they not onely in the morning but constantly praise God this is spoken according to the manner or custom of men having now taken the form and shape of a man as though he had haste to other business and leaving Jacob to his affairs as also because the Angel would not have this vision descried and discerned by others seeing it specially was intended for a private conflict in the night without spectators none must be witnesses of it but Jacob neither must Jacob himself know fully with whom he wrestled and that Jacob might not be too curious in gazing on that shape wherein the Angel appeared Lastly Some apprehend the Angel to speak like a greater grave man as if he had done something below his honor as to contend with his child and did not care to have it known to the rest of the servants as if the Angel had been ashamed and being foiled by his inferior should have said be gone never let man see that thou hast conquered God the day breaks and will discover it The Hebrews bring Jacob in their tradition as strictly examining the Angel as suspecting that he with whom he wrestled had been a Night-walker and had intended either to have robbed or murdered him What doth this man mean says Jacob to desire to be gone because the day breaks is he an honest travailer and yet fears the Sun should discover him why did he not desire to be gone before now are his deeds evill that he fears the light But this is spoken without warrant though not without wit Let thee go says Jacob no I could have been without the blessing if I had never fought and I am resolved not to fight so long for nothing Let me go Jacob now sings victoria Pugna suum finem cum rogat bostis habet and by this request is the more inflamed to fight it out Let me go Jacob why so the quarrel belike is ended Put up thy Weapons Jacob leave the Field Harke Jacob the Almighty crys I yeeld Though thou art Israel yet do not boast The Blessing 's got but yet thy joynt is lost No more wrestling it seems when the day breaks As our Lord and Master saith work while you have the day for the night comes and no man can work So he saith on the contrary Sinners work wrestle with God fight with the world while the night lasteth The day-break of Eternity is a comming and you shall wrestle and fight no more Pharaoh pursued Israel to the red Sea and there he left them the Devil and Sin and the World may follow and haunt the soul to Heaven gates but there they shall trouble it no more fears and frightings are for the night of this world but joy and triumph are for the morning of glory Terra est exercitium hominis coelum corona Ambr. Saints here is your Sea to be tossed on there is your harbor here is your warfare your place to fight in there is your crown Who would not have Jacob's hard lodging to have had his hearty dream Now you are troubled because you are in the dark now your questions are which is my nighest way to Heaven what is the fittest company to travel withall how shall I avoide Theeves and Robbers or conquer them if I meet them how shall I know that the Lord is my Father that Christ is my Husband that the Spirit is my guide the Devil hath cast me down how shall I rise the World hath wounded my peace where shall I get balm my Ignorance is invincible my Conscience is feared my Conversation is licentious I shall never be more than a conqueror through Christ I shall one day fall by the hands of Saul of pride and lust I shall never see the Lord give me the victory over sin let me pray never so powerfully let me profess never so long Ah Christians never use that word Never thou hast almost done fighting almost done wrestling almost done weeping almost done bleeding Those Egyptian Temptations you see now you shall see dead on the Sea shoar of eternity the day is a dawning and the shadows shall fly away and you shall never be foiled by the world more never cry out against your hard heart more David shall no more pray Lord take not thy Holy Spirit from me nor Paul who shall deliver me from this body of death nor the Disciples Lead us not into temptation Such complaints then shall be out of date and such questions put out of question and doubts out of doubt Farewel Phisick was Chaucers Motto and farewel Diseases farewel Afflictions farewel Sin nay farewel Repentance too is a dying Saints Motto Jacob here halts but there he shall not wrestle Jacob then hath done both his limping and his fighting arise and shine for the light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen on thee Nihil crus sentit in nervo cum animus est in coelo Tertul. ad Mar yr Isa 60. Jacob then lets God go when the day breaks his thigh then shall no more be put out of joynt As we have the Angels Proposition Let me go so we have Jacobs Answer negatively I will not let thee go that is certain unless thou bless me But will Jacob let the Angel go then The meaning is not as if Jacob did not care for the Angel when he had his blessing but onely that Jacob would not let him go at that time without the blessing God always tarries with his blessing Unless thou bless me that is say some unless thou acknowledge me thy superior in this Duel that I am thy better but honor is in the person honoring not in the person honored Others think Jacob onely desired that the Angel would go from him in peace But thirdly I apprehend that Jacob perceiving his adversary to be a Divine person acknowledgeth him his Superior and desireth that in his departure he would bless him for the less is blessed of the greater and he blessed him not that the imposition of the new name was the benediction here spoken of but the Lord did expresly bless Jacob probably in that forme and manner wherein he blessed Abraham In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed confirming likewise the former blessings given him Gen. 27.28 and 28.34 and comforting him against the hurt of his Thigh ver 25. God so shewing himself the smiter and the healer Hos 6.1 Thus the Angel confesseth he was conquered as by the blessing he gave according to Jacobs demand So secondly by the imposition of a new name which is solemnly represented First by a question what is thy name Secondly Which question the Angel puts forth not as ignorant of Jacobs name but from hence to take a fresh advantage to give him a more glorious name God appeared to Jacob twice before this and asked not his name before now That Jacob saith one might take occasion to return to him with the same question not doubting but
makes the Alcoran his Ladder the Jew makes the Temple of the Lord his Ladder the carnal Protestant makes his charâ—ty his Ladder and the Papist hath his Ladder also there is a Red Ladder by the blood of Christ but they will have a White Ladder by Marys obedience this they accompt the easier way mee thinks these men mistake Jacobs Ladder yet something like it is for they are in a dream as Jacob was these are all rotten Ladders and the climbers have rotten hearts Thirdly A Providentiall sense and thus I shall handle this Vision The Ladder signifies the Divine Providence and in this Ladder wee have many things observable First The variety of Providence in the many steps The Providence of God hath indeed but one end yet it hath divers waies to that one end every living creature hath four faces and four wings to signify the several appearances and swift execution of Providence Eze. 1.6 It is a difficult thing to take the picture of Providence at this time in the world it maketh and hath so many faces let our eyes be never so exact in observing and our hands ready in describing its waies The locks of the Spouse in the Canticles are black and curled black for their obscurity and curled for their various intricacy There are not so many several countenances of men as there are dispensations of God and it s as rare a thing to find dispensations as men of the same complexion In heaven God will appear to the Saints in one glorious form but now as it was said of an Emperor that every day he put on a new suit so it is the Lords honour to apparell himself in changeable robes the imbroidery of Providence is made up of divers colours Sion is not allwaies in one condition nor the soul allwaies in one posture sometimes Christ frowns and sometimes he smiles sometimes hee casteth down sometimes hee lifteth up sometimes the Church of God is in the wildernesse sometimes in Canaan sometimes on the raging sea sometimes in her harbour The Lord keeps his people from infection by leading them into divers aires black and bloody Providences set off the wisdome and faithfullnesse of our God the better Standing waters corrupt and breed noysome creatures but running waters are pure and preservative Every new day brings with it a new tentation and wee shall never be experienced Souldiers till we are tryed at all sorts of weapons Credend a plura sunt de Deo quam scienda We must not look on the scattered lines of Providence but tarry till God hath made a conclusion never say Providence scribles til you have seen the whole copy Princes letters wee say ought to bee read thrice Let