lest some body might wonder why the Prophet should make such a stupendious businesse of it and demand a reason why all the world must thus take such notice of the building of Zion what is Zion and what is the work as he said of Abana and Parphar were they not better rivers then all the rivers of Samaria Are there not other Empires and States more pompous and powerfull and glorious and excellent then Zion what is Zion to Nineveh or Babylon that all must so stand amazed at the reparation of it To satisfie all the world about it that the work of building up of Zion is indeed admirable and wonderfull and deserves all the praises that the hearts and tongues of men can utter the Prophet in the 2 Verses which I have read doth setdown two remarkable Circumstances which perpetually accompany this work which if they but interpreted and rightly understood will satisfie all the World that this alone is the work deserving admiration and these they are The first is It is such a work that when ever the Lord goes about it Hee doth appeare in his glory when the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory The second is when the Lord doth build up Zion He doth then return an answer to all the prayers of his afflicted people Whatsoever they had been begging from year to year from generation to generation now was the Jubilee now comes the return of all into their bosomes full measure thrust together shaken and running over When the Lord doth build up Zion he doth then regard the prayer of the afflicted and however before hee might seem to despise ehem now he doth no longer despise their cry The first of these is that which by the Lords assistance I shall this day clear unto you this remarkable circumstance which accompanies the building and reparation of Zion When the Lord shall build up Zion hee shall appear in his glory and in it observe handle these two lessons That the building of Zion is the Lords work and the Lords onely When the Lord shall build up Zion the second and main the which I shall insist upon is That when ever the Lord goes about this work hee doth appear in his glory The first I shall onely touch and that but to make way for the second That the building of Zion is the Lords own work There is nothing difficult Zion you know is in the Scripture taken sometimes in a literall but ordinarily in a mysticall and a spirituall sense Zion in a literall sense was that strong part of the City of Jerusalem which David did take from the Jebusites fortified it and beautified it with excellent buildings and called it the City of David the most beautifull part of Jerusalem this is Zion literall And this Zion may besaid to be built when it is furnished with stately houses with strong walls and replenished with people accomplished with Magistrates and good Civil laws But this Zion I have nothing at the present to doe with the Zion which my text means is spirituall Zion mysticall Zion the Zion whereof this City of David was a type as David himself was a type of Christ and that is the Church of God which in a hundred places at least in the Old and New Testament is called by the name of Zion he reason why Zion this part of Ierusalem was such a celebrated type is because all Davids time and untill Solomons Temple was built upon mount Moriah the Ark of God was placed in Zion where hee is therefore said to dwell this is the Zion that we are to speak of and this Zion this Church of God is then built when the doctrine of Jesus Christ is made known the new and living way to life by him is opened when Ministers and Ordinances are given the elect called in Churches gathered and established the worship and government of Christ set up for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till all the Saints come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ when the Curtains of the Church are thus enlarged and the Tents of it made firm when God doth thus prosper and blesse the Church of Christ then doth hee build up Zion This I say is first Gods own work and secondly a work which when ever hee goes about hee doth appear in his glory That the building up of the Church is a work peculiar to God onely I might easily prove out of many Scriptures aedificabo Ecclesiam I will build my Church is a speech to be uttered by none but by Jehovah himself and I know you will grant the truth of it by that time I have cleared unto you these two things First that the building of Zion is such a peace of work as no other workmen have any skill to do And secondly as they have no skill so they have no will to doe it and if no other have either power nor heart neither skill nor will it must needs bee done by God if ever it be done at all First I say no other workmen have any skill to build Zion but God alone there is not one piece of Timber belongs unto it not one Cord not one pin not one nail not any one thing from the foundation to the Cap-stone but it is beyond the understanding the value skill or artifice of any created Nature that what God said in the 49. Psalme concerning the keeping of a man from death is most true of this work great men can build houses and purchase Lands but there is not one of them can redeem his brothers soul from death no he must let that alone for ever that is too hard a task for him to keep a man that hee should not goe down to the grave Men may