we may be made an eternal excellency and the joy of many Generations Isa 60. That saying in your hearts the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be our strength in the Lord of Hosts they may be like an Hearth of fire among the wood and like a Torch of fire in a sheaf devouring Sions enemies round about on the right hand and on the left Zech. 12. For shame therefore let Virgins arise and either get oyle or cast away their Lamps Security makes you uncapable both of seeing your reward or doing your work First Think not because you can properly be but once regenerated that you need but once to repent Converted David q d. must repent of his Adultery before he be saved Repentance is not onely as life to the dead but as salve to the wounded sinner Repentance is as the Vowels in the Alphabet which we have not onely need of to spell with while we are Babes but to read with all when we are men in Christ Mortification and Humility are not accidents or things by the by but of the very substance the very Materials and Pillars of the New Jerusalem The Gospell it self I suspect will ere long be but an old Almanack to them to whom Repentance and confessing of and mourning over sin is now upon what glorious pretences soever out of date Secondly Plead for Opinions as Opinions and for Graces as for Graces I fear those that plead for disputable Opinions as infallible Truths will ere long hold vital and indisputable Truths as conformity to the Gospel sincere Faith in and repentance towards Christ but as failable and fallible Opinions This is intollerable folly to see men slaves to Opinions and Masters over Graces if the Lord extinguish not this fond zeal the carnal world hence forward will take advantage to think that Religion lies onely in thinking and conceiving and in the next age conclude they are not to seek Religion in their Bibles but in the brains of men O Lord How many are true to false Principles and false to true Principles and will rather die Martyrs for Error than bow as Servants to Truth These are some of them that have been over wise in their own eyes and yet as the wiseman speaks have not known the way to the City that call this or that way Christ and not Christ the way that set up an Image in their own Opinions and censure all the world as Idolaters that will not do homage to it proclaiming subjection with Lutes and Cymbals of peace and though on the first entertainment of such Opinions men have had a calmness in their Consciences yet afterwards have found themselves burning in a Furnace of discontents and doubts as then remembring that neither this or that Opinion availed any thing to peace in Christ but a new creature Thirdly While you cry out against the old Superstition beware of being tainted with the new disease of this age not the plague of the guts but of the heart not the Rickets in the head but the pride of life alias Hypocrisie alias apparent Prophaneness Fly as far from Licentiousness as you do from the formality of Rome Woe be to the profession of Religion if your Profession should stand or fall to the verdict of the world Oh! let not those whom you must one day judge justly judge you now Some possibly may say The world are dogs and their mouths must be stopped Christ is a mystery our principles are above their
cease to be their Creator nay than cease to be Psal 147.9 According to the old observation God is present in Heaven by his Glory in his Church by his Spirit in Hell by his Justice in earth by his Providence though it be not full for God is every where in his Essence If any from Gen. 2.3 object That God rested from all his work The answer is He rested from his works of Creation not of Providence or from creating any new kind of creatures for otherwise Providence is a continual creation Joh. 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work The Rabbies have a saying There is not a plant on Earth but it hath a star in Heaven and the flowers you see below on earth are begotten by the flowers of light the Stars you see in heaven God is in smal things great not smal in any His even prayse can neither rise nor fall He is in all things one in each thing many For he is infinite in one and all The least Creature hath something of God in it and the best Creature something of nothing Secondly In their Government In God as the Apostle saith we have our being we are his Creatures in him we live by him all things are preserved in him we move all things are at his beck and command Every Creature as it hath a being from God as its Maker so it hath an order from God as its Governor and that order is warlike Ut in aqua solem sic Deum in operibus contemplamur whereby all Creatures are mustered and trained and serve under the colours of the Almighty Look into Egypt and you find a Band of Frog march into Pharaohs Bed-Chamber Look on Herod and God sets his Vermin on him and all the Kings Guard cannot Master the Lice God hath Hornets for the Hivites and 23 Mice fo◠the Philistims I Sam. 6. Rats for th◠Prelate and a Fly for the Pope When God hath service to do he ca◠never want an Army to do it all th◠Creatures stand ready prest to receive th◠word of Command If he bids the◠go they go if he bids them come the◠come God fed the Prophet by Ravens I know not which most to admire whether preservation without food or for by such messengers were greatest those ravenous creatures which took food from others brought it to Elisha The Philosopher says Deus sic singula curat quasi universa sic universa quasi singula God is the first Agent that is true but not all God leaves not the world to be governed by Fortune after he made the World God is the first Agent as the first mover which sets all the inferior Sphears in motion and so continues them It is the custom of the Jews to let the Book of Hester fall on the ground before they read in it because they say there is no name of God in that book But every Creature hath a letter of Gods Name in it and therefore not to be trampled on All the World is Gods work in Folio the History of the Almighty Here the Acts of our Father are to be seen and read of all the Heavens declare his glory they are the Regii Professores the Divinity Readers of God to the World The World 's a School where in a general Story God always reads dumb Lectures of his Glory The World 's a Book in Folio printed all With Gods great works in Letters Capital Each Creature is a Page each Effect A fair character void of all defect But as young Truants toying in the Schools Instead of learning learn to play the Fools We gaze but on the Babies the cover The gawdy flow'rs and edges gilded over Secondly Providence extends toward all rational and intellectual Creatures Men and Angels good and bad generally and specially of which last I shall discourse as it is exercised for the good of Sion 1 This Ladder of Providence is exercised on man for good The answer of the tongue Prov. 16.1 is from the Lord we cannot speak a good word without the influence of God much less can we do a good work I dare not say that the Graces as Faith Hope flow formally from God yet certainly they flow efficiently from God that is though it be not God that beleeves but man yet man would not beleeve without God It is the Tree that brings forth fruit yet the Tree would not bring forth fruit were it not for the light of the Sun and the dew of Heaven It is certain that man may repent when he will but it is the Lord must give him that will to repent A man must needs repent when he will for repentance is seated in the Will of man for man cannot repent without his Will but not in the power of man It is a truth man cannot repent because he will not repent and also Requiritur opera hominis sed operatio Dei that man will not repent because he cannot The conversion of the Soul is supposed to be as considerable a work if not a greater than the Creation for in the Creation God had no Adversary The Light did not say I will not be created the Earth did not say I will not be formed but in the new Creation sinners labor to prevent the conception of Grace take down antidotes against Salvation and study how to defeat the Spirit of God and make its works abortive Deus amavit nos non existentes imo resistentes God when he comes finds the house not onely empty of Grace but filled with Lusts and the strong man up in armes not a rasa tabula a milk white Paper but he finds the Devil to have been scribling and the World to have been scribling Angels may knock at the door of a sinners heart but God onely can open it The Body is not so much at the command of the Soul as the Soul is at the command of God Without me Joh. 14. ye can do nothing The Lord opened the heart of Lydia Gratiam non à nobis praesumpsimus sed à Deo sumpsimus Mans heart is Gods Lock and not mans wisdom but the Spirit of the Lord is the Key that must unlock it Not that Providence offers violence to natural principles it works necessarily but not coactively It is a true Rule those things which are contingent in respect of second causes are necessary in respect of the First by a necessity of immutability not of compulsion How many Lyons in this age hath our God made to lie down with Lambs How many Lyons has he effectually turned into Lambs It is Gods Prerogative to make and it is the royal flower of his Crown to mend the heart under the prayses of Nature lurk the enemies of Grace Secondly This Ladder of Providence reacheth as fr as wicked men and Devills And that four ways 1 In this Ladder there is a preventing Providence Pharaoh Exod. 14. resolves on Israels ruin he will
Kingdom to the Father yet so as that God that is the Son also with the Spirit may be all in all Thirdly None dare say That as God now rules by the Mediator so then the Mediator shall rule by God for the Mediator as such is subordinate to God and to say the Mediator may rule as well as God is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a necessity as to us that God rule us by a Mediator in the Church Militant but it is no way inconsistent either with the wisdom or glory of God to communicate himself immediately to the Church Triumphant Lastly Christ gives up the Kingdom not onely not as God but not absolutely considered as Mediator Christus ut Deus nos cum illo subjectos habet sed ut Sacerdos nobiscum illi subjectus est Aug. for Christ even now as Mediator is subject to God really For though Christ reigns yet so still as that God reigns by Christ though there be an immediate exercise of the Mediators Kingdom in the world yet God keeps in the Essential Throne of his glory But then further he shall be subject relatively and respectively as to his Church or Body now Christ rules his Church as Mediator and not as God onely and the very Mediator is King in actu over Sion but then this administration shall cease and the Head with the Body or Christ as part of his Church or Christ mystical shall be subject to God and thus he is not at present but shall be hereafter the Mediator being yet in the Throne but there is a time a comming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he shall give up the Kingdom to wit that Kingdom which God gave over to him and cease to reign as Mediator and it is observable that for Christ to surrender up the Kingdom and be subject to God are of all one importance vers 28. By the surrender of the Kingdom therefore we cannot understand such or such an administration of the Kingdom and not the Kingdom it self for all that Kingdom he receives he surrenders And secondly Christ must so surrender as he must be subject the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must go together And I am much pleased with the Apostles sweet Criticism that as now Christ Col. 3. