earth He is within sight Nam Deus videt God sees within cry for saith he Call on me in trouble and I will hear thee He houses in thy house Know ye not your bodies are the houses of the Holy Ghost A Cordial and may comfort Gods childe a Corrosive and cuts to the quick the sons of Belial God sees thy afflictions and can ease thee He knoweth the impetuous wantonness of the wicked and will punish him But why should I lay on load when God bids Hold off Hands This Scripture is not alledged to terrifie evil livers but to support such as are surround with sorrow Thou livest well and farest ill servest God and art misused by men It is pity that for well-doing thou shouldst be ill intreated This is the course of the World to set light by them who set an high estimate on Gods service The Devil and the sons of Belial both joyn to disjoynt a Saint the wicked with revilings the Devil with temptations The nigher I come to God the closer siege the Devil lays to my soul A daily sinner he seldom assaults No he that is running fast on to Hell needs not be called on to mend his pace but he that is going out of Sodom shall finde many a stop ere he get to Zoar. The approach of Gods Spirit close up to my heart mudles the unclean spirit who vows a return not onely to the house which is empty swept and garnished empty of all Piety swept with the stump worn broom Formality and garnished with the gilt of Hypocrisie but he rages to turn into the Temple of God The heart of the Elect There he hopes for rich plunder Abrahams Jewels Jonathans Purple and Judiths Bravery to surprize a Saints spiritual graces This is that King of Assyria that gives charge to his two and thirty Captains to sight with none but the King of Israel the soul of a Saint O! the fall of such a star he knows would darken Heaven The Apostacy of one Disciple pleases him more then the debauchedness of many Miscreants And now it is that the siege is laid against the precious sould of a sanctified Saint his out-work is battered with persecution his in-work with temptation The Alarm is taken and it holds on all the Summer of our youth and Winter of our old age it lasts from the cradle to the crutch from our birth till our Death To have such an enemy as the Devil and so long a siege as all our lives and such fierce Assailants as seek the ruine of body and soul and for ever Were not this able to crush in pieces Patience But O Jobs Wife be thou gone I never knew her prove a good wise who gave her husband evil counsel I hate here advice to Curse God I like Jobs resolve Yea though the Lord kill me yet will I trust in him Job knew that the Devil was busie about him yet that God was not far from him This is it will make us take our dough upon our shoulders and march though a Wilderness of stinging Serpents We have a cloud behinde to shade us from our enemies a pillar of fire before to guide on to the promised land of our possession The Lord is he who never leaves us nor forsakes us The presence of God is the prime preserver of Patience in afflictions Let me stand it out my Soveraign Lord is within sight Let me not faint since such a second is present The Lord is present What could I do if he were not here What can I not now he is at hand Not onely sight but overcome Become more then Conquerer yea conquer the Devil that meant to make of me a conquest yea Conquer my self whom the DEVIL could not Conquer I am never a freeman untill a Bondman the more I inslave my flesh in which dwells no good thing ne parum ne minimum quidem no not the least good the more my minde my spirit and heart are at liberty now to bring this to pass hic labor hoc opus Our hands are weak and cannot do this work weakned by Adams sin by our own actual sins How can a weak man stand out against a subtile Serpent How can we hold out the fight sixty years that cannot work sixty hours Can frail man undergo a life-lasting Temptation Is not the thought of this able to turn his Patience into Passion to be ever set on day and night waking sleeping without ceasing or intermitting It is now that the power of God begins to manifest it self I am here and here is God I can do nothing without him he will do nothing without me He works in me I work by the help of him I faint he refreshes The light of his countenance puts life into me But O! the mists of homebred Ignorance and hellish Temptations interpose betwixt me and my God! and now with Mary I am ready to cry out They have taken away my Lord and in depriving me of the presence of God they rob me of my perseverance and patience in afflictions This is my fear yet while I fear the worst I may chance fare the best I will sooner approve of a filial fear then a foward presumption Faith may be overcast never finally eclipsed or if eclipsed it is but for a time A short time and the Sun appears even he who made the Sun and the Moon and the Stars God blessed for ever amen Let us by looking up to God as Israel to the Brazen Serpent cure our Soul-sick patience God he is the Register and Records all our sufferings He carries the scales and weighs out our just allowance no more can be laid upon