the present putting a new song of praise into your mouthes A prop for your faith to stay upon for time to come the Lord hath delivered and will deliver A further advantage to break the power of the malicious and ungodlymen and a warning to you to beware of neuters and secret false friends who though they take sweet counsell together with you and speak you fair beleeve them not for there are seven abominations in their hearts And by all this ye are I suppose fully satisfied that these works of our Lord God Almighty are as marvellous for their manner as before you have heard they were for their time kinde and instruments working light out of darknesse causing even the experience of the Church in these later ages clearly to interpret Sampsons riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetnesse and making all the bloudy and cruell entendments of the Antichristian enemie in the effect no more hurtfull and dangerous to the Church then his was to Phereus Iason when he run at him with his sword and in stead of killing him opened an incurable imposthume and saved his life Secondly as they are great and wonderfull so as evident is it that they are just and true the justice of them is celebrated chap. 16. 5. Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus and chap. 18. 6. we finde the Angel calling upon the Church Reward her as she hath rewarded you double unto her double according unto her work in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double how much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her O in what exact ballances hath Christ proportioned and weighed out gall and wormwood reproach and shame bloud and ruin to these enemies making them to drink of the same cup which they had before reached to his servants They had grievously afflicted the bodies of the Saints of Christ and now behold upon them noysome and grievous sores They had drunk the bloud of the Saints and Prophets and now behold rivers and fountains of bloud given them to drink They had their Edicts to kill heretikes and Lollards as they called them and now in England and among the Netherlands it 's made capitall for the Iesuits and other Incendiaries and Factors for the Whore to be found amongst them They had burnt the worshippers of Christ and now behold themselves scorched with fire and great heat They had before deprived the Saints of the light of the Scriptures and now behold the Beasts Kingdom overspread with darknesse so that they gnaw their tongues for pain Thus you see the King of Saints rendring according to that rule of justice Eye for eye breach for breach tooth for tooth full measure shaken together and running over Ecclesiasticall historie is full of instances which speak home to our purpose in this particular of Emperours Kings Nobles Popes Bishops Priests men women of all ranks and degrees upon whom these righteous judgements of God have been made manifest you have a whole Catalogue of them digested to your hands in Mr. Foxes book of Acts and Monuments I shall let passe this particular onely with this one observation That whereas this great enemy this Abaddon this Apollyon is made up of all the hatefull qualities of all those Kingdoms which heretofore have oppressed the Church of God and is therefore called Aegypt Sodom Babylon so the wrath of these vialls poured out upon him is the mixture and quintessence of those plagues and judgements whereby all those Kingdoms formerly were destroyed for here you have noysome and grievous sores waters turned into bloud palpable darknesse thunder and lightning and great hailestones the plagues of Aegypt here you have the drying up of the river Euphrates the means of the destruction of Babylon fire and brimstone the judgement of Sodom Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are all thy judgements And they are as clearly celebrated for their truth Even so Lord God Almighty True are all thy judgements was the voyce of the Angel out of the Altar at the pouring out the viall upon the Rivers and Fountains of waters turning them into bloud and after they were all poured out Iohn heard the voyce of much people in heaven saying Hallelujah salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God for True and righteous are his judgements for he hath judged the great whore which to understand you must know that these vialls were put up long ago by Christ and laid up in store with him and sealed up among his treasures and written in a book and not onely so but the Counterpart of this book was sent and signified by his Angel unto his servant Iohn and the epoche or time of their beginning and the whole series of their accomplishment for time and place matter manner and measure exactly represented to him whereof many things are already come to our knowledge being fulfilled just ad amussim apocalypseôs according to the standard of the Revelation and although some things concerning the interpretation of these plagues and curses remain yet dark unto us being not fully accomplished yet when all these vialls shall once be poured out the whole Church shall be able to say of them as Ioshuah did in another case of the blessings You know that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe and not one thing hath failed So not one drop of all these vialls hath fallen to the ground in vain not a plague failed but all have accomplished the things for which they were sent write them down These are the true sayings of God If you would know some reason why Christ delights to proceed after this manner in the destruction of this enemy I answer First because this enemy is the master-piece of all the Devils workmanship the Dragons darling to whom he hath delivered over his power and his State his throne and dignity whatever Beelzebub prince of the Devils and the whole Conclave of hell could invent all hath been infused into this grand Adversary there was never yet State framed in the world by the wit and art of man more wisely contrived and plotted more powerfull and forcible to subdue the whole world unto it self by claiming a Ius divinum laying a foundation for firm obedience in mens consciences and having in it sufficient to nourish all mens affections and to fit every mans humour that each fancie may be satisfied and each appetite finde what to feed on yea what ever may prevail with any man is there to be found wealth for the covetous honour for the ambitious learning for the studious great employment for metald spirits multitudes of ceremonies for the superstitious gorgeousnesse of shows for the vulgar and simple miracles for
