Towers or Powers of the World against Christ The Egyptians like ravenous Wolves would fain have been worrying the Lambs of God when they came out of their bondage but the Lord held them in and they did neither rend their Fleeces nor suck their blood The Lord according to the Proverb here truely held the Woolf by the ears The Saints Zech. 2.8 are the apple of Gods eye now we know the eye is the tendrest part of the Body and the apple is the tendrest part of the eye It is remarkable how the eye is secured by a trinity of Providences by Tunicles that sweat annoy it not by the Eie-lids that the dust hurt it not by the Eie-brows that it may be kept from blows or stroaks There was care on care Providence on Providence Tunicle on Tunicle for Sions good Oh that the glory of the Lord were as tender to us as our Salvation is both tender to and tendred by the Lord It is prettily observable Gen. 11.4 In the building of Babel Go to say the Babylonians go to saith God Divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur humanum consilium dum reluctatur comprehenditur Let us build a Tower say they let us go down and see it saith God That we may get a name say they that we may scatter them says God Thus God words it with them and confutes their folly from point to point I beleeve there are such Babels a building in the world and I am perswaded the Lord wil shortly come down and see them The pride of man shall flow to such a Tide and then it shal Ebb Errors and Blasphemies shall even lay the neck of the Gospel on the block but shall not cut it off Let the Devils raise storms and bluster with their winds round about the house of God Job 1. Let the men of the World bow down their backs and set to their shoulders they shall never overthrow it They shall neither prove themselves Sampsons nor the Saints Philistims Sion like a bottle may be dipt but it shall never be drowned God will never suffer such an Enemy to invade Sion that either he could not keep out or will not conquer Satan may be the Executioner but God is the Judge and the Executioner cannot lay on a stroak more than the Judge appoints Fierce Lyons roaring for their Prey and then Daniel thrown in and Daniel yet remains Alive there was a Lyon in the Den Was Daniels friend or Daniel had been slain Among a thousand Lyons I 'de not fear Had I but onely Daniels Lyon there 4 In this Ladder there is an ordering Providence The Ladder of Providence extends from Heaven to Hell Let men climb never so high and dig never so low Policy goes not so far but Providence goes further If the Lord suffers a poyson he knows how to bring a cordial out of it The Devil can turn cordials into poysons God can turn poysons into cordials nay make poysons cordials He suffers his Children to burn their finger in the candle to keep them from burning their whole body in the fire He like a Nurse suffers his children to reel and fall that they may cry for his arm to hold them up and learn to walk by his strength and under his Elbow There is nothing so firm Deus saepe facit opus non suum ut faciat opus suum but Providence sustains it nothing so small but he regards it nothing so evil but he can overcome it nothing so vile which serves not for his glory nothing so wrongful which executes not his Justice nothing so enemy-like which fights not for him nothing so much against him but hits the mark at which he aims It was a gâ—od speech if well understood of a good man once That he was as much beholding to God for his Infirmities as for his Graces If Peter had not fallen Lapsus Petri sit omnium Petra he had fallen The Saints sometimes fall that when they rise they may stand the faster David cut off Goliahs head with Goliahs sword Our Lord Jesus hath often beat the Devil in his own Kingdom and with his own weapons Many have shot with the Devil in his own bow as Eve Gen. 3. by disputing with him but never any except Christ ever out shot the Devill in his own Bow As appears in two famous Instances The first of the first Adam Gen. 3. The Devil was a fallen Angel and he envied that Man should stand Adam was the Representative of all mankind If Adam had stood we had stood now also says the Devil all the world falls before me if I can but make Adam fall he makes the on-set gives the bait Adam swallows it and is poysoned the Devil laughs as we say in his sleeve exults as if all the world was his Adam is arraigned by God the Devil is a ready witness against him but before the sentence was pronounced the sin is pardoned the Messiah puts in bail The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head â—rodest peccavisse nocet peccare though the serpent bit the womans heel but the serpent had but one head and the woman had two heels I cannot tell which most to admire the disease or the remedy Christ is the glory of the Church the King of Saints Sure I am we had never heard of Free Grace if man had not fallen The second Instance is of the second Adem Diabolus dum irruit ruit dum quaerit hominem incidit in salvatorem The Devil sets on the Captain of our Salvation Oh thinks the Devil if I can but destroy the Shepheard the Sheep are mine Judas betrays his Master the Jews crucifie their King Christ is laid in the grave Satan danceth and triumphs as if he had got the victory But Satan stay the bels Thou hast won the Field but Christ hath won the Day Christ ascends from the Grave marcheth through the Devils Kingdom and receives a Crown from the Father Christi fel nostri mel as Victor over Men and Devils who could neither prevent his Resurrection nor Reign Oh the wisdom of Providence If Christ had not been bâ—und we had not been freed if he had not died we had died for ever This was Satans Master-peece and yet it was his overthrow Providence brings the wheel over all designs against Sion Prov. â—0 26 Satan was the first fool though not the onely fool in the world Providence is usually exercised in contraries Opposita juxta se posita magis clucescunt It is the Divine method to humble that he may exalt to kill that he may make alive to bring light out of darkness and Hell out of Heaven We wonder oft why God suffers those to reign who make Christ to suffer and will not suffer Christ to reign little considering that the Lord oft makes the Earth to help the woman and loves to strike strait stroaks with crooked sticks He makes wicked men though they
the Lord hath inriched me and the Devil hath robbed me but as if he never heard mention made either of the Devil or the Chaldeans The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Hee is not angry with Chance and Fortune and falls not out with Stars and Constellations David saw God on this Ladder Psal 44.12 13 14. like a good child he fathers the rod on God his Father Thou hast cast off Thou hast cast down when Gods rod was on his back he puts his hand on his mouth and his mouth in the dust Luther saw God on this Ladder when he observed though the Christs-cross be no letter yet he learned more by it than all the Letters of the Alphabet and that God never sent him on any special Errant or business but he first sent his mind by some special affliction And Alfred saw God on this Ladder who alwayes prayed that God would bestow some tryal on him to keep down his love to the World and draw up his love to Heaven Lorinus reports of Grashoppers formerly in England which depopulated England that on one wing they had written Ira in black letters upon the other Dei in golden The Saints are afflicted that is anger but by their God that is golden Hear the rod saith God and who hath appointed it Is that proper language buts its one thing to feel the rod and another thing to hear it God preaches to man a Lesson not only by his Word but by his Rod and as the Word must be felt before it can be heard so the Rod must be heard before it can be felt to purpose Repent provâ—de for Eternity now do it or it may be you may never is the dialect of the rod as well as the word God appoints this man a cup of consolation and that man a cup of sorrow and he appoints how many drops shall be in their cups and all the world cannot put in a drop beyond the Lords measure Afflictions are a rod Schela crucis Schola lucis quae nocent docent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they have honey at the end of them How sweet is it while the rod softens the heart and the hony opens the eyes Afflictions are called darkness in Scripture but they have enlightned the eyes of many who else might have walked in everlasting darkness How many may read legibly their sins in their punishments and need enquire for the cause of no other physitian God lays some sick in their own beds of wantonness and so hangs them at their own doores Lord says one Christian lying like Jacob at the foot of the Ladder I am thy vine and let me rather bleed than wither I am thy Apple-tree let me rather be lopt to grow than cut up to burn Lord says another frown on me rather than not to look on me let the Lord take me into h s hands and correct me rather than that I should have nothing to do with God or he should have nothing to do with me How many souls have occasion to say If the Lord had not plowed me with Afflictions and dunged me with Reproaches what barren ground had I been how had I wandred if the Lord had not sent his dogs to fetch me to his Fold I had certainly been cast away if I had not been cast down How had I surfeited on Pleasures and Friends if the Lord had not called me from the Banquet Adversity hath whipt many a Soul to Heaven which otherwise Prosperity had coached to Hell How glorious is it to see God in Riches in Friends in Honor in Persecutions in Crosses in Sicknesses God casteth down and my God lifteth up The Lord often writes angry Epistles to his children yet observe still at the bottom of the Letter he subscribes Your loving Father Hippocrates called the Pestilence the divine disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we call the spots thereof Gods mark the Falling-sickness of old was called morbus sacer because it was the immediate hand of God O Lord may every Soul say It matters not what my condition be So it but lead or whip me home to thee Secondly Providence is visible in publick Afflictions and Affairs of the world 1 In the publick troubles and distractions of Nations I create light and I form darkness Isa 45.7 Sin is mans creature and Afflictions are Gods creatures every Affliction bears the image of its Maker and God is not ashamed of his own handy-work Sinful man is the meritorious but Providence is the efficient cause of Evils Man is the cause of moral evils God of penal evils in the City Amos 3 6. Afflictions are Gods Thunder and Lightning Famine and Pestilence are the Kings evils onely caused and cured by God the Lords dreadful Ambassadors to a Nation they have their message to deliver and they will have audience Let God but fire our fields and blast our Corn as Absolom did by Joab we come presently Wars and Judgements are Gods Troops he is their Generalissimo they move according to his Orders he sounds his Trumpet and beats his Drum and all the Plagues and Punishments of Providence are in Arms when God saith charge they charge when retreat they retreat O Sword of the Lord how long before you are quiet here was a cry to the Sword but the Sword of the Lord answered you must speak to the General himself I am at his command Jer. 47.6 Not many years since we cryed out Oh the Sufferings and Alarms and Field-fights when will you cease in England but they never ceased till God bid them cease It is the honor of a King to discharge the first peece of Ordnance against the Enemy The Lord I am sure had the honor of beating the first Alarm and sounding the first Retreat in England Man may speak of Peace in but God onely can speak Peace to a Nation In Revel 6.10 they cry How long Lord they knew God had the time in his hand and he onely could tell how long They cryed not to the Tyrants how long will yee persecute how long will yee oppress the Saints But to the Lord How long before thou come to revenge Oh say many if it had not been for such and such men wee had never had wars and if it had not been for their ends and designs we had had an end of our Troubles ere now as if Providence were but a stander by or a looker on while men playd their Games or acted their parts But Jacob sees that Assur is the rod of Gods anger and that when his children are purified the rod shall be thrown into the fire and burned Sees that when God hath scoured his Plate he will throw the wisp on the dunghill that when he hath built his house the scaffold shall be pulled down England would be as full of Judgements as it is of Sin if men were the Makers and Masters of Judgements Men alone though never so wise or powerful cannot make either staves