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and in all So God hereafter shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all in all the Messiah hath two times especially the time of his sorrows and the time of glory In the sixth of John vers 15. they had royal blood in their veins and they would force Jesus to be a King surely that they might have preferment under him but Christ departed and flew from the Crown few men would have done as Christ did Satis pro imperio quisquis est says the Comick Men will wade up to the chin in blood for a Kingdom and stretch fair and far for a Crown it shines so amiably in their eyes Says the Devil if Jesus will but accept of the Title and Place of a King he will be so taken up with the Affairs and Offices of the world that he will not have such liberty to look after the conversion of souls the Revenues of the Devils Crown would have come in the more by such a worldly Negotiation but there is a day a coming when Jesus will not fly from a Crown nor refuse a Scepter his glory shall be as eminent as ever was his shame The Daughters of Sion shall go forth and Crown King Jesus in the day of his solemn Espousals and such a day shall be the gladness of his heart Jesus hath born all the wrath of the world and he is able in a spiritual visible sense to bear all the glory of the world on his shoulders Can. 3.11 The children of Judah and of Israel shall be gathered together at a place of their general Randezvouz and by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Election by lifting up their hands and voyces appoint themselves one head and they shall one and all as we say come up out of the Land for great and glorious shall be the day of Jezreel Jesus Christ is a righteous King and he hath a right to his Kingdom It is utterly impossible that ever he should prove either an Vsurper or a Tyrant He thinks it no robbery to be equal with God then certainly it is no robbery for him to be preheminent above men Phil. 2.6 It is no robbery for King Jesus to pull Saint Peter out of his Chair and there in Majesty to rule the Nations with a Rod of iron if he please No robbery for him to melt all the Crowns in Europe to make a Diadem of glory for his own Temples If any think they have gone deeper in a purchase for the Government of the world than our Lord Jesus let them stand up if they dare and lay their claim let them now speak or ever after hold their peace In the expectation therefore of these things let the Saints rejoyce Vniversal Redemption will then prove a Truth when all yoaks shall be taken off the necks and all burthens off the backs of the children of God It is observable that the substance of all the Revelation is contained in these two words Hosanna and Halelujah God bless us and we bless God hitherto we have been a singing Hosanna but Halelujah is a coming Praise and Honor and Glory to the Lamb that sits on the Throne If any object That any of the above-mentioned Promises concern the Jews I answer True but not the Jews onely and though Promises are not to be confounded and applied to one people if they should onely belong to another yet it will be found according to the Promises that the glory of the Jews will be the glory of the Gentiles and though now we are divided yet then we shall be one fold Rom. 11.12 What God hath joyned together let no man separate To conclude The Saints must pray for and endeavor to promote the more glorious part of this Kingdom of which we speak in which there shall be neither such covetousness nor complaint But all endeavors will fall short of setting of it up on Earth till our Lord Jesus the King shall come down from Heaven in the Clouds We shall never have such a Kingdom untill we have such a King The Feet of the Saints shall not all be out of their Fetters till the King of Saints comes into his Throne Dan. 7.13 27. Princes will never so rule in Judgement till this King shall reign in Righteousness Is 32.1 The New Jerusalem will be Gods Creature The Stone is cut out without hands there may be something of the heart of the Saints in this glorious Structure but it shall neither be the work of their Head nor Hands This model of Government is beyond the invention of Saints as it is beyond the beleef of man Many shall welcome it in the
into our own Vessels Christians look about you you live in an infectious Air therefore take cordials where ever he hath a poyson have you an Antidote take down the antidote of Humility against the poyson of Pride of Sincerity against Hypocrisie of Zeal against Apostacy It is easier to keep sin out of the conscience than to cast it out when in The Devil is a fiery Serpent and if he can but get in his head he will get in his whole body and if he do not yet the sting is in his head How many virgin Professors have lost their spiritual chastity in an hour that they have been procuring many years and that dear peace of Conscience in a moment that they have not imbraced again till eternity But alas while we should give cordials to others we faint our selves we should awaken others and we sleep our selves we should uphold others and we fall our selves we should help to revive others and we are dead Many that have time to reprove and advise others have not hearts many that have hearts have not time their own hearts are so out of frame and tune Like dying men we take hold of one another and we love to perish in company But Christians Arise and prepare for the coming of your Master for as it is certain so it will be sudden If it were the last hour in Pauls time sure now it is the last minute of that last hour Oh Lord never was the Judge nigher to come and never less preparation for his coming Christians have we not Closets to mourn in or rather do not we want hearts to mourn with all Hath Christ cast his Cloak of love over you and said live and will you not pitty those that yet lie as it were dead in their blood if you have any Knowledge advise any Faith pray any Zeal endeavor any Wisdom soberly wait for the coming of the Lord draws nigh How can Christ wipe tears from our eyes if we never wept for his absence or come to answer our prayers if we never pray for his coming Awake awake the night is far spent arise the Day star is risen in the world we have slept too long already Endeavor that when the Father comes he may not find you like Prodigals out of his house that when the Captain of your Salvation comes he may not find you in the Trenches of the Devil or of the World a Lying a Swearing a beating your fellow Brethren for even to these monstrous sins our natures are inclineable Pray Pray That when the Judge comes who is even at the door that you may not have your Accounts to be cast up when they are to be given up Judge your selves that you may not be judged The noise and news of the Bridegrooms approach is at hand Awake arise go ye out to meet him If these following Discourses may any way advantage you in your spiritual Watch against the Devil they are yours read them in love apply them to experience let them not swim in your heads but sink into your hearts And in your prayers to the Throne of Grace let him have a room who subscribes himself in our Lord Jesus A Friend to Sion FRA. RAWORTH LEt Angels now descend from thee O Lord and with this Ladder flee Abroad and in their glorious arms Guard and safeguard it from all harms That Jacobs Sleep and Dream may those awake Who without Jacobs Dream his Sleep yet take JACOBS LADDER OR The Protectorship of SYON GEN. 28.12 And Jacob dreamed and behold a Ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angells of God ascending and descending on it and behold the Lord stood above it THere is a threefold sense of this Vision literall allegorical and providentiall First literall The History of Jacob consists of three generall parts First Jacobs going to Padan Aran. Secondly his stay there Thirdly his return from thence In his going to Padan Aran the motives which induced him to go thither are recorded which were to take a wife of his own kindred and that hee might withdraw himself from the fury of his enraged brother Secondly the accidents that fell out by the providence of God in his journey and these were the Vision of the ladder his consecration of Bethel and his vow all contained in this chapter my purpose is only to paraphrase and apply the Vision of Jacobs Ladder The Lord open this Vision to our eies to see it and open our eies to see it Four things might perplex Jacob in this journey That he should leave his Country that hee should forsake his friends that hee might fall into poverty lastly solitarinesse and want of company wherefore the Lord seasonably appears to Jacob in this Vision though thou leavest thy country yet be content I will not leave thee and as for thy friends be not troubled I am thy friend can you mend your self Jacob and for shame fear not poverty if the word of thy God may be taken east and west shall be at thy command Let Jacob say certainly I shall never see God want and wherefore should I be dismayed seeing the Lord saith I will never see Jacob want and let not Jacob fear to be alone for Angells shall travell with him and that which is security enough Jacob shal have in company not only the Angells of God but the God of Angells The Ladder is the journey of Jacob the Angells ascending and descending his royal attendants going to returning with him frō Padan Aran the Lord stands on the top of the Ladder as guiding and governing all Jacob I am perswaded never had a sweeter nights lodging than at this time when the stones were his pillow and the Heavens his canopy when Providence made his bed and Angells rockt the cradle How pleasant is it to consider Angells guard Jacob God guards the Angells and God guards Jacob with Angells what ground then hath Jacob to fear either men or Devills to disturb him when hee hath a guard of God and of his Angells Secondly an Allegorical sense and so Christ is this Ladder John I. ult by his Divine nature he reached to Heaven by his humane to the earth his incarnation being a commerce between Divinity and humanity the steps of this Ladder are either the genealogy of Christ or the successive works of his redemption John the tenth Hee that climbs up or thinks to climb up any other way to heaven than by this Ladder is a thief for John the 14. hee is the only way for satisfaction for justification for sanctification the only way from God to man and from Man to God every poor sinner hath liberty to ascend these stairs Tolle scalas Aetii tu solus Coelum introibis and the righteous Pharisee shall never enter the star-chamber of heaven at a backdore Every man by nature sees the necessity of some Ladder or other to climb up to salvation by the Mahumetan
wicked man as wicked as Cain to prolong his life and to have the world at command but yet carp not at providence let the Lord be down before you think to lift him up enter not into the Chair to offer knowledge to God about his Works There is no reason that the Lord should give man a reason of all his ways he often wils a change but never changeth his will God may retreat in his Providences as to us and undo all he hath been doing in England these fifteen years and make Sion put on her mourning apparel and yet not be either unconstant or unfaithful though I hope better things For it is observeable that Providence in the main is never Excentrical and in the main is never Retrograde The Lord oft looks backward but never goes backward He led Israel forty years about in the wilderness and yet never carried them back to Egypt Abraham is promised a Son and a numerous off-spring but as if Providence had forgot it self to us Abraham is commanded to offer up Isaack and whereas he might have objected Lord thou art wont to call for Oxen to be sacrificed and dost thou require me to sacrifice my son Thy word saith I must not kill Certum est quia impossibile est and thy mouth saith I must kill and Lord thou hast promised to multiply my seed and now thou callest for my Isaack How can the branches grow if the stock be cut down and yet Abraham obeyed winking and putting his hand into the Lords hand following him though Providence as it were crossed the Promise We now have as the Prophet speaks a wheel in a wheel So I trust ere God hath done with England we shall have as the Rabbi speaks a miracle in a miracle Fourthly In this Ladder we have The independency of Providence The Ladder we see is onely reared and supported by God it is not a crooked Ladder but stands upright toward Heaven It Leans not on the mountains of men nor Palaces of Kings Many quarrel and find fault with the Ladder of Providence but this Ladder shall never fall down before man or to man The Prophet undertakes the challenge Isa 40.15 Who hath been the Counseller of God or hath taught the Almighty The wise King of Aragon was so foolish as to think he could have made the Creation better if he had been of Gods Counsel and some men think there are Erratae's in the volume of Providence by their murmurings and would fain be a correcting the Lords Copy and amending the Lines of his Government in the world methinks false-hearted man is like flattering Absolom who would insinuate to the people neglects in his Fathers Government There is no man deputed of the King to do Justice and that he was able to guide Israel in a better order But John the 15. The Church is compared to a Vine and God will have it lean on himself and not to be supported by the poles and policy of men It is observed that the weakest women have often the strongest children and that the Lord hangs the heaviest weights on the smallest wyars The stone in Daniel is cut out of the mountains without hands The Gospel and Sion are neither framed nor forged by man both are the handy-works of God as there was no concurrence of mans power to the generation of Christ personal so there is no concurrence of the wisdom of man to the generation of Christ mystical Cicero fell in with Caesar when Pompey was defeated and it is no dishonor for man routed in his way to fall down to God Man must lean on God but God will never lean on man man must go to God God will never come to man If the mountain will not come to Mahumet Mahumet will go to the Mountain said that bold Impostor when he could not work a miracle which he promised to his followers Oecolampadius had a good cause as they said but he wanted Souldiers to bear it up but let Sion remember that her cause is not so good but the strength of her Protector is as great to maintain it Quod est causa causae est causa causati There is nothing that God doth by the creature but he can do without the creature rather than Sion shall fall the God of Sion will not stand on miracles Fifthly In this Ladder we have the extent of Providence The Ladder is set upon the earth and the top of it reached to Heaven Providence extends 1 To all senseless and irrational creatures