be cleared out of the fourth Chapter of this Book which is the Stage of all the Apocalypticall visions Secondly we have the things themselves or the marvellous signes which were seen in this place and they are three First The behaviour of the true Church of Christ during this time of the pouring out of the vialls ver. 2 3 4. Secondly The description of the seven Angels the instruments who were to pour out these vialls their apparatus qualifications and furniture they come out of the temple clothed in pure and white linnen and having their breasts girded with golden girdles Habitu cluctu sacerdotali ornati like the Priests of God Ezek. 44. 17 18. pure worshippers Thirdly A description of the Church in reference to Christs presence with it his owning and protecting it though after a more dark manner vers. 8. The Temple was filled with smoak from the glory of God and from his power c. alluding to Gods taking possession of the Tabernacle Exod. 40. 34. and of Solomons Temple 1 King 8. 10 11. The first of these I am to deal with at this time viz. The behaviour of the Church during the time of the pouring out the vialls Wherein observe two things first their state verse 2. secondly their work verse 3 4. Their state I saw as it were a sea of glasse mingled with fire and them that had gotten the victory over the Beast c. stand on the sea of glasse having the harps of God This sea of glasse or crystall is described Chap. 4. 6. placed before the Throne alluding to the great Laver or Sea in Solomons Temple wherein the Priests were to wash themselves from their uncleannesses whenever they approached nigh to the Altar of God to offer sacrifice onely that was made of brasse this of a more pure and transparent metall In this Laver the Reformed Churches had lately been washed from the foulnesse and pollutions of Antichristianity out of which they had newly escaped having gotten the victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the number of his Name and being cleansed in this Laver though mingled with fire whether of contention or other affliction I dispute not they stand up on the brim of it with the harps of God in their hands with instruments of praise as the Israelites did upon the banks of the Red-sea thorow which they had lately passed and in it been baptized unto God singing a song of praise for their great deliverance from Pharaoh and his Hoast who perished in the pursuing of them This was their condition and their posture a delivered cleansed condition a praisefull posture Secondly their work during the time of the pouring out the vialls they sang an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a triumphant song Canticum gratulatorium eucharisticum a song of praise and thanksgiving wherein observe two things first the Title of the Song The Song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb Secondly the subject matter of the Song Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty c. The title First the song of Moses the servant of God i. e. such a Song and upon such an occasion as Moses and Miriam and the rest of the Israelites sang unto God when they had passed through the Red sea 2ly and the song of the Lamb we have many songs of the Lamb recorded in this Booke cap. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power c. is the constant song of the whole Church of Christ cap. 5. 9. the same quire sings a new song to the Lamb when hee had taken the booke to unloose the Seales thereof cap. 11. 17. the same Church sings another song of prayse upon the resurrection of the two witnesses and the fall of the tenth part of the great City We give thee thankes O Lord God Almighty c. cap. 12. 10. upon Michaels victorie over the dragon there is another Song of praise Now is come salvation and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ c. cap. 14. 3. there's a New Song sung before the throne which no man could learne but the hundred forty and foure thousand which were redeemed from the earth Now whether this Song of the Lamb be the Song which those harpers sang or whether and how farre it is composed out of the rest of the songs recorded in this Book is needlesse as some Interpreters doe to enquire because we have the matter of the Song layed downe in so many words it is sufficient that it 's therefore called the Song of the Lamb because it was indited by the Spirit of the Lamb and tends to advance the glory of the Lamb their Saviour and Deliverer 2. The matter of the Song which divides in selfe into two parts 1. The Churches confession of the nature of those workes which Christ doth in the pouring out the seven vialls ver. 3. viz. Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints i. e. They are great and wonderfull fit onely to bee done by him who is the Lord God Almghty just and true well becomming him who is the King of Saints 2. The use which the Church makes of these works which is threefold 1. They record celebrate and publish them 2. They engage and binde themselves faster and closer to him in his worship and service Who shall not feare thee O Lord and glorify thy Name for thou onely art holy 3. They prophetically foretell the use which shall be made of these workes by such as yet were strangers viz. As Christ proceedes to manifest these wonderfull and righteous plagues and judgments upon the Antichristian world the people of Italy Germany France England Scotland Denmarke Sweden Polonia Hungaria and the rest of the elect shall shake off the Yoke of Antichrist and submit to the Scepter of Iesus Christ for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest Thus you have a plaine view of the Text together with the interpretation out of which many excellent and usefull truths might be observed As first that all which is done in the pouring out of the seven vialls is the wrath of God upon the Antichristian faction so that however in the pouring out of every viall there is something which is grievous to the reformed Churches to humble purge and quicken them yet there is no wrath upon anywhere ever it is poured but onely as there is something of Antichrist among them which Christ will search for find and destroy where-ever he finds it Consider the whole work of the vialls and you shall finde noysome and grievous sores upon them onely that have the mark of the Beast the drinking of bloud the scorching with heat the gnawing of their tongues for paine the being destroyed with hailstones c. All these light
onely upon the followers of the Beast the worshipers of the Beast the kingdome of the Beast therefore let none feare any hurt frōthese judgments which Christ is now inflicting but such as either secretly or openly harbour any of Antichrists acursed stuff which must be destroyed let it be I beseech you your speedy care to cast out of this Nation and Church all those reliques which are the oyl and fuel that feed the flame which burnes amongst us God calls you now to this work and will be with you while you set your hearts and hands to doe it and doe it speedily it may be it is one Cause why so many breaches are made upon you because you have no more vigorously attempted it in the first place and fear not that ye should therby lose a party or strengthen a party against you beleeve it that party that hath drunk of the whores cup and is in love with her abominations will never be assistant nor wil Christ suffer them to overthrow the worke committed to your hands they may and shall destroy themselves bringing the curses written in this book upon themselves and their posteritie as Achan did by hiding the Babylonish garment and wedg of gold in his tent but the Lord will be with you therefore go on and prosper 2. Observe That how ever in the pouring out of these vialls in the destroying of the Antichristian faction Christ useth the ministery of Angels of instrumēts comming out of the Temple and fitted for that work yet the work is ascribed to Christ alone Great and marvellous are thy workes just and true are thy wayes thy judgments are made manifest Many worthy and excellent instruments hath Christ stirred up and employed in this Service many famous and learned Divines many excellent Nobles many illustrious Kings Queenes and Princes many grave Senates