That the Holy Lord who hates all the workers of iniquity as David testifies of him Psal 5.3 and will by no meanes pardon the guilty as himselfe professeth Exod. 34.3 should notwithstanding from all Eternity looke upon men wholly defiled with sin with so much tendernesse of compassion as to chuse out of them a people for himselfe and out of his owne goodnesse and free Grace give his owne Son his delight from all eternity to be a ransome for their soules cause him who accompted it no robbery to be equall with God himselfe to abase himselfe so low as to take upon him the nature of man with the infirmities thereof and be found amongst men in the forme of a servant to humble him to the accursed death of the Crosse to bruise him who knew no sinne laying upon him the iniquities of us all to heale us by his stripes and not only to purchase unto us the free pardon of all our sins but to accept us in his Righteousnesse as righteous and holy before him yea to take us as his owne children to bestow on us the inheritance of everlasting glory and to make us joynt-heires with Christ Rom. 8.17 And lastly to raise up these bodies of ours perhaps devoured by fishes or wild-beasts or consumed into ashes in flames of fire or at least turned into and mixed with the dust of the earth the very same individuall body Iob 19.26.27 and of Naturall bodies to make them Spirituall of Corruptible to make them Incorruptible and immortall as the Apostle speaks 1. Cor. 15.42.44.53 These are things in themselves so farre beyond all apprehension and admiration wonders upon wonders that if Faith were not a Supernaturall worke an effect of the Almighty power of the spirit of God working in us they were impossible to be beleeved that it is no marvaile though they were rejected of the wisest amongst men and accompted foolishnesse 1. Cor. 1.23 A third consideration which should move us above all things to labour with all our power to settle and establish our Faith is this That above all other Graces Satan bends all his power and policies against it either to shake or overthrow it It was the Faith of our first Parents that Satan first assailed in Paradice Yea saith he hath God said and afterwards yee shall not surely dye Gen. 3.1.4 In his encountering with our Saviour Christ he first assaulted his Faith which he attempts two contrary wayes First to distrust where he had a promise and Secondly to beleeve without a promise as appeares by our Saviours answer to both his first temptations Matt. 4.4.7 And it was Peters Faith that Sathan aimed at when he desired to sift him as appeares by our Saviours promise to pray that his Faith might not faile Luke 22.31.32 implying that it was his Faith against which Satan would bend all his strength as we see he did when hee shooke it so sore that he thrice denied and forswore his Master Questionlesse Satan both knowes his own advantages and improves them to the uttermost Now he is not ignorant that if he can overthrow our Faith he destroys our life separate us from Christ and from God himselfe from whom we depart by unbeliefe Heb. 3.12 which is therefore the most dangerous of all sins and indeed a meanes to let in all the rest Pride Coveteousnesse Self-seeking Rebellion and what not Besides he well knowes that Nature yeelds him not stronger helps against any Grace then it doth against Faith which as we have already intimated both Reason and Sense the guides of our naturall life oppose It concerns us therefore neerly to use all diligence both to get and strengthen Faith so usefull every way so hard to be gained and strongly assaulted The Apostle therefore exhorts us to follow after Faith 1. Tim. 6.11 and to have it alwayes about us as the chiefe part of our spirituall Armour Eph. 6.16 Above all saith he take the shield of Faith whereby you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked A strange expression that a shield should quench fire unlesse perhaps he allude to the Hebrew name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shield or buckler comming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to coole Salomon exhorts us to get wisdome with all our getting Prov. 4.7 to search for it as silver and for hid treasure Prov. 2.4 And when we have gotten it not to forget it nor forsake it Prov. 4.5.6 Now Faith is not the least part of true wisdome which makes us wise unto Salvation To get and hold fast this Faith we must have an especiall regard unto two things First We must be sure to build our Faith upon a firme foundation which can be none other then the faithfull word of God as the Apostle cals it Tit. 1.9 establisht to all generations Psal 119.90 Upon which David builds all his Hope Psal 130.5 I waite for the Lord saith he my soule doth waite and in his word do I hope And Psal 119.114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield I hope in thy word Now this Word must be a cleer Word and a full Word It must be a cleer Word where the promise is laid down in plaine and expresse termes such as are all or the most part of the promises of eternall life and salvation by Christ and divers others As for those that are delivered in more darke and obscure expressions and such as are capable of divers constructions though they may be of good use yet Faith hath no firme resting on them unlesse they be cleered unto us by other places that are plaine and evident And as it must be a cleer Word that our Faith must rest on so must it be a full Word the promise taken with all the circumstances and conditions annexed thereunto It was a cleer Word which the Devil alleadgeth to our Saviour Christ Matt. 4.6 out of Psal 91.11.12 That God gives his Angels charge over his children to keep them that they dash