governe them and so shall Gods gifts be snares plagues and no gifts If God give a fatherly power to a father to kill all his children and if a State give to their Generall a military power to fell and destroy all his Souldiers so as neither Sonnes nor Souldiers may defend themselves then the fatherly power should be of its owne nature a plague to the Sonnes If any say the Prince the Father because they feare God will not put forth in acts such a power I answer thankes to the Princes goodnesse for that but no thankes to his office and power God gave him the Sword as a Prince if he doe not draw that royall Sword to drink bloud we cannot impute the cause to the nature of the royall gift or intention of God the giver but to the goodnesse of a man which must be bad divinite Doct. 2. So much as Darius hath of God or any good Ruler so far is his spirit for the publick He heareth something of the God of Daniel now then he hath a publick spirit to send something of God to all nations people and languages v. 25. Though there bee nothing to prove that the man had saving grace yet the generall holdeth so much of God as any hath in so farre is he for the publick 1. Because grace is a publicke beame of God and a branch of Gods goodnesse and so of a spreading nature and the better things be the more publicke they are the Sunne is better then a Candle God best of all because every thing that hath beeing hath something of God and Christ best of all because he is the Saviour of many and Col. 1. 20. hath reconciled all things in heaven and earth to himselfe 2. Graces end is the most publick end of the world even Gods glory for all things are for God Rom. 11. 36. Prov. 16. 4. mens private ends are sinfull ends 3. The more gracious men be the more publick they are David will not be David alone in praising God but Psal. 148. he wil have a world in with him even Angels Sun Moone Stars Heaven of Heavens Dragons deeps fire hail snow vapour stormy winde mountains trees beasts creeping things fowles Kings Judges old and young to hold up the song Moses Paul would lay out in ransome their part of heaven to redeeme Gods glory and salvation to the Lords Church the Martyrs desired that their pain torment might praise and exalt God How broad how catholicke and publicke was his spirit who said 1 Cor. 9 19. Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe servant unto all that I might gaine the more 20. And unto the Iews I became as a Iew that I might gain the Iewes to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law 21. To them that are without the Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law 22. To the weake became I as weake I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some A publike spirit is not himselfe he is made a Jew a Gentile a weake man not a weak man he is made Law and Gospel he is made a bridge over a River that the Church may goe over him drie he complyeth with all who but lend out halfe a looke to Christ and he is in a complement of grace a servant to all 2 Corinth 4. 5. We preach not our selves except wee preach our owne sinnes our owne condemnation by nature and that wee under-preach all eminencie in our selves but our selves your servants for Christs sake yea your servants servants for Christ See the Complement of a publicke heart of one who is willing to stoope and put his head and haire under the feet of the Church and of the poorest and most despised passenger who maketh out for heaven Vse Then Grace maketh men rich Parliament men and there is a wide difference betwixt a publicke man and a publicke spirit all Parliament men are publicke men but they are not all publike spirits else so many of them would not have deserted the publicke and runne away from Christs Colours to seeke their owne private Idols Men void of grace make an Idol of themselves every wicked man is wholly himselfe and wholly his owne Phil. 2. 21. They all seeke their owne not the things of Jesus Christ Hee who is for the Bridegroome cannot bee against the Bride nor against the Common-wealth he who is a Statesman of heaven and knoweth savingly the fundamentall Lawes of Jesus Christ the power and prerogative roall of the King of Kings he who is acquainted with the frame and constitution of the Kingdome of sinne in his owne heart he who feareth God who feareth his owne light and is awed with the Decrees and Lawes of an inlightened conscience shall be fast for the publicke and the man who selleth his Religion and his soule for his private ends will soone sell his countrey his Parlament the Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome Will hee put the Law of God and the Crowne and Scepter of that Princely Lord Jesus to the market and will hee sticke for his Court and Honour to sell the Lawes of England and will hee forfeit Heaven and will hee not forfeit you