more affection should bee for Christs fundamentall Lawes for Religion then for the fundamentall Lawes of a Kingdome or for the power and priviledges of Parliament And it is cleare in ill actions the lesse affection the better Pilates slaying of Christ had lesse hatred and envie then the Scribes and Pharisees killing of him and the more innocent that the affection bee the bad action is the lesse evill feare is a more innocent affection then hatred Those who out of feare desert the Lords cause are not to be punished in that degree with those who out of malice and hatred to the truth joyned to the Malignant faction How ever God challengeth the floure of our affections and it is a sweet thing to spend the vigour and floure of the affection upon God and if you had ten tongues to speake for God a hundred hands to fight for him many lives to lose for him Achitophels wisedome to imploy in his services except you engage the heart and affections in his service you doe nothing to him If Prelates Papists and Malignants bee hated onely as hurtfull to your State to the gaine and externall peace of the Common-wealth and not as Gods enemies as Idolaters as they are under the King of the bottomlesse pit the Antichrist and Comets who borrow light from that fallen Starre and not as servants to our King the warre is shedding of innocent blood heart reduplications in the affections doe mightily invert the nature of actions Jehu 2 Kings 10. 30. 31. did right in the sight of the eyes of God and did to the house of Ahab according to all that was in Gods heart yet because hee did it with a crooked and bastard intention for his owne honour and Idol ends his obedience is Hosea 1. 4. murther before God art 4. The God of Daniel This is the fourth point considerable here Darius speaketh of the living God as naturall men doe with a note of estrangement of affection he applyeth him to Daniel as the God of Daniel but applyeth him not to himselfe as making him his owne God but rather doth insinuate that hee had another God then Daniels God So doe naturall spirits destitute of faith stand afarre off from God and bide at a distance with God whereas onely faith can claim interest in God and father it selfe upon the Lord Laban speaketh thus to Jacob Gen. 31. 29. The God of your father spake to mee yesterday Exod. 8. 25. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said Goe yee sacrifice to your God in the land 1 King 13. 6. Jeroboam saith to the Prophet Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God and pray for me and Rachab speaking in the name of the people of Jericho saith Iosh. 2. 11. For the Lord your God hee is God in the Heaven above and in the earth beneath unbelief maketh the unbeleever that which he is even a bastard and stranger not a sonne nor an heire whereas faith challengeth right and heritage in God Psalme 5. 2. Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my King and my God Psalme 7. 1. O Lord my God in thee doe I put my trust Psalme 18. 1 2. The Lord is my strength The Lord is my rock my fortresse and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my Buckler and the horne of my salvation my high tower here bee nine relations nine My'es 2 Chr. 20. 12. Our God wilt thou not judge them Ezra 9. 6. O my God I am ashamed c. Dan. 9. 4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God the three children say Daniel 3. 17. Our God is able to deliver us Ioh. 20. 28. Thomas said my Lord my God Daniel here is made proprietor and heritor of the true and living God and Darius and all his people have their owne Gods called the gods of nations and Darius puteth it as a ground That the God which any man serveth and trusteth in hee hath a relation to him as to his owne God every man may by Law claime what is his owne Hence are these two questions to be discussed 1. Quest Whether Application bee essentiall to Faith or not 2. What ground have those who heare of God and those within the visible Church to call God their God For the discussion of the first these following assertions may resolve us 1. Assertion Faith is more then a naked hungry and poore assent to the truth there is in it a fiduciall acquiescence and a leaning upon JEHOVAH expressed by divers expressions full of marrow as Psalme 22. 8. He trusted the Hebrewes say He rolled himselfe on JEHOVAH which is when a wearied man sweating under a burden casteth himself and his burden both upon a place or a bed of rest Gol El-Jehovah as that Psal. 55. 22. Cast thy burden on JEHOVAH and 1 Pet. 5. 7. Roll all your care on him Psalme 37. the Chaldee Paraphrase saith on the place for he rolled himselfe on God I spake prayses to God which holdeth forth that Faith is a worke of the heart and affection rather then of the minde So Psalme 37. 