into our own Vessels Christians look about you you live in an infectious Air therefore take cordials where ever he hath a poyson have you an Antidote take down the antidote of Humility against the poyson of Pride of Sincerity against Hypocrisie of Zeal against Apostacy It is easier to keep sin out of the conscience than to cast it out when in The Devil is a fiery Serpent and if he can but get in his head he will get in his whole body and if he do not yet the sting is in his head How many virgin Professors have lost their spiritual chastity in an hour that they have been procuring many years and that dear peace of Conscience in a moment that they have not imbraced again till eternity But alas while we should give cordials to others we faint our selves we should awaken others and we sleep our selves we should uphold others and we fall our selves we should help to revive others and we are dead Many that have time to reprove and advise others have not hearts many that have hearts have not time their own hearts are so out of frame and tune Like dying men we take hold of one another and we love to perish in company But Christians Arise and prepare for the coming of your Master for as it is certain so it will be sudden If it were the last hour in Pauls time sure now it is the last minute of that last hour Oh Lord never was the Judge nigher to come and never less preparation for his coming Christians have we not Closets to mourn in or rather do not we want hearts to mourn with all Hath Christ cast his Cloak of love over you and said live and will you not pitty those that yet lie as it were dead in their blood if you have any Knowledge advise any Faith pray any Zeal endeavor any Wisdom soberly wait for the coming of the Lord draws nigh How can Christ wipe tears from our eyes if we never wept for his absence or come to answer our prayers if we never pray for his coming Awake awake the night is far spent arise the Day star is risen in the world we have slept too long already Endeavor that when the Father comes he may not find you like Prodigals out of his house that when the Captain of your Salvation comes he may not find you in the Trenches of the Devil or of the World a Lying a Swearing a beating your fellow Brethren for even to these monstrous sins our natures are inclineable Pray Pray That when the Judge comes who is even at the door that you may not have your Accounts to be cast up when they are to be given up Judge your selves that you may not be judged The noise and news of the Bridegrooms approach is at hand Awake arise go ye out to meet him If these following Discourses may any way advantage you in your spiritual Watch against the Devil they are yours read them in love apply them to experience let them not swim in your heads but sink into your hearts And in your prayers to the Throne of Grace let him have a room who subscribes himself in our Lord Jesus A Friend to Sion FRA. RAWORTH LEt Angels now descend from thee O Lord and with this Ladder flee Abroad and in their glorious arms Guard and safeguard it from all harms That Jacobs Sleep and Dream may those awake Who without Jacobs Dream his Sleep yet take JACOBS LADDER OR The Protectorship of SYON GEN. 28.12 And Jacob dreamed and behold a Ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angells of God ascending and descending on it and behold the Lord stood above it THere is a threefold sense of this Vision literall allegorical and providentiall First literall The History of Jacob consists of three generall parts First Jacobs going to Padan Aran. Secondly his stay there Thirdly his return from thence In his going to Padan Aran the motives which induced him to go thither are recorded which were to take a wife of his own kindred and that hee might withdraw himself from the fury of his enraged brother Secondly the accidents that fell out by the providence of God in his journey and these were the Vision of the ladder his consecration of Bethel and his vow all contained in this chapter my purpose is only to paraphrase and apply the Vision of Jacobs Ladder The Lord open this Vision to our eies to see it and open our eies to see it Four things might perplex Jacob in this journey That he should leave his Country that hee should forsake his friends that hee might fall into poverty lastly solitarinesse and want of company wherefore the Lord seasonably appears to Jacob in this Vision though thou leavest thy country yet be content I will not leave thee and as for thy friends be not troubled I am thy friend can you mend your self Jacob and for shame fear not poverty if the word of thy God may be taken east and west shall be at thy command Let Jacob say certainly I shall never see God want and wherefore should I be dismayed seeing the Lord saith I will never see Jacob want and let not Jacob fear to be alone for Angells shall travell with him and that which is security enough Jacob shal have in company not only the Angells of God but the God of Angells The Ladder is the journey of Jacob the Angells ascending and descending his royal attendants going to returning with him frō Padan Aran the Lord stands on the top of the Ladder as guiding and governing all Jacob I am perswaded never had a sweeter nights lodging than at this time when the stones were his pillow and the Heavens his canopy when Providence made his bed and Angells rockt the cradle How pleasant is it to consider Angells guard Jacob God guards the Angells and God guards Jacob with Angells what ground then hath Jacob to fear either men or Devills to disturb him when hee hath a guard of God and of his Angells Secondly an Allegorical sense and so Christ is this Ladder John I. ult by his Divine nature he reached to Heaven by his humane to the earth his incarnation being a commerce between Divinity and humanity the steps of this Ladder are either the genealogy of Christ or the successive works of his redemption John the tenth Hee that climbs up or thinks to climb up any other way to heaven than by this Ladder is a thief for John the 14. hee is the only way for satisfaction for justification for sanctification the only way from God to man and from Man to God every poor sinner hath liberty to ascend these stairs Tolle scalas Aetii tu solus Coelum introibis and the righteous Pharisee shall never enter the star-chamber of heaven at a backdore Every man by nature sees the necessity of some Ladder or other to climb up to salvation by the Mahumetan
wicked man as wicked as Cain to prolong his life and to have the world at command but yet carp not at providence let the Lord be down before you think to lift him up enter not into the Chair to offer knowledge to God about his Works There is no reason that the Lord should give man a reason of all his ways he often wils a change but never changeth his will God may retreat in his Providences as to us and undo all he hath been doing in England these fifteen years and make Sion put on her mourning apparel and yet not be either unconstant or unfaithful though I hope better things For it is observeable that Providence in the main is never Excentrical and in the main is never Retrograde The Lord oft looks backward but never goes backward He led Israel forty years about in the wilderness and yet never carried them back to Egypt Abraham is promised a Son and a numerous off-spring but as if Providence had forgot it self to us Abraham is commanded to offer up Isaack and whereas he might have objected Lord thou art wont to call for Oxen to be sacrificed and dost thou require me to sacrifice my son Thy word saith I must not kill Certum est quia impossibile est and thy mouth saith I must kill and Lord thou hast promised to multiply my seed and now thou callest for my Isaack How can the branches grow if the stock be cut down and yet Abraham obeyed winking and putting his hand into the Lords hand following him though Providence as it were crossed the Promise We now have as the Prophet speaks a wheel in a wheel So I trust ere God hath done with England we shall have as the Rabbi speaks a miracle in a miracle Fourthly In this Ladder we have The independency of Providence The Ladder we see is onely reared and supported by God it is not a crooked Ladder but stands upright toward Heaven It Leans not on the mountains of men nor Palaces of Kings Many quarrel and find fault with the Ladder of Providence but this Ladder shall never fall down before man or to man The Prophet undertakes the challenge Isa 40.15 Who hath been the Counseller of God or hath taught the Almighty The wise King of Aragon was so foolish as to think he could have made the Creation better if he had been of Gods Counsel and some men think there are Erratae's in the volume of Providence by their murmurings and would fain be a correcting the Lords Copy and amending the Lines of his Government in the world methinks false-hearted man is like flattering Absolom who would insinuate to the people neglects in his Fathers Government There is no man deputed of the King to do Justice and that he was able to guide Israel in a better order But John the 15. The Church is compared to a Vine and God will have it lean on himself and not to be supported by the poles and policy of men It is observed that the weakest women have often the strongest children and that the Lord hangs the heaviest weights on the smallest wyars The stone in Daniel is cut out of the mountains without hands The Gospel and Sion are neither framed nor forged by man both are the handy-works of God as there was no concurrence of mans power to the generation of Christ personal so there is no concurrence of the wisdom of man to the generation of Christ mystical Cicero fell in with Caesar when Pompey was defeated and it is no dishonor for man routed in his way to fall down to God Man must lean on God but God will never lean on man man must go to God God will never come to man If the mountain will not come to Mahumet Mahumet will go to the Mountain said that bold Impostor when he could not work a miracle which he promised to his followers Oecolampadius had a good cause as they said but he wanted Souldiers to bear it up but let Sion remember that her cause is not so good but the strength of her Protector is as great to maintain it Quod est causa causae est causa causati There is nothing that God doth by the creature but he can do without the creature rather than Sion shall fall the God of Sion will not stand on miracles Fifthly In this Ladder we have the extent of Providence The Ladder is set upon the earth and the top of it reached to Heaven Providence extends 1 To all senseless and irrational creatures both in their Preservation and Government First Virtus est maxima pertingere quam remotissimae In their Preservation The Epicures confine God to the Palace of Heaven as if it were below his Majesty to take notice of the lower world The Stoicks limit him to the middle Region But the Lord deals not like a Carpenter or Artizan who have done all their work when a house is built and a Clock put together There is as much need of a Divine wisdom to preserve as there was of a Divine power to make the world There is a necessity not onely of a privative influx from God that is not onely that he does not destroy his creatures but of a positive influence to maintain the creatures in being Job 6.9 If the Lord take away his hand Job would fall not onely to the ground but also to his first principles of nothing Mithridates a General knew all the names of all the Souldiers in his Army The Heavens are the Lords Hosts and they in all their rancks and orbes are known and kept by the Lord of Hosts Cincinnatus his honor was at the same time to hold the Plow and the Helm of State The Lord made as well the least worm on earth as the most glorious Angel in Heaven Deus nec laborat in maximis nec fastidit in minimis and it costeth the Lord as many words to make a worm as to make an Angel for all was done with a word It is no disgrace for the Lord to walk up and down by his Providence and over-look all his creatures the baseness of any creature no more defiles God than a dunghil vapor infects the Sun beams The lesser a clock is as if it can lie under the wings of a Fly the greater is the skill of the Clock-maker The Smith was commended for beating iron into chains and nets that they could hardly see them being thinner than the smallest thread or the web of a Spider God is great in the greatest creatures and he is great in the smallest creatures It is to be feared that those that at present question Providence Deus est in culice in pulice Saeculum est speculum upon the same accounts may ere long deny the Creation A King is confined to his proper Ubi and Palace and he orders things in his Dominions by Deputies and Viceroys but the Lord can no more be absent from his creatures than