all and your Parliament and Liberties O then bee intreated now to bee for Heaven and Christ as his publicke State-wits to convey Decrees for Christs honour for Reformation against Babylon and her sonnes through this whole Kingdome You have now power and opportunitie to send the Glory of Christ over Sea to all Europe the eyes of Nations are upon you exalt the Sonne of God thinke it not sweet policie to have peace with Babylon and warre with God consider if Church and State did ever prosper since the Queenes Idol of the Masse was set up amongst you and what is your part when many Masses are now in the Kings Court at Oxford I make a Decree There was a wicked Law and a cursed Decree made by Darius that for thirtie dayes neither Daniel nor any of Gods people should pray to God or to any god save to Darius Daniels enemies prevaile thus farre that Daniel the Churches right eye now in the Court should be decourted and cast out to bee meate to beasts Behold the artifice and fathomlesse depth of Gods wisedome who bringeth a contrary Decree out of this wicked Decree even a Decree for adoring that God of Daniel whom they had dishonoured Doct. It is the art of the deepe wisedome of divine providence to bring good out of the sinnes of his enemies and the sufferings of his owne Iosephs brethren moved with envie sell their brother Potiphar casteth him in prison the wisedome of God commeth in in the game and hee exalteth Joseph and keepeth alive people in famine Herod Pilate Jewes and Gentiles crucifie the Lord of glory the Art
ordinances of the Moon and Stars for a light by night which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roare the Lord of hosts is his name vers. 36. If these ordinances depart from before mee saith the Lord then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a Nation before me for ever I might alledge other Scriptures also as Jer. 32. 39 40. Ezech. 36. 26 27 28 29. Esai 54. 10 11 12. Esai 59. 21. Heb. 8. 7 8 9 10 11. Now then because God hath bottomed the eternity of his Church upon his own unchangeable counsell they must raze the acts of Heaven who can take away the Church of God I leave it to the thoughts of the judicious if the rooting out of the Protestant Religion bee a rationall purpose of intelligent men What if we should imagine a society of transported men should convene in Parliament and make Statutes thus We ordain as a Law and Statute that from the 22. of January the Sunne shall shine no more by day and the Moone and Starres shall give no more light by night also we inhibite and discharge under the highest pain of treason from this time forth the Sea shall never ebbe or flow again These or the like should be but the notions of sick imiginations acts of night counsels have been these first fire the City of London secondly cut off the Parliament thirdly leave not alive in Ireland a Protestant or their seed fourthly roote them all out of France and Germany fifthly destroy Scotland and their Covenant sixthly undoe all reformation of Religion in Brittain Secondly Consider the strength of the Church of God Numb. 24. 8. He hath as it were the strength of an Vnicorn he shall eat up the nations his enemies he shall break his bones and pierce them thorow with his arrowes Why and the Church is but a feeble worme let it be so yet he saith Esay 41. 14. Feare not worm Jacob and yee men of Israel I will helpe thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee vers. 15. Behold I will make thee worme as thou art a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hils as chaffe vers. 16. Thou shalt fanne them and the winde shall carry them away and the whirle winde shall scatter them You have not seen such a miracle that a worme shall destroy a great mountain and blow it away as chaffe But it is Gods way that Omnipotence rides on a straw on a worme and triumph And how can it be but thus The Church is the weakest thing in the earth but in God incomparably the strongest Psalme 46. 1. God is our refuge and strength Gods strength is the absolute greatest strength and so overcome God and overcome the Church for a greater strength must overcome the lesse Where dwelleth hee in earth in Hell or in Heaven who hath strength above the strength of God they doe not flie to the strongest side who desert the Parliament and flie to Oxford they run but downe to Egypt but Esay 30. 7. Their strength is to sit still Thirdly the destroying of the Church is not a worke of reason or deep policie as men suppose they will but swallow downe and drinke the Protestants let them be doing and goe on Put the Church of Christ in a cup and drink her but you will be sick when shee is in your belly and had better drinke many quarts of lead or brasse melted and coming hot out of the furnace for Zach 12. 