us consider the waies of God and wee shall never censure them Secondly In this Ladder we have the seeming uncertainty of Providence The Ladder is partly above the Clouds and partly visible in the Air as the Spirit Joh. 3. blows where it listeth so God in his works worketh how he listeth It is observable that usually of old when God appeared in the Tabernacle a Cloud ushered in his presence All the world is in the light to God but God is in the dark to all the world Sometimes the Lord walks so plainly in his works that he that runs may read that the dim-sighted'st Christian may say this is the Lords walk and this is the Lords work at other times he wraps himself in a cloud Si vides ubi fides and overcasteth Syon with darkness that the poor children of God cannot tell where to find their Father that they can but guesse at his footsteps knowing not which way to march for their Leader hath hid himself Pompey the Great said when the scales weighed down on Caesars side that there was a mist on the eies of Providence but indeed the Sun shone clearly and the mist was on his eye that he could not see it I confess in this age it is easier to know what particular things in Providence God will pull down than what he will set up We often imagine there is a disorder in Gods works when if we mind it the disorder is in our imagination We know not how to beleeve and we phancy the Lord to be at a stand as not knowing what to do But we must take heed of charging the Lord to be out of his way when onely he is out of our sight Thirdly In this Ladder we have the seeming contradictions of Providence The Angels ascend and descend the Ladder One Providence seems to go one way and another Providence seems to go another way Sometime the Cloud in the wilderness seemed to carry Israel immediately to Canaan now for Canaan might Moses and Aaron say and on a sudden the Lord wheels about and Israel turns faces toward the Red Sea as if he intended they should never see Canaan more How plainly hath the Lord led England for some years toward a Reformation The Saints have encouragingly said one to another Certainly we are within two or three years journey of the New Jerusalem Have at the scarlet Whore of Babylon Now for the building of ruinate Sion But the Lord hath seemed to cry face about and follow me yet longer in the wilderness and some of the Saints conclude we are never like to go forward we shall return to our Leeks and Onyons The conversion of souls visibly goes backward and not forward About twelve years ago hundreds came out of the Devils Kingdom into the Kingdom of the Gospel but now many fly from the colours of the Gospell visibly Miremur non rimemur Providentiae reconditam viâ— and run into the Devils quarters again The Lord seems to seal up the hardness of mens hearts and to say to the womb of Grace Give forth no more let no more sinners be changed from darkness to light in England Well might Solomon Prov. 30.19 compare the Church to a ship in the midst of the Sea which as the Prophet speaks Now even mounts up to the Heavens and anon descends as it were to Hell God sees our works in our wills but we cannot many times spell out the Lords Will by his Works who can trace the Lord in his travel or find out the work or walk of the Almighty in the world The Texts of Providence are as difficult as the Texts of the Scriptures there are as high contests about Providence as about Predestination and it is as hard to reconcile the Works of God as to reconcile his Word though there is a real concordance and harmony in both Be not over righteous says the Preacher Eccles 7.16 Can a man be too righteous rather we think he should have said be not too prophane but as one Diamond cuts another so one Scripture opens another ver 15. I have seen a just man as just as Abel perish in his righteousnes and to lose his life because he would keep his conscience and on the contrary I have seen a
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
saying this way or that way God shall go in the Lord at length will both have his Will and the Wall of man The Seventh remarkable in this Ladder is Deus quiescens agit agens quiescit The Activity and negotiation of Providence The Angels stand not still on the Ladder but are alwaies in motion ascending or descending Many may say I have lost this day Man may lose his day of Grace but God can never lose his day of Glory Providence is as seldom without success as without action The Governors of Israel Psa 121.3 may sleep but the Governor of the Governors of Israel can never sleep Providence as the Apostle saith oft winkes at the sins of men but it never yet slumbered much less slept an hour since the Creation of the world If God should give over his watch over Israel but for a moment in that moment Israel would give up her hope Let the Saints remember Zech. 4. The eyes of the Lord run through the world The Egyptians in their Hieroglyphicks pourtrayed an Eye on a Scepter to signifie the vigilancy and regency of Providence A wise man saith the wisest of men Eccles 2.14 hath his eyes in his head but God is all eie and th t not only for vision but for motion God at this day hath an eye on France and an eye in England There are Zech. 3.9 Seven eyes in one stone And in the Revelation there are seven Spirits before the Throne By the Stone we are to understand Christ mystical The seven Eyes and seven Spirits are of one importance and signifie the several Influences the Wisdom Power Patience c. of Providence Providence hath the hands of Briareus and the eyes of Argus It is supposed by some that the seven Spirits bear allusion to the seven Chamberlains or royal Officers Ester 1. of the King of Persia God hath his Secretaries of State his chiâ—f Council as well as others Some Heathens phancied Providence as the Great King of Persia keeping himself in his Palace in Heaven from the view of his Subjects or as sitting aloft in a stately Tower onely beholding the passages of the world below But Providence is not idle but active 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath reference as Calvin observes not onely to the eye of God Multicum Epicuro verbis relinquunt Deos retollunt Cice. de nat Deorum l. 1. but also to the hand of God Providence doth not onely observe but order the world There are no Ciphers in Gods Arithmetick no rests in his Musick no pauses nor stops in Providence Away with the blasphemy of those that say Let God rule in Heaven and man rule on Earth David Psal 23. sweetly describes the active and pearly influence of this Ladder of Providence Thou Lord art my Shepheard thou preparest me a table thou annointest my head how humbly doth David Thou God! Thou Thou Thou Many men go out of Gods vineyard but Providence is never idle in the Lords vineyard God is always either a pruning or a ripening his Vine always either a cloathing or correcting his children Always a providing for them as a Sun or a protecting them as a Shield It is reputed a shame for a man to see by anothers eyes but it is our wisdom in this dark age to see by the Lords eyes Whose eyes run through the world Providence never stands still or goes backward it wearies man but is never it self weary The Sun posteth thousands of miles in a day and yet tires not Spiritual beings much more the being of Spirits are uncapable of tyring or delassation In the description of a circle in paper though the circle bee brought within one inch of finishing yet if the compass be removed a man can never make a perfect circle but must begin all again to find out the same center If the Lord should cease a moment from his works of Providence Sion would run to ruin and God would be put to the labor of working a new The Eighth remarkable in this Ladder is The gradation of Providence Here is a climax of Providences one step above another in the Ladder As first In a spiritual sense As in the natural birth there be many preparations but the birth is in a moment so in Grace there are many dispositions to Grace as sense of sin mourning and desires which yet I dare not call formally Grace though the former alwaies and the last mostly goe before Grace and by some to their ruin are taken or mistaken for Grace but Regeneration it self is in a moment Psal 84.7 The Saints go from strength to strength from one vertue to another There is an allusion to the Israelites journying yearly to the Temple they went from City to City before they came to Jerusalem or to Schools of learning where there is going from one form to another from one Science to another The martyr it seems numbred his steps one stile more and I am at my Fathers house that is at the top of Jacobs Ladder The Lord formerly in the wilderness carried and now carrys Sion from one Mile-post to another from one Stage to another Ebenezra Legimus de Angelorum ascensu descensu sed non de alis ascensusigitur hic nobis injungitur non volatus hitherto hath the Lord helped us So Ebenezra hitherto have we climbed by the Lords help Angels fetch long strides on the Ladder but Saints cannot fly but creep up to