destroy them I that he will But whence was it that he did not destroy them Ezek. 29.4 The Lord put an hook on his Nostrils and a bridle on his Jaws The Dark Lanthorn of Faux is famous the Match was ready to give fire to have blown up all Uno actis tactis but God wet the Powder The dark side of the Lanthorn was to man the light side toward God Afflictions are Gods blood-letting and by them he not onely cures but prevents diseases David had gone astray if he had not stumbled As distracted a Nation as England is we had perished if we had not even perished It was a good mans contemplation on this Ladder Lord thou hast pardoned those sins I have committed and those sins which by thy Grace I have not committed How many Souls had never gone into Heaven if God had not carried them by the gates of Hell How many sinners had been undone indeed if they had not been undone in their own sense Let Gods Jacobs lie at the foot of the Ladder and admire what hardness of heart hath God prevented what an hard heart hath God softened how miserable in sin had I been if God had not had mercy on me and how miserable notwithstanding all my sense of his love and power over my corruptions should I be if yet God should not have mercy on me God is not onely to be admired for bringing good out of evill but for preventing evil and doing good Great God! no sooner born but we begin Babels accurs'd Foundation by our sin Our thoughts our words our deeds are ever yeelding The sad Materials of our sinful building Should not thy Grace prevent it it would even Rise and rise up untill it reacht to Heaven Lord ere our building shall begin to show Confound our language and our building too And so in a publique sense when the overthrow of Religion is determined at mans Council-Table it is not determined at Gods Council-Table mens designs are not so deep but the Lords designs are deeper And though Satans enterprises are in the Dark to us yet they are in the light to God God often blows up and undermines the malice of men for his Children who sometimes neither feel nor hear the blow O Lord how often are we delivered from visible dangers but how oftner from invisible dangers Remember for ever that the Devil and Men may often level their Ordnance against Sion but they shall never do Execution till God say Give fire Deus justè patitur quod nos non justè agimus 2 In this Ladder there is a permitting Providence The Devils are kept in chains as Jude speaks In chains not onely of Justice but also of Providence that they can neither torment the Body or torment the Soul without commission or permission from God God did not allow yet he suffered the treachery of Judas and the cruelty of Pilat toward Christ Act. 2.23 The Apostle chargeth Christs death on them and yet brings in the fore-knowledge and counsel of God The Father delivered the Son the Son delivered himself out of love Judas delivered Christ for money the Jews crucified Christ out of malice so that in the same tradition God is to be magnified and man condemned because in the same thing which they did the cause was not the same for which they did it God permits weeds in his Garden and tares in his Field Why may some say doth not God prevent the sprouting and growing of such blasphemies and errors as range up and down and rage in England How says unbelief can the Lord be tender of his Flowers his Saints and Truths and yet be content to see such thorns and weeds to grow about them Remember That God is not bound to do all he can and how could God be Almighty if he did all hee could and that when the Wheat is ripe as Luther speaks the Husband-man will burn the Tares If a man should find fault with the shadowing of a picture in a Table it would be answered Let not the Cobler go beyond his Last for the dimming sets off the bright and the art of the Painter could not be perceived without diversity of colours A Father holds a Lyon in chains Rugiat Leo quantum vult tantum non fugiat Ovis Christi the child trembles for fear lest the Lyon should devour him but the Father suffers the child to tremble but will not suffer the Lyon to devour the Saints in England are afraid for the Lyon of Hell roars indeed our sins have both lengthened his chain and opened his month but let them consider the Lyon is not so powerful but their Father is as pittiful and that God that suffers the Lyon to roar will not suffer the Lyon to tear Satan though politick cannot slip his collar though powerful cannot break his prison The Devill hath men to be his prisoners but the Devil himself is Gods prisoner Providence binds Satan over to the Peace to his quiet behavior Christ hath the keys of Hell at his girdle Hell is under his conquest and therefore under his command Rev. 20.2 an allusion to Conquerors who having taken a Fort the keyes are presently surrendred to them Diabolus contra sanctos tempestatem movet sedipse naufragium patitur This Ladder of Providence reaches as far as Hell and extends to the utmost line of the Devils Kingdom Satan cannot enkindle one fire in Sion if Providence did not suffer him to go up and down to gather sticks The whole Creation Men and Devils though they are not all under the protection yet they are within the Precincts of Providence and let us not murmur at Gods permissive Providence but consider God judgeth it more for his glory to bring good out of evil than not to suffer evil to be at all and God would never suffer evill to be if he could not bring good out of it The Almighty doth not approve of all he permits and therefore let none undertake to reprove him for what he permits there being nothing that is permitted which shall not in the end prove for Sions comfort and his glory For either thy command or thy permission Lay hands on all they are the right and left The first puts on with speed and expedition The other curbs sins stealing-pace and thest Nothing escapes them both all must appear And be dispos'd and drest and tun'd by thee Who sweetly temperst all If we could hear The skil and art what musick would it be Plures sunt gratiae privativae quam positivae 3 In this Ladder there is a restraining Providence Thus far shall the Designs of men and Devils go and no further That 's the authoritative Dialect of the Almighty God will shake the World Nahum 3. as a Fig-tree men shall neither have leaves to cover their nakedness nor fruit to satisfie their hunger the Lord can make the Saints in beleeving not to care as we say a fig for the
notwithstanding all winds and waves of men and Devils the Church shal arrive at her harbor The Ninth remarkable in Jacobs Ladder is The security of Providence and that both mediately and immediately 1 Immediately God sits on the top of the Ladder not Angels nor men One Translation renders it Deus stat ut vindex sedet ut â—judex God leans on the Ladder but the Ladder rather leans on God than God on the Ladder The Chalde The glory of the Lord stands on the Ladder Oh say some if we had but such Judges as Sampson as Gideon were these words are bad though proceeding from good men if proceeding from distrust and are all one as if they should desire not that God but man stood on the top of the Ladder Remember God is better than a thousand Gideons than a thousand Sampsons The best of men as experience hath taught are but men at the best and all men are but men at the most It is well for Sion that God stands on the top He doth not reside in his Palace but comes to the door and Porch visibly to his people ready to receive the Petitions of his Jacobs by out-stretched armes Revel 4.3 God is presented there as sitting on a Throne as a King in his Chair of State curâ securâ to note how easily he rules the world The eye of God in Scripture is said to be against a Nation and that is able to discountenance any design God blew on Pharaoh and his Host and when breath comes out of Gods mouth then breath goes out of mans nostrils and he dies He is said to turn his hand on his Enemies and indeed with the turning of an hand he turns man into Hell Quod Deus loquitui ridâ—ns tu lege lugens And lastly Psal 2. the Lord is said to laugh at wicked men and woe be to those men at whose fooleries the Lords laughs Arise Lord says David and let thine enemies be scattered There needs no more the very arising of God is the downfall of the ungodly There is nothing God doth by man or means but he can do without man or means Can God destroy Babylon with Armies then God can destroy Babylon without Armies Armies cannot destoy Antichrist without God but God can if he please destroy Babylon without Armies What a sweet order is in Divine Providence Jacob lies at the foot of the Ladder the Angels go up and down the Ladder and the Lord gloriously stands on the top of the Ladder 2 Mediately Providence secures his Church by Angels For in the Ladder you have mention of Gods standing and the Angels motion on the Ladder Though God did not create the world by Angels as some phancie from Elohim barah yet he Governs the world Melius est nescire fine crimine quam scire cum discrimine and especially his Church by Angels Angels ascended and Angels descended one Jacob but many Angels there were as we say questionless a number of Angels though we are at as great a loss to find out the number of Angels on this Ladder as in the world Now to let pass the curious and vain enquiry of the Schoolmen about the nature number order of Angels I shall onely discourse of Angels according to the revealed word with just consequence in order to their influence on or about Sion Of which Discourse I wish you as much profit in reading as I have had in the penning of it by the assistance of the Lord. Angels are conversant about the Church in relation to the Head and Members First In relation to the Head our Lord Jesus I confess I beleeve not that Christ is the Redeemer of Angels they were never Captives and how can they be ransomed they never were obnoxious to guilt and so are not capable of a pardon yet that Jesus that raised up man that was fallen caused that the Angels should not fall Qui urtique redemptio solvens illum servans istum delivering man out of and defending Angels from captivity and so in some sense may be said to be redemption to both curing man and keeping Angels Angels had not stood and man had never risen being fallen from his standing but for Christ He reconciled man to Angels and Angels to men and by vertue of his mediation he is the Redeemer of man but the Governor of Angels God gathered together in one all things in Christ in Heaven and on Earth Ephes 1.10 Hence Angels in Scripture express their homage to Christ as their Lord Exod. 26.30 The veil of the Tabernacle which covered the most holy which signifies the incarnation of Christ was made of broidered work with Cherubims which shadowed out the service of Angels to the Mediator Hence Matth. 16.27 they are called not onely the Angels of God for man but the Angels of God man It is observable in that space of time which was from his Incarnation to his Ascension they served him ten times 1 They carried the message of his miraculous Conception to the Virgin Ad Evam malus Angelus accessit bomo separaretur à Deo ad Mariam bonus Angelus venit ut in ea Deus uniretur homini Fulge 2 They advertised Joseph whom the ignorance of this Mystery had perplexed 3 They published his birth unto the Shepheards 4 They gave order to carry him into Egypt to avoid the fury of Herod 5 They had care to cause him to be brought back into Judea after the death of the Tyrant 6 They accompanied him and ministred to him after his temptation in the wilderness 7 They comforted him in his Agony in the Garden 8 They roled back the stone from the door of the Sepulchre wherein he had been inclosed 9 They declared his Resurrection 10 They instructed his Disciples who looked up after him ascending into Heaven that one day he would return Filius Dei caput Angelorum est non redemtionis sed creationis Wollebii Epitome Never did the Angels serve any person so often nor in so great a number of occurrences nor in so high charges nor through such diversity of means as they served the Son of God Christ had not a guard of men as the Kings and the Nobles of the World have but a Guard of Nobles and Princes and not onely of Princes but of Principalities and Powers Some Psal 91.11 say the Angels keep not Christ but Christ keeps Angels and that that promise of keeping thee in all thy ways belongs to Christ Mystical or Christ in his members not to Christ personal or thus that Angels ministred to Christ but did not keep Christ But this we are sure of Joh. 1. ult The Angels ascended and descended on the Son of Man not that they minister to Christ alone but that they for his sake and honor do minister to and are carefull for the whole Body of the Elect. Wherefore Secondly The Angels attend on Sion on the Saints First While in the world they
Gospel Surfet And might not the Lord justly take us down and make us know the worth of the Gospel by the want of it Since we have plaid with the light of Truth might he not make us feel the fire Might not God lay down his Basket and take up his Ax and because we are not fit for fruit and building make us fit fuel for burning Have not the Ambassadors of the everlasting Gospel had as hard lot in England as they had in Sodom Who cannot but admire that when England is as chaffy as Sodom that we ave not the same flames as Sodom had Is not this salvation that when wee have been weary of God that yet God is not weary of us That when we have refused to be a holy Nation that yet we are a Nation That when our sins are the sins of Sodom that our sufferings are not the sufferings of Sodom God hath lighted up a flaming Candle of Justice in Sodom the Lord grant that luke-warm England may yet see to read her salvation by it Mercy always swims in Justice but with us Justice seems to be drowned in Mercy 2 From this Ladder admire that we are not made an Egypt God lately turned our waters into blood our Sea was then a red Sea indeed What a mercy is it that English darkness is not a proverb as well as Egyptian darkness England of old was called Albion from the white Rocks and Scotland as some Criticks fancy signifies a Land of darkness But how quickly can the Lord turn Albion into Scotia England into Scotland and Scotland into England we are their neighbors already We have much liberty to bless God Oh that there we not so much liberty to blaspheme God! We have more liberty than either we have deserved or been thankful for There was a time when the Saints in England had Conscience without liberty we have now much liberty of Conscience the Lord grant the time may never come that we should have liberty without Conscience Liberty and nothing else but Licentiousness and Atheism We had once hearts to bless God but wanted opportunity Oh that now we have opportunities we did not want hearts As when a doubting Christian complained that he had no interest in God he was such a stranger to God a Preacher of the Gospel replied But what will you take for that interest though as you think little you have in God not a thousand worlds said the doubting Christian Saints in England what will you take for that liberty you have Now your eyes see your Teachers what if they were all shut up in corners now the doors of the Congregations q.d. are open what if it were past Sermon-time and