build Houses make Kingdoms erect Common-wealths Corporations c. But as for the building of the Church of God all mortall men must let that alone for ever In this work our help is onely from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth I looked said Christ but there was no help there was none to uphold therefore my own arm brought salvation neither could they were all their perfections joynd into one when man is dead in sins and trespasses sticks fast in the miry clay of ignorance and iniquity not able to think a good thought or speak a good word a voluntary bondslave of Satan under the power of Hell and the curse of God what men what Angels have any gifts or strength to help him out of this condition It is true indeed that in the building of it God doth make use of mortall men and other creatures visible and invisible hee calls Ministers Apostles Prophets Pastors and Teachers to bee the
Lord toward thy poore unworthy flock in the kingdome of England Now could we get our hearts raised thus to give God the glory due to his name it would please him better then a bullock that hath hornes and hoofes never could we live to better purpose it were an excellent work to have these wayes and goings of our God and King written for the generations to come that the people who shall be created may praise the Lord I have often begged of him to put it into the heart of some wise observer of his dealings to collect and digest them and I hope it will be done in the meane time let us that live forget none of his doings but keep them all in thankfull mind and memory and praise the Lord on the Harp and sing praise to him every day for the wonders that he hath wrought since he arose to build up our Zion This is the first Exhortation to praise God for his glorious worke another followes with which I will end and that is To you right Honourable for whose sakes this meeting is in this place that seeing it is the Lords glory to build up the Church you would make it your glory that you would be like unto God that you would esteem your selves never so truely in your glory as when you come out with all that you have or are to help forward this work I humbly pray you look upon our desolations look upon the enemies of the Church how infinitely industrious they are to ruine it how few of them drive any private designe but joyne in this common work and designe to ruine the work of Reformation how they lay out all their wit power and interest which they have in Court in Countrey in City by Letters by Travels by Bloud by any thing that they might with Sanballat and Tobiah cause this work of God to cease you know this Consider also how poore desolate Zion doth even stretch out her hands unto you and pray you that in this sad time of her calamity if there be any love in your hearts and bosomes toward her you would come out and give her some help to reare her out of the dust and the rubble I beseech your Lordships set this work to heart and up and be doing do your best to carry this work on To this end there are two things I shall humbly offer unto you First to tell you what you may doe and what God expects you should doe Secondly to give you some quickening Motives to warme and enflame your hearts with a purpose and resolution to doe what God would have you doe First you may possibly demand what may or can we doe or what can any creature doe seeing you were taught that the building of Zion is Gods work alone I answer it is very true the work is Gods and Gods alone and you may truely say of Zion when ever it is built it is not by might nor by an Army but by Christ and his Spirit yet were not great men Princes and Nobles to be very great instruments in this work God would never have promised it as one of the great priviledges of the Church that Kings and Princes should be her nursing Fathers and that she should suck the breasts of Kings And truly it is much you may doe by your examples and by causing your great families to serve the Lord I and my Family said Joshua will serve the Lord and all the great men we read of in the Scripture to have been converted presently their families were converted with them The Ruler of the Synagogue and his family the Centurion and his family Onesiphorus and his family Crispus and his family Lydia and her family and many others Thus in a spirituall and morall way you may help to build the Church but that 's not all your authority and power may doe very much in this work It is very true that your power who are Nobles Magistrates Rulers of States in the Common-wealth in the building of a Civill State and the building of the Church doe extremely differ one from another In building the Civill State you doe it ad modum imperii by way of rule and command therein you have authority Meum and Tuum the things of this life are by the Lord committed into the hands of a State and the light of Nature and humane Prudence are sufficient to direct you in them and in these things you have power and authority according to your owne reason and will to make Lawes about them you may erect new Lawes and new Offices and new Officers and you may impose new burdens and people may lawfully submit to your discretion without seeking any further for a particular warrant out of the Word in the things that concerne this present life but my Lords it is not so in the building