5. Resigne and give over or roll over thy wayes to the Lord as Jerom doth well turne it Bibl. Complutense flee in to Jehovah Psalme 18. 18. They prevented me in the day of my calamitie but Jehovah was my stay referring this to the Lord his bearing up of Davids heart in his trouble which in reason cannot be denied Misâ—gnan is as Arias Montanus turneth it fulcrum Junius scipio or baculus the seventy Interpreters {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Lord was Davids stay and his staffe so is the word used Esay 3. 1. The Lord taketh from Judah the stay and the staffe and it is not evill that Christ is the sinners stay and the lamed mans staffe Esay 26. 3. Thou wilt keepe him in perfect peace whose minde is stayed as a house holden up by a proppe on thee Psalme 112. He that feareth the Lord is not afraid of ill tidings because his heart is fixed Samuch Libbo leaning on the Lord and beleeving is not simply in the word a giving credit to God in what hee saith but it is when men put their weight on God as Esay 10 20. The residue of Israel shall leane upon the Lord the Holy one of Israel and so is the word Micah 3. 11. They leane upon the Lord saying Is not the Lord amongst us and faith is termed Hebrewes 11. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the substance of things hoped for some doe not ill expound it to bee the pillar and ground-stone of the soule in expecting good from God and so is it the buckler of faith Ephes. 6. 16. and these two words say that Faith is a most valiant Souldier which yeeldeth not to that which commeth against it but that the beleever when hee is killed and fallen doth still stand and live Doeg is thus made a wicked man Psalme 52. 7. Loe this is the man that
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
condemned Object 3. But more grace should make me beleeve and more grace God denieth to me Answ. It is easier to complaine for what we have not then thankfully to use what we have If the creditor crave the payment of ten thousand pounds from a Land-waster it is bad payment to say You are to be blamed that I pay not because you lent me not twenty thousand pound Object 4. But I have a strong inclination and cannot resist when I am tempted Answ. O lame vessel tremble but dispute not 2. It is lawfull to complaine and sigh under those fetters Rom. 7. 24. but unlawfull to childe and excuse sinfull rebellion Part. 3. That men tremble and feare before the face of the God of Daniel In this third Part we have to consider these two First Who commandeth trembling and feare Secondly The thing commanded trembling and feare 1. The Commander is Darius but whether converted or not is a question I thinke there is no ground to hold that he was a converted man 1 Because all that he commandeth is trembling and feare of God upon the occasion of a miracle the positive worship of God is not commanded 2. He calleth not God his God but the God of Daniel 3. He acknowledgeth Daniels God to be the living God but doth not command that he onely shall be served and all dead gods cast off 4. The Babilonish History sheweth he still kept his idol-gods 5. The rise of this Proclamation is a miracle and such as breedeth rather a servile feare then a filiall adoring of God 6. There is nothing here of the meanes to instruct his people in the knowledge of the true God And to command Religion without information of the minds is rather Tyranny over the conscience then true zeal Hence unrenewed men may out of the dominion of a convincing light be forced to acknowledge the Lord when yet the will and affections are not subdued to the knowledge of God Hence I expresse my thoughts in this point in these assertions 1. Assertion The naturall conscience is not its owne Lord in knowing bleeving and confessing something of God For first Devils believe there is a God but they tremble Iames 2. 19. They beleeve against their will as a man condemned to death for a crime beleeveth he must die but his will is opposite to his faith Iudas awaked cannot chuse but beleeve a vengeance Light is a King and a conquerour sometime 2. You seldome finde but enemies have given a testimony now or then for God Exod. 14. 25. Let us flee say the Egyptians for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians Pharaoh being mastered in conscience with the plague of haile mingled with fire saith Exod. 9. 27. I have sinned this time The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked Deut. 32. 31. For their rocke is not as our rock our enemies being Iudges Psal. 126. 