2 There is poison and death in the cup I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about The gall the wormwood the poyson of the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of his Temple is in the cup Drink who will they shall be sick and drunken and vomit and fall and die in their vomit and never rise again Pharaoh dranke of this cup but he was killed with it and made fishes meat Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazar dranke but they swelled hand and foot and died Herod Acts 12. had the cup at his head and tooke a draught of this wine but he was stricken with wormes Papists Prelates the Irish good Catholique subjects the Emperour Spaine Rome the Antichrist the powers of the earth are now drinking one to another and the cup of trembling goeth in a round to them all but consider how sick they shall be Zach. 14. 12. And this shall bee the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their eye-holes and their tongue shall consume away in their mouths Babylons cup-bearers and Atheists and Malignants to whom the morning of a sound reformation is as the shadow of death would then know how deadly a cup is now at their head Fourthly consider Gods promises to his Church There is a true Diurnall written from Heaven that God is to make a glorious Church in the end of the world Esa. 30. 26. Moreover the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And when the new resurrection shall bee I mean the in-coming of that elder sister the Church of the Jewes Rom. 11. 15. and when all Israel shall be saved What a glorious house shall he build for the Lord when that shall be fulfilled Esay 60. 13. And the glory of Lebanon shall come unto theee the fir-tree the pine-tree and the boxe together to beautifie the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious v. 14. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending to thee and all they that despised thee shal bow themselves down at the soals of thy feet and they shal cal thee The City of the Lord The Zion of the holy One of Israel v. 19. The sunne shal no more be thy light by day neither for brightnesse shal the moon give light unto thee but the Lord shal be thine everlasting light and the dayes of thy mourning shal be ended All which with many other places do make God say That the Church shall stand and never be prevailed against by the very gates of hell Fifthly Christ cannot leave off to be a King therefore his Kingdome must stand there is a seed and a reward promised to Christ for his labours Esay 53. 10. There bee Articles of grace concluded betwixt the Father and his Sonne which cannot be broken Sixthly there are in all the sufferings of the Church two things most considerable first a turn secondly a contexture a turne or returne Gen. 39. 21 22. Joseph was cast in prison But the Lord was with Joseph Gen. 49. 23. The archers have sorely grieved Joseph and shot at him and hated him but consider the returne vers. 24. But his
Episcopacy Antichristian Ceremonies Superstition and Will-worship were injoyned by Law to pleasure an earthly King you willingly followed after the command against the direction of the King of Kings and now hath the Lord delivered the people of the Land into the hand of their KING And for this the Sword of the Lord hath gone through the Land 2. Vse From the perpetuity of the Lords Kingdome we may infer That this Cause of God shall prevail and that the Church though in the burning Bush cannot be consumed for JEHOVAH is in the Bush There be three grounds that there is hope that God will build his own Jerusalem 1. God never laid the foundation of so fair a building and then deserted the VVorke when he hath put it into the hearts of the Parliament and Land to enter into a Covenant with the Lord the Cause doth now in formall and direct termes become the Lords Cause And so the Lord is become surety for England 2. When did the Lord ever finally prosper his bloody-hearted enemies Babylons Womb and Bowels are swelled with blood they intend to root out the Protestant Religion Can God say Amen to this in Brittaine No he will not this end was sworne at the councell of Trent It was aimed at by Charles the fifth by Leo the tenth against Luther and the designe of the Actors of that bloody massacre of Paris yet hitherto all hath failed them 3. Gods Noble and stately acts of disappointing and discovering so many Plots give us hope for in them all God maketh true of England what is said Esai 66. 