of Zion matters of Religion are spirituall and heavenly things which pertaine onely to God the soules and consciences of men and the communion of Saints their end is Gods glory mens conversion edification and eternall salvation these are things which cannot be carried along by naturall reason or civill prudence but onely by the light of that spirituall and heavenly Rule the Word of God and therefore in these things you have no Lordly rule Unum Dominum habemus qui animas nostras gubernat all your power in these things must be ad modum ministerii not imperii you must carry your selves not as the Churches Masters but as Christs servants yea and as servants to the Church for Christs sake not as Lords to dispose of the affaires of it at your owne pleasure but at the direction of his Word onely This then must you set down for a Rule That you are limited to the Word and men under your authority must before they obey your Orders examine them by the Word and find them to be both lawfull in their nature and expedient in their use for edification peace order c. But my Lords though you have not such an imperium here as in humane things yet the power and authority that Gods Word hath given you for the carrying on of this work is exceeding great and it may be reduced to these two heads First the Lord would have you his instruments for the purgation and reformation secondly for the preservation of the Church when you have brought it into a state of reformation First for the purgation and reformation of it all the rubbish all the drosse the Antichristian pelfe and garbidge that the house of God is defiled with you are to throw it all out with Josiah into the brook Kidron to sweep it all out and to bring back the people who have been misled into Arminianisme to Popery to Superstition to any of these abominable wayes you are to remove all these stumbling-blocks and to bring them back againe unto the knowledge of the Lord their God this God requires at
GODS MASTER-PIECE A SERMON Tending to manifest Gods glorious appearing in the building up of Zion PREACHED To the Right Honourable the House of Peers in the Abbey Church of Westminster March 26. 1645. Being the day of the Monthly publike Fast BY Stephen Marshall B. D. Minister of Gods Word at Finching-field in Essex Published by Order of the House of Peeres Esa. 60. 14. They shall call thee the City of the Lord the Zion of the Holy One of Israel Psal. 68. 24. They have seen thy goings O God the goings of my God my King in the Sanctuary LONDON Printed by Richard Cotes for Stephen Bowtell and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible in Popes-head Alley 1645. To the Right HONOVRABLE THE House of Peeres Assembled in PARLIAMENT Right Honourable THis plain Sermon when preached was entertained by Your Lordships with singular attention and now comes to publike view by Your command I shall not presume now to make another tryall of Your patience by a long Epistle as I did then in a long Sermon I onely present it unto You and since You please to have it so to the eye of the World humbly beseeching the Lord to accompany it with his blessing that all who read it especially Your Lordships may in it behold as in a Glasse the Glorie of the Lord and be changed into the same Image by the Spirit of the Lord thatso they may account it their greatest Honour to promote this Worke to beautifie the place of Gods Sanctuary and to make the place of his feet glorious So prayeth Your unworthy Servant Stephen Marshall A SERMON PREACHED To the Right Honourable the House of LORDS at the Monethly Fast March 26. 1645. PSALM 102. 16 17. When the Lord shall build up Zion hee shall appeare in his glory hee will regard the Prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer I Have chosen a Text Right Honourable and Beloved which is neither difficult in it self nor which is the lot of many plain Texts made to seem obscure by the variety of glosses and interpretations put upon it There is a generall agreement concerning the scope and meaning of the Spirit of God in this Psalm some little difference is found amongst Interpreters concerning the time and the Pen-man of it Some conceiving it was about the time when the Jews were stopt and interrupted in the works of building the Temple by their ill neighbours but most doe agree that the time was about the end of the seventy years captivity when God had raised up the spirits of the Prophets to encourage the people to expect this mercy according to that of Esay 40. Comfort yee comfort ye my people saith the Lord speak ye comfortably to Hierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished and also stirred up the spirits of the people to pray to the Lord to accomplish his good word for their returne according to that of Jer. 29. Then shall yee call upon mee and I will hearken unto you And as for the Penman of it who ever it was for that is altogether unknown most certain it is that hee neither penn'd nor spake these things in his own name or of his own condition but in the name of the whole Church of God like another Jeremy writing a book of Lamentations for the desolations of Zion bemoaning them before the Lord and most earnestly begging mercy and deliverance In the 11 first Verses you may behold the afflicted Church of God sitting alone like a desolate widow with her tears