Heaven Rom. 5.3 So in a more publick sense Rome was not built in a day neither will Rome be pulled down in a day indeed in Rev. 18.17 it is said in one hour so great riches are come to nought but that is as the Husbandman chalks a line about a sere Tree which he intends to have for firing he fetches many a blow and yet the Tree stands still but at last one sound blow fell the Tree Providence hath fetcht many a blow at the Scarlet Whore but her climacterical day is at hand her critical day is at hand and then she shall fall fully finally fatally Providence hitherto hath mostly been but a lopping the branches but now the Axe is laid to the very root of Antichrist If any wonder why the ruin of Antichrist in the Letter goes on no faster I Answer The Devil and Pope must in some sense fall together for they have supported one anothers Cause now and then Providence fetcheth a blow at the Pope and seems as if he gave over the work because in the respite he is striking at the Devil So the downfal of the Spirit and Body of Antichrist keep pace together and therefore the work seems to be so long a doing There are various steps in one Ladder and we must neither appoint the Lord which way to walk nor what steps to fetch be not discouraged God works gradually and also he works certainly What course soever Providence steers he will not miss a point of his Divine Compass but at length
than the Creation of the World and therefore the Lord speaks of New Heavens to intimate the possibility of their accomplishment from the consideration of the old Creation Cannot I says God create a new world as well as I did the old In the first of Isay vers 27. God will send Judges as at the first which promise is not performed in any external form of Government but in the administration of Righteousness and Justice and the work of this Generation ☞ is not to pull down Governments but to pull down Tyranny whether in Judges or in Kings For the Government of one man is in se no more inconsistent with the Government of Christ than the Government of a plurality of men the sweet flower of Justice may grow in a Crown as well as on a Scepter of State in a Kingdom as well as in a Commonwealth All civil Forms of Government are equally of God Rom. 13.1 And though Kings have been Enemies to Sion and setters up of Antichrist yet there are promises that Kings shall be nursing Fathers to Sion and Kings shall help to destroy Antichrist Rev. 17.16 which promises are yet in the greatest measure to be performed now at last Sol Justitiae qui quondam erat in signo Leonis nunc est in signo Virginis erit in signo Librae Whether Judges be as at the first let the world judge There shall be such Governors as Sampson was as Jephtha and Deborah were Zech. 12.5 Psal 16.17 For my part let all the Kings in Europe keep their Crowns so they kick not Christs Crown off his head Let Emperors yet hold their Scepters in their hands so they hold not up their hands against Christs Scepter Otherwise I pray and beleeve that the time may and will come when those that have not affection in their hearts to do Sion good shall not have power in their hands to do Sion hurt Rev. 19. Sixthly From this Ladder we may see a more full advancement of an Evangelical Ministery How many hitherto have been bred up at Gamaliels feet that never yet with Mary sat at Christs feet That sit in Moses his Chair that have little in them or nothing of Moses but his Chair Non Doctores sed Seductores non Pastores sed Impostores Arts and Sciences are the gifts of God and how honorable is it when Scholars lay their Crowns down before the feet of the Lamb and many speak against them because they have them not they cannot abide to be condemned for ignorant of the learned and therefore they are ambitious to be commended by the ignorant for learned Lord How few Preachers feel what they speak and then speak what they feel How few speak to the heart because so few speak from the heart but from the teeth outward how many seek a Lordly living and a lazy life Many are Swine for prophaneness but more are Serpentine Preachers that subtlely with their gilded poyson kill souls discouraging the godly and encouraging the wicked Like Sign-posts shewing others the way to Heaven and not stirring thither a foot themselves Doth God call for a reasonable Sacrifice and holy beast and will he accept of an unreasonable unholy Sacrificer Would the Lord have the vessels of the Sanctuary holy and the Garments holy and he on whose vesture should be written Holiness to the Lord unholy God will have those that shall have not onely a mission from the Church but a Commission from himself Loyterers must be sent out Christum habent in codice sed non in corde and Laborers must be sent into the Vineyard and the Spirit will also be sent into the Laborers God will never suffer those dead Amasaes to lie in the way of the souls of men to hinder them from coming to Christ God is not bound to maintain those Lamps with the oyl of maintenance whose preaching is not maintained by the oyl of the Spirit Men hitherto have heaped to themselves Teachers according to their hearts Multo minus nocet ignavus fur quam segnis minister and so itching ears have had tickling Preachers men that have been often at Placentia but never at Verona But the Lord will send Pastors according to his own heart that shall not preach to gratifie Opinions but to save Souls Jer. 3.15 Though Christ can ride on an Ass to Jerusalem yet the time is a coming that the Lord will have no need of them The Snuffers of the Temple must be pure gold Chrysostomi etiam Polycarpi Non Aposcopi sed Episcopi or else their Clergy cannot save them Exod. 37.23 If we cannot abide dead Idols in the windows God much less will abide dumb Idols in the Pulpit The Ministers of the last age shall stand in the Sun and preach the Everlasting Gospel they shall be Brightmans indeed They shall be Load-stones in their conversations but Adamants in their principles they shall thunder in the Pulpit and lighten in their lives They shall pitty them who are not able to pitty themselves shed tears over them for whom Christ shed his blood They shall be indued with an Eagles Eye a Ladies hand and a Lyons heart as Physicians of Souls Indeed some knowing men in their own eyes never think the Sun will shine clearly till the Stars Rev. 1. ult are pulled down I speak onely in the behalf of those that are Evangelical Preachers in their Doctrine and Angelical Preachers in their lives but first our Lord and Master hath secured the use of the Ministery till the perfection of all things Mat. 28. Eph. 4. And secondly I hope those that are true Stars will stoop themselves when our Lord Jesus the true Sun of Righteousness shall appear in the glory of his person or personal glory Seventhly From this Ladder we may foresee the ruin of Babylon Babylon hath three times a time of ascending a time of triumphing in and a time of descending the Throne Now the Tide of the Sea of Rome is falling and she is well nigh in the last descension Providence hath arraigned and condemned the Scarlet Whore she is at present naked and ere long she shall be burnt for an Whore She shall have fire for fire and blood for blood The Lord is gathering Faggots I mean his Instruments in all Nations and will certainly and suddenly set fire to the Papal glory and all her Lovers shall not be able to quench it Rev. 18. She shall be as visible in her shame as ever she was in her glory God will not take mans advantage for her ruin her overthrow shall be fair God will not as the General said pilfer the Victory The pangs of a travelling woman shall overtake her God will wipe pitty from his heart and will not be interceded for a Reprieve his work shall not prove abortive It shall be more truely the Lords veni vici than Queen Elizabeth coming against her and overcoming her She shall fall as a mil-stone that of it self