both in their Preservation and Government First Virtus est maxima pertingere quam remotissimae In their Preservation The Epicures confine God to the Palace of Heaven as if it were below his Majesty to take notice of the lower world The Stoicks limit him to the middle Region But the Lord deals not like a Carpenter or Artizan who have done all their work when a house is built and a Clock put together There is as much need of a Divine wisdom to preserve as there was of a Divine power to make the world There is a necessity not onely of a privative influx from God that is not onely that he does not destroy his creatures but of a positive influence to maintain the creatures in being Job 6.9 If the Lord take away his hand Job would fall not onely to the ground but also to his first principles of nothing Mithridates a General knew all the names of all the Souldiers in his Army The Heavens are the Lords Hosts and they in all their rancks and orbes are known and kept by the Lord of Hosts Cincinnatus his honor was at the same time to hold the Plow and the Helm of State The Lord made as well the least worm on earth as the most glorious Angel in Heaven Deus nec laborat in maximis nec fastidit in minimis and it costeth the Lord as many words to make a worm as to make an Angel for all was done with a word It is no disgrace for the Lord to walk up and down by his Providence and over-look all his creatures the baseness of any creature no more defiles God than a dunghil vapor infects the Sun beams The lesser a clock is as if it can lie under the wings of a Fly the greater is the skill of the Clock-maker The Smith was commended for beating iron into chains and nets that they could hardly see them being thinner than the smallest thread or the web of a Spider God is great in the greatest creatures and he is great in the smallest creatures It is to be feared that those that at present question Providence Deus est in culice in pulice Saeculum est speculum upon the same accounts may ere long deny the Creation A King is confined to his proper Ubi and Palace and he orders things in his Dominions by Deputies and Viceroys but the Lord can no more be absent from his creatures than
of comfort or rods of afflictions God saith in Scripture he will give peace If all the Angels in Heaven should have said so we should soon have replied as Corah and his company to Moses and Aaron Numb 16. Yee take too much on you It is observed that God in Scripture is called a man of War and yet nothing so much discovers him to be a God as war 2 This Ladder of Providence reacheth the publick Honors and Governments of the World God 1 Sam. 2.8.9 raiseth the poor from the dust and lifts up the Beggar from the dunghill though too often they forget the ground from whence they came and the hand that lifted them up Promotion Psal 75.6 comes neither from the East nor West nor South That is from the Power and Policy of men Euthymius thinks there is an allusion to the Southsayers who promised good success according to the Stars of Nativity as if a man be born under Jupiter he should be honorable if under Mercury he should be witty no saith God Promotion comes neither from this or that Star from this or that quarter of the Heavens but from the Lord. It was accounted by a great man mentioned in our Chronicles a greater honor to make Kings than to be a King himself The Lord is a King and Kingdoms are his donatives and he Crowns and Uncrowns at his pleasure Nebuchadnezzar was cast down on purpose that he might see that God set him up Dan. 4.17 Kingdoms are not bound to Princes in chains of Adamant as one said his was Kings are faster bound to their Kingdoms than their Kingdoms are bound to them All Kingdoms on earth are Regna transcuntia moveables going and coming at Gods order from one man to another The Earth is the Lords and all the Kingdoms of the Earth are but Copy-holds belonging to his Kingdom as the Capital Mannor and Hold from him The Heathen well fancied a golden chain to reach from the divine Chair in Heaven to all the Crowns in the world Here we must shun two main Rocks against which the judgements of men are apt to split 1 What if some have exchanged a Prison for a Throne and Fetters of iron for chains of gold What if it hath been observed in the Journal of Providence Eccles 10.7 That Servants have been seen on horses and Princes walking as servants on the earth Subjects to prove Kings Tota ratio facti saepe pendet à ratione facientis and Kings to prove scarce Subjects Take heed of Atheism say not these things are fortuitous or unjust in God these are the chances q. d. and changes of Providence whose ways are sometimes secret but never unrighteous All Nations were made of one blood all blood is of one colour and if men take their descent from Adam they all stand on even ground When meanness is exalted do not bate The place its honor for the persons sake The Shrine is that which thou dost venerate And not the beast that bears it on his back I care not though the Cloth of State should be Not of rich Arras but of mean Tapestry 2 What if some rise on this Ladder of Providence as many have done and leave a good conscience at the bottom The Devil is visible in the best Governor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui conatur excipere conatur decipere and something of God invisible in the worst Governor on earth All the waies and kinds of Government are from God though the means and manner of getting those Governments are not always from God Magistracy is a civil Ordinance of God and so in it self good now the well or ill management of that Power is consequent to and not constitutive of the Power so that though Magistrates are bound to do well they may possibly do ill through their own corruption yet the Power is as much of God when they do ill as when they do well for though oft they want a Will to do good yet they have no Commission nor Power from God to do evill Good Magistrates are the garment in which God apparrels himself and he that shoots at the Cloaths cannot say he means not the man The objection of the Devils Power is inconsiderable because his power is not civil but moral and in it self evil and we are commanded to submit to the Civil Magistrate though evil but never to the Devil nor to pray for his Government that under it we may lead a quiet and godly life 1 Pet. 2.13 1 Tim. 2.2 Ephes 6 12. Every Power Rom. 13.1 is of God speaking of worldly Powers for there was not then a Christian Magistracy in the world point blank The power of Nero was from God Secundum merita subditorum Deus disponit corda praepositorum as well as that of Constantine The Apostle argues from the Author of that Authority It is certain all Higher Powers are from the Highest Power Let Subjects remember that Magistrates are Gods with Men and let Magistrates remember they are but Men with God I said ye are Gods there is their Coronation But ye shall dye like men there is there Funeral The Name and Title of God is never in Scripture as I know attributed to any one single or individual person but with a certain limitation as God said to Moses I have made thee a god thou art a made god in my place thou art a god to Pharaoh What if Governors as there have been such should as the Proverb is more mind the beautifying their own houses than the building of Italy If when they put on a publick Gown they should not put off a private person that they should obtain their Crowns as Alexander the sixth did by giving his soul to the Devil and afterwards may prove Nebuchadnezzars the Lamentation of their Generations as the word signifies That when their single words should be as good as Oaths that they should play with Oaths as children do with Rattles What if when they enter into Office they should put Conscience out of Office That they should buy places of Judicature and sell Justice and that not at a cheap rate because they bought dear What if they should be men not compounded of flesh and blood as other men are but as it is said of Richard the Third made up all of blood If they lastly should not write their Laws in Milk with Edward the Sixt but as Draco in Blood Yet every Prince is the Minister of Providence and if men were wise for their good if a good Prince for their temporal good if a bad Prince Si bonus nutritâ—r tuus sin malus tentator tuus for their eternal good by their temporal evil If it be questioned whether Inferiors ought to honor Superiors that are evil I answer yes for the wickedness of man cannot make void Gods Ordinance no more than mans unbeleef can frustrate Gods promise We must honor Magistrates that are evill but not in evill Hos 8.4 They have
set up Kings but not by me but I knew not of it Honorandus genitor sed praeponendus Creator as if the Lord had said they never asked my advice they would not be Headless but in this they were heedless for though in some sense they ran on Gods Errand yet they as we say went on their own heads for Hos 13.11 God gave them a King though in his anger The Gods on Earth must be obeyed but in nothing that crosses obedience to the God of Heaven and Earth And this distinction must be added that what honor is done to wicked Magistrates is to be done to God himself not to Man not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the person but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the vizard that God hath put on him as the Heathen Emblem was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Ass laden with the Image of the goddess Isis and the people falling down and worshiping but with this inscription Not to the Ass but to the Goddess All Civil Power is of God is a Truth in these apostate as well as it was a Truth in the primitive times and though it be another hour of the day then was when the Apostles lived yet the same Sun shines still If that Maxim be cancelled as if there were some Civil Powers in being that are not of God let the Hand be produced that cancelled it and the Annus Domini the year of the Lord when it was done All Government is from God originally yet by designation it is laid on the shoulders of the Messiah Matth. 28. and though the Providence of God hath already and will yet righteously justle many Rulers out of their Authorities yet it is the onely Prerogative of our Lord Jesus to put down all Authority and Rule 1 Cor. 15. It lies not in the power of the children of God to repeal the Constitutions of their Father Governments were onely founded by God in essence and shall onely be dissolved by God in person by God-man Ejusdem est instituere destituere ligare solvere Yet let Powers remember that God is not bound to maintain them in their Kingdoms if their design be to cast Christ out of his Kingdom and that God will in due time make the Scepters of all such Persecutors and Oppressors to shake in their hands and their Crowns to tumble off their heads and justly bring them to the dunghill that unjustly keep Christ from his Throne Those that will not entertain Christ as their King shall whether they will or no submit to him as their Conqueror Thirdly This Ladder of Providence extends to is visible in the ruins periods of Kingdoms and Commonwealths Dan. 2. Dan. 4.32 Some think Kingdoms arise to a certain greatness by the uncertain course of the world and then decline and decay being not able longer to maintain their glory But as we say of Marriages so I may say of Kingdoms they are made in Heaven before they are made on Earth and dissolved in Heaven before they are dissolved on Earth The unchangeable God in Heaven hath an hand in all the changes on Earth The Epicure ascribes the periods of Kingdoms to Fortune the Stoick to destiny the Platonist and Pythagorist to number Aristotle to Asymmetry and disproportion of members Copernicus to the motion of the Center of the Excentrick Circle Cardanus and most of the Astrologers to Stars and Planets But these wise men of the world never yet observed with Jacob God on the top of the Ladder who maketh Kingdoms Ludibria Fortunae mocking-stocks of Fortune who tosseth Kingdoms like a Tennis Ball and hurleth whole Countries into ruin When a General of an Army after much success grew proud and boastingly said In this Fortune had no hand he never prospered after What man in the world can say and in this Honor in this Preferment Providence had no hand men may gather sticks but it is Providence sets on fire Providence is the first Founder and Dissolver of Kingdoms Man deserves and God inflicts ruin The Sixth remarkable in this Ladder is The unchangeableness of Providence You may see in this Vision of Jacob the Ladder to stand firm neither moved nor removed The Laws of the Medes and Persians Dan. 6.8 are unchangeable right or wrong they stand I will not say so of the Divine Decrees yet they are unchangeable and like himself Gods eternal purposes are unalterable He sets not his love on sinners to day and takes it off to morrow Divine love is neither fickle nor fantastical The threatnings of the revealed Word are unchangeable hath God said that no unbeleever shall be saved that is irrevocable and be it to the peril of that man that dies in unbeleef So in Providence The Sun runs round and round the Dyal the pin notwithstanding stands immoveable Many are the imaginations of our hearts but says the wise man the Counsel of the Lord shall stand that is certain whatever fall Proud man in this age shall neither put God out of his way nor off from his end Man must bow to God the Ladder will not bow to man In the Primitive times the persecuting Emperors would have hewn down the Lords Ladder In the Marian days I mean in Queen Maries days they would have burned down the Lords Ladder In Eighty eight they would have blown up the Lords Ladder and Politicians in the world would in their Policies with their shoulders throw down the Lords Ladder But though the wind and storms blow too and fro and round about yet the Ladder stands where it did and Christ is in the Road-way to his Kingdom Shall the Rock Job 18.4 be removed out of his place for thee Job says Bildad for shame give over Gods Projects are rockie and men in opposing God do but blow a feather against a Rock Shall God alter the method of Providence for man Shall the Lord write a new model of governing the world to humor man Shall it be said of an Heathen that it was as possible to turn the Sun out of his Ecliptick line as to put him out of the course of righteousness and shall Providence comply with unconstant man A man may easily break his brains in studying the Providences of God and that man will certainly break his head that will knock heads with God In Providence there are shallows wherein the Lamb may wade and Seas wherein Elephants may swim and it is a thousand times easier to lose our way than to find Gods way to drown our selves than to sound the depth of Providence It is impossible to sail against the wind and dangerous to swim against the stream of Scriptures and Providence as in external things it breaks over and bears down all before it The stile of man is I will if God will but as the Name of God is I Am that I Am So the stile of God is I will do what I will Let proud man wrestle and wrangle never so long with God in