and Parliaments amongst whom I doubt not Yourselves will one day be recorded have put their hands to this worke to make this harlot desolate and naked to eat her flesh and burne her with fire for God hath put it in their hearts to fulfill his will but they conferre nothing of their own to the work they are but his instruments his bow and his battle-axe meer dead tooles who receive all their efficacy and operation from his hand who useth them their presence addes no strength to him their absence makes the work no more difficult to him And therefore let not our faith comfort ebbe and flow with the increase wane of humane helps Let us not therefore thinke the work will sooner be done because strong is our hand and arme of flesh nor that we are therefore like to lose the cause because our helpes prove either weake or treacherous the viall now pouring out is the Lords work and he will see it done doubt ye not 3. observ. That all the time of Christs pouring out the vialls of his wrath upon Antichrist should be a joyful time to the Church of Christ al those daies should be days of Purim days of thāksgiving though they stand upon a sea mingled with fire they should have the harpes of God in their hands and Hallelujahs in their mouths because Christ is judging the great whore and avenging the bloud of his servants at her hand Although it be so disposed by Christ that during the time of the vialls his Churches have much bitternesse and the hayle of every storme in some degree lights upon them yet must they overlook their own sufferings and be filled with joy for the judgments executed upon Christ's and their enemies and not deferre their prayses till their deliverances be compleat but upon every new deliverance to them and upon every new judgment upon the enemies have their mouths filled with new and renewed songs of prayse and thanksgivings to God as we doe this day These many such like general observations from the words are obvious to every eye very seasonable and suitable to the mercies celebrated this day I desire that they may not lightly be passed over in your thoughts though I shall say no more of thē purposing to confine my speech to one only observation which indeed is the very {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the Text the burden of the song and to apply it for the same ends and uses for which it is here recorded by the Holy Ghost viz. The workes of Christ in the pouring out the vialls of his wrath in taking vengeance of the Antichrist and his followers are great and wonderfull fit to be wrought by him onely who is the Lord God Almighty just and true well becoming the King of Saints First they are great works whether of Mercy or Judgment or are great when they are the effects either of great wisedome in their contrivance or of great power in their production Secondly marvellous or wonderfull and that in a threefold respect First such as are rare and unusuall which seldome happen these draw mens eyes after them and make men wonder at them Secondly such as are unexpected which come praeter spem things which no body would think to come to passe Thirdly and chiefly things are wonderfull which are beyond our comprehension whereof we cannot see the causes whose height and depth cannot be measured such as nothing but the power of an infinite and Almighty God can bring to passe Thirdly Iust Wayes are just when they are according to a right rule and wayes of judgement of which my Text are then just when they are according to the nature kinde and degree of the sinnes against which they are executed Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus for they have shed the bloud of thy Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgements Fourthly True Wayes are then true when according to Covenant when done according to what was foretold and these wayes become a King of Saints other Kings often deal unjustly bearing the sword to execute wrath upon them that do well strengthening the hands of them that do evill condemning the righteous and acquitting the wicked and often untruly breaking their Oaths falsifying their Covenants but this King of Saints doth so manifest his righteous judgements that his people shall be able to say According to their deeds and according to his Word hath he repayed fury to his adversaries recompense to his enemies and his enemies though with gnashing of teeth shall acknowledge with Adonibezek As we have done so hath God done unto us Now that Christs judgements hitherto manifested in the pouring out the vialls of his wrath in thus farre destroying this great Antichristian enemy are thus great and wonderfull thus just and true may easily appear to every carefull Observer of the Church-story in these parts of Christendome this last Century of years since this work hath been in hand
The particular instances are too many to be related in a Sermon I shall mention onely some few things which as so many continued threads have run through this whole peece of his workmanship first in the greatnesse and wonderfulnesse secondly in the truth and righteousnesse of them First these works have been great and wonderfull for the kinde When the Antichristian Empire which at first was contrived with that wisedome and underpropped with that strength ruling even the souls and consciences of men and had prevailed so farre that all the Kings and States of the World were so drunken with the Whores Cup that they not onely kissed her well-favoured face but as so many brute beasts lay at her foot-stooll prostituting all their power and strength unto the Beast and under her command making warre even against the Lamb himself and helping to drink the bloud of his Saints none daring to question the truth or rather divinity of her Commands so that she could glorifie her self and say in her heart I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow now that suddenly it should be put into the hearts of most of the Europaean States to hate this Whore to endeavour to make her desolate and naked to eat her flesh and burn her with fire how great and marvellous doth this speak the work for the kinde of it Who but the Lord God Almighty could do this It is certainly the Lords doing and must be marvellous in our eyes Secondly if we consider the time which our Lord Christ was pleased to make choyce of for the effecting these great works they will appear yet more wonderfull even when his Church was at the lowest when he saw that their power was gone and there was none shut up or left when the enemy was come in like a flood and no man to lift up a standard against him when he saw that there was no helper even then put he on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head and the garments of vengeance for his cloathing Who can be ignorant of these things who knows not the low condition of Germany when Luther first appeared though onely against the notorious abuse of the Popes Indulgences and other luxuriant branches of his Tyrannicall usurpation insomuch that a Bishop wishing him well yet despairing of successe counselled him as the Story reports after this manner Frater frater abi in Cellam dic Miserere mei Deus To thy beads Frier thou wilt do no good in this work For the people of Germany were at that time so bewitched with the sorceries of the Whore and so enthralled to her power that as that proud Cardinall too confidently boasted they were ready at the Popes command for the redemption of their souls to have eaten grasse and hay more pecudum after the manner of brute Beasts And was not the Church in other Countries as low namely at the first appearing of Zuinglins and Oecolampadius in Helvetia of Calvin Viret and Farell in France Cranmer Latimer Ridley especially Bilney and Tyndall in England Hamilton Wischart Knox and others in Scotland at that time when in a word the whole Church might have taken up that complaint Ezek. 37. 