world Remember that God may shew his Honor by another but he will never give his Honor to another Shall the Ax lift up it self against him that heweth therewith there is a jest indeed As Nebuchadnezzar said Is this not great Babylon that I have built for the glory of my Majesty more truely may the Lord say Is not there the stony heart that I have softened is not this dead and decayed England that my Arm hath revived for the glory of my free Grace and Power Moses led Israel out of Egypt but Joshua led Israel into Canaan The Lord changes Instruments at his pleasure and for his Glory This man saith God shall begin a work and that man shall perfect it this is the man we cry up and all others must not be named the same day with him now Essex then Waller ☞ Quod fluctus insurgunt potest navicula turbari sed quod Christus stat non potest mergi now Massey then Fairfax then Cromwel Hence it is that God often suffers Instruments to break and fall when we lean too much on them God will make us know before he hath done with us that he will neither do the work of peevish man nor go in mans crooked way Never fear let the Lord chuse his own weapons to fight his own battels As long as hee hath a Cause in the world hee can never want shoulders to maintain it Mans day is not the Lords day and Mans man though godly is not Gods man Till the Saints meet with a Pharaoh that God can neither conquer nor overcome with a red Sea that he can neither dry up nor divide with a wall that he can neither throw down nor climb over never distrust Secondly Limit not God to our time It is true we must give God no rest untill he perform his Promises that is we must be importunate in the means but we must in the mean time rest on God and leave him to his own time The Vision is for an appointed season and therefore we must wait for it The Seers often may lie but the Vision shall speak though it seem dumb and not lie The glass of Providence runs in the dark and it is a comfort for the Saints to beleeve it doth not stand still but as no man can number the Sands so no man can jog the glass to make it run faster or tell when it shall run out That Babylon in the Letter shall fall it is certain It hath been accompted difficult to tell the age it is impossible as most judge yet to tell the year and unlawful to search out the day or hour of her ruin If the Son of man knew not the day of the last Judgement as in the Gospel much less may the Sons of men presume to know the day of a particular though special Judgement as that of Babylon And Christ was well versed in Daniels numbers from whence collections chiefly are fetched for the time of Babylons downfal It is a good observation that Providence is the best interpreter of Prophecy Yet no question herein but we may imploy our Reason as well as our Faith She shall be set q.d. on fire and usually smoak goes before the flame there shall be signs of her ruin in the world and they are to be viewed Here we may guess but can hardly determine her day hastens and by many symptoms of Providence she lies upon her Death-bed and probably Six hundred sixty six as we say Eighty eight for One thousand five hundred eighty eight so by a Synecdoche Six hundred sixty six for One thousand six hundred sixty six may ring her Passing bell Many good Archers have been shooting but none as I know yet have hit the mark some have faln short and some may flie over The Lords furthest way about is often the nighest way home There are two famous Proverbs to this purpose with the Jews God will be seen in the Mount and when the tale of bricks is doubled Cum duplicantur lateres venie◠Moses Moses will come Nullum tempus occurrit regi is here a good maxim All time is a like to an eternal God what work God will not do to day he can do to morrow He often defers our expectation but never misses his own opportunity Christ suffers Lazarus to lie long in the Grave Si amatur quomodo infirmatur si infirmatur quomodo amatur and did not raise him so soon as he was buried though Christ loved him dearly whence we may observe That oftentimes those whom God loves most he seems to make least haste to help The Cause of Christ sometimes seems to sleep but never dies When wicked men have plaid their Game which possibly many think long God will shuffle the Cards together and tumble them under the Table Oh now or never now if ever say we The Saints might be united prophaneness might be suppressed Non quarto die pati permittetur qui scitur ultra non posse quam triduo tolerare 1 Cor. 10.10 and all burthens might be taken off Like children as it is well observed we love green fruit yet that breeds worms Wee love to have the Apple out of the fire before it be half rosted mercies before we are ripe for them but it is better to have Judgements in Mercy than Mercies in Judgement God had almost forfeited his Bond to the Israelites but he faithfully came before the Sun was down and paid his debt at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day they went according to his promise out of Egypt Quaedam non negantur sed ut congruo tempore dentur differuntur Exo. 12.41 And if says God Psal 89.35 I perform not my promise let my word never be taken more Saints consider Your Fathers Goodness makes the Promise his Faithfulness will perform it and his Wisdom alone will find out the fittest time Thirdly You that are Jacobs take heed of repining at Providence Stand still said Moses and see the salvation of God Exod. 14.13 The greatest work of man oftentimes is to stand still and see God to work There is a time for Joshua to fight in the field and a time for Moses to pray in the Mount O vitam miseram iam diu timere quam est illud ipsum quod timetur Orat. Att. Epist l. 10. when there is not an opportunity to fight down Babylon there is a time to pray her down Christians in turns of Providence have need not onely of zeal but of wisdom We must go when God calls but a man had need to have good ground to go on when he saith God calleth him out of his Calling While a Court sits there is a confused noyse but when the Judge takes the Bench. the Officers cry Peace Peace my friends the passions and opinions in this age make a din in the world every man must have something to say for its Government what proing and
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
long by Faith with old Simeon imbrace the King of Saints in your arms singing his sweet and Swan-like Song Now lettest thou thine Handmaid O Lord depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation As for this Discourse of Jacobs wrestling I here present you withall as a Testimony of my Love and Obligation I hope you wil see your face in it as in a Glass not teaching you so much from mee how you may be Israel prevailing with God as to shew you how you have been as Jacob a Wrestler with God Accept of it my dear Aunt and farewell in the Lord in whom I subscribe Your most obliged Nephew Fra. Raworth From my Study at Shoreditch Janu. 20. 1654 Jacob wrestling with the Angel or a sacred Duel between God and Man Gen. 32.24 25 26 27 28 c. And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day And when he saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow of his Thigh And the hollow of Jacobs Thigh was out of joynt as he wrestled with him And he said Let me go for the day breaketh and he said I will not let thee go unless thou bless me And he said unto him What is thy name and he said Jacob and he said Thy name shall no more be called Jacob but Israel for as a Prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed c. HAving in the precedent Discourse treated of Jacobs Ladder I shall now by the assistance of the God of Jacob discourse somewhat of Jacobs wrestling Christians if ever you would have Jacobs Vision get Jacobs Faith In this Scripture we have an elegant description of a Monomachie or Duel fought between the Almighty and Jacob. And in it First We have the Combatants or Duellists Tenet in luctâ Jacobus hominem sed ille hâ—mo Deus erat Jacob and God who in Genesis is called a Man because he appeared in the shape of a man And in Hosea chap. 12.4 an Angel representing Christ the Messenger of the Covenant The Hebrews say this wrestler was Sammael Esaus evil Angel who now contends with Jacob for the Blessing but that this Angel was God appears considering that Jacob was blessed by him now it is the Prerogative of God to bless and not of Angels Secondly He saith Thou hast had Power with God and Jacob saith I have seen God face to face Thirdly Because this was the God of Bethel Gen. 35.7 Hos 12.4 What a prospect were this we have not here one man wrestling with another man we have not a MAN wrestling with an Angel onely but the Immortal God wrestling with a Mortal man Erat verbum cum Jacob Aliptes Inunctor ac Paedagogus humanae naturae Cl. Alex. All in the letter that were interested in this Quarrel were in the field together Jacob had no Second and the Angel needed none How inferior a Match was Jacob for the Angel how superior a Match was the Angel for Jacob will a man contend with God Job 13.8 Shall the Ax lift up it self against him that heweth therewith is there a woe pronounced against him that strives with his Maker and dare Jacob strive with his Maker Isa 45.9 how ungracious is it for the child to quarrel with the Father and doth it not seem dishonorable for the Father to quarrel with the Child but let Jacob remember That though it be presumption in him to challenge the Angel to fight yet it is but obedience in him to fight with when he is challenged by the Angel That Angel that knows how to gain glory by being conquered Eul ne Herculesquidem contra duos at hic Jacobus contra Deum hominem knows how to retain his glory by fighting with Jacob. That it was not so visible a disparagement for God to wrestle with man as it was for God for so Christ is to die for man Ephes 2 7. Secondly We have the field and the time of the Combate The place where they combated was beside the Foord Jabbock vers 22. at Peniel Hos 12.4 Jacob vers 24. was left alone not that Jacobs company had left him but that he for a time had left his company The words by some are rendred actively and not passively He remained alone behind not onely