saying this way or that way God shall go in the Lord at length will both have his Will and the Wall of man The Seventh remarkable in this Ladder is Deus quiescens agit agens quiescit The Activity and negotiation of Providence The Angels stand not still on the Ladder but are alwaies in motion ascending or descending Many may say I have lost this day Man may lose his day of Grace but God can never lose his day of Glory Providence is as seldom without success as without action The Governors of Israel Psa 121.3 may sleep but the Governor of the Governors of Israel can never sleep Providence as the Apostle saith oft winkes at the sins of men but it never yet slumbered much less slept an hour since the Creation of the world If God should give over his watch over Israel but for a moment in that moment Israel would give up her hope Let the Saints remember Zech. 4. The eyes of the Lord run through the world The Egyptians in their Hieroglyphicks pourtrayed an Eye on a Scepter to signifie the vigilancy and regency of Providence A wise man saith the wisest of men Eccles 2.14 hath his eyes in his head but God is all eie and th t not only for vision but for motion God at this day hath an eye on France and an eye in England There are Zech. 3.9 Seven eyes in one stone And in the Revelation there are seven Spirits before the Throne By the Stone we are to understand Christ mystical The seven Eyes and seven Spirits are of one importance and signifie the several Influences the Wisdom Power Patience c. of Providence Providence hath the hands of Briareus and the eyes of Argus It is supposed by some that the seven Spirits bear allusion to the seven Chamberlains or royal Officers Ester 1. of the King of Persia God hath his Secretaries of State his chiâ—f Council as well as others Some Heathens phancied Providence as the Great King of Persia keeping himself in his Palace in Heaven from the view of his Subjects or as sitting aloft in a stately Tower onely beholding the passages of the world below But Providence is not idle but active 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath reference as Calvin observes not onely to the eye of God Multicum Epicuro verbis relinquunt Deos retollunt Cice. de nat Deorum l. 1. but also to the hand of God Providence doth not onely observe but order the world There are no Ciphers in Gods Arithmetick no rests in his Musick no pauses nor stops in Providence Away with the blasphemy of those that say Let God rule in Heaven and man rule on Earth David Psal 23. sweetly describes the active and pearly influence of this Ladder of Providence Thou Lord art my Shepheard thou preparest me a table thou annointest my head how humbly doth David Thou God! Thou Thou Thou Many men go out of Gods vineyard but Providence is never idle in the Lords vineyard God is always either a pruning or a ripening his Vine always either a cloathing or correcting his children Always a providing for them as a Sun or a protecting them as a Shield It is reputed a shame for a man to see by anothers eyes but it is our wisdom in this dark age to see by the Lords eyes Whose eyes run through the world Providence never stands still or goes backward it wearies man but is never it self weary The Sun posteth thousands of miles in a day and yet tires not Spiritual beings much more the being of Spirits are uncapable of tyring or delassation In the description of a circle in paper though the circle bee brought within one inch of finishing yet if the compass be removed a man can never make a perfect circle but must begin all again to find out the same center If the Lord should cease a moment from his works of Providence Sion would run to ruin and God would be put to the labor of working a new The Eighth remarkable in this Ladder is The gradation of Providence Here is a climax of Providences one step above another in the Ladder As first In a spiritual sense As in the natural birth there be many preparations but the birth is in a moment so in Grace there are many dispositions to Grace as sense of sin mourning and desires which yet I dare not call formally Grace though the former alwaies and the last mostly goe before Grace and by some to their ruin are taken or mistaken for Grace but Regeneration it self is in a moment Psal 84.7 The Saints go from strength to strength from one vertue to another There is an allusion to the Israelites journying yearly to the Temple they went from City to City before they came to Jerusalem or to Schools of learning where there is going from one form to another from one Science to another The martyr it seems numbred his steps one stile more and I am at my Fathers house that is at the top of Jacobs Ladder The Lord formerly in the wilderness carried and now carrys Sion from one Mile-post to another from one Stage to another Ebenezra Legimus de Angelorum ascensu descensu sed non de alis ascensusigitur hic nobis injungitur non volatus hitherto hath the Lord helped us So Ebenezra hitherto have we climbed by the Lords help Angels fetch long strides on the Ladder but Saints cannot fly but creep up to Heaven Rom. 5.3 So in a more publick sense Rome was not built in a day neither will Rome be pulled down in a day indeed in Rev. 18.17 it is said in one hour so great riches are come to nought but that is as the Husbandman chalks a line about a sere Tree which he intends to have for firing he fetches many a blow and yet the Tree stands still but at last one sound blow fell the Tree Providence hath fetcht many a blow at the Scarlet Whore but her climacterical day is at hand her critical day is at hand and then she shall fall fully finally fatally Providence hitherto hath mostly been but a lopping the branches but now the Axe is laid to the very root of Antichrist If any wonder why the ruin of Antichrist in the Letter goes on no faster I Answer The Devil and Pope must in some sense fall together for they have supported one anothers Cause now and then Providence fetcheth a blow at the Pope and seems as if he gave over the work because in the respite he is striking at the Devil So the downfal of the Spirit and Body of Antichrist keep pace together and therefore the work seems to be so long a doing There are various steps in one Ladder and we must neither appoint the Lord which way to walk nor what steps to fetch be not discouraged God works gradually and also he works certainly What course soever Providence steers he will not miss a point of his Divine Compass but at length
serve the Church in general and the members in particular The Angels that are good of which I speak 1 Are beholders of the Affairs of the Church Ephes 3.10 That unto the Principalities in heavenly places might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God The highest Angel in Heaven may go to School and learn of the lowest Saint on Earth For as the Angels teach the Church so the Church teacheth Angels The Disciple here in some sense is greater than the Master The visible Church is the Stage whereon Jesus Christ displaies the fruits of his Redemption 1 Pet. 1.12 And Angels are spectators of the free Grace and wisdom of the Gospel which things the Angels desire to look into Angelis maximè in publico coetu circumsistuntur pii ideo tabernaculi aulâ—a Cherubinis inâ—vâ— foris referta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely to look on but to look into an allusion to the Cherubims which were so placed that they did look down on the Mercy Seat They stretch out their necks they stoop down and pry into the Mysteries of the Gospel It is an honor for the Preachers of the Gospel to hold a multitude of men by the ears but what an honor is it to hold the Angels q. d. by the ears to have those Divine Beings like Doves to flock to the windows to have an Auditory of Angels I dare say that how basely soever the Atheists and Worldlings of this age esteem of the Preachers of the Gospel many of their Congregations are fuller than their purses are of Angels An Evangelical Orator hath an Auditory of Angels 2 Angels are affected with the conversation of sinners and Saints as the Devils rejoyce in the Prophanness and Apostacy so the Angels rejoyce in the Conversion and Perseverance of men The regeneration of a Soul makes the Angels to sing and the Devils to roar Luk. 15.10 There is joy in the presence of Angels over every sinner that repents Angels may say as the angelical Apostle Doctor Angelicus to professors If you persevere you are the Crown and Glory of our Ministration but licentious professors are a grief to Angels not onely to Ministers that are Angels but to Angels that are Ministers 1 Cor. 11.10 When poor sinners run to Christ on earth the glorious Angels spiritually dance in heaven Lachrymae paenit entium sunt vinum Angelorum according to the old observation That the tears of repenting sinners are the wine of Angels As an Army that is broken and hath lost many Ranks and Files of Souldiers long to be recruited and to have their number filled up again So the Angels that stand are glad to see sinners list themselves under Christ to fill up in Heaven the void places of the fallen Angels As Turtle Doves cannot indure filthy stenches nor Bees smoak no more can the good Angels abide to converse with noysom and prophane sinners 3 Angels descend on the Ladder to comfort and support the Saints in times of tentation and trouble Luke 22.43 They strengthened Christ in his Agony and without controversie they exercise the same influence on the Body that they did to the Head in proportion The good Angels are ever removing our hindrances from good and our occasions of evill mitigating our tentations helping us against our enemies delivering us from dangers comforting us in sorrows furthering our good purposes they comforted deserted Hagar Gen. 21. Jacob fearing Gen. 32. Paul fainting Act. 27. the distressed women at the Sepulchre Mat. 28. The good Angels suffer with the Saints suffering rejoyce with them rejoycing incourage them contending and triumph with them crowned against Satan and over his evill Angels Where ever the love of God goes there their love goes they keep those whom God keeps and forsake them whom God forsakes The good Angels are not more terrible to evil men than the evill Angels are terrible to good men and the good Angels are not more terrible to evill men than they are comfortable to good men Angels are fellow-Souldiers with the Saints and fight under the same colours and hearten them in their conflict with Devils onely they march invisibly and upon the higher ground Though Jacob be asleep his Angels are awake 4 Angels descend the Ladder to instruct the Saints As the Angels learn by the Church so the Church learns by Angels God sent his Angel to teach Daniel the mystery of the visions Dan. 8.9 an Angel was sent to instruct John Revel 1.11 The Law was revealed and the Gospel foretold and proclamed by Angels Gal. 1.8 Luk. 1.31 I dare not say Angels are properly in the ministerial Function to preach salvation to the world much less have they power to change the heart Conversion is the joy but not the work of Angels They are called Heb. 1. Ministring spirits Preachers of the Hierarchy indeed Ministers of the Gospel Liturgie so the word signifies commissioned for the good of the heirs of salvation to promote their spiritual good doubtless as well as their temporal good A Saint exceeds an Angel in experimental but an Angel exceeds a Saint in natural Knowledge How sweet to consider in these times of temptation if God should suffer which he will not suffer the world to pull down the Gospel-Ministry by man yet they cannot assault much less overthrow Angelorum induistis nomen induite naturam the Ministry of Angels If Sion should be deprived of her Evangelical Teachers yet none can banish from her the Angels her Teachers 5 The Angels descend the Ladder to suggest holy and good thoughts unto us Notwithstanding it be peculiar to God to enlighten the mind and enliven the heart yet why may not God use the invisible ministry of Angels as wel as the visible ministry of man Or rather Secondly What hinders to deny but that as evil Angels have liberty to suggest evill so why may not good Angels have liberty to suggest good thoughts For first The Devil is said to put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ Joh. 13. And to fill the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit Secondly If Satan 2 Cor. 11.4 be called an Angel of light because he suggesteth good things for evil ends or evill things for good ends certainly then Angels of light good Angels as is observed suggest good Distinctio Angelorum inter assistente ministrantes est vana quod omnes sunt assistentes ministrantes imo ideo assistunt ut ministrent Heb. 1.14 Rivetus for good ends how else could Satan be their Ape Not that it is supposeable that good Angels can change the heart for though it be granted that they do stir up good affections by removing impediments and in driving away the evil spirits and wicked illusions by exciting and stirring up the phantasmes and presenting or representing good thoughts to the mind and lastly by moving the passions in the sensitive appetite inclining the Will to discharge her duty