11. Our bones are dried our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts then did our Lord Christ open their graves and cause them to come up out of their graves and made them live and stand up upon their feet an exceeding great army this also must needs be acknowledged to be the work of the Lord God Almighty who is wonderfull in counsell and excellent in working And as the kinde and time so thirdly the consideration of the meanes and instruments renders them yet more wonderfull to effect great things by weak meanes is an argument of great power and strength That the walls of Iericho should fall at the blast of trumpets of rams horns that a Cake of barley bread tumbling into the hoast of Midian should come unto a tent and smite it and overturn it that the tent should lie along that Gideon and three hundred men with lamps and empty pitchers should overthrow the whole hoast of Midian who came as grashoppers for multitude they and their Camels being without number that a woman should compasse a man a weak woman subdue a mighty man these are New things as the phrase there is Behold the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth a woman shall compasse a man c. And yet this you shall see was no new but Gods usuall and constant course which he takes in this work pouring out these Vialls of his wrath upon this potent enemy by the ministery of most weak and contemptible instruments pulling his Church out of the dungeon of Superstition by old cast clouts and rotten rags as once Ebedmelech the Ethiopian did the Prophet Ieremie Was not Luther a poor Monk and other priests and shavelins newly crept out of their superstitious Cells the first Engineers that battered the walls of this great Babylon who were they but the poorer meaner sort of people that at the first joyned with the Ministers to raise the building of Reformation few of the Princes and Nobles putting their necks to the work of the Lord or if any did yet the Divine Providence so ordered it that either they were suddenly taken off as the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hessen by imprisonment or immaturely taken away as Edward the sixth by death or more miraculously preserved as Queen Elizabeth a woman in England and King Iames a childe in the beginning of Reformation in Scotland and although in the progresse of the work many Kings and Princes have stood up as nursing Fathers yet still we may observe that the greatest things have been done by them from whom least could be expected as not to trouble you with more instances the almost incredible and strange proceedings of the late victorious King of Sweden will abundantly testifie who as a contemptible Prince crossing the Baltick-sea entred Germany with not above five or six thousand men and a very small sum of Mony and yet in as little time had before his death almost brought to nothing that mighty House of Austria thought by many to be the Sun giving light and influence to the Antichristian world upon which the fourth Viall was to be poured out I might I say give you many other instances this may suffice God will you may be confident in time make all the world know that this great Image this great Antichristian Oppressour shall be broken in pieces by a Stone cut out of the Mountains without hands without humane help Fourthly and lastly and above all the manner of his working proves them most wonderfull For if we observe but the goings of this King of Saints if we trace him in his footsteps in this great work of execution upon his enemies marching before his people travelling in the
greatnesse of his strength we finde him leading them in uncouth wayes which they knew not and wayes which to them seemed unpassable His way hath been in the sea and his pathes in the great waters and his footsteps were not known yet still leading his people like a flock sometimes removing mountains our of their way making them flow down at his presence sometimes skipping over them sometimes his way hath been in the whirl-winde and in the great storm yet always working in such wayes and in such a manner as that first his own people have thought he could intend nothing but their ruin as Ionah did when cast into the Sea and swallowed up by the Whale an unlikely way of deliverance and in such wayes secondly as to the enemy have ever seemed most advantagious to their own purposes and destructive to the Church God suffering them to lay the Plot for their own ruin to dig a pit for their own destruction and making the ways by them intended for the Churches ruin to be the greatest meanes of their deliverance as fully and clearly as Hamans Plot proved the exaltation of the Iews and Mordecai and the ruine and destruction of himself and family a Volume might be filled with instances of this kinde The device of Charles the fifth to disinherit the Duke of Saxony to keep the Landgrave of Hessen in perpetuall imprisonment thereby intending utter ruine to the Protestant party in Germany was the very occasion of the confederacy of Smalcald which almost drove Charles out of Germany and established the Protestant party in the liberty of their religion The Massacre in France in which were destroyed within the space of thirty dayes as the Historian reports it above seventy thousand Protestant souls proved ye know a means within a short space to double and treble if not quadruple their numbers in that Kingdom and procured them publike Edicts and Cautionary Towns for the liberty and security of their Religion which before they had not The cruelty and tyranny of the Spaniards in the Netherlands one of whose Deputies Duke D'Alva boasted that he put to death six and thirty thousand Hugenots and Protestants hath been the greatest meanes to prevent the swelling of his intended Monarchy and increase the freedom and strength of the Protestant party not onely in the five United Provinces but in all these parts of Europe Who that hath read the Scottish Story is ignorant that the Archbishop of St. Andrews cruell burning of Mr. George Wischart conferred much to the Reformation of that whole Kingdom The time would fail me to tell you of the desperate Conspiracies of the Priests and Jesuits in England all the time of Queen Elizabeth of the Powder-treason and their unwearied Machinations in other States and Churches and how constantly the Lord hath turned them all to the advantage of his Church and to bring ruine and destruction upon the contrivers of them And if any of you have not had time or means to observe these things in Story your eyes cannot but see them all fulfilled in Christs late and present dealings with our selves and our brethren of Scotland For them what great things hath the Lord lately done and by what very weak means hardly the fifth part of the Nobility as I have heard appearing for them the greater part openly opposing them scarse one fourth part of the Kingdom owning the Cause how often were they