to see all his Houshold and Stuff safe over the Foord but also to retire to Prayer How sweetly did Jacob injoy the presence of God when he left the company of man Amat secessum ardens oratio Jacob I am perswaded was never less alone when at this time he was so alone It may be more truely said of Jacob than of any other man he speaks more with God than with men Christ loves to embrace his Spouse not in the open streets but in a Closet and the soul never hath sweeter views of glory than when it is q.d. out of the view of the world We have likewise the Time of the Duel the Night The Text tels us when the Duel ended but not when exactly it began Si vincat minimum summus laus vincere non est Atque decus minimo fiet ab hoste minus De precio victi prudet victoria victor Tantus erit victi gloria quanta fuit Acc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 xix.v. 9.12 it brake off at the breaking of the day vers 24. but how many hours of the night it lasted we cannot tell but so long it lasted till Jacob had the better of the Angel possibly it began at midnight It is no matter how far a man runs if he come not nigh the Garland nor how long the Soul wrestles with God so much if he wants Faith to get the victory The Angel seems not to wrestle fairly he should have given and he takes advantages of Jacob. For an Angel to fight with a man with a single man with a travelling and tired man was too much Jacob was rather fit to flie than to fight nay rather fit to sleep than either to fight or fly The night was made for man to rest in but when we cannot sleep Oh that we might entertain our waking in wrestling as Jacob did with God Thirdly We have the Duel it self wherein we have the ground of the Quarrel and the manner of the Fight First The ground of the Quarrel Jacob was afraid of Esau and he would have a Blessing he flies to God that he might not fly from Man Go would have left off but Jacob would not without Gods consent to bless him it seems that Jacob now was on the offensive and God on the defensive side Lord says Jacob thou art my Prisoner and before thou art released bless me God is taken captive by Prayer and become a prisoner to man and stands at his courtesie who says I will not let thee go unless thou bless me We say those that have the longest Sword may command Peace when they will Jacob
hand of God so Paul possibly in a proper sense might feel the Devils fingers It was good for Paul to be buffeted by Satan for otherwise through temptations to pride because of his revelations he might have buffetted God As one complaining of his lameness the Philosopher told him he would remember vertue the better every step he fetched God made Jacob halt as he was wrestling that he might understand he stood not on his own legs but was carried in his Arms. God here did as Wrestlers that strive to distort the limbs of their Adversaries to weaken them in their wrestling Thirdly By the hurting of the hollow place wherein the Huckle-bone moveth which being so hard a place for a man to come unto Jacob did understand he was no ordinary man with whom he wrestled And lastly Jacob had this sensible hurt and visible lameness that hereafter he might know Claudus in viâ melior est quam currens extra viam and others understand from him that he did not wrestle in a dream or dream of a wrestling with an Angel He beheld the testimonies of a divine Power about him Every Jacob hath his halting but there are some that halt that are not Jacobs How long will you halt between two Opinions 1 King 18. Where almost is the Christian of whom it may be said as once it was of Nathaniel behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile The Habassines are Jacobites and Christians from the girdle upward and Jews downward admitting both of Baptism and Circumcision So many divide their love between Christ and the world look on their heads and they are all of gold they have golden professions but look on their feet and they are of clay they have worldly affections Some fancy as if Jacob were cured of this halting the next day but it is beleeved he kept his halting as long as he kept on earth his blessing and went not onely Israel but halting or limping to the grave Jacob halted and yet was blessed his blessing did neither take away his halting nor his halting did not remove his blessing How many halt with Jacob that are not blessed with Jacob which made an Antient cry out Oh that I might halt with Jacob and that God would put the hollow of my Thigh out of joynt that I might be humbled that my sinew of pride might shrink that I might with Jacob prevail with God Jacob halted and yet the Jews honored him with a daily remembrance Neither the blindness of Isaack nor lameness of Mephibosheth nor the halting of Jacob made them less beloved of God nor less noble in the eyes of wise and good men Such Infirmities and deformities that are not contracted by our wilfull wickedness but cast on us by Providence are matter not of scorn but of thanks to those that have them not and matter not of despair but of humility to those that have them The wound of Jacob is not so grievous as the sign is comfortable Well is that part of us lost which may give assurance of the salvation of the whole and our Faith is not yet sound if it hath not taught us to neglect pain for God and more to love the seal of his presence than our flesh It is yet remembred who had the sense of the following Distincts Stigmata maxillis bajulans insignia laudis Exultam redeo victima grata Deo But notwithstanding Jacob halts Christus pendebat tamen petebat hic Jacobus laxatus est tamen luctatus est yet he wrestles In that Jacob halted it was a sign of Gods presence in that though hee halted yet hee wrestled it was a sign of Gods approbation Jacob wrestles though he halts Valorous Jacob Secondly He wins the Victory in conclusion over the Angel though he halt And that two ways 1 Jacob prevails Polemically or as I may say by Power As a Prince he had power over the Angel Gen. 32.28 Hos 12.3 O Lord How few Jacobs are there in the world Either we wrestle not at all or we get not the victory Jacob prevailed with God that 's a wonder indeed for it had been nothing for God to have prevailed with Jacob yet I dare say it is a hard thing for God to prevail over man as it is for man to prevail with God and the reason is plain because even when God prevails with man man prevails with God when man yeelds to God then God yeelds to man But doth Jacob indeed prevail with God O the Princedom of Prayer None so strong as the Lyon of Judah for he overcame the roaring Lyon yet a beleeving Tongue an humble Knee and a broken Heart conquers even our Conqueror Prayer is omnipotent for as sin is called infinite objectively not formally because it is practised against an infinite God so Prayer is as it were Omnipotent because it prevails with an Omnipotent God When God saw that he prevailed not When he saw God knew the issue of the Combate before he took the Field this is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to our capacity the experience of the thing is taken for Gods fore-knowledge the Lord with the blast of his mouth could have confounded Jacob the Lord could not because he would not Gods cannot in Scripture is his will not He disposeth of his Power according to his own will and purpose and therefore as long as he can do all he will he is Omnipotent The object of the Omnipotency of God is whatsoever is adverse to his Nature and doth not imply a contradiction and therefore it is no disparagement of the Power of God not to be able to sin sin being rather a defect than an act rather a sign of Impotency than Power We say often concerning those things wee will not doe wee cannot do especially when though we have Power to do those things yet we have determined the contrary which reason is more considerable with God than with man because the decrees of man are changeable and may be broken off but the divine Decrees are immutable and unalterable and therefore when it is said Christ could not do many mighty works because of unbeleef in his own Country Mat. 13.58 the meaning is Christ would not in respect of their unbeleef not because absolutely he could not and that the Angel could do nothing till Lot came to Zoar Gen. 19.22 it was not in respect of Lots Power as of the Angels pitty So here God would give Jacob the victory Even as lovers are disposed for the nonce to take a fall one of another the stronger of the weaker so God shall wrestle a fall with thee O Christian as he did with Jacob and yeeld so much in love to thee as to suffer thee to give him the foil and fall and to prevail against him Deus qui contra se viribus nullis superatur precibus vincitur The Lord fell down before Jacob Jacob did not throw him down God was as willing to be