yet it is the onely Royalty and Prerogative of God so to offer Grace as that man shall neither prove a dissenter or stand Neuter for on the contrary the Devil may flatter but he cannot force man to sin He is but the father begetting the evil heart is the Mother conceiving and the Father can do nothing in this moral sense without the Mother It is remarkable in Scripture that ordinarily when there is mention made of mans sinning there is mention likewise made of the tentations of the Devil but there is seldom or rarely mention made of the good Angels moving men to holiness and the reason probably is God who is the effectual worker of Grace will have the glory of every gracious work himself I intend not the least to disparage the Ministry of the Gospel thus in exalting the Ministration of Angels for the Gospel-Ministry is more suitable if not in some sense more excellent Well may Angels be dry Nurses to preserve and watch and wait on and protect the children of God but to be Fathers to beget them to be wet Nurses to suckle them with the immortal seed and sincere milk of the word belongs to the Gospel ministry Yet the Angels suggest good thoughts The Sadduces imagined that thoughts were Angels I confess it is honorable for human nature to be filled with Divine and Angelical thoughts and it is comfortable to beleeve thoughts are suggested by Angels but we must in no wise think that thoughts are Angels 6 Angels descend the Ladder for the preservation of the Saints Eccl. 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgement and Justice which things are yet to be seen felt and understood plain enough marvel not at the matter as though there were no Providence to Govern the World or Justice to punish disorders for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they Here be three degrees of comparison High Higher Highest and three degrees of Powers There are Kings highest on Earth there are Angels higher than Kings and there is God Father Son and Spirit higher than Angels to whom yet as Executioners of Gods Justice and Ministers of his Providence is committed the care of the Empires of the world and chiefly of the Church Dan. 4.17 Men are not Lords of the World nor of the Church of God Oppression cannot sit so high but Justice will sit above her If oppressors be above the reach of Man yet they are not above the reach of Angels yet if they were there is an higher than the highest and there are higher than they The Devil had learned so much Divinity our of the Psalmes Angeli custodiunt bonos non in praecipit is sed in vâ—is cum non habemus perfectionem Angeli non habeamus praesumtionem Diaboli Matth. 4.6 he spake not without book when he said He shall give his Angels charge over thee to carry thee in their Arms he could not away with the clause following in his waies The Angels are the Life-guard of Saints as Officers of State they attend on and journey with them they hold them in their Arms that they fall not and take them up in their Arms when they are down or as in a Family the greater children delight to carry the Sucklings in their Arms The Church Militant and Triumphant make but one Family and the Angels our Fathers eldest children delight to carry the weak Saints Saints in their minority in their Arms Gods Jacobs on their shoulders and they do not this at their liberty when they please or whether they will or no for they have a strict command for it he hath charged them yet let us not be secure It is a custom for Princes during their infancy to have Guardians to keep and rule for them till they come of age Angels are the Guardians the Protectors of Sion Gods children never go unattended Angeli descendunt à Deo referentes divina nobis ascendunt à nobis referentes nostra Deo Cajet iâ— loc but like great persons they are always in the midst of their Guard they possibly may be contemned and contemptible in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God scorn not to observe no not to serve them We may keep the Sun out of our houses but we cannot keep the Air much less these immaterial and immortal spirits They watch over us when we sleep they attend on us when we awake they are our Companions in Prison and in Exile No walls nor bolts can sever them from our sides Tyrants may forbid men but cannot forbid Angels from out Society That of Theodoret is famous That found so much sweetness on the wrack complained that his Persecutors increased his torment when they took him down for said he all the while I was on the wrack and you venting your malice against me methought there was a youngman in white an Angel stood by me which wiped off the sweat which comfort now I have lost Every Saint is in Joshua the High-Priests case with Satan on one hand and an Angel on the other without this our danger were greater than our defence and we could neither stand nor rise We sin too often and should catch more falls if these Guardians did not uphold us Aâ—geli ministrabant Christo non tanquam misericordes indigenti sed tanquam subditi omnis potenti 7 Angels descend the Ladder to provide for the Saints After Christ had fasted Matth. 4. The Angels ministred unto him questionless to nourish and refresh his outward man being wearyed with fasting some say brought him food they ministred to Christ not as the rich to the poor but as Servants to their Master While we continue within the Precincts of God we are under the protection of Angels Manna in Scripture is called Angels food not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of excellency because it was rare and dainty food but Instrumentally because it was says a Critick ministred by the hands of Angels Rather than the Church shall starve God will send Angels to Market to cater for them Jacobs Ladder is the Stage the Angels are Sions footposts q d. that daily run from Heaven to Earth from Earth to Heaven back again They carry news to Heaven and bring intelligence from Heaven When Sion lyes under Burthens and Oppressions the Angels presently fly and ride post to Heaven and tell God the Father what his children stand in need of and will not depart or descend from the Palace of Heaven on the Ladder without supply and provision If the covetous man could when he was reproached abroad comfort himself in his Counting-house when he came home to see his many lovely Angels to smile on him how may Gods Jacobs refresh themselves in the midst of the scorns and scoffings of the World when they remember and review the Vision of the Angels 8 Angels descend armed to fight for Sion Good Magistrates are
visible Protectors and good Angels are invisible Protectors of Sion under God The King of Glory can never want forces for he hath a Militia of Angels thousands and ten thousands of Angels are his Chariots to ride in These heavenly Hosts are the horse-men and Chariots of Israel It is desperate to provoke a General marching in the head of a puissant and numerous Army The Angels observe their Rank and File they wait but for the word Nec boni Angeli nisi quantum Deus jubet nec mali Angeli injusta faciunt nisi quantum justè ipse permittit Aug. de Trinit l 3. c. 8. and they immediately take wing either for the comfort of Sion or confusion of her Enemies God sent one Brigade of Angels to help Elisha 2 King 6.17 another Brigade to aide Lot against the Sodomites one Squadron to help Jacob against Esau another to help Hezekiah against Zenacherib Gen. 32.24 Isa 37.36 Gods heavenly Forces quarter up and down about all the afflicted Churches in the World An Army of Angels Gen 32.2 was sent to convoy Jacob and therefore he called the place Mahanaim that is two Hosts or Camps either because the Angels appeared in two Bands and so made as it were a guard for Jacob to pass between them or because the great Angelical and Royal Army quartered and marched with Jacobs little Army and so two confederate Armies appeared in the field together so say Rivet and Caryl Our strongest Militia is either of Angels that are Spirits or of Angelical Spirits Psal 88.17 Angels Ezek 1. have the face of a Man to signifie their knowledge Wings to signifie their swiftness they cannot pass from one place to another in a moment because all motion is from one term to another term by a middle Angelus est nomen officii no◠naturae ex eo quod est spiritus est ex eo quod agit Angelus est Idem in Psa 111 yet Psal 10.4 they are compared to a flame of fire The Cherubims have wings on their feet which is strange they cannot foot it fast enough and therefore must speed their Race with flight Thirdly They represent an Ox to signifie their obedience to God Hence we pray Let thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven that is freely as the Angels obey God without reluctancy And fourthly they are compared to a Lyon for their strength One Angel killed an hundred fourscore and five thousand in one night 2 King 19.35 One Angel wants neither hands nor weapons to rout and ruin an whole Army The good Angels stopped the Lyons mouths when Daniel was shut up in the Den restrained by Gods allowance the force of the fire when the three children were cast into the furnace The Angel of the Lord encamps about Sion Psal 34.7 That is the Angels for he speaks of an Host and the Criticks observe that in the Hebrew one is put for a multitude as the inhabitant for the inhabitants 2 Chron. 11.4 Quail for Quails Psa 105.33 40. When Christ is set forth by the name of an Angel it is in Scripture with some additions as the Angel of the Covenant and when you read of the Angel of the Lord it is meant of Christ unless there be some contradictions of that interpretation in the context as is apprehended Angels are Sions Centinels at home and File-leaders abroad As there are good men against evill so there are for Sion Angels against Angels Rev. 12.7 The Ethiopians supposed that Angels attended on Judicatories and therefore were accustomed to leave twelve Chairs empty in the Judgement place which they say were the Seats of Angels When Sion is in distress Faith and Prayer is able to press the Angels and to bring them into the batlet but they are Voluntiers not Mercenaries The Stars fought against Sisera that is say some the Angels in the Stars as in their War-Chariots as if the Angels according to the odd old proverb of Intelligences did inform the Stars but they are heavenly wide as one saith In the first of Zechary vers 8. the Mirtle trees in the bottom signifie the low estate of the Church or the Church in a low estate The divers coloured Horses were Angels appointed for divers Offices says Junius the red Horses for Judgement the white for Mercy the speckled for mixt actions being sent out at once to help Sion Non tribuere Angelis audeo quod forte non possunt nec debeo derogare quod possunt and oppose her Enemies An Angel smote bloody Herod two Angels defeated Zenacheribs Host and Angels by name if not by nature saith Mr. Caryl poure out the seven Vials of Gods wrath in the Revelation In Luke they are called the Host of Heaven These Armies are all of one mind no difference of Colours though possibly different Orders yet no difference in their Orders They on the Ladder ascend and descend they give place one to another there is no justling between them The Rabbies suppose on what ground I am careless of inquiring four Angels to be the Presidents of the four quarters of the World Michael of the East Raphael of the West Gabriel of the North and Uriel of the South The Barbarians had once taken Constantinople but that in the night season they were frighted by the appearance of armed Angels Socrat. l. 6. c. 6. Wherefore as Alexander the Great slept soundly though the enemy was at hand and being asked the reason of such security replied that Antipater his Captain was awake so may the Saints sleep in peace in these stormy times because they have Dan. 4. Guirin vigilantes the watchful ones about them Solomon Cant. 3.7 had sixty valiant men all with swords to defend him for fear of the night but the Saints are incompassed with Guards of Angels and as Elisha said 2 King 6. to his fearful Servant there are more with us than against us we need not regard the Malicia of Devils for we have the Militia of Angels This is spoken in subordination to Gods presence who useth them not as Princes that need their Guards but for the glory of his Majesty and for the support of our weakness but to testifie his great love to us in imploying such honorable creatures for our service and to maintain amity and correspondency between Saints and Angels untill they both walk arm in arm in Heaven 9 Angels attend on the Saints at their deaths Angels are the Protectors of Sion while they live and their Porters when they die They are as careful of the Saints as Nurses of their Babes God puts his children when they are born out to them to tender and tutor and at their death they bring them home to him again Lazarus Luk. 16. was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosom It is probable the Devils attend on dying men if possibly to tempt them to despair the less time they have to reign the more they rage and therefore good Angels attend too to
