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
of free grace deepe wisedome in God must bee more then halfe play-maker here and in this redeeme the lost world The Chaldeans spoyle Job and plunder him Satan maketh him an empty house and a childelesse father mercy commeth up in the Theater and free Grace maketh Job an illustrious and faire copy of patience and faith to all ages Achitophel did as many now with our King doth hee gave wicked counsell against the Lords servant and a just cause divine justice cometh in in the game and Achitophel hangeth himselfe The use of this shall answer two questions 1. Why doth God suffer sinne to be and so much sinne in England and Ireland 2. Why doth hee suffer his people in Covenant with him to bee a land of bloud The former question is a generall a wicked Marcion asketh why the Lord who foresaw the event did suffer Evah and the Devill to conferre and if he was able why did hee not hinder sinne to bee except he had been either envious and would not or weake and could not hinder the enters of sinne in the world Tertullian answereth Because the Lord is free in his gifts Augustine answereth Epist. 59. ad Paulinum Quia voluit because it was his will Prosper and Hilarius both with Augustine say The cause may be unknown it cannot be unjust Though it were in the Potters hand to turne clay into brasse yet his power should not destroy his liberty to cause him to make a lame vessell such as if it had reason and will to fall it should not bee broken Why should Daniels enemies prevaile so as to cast him to Lions that these knees that bowed often to God and these hands which was lifted up to him should be eaten with Lions O lame vessell beleeve beleeve but dispute not And the answer is cleare sinne is the worst thing that is but the existence of sinne is not ill otherwayes saith Augustine God should never permit it to be Yea sinnes being in the world is silva justiciae divinae officina gratiae Christi A field for the glory of revenging justice and sinne is the work house of the pardoning grace of God And therefore there bee good reasons why the Lord should permit sinne and such sinnes 1. That there may be roome in the play for pardoning grace the colour and beauty of free grace had never beene made obvious in such a way to the eye of Angels and Men if sinne had not beene 2. There had beene no employment for the mercy of a soule-redeeming Jesus 3. Wee should not have had occasion in the eares of Angels to hold up for ever and ever the new Psalme of the Praises of a Redeemer 4. By this nature clay and fraile nature and selfe-dependence is cried downe and God exalted 5. By this the humble love of the contrite and broken in heart is necessitated to kisse the bowels of him who bindeth up the broken hearted mourners in Sion and furrowes of blood put to reall acknowledgement of everlasting compassion 6. Hence also are minors and poore pupils put to improve their faith and dependence upon so Kingly a Tutor as never enough loved and admired Jesus Christ 7. Hence to the praise of grace Satan hath faire justice and that in foro contradictorio in open patent Court when clay triumpheth over Angels and Hell through the strength of Jesus Christ The other question is also soone answered Why should the cause of God be so oppressed and his Churches garments rolled in blood But 1. God must bee knowne to bee God in his owne chaire of estate and hee must be The Saviour of Israel in the time of trouble 2. Satan Prelates Papists Malignants shall be vnder-workmen and kitchin-servants to him who hath his fire in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem to purifie and refine the vessels of mercy in the Lords house 3. Christs Bride must know that this is their Inne not their home their Pilgrimage not their Countrey otherwise our Lord knoweth how to lead his passengers to Heaven not by Sea but by dry land 4. All must see that the losse of men is not the Lords losse but the Gospels gaine 5. His glorious grace must be commended who suiteth in marriage a spouse to himselfe in no place rather then in the Furnace Esay 48. 10. 6. Prayers and praises must bee the rent paid to him to whom belongeth the issues from death The Lord hath a great worke now on the wheeles in Britain Be very charitable of our Lords dispensation though the slaine of the Lord bee many in England and Ireland looke not on the darke side of Gods providence or on the blacke and weeping side of his dispensation widdowes are multiplied almost as the sand of the Sea children weepe and cry Alas my father mothers in Ireland die twice when they see their children slaine before their eyes and then are killed themselves Oh! say men why doth the Lord this Behold the faire and smiling side of Gods providence contrary windes from Rome from hell by the art of omnipotency promove the sailing and course of Christs ship 1. God is now drawing an excellent portract of a refined Church but with the inke of the innocent blood of his people say not What is the Lord doing or Is there knowledge in the Almightie who hath given the Lord counsell better wee be his courtiers then his counsellors 2. If we love the dust and the stones of Sion Psalme 102. 14. Christ is ravished with one of his Churches eyes and with a chaine of her neck Cant. 4. 9. God loveth his owne glory more ardently then I can love it 3. The Church is dearer bought to Jesus then to me or you hee hath given too great a price for her to lose her 4. Rather when wee cannot see to the bottome of providence beleeve upon plain trust and say as Esay 8. 17. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him Part. 2. In every dominion of my kingdome This is the second part wherein the parties to whom this Law is given are expressed in their universalitie as they are v. 25. To all people nations and languages that dwell on all the earth peace Whence observe That Nations without the visible Church never wanted means either ordinary or extraordinary to know God though we cannot in reason say that the Decree or Law of a heathen King is the Arminian universall grace yet some means all have And God hath laid open foure bookes to all nations 1. That booke of creation of the Heavens and his workes Psalme 19. 1. The Heavens Mesappe-rajim cevodel doe booke and register the glory of God Romanes 1. 20. 2. The booke of ordinary providence is a Chronicle or Diurnall of a God-head and a Testimony that there is a God Acts 14. 17. Acts 17. 27. 3. There is a booke of the extraordinary workes of God and some report of the true God upon occasion
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