on her cheeks her belly cleaving to the dust her heart smitten and withered like grasse eating ashes for bread mingling her drink with weeping as a Pelican in the wildernesse as an Owl in the desart her enemies many and raging against her shee looking round about and all her Lovers and friends departed from her enquiring after succour and comfort and it is farre removed Behold to what a sad condition the sinnes of Gods own people doe oft times bring them and that is the first part of the Psalme But in this dark and tempestuous night of calamity and desolation this afflicted soul with Jonah in the whales belly with weeds-wrapped about his head looks up to God begins to remember those everlasting mercies that may bee found in the Lord Jehovah and presently there darts in a beam as from a new created Statre of light and comfort in the 12 and 13 Verse which shines into the soule and inables this poore desolate creature to conclude very comfortably that that God who had broken her would yet again heal her that his wrath should not alwayes continue but he would return and revive and quicken them after all the days wherin he had afflicted them and so suddenly begins to renew its strength and mount up with wings of comfort as an Eagle And from the 12 Verse to the end of the Psalme after all this sad lamentation there is a comfortable propheticall story of all the good that God did mean to doe fot this afflicted Church which now lay in the dust and rubble wherein there are three remarkable things The first is A strong confident propheticall conclusion that the deliverance of Gods Church was nigh at hand in these words Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to deliver her yea the set time is come that 's her conclusion that it must of necessity be the Lord was resolved speedily to raise them out of their low condition Secondly you have the Argument which satisfied this afflicted desolate soul that the time of Zions deliverance was at hand because all Gods servants took pleasure in the dust of it and pityed the very stones and the rubbish of it their hearts were deeply humbled for Zions miseries they had set themselves earnestly to pray to the Lord to give him no rest night nor day till hee had set it up and this spirit of prayer powred out upon the Church was to her as sure a token of approaching deliverance as the day star is a token of an approaching morning That is the second The third part of this prophecy is the use or fruit which he doth foretell should be made of this great work of Gods raising and building up of Zion which is very excellent partly the use that the rest of the Nations of the world should make of it all the heathen should stand and wonder at it and praise Gods name for it yea their Kings even all the Kings should behold the glory of the Lord and come in and worship and honour him who had wrought such a great work as the raising Zion out of the dust and then for the Church the people that are created on purpose to bee for Gods glory it should bee written for them from generation to generation that they and all their posterities should perpetually love and serve the Lord who did thus remember his people in their low condition Now
Guides the Leaders the Instructors and the Shepheards of his people and hee calls Kings and Princes and Nobles to be nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to it he gives Paul to plant Apollo to water but it s neither for his need nor their aptnesse for this employment no no when all is done hee that plants is nothing and hee that waters is nothing Clay and spittle did as much to the opening of the blind mans eyes Peters shadow did as much to the healing of Diseases Abana and Parphar did as much to the curing and cleansing of the Leper as all instruments whatsoever are able to doe towards the building of the Church of God all their very being and motions and operations and the successe of their whole endeavours depend wholly upon the Lord alone Secondly As all other builders have no skill so neither have any of them any will to the building of Zion if Zion once lie in the dust the common vote of them all is This is an outcast this is Zion whom no man cares for there it lies and there let it lie Aha aha our eye hath seen it so would we have it This stone how pretious soever is refused of all builders Indeed their will is so farre from building it that it 's ever bent to the utmost to ruine it the gates of hell doe alwayes oppose it and all the Princes and great men of the earth set themselves against it with all their strength and cunning There is an everlasting enmity in them all against it not onely because their principles laws and manners differ one from the other but also because Zions rearing is their spoyling their glory and beauty is blasted and withered before the beauty of this yea this stone cut out of the mountain without hands must one day and Satan who rules in them all knows it well enough break in pieces and consume them all and make them like the chaffe of the Summer threshing floores and the wind shall cary them away that no place shall bee found for them they will therefore doe all they can with the Samaritans to hinder the building of this City so prejudiciall to them if ever they shew themselves forward it is but with such a minde as they had when they offer'd