at their wits end when some unexpected door was opened to them And were not all their works wrought for them by the rage cruelty and cunning of their enemies Were not the book of Service and the book of Canons sent and obtruded upon them from England the occasion of their late mercies was not the tyrannie of a few of their Prelats a means to unburden them of their whole Prelacy and when they were as much shut up in straits as the Israelites at the Red-sea and knew not over-night what would become of them the next morning then constantly some absurd desperate Plot or other of their enemies brake out which gave them an out-gate to escape And even so hath God dealt with England his work amongst us is of the very same warp and woof The great mercies which we enjoy the great deliverances we have lately received from what a high hand have they come to what a very dead low ebbe were we brought Our liberty almost swallowed up and turned into slavery our Religion into Popery and Arminianisme and even then God remembred us in our low estate and by what instruments becommeth me not to speak much in your own presence Your selves know how sinfull and all the Kingdom how mean and contemptible in the eyes of your adversaries they looking upon you as Sanballat and his company did upon Nehemiah and his builders and with like scorn uttering the same reproaches What do these feeble Iews will they fortifie themselves will they make an end in a day will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish even that which they build if a fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall And well may you take up the builders complaint Hear O our God for we are despised and yet by such despised broken vessells hath the Lord hitherto delivered us And which is still more wonderfull to the glory of God be it spoken our greatest deliverances have been more promoted by the cunning treachery and violence of the enemy then by the foresight vigilancy and strength of our best friends The Prelates late Canons and Oath purposely contrived for the perpetuating of their Hierarchy and their other treacherous and malicious endeavours against the State joyning with the Papists and with them labouring to turn all into confusion rather then suffering the least abatement of their former pride and tyranny have helped thus farre towards the taking them away both root and branch The multitudes of calumnies and reproaches cast upon the Parliaments just proceedings slighting their Authority slandering their intentions misinterpreting their actions have they not through the goodnesse of Him who preserveth them from the strife of tongi been an occasion of making their Authority Priviledges intentions actions clear as the Sun at noon day And to instance no further this late bloudy and mischievous Design in which this Honorable Senate this famous Citie and with them our lives religion laws and liberties had undoubtedly been made a prey to their mercilesse rage and fury the Lord hath not onely brought to light without any foresight or watchfulnesse of yours but made those that were the contrivers to be the discoverers their own evidence and confession being the thread which lets you into the depths and labyrinths of those counsels which they had digged deep to hide if possible even from the eyes of God himself and thereby giving you a great opportunity the Lord in mercy teach you to improve it to advance the glory of his Name for
the credulous prayers for the devout works of piety for the charitable voluptuousnesse for the dissolute pardons for the faulty dispensing with all rules for men of lawlesse conditions with what ever else might allure the Nations to drink of the Whores intoxicating cup Neither hath the Devils cunning and power more appeared in the first contriving of it then after in the upholding of it in all ages stirring up men of excellent and rare perfections constantly and diligently to put in execution all his counsels and devices to hold in those who are already caught in their snares to allure others and to weaken and undermine all opposers how great and potent soever It is therefore well becomming the wisedom and power of this King of Saints to grapple with this Beast after this manner that in the things whereof he is most proud He might shew himself to be above him Secondly this enemy hath been the sorest and heaviest Adversary that ever the Church of Christ had in the world Nebuchadnezzar of old and the rest of the Assyrian Monarchs did break their bones like a Lyon the Aegyptian Pharaoh like a Dragon devoured them Antiochus Epiphanes cast down the Saints and stamped upon them and did weare them out the Romane Ethnick Emperours the three first hundred yeares wasted them in ten severall Persecutions but these and all these were as nothing in comparison of this Destroyer all their loines lay not so heavy upon the Churches back as the little finger of Antichrist Whether we respect the cruelty exercised upon the body or tyranny over their soules and consciences or the extent and length of time in both I say in respect of cruelty first upon the body I beleeve that upon a due survey there would be found upon his score more blood of Saints and Martyrs then was shed from the blood of righteous Abel to the beginning of his reigne A hundred thousand within the limits of one Kingdome put to death in a few weeks thirty or fourty thousand boasted to have fallen by the hands of one of his emissaries in the space of a few yeers and if so what hath been done in the rest of the Nations where all who once tasting of the whores cup delight to drink and to be drunken with the blood of Saints In her is found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slaine upon the earth Secondly in respect of tyranny upon the soule we read not that Pharaoh or seldome any of the rest though they all oppressed the people of God in their outward liberties did much endeavour to force their consciences or if they did as sometimes Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus the case was so cleare that they needed not take time to answer about it but this tyrant causeth all both small and great rich and poore free and bond to receive the marke of their spirituall slavery in their right hand and in their foreheads so that none must buy or sell save he that hath the mark or name of the beast and that with such deceivablenesse of unrighteousness with such power signs and lying wonders that he deceives those that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he hath power to do So that even many of the Lambs own followers have in part been deceived by him and if it were possible they would finally deceive the very elect of God Or if thirdly we respect the continuance and length of his bloody reigne in this also he exceeds the rest In Aegypt they were evil intreated about two hundred yeers The Babylonish yoke oppressed them threescore and ten years Antiochus sorely wasted them but it was but for a very little season The Heathen Empire of Rome proved more cruell and bloudy then any of the rest for the space of three or four hundred yeers but this Antichrist makes incessant desperate and bloudy war upon them no lesse then twelve hundred and threescore years together And if you put all this together you shall finde just cause why the King of Saints should proceed thus severely and strangely in ruining this great enemy