past Repentance-time what if the silver bell of the Gospel should no more sound in England Oh that we had as much conscience of liberty as we have liberty of conscience That of Omnium Deorum among the Romans of Omnium Sanctorum amongst the Papists of Omnium Sectarum here in England are monstrous Every variation from unity is a step to nullity If ever England should come from one Religion to all and we are in the high way we shall quickly go from all Religion to none 3 From this Ladder admire that we are not made a Germany Instead of the sword of War you have the Scepter of Peace instead of Garments rowled in blood and the noyse of Arms you have the blood of Christ sprinkled on your Garments Oh trample it not under feet Instead of the roaring Cannons you have the sweet sound of Gospel-Ordinances God hath but shaken his rod over us while he hath broken their backs while we have been let blood he hath even let them bleed to death God bid David chuse which of the three plagues of War Famine Pestilence he would have but God puts it to our choyce which of those three plagues we will not have inflicted on us Though God hath sheathed up his sword yet he holds it still in his hand therefore fear What salvation is this that parents are not drinking the blood of their ch ldren to quench their thirst and eat the flesh of their children to satisfie their hunger 4 From hence admire that we are not made a Babylon Pray pray that the Bibles may be opened in Spain and yet bless God that there are not Pad-locks hung on them in England Pray mightily that Antichrist may fall abroad and forget not to bless God that though there be much of Rome in England that yet England is not Rome that none can go to Market that none can buy or sel without the mark of the Beast Revel 13.17 either in their right hands or on their foreheads It is the opinion of some good men that the Protestant Profession shall be over-spread with Antichristianism again and that then the Lord will extraordinarily awaken them from their sleep and actively engage them against Babylon But I wish though we have looked on Babylon that we may not so lust after Babylon Spiritual longings in this kind are dangerous but I hope God will prevent Sions miscarriage in the birth of Reformation The Lord grant if we go to Rome it may not be to dote on her but to destroy her There is an old Prophecy that Antichrist shall never overcome Paris nor Venice nor London Let us not be secure for if his Soul have entertainment here his Body will not tarry long after But some may say What Salvation hath the Lord wrought for us what fruit is there of all the blood shed in England is not our condition as bad as ever nay in some sense worse the Saints were united are they not now divided how many Professors are turned Apostates nay Persecutors and Prophane This is sad indeed and to be lamented yet as the Disciples did not wish the blood in Christs veins again though they were distressed by his death So I dare not say though in our Distractions and among the Blasphemies of this age Man hath lost his way that God hath lost his end This is the support That as God hath laid the Foundation so he will carry on the Building that as the Great Turk makes a Bridge of the Bodies of his Souldiers to scale the wals of a Garrison So the Lord knows how to make his glory to rise by the fall of ours and to give life to his Cause by the death of his followers Secondly From this Ladder we may take many sweet Prospects forward on what God will do more apparently for Sion in the world There are eight famous Prospects The first Prospect from Jacobs Ladder is Gods Jacobs may foresee the abundance of knowledge yet to be poured out Isa 36 26. Isa 52.8 Isa 11. Knowledge shall abound as waters do upon the Sea Knowledge is now but at a low Ebb in comparison of that high Tide that shal flow hereafter Knowledge shall abound as the Sea intensively and extensively it shall more increase and be more clear As
a Dwarf standing on the shoulders of a tall man sees further than the tall man on whose shoulders he stands So I am perswaded in some things that the men of knowledge in this age will be but children in understanding in the next Jer. 31.34 They shall not teach one another saying know the Lord. Then farewell preaching No the Saints shall need to be built up but they shall not so much need to be taught the Principles of Religion saying Exprimere non valet experimento opus est Cathedram in coelo habet qui corda docet Know the Lord What is God the new nature shall teach them that which is not the impression of Man but of God They shall say Our Father and I Beleeve by roat It is observable that under the Law the Girdle was about the Loyns Ezek 23.15 But in Gospel times it is about the Paps Rev. 1. â—3 to signifie how knowledge shall rise h gher in the last ages of the world than in former ages Young men shall see visions and old men shall dream dreams The old world did but dream the knowledge of the Jews is more dark but in Gospel-daies there shall be Visions a clearer knowledge and Revelation of the mind of God Antichrist hath brought a cloud into the Temple and the Gospel Sun-shine must expel it Providence is picking quarrels with the painted windows of Antichrist and the Lord will set up clear glass windows that shall not keep out the light Not that we are to expect new Truths but new Vnderstandings not the printing of a new Gospel ☜ or making any more additions but new eye-sight and the downfal of old error How is it possible that amongst us any should plead for Revelations when we have the revealed Word Revelations were more suitable to the days of the Law we have a compleat copy of the Lords mind for the Government of his Church in the Word but it is as with man the older he grows the more inclinable he is to dreams Mundus senescens patitur phantasiam the old world begins to doat and we are ready to neglect our watch in this dreaming age Second Prospect from this Ladder we may foresee the encrease of holiness Now many can profess and be drunk profess and swear and lie now men are more careful for new Lights than new Lives new Notions Gnostici simal Borboritae than new Motions of the Spirit Care more to have a Library of Divinity in their brains than a Catechism of Divinity in their hearts Have the light of the Sun for Knowledge whereas they have not the heat of a candle for Holiness like the Toad that has a precious pearl in the Head but poyson in the Bowels or like the Lapwing that hath a Coronet on her head but always feeds on dunghils But there is a time a coming when men shall more visibly honor God All the pots in the Lords house shall be holy and holiness shall be wrote on the bels of the horses Zech. ult Counterfeit holiness vanisheth the more real holiness appears At Rome there was a Pantheon or Temple for all gods but the Heathen would not suffer Jehovah to be worshipped there for he is a jealous God and if he had been honored then down with Mars and Jupiter The Kingdom of Christ shall prosper I wish none have Kingly thoughts of that Kingdom the Kingdom of Christ and holiness and humility and Mortification It is not the throwing down of prophane Ministers and oppressing Magistrates onely will be this Kingdom for they may be thrown down and yet Christ never be set up the new Creature Self-denial will after all this be necessary for otherwise we should have rather Plato's Common-wealth or Tully's Offices than Christs Kingdom Moral Prophaneness indeed lays the Gospel on the dunghill but Moral Holiness simply will never set Christ in his Throne There shall be an high-way and it shall be called the way of holiness and no unclean thing shall pass therein Isa 53. If any demand how this can be I answer no disease is incurable to an omnipotent Physician Third Prospect from this Ladder we may see Hypocrisie defeated and many Apostates recovered Now many desire rather to appear than to be holy they account the form necessary but the power of Religion burthensom Now many like Rowers in a Boat look one way and row another Now many have no greater ends by Religion than in the end to be great in Religion But Providence is a pulling off the vizard and making the hearts of men to appear in their faces Many shal not only not dance in a net unseen of heaven but not in a net unseen of men Their folly shall be made known to all men God will light up candles in Jerusalem and enkindle a fire in Sion and Hypocrisie shall not indure either the light or heat and God will also make professors like Moses Act. 7.22 Not onely mighty in words Crassiani non Christiani that are no bodies in deeds but also mighty in word and in deeds like Aarons rod not onely to bring forth blossoms of profession but Almonds fruits of holiness Like the High Priest not onely to have Bels but Pomegranates not onely to bear away the bell for knowledge but to give a sweet scent of the Spirit in their conversations Many poor sinners of late have left their Fathers house and because of their guilty consciences would for the present if they could run out of their Fathers eye as well as his house and who shall return the Prodigal to his Father Hagar to her Mistris Jonah to his God again how do many Professors fly like spiritual malefactors from one form to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and disguize themselves with Opinions and all to avoid the Hue and Cry of Conscience that God is raising and if it were possible to tear the Records of the Gospel in peeces and burn down the Tribunal Bar they have run into such arrearages in sin Now who shall set up the broken Professor or awaken the sleepy Virgin Though Might and Power cannot do it yet an Almighty Power can do it Zech. 4.6 The remnant of Jacob shall be as a dew from the Lord as the showres on the grass that wait not for the Sons of men Mic. 5.7 It is true says God Gardeners dig and delve and water their ground and so have herbs but I le turn the Wilderness into a Pool I le work without work-men sinners shall not be watered by man but by God with the dew of Heaven When the day dawns the dew fals thick on the ground and till the Lords powre dawn all the world cannot make dew nor thaw the hearts of men Fourth Prospect from this Ladder hence we may see the reconciliation of Divisions Now Ephraim is against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Judah now divisions are not onely between Wolves and Wolves but between sheep and
his crying to God Moses egit vocis silentium ut corde clamaret no not a word Hezekiah chatters like a Crane and mourns as a Dove Isa 38.14 Yet God hears sense though he cannot speak sense words are but like smoak Faith is the fire and though smoak is a sign of fire yet often there is least smoak where there is most fire Christ receives sighs in his Censor for Prayers Though others mock at groans yet he that made them knows what they mean The Spirit first makes the sigh as an Intercessor and then as God hears it He is within praying and without hearing a dumb beggar gets an Almes at Christs gate even by making signs when his tongue cannot plead for him and the rather because he is dumb The Lord regards not the Grammar of prayers how men word it in prayer nor the Arithmetick of prayers how often they pray nor the Rhetorick of Prayers how finely they pray Cum Spiritus Jacobi suspirat Spiritus Dei inspirat nor the Musick of prayers what sweetness of tone men have in prayer but the Divinity of prayer Christians the Spirit of God makes intercession in us with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their greatness that as there is joy unspeakable so there is sorrow unutterable rather for their littleness their feebleness and faintness yet God hears them when we scarce feel them he knows the meaning of those groans which never as yet knew their own meaning and understands the sense of those sighs Oratio licet tacens est Deus clamor which never understood themselves But may the soul say If my groans are unutterable are they not then unaudible can they be heard when they are not uttered Oh! consider that as God can hear without an ear so thou mayst speak without a tongue And on the contrary What a sweet thing is it for a broken heart to shed tears in the bosom and drop tears on the Bible when it is a reading in private to weep and read and read and weep again not to be able to see letters for tears Mary Magdalen was famous for tears and Christ was never so near her as when she could not see him for weeping When we wrestle with God we must mingle more Faith with our Prayers we must pray more beleevingly we must mingle more fire with our Prayers we must pray more fervently we must as Jacob mingle more water with our prayers pray more humbly and weepingly Though we read not of his weeping plainly in the History Plerumque hoc negotium plus gemitibus quam serâ—â—nibus plus fletu quam affatu geritur yet we do in the Prophecie probably Hosea some may think had that carriage by relation or Revelation Prayers and Patience are the Armor Prayers and Tears are the weapons of a Christian If we would conquer as Jacob did we must weep or sigh as Jacob did As musick on the water sounds more harmoniously than on the land so prayers joyned with tears with God Sinners wrestle with God for the pardon of their sins and as they never obtain it without a bleeding heart so seldom can they read it with dry eyes Jacobs Faith is implyed For Prayer without Faith is as a Gun discharged without a bullet that may make a great noyse but doth little execution Jacobs reasoning was Jacobs wrestling with God in prayer Deliver me saith he from the hand of my brother Esau there