conquered as Jacob for all his heart was willing to conquer Jacob prevails over God before he prevails over man Let Naturalists recal what they express Before you do the greater do the less * Jacob Less than the least of all is here that can Prevail with God before he conquers man Secondly Jacob prevailed When not before but after he was lame as the Apostle saith so might Jacob say when I am weak then am I strong It is a true experience in the wrestling School of Christ when a man is strongest he is weakest and when he is weakest he is strongest Jacob here made the Angel fall when he was scarce able to stand and stood it out though his Joynts were out of joynt yet still he wrestles and the more lame he was the more reason he had to hold Oh happy loss of Jacob he lost a joynt and wone a Blessing he was blessed because he would rather halt than leave ere he was blessed You see prayer can do more than all the Witches in the world they can onely bridle the Devil but this bridles or bindes God Secondly Jacob prevails politically as well as powerfully he treats with the Angel and proffers to give him fair quarter Articles and Propositions pass between them Let me go who crys so Jacob or the Angel the Angel which the Lord so speaketh not as though he could not have departed without Jacobs leave but sheweth therein how much he esteemed of his Servant ascribing so much to his Prayers as though they had bound him Prayer is the Servant of God and be it spoken with reverence God is sometimes at the service of prayer command ye me concerning the works of my hands as if the Lord should say Prayer I am your Servant the prayer of the righteous avails much with God if it be fervent it holds Christ in the Galleries and the Angel on the ground and will not let go without a blessing As he that is a beleever hath all because he hath God that is all so he that is a Jacob can do all things in a sense because he hath conquered him that can do all things I and him that is all things Ligatum habent sancti Dominum ut non puniat nisi permiserint ipsi Exo. 32.10 No Grace hath done so much as Prayer for all Graces have had their power from Prayer in Christ wherefore prayer hath done as many exploits as all the Graces besides And that which is more than all this if more can be Prayer overcomes God not onely when he is well pleased as he was with Jacob when any child may deal with him but also when he was displeased as he was with the Israelites when no man could come near him when his wrath burned as fire when he thundered from Heaven and clove the rocks asunder when the Sea and Land was put into a trembling and shaking yet when Moses entred into the gap all this Omnipotent Power came to nothing God though never so angry was not able to enter on the breach but prayer got the victory over him Let me alone saith God to Moses Exo. 32.10 that I may consume this Nation Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus and I will make of thee a mighty people God seems to hire Moses to be silent as if he should have said Moses leave off thy praying as the Chaldee hath it though Israel perish yet thou shalt prosper thou shalt not be a loser by it I le make of thee a mighty people Let me alone who would look for such a word from God to man Let me alone As yet Moses had said nothing before he opens his mouth God prevents his importunity as foreseeing that holy violence that the request of Moses would have offered to him Moses stood trembling before the Majesty of his Maker and yet hears him say Let me alone The Mercy of God hath as it were obliged his Power to the Faith of man and by Praye the hands of the Almighty are bound to the Peace when he hath a quarrel with his people the Servants prayers hinder the Lords power Servi preces Domini potentiam impediebant as one sweetly And if Moses will the Almighty though he may be angry with yet he cannot strike or do execution on Israel Prayer's like a vapor fum'd from th' earth that flies To th'gates of Heaven and never rots i' th' Skies If Faith and it be joyn'd it will obtain And melt into a first and latter rain If Faith forsake her and they part asunder It falls in Thunder-bolts at least in thunder Saints consider the power of Prayer God forbad Moses to pray and yet he obtained what he prayed for and diverted him from those Judgements he threatned If Moses prevailed against a command how cannot we but prevail when we have a promise if Moses prevailed when God bade him not to pray we shall certainly prevail when God bids us to pray Ask and ye shall have it is but ask and have Let me go says God here to Jacob one would think that should rather be the speech of Jacob to God Let me go is the Angel in earnest surely the Angel was as willing to bless as he was to combate with Jacob though God did not directly bid him strive yet he secretly insinuated that if he would hold fast he should have the blessing Like as a Father being angry makes as if he would go from his Son and saith to one Quid est servo dicere dimitte me nisi deprecandi ansum prabere standing by let me go meaning the contrary that he should not let him go but mediate for his Son Let me alone the Lord speaks as one in bed and very sleepy as if she should say do not trouble me I am desirous to take my rest so the Lord seems to say now Sion let me alone pray not for the conversion of souls pray no more for the administration of righteousness trouble me no more with your prayers he that is unclean let him be unclean still and he that is unjust let him be unjust still But O Lord Shall we indeed give over praying shall we cease petitioning no as Elijah in an holy sense said cry aloud so pray aloud to God the more willing God seems to take his rest the more willing indeed he is to be troubled and the greater silence he keeps the more importunate he is with us that we should be importunate to awaken him Let me go that is let me not go Let me alone that is let me not alone Or as if God should say Sinners will you let me alone can you be content to let your God go before he bless you Deus non dat Jacobo nisi petenti ne det non accipienti Let me go for the day breaks not as though the Angel was to go to the rest of the blessed company of Angels to sing their morning Hymne to God as the Hebrews imagine for
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
Man of Sin an exterior Duel with the World an interior Duel with the Flesh a superior Duel with the Devil but if we are Israel if God have predestinated us what can man do against us If God have called us what can the World do against us If God hath justified us what can the Flesh do against us If the Lord will glorifie us what can the Devil do against us First There is a Duel between the Flesh and the Spirit the old man and the new man And here blessed Paul in the strength of the God of Jacob enters the Lists Gal. 5.17 Rom. 7.23 c. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit lusteth against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that yee cannot do the things which ye would Here we have first a Duel or Combate between the Flesh and the Spirit the Law in the mind and the Law in the members the Flesh and its members lust against the Spirit and the mind the Spirit and the mind lust against the Flesh and its members The Flesh and the Spirit are presented as the two great Houses the two famous Generals of the world that combate one against another The flesh takes the field and under its conduct march its works as so many Souldiers Adultery Vncleanness Lasciviousness lead up the Van Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings make the main Body Murders Drunkenness Revellings c. bring up the Rear All these receive pay of the Flesh and observe its command The Spirit likewise appears and his Fruits or Followers are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance all these are sworn Souldiers to and manifestly wear the Colours of the Spirit Secondly Here is the Field or the person or subject where this Duel is fought in the souls of Gods Jacobs between the regenerate unregenrate part of man Not that the Flesh fights in one part of the Soul and the Spirit in the other as if the Flesh did challenge the Understanding and Conscience Contraria possunt esse fimulin eodem subjecto and the Spirit did challenge onely the Will and Affections but they are mingled and combined together in all the faculties of the Soul The intellectual part or mind is not one part flesh and another part spirit but the whole mind is flesh and the whole mind is spirit that is the flesh and spirit are in the whole mind partly one and partly the other The whole Will is partly flesh and partly spirit they are not distinguished in place but onely severed in apprehension As in the dawning of the day the Air is not wholly light or wholly dark neither in one part of it is it light and in another part dark but throughout the whole Air is partly dark and partly light As in a Vessel of luke-warm water the water it self is not only hot or onely cold or in one part hot and in another part cold but heat and cold are mixt together in every quantity of the water So here this Duel is not at a distance but it is an intimate contrariety in the same Soul like the struggling of Jacob and Esau in the same womb there is no room