to build with them purposely to betray and hinder them So then because none else have any power or will to doe it whenever this work is to be done it must bee the work of God alone Paul expresses it excellently to the Hebrews when he speaks of the building of the Church other houses are built by men every house must have a Carpenter but he that builds the Church is he that built all things no other hand can do it but onely he who laid the Foundation of the Heavens and the Earth that is Almighty God alone For Application of this It may serve for singular consolation unto all those who wish well unto Zion and may fortifie their Faith against that which to our carnall heart is the greatest stumbling-block and greatest discouragement that ever we meet with and that is when outward helps and means do fail for the carrying on of this work when the enemies are strong and many the Friends few and weak the instruments imployed in it fail some by death some possibly prove treacherous turning against it seeking to betray it then presently are wee ready to conclude all will come to nothing the work will faile it will never be carried on but Beloved remember this one Rule in all other things that are done in the world you may lawfully make such kinde of Prognostications as to foretell by the Instruments that are imployed and by the Preparations which are made what the fruit and the event of the worke is like to be If you see a poore man gather together a few Willow-sticks and set a bungerly Carpenter out of them to reare up a house you may conclude it must be nothing but a poore shed or cottage If you see poore men enterprize a warfare without counsell without any money against a wise Prince that is too mighty for them you may conclude that they must either be overthrowne or make shamefull conditions of peace and you judge aright when you judge so because in all these things God seldome puts out his power otherwise then according to the virtue and power which he hath given to second causes and according to them he works though somtime to shew his soveraignty he disappoints them and causeth the race not to be alwayes to the swift nor the battell to the strong Sow a bad piece of ground God doth not use to give a strong crop there but it 's quite otherwise in the building of the Church whatsoever the tooles or instruments are it skills not one whit Great instruments doe not further it weak instruments cannot retard it If he will fight it 's indifferent whether his weapon be a sword or the jaw-bone of an Asse If he meane to take a City it 's all one whether the battering engines be great Guns or Trumpets made of Rams-horns any thing will serve the turne in the hand of this Work-man if he intend to thrash mountaines small and beat the hills to dusty chaffe a worme will serve to doe it as well as a great sharp threshing instrument having teeth And therefore because God hath begun this work of Reformation and manifested that he intends to bring out a new Edition of his Church and to set it out in a fairer Letter then ever it hath yet been seen among us and declared by wonderfull signes and tokens that his heart is set upon this work resolve you upon it that this work must proceed and when you heare any of our enemies despise it because it is a day of small things remember it 's God who works all for us and answer their scoffes as he did them who wondred that Saul the son of Kish should be found among the Prophets it seemes they had knowne him to have been a young Roister and when they saw him prophesie they cryed out it may be not without a scoffe What is befallen to the Son of Kish Is Saul amongst the Prophets But saith one Who is the Father of the Prophets remember but who undertakes to be the Master and Father of the Prophets and you need not wonder who is the Scholar so you may all conclude of this work never be afraid of the carrying on this worke feare not the instruments how weake soever resolve whatsoever God meanes to doe he will never want tooles or instruments who with the speaking of a word can lay the foundations of a new heaven and earth who needs no more then to say to Zion Be thou inhabited to Hierusalem Thou shalt be built and to the Temple Thy foundation shall be laid and it 's done who with one word speaking can create his Church a
rejoicing and her people a joy But all this will be more cleare in the second Doctrine to which I now proceed and to which this is onely a Porch or Preface That when the Lord doth build up Zion he doth appeare in glory They are the words of the Text and therefore need no other proofe In handling whereof I shall endevour these two things First to make a full and cleare demonstration of the truth of it that God doth appeare in his glory when he comes to build his Church Secondly I shall make application of it And for the clearing the truth of it there are foure things to be opened First what it is to appeare in glory Secondly To prove the truth of it out of the Scripture Thirdly and which is that that I most aime at How God doth appeare in his glory when he comes to build up Zion And fourthly why he is pleased thus to appeare in his glory when he undertakes this work For the first First what it is to appeare in Glory Glory and Excellency doe thus differ one from another Excellency is the intrinsecall worth or value