7. Before she travelled shee brought forth and before her paine came she was delivered of a man-Childe When she was sleeping ere the blow came the Childe was borne and the Woman delivered His Dominion shall be to the end Dominion is a power to use a thing as you please for such ends as you think good in the Creature our pleasure is supposed to be regulated by Law and Reason but men or Angels will or pleasure is not the rule of the use or lawfull exercise of Dominion but in God whose blessed will not being differenced from his holy reason and infinite wisedome it s the rule of the use of his Dominion and none may say to him What doest thou that but standeth still to the Creature as a binding Law Illud tantum possumus quod jure possumus we have no more lawfull morall power given to us of God then we can or do lawfully exercise according to the morall rule But Gods Dominion is to be discussed thus as it standeth in those following heads First in the manner of it its compleat Deus Dominatur in totum ens in totum entis God hath Dominion over every being of the Creature and over every part of the being God hath Dominion over his Creatures soule and his soules faculties his will minde conscience affections faith hope feare love joy over the body and all the powers and motions therof So God hath a compleat Lordship over the Creature One Creature hath not a compleat Lordship or Dominion over another yea a free reasonable Creature hath not a compleat Dominion over himself The reason is God made the Creature he made all and every being and part of the Creature He made the soule the body the faculties of both the actions and purposes of both Therefore he hath an absolute Dominion over both The potter hath a Dominion of art not a Dominion by creation over the Lame-pot he made the Lame-pot but he created not the Clay He hath therefore but a Dominion of art over the Clay not to annihilate the Clay as god can do His Dominion is of Art to frame of the Clay a Vessell of honour for a Kings Table or a Vessell of dishonour for the receiving of Urine The Master amongst the Jews might sell his man-servant and put him in his purse but the truth is when he sold him he sold but his bodily-service as hee was usefull to labour and work but he could not sell his servants soule nor his understanding nor his will nor his love nor his faith or Religion nor any of these Courtiers then and Cavaliers Prelates Atheists who professe they are of the Kings Religion and will dispose of their soules at the Kings pleasure to kill the innocent they make their soules bastards and unlawfull broods and they make the King the Creator of their soules and the absolute Lord of their Religion O foole the King did not make thy Soule there is an other Soule-Lord then the King Ezek. 18. 4. Behold all Soules are mine saith the Lord and there is another Soule-former then the King of Brittaine hear God speak himself Esai 57. 16. If I should contend for ever the spirits should faile before me and the soules that I have made O finde me an Earthly King that can forme Soules and then let the Cavaliers sweare that which many now practice I am the Kings wholly both soule and body faith and conscience But I pray you are not all in England the Kings Subjects yea trùly and all in Scotland also but not one soule not one conscience in all the three Kingdomes is the Kings Subject 2. Gods Dominion for the matter is universall he can presse an Army in the Clouds and in the Firmament Judg. 5. 20. The Stars in their course fought against Sisera he hath an host in Hell and raised an Army against the first-borne of Egypt Psal. 78. 49. Hee troubled them by sending Malokim ragnim evill Angels or Devils amongst them He can blow a Trumpet and cry to the dust of the Earth Arms Arms and there ariseth an host of Catter-pillers or Canker-wormes Joel 2. and vers. 6. before the faces of these Wormes the people is much pained and all faces gather blacknesse that is strange to see valient men of Warre tremble before a Worme and one man with a tramp of his foot may kill hundreds of them but this is the Dominion of JEHOVAH the Lord He hath an host of VVaters every wave of the Sea being a Souldier every fish receiving pay from JEHOVAH first to drown Pharoah and then to eat him and his Princes 3 He hath a Soveraigne Dominion over the salvation and damnation of men as Rom. 9. 21. The potter hath power over the Clay Arminians and Papists will have Freewil Lord and Carver of the white roll of election to glory but Gods own Pen from eternity did write in the Lambs Book of life so many and did book those from eternity whom he was of free grace to make Senators of heaven to walk with the Lamb in white nor doth freewill pen its own doome But God hateth Esau before he doth good or ill 4. God hath an absolute Dominion in all the operations of second Causes The Stars these five thousand yeers have marched so orderly and kept their Orbes Distance Line that not one of them ever transgressed the borders of another And Gods