2. Then said they amongst the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them Sauls conscience speaketh truth in a dreame through his sleepe though he went to bed again 1 Sam. 24. 17. Thou art more righteous then I so speaketh he to David The Devill can say no otherwayes Luke 4. 34. I know thee who thou art the holy one of God Pilate must say of Christ I finde no fault in him Caligula his feare must make his faith a lyar and when he heareth a thunder say Mine eares heare the God which my heart denieth to have any being Nero cannot say but hell is begunne in his soule before the time The Apostate Iulian said Vicisti tandem Galilaee At length O Iesus thou art victorious Paul the third a monster of men said dying I shall now be resolved of three things 1. If the soule be immortall 2. If there be a God 3. If there be a hell Plinius the second wrote to the Emperour that Jesus Christ was a great Prophet and a holy man Many Papists of old gave testimony that the Waldenses were holy men Many at Rome said Luther was for the truth and counselled that Leo the tenth would reforme the Church as Guiciard hist. l. 3. saith Malignants on their death-bed have said the Parliament of England is for justice and religion and Scotland contend for the purity of the Gospel and let but adversaries aske at their conscience in cold blood whether the world and their own ease or the truth of God bottomed their conscience in following the wayes of Cavaliers and aske on whose side are lies perjury blaspheming mocking of godlinesse the idolatrie of the masse Assertion 2. The will and affections have a dominion over conscience in many things in that 1. There is a Covenant betwixt conscience and concupiscence while as Chrysostome saith Men beleeve not what they know but what they will and will is halfe play-maker in their faith 2 Pet. 3. 5. Of this they are willingly ignorant excellently is it said Ier. 9. 6. Bemirmah In deceit they refuse to know me saith the Lord The will hath a pack-pull on the minde Light and malice minde and will are vowen through other the wills malice soureth and leaveneth the minds light as rotten matter mixed with good wine overmastereth it and taketh taste and colour from it 2. The will and affection hath power to suspend the acts of Considering of Christs excellency 2. Sinnes horrour 3. Truths beauty 4. The sweet peace of obedience to God 5. The eternitie of heaven and hell Hos. 7. 1. The theefe cometh in and the troopes of robbers spoile without and they say not in heart that I remember all their wickednesse The will and affections should ingage and take the minde suretie and oblieged to consider of God and his wayes But it is here as when a merchant cometh in and overbiddeth the customer and causeth the seller and the customer part company When the minde is upon this or the like What shall the wrath or the smiles of a King doe to mee when my eye-strings shall bee broken What thoughts can I have of gaine lust pleasure court when wormes shall make their nests in my eye-holes In these affections come in and divert the minde from such precious thoughts and here bee two errours in the will First a sort of wicked diverting of the minde from necessary truths Secondly a will-heresie when faith and divinity is swallowed up in the will and affections 3. The will and affections resist truth in the minde as Act. 6. 10. The adversaries could not resist the wisedome and spirit by which Stephen spake then their minde was convinced Act. 7. 51. You doe alwayes saith Stephen resist the holy Spirit Behold they could not resist light yet they doe of malice resist light 4. The will and affections can imprison and cast in fetters Truth Rom. 1. 18. They keep the truth of God captive or in bonds though Truth sometime break the fetters and bolts and escape and come out to a confession yet they apprehend Truth againe and lay it
against the wisedome of God hence so many plots first to divide then to seduce so many lies and perjuries in print and all with this profession To defend the true Protestant Religion But surely hee hath a strong Metaphysicall faith more subtill then solid who beleeveth that an army of Papists led on by the rules of Jesuits and helped by the forces of the Irish Rebels have a minde to defend the true Protestant Religion I hope never to beleeve it Yet as God disappointed Daniels enemies so are they mis-led in all their purposes God hath alwayes done this The enemy of God and a good Cause Psal. 7. 14. is with childe but the Justice of God is Godfather and giveth the name of the childe it is named A lie behold he travelleth with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and the birth when it is borne is no King no God hee bringeth forth a lie Esay 33. 