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
Gods duration best whereas our being taketh three verbs to expresse it this man was and continueth yet and to morrow shall be but may not bee 2 Pet. 3. 8. One day is with the Lord as a thousand yeares and a thousand yeeres as one day And therefore he is the King of ages 1 Tim. 1. 17. as if generations and centuries of yeares were his subjects and servants His Sonne Christ is Esay 9. 6. The Father of Eternitie And Esay 57. 15. He inhabiteth Eternitie Men do not inhabite Eternitie For in this we do but take by the curtains of time and looke into the borders of Eternitie and in the life to come we shall bee beside Eternity and not inhabite Eternity so as if non-existence and our glorified natures should involve a contradiction whereas existence is as essentiall to the glorious Majesty of God as his blessed essence and his blessed essence involveth a contradiction not to bee And all time-gods are no gods for if you say God you say an eternall necessity of an eternall and ever living God And this maketh God free from change and from ups and downes from falling and rising that are incident to all created natures even to men and Angels Vse 1. If God be eternall and Lord of time we must be carefull that wee say not as the people doth Jer. 8. 20. The harvest is past and the summer is ended and we are not saved Wee are inclined to weepe upon time as being too long especially when wee our selves and the Lords Church have sad and bloody dayes But the children of God have three advantages which are as many motives to cause us to submit to Gods dispensation of time 1. Wait on for Psal. 9. 18. The hope of the poore shall not perish for ever Psal. 40. 1. I waited patiently on the Lord and what was the issue and he inclined his eare and heard my cry 2. He brought me also out of the horrible pit out of the mirie clayes and set my feet on a rock and established my goings Hence as while the bellows blow the fire casteth heat and light so doth the heat and fervour of our long lodging under the crosse make broad aimes of praising and walking thankefully and when the breathing of the Bellowes ceaseth the fire goeth out again so when we are delivered and are cooled wee turn cold in performing reall thankfulnesse to God but let faith in long troubles wait on and sow seed in Heaven and on Christ and that is excellent soyle and wee shall reape in due time if we faint not 2. Gods delayes are the seeds of greater mercies we are to borrow that expression to pardon the long delayed salvation of God and to forgive times leaden wheeles which move slowly because God recompenseth want of present deliverance with a superplus of grace Was it not best that Jacob was not blessed at the first his faith was lengthned to continue with this I will not let thee goe while thou blesse me The woman of Canaans daughters body is not freed of the divell at the first or second cry but her owne soule is inriched with faith great faith and fervour of spirit to continue in praying and humble submission to bee willing to be a dogge to Christ and here the Lord often recompenseth the want of Brasse with the presence of Gold For faith here intrusteth a stocke in Gods hand and doth forbeare and suspend both principall and annuall till Gods time come Therefore wee are to take heed that while we fret and challenge our Lord that hee loseth time that we be not in the mean time losing time our selves if he hold his Church long in the furnace if his Church doe not joyn with God actively to melt her selfe and to humble her selfe under Gods mighty hand then the Church loseth her time but God doth not lose a moment The Gold-smith should hold his vessell in the fire till it be melted and refined Here also wee are to consider that to deliver out of some crosse as it is Gods mercy so it is my duetie I lose a father a childe a deare friend in warre I can never in this life be delivered from this crosse according to the reality of it for my father my childe my deare friend once being dead cannot returne to mee againe but though I cannot bee delivered from the reall losse yet may I by Gods grace deliver my selfe from the impatient fretting and distrustfull apprehension of that losse by doing that for conscience to the God of patience who commandeth mee to submit which for length of time I shall doe but here wee obey time rather then God 3. Gods time is better then ours for hee knoweth when wee are ripe for deliverance and when the drosse cometh away from the mettâ—ll and when we cast our scumme Here before we glorifie him we would binde him to deliver us and we desire here to be served before God that he should deliver before we be mortified and dead to our lusts But it is better that our paine continue praising and beleeving as both paine and faith be removed How excellent is that of the Church crying out of the deep Psal. 130. 5. I wait for the Lord But many lie stil under the load rather then wait because they cannot help the businesse therefore he addeth My soule doth wait 2. Many wait and they know not whereon it is a fooles nest they seeke therefore he addeth And in his Word doe I trust A soule is not bottomed on a dreame in his on-waiting when he hath the Word of God for his warrant 3. Many doe wait but it is deliverance that they wait for and not for God himselfe therefore saith he ver. 6. My soul waiteth for the Lord It is as much for God and a communion with him that faith waiteth for as for deliverance 4. But many wait but very lazily and with great deadnesse the Prophet expresseth more of himselfe My soule waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning I say more then they that watch for the morning Such a waiter with these foure qualifications can never be delivered out of time Here then are newes Awake O Sion sit no longer in ashes put on thy beautifull garments O people really in Covenant with God England Brittain be not weary the King is comming Christ is in his journey posting deliverance is at hand O beleever make no haste O prisoner of hope die not in the prison Oh! we want faith It is the art and cunning of faith to beleeve and not see and to have memory for eyes and sense but we would both sow and reap in one day and would have physicke and health both in one houre we would alwayes be at miracles Vse 2. If God be eternall his love and decrees must be necessary and irresistable nothing is so necessary as that which is eternall Then I could easily yeeld considering who are this day against us we should be
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