A SERMON PREACHED To the Honourable HOVSE OF COMMONS At their late Solemne Fast Wednesday Jan. 31. 1644. BY SAMUEL RUTHERFURD Professor of Divinitie in the University of S. Andrews EXOD. 3. 2. And hee looked and behold the Bush burned with fire and the Bush was not consumed Published by Order of the House of Commons EDINBURGH Printed by Evan Tyler Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie 1644. Die Mercurii 31. Ianuar. 1644. IT is this day ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Mr. Rous do from this House give thanks unto Mr. Rutherfurd for the great paines he took in the Sermon he preached this day at the intreaty of the said Commons at S. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publike Humiliation and to desire him to print his Sermon And it is ordered that none presume to print his Sermon without authority under the hand-writing of the said Mr. Rutherfurd H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Richard Whittaker and Andrew Crooke to print my Sermon Samuel Rutherfurd To the Christian Reader WHether time or the fashion hath obtained of me worthy Reader that this Sermon should come under the providence of your favourable judgement and Candor I can hardly determine But you have it as it is onely I shall heartily desire in reviewing of it your serious thoughts in these insuing considerations 1. What I speak here of God and his excellency is but a shadow to the expressions of others and what others can say men or Angels is but a short and rude shadow of that infinite All the High Jehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth so my thoughts come forth as shadows of shadows for there behoved to be much honey in the Inke much of Heaven in the breast much of God in the Pen of any who speaketh of such a transcendent subject yet if these do affect you it is possible I say more if not I shall desire not to spill the Lords highest praises with my low-creeping under-expressions 2. Concerning Gods dispensation now in Brittaine and his Churches condition I shall be your debter in all humble modesty to beg these thoughts to go along with God As 1. Let the Lord have a charitable sense and good construction of his most wise dispensation and beleeve that he who hath his fire in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem seeth good that Christs Crosse should be the Church of Christs birth-right and that a life-rent of afflictions is a surer way for Zion then Summer-dayes 2. You are not to stumble that God will not fit his times to mens apprehensions when to raine and when to shine fair neither is clay to usurp the chair and dispute the matter to make the All-wise providence a School-Probleme nor asks Why is our Zion builded with carcasses of men in two kingdomes fallen as dung in the open field and as the handfull after the harvest man Why is the wall of the daughter of Zion sprinkled with blood One thing I know It is better to beleeve then to dispute and to adore then to plead with him who giveth not account of his matters 3. Innocencie in these times is better then court with princes and the condition of the heirs of Heaven yea their tears better then the joy of the hypocrite 4. Christs Church can neither shift nor adjourne such a share of affliction as is written in Gods book It is a standing and a current court which hath decreed what graines of Gall and Wormewood England must drink what a cup is prepared for Scotland and the Ballance of wisedome hath weighed by ounce weights how much wrath shall be mixed in the cup of wasted Ireland 5. You know it is generally the condition of the Church if she have any Summer that it is but a good day betwixt two Feavers Heaven heaven is the home and the desired day of the Bride the Lambs wife 6. It is much better to be afflicted then to be guilty and that the Church may have pardon and want peace 7. That the faith which is more precious then gold can bid the devil do his worst and that the patience of the Saints can out-weary the malice of Babylon or Babel on whose skirts is found the blood of the Saints 8 That it is now and ever true as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint so shall the multitude of all nations be that fight against mount Zion 9. Vengeance is gone out from the Lord against those who feast upon Zions teares and they must die the death of the uncircumcised who clapped their hands and stamped with the feet and rejoyced in heart with all their despight against the land of Israel 10. They are in no better condition who refuse to help the Lord against the mighty and whose heart is as a stone and a piece of dead flesh at all the revolutions and tossings of Christs Kingdome who daunce eat and laugh within their own orbe and if their desires bee concentrick to the world and themselves care not whether Joseph die in the stocks or not or whether Zion sink or swim because whatever they had of Religion it was never their minde both to summer and winter Jesus Christ 11. The rise of the Gospel-sun is like the prodigious appearance of a new Comet to the woman that sitteth on many waters to that mother Rome-planted as a Vine in blood the Lionesse whose Whelps Papists and Prelates in Ireland and England have learned to catch the prey and this Comet prophesieth Wo to the Pope King of the bottemlesse pit and his bloody Lady Babel if Christ shall arise and shine in the power of his Gospel 12. God hath now as great a work on the wheels as concerneth the race of the Chariots of Jesus Christ through the habitable world pray O let his Kingdome come and farewell Yours in the Lord Jesus S. R. A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of COMMONS At their last solemne Fast Wednesday January 31. 