11. Ye shall conceive chaffe and the childe is a monstrous bastard a childe of straw and stubble and ye shall bring forth stubble Iob 15. 35. They conceive mischiefe and bring forth vanity There is a long web now in weaving in England and many hands spin threds to the web as England Scotland Ireland Rome Italy France Spaine Denmarke Papists Jesuits Cardinals Princes Pope Prelates Politicians and Jehovah the Lord hath an hand eminently in the contexture and almost all except the Lord and his Church have sundry ends therefore they weave in threeds of sundry colours Babylon Rome and Papists are for their idolatry set up in Britaine God hath broken that threed once twice but they cast new knots and doe still spinne and weave Prelates ends with shouting and garments rolled in blood let our great Diana stand the honour the bellies of fourteen and twenty and sixe must bee defended by the sword and the blood of the Church of Christ God hath often broken their threed Ireland hath no end but that their Babel shall be built again with blood and their hearts like a piece of the nether milstone are grinding blood and revenge this end must fall The Politician and Malignants end is the world and the glory of Court and their glory is very lean Princes weave in their threed to set up their absolute and independent soveraignty and if any more be intended God knoweth but by the wooll wee may judge of the web But when all is done in this long and great web though the enemies black policy bee transparent and sevved vvith vvhite threed heare the conclusion of all Psal. 33. 10. The Lord bringeth the counsell of the heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the people of none effect 11. But the counsell of the Lord standeth for ever For he is the living God Darius saith in this verse and in the follovving much of God and of his Nature Greatnesse Povver and Soveraignty Hence learn vve that how much of God is revealed to us so far are we to have high noble thoughts and suteable expressions of God hence are vve Christians far more to think and speak of God and that upon these grounds Because he is 1. God 2. Great 3. Gracious 4. Glorious 5. Beautifull 6. Omnipotent 1. The notion and that great thing God is admirable God wil say no more to put Abraham upon a course of contentment when he had the spoil of the Kings of Sodome and to set him in a way of obedience but Gen. 17. 1. I am God all-sufficient and goodnes mercy are included in the very essence of God Hos. 11. 9. I will not execute the fiercenesse of my wrath against Ephraim for I am God and not man And he saith no more in the Covenant and it is much and all I will be your God for if you say God you say all that can be said 2. For greatnes any way he is above all heare what Zophar saith Job 11. 7. Canst thou by searching finde out God canst thou finde out the Almighty unto perfection 8. It is high as Heaven what canst thou doe deeper then hell what canst thou know 9. The measure thereof longer then the Earth and broader then the Sea 2. Consider the supreame absolute Soveraignty that hee hath over Heaven and Earth what created royalty is in the pieces of Clay who carry diadems of clay on their heads is eminently in him Artaxerxes is but King of some Kings but God is absolutely the supreame Monarch Superiour Landlord and King of Kings and of all Kings and Lord of Lords Ahashuerosh sent his royall mandates through an hundred and twenty seven Provinces hee sendeth his Officers of the state of Heaven his Angels through his Monarchy of Heaven and Earth and they fulfill his will Psal. 103. 20. He sendeth his Sea-posts stormy winds to destroy Armado's and to breake the ships of Tarshish Psal. 30. verse 4. The Lord is great and greatly to be praysed he is to be feared above all Gods And wee put him out of his Throne when we appoint Peeres to sit and give Counsell and make Lawes with this highest Lord make a Throne of glory the height of thousand thousand millions of Heaven of Heavens and set that Throne above the circumference of all these Heavens set Worlds of Angels and millions of Seraphims or if there be created Arch-Angells and thousand thousands of Dominions Thrones and Principalities as servants under the foot-stoole of his Throne yet hee were set too low hee deserveth a Throne above that Throne 3. Consider his gracious nature 1. How tender hearted to his afflicted people Jud. 10. 16. The Lords soul was grieved for the misery of Israel Jer. 31. 20. Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant childe for since I did speake against him I doe earnestly remember him my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him saith the Lord What tendernesse O what compassion in the heart of an infinite God! Psal. 147. 