us then he likes no more will he let be laid upon us then we can bear He is night us and none can wrong us He is with us the General with his Souldiers the Soveraign with his Subjects the Phisitian of Souls with his Soul-sick Patients Let us then have patience yea Let your patient minde be known for God is at hand WHERE UNITY Amity I Pet. 3. part of verse 3. Finally be ye all of one minde love as brethren ST Peter shews a scattered Church the best way how to avoid trouble These new Converts in Pontus Galatia Capadocia Asia and Bythenia have been of several judgements but diversity of Opinions breeds discord in Professors And therefore to avoid Insurrection against the State and Schism in the Church the advice is Be ye all of one minde The Gospel makes ex sua Natura union never division neither is it probable that he will make a good Christian that dissevers from the Congregation This Divine Exhortation gives no license for Liberty of Conscience lest Liberty of Conscience become Licentious Libertinism What the Church decrees that Edict must be obeyed for be sure A Schismatick in Discipline when opportunity serves will be a Rebel against his Soveraign A contemner of Church Government hath always been found a close spurner against Kingly Power And therefore
sea of felicity The Israelites are carried into Babylon and the Babylonians are planted in the Land of Israel Gods own people at a loss and the Devils darlings bear all the sway Sad news for the Saints to see such in their possessions and they transplanted into a forreign Land and imprisoned But we must not judge them the best who prevail the most As sinners in the next world shall not escape Gods venngeance so Saints in this life oft times are sad sufferers yea and such sufferers as cannot sing a song of Sion while by the banks of Bybylon O! Mesery without Remedy is able to leave heart-less the best of Saints yet when my reason fails to foresee deliverance let my faith in God tow me to the firm land of his gracious promises Though I should see no hopes in my frail judgement of a settlement yet will I hope for peace for that thou the God of peace art become gracious unto thy land to it and us To us who wanted grace to serve thee gracious to us who were enemies to our selves The God of peace hath made our peace he will have peace with us who had open war with him His mercie is over all his works and our sinful works cannot over-master his mercy Of his own free grace he is reconciled with us our sins set us at odds Gods love to man made the composition what love owe we to him who so loved the world who loved man that loved not himself who shewed love to us to learn us to love one another When Heaven proclaims peace a shame it is for us earthy worms to live at odds let the grace of God lead on to have peace will all men and the more mercie the Lord shews to us the less debate let be found among us our selves But wherein O Lord art thou become gratious unto us If any want eyes and sees it not let him that hath ears hear it Was there ever such an universal devastation Threè Nations off the Hinges Givil and Ecclesiastical Government disjoynted The Heads of the Kirk and Kingdom made shorter by the head Pharaohs lean Kine devoured all the fat Peters Patrimony was but a breakfast The Kingly Revenue unable to pay the publique faith The Riches of the Land exhausted The Souldier unpaid and our lives and livelihood left to the indiscretion of an Arbitrary power When we were fallen into this irrepairable Consumption the Lord set us on foot again composed our differences without blood-shed made peace when no hopes of peace replanted thousands under their own vines Now we may live at home without fear enjoy our own without sequestration have the society of our Wives and young ones in despite of Pike and Pistol O God my God this is thy great work this we attempted but could not bring to pass This thou hast done and none else could do it To our endess comfort we may now report how Thou O Lord art become gracious to thy Land Thou hast restored the Kingdom to the King and the King to his Kingdoms the Nobles to their Honours and the Commons to their Birthright the Law is restored and the Gospel preserved and there is peace from Dan to Beersheba And now is not he ungrate who will not warble out this note O Lord thou art become gracious to thy Land If it had not been thine thou wouldst not redeemed it if thou hadst not been the Lord of Hosts no other L. General could have done it But what is thine who can keep from thee To think who thou art is able to blunt the edge of all opposers Blessed be God for that our Land is thine and thou hast owned it and that thou who art Lord of Heaven we hold our land here below on thee But by the Land is meant all in the Land The Brutes have found Gods favour they did groan under the pressure of a Civil War The War is ended and they at quiet now they may take their pastime in the pastures skipping over the Mountains and leaping over the Valleys Their Masters by a Metonymie may be here meant and by Land be understood the inhabitants of the land blessed not