1644. DANIEL 6. 26. I make a Decree that in every Dominion of my Kingdome men tremble and feare before the face of the God of Daniel for he is the living God and indureth for ever and his Kingdome that which shall not bee destroyed and his dominion shall bee to the end MEthod requireth that first the words bee expounded secondly that they bee taken up in a right order thirdly that such observations bee hence deduced as serve most for the present condition of the times The words are plaine here first is a Statute of a great King Sim that the seventie interpreters render {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a decretall letter for sometimes though seldome the Lords cause findeth the grace of faire justice with men The matter of the Decree is that men tremble and feare Lehevon zognin vedachalin The Seventie render
it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is that they be such as feare and tremble before the God of Daniel feare is indeed put for the worship of the true God so is God called Gen. 31. 42. The feare of Isaac but it is not the word used here a devout man as Simeon is called one taken up with a religious feare {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Luke 2. 25. Act. 8. 2. nor are the words used here those which doe expresse Jobs fearing of God Job 1. 1. though I know the words doe expresse trembling and feare and also horrour and dread such as was given to creatures and false Gods and therefore from this none can inferre the conversion of this King to the true knowledge of Jehovah God also is called kajam an induring and standing God from Kum surrexit and well rendered to the sense by the Seventy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Eternall GOD in opposition to all falling and fading time-gods and Kings of clay and so hee is a God to whom Daniel did with a great deale of reason rather tender the honour of prayer then to King Darius or the supposed deities of Persia or Chaldea who are not standing gods induring for ever but come out of times wombe and decay and fall as creatures also doe Lastly his Kingdome that is his People and Servants such as Daniel and his Church and his dominion shall endure to the end Gnadsopha which is not so to bee taken as if Gnad did signifie a date or tearme-day at which time the dominion of God should have an end for 2. Samuel 6. last verse it is said Michol had no childe Gnad jom mothach even till the day of her death that is shee never had any Childe for the sence cannot bee that shee had any Childe after the day of her death so Psalme 48. 14. For this God is our God for ever and ever hee will bee our guide Gnadmuth even till death it is not intended that the Lord shall cease to bee their God and guide after death which is contrary to expresse Scripture Matth. 22. 32. Rev. 7. 16 17. and Matthew 28. 20. I am with you {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the end of the world the sense is I am with you for ever for at the end of the world Christ doth not leave his owne servants I know Gnad otherwise doth often signifie a certaine definite time as Psal. 132. I will not sleep untill I finde a place for Jehovah Gnad emptsa makom and 1 Sam. 14. 9. Psal. 73. 17. Psal. 105. 19. 2. The words containe this generall a Proclamation royall of a great King and for particulars 1. Who giveth out the Proclamation From my face a Decree goeth I Darius make a Decree 2. The parties to whom to every dominion of my Kingdome 3. The matter that they feare and tremble 4. The object before the face of the God of Daniel 5. The reasons of the Decree for Law without reason is will not Law men goe to heaven or hell with reason 1. He is the living God and this is form his nature 2. He is eternall then from his government his kingdome such as 1. time 2. violence 3. wisedome cannot destroy but such a Church and Kingdome as shall endure for ever and his dominion endureth to the end I make a Decree This Darius the Mede called Nabonithus succeeded to Belshazzar the sonne of Evil-Merodach about the yeare of the world 3393. others 3442. and did reigne 17. or 19. yeares And having advanced Daniel to great honour by force of a wicked law cast Daniel to the Lions and God having miraculously delivered Daniel from the Lions this King giveth out a Law that all his Subjects fear and serve the God of Daniel Whence observe 1. All Princes are obliged to governe and rule for the Lord and his honour 1. So Scripture speaketh it shall be in the last dayes Esay 49. 25. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens thy nursing mothers Psal. 72. 10. The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents I would the King of this Island were in this Text ver. 11. The Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts yea all Kings shall fall downe before him 2. Princes are Gods Standard-bearers they beare his sword by office Rom. 13. 4. and they hold Crowne and Scepter of him as great Landlord of all powers 3. In a speciall manner they are second Gods Psal. 81. 6. Nor do rulers judge for men the judgment is the Lords 2 Chro. 19. 12. All rulers in the act of judging are Gods deputies even though their second calling be to be sent by a King and therefore see what judgment God himselfe would pronounce if he were on the bench that same must they decree except they would make the deputed mouth to belie the minde of the great Lord who sent them 4. The Lord hath entrusted Christian Rulers with the most precious thing he hath on earth he hath given his Bride and Spouse to their tutory and faith 5. What sweeter comfort can the Ruler have either when his soule lodgeth in an house of groaning and sicke bones and the image of death sitteth on his eye-lids or in the day of his greatest calamity then to looke backe and smile upon such an old friend as a good conscience and to say as Job doth ch. 29. 13. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widowes heart to sing for joy c. Vse 1. You are entrusted by God with an honourable Virgin a Kings daughter Psal. 45. 9. Now then for her Fathers sake and for her Fathers blessing deale kindely with her As you love the Bridegroome take care of the Bride You have now amongst your hands Christ his Crowne his Israel his glory Esay 46. 13. his Prerogative Royall be faithfull Tuterers and active Factors for the Priviledges Lawes and Liberties of the high Court of heaven Vse 2. If this be the place and relation that Princes have to Christ and his Church then can the Lord have given no power to any Ruler to waste and destroy the mountaine of the Lord For 1. All royall power given of God Deut. 17. 18 19 20. in the first moulding of royall highnesse was a power to rule according to that which is written in the Booke of the Law and so there can be no royall power to the contrary truly royall 2. That power cannot be from God as a lawfull power the exercise and acts whereof are sinfull I speake of a lawfull morall power 3. If such an uncontrollable power as cannot be resisted be of God then are Princes given to the Churches and people of God as judgements of God then are all Christian States actu primo made slaves by God in the very intention of God the giver and of the gift at what time hee giveth them a Nurse-father to feed and
sunk and overwhelmed if those three hold good which Papists and Arminians hold 1. Our salvation were in danger if free-will which hath its rise and working in time were the Axeltree upon which are rolled the wheeles of eternall election and reprobation But there is as good reason to say that a sucking childe may reach up his arme above the Sunne and Starres and roll about the wheele of the first Heaven from East to West and turne the wheele again from West to East as to say that time-free-will can turn about the eternall counsel of God and that our acts of believing are not believing and our good and evil works which have their rise from yesterday and to day and are like Jonahs gourd up and down in one night doe roll about the eternall will and decree of God from favour and love to hatred and rejecting of men Better make the former of all things supreame and soveraigne then give the Prerogative Royall of all to naughty and sinfull clay 2. We could easily grant that it were in mens power to destroy the Church of God and that the King of the bottomlesse pit and his Lady and Queen Babylon the great whore and their sonnes Papists and Prelates might cut off the name of the Lords Israel if upon the supposall of their dream of N. media scientia the new eyes which Jesuits with all humble submission and glory to the glorious God bee it spoken have given to the Almighty contingency did rule all for upon the nod and dominion of causes without all determination of Gods righteous providence and eternall counsel all revolutions of Church and Kingdomes depend say they and all hang upon these two poles may be may not be what hindereth then that Christ have no Spouse no redeemed people and that he be a husband without a wife a King without Subjects a Saviour