sheep Saint and Saint Formerly we had more fire than light but the Lord knows now we have more light than fire more Knowledge than Love Every man pretends to be of the houshold of Faith Si essemus inseparabiles essemus insuperabiles but few are of the Family of Love while we contend for an ounce of Truth we lose a pound of Love Not onely for the Prophaneness and Errors but for the Divisions of England there are great thoughts of heart How far are those from one another that yet I hope are nigh to God How many that once lay in one anothers Bosoms now can hardly indure to stand in one anothers sight those that are Members of the same Body do carry themselves as if they were of different worlds How sad is it to see that many that prayed formerly one with and one for another now should pray one against another How is it said Zanchy that those speaking of the Lutherans that profess to eat the very body of Christ that milde and meek Jesus should bee so bitter against the Members of the same body O that we should agree in so much and differ for so little as in some things we do Maxima pars studiorum est studium partium Oh that though we cannot conclude all our Controversies yet we could bury up all our Contentions how long shall the greatest part of our studies be the study of parts How shall I Beleeve and Our Father be reconciled How shall those that are of different Creeds be of one Pater Noster if the division of tongues hindred the building of Babel how shall not the division of hearts hinder the building of the New Jerusalem While we have been contending about the windows we have almost lost the foundation of the Church while we have controverted for the well-being In veste fit varietas non scissura we have even lost the being of Religion in England Many of our differences are petty as that between one that was for Martin and another that was for Luther as if two should quarrel who should first enter in at the gate of Venice when neither possibly may ever come thither But further now our differences are so great that unless the Lord prevent while we contend who shall go up against Babilon we are like to go back to Babel and while we think to pull down a litteral we shall set up unaware a spiritual Antichrist But the time is a coming when those that have but one Heaven shall have one heart when they that have but one work shall have but one shoulder Zech. 3.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys The falling out of lovers shall then indeed prove the renewing of love The Lyon shall ly down with the Lamb and a little childe shall lead them Isa 11.6 Not that ever there shall be a composition made between Christ and Belial for that quarrel is of Five thousand years standing and shall be maintained to the end of the world Even now amongst most of the Saints there is a shadow of this future concordance as when a King is coming to Town one crys he comes this way another crys he comes that way at this time at that time they all go out to meet him and though they differ about the particulars yet they all expect the coming of the King Quae conveniunt in aliquo tertio conveniunt inter se and resolve to entertain him As at Athens when a Governor was to be chosen in the several Votes of the City one cryed up this man another that man but the second man still was Themistocles for such a man and Themistocles So now one crys O I am for Presbytery another I am for Independency another I am for dipping and for Christ all amongst these that are faithful centre in Christ But how glorious will it be to see all Gods children of one mind Uniones oriuntur ex mari sed magis pendent è coelo which will be when the Father comes into the Family to hear it said at last as it was said at first see how the Christians love one another Fifthly From this Ladder we may forsee the increase of righteousness Many hitherto in the world that should have been the Peace are the Troublers of a Nation those that should be Shepheards are Wolves against Sion How do the publick Enemys of Sion make the tears of the poor their wine the groans of the needy their musick Vt rei innocentes pereant siaut nocentes judices that paint the walls of the House and pluck up the foundation that beautifie their Kingdoms with Peace but never think of building of them with Religion That turn Judgement into Wormwood by delay and Righteousness into Hemlock by severity When a man fails in his Estate we say he breaks there are many broken men some broken in their Credit others broken in their Consciences but there are others that do not onely break by carelesness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but are broken by cruelty It is a great sin to take away the cloaths from a poor man but a greater to flea off his skin but there are some that rend the flesh and chop the bones for the sweetness and marrow they think to find in them Si libet licet Mic 3.2 Job 19.20 Some rob under pretence of Law others rob in the open field and think that what is got by might is got by right according to the antient Problem Jus vis apices parvo discrimine distant Jus nunc mundus habet vim quia semper habet Great Thieves have formerly worn chains of gold while little Thieves have lain stockt in chains of iron Robbin Hood was called an honest Thief because he would never rob the poor but there are few such honest Thieves instead of taking off have laid on oppression and instead of breaking yoaks have broken backs Oppressors Gen. 10.8 are called Hunters the poor are their Game Oppressions their toyles and nets mighty Oppressors are mighty Hunters In Zephanies time Oppressors were called Wolves Justitia non datur nisi vendatur Zeph. 3.3 but then they were evening Wolves but now those that are Oppressors are day Wolves Oppressors under the light of the Gospel They eate my people saith God as bread Psal 14.4 These are Man-eaters nay worse for among the Man eaters the living eat the dead but among Oppressors the dead eat the living But Jacob from this Ladder may see the new Heavens and new Earth a building wherein righteousness shall dwel If new Heavens then certainly new Suns and new Stars in a political sense new Magistrates or if you will Justitia non venit nisi provenit Magistrates with new hearts Isa 5.17 If any deridingly ask with the Epicure When shall we see this Structure where are the Carpenters whence shall come the Timber Let such remember there is no work since the Creation of the World greater
rowles down the hill faster if tumbled down especially if by a strong hand the hand of an Angel Rev. 18.21 God will make bare his arm which fears neither blows nor blood for it hath a bone in it whereas mans arm is but the arm of flesh and likewise he will overthrow her compleately Vide totum lauda totum God never rested in the Creation till he hath finished all know that God will be as perfect in the works of Providence as in the works of Creation Her ruin shall as certainly be effected as it is determined The Decrees of God know no futurity time to come is the tense of mans Grammer Babylon is fallen Babylon is fallen Sion is more than a Conqueror Rom. 8. Shee overcomes by Faith before shee comes into the field she conquers before she conquers The day of Antichrist is almost at an evening the glass of Babylon is well nigh run the number of her Months are even expired Let all the Physitians in the world apply their Plaisters and afford their Cordials it is in vain her disease is mortal and her blood is now cold in her veins If Providence have not Armys on Earth it will have Armies in Heaven against her there is no halt to be made or if there be an halt in our sense there is no retreat to be beaten one Alarm after another shall be given till she be taken Mended or ended is here an useless Proverb But may some say who shall do this Deus si non legat emet milites si non inveniat faciet viam the Kings of the Earth are yet her Liege Subjects generally and will Satan cast out Satan and the sight of Rome is infectious and some think opposing Babylon in this age is much like Sauls sending Messengers to take David who in the way fell a prophecying 1 Sam. 19.20 How many have gone up to oppose Babylon and have returned her brats It is not setting Rome on fire will burn down Babylon yet the Lord will use military means Antichrist reigns properly in the Understandings and Consciences of men and it is far easier to kill the body than wound the soul of Antichrist therefore God will destroy her especially How with what Artillery with what Ammunition Even by the Spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his comming 2 Thes 2.8 The darkness of Popery cannot abide the Gospel Sun-shine Antichrist hath plaid his part on the Stage the Vizards are now a pulling off and the Stage it self a pulling down Rev. 18.21 Must is as we say for the King now Christ is King and he must reign 1 Cor. 15.24 Caesar non patitur priorem nec Pompeius patrem When Darius would have shared his Kingdom with Alexander no said the Conqueror The Heavens cannot hold two Suns The Devil at length possibly when he sees the Kingdom of Christ in holiness to be cried up and his own Kingdom to be cried down will gladly divide and part stakes with Christ but Christ will be King over all or not King at all The Throne of the Gospel and the Spouses bed cannot endure a Competitor an Equal much less a Superior Babylon now in the dark may for a while play the Rex but Christ certainly the Sun shining more clearly will be King It is reported that Nero viewed the flames of Rome on his Tower through an Emerauld The Saints through Faith may take a delightsome prospect of the ruin of Babylon Let the Saints of the most high lift up their heads for ere many glasses of Providence are run out though the Sun shall be cloathed with sackcloth and the Moon turned into blood and the Stars fall from the Heavens yet their redemption draws nigh The Eighth Prospect from this Ladder is The large extent and duration of Christs Kingdom in the World 1 The large extent of his Kingdom The Kingdom of Christ now is not much larger than a while after the Apostles daies as Mr. Mede observes for the West Indians are under force and constraint The World says Brerewood may be divided into Thirty parts whereof Heathenism contains Nineteen Turcism Six and Christianity but Five So that yet Christ is far from being universal Lord and Soveraign or having a Name above all Names which not onely relateth to the excellency of his Name above other names and so Jesus Christ is a more glorious Name than Grand Seigneur or Augustus Caesar but also in respect of visible honor above other names hitherto who but the Beast The Titles and Arms of Kings and Emperors have carried the day Most Excellent Most Illustrious but hereafter who shall be like unto Christ The constant stile of Universality of all Kingdoms all Tongues and Nations imply that yet Christ hath not the compleat possession of what he hath purchased Psa 22.27 Isa 1. Mal. 1.11 It is desperate ambition for any man to call himself Rex Catholicus Universal King Christ and not any man but Christ rather and the Devil divide the whole World They say the Spanyard hath for his Armes the Sun rising and setting on his Shield but Christs glory must eclipse his glory Christ will then onely be Canonical and Catholick King First Christ shall be above all Kingdoms and then he shall put down all Kingdoms 1 Cor. 15.24 Some think what is done in England is done all the world over when we are but a spot of Christs Kingdom though I hope a Garden-spot the Gospel was calculated for a larger Meridian Rev. 19.16 he shall be King of Kings and Lord of Lords The seventh Angel sounded and there were great voyces in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ Rev. 11.15 Now when had Christ this glory First It hath no relation to the Kingdom of his divine Nature for that he had coequally alwaies with the Father Secondly Neither hath it relation to the Purchase or Title simply that Christ had to these Kingdoms in his Ascension and Intercession when I confess he first had seizen of them But Thirdly It must have relation to the actual subjection of the Kingdoms of the world to Christ and his actual Exaltation above them for it is spoken Prophetically and for the time to come Now this shall be accomplished when the Prince of the Air is conquered and bound up and cast down to the earth Rev. 12.9 Now Satan rules principally and more visibly then Christ shall appear in the Clouds and he shall uncrown Satan and sit down in his Throne and then the Kingdom of Christ shall be more visible and observable in the world than the Kingdom of Satan Satan indeed was legally cast out of his Kingdom in the Resurrection of Christ Joh. 16.11 but he must also actually and more fully be cast out when Christ shall appear the second time for salvation As two Buckets in a Well while the one comes up the other goes down So as while Christ hath been down