to hold an Vmpire no space to contain a Mediator or to shift off and evade the conflict the same soul that requires obedience doth it self resist it In the same Mind the wisdom of the flesh contends against the wisdom of the Spirit in the same Will there is a delight in the Law of God and a liking to the Law of sin in the same Heart singleness and hypocrisie sensibleness and hardness in the same Affections dwel the love of Christ and the love of creatures fear of God and fear of man dependance on the Spirit and doubtings of its favor In totâ animâ in toto corpore conditorem habeo pacis Deum quis in me siminavit hoc bellum Aug. A mans enemies here too truly are they of his own house Thirdly Here is the Manner of the Duel or Combate they fight and conflict one with another even as Goliah against David or the Amalekite against the Israelite the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit lusteth against the flesh the good that I would I do not but the evill which I would not that I do Here Knowledge fights against Ignorance Faith against Vnbeleef Heavenly-mindedness against Worldly-mindedness as light against darkness heat against cold As the Spirit in a man wins so the flesh loseth ground Sometimes the flesh prevails and crys victoria and then Paul exclaims and crys who shall deliver me Sometimes the Spirit prevails and sings Halelujah Quid hoc est monstrum imperat animus corpori paretur imperat animus sibi resistitur id blessed be God through Jesus Christ Lord I beleeve said he help thou my unbeleef So crys the soul Lord I will help thou my unwillingness Lord I hear help thou my deafness Lord I remember help thou my forgetfulness Lord I rejoyce in thee help thou my heaviness Lord I desire to have more fellowship with thee help thou my backwardness O Lord I see my duty is to glorifie thee and to conquer sin but I cannot do it I do it but I cannot finish it I follow after thee but I fall I press forward yet I faint I wrestle and yet I halt I profess yet I apostatize I conquer and yet I am carried captive I crucifie my lusts and yet they revile me It is true there is a Duel or Conflict in a natural man but not between the flesh and the spirit for they are all flesh and no spirit not between the old and new man for they are wholly of the old and have nothing of the new man in them that conflict is not from the mind renewed but onely from the mind enlightened not arising from the love of the command but onely from the fear of the threatning That contest is between the Conscience and the Heart between the Judgement and the Will only not between Affection and Affection Love and Love Joy and Joy Fear and Fear as in the regenerate The voyce of Herods conflict was this The Law saith I must not commit Incest I saith his Conscience if you do so you are condemned but saith Lust Herodias pleaseth me and I will enjoy her here is the Conscience only against the heart but the voyce of Davids conflict was otherwise Conscience saith David you must not commit Adultery you le sin against the Law and against your light Lust suggesteth the sweetness of that sin and likewise his Love to God saith I dare not wholly give my consent to this Adultery here is not onely Conscience against Affection but Affection against Affection in a word In a natural man there is a fight in the flesh but no fight against the flesh Fourthly The Ground of the Duel These two are contrary there are contrary Laws by which
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
love with Charity that he thought there was no other Word of God than this of Love But oh that Love were by many at least in their carriages accounted to be a Word of God I know there is a kind of unity amongst High-way-men or else their Trade of Robbery would fall And that love is often pretended against Faith and oftner against Holiness The Souldiers that were for the crucifying of Christ were not q.d. for the crucifying of his coat they tore his Body and yet kept his Coat whole but not out of love to Christ but out of love to themselves every one of them would fain have had it all The Souldiers had not Christ but they had his Coat and shall Christians have Christ and not his Coat the Body and the Garment must go together Never expect your Sacrifice of Prayer should be accepted til it be salted with Love Love knows no difference between party and party but owns all as fellow-members that are partakers of the influence of the Head Remember That the Father will not agree to answer the prayers of his children that disagree God will answer the prayers of one childe for another but not of one child against another If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee where by brother in the lowest kind you must not as some do understand men of the same Opinion but men of the same Faith in and same Communion with God Secondly It is not said if thou hast ought against thy Brother Mark that leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift This Precept is Religious and certainly the Practise is not Superstition To expect that God should answer our divided prayers is to put a jeer on Omnipotency and to charge the Almighty with inconsistency it puts an absurdity on God in making him to please man nay an impossibility to please all men The divisions of our prayers may possibly cause some Professors to suspect that God is divided Deus nequit facere quod nequit fieri to whom we pray and in time occasion the world to beleeve there is no God at all for God is but one and not divided The Lord at this time must frustrate q.d. in specie many prayers of some Christians as he will be true to the principles of his own Glory To speak with reverence God cannot grant all our Petitions and be God All the godly of all parties pretend the Kingdom of Christ and these Opinions as rigidly maintained are apparently inconsistent together What a temptation is it then to attempt unlawful means q.d. to force the Lord out of his way and all that man might not be proved false to his own interest and be cryed up and down for a lyar God forsooth shall not be God unless he will please man Multi benè cogitant sed malè precantur Et si volunt esse felices Deum orent ne quid illis ex his quae optantur eveniat Sen. L. Benef. c. 37. Oh! that the Lord would reconcile these divisions that are betwixt his own people However in the interim let every particular Jacob wrestle with God and ly quietly asleep at the bottom of the Ladder I shall conclude here with the advice of Divine Mr. S.R. on the woman of Canaan in 4 Rules First Go not before but follow God and Providence Prescription of such and such means to God and no other is to limit Omnipotency and to stint the holy one of Israel It is arrant Idolatry to limit God to means as well as to bow down to an Idol A Rams horn is as near of blood to cause the walls of Jerico to fall in Gods hand as Engins of war It is easier to see what is inflicted on us than to see who inflicteth it and we look no higher than the creature as if the world created it self so is this when we dream the creature moveth it self and is not moved by God Quietly submit to the Lords waies beleeving can ease us disputing cannot Secondly The book of Providence is full both Page and Margin God hath been adding to it sundry new Editions and like children we are in love with the golden Covering the Ribbons filleting and the pictures in the Frontispeece but understand little of the Argument of Providence Who is wise and will observe these things Degener animus est qui emendare mavult Deum quam se carpens Divina Providentiam alia illa esse velit magis quam se alium Sen. even he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord Psa 107.43 God is worthy to be Chronicled there is a contexture of Decrees Actions Events in Providence from the creation to the conflagration of the world and not a thread shall ever be broken though this web be woven of threads of divers colours black and white comfortable and sad passages of Providence yet all make a fair order to God in the way and shall be beautiful to us in the end As many Herbs and various sorts of Flowers make up one pleasant and well-smelling Meadow many Roses Lillies and the like one sweet-smelling Garden so there is a sweetness and order in all Gods dispensations Thirdly Let your spirits be kept in aequilibrio in an indifferency in all casts of Providence and so you are above the cross 2 Sam. 15.25 26. David puts his soul on Gods two Ifs if he save it is good if he destroy it is good Make sure this general Christ is mine at this Anchor in this Harbor my vessel shall ride What ever wind blow in externals Christ dyed for me if I live its Christ if I dye its Christ if I ride with Princes on Horses its good if I go on foot with Servants it is good If Christ hide his face and frown it is Christ it is good if he overlade the soul with rays and beams of glory it is also Christ Faiths speculations to the worst and hardest in point of resolution is sweet Suppose the Devil and Hell form the Principles Faith can make a