of Himselfe and people making him as wonderfull in his terrible fall as he had been in his bloudy reigne Thus you have the truth of the doctrine fully and clearely demonstrated it remains now that I make some application of it to You wherein I shall confine my selfe to those three uses which we finde the Church makes of these workes in this place First they wonder at these wonderfull workes they observe them they have them digested into a song and sing this song of Moses and of the Lamb having as well their hearts filled with admiration of them as their mouths with praise And this Honourable and beloved let me commend to your practice in the first place Come and see the works of the Lord even the great and marvellous works of the Lord God Almighty how terrible he is in his doings towards the children of men All his works are great his works of Creation even of the least atomes the works of common providence governing even the wayes of the pismire are great and worthy to be sought out of all them that take pleasure in them but the works of the Lord towards his Church the goings of our Lord and King in his Sanctuary ruling his Saints in the middest of their enemies and after this manner breaking in peeces the Powers which doe oppose them is now the wonder of Angels and shall be the wonder of Saints to eternity and fit therfore that now it should be ours Mans disposition is naturally taken with thoughts and discourses of things great and wonderfull and is not satisfied but in something that raises the mind to a high pitch of admiration here you may behold an object fit if any to beget wonderment and indeed our spirits never are right till we stand at gaze here for this discovers a plaine difference between the spirits of godly and carnall men these latter are more taken with vaine and empty things A Poet or a well-penn'd Romancy how it takes some wasting upon it dayes weeks and moneths admiring the wit invention style or elegancy others wonder at the raising of this or that poore man to a great estate of wealth at another out of the dust advanced to the height of honour these things fill their hearts with thoughts when alone their mouthes with discourse when in company yet in the mean time the wonders of Christ are not taken notice of Christ's person offices administrations are too base things for them to busie their thoughts about they can see nothing but triviall matters and not worth their notice in them all yea they wonder at them who can spend their time in the Study of the Scriptures and the meditation of these works of Christ But these men whatever they think of themselves are sottish beasts carnall and brutish persons and
I may say of the things they are so takē with as Christ to the Disciples who were so affected with the stones goodly building of the Temple Are these the things ye wonder at I tell you there shall not be left here one stone upon another So these riches these buildings this power and authority this great man in his countrey these things I say by too much regarding whereof many lose their soules what shall they all be ere long Heaven and earth shall be on fire and what shall these things be then and I may further say of the men who admire these things that they are greater vanities then the things they wonder at Who having immortall soules fit to be partakers of the divine nature understandings capable of the knowledge of God meditations worthy only of God should yet thus basely prostitute and abase themselves to advance a thing of nothing whereas on the contrary a holy heart is so taken with Christ and his wayes that all other things appear to them to be but toyes and folly as men got up on high neer the Heavens behold the earth but as a little spot Augustine observed this difference in himselfe that so long as he was a stranger from the wayes of holinesse he thought the study of the Scriptures to be a dull businesse infinitely preferring Tully before the Bible but after his conversion he took no pleasure in that Author where he found not the Name of Iesus Oh therefore that you would poure out your hearts in the study of these things that the wonderfull way of Christ's governing in his Church might take up not the least part of your thoughts How he hath kept this bush burning and yet not consumed how strange it was that a few Fishermen should by preaching and suffering like some conquering Alexander subdue the Nations Think of his strange course permitting an Antichrist to Lord it above a thousand years in the world so as to subdue the world wholly to his yoake suffering the Kings to give up their Crowns Scepters to him prostituting their power at his feet and when Satan thought himselfe so strong as to continue the Church in this condition for ever that then a silly Monke should set himself against the world and in a short time rescue a great part of it frō under his yoak Another time come neerer into England think what he did by King Edward a Child by Queen Elizabeth a Woman the great deliverances from the Spanish Armado from the hellish Powder-treason come neerer yet and behold the wonders of these two or three last years in England and Scotland ponder them seriously they are the Lords doings and ought to be wonderfull in your eyes Think yet further how wonderfull he will be when he comes to be admired in his Saints at the last day feed your hearts and raise them sometimes with some of these thoughts sometimes with others untill they burne within you Oh but we cannot meditate we love indeed to reade these things and delight to heare them but we cannot meditate on them Say not so lest you prove your selves persons without grace Psalme 78. it is made the note of a wretch and of one whose dayes God will consume in sorrow to forget the works of God and of a brutish person Psal. 92. not to consider them and if you cannot finde a heart to wonder at Him and his wayes as an occasion of praise take heed he shew not himselfe wonderfull in your confusion Wherfore have we our reason and tongues but to observe and speak of these things think we to live with the Saints and glorify Christ in Heaven and not have dispositions fram'd to give him all the glory we can while we live here on earth which we cannot doe if we observe not these things I know that there is a dulnesse and auknesse in the spirits of the best yet godly hearts will endeavour to overcome it He that is wise will ponder these things will fet his heart to taske in these studies and that not as to an unpleasing drudgery but as to an employment Divine and Angelicall most pleasing and delightfull My meditation of Him shall be sweet And for your better quickning to this duty consider First that this is the only way to make us Heavenly and spirituall by feeding on such matters of wonderment The object about which we are conversant gives a tincture to our spirit naturally such as our spirits are such are our studies pueri crepundia gestant children play with rattles and morally our spirits are moulded into the studies we are accustomed to Secondly this will make us ever fit for Gods service This our Lord will be served with reverence and feare and what begets that but a knowledge of out distance upon the consideration of His greatnesse from his wonderfull workes all base and low conceits will then vanish all society and communion among men is maintain'd by a knowledge of inequality when we see more