of any thing Glory is the manifestation of this Excellency Glory is nothing but the irradiation or shining out of Excellency Take a true Diamond stone when it is first found and lookes but like a common stone there is even then all the excellency of a Diamond in it but when it is filed and the curious Artist hath done his part to set it off in its lustre then appeares the glory of the Diamond or amongst men it may be a man hath admirable abilities of wisedome learning power strength activity or whatsoever else might argue him to be eminent so long as all these are hidden this man is really an excellent man but when by some worke worthy of all these inward excellencies the world comes to know him to be such a one as indeed he is then doth the man appeare in his glory So that to appeare in glory is nothing but to appeare to be as excellent as indeed one is Therefore for God to appeare in glory is his manifesting himselfe to be such a God as he is when all those eminent excellent attributes and perfections which are in him come to irradiate shine forth that others must necessarily acknowledge God to be that which he is when he appears like himself then doth God appeare in his glory Now secondly it 's cleare in the Scripture that God doth so that he doth manifest himselfe to be such a God as he is when he undertakes the work of building his Church many glorious things are spoken of this City of God and of God in his building of this City it 's ordinarily called his glory his throne of glory his glorious work his glorious rest Consider seriously these few Texts The whole 93 Psalme it 's a short Psalme yet a large proofe and full interpretation of my Text Interpretors doe generally agree that it is a Prophesie of Christs kingdome his ruling and building up the Church and marke how the expressions run The Lord reignes he is cloathed with Majesty the Lord is cloathed with strength he hath girded himselfe his throne is established the Lord is mightier then the mighty waves of the sea all these glorious expressions set forth the Lords manifestation of himself in his edifying and building his Church as may appeare in the last verse Holinesse becommeth thine house O Lord for ever this holy house of God is that Throne which is thus established upon which he sits in this glory and majesty where he girds himselfe as being ever in a readinesse to goe on with his worke and this is such glory or manifestation of his excellency that it causeth not onely his Church and People to acknowledge it but you shall finde verse 3 that the flouds the flouds lift up their voice the flouds lift up their waves What is that Sometimes flouds and waves signifie the tumultuous people that make a noise of sedition mutiny trouble and violence but here the flouds which signifie People and Nations lift up their voice of wonderment and acknowledgment of that which was set downe before viz. that God was cloathed with Majesty and glory when hee comes to establish his Throne and adorne his house with holinesse there is one evidence Another you shall see in the 68. Psalme The whole Psalme is a most stately straine of divine Rhetorique the beginning of it is very high and lofty Let God arise let him shew himselfe let his enemies be scattered them that hate him fly before him as smoake is driven away as wax melteth before the fire so must wicked men perish at this presence of God and every where throughout the Psalme you may observe such a glorious presence of God as made the earth shake the heavens drop the hills leap the mountains moved the Saints rejoyce and sing Armies to bee routed Kings and Princes to flee all this is nothing but a description of Gods manner of appearing when he builds up Zion when hee redeems his Church out of bondage and subdues people unto him by the Scepter of Christ the Preaching of the word which is the rod of his power as is most manifest by one place in the midst of the Psalme which is as a key to open all Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men even for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them This is meant of Christs ascending to the right hand of God to take possession of the rule and government of the Church when he thus ascended up on high hee led captivity captive led all the enemies of the Church as captives at his Chariot wheeles and gave gifts to men such gifts as should build his Church which Paul interprets in the fourth of the Ephesians to be the offices and gifts which the Lord Christ gave when he ascended up to heaven for the gathering and building up of the Church hee then gave some Apostles and some Evangelists some Prophets some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Another notable passage is in the 63 of Isaiah Marke how rhetorically and elegantly the Spirit of God sets it down The Prophet stands amazed at the sight of one that drew nigh unto him Who is this saith hee that comes from Edom with dyed Garments from Bozrah that is thus glorious in his apparell travelling in the greatnesse of his strength who is this what is hee that appeares in thus much glory the answer is made in the name and person of Christ It is I the Lord mighty to save And what was the work that hee did there what was the glory why truely Jesus Christ then came to rescue his Church from thraldome from Egypt Babylon from Idumea