without a ransomed people as they expresly teach who with Arminians are advocates for nature and pleaders against the grace of God but wee believe God to bee eternall and his counsel eternall and his eternall decree to have a strong influence in the safety of his Church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail and that Divels Men Babylon Rome Spain Irish rebels powers on earth in their plots machinations counsels endeavours battels victories all which come from free causes are yet chained and fast linked to the high dominion and independent soveraignty of an eternall God And we believe that this differenceth Jehovah from all other Gods who as Esay saith Can neither do good nor evil Therefore there is not an arrow steepd in hell and shot against the Church but it cometh out of Gods bow and he saith it Esay 43. 13. Yea before the day was I am he and there is none that can deliver out of my hand I wil worke and who shall let it The Churches victories and deliverance depend upon an eternall hand and therefore the sonnes of Belial prevail not and the sons of Jacob are not consumed 3. It were a desperate matter for the elect to be saved if the first Adam were our surety but our Tutor Jesus Christ is old and wise the ancient of dayes Daniel 7. 13. and he hath seven eies they cannot chuse but hold the apostasie of the Saints who make free-will our tutor And therefore if I were halfe in heaven and my one foot in eternity and my other in time if such a sinfull principle as free-will should tutour and guide me I should come back again out of heaven and be damned eternally If any weak soule apprehending wrath and under a fervour of desertion should complain What hindreth me to be eternally condemned for I am not distracted I am privie to my selfe that I have sold my birth-right and sinned against the grace of God hainously Let me answer That the selling of your birth-right dependeth upon the consent of your tutor Jesus Christ who is the King of ages as no minor can sell his inheritance without the consent of his tutor and if he should doe it it cannot stand in Law but may be revoked Christ is first heire and all the elect joynt heires with him Rom. 8. 17. and joynt heires in Law though many persons yet they make but one heire consider then if he who is your eternall King of ages and so unchangeable hath not given his consent to the bargaine that you should sell his birth-right and inheritance and under him your own birth-right you had no power to doe it Christ because he is God eternall cannot subscribe nor signe with his hand the writs wherein you have sold your inheritance therefore the bargaine in Law is a meere nullity Thirdly if he be God enduring for ever What fooles are we to place our hope in a King that shall die Surely they cast their anchor in ill ground who trust in the creature thou puttest thy heaven betwixt the browes of a King and in the light of his countenance he is but a man and may change and though his favour were constant yet when his eye-strings shall be broken with one breath he shall breathe out his own soule and thy heaven And what canst thou then say or do because sence and the flesh leadeth us and time goeth about us from the cradle to the grave we are all for time we are for a time-Court a time-Glory a time-Prince a time-Friend a time-Husband a time-Brother a time-Heaven and happinesse a time-deliverance in trouble time-Riches time-joy and time-pleasure time-triumphing a time-life c. But we may finde in this King of ages who indureth for ever these same good things of another nature as we finde in God eternall Court eternall Glory an eternall King an eternall Friend an eternall Husband an eternall Brother an eternall Happinesse an eternall Salvation eternall riches eternall victory and triumph and in summe life eternall His Kingdome such as cannot be destroyed The other classe of arguments to prove Daniels God to be the true God is from his government His Kingdome that is The people of his kingdome cannot be destroyed and now the King doth say though there be variety and choyce of gods in Chaldea and Persia yet Daniels God is incomparably above them all and Daniel and his fellowes are blessed and more happy in their God then all that serve other gods The Lord when he is tried will be found the onely excellent and matchlesse God above all gods and none like to him and his people the onely happy people that mans portion is fallen in pleasant lines who hath the Lord for his portion but I must go on to make good this doctrine That the Kingdome and Church of God is the most permanent and induring society on earth and a Kingdome which cannot fail and I go upon these grounds There is a most firm and sure Covenant made betwixt the Lord and his people Jer. 31. 35. Thus saith the Lord that giveth the Sun for a light by day and the