eminency in men for their gifts and graces and places it strikes a reverence and strengthens the bands of love and respect much more strongly doth the serious and deep beholding of the unparallel'd perfections and excellencies of God shining in his wonderfull works captivate the soule and lay it low before him but of this more in the second use Thirdly this is the way to make us profit and grow up in grace when God sees us humble admirers of his greatnesse and diligent searchers into his goodnesse he will reveale himselfe yet more and more to us as Christ said to Nathaniel Because I said this unto thee beleevest thou thou shalt see greater things then these or the Lord to the Prophet I will shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not Fourthly as a further motive and help be thoroughly acquainted with thine own condition really sensible of thine own vilenesse wants and basenesse of all kindes take the dimensions of thy corruptions the height length and depth of them consider that thou art in thy self a vassall of Satan a vessel of wrath dead in nature and disposition to good dead in Sin posting to eternall destruction and then every thing of Christ thy Saviour will be wonderful unto thee Fifthly and lastly consider thy relations to Christ He is thy head thy King thy Lord thy Husband thy brother withall thy interest in all his works they are all done for thee thou hast a part in every deliverance they are thy enemies that fall upon the pouring out of every viall a share in every mercy and our interest in any thing sets it off the better to our affections makes us with unwearied diligence to search out whatsoever is scibile in it much more should it here where the more we shall study the more we shall wonder and the more we wonder the more shall we honour God and better our selves the more we
chew these cordialls the more sweetness shall we draw from them O therefore that Christ would open our eyes that we might see his wonders in their just dimensions in the wisdome power faithfulnesse greatnesse justice and truth shining in them that those things might be glorious and excellent in our eyes which are mean and common in the eyes of others that wee might be able to answer such as see no such thing in them with the Painter who being much taken with a piece though seeming plain yet of excellent workmanship to one ignorantly asking him what worth he saw in that poor peece O friend couldst thou see with my eyes thou wouldst be ravished with it And that our mouths might be filled with praises all the day long especially upon this day purposely set apart by us thankfully to record the great and wonderfull works the true and righteous judgements of our King of Saints In delivering us from the hurtfull sword in being on our side when men rose up against us in causing our soul to escape as a bird out of the snare of the fowler making their mischief to return upon their own head causing them to sink down in the pit which they made in the net which they hid is their own foot taken And so much for the first Use the Use of Admiration The second use the Church makes here of the works of Christ is to provoke and quicken themselves up to fear him and glorifie him Who would not fear thee and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy Lord who can understand these works of thine thus great and marvellous thus just and true and not acknowledge thee to be the onely holy One Let me presse it by way of exhortation to provoke you to the same duty Where first I must open what is meant by fearing and glorifying his Name and that which is made the ground of this fear and glory because thou onely art holy and first of his holinesse Holinesse whatever it is predicated of is nothing but a separation of the thing from common uses and to sanctifie is to respect it according to such separation or as becomes its holinesse and holinesse in God is nothing but the incommunicable Eminency of the Divine Majesty exalted above all other eminences whatsoever So that to be holy alone or to be the holy one in Scripture signification and to be God is all one Hab. 1. 12. Art not thou from everlasting my Lord my God my holy One Isai. 17. 7. At that day a man shall look to his Maker and his eye shall have respect to the holy One of Israel that is unto God Psal. 89. 18. The holy One of Israel is our King that is Iehovah is our King Amos 4. 2. The Lord hath sworn by his holinesse that is the Lord hath sworn by himself So then for thou onely art holy is as much as to say Thou onely art God these works of thine thus great and marvellous thus just and true sufficiently speak or prove thee O King of Saints to be the Lord God Almighty Secondly fear who would not fear thee To fear in this sense and in this place is to give that awfull respect unto Christ as becommeth his Excellency to serve him with a singular separate incommunicable service and is so commonly in the Scripture taken for the whole duty which we owe unto him thus to fear God and to take him for our God alone is all one Gen. 31. 53. Iacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac that is by the God of his father Isaac Isai. 8. 12 13. Neither fear ye their fear that is serve not their gods sanctifie the Lord of Hoasts and let him be your fear that is let him be your God alone And glorifie thy Name thy Name that is thy self thy Divine Majesty and to glorifie this holy One is not meant by making him glorious or by adding lustre or excellency to him which before he had not for who ever hath given unto him But to glorifie him is to acknowledge his excellency and glory to do unto him what may become his glorie to set up and exalt his glory To fear him then and glorifie his Name as the holy One is to acknowledge his Divinity to own him as their onely Lord and King and renouncing all other false Christs and Mediatours to devote themselves to serve him alone and worship him with a singular separate incommunicated worship his jealousie admitting no Corrivall there is none holy as the Lord neither shall any partake with him in his glory absolutely eminently to do to him themselves and to provoke others to do as becommeth his Excellency This is the duty which the Church here engageth her self unto and is in truth the whole of Christianity the summe of that everlasting Gospel which the Angel flying thorow the midst of heaven was to preach to them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people saying with a loud voyce Fear God and give glory to him and worship him that made heaven and earth that is Iesus Christ alone by whom all things were created and by whom all things consist And this is the duty Honoured and Beloved which I desire to presse upon your selves even that you would be good Christians in your hearts and in your lives in your private places and in your publike standings to engage your selves with all your might with all your authority to advance the glory of Christ as the redeemed of the Lord as true Subjects to this King of Saints to offer up as a living sacrifice what ever you have or are to his service in advancing his Cause his Worship his Church doing it your selves and promoting it in others To this end I shall first give you a few quickning Motives to stir you up to make you ready and willing to your duty and secondly tell you what the Lord expects at your hands First consider what great and wonderfull things Our Lord hath already done for you and how little you have feared and glorified his Name to this day Who of you can count the great and righteous dealings of the Lord towards you not onely as you are men great or rich learned or noble nor onely as you are Christians redeemed called justified sanctified by this King of Saints though all and every of these mercies call loud upon you for this duty but I mean as you are a Parliament what great things he hath done for you in reference to this service wherein he hath lately employed you Hath he not carryed you in his bosome hath he not kept you as the apple of his eye as an Eagle fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them beareth them on her wings so the Lord alone hath preserved you How constantly hath he discovered and hitherto frustrated all the attempts of your enemies suffering no weapon of war to prosper that hath been