conning The Lord now takes the Chair and craves audience God hath long seen what man can do oh that men would hearken to what God can say Foolish man hath been speaking great words this is the way for our establishment or none no that 's the way says another But the wise God will speak great things what God will speak will be worth the hearing and it is manners to give God leave to speak in his Providences Men love to hear themselves speak and to see themselves act though neither be to any purpose They say there is a sweet musick in the Sphears of the Heavens Sure I am though Providences seem cross and to clash yet there is a sweet order among and melody in them but that we cannot perceive them because our eies and ears are filled with the noyse and news of the world Jicere miserè non potest qui spem in Deum jacit Man goes about often to mend one rent and makes two Every one will be trying conclusions on the body of poor Sion but as he said Many Phisicians have killed the King So I may say many Empericks have almost destroyed Sion Most are getting great Lands and Livings but how few possess their souls in patience Oh that we could in this stormy age enter into our Chambers let God bolt the door and rock the Cradle and we shall sleep sweetly The Attributes and Promises of God are our Chambers I have heard of an Emperor that when he was disturbed with passion was wont to lock himself in his Closet and never to come out till his spirit was composed Disturbances in our minds are quickly raised like evill spirits but hardly quelled There are two difficult but needfull dutys in this dirty and distracting age To sweep our own doors and to shut our doors about us Oh that we could look to our Duty Ego in hac fabula partes meas peragaâ—n viderit de exitu ipse choragus Christus Eras Epi. and leave the event to God! If we did look to our Tackling the Pilot would look to the Helm God hath a greater venture of glory in the Churches welfare than man can have onely let the Jonahses be cast over-board and then let the Mariners fear no storm Be still and know that I am God If you will not beleeve you shall not be established was good Divinity of old Remember Untill the World can shake God off the top of the Ladder the Jacobs of God shall not be disturbed in their rest at the bottom And that as there is a necessity to yeeld to Gods will because it cannot be resisted so there is great equity therein because it cannot be bettered The Bed was Earth the raised Pillow stones Whereon poor Jacob rests his head his bones Heaven was his Canopy the shades of night Were his drawn Curtains to exclude the light Poor state for Jacobs Heir it seems to me His Cattle found as soft a Bed as he Yet God appeared there 's his joy his Crown God is not always seen in Beds of Down Oh! if that God shall please to make my Bed I care not where I rest my bones and head With thee my wants can never prove extream With Jacobs Pillow give me Jacobs Dream Fourthly and lastly While others climb in the world climb you Jacobs Ladder and there are three artificial wayes in a spiritual sense for climbing The first way is with Jacob to lye flat at the foot of the Ladder God usually cast his Prophets into asleep and then revealed his Oracles to them Non nisi iu culmine humilitatis constituitur cognitio veritatis Bern. in loc Jacob was a plain man and he saw God says the Text mark it he saw God in his goods in his Wives these goods the Lords gave me he saw God in Esau and yet there was as little of God in Esau as could be I saw thy face as the face of God he saw his Father in his Brother They say Astrologers when they would take a view of the Planets and Orbes of the Heavens they lay themselves flat on their backs that nothing may hinder their contemplation lay your selves flat on your backs and you cannot chuse but have a sight of Heaven Onely they that are like Jacob see the Ladder as Jacob did Gospel simplicity hath the sweetest view of Gospel Mysteries Jacob had many Visions before but did not see it at last he dreamed and behold a Ladder Secondly Descend if you would ascend Jacobs Ladder A Paradox you will say but the truth is he that exalts himself God will debase he that lifts himself up goes further from God and he that humbles himself comes nigher to God The Apostle Phil. 3.20 ascends gloriously Our conversation is in Heaven we are men of another will men of another world But how came the Apostle so high He had it seems been climbing a wrong Ladder before in Pharisaism Circumcised the eighth day an Hebrew of the Hebrews he reckons seven steps but comes down from them all to meet with Christ vers 7. Those things that were gain to me I account loss for Christ Christ for my mony says Paul there he descends And Rom. 7. we have the Apostle descending again O wretched man that I am I an Apostle Descende in infernum vivens ne descendas moriens I a Professor none so proud none so prophane as Paul he goes even to Hell gates Who shall deliver me but presently he ascends and mounts up as it were on the top of Jacobs Ladder Blessed be God through Jesus Christ who hath given us the victory So David What am I or my Fathers house my sins are continually before me and immediately like a ransomed prisoner sings and warbles out in the Psalms Praise the Lord all that is within me praise the Lord. Some say that when the Apostle Act. 9. was cast down and lay in blindness for a time that then he had the sight of Heaven 2 Cor. 12 1â— Oh how high is God in an humble heart and how high is an humble man in the the Lords thoughts They say water ascends no higher than it descends and surely In experience to many souls the gate of Hell is the nighest way to the Palace of Heaven Pride goes before destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the humble the Lord wil teach prefer Self-abasement is the next step to Joy and Assurance We can sooner see Stars in the water than water in the Stars Many descend by ascending but the best way is to ascend by descending The best way to see the glory of the Lord is to fall down before God on our faces We can never see our own glory and Gods glory together The best way to improve some talents is to lay them up Moses had more glory by his veil than by his face Thirdly Stand not still on Gods Ladder Not to go forward is to go backward better never to have begun to climb than
me the first rudiments of Christianity not so much how to spell the Name of God or Christ as how to spel out the Name of God in Christ. What cause have I to bless the Lord that you instructed mee how to beleeve before I was tempted to doubt you knew that I came so full of poison into the world and therefore you could not too soon administer physick to expel it you looked on Original sin as like a common fire in a Town in my soul and you searched not so much how it came as how to quench it you did not prevent but prepare a way for the workings of the Spirit How happy was I that you did not with some judge it prejudicial to the guidance of the Spirit to be indoctrinated in a form of Divine Knowledge I remember I have read somewhere that Luther when he heard how that little children prayed against the Turk said In the name of the Lord let them go on for as they want the knowledge of men so they want the malice of men and God may hear them I must acknowledge I lived long in the world before I knew what it was to die to the world and many years had the profession of Religion before I was acquainted with the experience yet I bless God even then when I had not Saving Grace for my own Salvation that I had any Restraining Grace for the good of others How did you pray for me when I was not able to pray for my self your heart was tender when mine was hard my prayers now are to the Lord that though I yet carry a body of sin about me and in my own sense have been often a sinking that yet you would praise God with me that a Nephew of so many prayers hath not perished indeed Your condition now calls for my counsel but I will not undertake to teach my Teacher onely humbly telling you what once with delight you taught me out of that School of Wisdom Pro. 3.11 Despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his correction What though you have been cast down will you conclude that you are cast away when your God hath on purpose cast you down that he might not cast you away You know that Gods fish thrive best in salt waters that the Walnut-tree is most fruitful when it is most beaten that David was never so tender as when he was hunted as a Partridge and Jonah never so watchful as when he was alive in his Sepulchre in the Whales belly It is true you are Husbandless but yet not Fatherless my once dear Uncle is now singing out the praises of the Lamb in the new Jerusalem the singleness and sincerity of his Light Love and Life did tell his acquaintance he was a Traveller thither now you dare not mourn because he rejoyceth and can you mourn while he rejoyceth Oh! that you would rather consider what a comfort you once had than what a comfort you now want rather to meditate of your going to him than grievingly to think of his going from you My dear Aunt let me use that phrase that was spoken to a friend on such an occasion You know well that you have need of his joy but he hath no need of your tears Your Husband was also your Brother and if that maxim be true that the union of Grace is stronger than the union of Nature then I am perswaded you mourn not so much for the loss of an Husband as of a Brother in Christ yet though the stream be cut off you have the Fountain I would speak more of this but I shall forbear lest while I go about quite to extinguish I should unawares revive the grief chew not this Pill but swallow it whole and it will not prove so bitter I beleeve you are more perplexed with the publick evils of Sion But in this you may consider the Lord wounds that he may not kill and overcasteth the face of his Church with a cloud that the Sun of Righteousness may at length shine out the more clearly and that those storms and waves are happy that shall drive the Ark nigher to her Harbor It is certain All things shall work together for their good that love God It is your happiness your comfort lies not in the lives of others but in your own experience that while others tack about after every wind of Doctrine you still steer your course according to the compass of the Scriptures that while some think it zeal to fall in love with every fond opinion that presents it self on the Stage of the world that you have chosen your Love and love your choyce in the Practice of Piety mortification and conformity unto God That while others talk much of God that your study is rather how to speak with God himself than of God to others That while they love to gaze on the Infirmities of others onely that you love rather to weep over your own sins in your Closset than to cry out against the sins of others in the Market place but herein you know you are not justified and I trust you would much rejoyce that you had something more you might account nothing for Christ Go on dear Aunt Put on the whole Armor of God that when you have withstood you may stand and when you have stood it out on earth you may sit down in a Throne in Glory Perseverance is the Crown of Grace and Heaven is the Crown of Perseverance You could not mourn as the Martyr said for the absence of the Bridegroom if you did not belong to the Bridegrooms Chamber Ride on in Faith though the way may be the dirtier the nigher you come to your journeys end The Sun shines most amiably towards its descent eye not the stream through which you wade but the firm Land to which you go Look not on your Race so much as on your Crown your storms and Tempests Doubts and Fears as your Port and Harbor Here is your Seed-time hereafter is your Harvest Here is your Hell of Difficulties and Desertion hereafter is your Heaven of Light and Peace You shall not alwaies climb with the Angel but one day stand on the top of the Ladder with the Lord You shall not alwayes wrestle with Jacob the Day will ere long break and then farewel hardness of Heart and temptations to Despaire and mourning for Sin and doubting of Gods Love for ever When you shall lodge in the Arms of your Physician then no more complaint of your wounds When you shall walk in white with a Crown on your head in Heaven you shall not want the gracious company of an Husband as a fellow Member of Christ to comfort or as a Preacher to instruct you There are no tears falling down the Spouses Cheeks in glory Comfort your self with these things that while you wait with Hannah for the Consolation of Israel you may at length when death shall knock at your door which cannot probably be