3. The Lord healeth the broken in heart he bindeth up their wounds O how softly and compassionately doth his heavenly hand put in joynt the bones of a broken heart his Son Christ hath a roome in his heart for the Lambes which are not able to go there alone Esai 40. 11. He shall gather the Lambs with his arms he shall carry them in his bosome 4. He is Psal. 13. 1. Clothed with glory Psal. 104. 1. Clothed with honour and majesty 2. Covered with light uncreated light as with a garment How dear must every yard of that garment be poor earthly Kings ride upon horses of flesh He rode upon a Cherub and did flie upon the wings of the winde Psal. 18. 10. Nor is he then upon his highest horse he can ride higher then on the wings of the winde Psal. 104. 3. Psal. 18. 10. Kings of Clay have their Tents on the cold Earth He maketh dark Clouds his pavilion It should kill the holiest on earth to see one glimpse of his glory 5. What beauty must be in
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
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 soul-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
this Lord Angels and glorified soules are not able to look off his Face for all eternity Mat. 18. 10. Revel. 22. 3. Esai 24. 23. The Moone shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reigne in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously He must be a fair Lord when the fair Sun blusheth and is ashamed to appeare and shine before him Nothing David desired in this side of time but to dwell all the dayes of his life in the house of the Lord and behold the beauty the heavenly increated beauty of the Lord Psal. 27. 3. Put all the imaginable colours of the Firmament Of the morning skie Of all the Lillies and Roses of the Earth which surpasse Salomons royalty in one Imagine a Rose to bee of the quantity of the Earth all these should be but created shadowes to him Zach. 9. 17. How great is his goodnesse how great is his beauty he is both good and fair 6. Who can speak of omnipotence and boundlesse power in God Esai 40. 12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out Heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in Scales and the hils in Ballance there is but one in all the World and from eternity to eternity never was there any save one who can do all this What fingers be those which at one time are in the furthest borders of the Eastern Heaven and of the Western Heaven ver. 15. Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are compted as the small dust of the ballance behold he takes up the Iles as a very little thing And he can take up the whole I le of Brittain in his hand can hang the weight of the massie body of Heaven and Earth on the top of his finger who is he who hangeth the Earth yea the whole world upon nothing what hindreth seeing there be such Broyles Tumults Motions in Heaven Earth and Hell but this great huge vessel of the great All this whole world should fall to the one side and break but omnipotence holdeth it up who hath Arms to spread a web of black darknesse from the East to the West Esai 50. 3. I cloath the Heavens with blacknesse and I make sackcloth their covering and alas all that I say here is nothing it must be true here praestat tacere quam pauca discere better be silent in so great a matter as speak little Vse is To teach us not to be in love with the creature or with men What is man but a weeping groning dying nothing Esai 40. 17. All Nations are before God as nothing and lesse then nothing and vanity VVhat is nothing it is the least thing that can be but I pray you what is lesse then nothing nothing can be lesse then nothing but all Nations being compared with God evanish infinite miles out of the world of some things and if one man be nothing nations of men and nations of nations are nothing multiply Cyphers to millions of millions they cannot make a number because every Cypher is nothing and therefore the product must be nothing so multiply infinitely Nations let Spaine France Italy Ireland Denmark and what the power of men can make the product shall be nothing Millions and Hosts of men are millions and Hosts of vanities God is all and in infinite all and what can we do to make him lovely and desirable We may preach this admirable Lord but we shall never out-preach him and praise him but shall never outpraise him his favour is more to be sought then favour of Kings he is more to be feared then Kings Esai 5 12. I even I am the Lord the Lord that comforteth you Who art thou that shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the Son of man that shall be made as grasse Hence are you to see to the prerogative royall of the King but more to the prerogative royal of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth And therefore O Judges be wise O all you who carry on your heads Diadems and royall Crowns of yellow dust and glistering clay I meane of gold and precious stones stoope stoope before this Monarch cast down your Crownes and Scepters at the feet of the King of Kings Know your Superiour the highest Land-lord of dying Monarchies Zach. 2. 