is the ground of his engagement v. 11. which he maintains with ten strong charges or assaults one after another The first Charge Jacob gives the Angel is He urges God from the Covenant made with his fore-fathers O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaak q.d. remember those Names with whom thou didst make solemn Covenants for the Protection of them and their posterity will the Lord forget his Favorites and friends but if the Lord will not yeeld at one assault Si Deus semper exaudiret omnes non jam ex voluntate libera sed ex quadam velut â—ecessitate facere videretur he shall have another Jacob comes not to God as if he came to fetch fire a spurt and away like a Messenger which is gone before he have his answer Jacob is resolved to have no other answer but to be answered Therefore he gives a Second charge from Gods special command to undertake the journey Lord says Jacob thou saydst to me return q.d. am I returning on my own head or on thy counsel and art thou not concerned to bring me out of that trouble that thy command hath brought me into have I O Lord obeyed thy command and will not God perform his Promise brave Jacob He says not Prayers as children say Grace or as men like children say a Pater Noster if God will hear them so it is they never troubled God before and they will never trouble him after in all their lives Jacob fights rather for the Blessing than for the Victory and he will rather dye at the Angels feet than give over fighting till the Angel give out fighting and give in a blessing I had rather says Jacob die a Conqueror than live a Coward And therefore gives a third Charge in putting God in mind of his promise Thou toldest me O Lord thou wouldst deal well with me will the Lord say and unsay if the Lord had not promised to be with me I had resolved not to have adventured on this journey wherefore O Lord if thy promise stand I cannot fall Fight still Jacob crys the Lord still I crys Jacob and will never be still till thou bless me If my petition were unlawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 xl eth I would never have presented it but if it be lawful why should I desist it I had as good never have contended crys Jacob if I should be contented without conquering I love not to quarrel The first stroak begins the battel but the last onely wins it which Jacob knows and therefore is resolved to have the last word of and give the last blow to the Angel Victorious Jacob And Fourthly Assaults and reasons from his unworthiness I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies or according to the Hebrew I am less than all though I am bold to urge thy Covenant yet I am ready to acknowledge my undesert Lord thou art indeed my Debtor but by thy Promise made to me not by any performance of mine to thee Humble Jacob The Angels mercy is all his merit Faith is always humble and though it be most confident in Gods word yet it is most distrustful of its own desert Thou art a Dog says Christ to the Canaanite and doth childrens bread use to be flung to Dogs Truth Lord says she I am a Dog and though I may not sit at Table with the children yet I may lie under the Table and eat the crums with the Dogs If I be a
that he would give him some peculiar name whereby he may the better remember and honor him What is thy name Thou art such a fellow says the Angel as I never before met withall Methinks I see the Lord dubbing Jacob Knight of the Praying Order kneel down Jacob and rise up Israel for as a Prince hast thou prevailed with God thou art a conqueror if ever any were and thou shalt prevail with men as formerly thou hast with Laban so now with Esau though he seems to out-match thee in number and power of people Thou hast conquered God and thou shalt conquer man therefore thou shalt conquer man because thou hast conquered God Jacobus ëst plurimarum palmarum homo Jacob was a man of many prayers and now a man of many victories Many Saints as David Peter c. have wrestled well but here is Jacob hath out-wrestled them all Thou art Israel Of old they were wont to say How gracious is Alexander with Hephestion who was his Favorite but not how gracious is the Angel with Jacob but how gracious is Jacob with the Angel Israel is a more famous warrior than Hannibal not onely because he fought with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because he knew not onely how to get but to keep the victory for as he wrestled till he conquered so he triumphed till he was blessed Jacob was a wrestler in the womb and a conqueror in the world Jacob got the victory and politickly clipt her wings that she should not flee from him Henceforward no more Alexander the Great Charlemain or William the Conqueror but Jacob the Great but Jacob the Conqueror He is properly Right Honorable and of him properly may we say his Excellency who with this Patriarch is rightly honorable and as he did excells with God Thy name shall no more be called Jacob but Israel the change of names in the godly is an argument of favor with God and of honor with men and a provocation for them whose names are changed to change from bad to good from good to better No more Jacob that is onely Jacob but also Israel as when the Lord saith Ier. 7.22 that he required not sacrifices of the people that is onely outward sacrifices for by the name of Israel Jacobs posterity was rather honored than himself he did not leave his old name Jacob his posterity being called rather the children of Israel than of Jacob and familiarly Israelites not Jacobites Nomen quo tu Israel appellaris Dei cogniti argumentum est ut amplius incredulitatem tuam patefaciat cur igitur gestas cognomen quod personae probro sit factis appellationem tuam impugnas calumnia nomen tuum afficis Basil Seleuc. Orat. 19. As the Apostle had not the name of Simon abrogated but only the name of Peter added as the more honorable title So the Patriarch lost not the name of Jacob but gained the name of Israel He is called Israel in opposition to Jacob which signifies subtlety and importeth weakness Gen. 25.26 For the name Jacob he had from prevailing over man but the name Israel from prevailing over God so the Lod intimates here as if he should have said Thou shalt not henceforward be termed Jacob as if thou hadst got the blessing by stealth and fraud from man but Israel for thou hast fought hand to hand thou hast with puissance and power and in the field got the victory over God No more a Supplanter but a Conqueror And it is observed that usually when there is mention made of the infirmities of the Church in Scripture she is called Jacob but when of her prosperous and prevailing estate she is called Israel Isa 41.14 Gal. 6.16 but Israel that is Gods valiant or valiant with God not a man seeing God as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor one right with directed by God as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Jashar Ishrael but Israel that is thou hast prevailed with God from Sara to rule as the Lord himself gives the Etymon The Septuagint reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast had strength with God The Chalde Thou art a Prince before the Lord and with men Israel was so called because he prevailed with God Oh that either our Names were according to our Natures or our Natures according to our Names How many are called John that are void of the Grace of God Timotheus that fear not God Theophilus that love not God Samuel that obey not God as their names signifie Nomen inane crimen immane It were well that either our Names or our manners were changed How many have nothing of God in them but in their names that are called by the names of God that never call on the name of God is thy name Peter oh endeavor to be a pillar in the Church of God Paul oh endeavor to be a Paul little in thine own eyes Ne portes sanctum nomen ad poenam tuam We have likewise a demand on Jacobs part to the Angel tell me I pray thee thy name belike he thought he might be as bold with the Angel as the Angel was with him He desired to know the Angels name probably either out of honor for usually we are earnest to know the names of great Personages Nec Dei nomen quaeras Deus nomen est Minu Felix so Manoah asked what is the name of the Angel of the Lord that he might do honor to him Judg. 13.17 or because he would hereafter call upon him again when in trouble hoping the Angel would on such an occasion be as ready to aid and assist him as now he did And we have here likewise the Angels reply ver 29. Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name q. d. who made thee and I so familiar the Angel would serve his necessity but not his curiosity insinuating to him likewise that his name which is himself is greater than could of him then be comprehended and hereupon the Latine text and the Septuagint add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is wonderful which words are supplied out of Judg. 13.18 and further the time was not yet come whereby the Lord would make himself known by his Name Jehovah as unto Moses Ezod 6.3 and therefore Jacob should content himself with that revelation the Lord shewed to him Why askest thou which is not so much an interrogation as manner of speaking by a prohibition ask not after my name So some but where God has not a tongue to speak we must not have an ear to hear and where God hath not an ear we must not have a tongue It was not more curiously done in Jacob to ask the Angels name than it was in him who took on him confidently to tell the causes why the Angel did conceale it There are two circumstances more in this story The first is Jacobs nameing the place where he had this Combate he called it Peniel or Penuel according to the Hebrew
according to the Greek pronunciation Phanouel Jacob tels us the meaning because I have seen God face to face that is not in a dream but waking not that Jacob saw the essence of God for that is invisible but he saw him more clearly than ever he did before Jacob saw God face to face Moses spake with God mouth to mouth that is they saw and spoke with God as one friend to another As before when Jacob had the Vision of the Ladder he called out of thankfulness the place Bethel so now he calleth this place Peniel that his posterity by that name might call to remembrance this heavenly Vision in that place shewed to their Father Jacob Where-ever the Saints prevail with God there is Peniel Sometimes they may call the Congregation Peniel there they hear the voyce of God their Closets Peniel there they see the face of God Oh how comfortable is it to reflect on the times and places of Gods appearances to his people For Caleb and Joshua to look back on the Red Sea and to say There we were Israel for Israel to look back on Ai and to say there was Peniel How sweet to consider there was the place where God softened my Conscience there was the Bethel where God revealed his love to me The second Circumstance is the observation of the Jews They eat not of the sinew that shrunk which is upon the hollow of the Thigh which custom was not taken up out of any Superstition which that simple age was given to but of a reverent remembrance of this Providence which befell Jacob according to the Pedagogie and Rudiments of that time who can shew in the Bible where the Lord blamed this custom But may some doubting Christians say what is all this to us This was Jacobs Victory and as there was never such a Victory before so there is like never to be such a Victory hereafter We have not the person of Jacob we are not Jacobs and how then shall we prevail with God as he did To which I answer This story of Jacobs wrestling is not incredible but a daily experience Jacob hath been wrestling with and prevailing over God these three thousand years Jacob also prayed for us and we prayed in Jacob before we were born his Vow was our Vow and his Victory was our Victory If I might have assurance of this may a Christian say I should be a Conqueor even while I think I am conquered and made when often in mine own sense I am undone Whose hand and seal is that what ever was writ afore time was writ for our instruction and comfort But rather whose language is that Hos 12.4 Jacob found God in Bethel and there the Angel spake with us with us Hosea notwithstanding many centuries of years passed from the death of Jacob to the birth of Hosea yet the Prophet speaks as if he had been alive when the Patriarch was alive as if he wept when Jacob wept and prevailed when hee prevailed And there he spake with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Saints are the Of-spring of Father Jacob and he contained them not onely exemplarily but also virtually in his Faith as the root doth the several branches according to the Hebrew Proverb That those things which God wrote to the Fathers are as copies to the Children And I remember somewhere I have read that of old Praying Christians were termed Jacobines those that have the nature may well have the name of Jacob. Those that would be Israels to prevail with God must first be Jacobs for prayer unto God How often hath God found his people in prayer lamenting and left them rejoycing despairing and left them triumphing How oft have they come out of their Closets crying with Luther Vicimus vicimus and on better ground than the confident did saying Now let Satan do his worst Oh! that we were so willing to prevail with God as God is willing to be prevailed on by us How doth our Father desire to be desired and wrestle with his Jacobines till they wrestle with him Neither hath he his will unless we have ours Hath God forgotten to be gracious Psal 77. No If he forget any of his he hath