conquered as Jacob for all his heart was willing to conquer Jacob prevails over God before he prevails over man Let Naturalists recal what they express Before you do the greater do the less * Jacob Less than the least of all is here that can Prevail with God before he conquers man Secondly Jacob prevailed When not before but after he was lame as the Apostle saith so might Jacob say when I am weak then am I strong It is a true experience in the wrestling School of Christ when a man is strongest he is weakest and when he is weakest he is strongest Jacob here made the Angel fall when he was scarce able to stand and stood it out though his Joynts were out of joynt yet still he wrestles and the more lame he was the more reason he had to hold Oh happy loss of Jacob he lost a joynt and wone a Blessing he was blessed because he would rather halt than leave ere he was blessed You see prayer can do more than all the Witches in the world they can onely bridle the Devil but this bridles or bindes God Secondly Jacob prevails politically as well as powerfully he treats with the Angel and proffers to give him fair quarter Articles and Propositions pass between them Let me go who crys so Jacob or the Angel the Angel which the Lord so speaketh not as though he could not have departed without Jacobs leave but sheweth therein how much he esteemed of his Servant ascribing so much to his Prayers as though they had bound him Prayer is the Servant of God and be it spoken with reverence God is sometimes at the service of prayer command ye me concerning the works of my hands as if the Lord should say Prayer I am your Servant the prayer of the righteous avails much with God if it be fervent it holds Christ in the Galleries and the Angel on the ground and will not let go without a blessing As he that is a beleever hath all because he hath God that is all so he that is a Jacob can do all things in a sense because he hath conquered him that can do all things I and him that is all things Ligatum habent sancti Dominum ut non puniat nisi permiserint ipsi Exo. 32.10 No Grace hath done so much as Prayer for all Graces have had their power from Prayer in Christ wherefore prayer hath done as many exploits as all the Graces besides And that which is more than all this if more can be Prayer overcomes God not onely when he is well pleased as he was with Jacob when any child may deal with him but also when he was displeased as he was with the Israelites when no man could come near him when his wrath burned as fire when he thundered from Heaven and clove the rocks asunder when the Sea and Land was put into a trembling and shaking yet when Moses entred into the gap all this Omnipotent Power came to nothing God though never so angry was not able to enter on the breach but prayer got the victory over him Let me alone saith God to Moses Exo. 32.10 that I may consume this Nation Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus and I will make of thee a mighty people God seems to hire Moses to be silent as if he should have said Moses leave off thy praying as the Chaldee hath it though Israel perish yet thou shalt prosper thou shalt not be a loser by it I le make of thee a mighty people Let me alone who would look for such a word from God to man Let me alone As yet Moses had said nothing before he opens his mouth God prevents his importunity as foreseeing that holy violence that the request of Moses would have offered to him Moses stood trembling before the Majesty of his Maker and yet hears him say Let me alone The Mercy of God hath as it were obliged his Power to the Faith of man and by Praye the hands of the Almighty are bound to the Peace when he hath a quarrel with his people the Servants prayers hinder the Lords power Servi preces Domini potentiam impediebant as one sweetly And if Moses will the Almighty though he may be angry with yet he cannot strike or do execution on Israel Prayer's like a vapor fum'd from th' earth that flies To th'gates of Heaven and never rots i' th' Skies If Faith and it be joyn'd it will obtain And melt into a first and latter rain If Faith forsake her and they part asunder It falls in Thunder-bolts at least in thunder Saints consider the power of Prayer God forbad Moses to pray and yet he obtained what he prayed for and diverted him from those Judgements he threatned If Moses prevailed against a command how cannot we but prevail when we have a promise if Moses prevailed when God bade him not to pray we shall certainly prevail when God bids us to pray Ask and ye shall have it is but ask and have Let me go says God here to Jacob one would think that should rather be the speech of Jacob to God Let me go is the Angel in earnest surely the Angel was as willing to bless as he was to combate with Jacob though God did not directly bid him strive yet he secretly insinuated that if he would hold fast he should have the blessing Like as a Father being angry makes as if he would go from his Son and saith to one Quid est servo dicere dimitte me nisi deprecandi ansum prabere standing by let me go meaning the contrary that he should not let him go but mediate for his Son Let me alone the Lord speaks as one in bed and very sleepy as if she should say do not trouble me I am desirous to take my rest so the Lord seems to say now Sion let me alone pray not for the conversion of souls pray no more for the administration of righteousness trouble me no more with your prayers he that is unclean let him be unclean still and he that is unjust let him be unjust still But O Lord Shall we indeed give over praying shall we cease petitioning no as Elijah in an holy sense said cry aloud so pray aloud to God the more willing God seems to take his rest the more willing indeed he is to be troubled and the greater silence he keeps the more importunate he is with us that we should be importunate to awaken him Let me go that is let me not go Let me alone that is let me not alone Or as if God should say Sinners will you let me alone can you be content to let your God go before he bless you Deus non dat Jacobo nisi petenti ne det non accipienti Let me go for the day breaks not as though the Angel was to go to the rest of the blessed company of Angels to sing their morning Hymne to God as the Hebrews imagine for
of a Jacobine He dwelleth in the secret of the most High they must conquer God before they conquer him they may strike at but they can never distress Sion till they q.d. strike thorow God Sion though she be not properly invulnerable yet she is invincible Qui Jacobum impetit Deum petit Wherefore now let Jacob wrestle again and reason with his God Humbly ask the Lord Whether he can see his Sion even a shipwracking Preces electorum sunt Deo coctoquia and yet not throw over a Plank to her his children a swouning and fainting under their temptations and not give them a Cordial his Spouse a dying and not once labor to visit her with Salvation Can the Shepheard be content to see the Wolves to worry his tender Flock and the Father love to behold his children to hate one another Dearest Lord is not thy Glory dearer to thee than it can be to thy Spouse and shall she be sollicitous and wilt thou seem not so to provide against thy dishonor Is the Crown of the Lord glistering enough on his head in the eyes of the Woâ—ld Hath our Jesus the purchase and full procurement of his blood Hast thou left thy compassions to as well as the infirmities of thy Body behind thee on earth Is our Joseph in Heaven where there are Barn-fulls of Glory and Provision enough and shall thy Brethren starve for want of Crums of Comfort from thy Table Are thine Affections altered with thy condition and doth the Lord trample under his feet his children while he is now in his glory whom he counted as the apple of his eye in the days of his sufferings Shall we give over praying for the opening the blinde eye and softning the hard heart Shall we fall asleep and urge thee no more Shall we pull our hands from thy Plow and our necks from thy Yoke will the Lord dispense with our lukewarmness and wink at our Apostacy Is it not thy grief to see thy Spirit so grieved to see such noysom weeds and errors to grow in thy Garden which thou so much regardest And so much backsliding after the profession of so much Reformation Shall wee see Sion bleed to death and never ask balm more Hath not the Lord said His Mountain shall be set on the top of all Mountains and that Jerusalem shall be made the joy of many Generations Is not this the hand of the Lord and his own broad Seal How long doth thy Charriot wheels stay Cui magis de Deo quam Deo credam Hath our Lord Jesus bled to death for his Saints and will he now suffer them to bleed to death Doth he love to see the face of his Church beautiful and will he never wipe off the tears of blood that yet are trickling down her cheeks Is the Lord angry at the Prayers of his people and is he not angry at the Blasphemies of his Enemies Art thou offended because we pray for Sion and wilt thou not be offended if we should not pray Is it not yet dark enough that yet the day doth not dawn because it is said at evening time it shall be light and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom commeth How many steps more will the Lord fetch before hee turn about and shew us his face Have we already the first fruits and shall we never have the Harvest Hath Sion often made Land and said now we are come to our Harbor and Rest and shall we be driven into the tempestuous Ocean again Is not our dross separated from our gold that yet we are not taken out of the Furnace Are we not yet holy enough that we are not delivered or are we not yet ripe enough in sin that we are not perfectly destroyed Will the Lord comfort us mourning or enliven us dying or raise us when buried and in our graves O Lord Though thou dishonorest thy people yet wilt thou disgrace the Throne of thy glory Will not the Adversary say Surely if God in love had begun thus to build he would have gone on to finish Though we are trampled under feet must thy Christ be trampled under feet Though his Body hath deserved to sit on Dunghils and lye in fetters of iron yet our Head hath merited to sit on a Throne and to have the liberty of his Spirit in the world Though our prayers are rejected yet wilt thou not fulfill thine own Promises we humbly confess thou hast a royal Prerogative to save and to destroy but O Lord art thou not bound in Covenant to set up thy Son and if thou makest not hast for his glory will not the world be ready to say the Lord is gone back of his word Is it onely Free Grace and Mercy and not also Justice and Righteousness for our God to justifie condemned sinners and to sanctifie prophane Conversations and to carry on the building of the New Jerusalem to its desired perfection Doth the Lord seem to cast us off to see whether we wil indeed cast him off or hide himself to see whether we will earnestly seek after him Preces fundimus coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus Because his smiles have not caused us to love him will he now frown on us to make us to fear him are the golden days of his spiritual presence gone and not to come as we hoped they were that we should rather put mourning on our backs than take Harps into our hands Because England hath been perfidious and perjurious to God will God now break his Covenant of Faithfulness with England Shall the unfaithâ—ulness of man make God unfaithful Did the Lord of old wait to be gracious and will he now wait till we are gracious Was the Lord wont to be found of those that sought him not and will he not be now found of those that seek him Wilt thou not pardon our Hypocrisie Pride Passions and Prophaneness till we repent and wilt thou not graciously give us an heart to repent of those evils Shall the new Heavens and new Earth never be built till we are fit Inhabitants And shall disconsolate Sion never be ransomed from her spiritual slaveries and distractions till they are worthy to be ransomed Is not the price of her Redemption already paid and will the Lord seem to require the debt again O Lord are we so far gone from thine house like Prodigals that either we want an heart to return or an hope if we return that our Father will accept of us Art not thou the God of Peace Is not thy Son the Son of Peace thy Spirit the Spirit of Peace thy Gospel the Gospel of Peace and shall not thy Children be Children of Peace is Christ in one of his followers against Christ in another is Christ divided Blessed Father how shall the world know we are thy Children if we have not thy Image thy Servants if we wear not thy Livery Will the World be convinced by our Divisions