onely in their new Restorement but late punishment We had little grace till we had a large lash we had sinned much and have suffered long And as the Walnut-tree brings forth most fruit when most cudgel'd so that Sons of God are most penitent when most afflicted And thus our God is doing us good when we think harm he was never more gracious to his three Confessors then when they were in the furnace He casts us into the fire of affliction to make us run for current coyn in his Kingdom He brings us to Heaven by Hell-gates and first hacks and hues the bole of our bodies to make men serviceable timber to build up a living Altar His Cedars are fel'd and now made fit his metal melted and the gold resined The fuel is consumed but the Bullion forth coming our Tormentors taken away and we sufferers saved O our good God he whips his childe and burns his rod purges us and expunges our foes Blessed be our God who in mercy hath corrected us while in fury he hath consumed them them who had pulled down Majestie Magistracy Ministery They made our Kingdom an Akeldama a field of blood our Church a Den of thieves our Judicatures the High-places of high injustice But thou O Lord hast delivered us out of the Lyons paw from blood-thirsty and blood-guilty men who tyrannized over King and Kingdom Church and Church-men And for this cause we cannot but singing say and saying sing How O Lord thou hast been gracious to thy Land GODS MAGISTRATES THE Peoples Deliverers Psal 77.20 Thou didst lead thy people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron THese words are spoke by David when sore afflicted what misfortune had befallen him I finde not upon record that shrewdly incumbred is without dispute But what a King and surrounded with sorrow and beset with care O! Majestie is not exempt from misery no more then the fairest day from a dark cloud and dashing shower But say the storm be raised and David in it How comes it to be becalmed When I think what God did for the three it puts me in hopes how he will relieve one I cannot but confide How my God will free his servant from the conspiracy of wicked men while I call to minde How thou my God didst lead thy people like sheep out of Egypt by the hand of Moses and Aaron Never people more made slaves forc't to work much and want their wages their task of brick is enreased and their stubble take from them they are ordered to spend all their days in Pharaohs Brick-kilns and yet while they do Pharaohs work Pharaoh murthers all their males Our Kingly Prophet in the midst of his pressures calls to minde this slavish oppression he grieved before takes up now had almost despaired of support but
not have freed us Hadst thou not been our God thou wouldst not have done this for us We have experienced thy power as the Lord and none do come in competition we have found thy favour as our God and it is thy superlative mercy is solely to be magnified Let us weep for that we have sinned against so good a God let us joy in the Lord for that relieved by the arm of the Lord our God Of late we were in Babylon now in Sion servants to slaves now servants only to God and the King praised be God it is thou whom we do serve though of late O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have ruled us He that takes upon him to rule without God is sure to be punished by the Devil Let me tell you an Usurper on Earth is a Free-holder in Hell and though he make us suffers for the present he in all likelihood is to be tormented to Eternity But what a madness is this to strive to rule a multitude when thou canst not rule one to seek for soveraignty over men when thy usurped power makes thee a slave to the Devil It is the most unseemly sight for Peasants to personate Princes and for Princes to stand at the Bar when Peasants sit on the bench We have seen the time and God be blessed over-lived the time and though long inslaved at length relieved Yet to humble us and give God thanks we do confess to our late grief and now joy how O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have ruled us THE ANGELS ANTHEME Luke 2.14 Glory be to God in the highest peace upon earth goodwil to man THe occasion of this Antheme is Christs Birthdome the Messenger is an Angel his Message to the Sheepherds the news glad tidings to all people the Choristers a multitude of heavenly Souldiers their Angelical Carrol Glory be to God in the highest peace upon earth goodwil toward man Christ is born and Christs Brithdom and the Angels Antheme divulge the great love of the great God to mean man For God sent his Son from Heaven to Earth he came from Heaven he came to Earth he became man to make us all men was born of a Virgin O blessed Birthdom whose birth gives life to many millions O Divine condescention Our Christ came to live with men that we men might live with God He assmes our nature to make peace betwixt the Creator and the Creature nay more he took upon him life natural that so he might free us all from death eternal He lived to dye that we might not dye but live His Birth is the forerunner of all our benefits and therefore in honor of