12. It is said The Lord shall inherit Judah and shall chuse Jerusalem O but Kings and Dominions who keep Judah captive cry out with a shout Judah shall serve us and our King and Jesus Christ shall not raigne over us but there is a royal Proclamation given with an ô yes from his palace of glory who inhabiteth Eternity v. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord So Psal. 2. 2. Jew and Gentile are upon foot raging and consulting with all Let us break his bands and cast his cords from us nay v. 6. one who is not on foot but sitteth in Heaven laughing not troubling himselfe with the Tumults of clay-nothings sent out a princely mandate I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion I have put the Crown on Christs head what men of dust and ashes shall pull it off his head Psal. 46. 9. He breaketh the Bow and cutteth the Spear he burneth the Chariots in the fire The heathen cannot endure this they flie on armies and cry with a shout He shal not break our Bowes He shal not burne our Chariots with fire therefore a royal Commandment and Decree cometh out v. 10. Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted above the heathen I will be exalted on Earth He is crying O Rome O Spaine O Ireland O Kings and powers of the world O Babylon Lady of Nations O Pope and Cardinals hold your peace speak no more Esai 46. 13. I bring near my Righteousnesse it shall not be far off and my salvation shall not tarry and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel for Brittain my glory 2. Vse is To bring hearts in a fervour and sicknes of love with God and make us mould higher and more Majestick thoughts and conceptions of this most high Lord then ordinarily we do and therefore consider how inconsiderable incomprehensible he is 2. Summon all created glory before him by way of comparison 3. Look at him as the last end First then consider two words that Paul hath Eph. 3. 18 19. That you may be able it is his prayer with all the Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Now from the love of Christ you may take the measure in some proportion of this great Lord himself Then conceive a love higher then the Heaven of Heavens deeper then the Earth broader then the Sea yea broader and longer then the circumference of the outmost shel or orbe of the
Heaven of Heavens that love should not passe knowledge but seeing I am warranted to speak of love according to dimensiones of Height Breadth Depth Length But imagine in the capacity of knowledge and understanding ten thousand millions of new created Heavens and Worlds at the East end of this Heaven that now is and ten thousand millions of new Worlds created at the West end of this Heaven that now is and let your knowledge run along to the North and the South and to the thirty two points of the foure Cardinall arches here would be great Height Length Breadth and Depth of love yet I am sure this love should not passe all knowledge for the understanding of man will go along through all these to multiply and multiply againe and againe and yet all love within knowledge What then must himself be if we could separate God and Gods Love Again conceive so many multiplyed new Worlds new Heavens new Earths new Seas new Forrests Woods Trees Reeds Herbs Grasse Stones and all the rest multiplyed and conceive so many worlds of men and new created Angels and let all these millions of VVoods Trees Forrests Herbs Grasse be all made pens and let all these thousands millions of new created Seas Fountaines Rivers be all Ink and all these thousands millions of Heavens yea of Heavens Aire Earth be paper and let these thousands of millions of men and Angels write Books and Psalms of praise of this infinite and incomprehensible Lord and let their wits be enlarged in the capacity of so many thousand millions of degrees of understanding above what they now have according to the former multiplied numbers and let their wits for all eternity conceive new expressions and most heavenly conceptions of the infinite excellency transcendent glory incomparable goodnesse and matchlesse and boundlesse highnesse greatnesse omnipotence of this never enough admired and adored Lord of this high and loftie one who inhabiteth eternity and yet all these should not passe knowledge for you and I and any ordinary understanding of no great capacity may know all this and therefore all these should not say any thing to expresse this Love and this Lord who passeth all knowledge O if we could be drawn to a higher measure of Love and to put a greater price on this Lord then we do 2. From this we may easily see the comparison betwixt this Lord and Peers of created nothings And if all Nations be before him as nothing as lesse then nothing as it is said by himself Es. 40. 