forged against you condemning every tongue that hath risen up against you in judgement I need not name the particulars I am perswaded your selves beleeve that no former Parliament can parallell Gods dealing towards you and all this while let me speak freely how little have you done for his honour and glory I know your distractions have unavoidably hindered much of what might and I hope else would have been done But say in this day of your thanksgiving if you be not infinitely behinde hand with this Lord God Almighty with this King of Saints if you have not ordinarily forgot his mercies as fast as he hath wrought them Hath he not often filled your hearts with joy and your purses with money and you like unthrifty children have played away all at a cast Have you not checked his providences not improved his deliverances and the advantages which God hath put into your hands or if your hearts at any time have been raised a little have they not presently been at a dead low ebb again have you not gone about to kill his goodnesse with your unkindnesses by provoking him at the sea even at the red sea even when and where he hath delivered you Especially have not many of you dishonoured his Name and grieved his Spirit by your sinfull lives by breaking out into things extreamly scandalous doing the devills work while you professe your selves to be the Lords servants Let me tell you the Lord will not alwayes strive in one way in the way of mercy and deliverance when he hath many a time delivered a people and they goe on to provoke him with their counsells he knowes how to say I w 〈◊〉 ll deliver them no more he knowes how to bring them low for their iniquity and to give them up into the hands of their enemy he that for a long time hath seemed unweariable in watching over an unthankfull people will prove weary of repenting and in stead of saying I have seene their wayes and will heale them will in the end sweare I will overturn them overturn them overturn them as a man wipeth a platter turning it upside down Secondly consider your own place and standing the calling office and work wherewith God and his people have trusted you at this time doe with a wide and loud voyce call upon you to feare the Lord and glorifie his Name More then the salvation of your own soules depends upon you the glory of Christ the establishment of this Church and Kingdome yea the welfare of all Christendome in great measure are all imbarked in that vessell the steering whereof is in great part committed unto you You are in part one of the Angels who are to poure out the viall of the wrath of God who should therefore come out of the temple cloathed in pure and white linnen having your breasts girded with golden girdles adorned like the Priests of God holy and pure Be you cleane yee that beare the vessels of the Lord Honourable and beloved how a bominable a thing were it to see the Angels of God live like the instruments of Satan how uncomfortable a thing would it be to the people of God who have chosen you to this worke and beare you in their hearts and present you every day at the throne of grace who are willing to sinke and swimme with you to live and dye with you that they should hear that such and such a Parliament man will be drunke that such an one dare blaspheme and swear and abuse Religion that Reformers of Religion should hate religion that such as are called to save the Kingdome should betray the Kingdome that in the grief of their spirits they should be compelled to say O Lord can these men save us tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Askelon How dishonourable would it be not only to you but to the King of Saints who useth you that they who hate the worke you are about should hate it the more in regard of your wicked lives who are intrusted with it That they should have occasion to say of you as Amurath the great Turke said of the Christians who brake their league and Covenant with him and therefore sped accordingly O Iesus are these thy Christians if thou beest a God as they professe thee to be revenge this impiety upon them So when Papists and Atheists and such as hate religion and reformation when they shall see the deformity of your lives shall say O Iesus are these thy Reformers are these the Angels that must pour out the vials of thy wrath Oh beloved do not with Elies sonnes occasion men to abhorre the work of the Lord far be it from you But let the office you are called unto the place you are set in the worke and the dignity of the work ingage you to glorifie the name of Christ that both his work may prosper in your hands and your selves be established before the Lord for ever But if you will not hearken to me let me sadly speak it to you you are as a City set upon an hill you and your wayes are looked upon by all men and if you hinder the worke by your lives which your office calls you to further it were better you had never been born into the world Them that honour Christ he will honour and them that despise him shall be lightly esteemed yea he knowes how to make use of you and your gifts to promote his cause and to destroy you for the iniquity of your lives as many of those who forwarded the building of the arke yet perished in the waters Thirdly consider how loud this dayes deliverance cries in your eares to ingage your selves to feare him and glorifie his name who hath wrought this great salvation for you It were a wastefull expence of time to insist upō the particulars of this late bloudy design in this Assembly though in others usefull All the light we have about it comes from you The many great and high hands which were ingaged in it the subtilty of the contrivance the neernesse of the execution the woefull consequences and the bloudy fruits which must needs have issued from it The good hand of God in crushing this cockatrices egge before it brake out to be a fiery flying serpent are fit things to be published and to be spread abroad in other Congregations But to you I shall only be a remembrancer of thus much That you knew not your neer approaching danger and that had this treacherous and bloudy contrivance took effect many of you had been at your long home ere this time and the rest of this Honourable Assembly hitherto the great preservers of our liberty had beene made as a Parliament of Paris the greatest instruments of the Kingdomes slavery and vassallage for time to come But the Lord was awake when we slept and hath took the enemies in the pit which they digged and hath filled your hearts