that Day Christs Birthday Angels sing a Gloria Patri they sing the Antheme in three parts In Alto. In Alto glory be to God in the highest In Basso In Basso Peace upon earth In Medio In Medio Goodwil towards men The Singers are the Angels the Ditty Glory Peace Goodwil the Tune in Alto Basso Medio behold Glory ascends on high Peace possesses the earth Goodwil pursues each soul And thus Heaven Earth and Man bear all parts in this Song God in Heaven Man on Earth and the Earth from whence Man came each do here bear their part apparent while glory is given to God Peace to the Earth goodwil to Man What soul is not ravished with this sacred Ditty sung by Angels sung on Christs Brithday sung for joy That our Redemption drew nigh A Song to be sung in Triple time which as Musicians know allows of two Minnims down and one onely up And is not here one up Glory be to God on high And two down Peace be upon earth And two down Good-will towards man These are Heavens Waits and being come to the doors of us Mortals they double their strokes and having honored God God takes it for no dishonor in a redoubled note for them to express their love to us Thus shall be done to them whom the King means to honor Well let Angels be our Samplers and let us learn by them to us to give back again to God praise and glory praise for our Creation glory for our Redemption Let God have the glory for making our peace with him yea glory to God in the highest for affording us peace one with another peace within ourselves and for that hope we have of that Peace which passeth all understanding And as thus we give glory to God for this peace proclaimed so glory be to God for his goodwil to man we may possess our souls in peace for we have the good will of God we had enslaved our selves to sin and Satan It is Gods good will to free us from Hell and the Devil The Prince of darkness is rooted and our peace is purchased not onely peace for us who are earth but the goodwil of God to all mankinde on earth But though the Greek Fathers interpret these words of Gods goodwil to man yet the Latine Fathers thus translate this Antheme Peace be upon earth to men of goodwil As if men could never be at peace with God the Father whilest he bears ill will to his neighbour He is quite out of tune who is not in charity neither will God afford him peace that affords not his neighbour love As love is the fulfilling of the Law so the large and the long and the brief and the semi-brief in this sacred Sonnet An ill will d man is a wicked man and while he lives at odds with men can never have hopes of peace with God But the twofold Exposition of the Greeks and Latines the one expounding this Antheme of Gods goodwill to us the other of ours to God and all mankinde This proclaims How Heaven and Earth are agreed God loves us and we love him and we all one another He us before we were we him in time He loved us before we loved him we love him after his love to us hath mollified our stony hearts But how comes this good agreement none were more at odds then God and man O! the reconcilement is made by the Birth of Christ a Birth predicted by the Sibbels foretold by the Prophets and confessed by all Christians Christ Harbinger came before our Saviour came quickly afeter When nigh at hand the cry went Advenit advenit advenit advenit He comes he comes he comes he comes to us in utero Virginis in the womb of a Virgin O rate generation Adam was neigher of man nor woman Eve from a man but no woman Our Saviour is born of a woman begot of no man he is born man and Mary made the Mother of God For the Word was made flesh Joh. 1.14 and all this that we who are more flesh then Spirit might by the Spirit of Christ become less carnal and more spiritual And now since Christ is come to save us us his enemies such enemies as made a combination with the World Flesh and Devil against the Father Son and Holy Ghost
Warlike care Such an Army of Souldiers make an Host of Saints and if they thus lead a life of Grace the Lord of Hosts will lead them to a life of glory Their reward is in Heaven and they are sure of it the Lord never fails them that fear him but so soon as the Souldiers scabbard falls to the ground the blade is laid up with the Lord Though thou be at a loss for a time thy soul will be safe in Abrahams bosom It is better then to live well then fight well especially for Souldiers whose lives are so very oft in danger Let this threefold Admonition fore-arm them and warn us to lead a good life if ever we mean to enjoy a life everlasting Gods Love MANS LIFE John 3.16 God so loved the World that be c. LOrd inspire me with thy Spirit that my tongue may shew forth thy praise whilest my heart rejoyceth in God my Saviour And since it is not in the heart of man to sathom the depth of thy love O give me leave to admire thy love to him who deserves the utmost of thy vengeance Hadst not thou been a God whose mercy is not to be measured man had never tasted of so much mercy in the midst of his Misery But thus to love us when we had forsaken our first-love This is of the Lords doings and it is marvellous in our eyes