forgot his old wont Whoever can nominate one Jacob that ever came with a lawful suit and received a repulse Deus non negat se petenti quod sponte se obtulit non petenti Aug. God sent a challenge of old to Israel Amos 4 Prepare to meet thy God as if the Lord had said you have often challenged me I now challenge you Israel meet me in the field gird on your Swords bring forth your Artillery plead your cause I say you are a rebellious people not Israel but Jacob not Jacob but Esau try who is righteous I or you if you can prove you are not a proud hypocritical people I le never challenge you more thus God seems ironically to jeer them what you contend with the Almighty you dwell with everlasting burnings But I rather judge the sense thus q.d. Israel you have often provoked me I now accept of your provocation I now take the field to vindicate my Glory yet I am not so angry but I may be appeased come saith the Lord with sackcloath on your backs with ropes about your necks acknowledge your unworthiness come with tears in your eyes supplications in your mouthes sacrifices in your hands give me the glory of my Justice meet your God with righteousness and repentance and I will spare you How often doth the Lord as it were cast his Glove to his Jacobs and challenge them to enter the Lists with him Quid Deus non filiis petentibus cum hoc ipsum dedit ut filii ipsi essent None taketh hold of me crys the Lord none will wrestle with me none will pray to me Go saith the Lord into your Closets to morrow there you and I will wrestle together you say you want peace of Conscience a bleeding heart sense of my love now meet me there if you dare muster up your Faith produce the Promises pray and plead weep and wrestle with me prevail with me and you have prevailed over all But alas may a gracious heart say how shall I prevail I have neither knowledge how to contend nor strength if I contend to conquer the Lord. Oh! look not on your weakness but on Gods strength The Lord deals with Saints as some potent people have done to their adversaries lends them Arms and Armor Powder and Shot to fight against himself Cannot you pray says God come I le teach you to pray take unto you words and say unto me Lord take away iniquity and receive us graciously and we will render unto thee the calves of our lips Say Father pardon my sins and I will love thee speak peace to my distressed Conscience and I will praise thee Methinks I hear the Lord say Sinners though you cannot pray with your tongues yet have you not
hearts to pray withall though you want words it is no matter if you have tears though you cannot speak yet cannot you sigh nor groan Though with the Disciples you cannot say Our Father nor with Thomas My Lord yet with the Prodigal cannot you say Father cannot you cry Lord It is no matter for babling a word is enough to the wise and more than enough to a friend especially such a friend as your God is Coimus in Congregationem ut ad Deum quasi manufacta precationibus ambiamus orantes haec vis gratia Dei est grata Deo Tert. Cannot you fight says the Lord come I le give you Armor do you want an Helmet here is Salvation do you wish oh that I had a Sword here take the Spirit If you want a Brest-plate here take Righteousness It may be says the Lord when you come to my door En quam negare nollet qui sibi etiam neganti qualiter extorqueretur ostendit Chrysost I may be as it were a sleep and you may be ready to think I have not heard when the Lord called and now the Lord will not hear when I call It may be if I come not at your first call you will presently conclude that I will not come at all But saith the Lord Sinners be not discouraged if I come not at your call I le come at your knock bring my Sons name with you if I come not at your knock I le come when you bounce at my door of Grace Oh how willing is God that we should hit the mark when hee teacheth us how to shoot and how willing to answer our prayers when that God whom we pray to indites our Petitions Oh Lord how desirous art thou we should prevail when thou tellest us how we should wrestle Aut in respondendo quam facit moram qui in dictandis precibus vota supplicum sit praevenit idem God wrestles with man by tentations and man wrestles with God by prayers Where is the spirit of prayer generally we had rather sleep than wrestle with Jacob. O said the lazy Husbandman stretching himself on his bed at noon day in the Summer-time that this were working So now says the worldly Politician when he is framing his plots for preferment O that this were the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ O says the Apostate Professor that spends his time in the Ale-house or in gaming O that this were repenting and recovering a good Conscience So crys the lazy Christian folding his arms like Solomons Sluggard in his bed yet a little slumber yet a little sleep O that this were wrestling or praying with God and gaining the blessing Sed hoc est opus pulveris non pulvinaris I would wrestle if I had strength say some Saints Never complain for want of power if you have a will by strength that is our strength shall no man prevail the Lord teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight he that bids us come into the field resolves to give us strength to fight and to give us the day we are not so impotent but Christ is as powerfull The Spirit of God helpeth our infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as the Nurse helpeth the child holding it by the sleeve Quomodo non exauditur Spiritus à Patre cum exaudit cum Patre or as the Staff upholds an old man that else cannot stand or as the Father seeing the child lifting at a great weight too heavy for him runs to assist him clasping hands about the burthen with him We have no strength but what is given us and if the Lord withdraw the influence of his Grace either we fight not or we are foiled Christ conquered by dying and we conquer by yeelding Prayer prevails with God not as it is our act but as it is the Lords institution God looks on Prayer as his image he knows his children by their crying and when they cry he presently runs to help them As Q. E. gave Sir W. R. a Ring as a pledge of her favor and bid him send that token to her when ever he was in distress and she would relieve him so the Lord tels us we shall see him if he hear of us It is true Jacob prevailed over God but it was with God That God that called Jacob to fight gave him weapons to foil himself He that fought against Jacob fought also in Jacob it was not Jacob prevailed over the Angel but the Angel in Jacob that prevailed over the Angel he fought not against God without God he that provoked him to fight instructed him how to resist at the same time both contending against him and for him as being both Opponent and Defendant assaulting him with the one hand and assisting him with the other supplying him with more strength in resisting than expressing strength in opposing him how sweet to consider The Angel contends with Jacob with his left hand and contends for Jacob with his right hand otherwise who dares enter the Lists with the Almighty by whose breath man is consumed by whose looks the Mountains are melted at whose nod at whose voyce the whole Creation trembles We must distinguish between natural strength and strength conferred by Grace by the former Jacob had been conquered by this he overcame If the Angel that strove with him had not strove for him he had been so far from gaining the name of Israel that he had lost the name of Jacob. Wherefore beleevers fall to wrestling but if you measure your success by your own power you are vanquished before you fight he that would overcome must neither look on his own arm nor on the arm of his Adversary but the mouth of that God that hath promised and can perform The Match is too unequal with the Devil much more with God We are like Grass-hoppers to those Gyants when we compare our selves with them how can we but despair but when we compare our selves with God how can we despair He that brings Jacob into the field gives him the victory The example of Abrahams contending with the Lord in prayer is notable also and shews what a friend at Court prayer is when otherwise man dare not look the Lord in the face Prayer is the Asylum the last refuge we have to fly to Deus qui certamini praeerat vires etiam ad vincendum praestat De la Hay in loc and if Justice beat us out of that Hold we are conquered That which was an argument of the Athenians weakness they fought with King Philip onely with words and writings is our Fort Royal and an argument of our strength Litieris verbisque solis valemus There are Four Duels that every Jacob is to fight in the world besides that wherein he contends with God and unless he be first a Prevailer with God he cannot be a Conqueror in the rest There is an inferior Duel with man not so much with sinful man as with the
of a Jacobine He dwelleth in the secret of the most High they must conquer God before they conquer him they may strike at but they can never distress Sion till they q.d. strike thorow God Sion though she be not properly invulnerable yet she is invincible Qui Jacobum impetit Deum petit Wherefore now let Jacob wrestle again and reason with his God Humbly ask the Lord Whether he can see his Sion even a shipwracking Preces electorum sunt Deo coctoquia and yet not throw over a Plank to her his children a swouning and fainting under their temptations and not give them a Cordial his Spouse a dying and not once labor to visit her with Salvation Can the Shepheard be content to see the Wolves to worry his tender Flock and the Father love to behold his children to hate one another Dearest Lord is not thy Glory dearer to thee than it can be to thy Spouse and shall she be sollicitous and wilt thou seem not so to provide against thy dishonor Is the Crown of the Lord glistering enough on his head in the eyes of the Woâ—ld Hath our Jesus the purchase and full procurement of his blood Hast thou left thy compassions to as well as the infirmities of thy Body behind thee on earth Is our Joseph in Heaven where there are Barn-fulls of Glory and Provision enough and shall thy Brethren starve for want of Crums of Comfort from thy Table Are thine Affections altered with thy condition and doth the Lord trample under his feet his children while he is now in his glory whom he counted as the apple of his eye in the days of his sufferings Shall we give over praying for the opening the blinde eye and softning the hard heart Shall we fall asleep and urge thee no more Shall we pull our hands from thy Plow and our necks from thy Yoke will the Lord dispense with our lukewarmness and wink at our Apostacy Is it not thy grief to see thy Spirit so grieved to see such noysom weeds and errors to grow in thy Garden which thou so much regardest And so much backsliding after the profession of so much Reformation Shall wee see Sion bleed to death and never ask balm more Hath not the Lord said His Mountain shall be set on the top of all Mountains and that Jerusalem shall be made the joy of many Generations Is not this the hand of the Lord and his own broad Seal How long doth thy Charriot wheels stay Cui magis de Deo quam Deo credam Hath our Lord Jesus bled to death for his Saints and will he now suffer them to bleed to death Doth he love to see the face of his Church beautiful and will he never wipe off the tears of blood that yet are trickling down her cheeks Is the Lord angry at the Prayers of his people and is he not angry at the Blasphemies of his Enemies Art thou offended because we pray for Sion and wilt thou not be offended if we should not pray Is it not yet dark enough that yet the day doth not dawn because it is said at evening time it shall be light and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom commeth How many steps more will the Lord fetch before hee turn about and shew us his face Have we already the first fruits and shall we never have the Harvest Hath Sion often made Land and said now we are come to our Harbor and Rest and shall we be driven into the tempestuous Ocean again Is not our dross separated from our gold that yet we are not taken out of the Furnace Are we not yet holy enough that we are not delivered or are we not yet ripe enough in sin that we are not perfectly destroyed Will the Lord comfort us mourning or enliven us dying or raise us when buried and in our graves O Lord Though thou dishonorest thy people yet wilt thou disgrace the Throne of thy glory Will not the Adversary say Surely if God in love had begun thus to build he would have gone on to finish Though we are trampled under feet must thy Christ be trampled under feet Though his Body hath deserved to sit on Dunghils and lye in fetters of iron yet our Head hath merited to sit on a Throne and to have the liberty of his Spirit in the world Though our prayers are rejected yet wilt thou not fulfill thine own Promises we humbly confess thou hast a royal Prerogative to save and to destroy but O Lord art thou not bound in Covenant to set up thy Son and if thou makest not hast for his glory will not the world be ready to say the Lord is gone back of his word Is it onely Free Grace and Mercy and not also Justice and Righteousness for our God to justifie condemned sinners and to sanctifie prophane Conversations and to carry on the building of the New Jerusalem to its desired perfection Doth the Lord seem to cast us off to see whether we wil indeed cast him off or hide himself to see whether we will earnestly seek after him Preces fundimus coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus Because his smiles have not caused us to love him will he now frown on us to make us to fear him are the golden days of his spiritual presence gone and not to come as we hoped they were that we should rather put mourning on our backs than take Harps into our hands Because England hath been perfidious and perjurious to God will God now break his Covenant of Faithfulness with England Shall the unfaithâ—ulness of man make God unfaithful Did the Lord of old wait to be gracious and will he now wait till we are gracious Was the Lord wont to be found of those that sought him not and will he not be now found of those that seek him Wilt thou not pardon our Hypocrisie Pride Passions and Prophaneness till we repent and wilt thou not graciously give us an heart to repent of those evils Shall the new Heavens and new Earth never be built till we are fit Inhabitants And shall disconsolate Sion never be ransomed from her spiritual slaveries and distractions till they are worthy to be ransomed Is not the price of her Redemption already paid and will the Lord seem to require the debt again O Lord are we so far gone from thine house like Prodigals that either we want an heart to return or an hope if we return that our Father will accept of us Art not thou the God of Peace Is not thy Son the Son of Peace thy Spirit the Spirit of Peace thy Gospel the Gospel of Peace and shall not thy Children be Children of Peace is Christ in one of his followers against Christ in another is Christ divided Blessed Father how shall the world know we are thy Children if we have not thy Image thy Servants if we wear not thy Livery Will the World be convinced by our Divisions