conclusion of God and Heaven Job puts on a conclusion of faith from bad premises What if God should kill me yet I le trust in him Job 13.15 What if God throw me into hell it were well resolved I would out of the pit of Devils cry Halelujah praise the Lord in his justice Fourthly Give not over praying though God seem to give over answering God hears often when he doth not answer and oft his not answering is an answer pray go on The Father will cause the child to say over again what he once heard him say because he delights to hear him speak I pray for victory to Gods people in this battel they lose the day yet I am heard and answered because I prayed for that victory not under the notion of Victory but as linked with Mercy to the Church and honor to Christ now God shews mercy and gains Glory in humbling them which is the formal object of my prayers Some Letters require no answer but are meer expressions of the desire of the friend the generall prayers of the Saints That God would gather in his Elect that Christ would come and marry the Bride and consummate the Nuptials do refer to a real answer when the King himself shall make his second appearance In the expectation of and patience for which appearance let the Saints beleeve and rejoyce for the Marriage of the Lamb is a coming and his wife hath made her self ready and to her is granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness righteousnesses gr of the Saints And blessed are they which are called to the marriage Supper of the Lamb. And behold he commeth quickly and his reward is with him therefore let the Spirit and the Bride or the Spirit in the Bride or the Bride in the Spirit say Come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Even so come Lord Jesus Rev. 22.12 17 20. Possibly Jacobs Vow may follow FINIS ERRATA PAge 2. line 17. read the Lord open this vision to our eyes and open our eyes to see it p. 14. l. 17. r. shoulders p. 19. l 4. r. Elijah p 59. l. 2. r. is visible p. 36. l. 14. r. rather Heaven out of Hel p. 103. l. 25. nobodies p. 132. l. 1. r. between wolves and sheep p 146. m. r. parem p. 158. l. 6. r. were all to be conquered p. 161. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 163. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 186 m. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 213. m. r. pendet p. 219. m. r. irrita irritantur p. 221. m. r. Deo p. 135. m. r. luxatus luctatus p. 237. l. 6. r. not adverse p. 235. r. Distich r. Laudis Exultans p. 262 m. after non read dabit p. 296. l. 4. r. Ecclesia p. 302 l 11. for once labor read once more
sheep Saint and Saint Formerly we had more fire than light but the Lord knows now we have more light than fire more Knowledge than Love Every man pretends to be of the houshold of Faith Si essemus inseparabiles essemus insuperabiles but few are of the Family of Love while we contend for an ounce of Truth we lose a pound of Love Not onely for the Prophaneness and Errors but for the Divisions of England there are great thoughts of heart How far are those from one another that yet I hope are nigh to God How many that once lay in one anothers Bosoms now can hardly indure to stand in one anothers sight those that are Members of the same Body do carry themselves as if they were of different worlds How sad is it to see that many that prayed formerly one with and one for another now should pray one against another How is it said Zanchy that those speaking of the Lutherans that profess to eat the very body of Christ that milde and meek Jesus should bee so bitter against the Members of the same body O that we should agree in so much and differ for so little as in some things we do Maxima pars studiorum est studium partium Oh that though we cannot conclude all our Controversies yet we could bury up all our Contentions how long shall the greatest part of our studies be the study of parts How shall I Beleeve and Our Father be reconciled How shall those that are of different Creeds be of one Pater Noster if the division of tongues hindred the building of Babel how shall not the division of hearts hinder the building of the New Jerusalem While we have been contending about the windows we have almost lost the foundation of the Church while we have controverted for the well-being In veste fit varietas non scissura we have even lost the being of Religion in England Many of our differences are petty as that between one that was for Martin and another that was for Luther as if two should quarrel who should first enter in at the gate of Venice when neither possibly may ever come thither But further now our differences are so great that unless the Lord prevent while we contend who shall go up against Babilon we are like to go back to Babel and while we think to pull down a litteral we shall set up unaware a spiritual Antichrist But the time is a coming when those that have but one Heaven shall have one heart when they that have but one work shall have but one shoulder Zech. 3.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys The falling out of lovers shall then indeed prove the renewing of love The Lyon shall ly down with the Lamb and a little childe shall lead them Isa 11.6 Not that ever there shall be a composition made between Christ and Belial for that quarrel is of Five thousand years standing and shall be maintained to the end of the world Even now amongst most of the Saints there is a shadow of this future concordance as when a King is coming to Town one crys he comes this way another crys he comes that way at this time at that time they all go out to meet him and though they differ about the particulars yet they all expect the coming of the King Quae conveniunt in aliquo tertio conveniunt inter se and resolve to entertain him As at Athens when a Governor was to be chosen in the several Votes of the City one cryed up this man another that man but the second man still was Themistocles for such a man and Themistocles So now one crys O I am for Presbytery another I am for Independency another I am for dipping and for Christ all amongst these that are faithful centre in Christ But how glorious will it be to see all Gods children of one mind Uniones oriuntur ex mari sed magis pendent è coelo which will be when the Father comes into the Family to hear it said at last as it was said at first see how the Christians love one another Fifthly From this Ladder we may forsee the increase of righteousness Many hitherto in the world that should have been the Peace are the Troublers of a Nation those that should be Shepheards are Wolves against Sion How do the publick Enemys of Sion make the tears of the poor their wine the groans of the needy their musick Vt rei innocentes pereant siaut nocentes judices that paint the walls of the House and pluck up the foundation that beautifie their Kingdoms with Peace but never think of building of them with Religion That turn Judgement into Wormwood by delay and Righteousness into Hemlock by severity When a man fails in his Estate we say he breaks there are many broken men some broken in their Credit others broken in their Consciences but there are others that do not onely break by carelesness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but are broken by cruelty It is a great sin to take away the cloaths from a poor man but a greater to flea off his skin but there are some that rend the flesh and chop the bones for the sweetness and marrow they think to find in them Si libet licet Mic 3.2 Job 19.20 Some rob under pretence of Law others rob in the open field and think that what is got by might is got by right according to the antient Problem Jus vis apices parvo discrimine distant Jus nunc mundus habet vim quia semper habet Great Thieves have formerly worn chains of gold while little Thieves have lain stockt in chains of iron Robbin Hood was called an honest Thief because he would never rob the poor but there are few such honest Thieves instead of taking off have laid on oppression and instead of breaking yoaks have broken backs Oppressors Gen. 10.8 are called Hunters the poor are their Game Oppressions their toyles and nets mighty Oppressors are mighty Hunters In Zephanies time Oppressors were called Wolves Justitia non datur nisi vendatur Zeph. 3.3 but then they were evening Wolves but now those that are Oppressors are day Wolves Oppressors under the light of the Gospel They eate my people saith God as bread Psal 14.4 These are Man-eaters nay worse for among the Man eaters the living eat the dead but among Oppressors the dead eat the living But Jacob from this Ladder may see the new Heavens and new Earth a building wherein righteousness shall dwel If new Heavens then certainly new Suns and new Stars in a political sense new Magistrates or if you will Justitia non venit nisi provenit Magistrates with new hearts Isa 5.17 If any deridingly ask with the Epicure When shall we see this Structure where are the Carpenters whence shall come the Timber Let such remember there is no work since the Creation of the World greater