Let me lay the guilt of Humane Nature wide ope to the World then the God of Nature will be magnified and the Attribute of his Mercy mightily admired Was not man made little inferior to the Angels The prime piece of Gods Workmanship in the likeness of God did God make man And could a Creature expect an higher favour from his Creator Was he not seated in Paradise an Heaven upon Earth Had he not given unto him Dominion over all the whole Creation And might not his Lordship have Lorded it over all the Creatures He who had all to obey him on Earth was tied onely to obey that one God in Heaven and yet he aspires to be as God A sin so transcendent to turn a Traytor to his Liege-Lord as no mouth dare justifie him no Angel plead for him for in committing this one sin he stood guilty of Ingratitude to his Liege-Lord of Covetousness for aspired to have the Regiment of Angels of Rebellion for rebelled against God and his King As Divines conceive in committing this one sin Adam coagulated all sins not making his Person onely but Humane Nature accessary And thus he dishonored God destroyed himself and corrupted all mankinde And yet rebus sic stantibus instead of punishing God pities instead of confounding God comforts Death was threarned if Adam sinned life is promised after he had sinned not for any foreseen good in man but because God would be so good to man Lust inthrald us Love set us at liberty it was the love of God and therefore of the best sort He so loved as no parallel can equal He loved the World a large extent and gave his Son not a servant his onely Son it s much to have but one and part with that one But why parts God and his Son That some of the sons of men might come to God even as many as believe All then are not at a loss as many shall be saved as lelieve Salvation then is not of works but faith And this Faith myst be in him not in the Jewish Talmud Turkish Alcaron nor Popes Pardons but a Belief in Christ Jesus a belief That as Adam made us guilty of death so that by the death of Christ me shall be freed from the second death and have life here a life of grace bereafter a life of glory here the Inchoation after the Consummation now we live to dye through Christ we dye to live and have a life everlasting What could Adam and all we have expected less what could he and we have more desired we were doomed to dye reprived to live by the Judge of Heaven sentenced to an Eternity of torments by the same Judge our sentence is repealed to a fair possibility of salvation And thus for us to sin against God and God thus to put it up and not onely not to punish with death but to provide for us life life everlasting This may put Humane Wit to a stand Was ever Love like this says the Scripture Can a Woman forget her own Childe The Quaere implies a possibility but a rarity Such forgetfulness may be in us mortals there in none at all in our Maker Being arch enemies to him he befriends us and parts with his own Son to make us his Sons and Daughters yea heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Jesus And thus he gives gold for dross and all to make us who are dross to pass for currant coyn in his Kingdom Saith David to Jonathan Thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women But behold and wonder here is love surpassing mans expression The love of God to man so to love him as to redeem him to send his Son to dye to save man from death and to require no more but to believe to believe His own Son hath paid the ransome with his own life to purchase us a life Everlasting O let my life answer my belief We do not believe in Christ if we lead not the life of grace Though faith onely justifies alone faith never justifies If I do good works to testifie my Sanctification before men then my belief in Christ will ensure my Justification before God As my faith must justifie me so my works must justifie my faith No man believes in Christ that lives in sin I say not who is sometimes gull'd but every day misled and willingly the effect of faith is an holy life As light attends on the Sun so good works on Faith he that lives well cannot believe ill Thy life ensures me of thy belief thy belief of the love of God yea and that thou art one of those of whom it is said God so loved the World that he c. GODS PRESENCE Patiences Protector Phil. 4. part of verse 5. The Lord is at hand THese words were writ to the Philippians occasioned for that surrounded with sorrow and overcast with care They profess Christ and for it scorn'd by the Jews scoft at by the Gentiles Now lest despair crush them or impatience provoke them this Memento is given them The Lord is at hand One able to support for A Lord No mean one for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord nor is he far off for saith S. Paul At hand on thy right hand to comfort not on thy left hand to scourge Our God is in Heaven and our God is here Residentially above Potentially below There is his Palace and here he perambulates and as thou canst not flie from thy shade no more from God The Sun is above and vertually with us and God is in Heaven yet always with men on