that thou art Love Thy people see not so much Prophaneness in the world as the world sees passions amongst thy people We censure and condemn them for not agreeing with thy people while they see thy people agree not amongst themselves Ah Lord If charity were the onely badge of thy Disciples how few Disciples would our Lord and Master have in the world is this a time onely to pull down and not at all to build up to cast away stones and to divide and not to gather stones to raise thy Temple is the Providence of God resolved that no more Stories shall be built in his Sion till one stone be not left on another in Babylon are not our soars searched enough Deo nihil impossibile est nisi quod non vult that yet thou pluckest away the Plaisters thy poor people apply to their wounds Is thy Israel in the midst of the Red Sea and is Pharaoh at their heels ready to swallow them up and cannot Israel be perfectly delivered till the Sea be perfectly divided Hath Sion been travelling with Reformation these many years and even when thy people are ready to welcome it into the world and to name it Glorious must it enter into the womb again Is it our indiscreet importunity that hath hasted to bring it to the birth before the Lords time and day and therefore shall there be no strength given to bring forth Are the grounds of our fears not onely from thy secret or open Enemies but also from the vain conversations of the Professors of thy Name and indeed howl ready have we been to censure the persons and condemn the practises of others and to say there goes an Oppressor an Apostate an Hypocrite so as if there were none of those lusts in our hearts which are visibly reigning in others lives Will the Lord consume their Gold and Silver as well as the others Hay and Stubble pull down many of their works before he set up his own Or wil the Lord further suffer worms and no men to reason with him O Lord are we partly brought out of Egypt and shall we want the cloud of thy presence because that either we long to go backward or fear to go forward Must thy children begin to spell their A B C and go again to School to learn what Mortification and their first love mean before they take out further lessons of experience of Faith Wretched England How many sins do we make that our God did never call sins and how many Articles do our passions put into the Creed which thou didst never enjoyn to be beleeved for Salvation How have one form of thy people been trampling and triumphing over another whiles mostly they have been tithing Mint Annice and Cummin neglecting the Salvation of souls and the advancement of thy Sons Kingdom amongst us when will the Candle of the Almighty shine on the heads of thy people as of old when shall the name of thy Son be poured out as a precious oyntment that the Virgins again may love thee O Lord let us be thy Patients though thou woundest us Let us be under thy rod rather than we should be out of thy Covenant rather than we should sleep to death sound thy Trumpet beat thine Alarm if thou shouldest not administer physick to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cle. Alex. our Disease were desperate Thrice happy will that storm be that shall drive us to our Harbor We will not appoint thee the Rod to lay on our backs onely we intreat that when thou purposest to strike first break our hearts before thou breakest our backs rather than we should not have thy presence let us with the three children go into a furnace thy Son let us with thy Disciples have a storm Rather then we should not be thy children whip us thy Servants beat us thy Spouse chide us thy Friends frown on us Ah Lord Those that lost their blood together cannot now shed tears together those that fought together in the field can scarce now pray together in a family Blessed God! If it be thy will sound a retreat speedily to these disorders Let some publick Enemy of thy Sons Kingdom abroad come upon the Stage that thy Saints may one and all engage together both their prayers and their persons against him that Sion may be terrible as as Army with Banners that the Brats of Babylon may come and worship before her feet Hinc Syncreâ—ismus Synchristianismus and know that thou hast loved her If the building of Sion may not go forward in this age Lord let it not go backward if with Solomon we may not build thy spiritual Temple let us at least lay up stuff for the building of it with David in the next generation If the Lord had never smiled on us we could better have born his frowns if we had not known what the presence of his Spirit Wisdom Glory had meant in England we could better have born his absence Our darkness is now the greater because that our light formerly was so great How dolorous is it to consider that we that have been brought up in Scarlet should imbrace Dunghils And that England that was the terror of the Lord to the Nations round about us should so much be a scorn unto them and a terror one to another You that are Gods Jacobs up and be doing surely we have little love to if we have not a sigh a tear or two for Sion If ever you would rejoyce in Sions deliverance pray for it Faith and Prayer are Sions Granadoes and truely make her the Thundering Legion onely take heed of counterfeiting these heavenly Ordnance and Artillery with the wicked Emperor these weapons are not artificial but infused Methinks I hear Faith and Prayer say Saints in England be patient and persevere in the holy and sincere profession of the Gospel though your God be long before he come yet he will certainly and comfortably come Endure reproaches hold on and hold out notwithstanding your doubts and difficulties your trials and temptations Though your way to Paradise be dirty yet the Tree of Life in the midst thereof the Rivers of divine pleasure and Gates of pearl will richly make amends for all Be beleeving in prayer and in this age especially If once with Jacob you prevail with God you need not fear all the world If any thing in the world can perswade the Lord to preserve a Nation it is Prayer Prayer hath often met God as Abigal did David and moved him to put up his Sword Pharaoh being plagued with Frogs got the man of God to pray for him and Exod. 8.13 The Lord did according to the word of Moses And the Lord obeyed the voyce of a man It is plain that Moses did according to the word of the Lord but it is strange that the Lord should do according to the word of Moses yet it is so If Moses will do according to the word of the Lord
the Lord will do according to the word of Moses If we keep his precepts he will fulfill our prayers God repenting once that he made man was resolved to destroy him from the face of the earth yet when Noah built an Altar and prayed to God the Lord Gen. 8. smelled a savor of Rest and said henceforth I wil not any more curse the earth for mans sake God was once so displeased with his people that he said flatly I tel you truly I will deliver you no more yet when they asked a Deliverer of him Judg. 10. His soul was grieved for their misery and he gave them Jephtha Therefore when God hath resolved on a Nations ruin he shuts his doors against Prayer The Prophet complains Lam. 3.8 He shutteth out my prayer q.d. God will not suffer his Favorite Prayer to speak with him It is a royal way for a Prince to correct the injuries of another Nation that is inferior to deny their Ambassadors audience Psa 80.4 How long will God be angry but with his people that is not all with the Prayers of his people God is oft pleased to be angry with prayer Jer. 15.1 Though Moses and Samuel stood before me and intreated for this people yet I le cast them out of my sight q d. You think to hinder me now as you were wont to do you will send out your old friend Prayer and if you cannot pray enough your selves you will procure aid from my friends Moses and Samuel but you shall not prevail I will destroy you the best means shall fail you therefore all means shall fail you To resort to other means after prayer is to fasten an Anchor with a twined thread which hath broken a Cable or to think to conquer an Enemy with a Bulrush when we could not with a Cannon In vain is God attempted by Power or sollicited by Prayer against his own mind And as God will not sometimes be intreated so he ought not at any time to be questioned But I hope the Lords door is yet to be opened to our knocking and his ears to our crying And because in this age so many prayers are frustrated be sure to pray that you may be heard I intend not a Common-place of Prayer Briefly First be sure to limit your prayers according to the Revealed Word Let us pray that Gods Will not that our Wils may be done as that Jacobine did Lord let my will be done and mine because thine We often ask and miss because we ask amiss Your Father oft gives that in anger which he would deny to give if he were pleased It s better to be without Quails than to surfet to have either a long delay or rather a full denial than an answer in wrath The contradictions by God put to the prayers of the Saints in this age is one of the greatest wonders of the age Our hearts are oft as the Spirit of God saith like crooked Bows and no wonder the Arrows we shoot are lost when many times we never aim at the mark We must take heed of praying backward with Jonah who rather than he would be accompted a false Prophet cared not so much for the salvation of Nineveh as for his own reputation Says he was not this my saying one would have thought that the salt Sea should have washed away those briny humours Take heed of the heady prayers of the Disciples Cause fire to come down from Heaven q.d. these are Rebels to thy interest we have preached the word of Life to them and they scoff at and scorn us for our labors surely O Lord if they were thine elected they would have beleeved ere now they have sinned against their own light and against the revelation of thy love they are finally impenitent Lord consume them But these were hot spirits and Christ cools them You know not of what spirits you are of Joh. 15.7 you have not the persons and therefore it is not convenient you should have the prayers of Elias Every one that rides in a fiery Chariot is not an Elias Non petitur in nomine salvatoris quicquid petitur contra rationem salutis Lastly Let us beware of sinister prayers not to write after that copy Lord when thou commest into thy Kingdom let one of my Sons fit on thy right hand another on thy left At the left hand of Christ Surely she did not know for what she prayed for none but Goats shall stand at Christs left hand The rule of our prayers is not what pleaseth our apprehensions but what is correspondent to and agreeable with the Revealed Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato III. de legibus p. 811. That which is glorious in the eyes of a man nay of a good man is often abominable in the eyes of God Pray for nothing but what God hath promised if ever you would have God to perform what you pray for It is better to beleeve that the will of God shall be fulfilled Deus non dando dat nobis nos non accipiendo à Deo accipimus than to behold our own wills fulfilled The Saints in this age justly condemn the former Generation for doing that which was never commanded and I beleeve the next Generation will as justly condemn the Saints in this age for beleeving some things which were never promised The Intercession of our Lord Jesus is a censer of gold and can we desire him to offer up our drossie prayers for Incense they are often filthy in our sight and how can they be sweet in his Fathers nostrils Many of Sions Petitions are now in the Lords accompt but waste paper and at the last day shall never be seen hung on the file in Heaven and indeed how can they speed when our consciences bearing witness they are neither worded by the Scriptures indited by the Spirit nor subscribed by a bleeding heart Eo modo sunt omnia petenda quo modo sunt promissa Aut praeter verbum petis aut non propter verbum petis Secondly Be sure to pray not only for love but in love It is true that Love is a stately Garment to be worn by the Lords children in their Mansion house of Glory but you must not put off this Garment till that day as the world doth Holiness Oh say they holiness is for Heaven Love and not Parts Love and not Praying Love and not the participation visibly of the body and blood of Jesus Christ Non debet esse simultas inter eos qui sunt simul is the badge of a Disciple of Christ By this shall all men know ye are my Disciples if yee love one another Joh. 13.35 Said he that was as much for Faith and more than any of his followers Christians Love is asleep I hope not in a dead sleep for shame awaken it Gardiners speak of an Herb Love lies a bleeding and if ever that Herb grew in Sions Garden it is now Oh revive it Hosius was so in