17. Then say O smal base nothing of a Creature O highest O excellency of all things in the Creator O little and really small creature O great and surpassing great and incomparable Creator O man poor man that living lie and that dying and expiring nothing but O infinite all O unspeakable and infinite glory of uncreated being O man a breathing fable a living and a laughing vanity O self-sufficient and al sufficient life of solid happinesse O creature a dying vanity and a weeping nothing a nothing rejoycing eating drinking sighing dying O highest Creator O eternity of ever-living and ever-joying life O self-living immortality of endlesse and uncreated joy O created sparkes and poore drops of creature-goodnesse and creature-mercy O Sea O boundlesse world of worlds of infinite goodnesse and bottom-lesse mercy in the Creator of all things O shamed and despised royaltie of Princes of Earth and Clay O never enough admired glory of uncreated royaltie in the incomprehensible God! O fair Sun O beautifull Moone but rather O confounded and shamed Sunne and Moon Esa. 24. 23. and O infinitely fair and glorious Lord who made Sun and Moon O pleasant Roses and Lillies but O pleasanter Lord the Creator of Roses and Lillies O mighty and powerfull Kings and Emperours but most mighty and matchlesse King of Kings O foolish and unwise men O unstedfast and changeable Angels O Lord there is no searching out of thy understanding O unchangeable and unmoveable mover of all things O peeces of Breathing Laughing and then dying Clay O creature of yesterday of the last by-past hour for the world is not of one weeks standing to him seeing a thousand yeers are to him as one day But O Lord The ancient of dayes Daniel 7. 13. O Father of eternity Esai 9. 6. O King of ages 1. Tim. 1. 17. And King of time O weak men O mightlesse and infirme Heavens which shall wax old as a garment O eternall Lord O what an Arme of omnipotency is in him who shall with a shake of his right Arme move the Heavens and loose all the fixed Stars and cause them to fall out of the Heaven as Figs fall off a Fig-Tree shaken with a mighty Winde Revel. 6. 13. O all you created Gardens and Orchards and Paradises be ashamed blush and hide your selves beside the Tree of life which beareth twelve manner of fruit every moneth Every Apple growing on this Lord who is the Tree of life is life eternall O Gold O Silver O Rubies O precious Stones much desired by Adams sonnes What are you to him whose City is fairer Revel. 21. 18. And the building of the Wall was of Jasper and the City was pure gold like unto clear glasse He saith not there was abundance of gold in the City and multitudes of precious stones but the City was all gold and precious stones a City like Rome Venetia or Constantinople in which Timber Wals Stones Streets all the buildings were nothing but precious stones and gold were admirable O all fair Rivers and Seas what are you but pooles of dead water being compared with a pure River of water of life proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22. 1. Every drop of that water is an heaven O created welbeloveds you are black and the Sun hath looked on you when you come out and stand beside the Standard bearer amongst ten thousand Cant. 5. 10. Oh who are sick of love for this Lord O for eternities leasure to look on him to feast upon a sight of his Face O for the long summer-Day of endlesse ages to stand beside him and to enjoy him O time O sin be removed out of the way O Day O fairest of Dayes dawne O morning of eternity break out and arise that we may enjoy this incomprehensible Lord And therefore O come out of the Creature 3. Make not Clay and the Creature whose mother is purum nihil pure meere nothing your last end Alas make not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus a post-horse to ride your own errands or a Covenant with the most high Lord a Chariot and Stirrop to mount upon the height of your carnall and Clay-projects this is as if one should stop the entry of an Oven with a Kings roberoyall Let God onely God be your last end 1. He is the living God The words Chajah and Havah to be and to live are neere of kindred together for living is the most excellent