not to climb to the top Many run that never obtain the prize Many shoot but few hit the mark Gaze not on the Lords Ladder mind your journey to Heaven these are giddy and dizzy times If ever you would not be falling Stars be not Planets not wandring Stars not one in a thousand that is a wandring Star but a thousand to one he proves a falling Star Neither come down Gods Ladder with Demas nor fall off Gods Ladder with Judas in a moral sense or spiritual rather be Angels ascending not descending the falling sickness is much abroad we fall not forward but backward as Ely did and many break their necks The Lord grant you may not be blazing stars for they are portentous nor fallen Angels How soon as the Apostle said are we removed into another Gospel How sad to consider the last year visibly an Angel and this year a Devil yesterdaies Professor is to daies Ranter The Well is deep said the Samaritan and there is need of a Bucket So the Ladder is high and the ascent is great we need Faith Faith and Love are the two hands by which you must climb take good hold Patience and Perseverance your feet Think not to climb with your hands full of dust beware of Covetousness Dream not on Gods Ladder if you would dream come down to the foot of the Ladder you no sooner begin to sleep but you begin to fall Those that stand high had need to stand fast for there is more fear of their falling and danger if they fall Eutichus was asleep Act. 20.9 in an upper Loft and he fell down dead David was high on this Ladder but when he committed folly with Bathsheba he almost brake his neck and so Peter a glorious Professor when he denied his Master Many Graces run in the Race but only Perseverance obtains the Crown Despise not Providences yet be ruled onely by the Word Observe but serve not the time Providence by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I confess is made a stalking horse to all designs and most lay more on its back than it doth willingly bear Providence and Conscience are the greatest Martyrs this day in the world The sufficiency of Providence is no warrant for us to neglect our Callings or the use of means God feeds us but eating God cloaths us but by our industry for though man lives not by bread alone Necessitas decretorum â—â—ei non tollit libertatem in creaturis rationalibus nec contingentiam in causis secundis Wollebii Epit. but by every word that proceeds out of Gods mouth yet that mouth that blesseth the bread bids us to labor for it so our labor is to be joyned with the Providence of God and yet nothing is to be attributed to our labor but all to Divine Providence neither is Providence an Apology for the use of unlawfull means We are not to walk accâ—rding to the secret but revealed Will of God He that useth lawful means to bring about an unjust end puts God into the Devils service but he that useth an unlawful means to bring about a just end puts the Devil into Gods service though indeed no man sins without Gods Providence yet no man sins without his own proper inclination Man is guilty in practicing but God is not guilty in permitting evil And yet God as he is gracious in his Word so he is glorious in his Providence In the agreement of which I shall conclude It is the greatest folly in the world to follow the dark cloud of Providence without the pillar of fire of the Scriptures It is ignorance the least that can be spoken of it to follow Providence without a Scripture arrant Atheism to follow Providence against Scripture No things can be Orthodox or sound in the Volumes of Providence that are erratas in the Volumes of Scriptures Those that undervalue the Authority of the revealed Word it is to be feared they either have or will manifest they have no other Old Testament but Lucian and no other New but Machiavil Methinks His works are like rich Tapistry Vnfolded all unto a Jacobs eye Our Fathers Image hangeth in this story Embroydered all with Power Wisdom Glory But Providence is neither the first figure In Gods Arithmetick nor yet a cipher They represent the mind of God above In golden Characters but not his love They do not prove a Cause good for to bee Yet make a Cause if good shine gloriously Scriptures declare the Lords approving Will Events his peremptory Will fulfill His Word shews us what he would have us crave His works shew what he would have us to have The royall and unchanged Word 's our Text Whereunto as a Commentary annext Gods Providences be These glosses are But that 's the Copy and Original fair There is a God these Works do plainly tell And out of them Reason his Name may spell Yet read them curiously you cannot smel In them the Rose of Sharon that 's Gospel Indicted by the Spirit from on high Engraven in the Scriptures not the Skie The Sun and Stars do not make a dumb show yet by them A God but not a Father we may know How many Vows in perils do we make And yet from Providence excuses take Against Performances How many now See Jacobs Ladder but forget his Vow To conclude Let Jacob now awake and preach and pray And sleep no longer for hee clearly may Without a Dream see by the Gospel light The Ladder which before he saw by night Let 's draw the Curtains shadows fly away Visions and Dreams be gone 't is break of day FINIS MONOMAXIA JACOB wrestling with the ANGEL OR A sacred Duel fought between God and Man at Peniel with the issue of the Combate Represented as a lively example of Faith and Prayer to all the Israel of God By J.R. of Shoreditch Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Isa 45.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid Pel. l. 4. Ep. 27. London Printed for L. Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head-Alley 1655. To his endeared Aunt Mris Dorothie Marsh Widow Living at Dover Endeared Aunt I Have much desired an opportunity to express my thankfulness to you for those real Kindnesses you have so long and often expressed to me and though it lay not in my Power to requite yet I would not want Affection to acknowledge your love It is an old observation that they that do a good turn must instantly forget it and they that receive it must constantly remember it you have done the former as for my self I will not deny but my memory hath long been asleep but I would now onely testifie by this publique remembrance of my duty that it is not dead The Lord made you an instrument though not of my natural yet of my spiritual birth you gave me not suck indeed from the Brest but you fed me with the sincere milk of the Word you first taught
me the first rudiments of Christianity not so much how to spell the Name of God or Christ as how to spel out the Name of God in Christ. What cause have I to bless the Lord that you instructed mee how to beleeve before I was tempted to doubt you knew that I came so full of poison into the world and therefore you could not too soon administer physick to expel it you looked on Original sin as like a common fire in a Town in my soul and you searched not so much how it came as how to quench it you did not prevent but prepare a way for the workings of the Spirit How happy was I that you did not with some judge it prejudicial to the guidance of the Spirit to be indoctrinated in a form of Divine Knowledge I remember I have read somewhere that Luther when he heard how that little children prayed against the Turk said In the name of the Lord let them go on for as they want the knowledge of men so they want the malice of men and God may hear them I must acknowledge I lived long in the world before I knew what it was to die to the world and many years had the profession of Religion before I was acquainted with the experience yet I bless God even then when I had not Saving Grace for my own Salvation that I had any Restraining Grace for the good of others How did you pray for me when I was not able to pray for my self your heart was tender when mine was hard my prayers now are to the Lord that though I yet carry a body of sin about me and in my own sense have been often a sinking that yet you would praise God with me that a Nephew of so many prayers hath not perished indeed Your condition now calls for my counsel but I will not undertake to teach my Teacher onely humbly telling you what once with delight you taught me out of that School of Wisdom Pro. 3.11 Despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his correction What though you have been cast down will you conclude that you are cast away when your God hath on purpose cast you down that he might not cast you away You know that Gods fish thrive best in salt waters that the Walnut-tree is most fruitful when it is most beaten that David was never so tender as when he was hunted as a Partridge and Jonah never so watchful as when he was alive in his Sepulchre in the Whales belly It is true you are Husbandless but yet not Fatherless my once dear Uncle is now singing out the praises of the Lamb in the new Jerusalem the singleness and sincerity of his Light Love and Life did tell his acquaintance he was a Traveller thither now you dare not mourn because he rejoyceth and can you mourn while he rejoyceth Oh! that you would rather consider what a comfort you once had than what a comfort you now want rather to meditate of your going to him than grievingly to think of his going from you My dear Aunt let me use that phrase that was spoken to a friend on such an occasion You know well that you have need of his joy but he hath no need of your tears Your Husband was also your Brother and if that maxim be true that the union of Grace is stronger than the union of Nature then I am perswaded you mourn not so much for the loss of an Husband as of a Brother in Christ yet though the stream be cut off you have the Fountain I would speak more of this but I shall forbear lest while I go about quite to extinguish I should unawares revive the grief chew not this Pill but swallow it whole and it will not prove so bitter I beleeve you are more perplexed with the publick evils of Sion But in this you may consider the Lord wounds that he may not kill and overcasteth the face of his Church with a cloud that the Sun of Righteousness may at length shine out the more clearly and that those storms and waves are happy that shall drive the Ark nigher to her Harbor It is certain All things shall work together for their good that love God It is your happiness your comfort lies not in the lives of others but in your own experience that while others tack about after every wind of Doctrine you still steer your course according to the compass of the Scriptures that while some think it zeal to fall in love with every fond opinion that presents it self on the Stage of the world that you have chosen your Love and love your choyce in the Practice of Piety mortification and conformity unto God That while others talk much of God that your study is rather how to speak with God himself than of God to others That while they love to gaze on the Infirmities of others onely that you love rather to weep over your own sins in your Closset than to cry out against the sins of others in the Market place but herein you know you are not justified and I trust you would much rejoyce that you had something more you might account nothing for Christ Go on dear Aunt Put on the whole Armor of God that when you have withstood you may stand and when you have stood it out on earth you may sit down in a Throne in Glory Perseverance is the Crown of Grace and Heaven is the Crown of Perseverance You could not mourn as the Martyr said for the absence of the Bridegroom if you did not belong to the Bridegrooms Chamber Ride on in Faith though the way may be the dirtier the nigher you come to your journeys end The Sun shines most amiably towards its descent eye not the stream through which you wade but the firm Land to which you go Look not on your Race so much as on your Crown your storms and Tempests Doubts and Fears as your Port and Harbor Here is your Seed-time hereafter is your Harvest Here is your Hell of Difficulties and Desertion hereafter is your Heaven of Light and Peace You shall not alwaies climb with the Angel but one day stand on the top of the Ladder with the Lord You shall not alwayes wrestle with Jacob the Day will ere long break and then farewel hardness of Heart and temptations to Despaire and mourning for Sin and doubting of Gods Love for ever When you shall lodge in the Arms of your Physician then no more complaint of your wounds When you shall walk in white with a Crown on your head in Heaven you shall not want the gracious company of an Husband as a fellow Member of Christ to comfort or as a Preacher to instruct you There are no tears falling down the Spouses Cheeks in glory Comfort your self with these things that while you wait with Hannah for the Consolation of Israel you may at length when death shall knock at your door which cannot probably be