not their foote against a stone but it was not a full Word a clause that restraines the promise to mens wayes was left out now to cast himselfe downe from the pinacle of the Temple was not Christs way St. John tels us If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes 1. Ioh. 1.9 To make this a full Word we must supply it with a clause out of Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sinnes shall find mercy which too many omitting and neglecting satisfie themselves with a bare and perfunctory confession of sinne without any endeavour to forsake it or to subdue their corrupt fusts from whence it springs remaining still under the dominion of sinne making provision for sin to fulfill tthe lusts thereof living in all manner of sensuality and minding earthly things to the scandall of Religion and without speedy repentance the destruction of their own soules Secondly our care must be to keepe our Faith in continuall
THE TROUBLES OF JERUSALEMS RESTAURATION OR The Churches Reformation REPRESENTED In a Sermon preached before the Right Honorable House of LORDS in the Abby Church Westminster Novemb. 26. 1645. By JOHN WHITE Master of Arts and Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Dorchester in the County of Dorset ZACH. 14.6.7 And it shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be cleare nor dark But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord nor day nor night but it shall come to passe that at evening time it shall be light Published according to Order LONDON Printed by M. Simmons for John Rothwel and Luke Fawne and are to be sold at their Shops in Pauls Church-yard 1646. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The House of PEERES assembled in PARLIAMENT IN obedience to your Command Right Honorable I make bold to present unto your view these Meditations which in part I did and intended fully to have delivered in your ears the day whereâ—n by your appointment I was called unto this service I may truly say I intended it rather then performed it For the Meditations themselves being conceived as womens children are Gen. 3.16 in sorrow and pain upon the bed of languishing weaknesse when they were come to the birth wanted the help of strength to bring them forth I felt indeed so much I will not say sorrow but extremity of pain while I stood that day before you that I was enforced to present you only the heads for the most part of what I intended to have delivered then unto you if the infirmity then upon me had not hindered it You well know Right Honourable that the infirmities of the body have a strong influence upon the soul and therefore I assure my self you will not expect that from a minde distempered and distracted by the sense of pain and griefe which might be required of a free and enlarged spirit I make no question but some may be ready to passe that censure upon this message of mine unto you which old Cato gave once upon an Embassage sent by the Roman Senate wherein of the three Ambassadors one had his head full of scars by wounds received in the wars the second was lame in his feet the third defective in his intellectuals Eam legationem neque Caput neque Pedes neque Cor habere that Embassage said he hath neither Head nor Feet nor Heart I passe not for such censures I only desire that although these Meditations be the issue of an infirm Head and Body they may not be taken to be aegri somnia a sick mans dreams nor the illusions of a deceiving Prophet that cryes out I have dreamed I have dreamed Jer. 23.25 The words which I set before you are the words of truth the Oracles of God and if they be so esteemed by you and all that love the truth I have my desire and God shall have the glory The chief Subject handled is the Troubles which accompany the Churches Reformation In that particular God hath made my work suitable to his own both the restoring of Jerusalem and my Meditations thereupon were cast into times of trouble if pains and infirmities may be so accounted In the close of this Sermon you shall finde an humble Petition for the cherishing of poor Students which if you be pleased to entertain with favour as the last request of a dying man nay as an intimation from the Man Christ who dyed for us I know not whereby you may more ingage not man but the Lord himself to make good his promise to you Mal. 3.10 11 12. to open the windowes of heaven and to powre upon you and the Land blessings more then you can receive and to rebuke the devourer for your sakes so that all Nations shall call you blessed That your care and endeavour may be both in this and all other services for the Church to fulfill the will of the Lord Christ and that this may be your reward is and shall be the prayer of Your Honours humble servant in the Lord Christ JOHN WHITE THE Troubles of Jerusalems RESTAURATION OR The Churches Reformation DAN 9.15 The street shall be built againe and the wall even in the troublous Times WHatsoever things were written aforehand were written for our learning saith the Apostle Rom. 15.4 The Lawes for our Direction The Prophecies for Observation of their Accomplishment in answerable Events The Promises for our Comfort and conso ation The Examples of Evill for Caution of Good for Imitation And lastly the Events ordered by the Wisdome and Providence of God for Precedents and Patternes representing our State and Condition either What it is at Present and why so or what wee are to Expect it may be hereafter Upon this ground it is Right Honourable that I have made choice of this portion of Scripture to the Church of the Jewes then a Prophecy of that which was shortly to be fulfilled but to us being long agoe Accomplished in the nature of an History or Relation of what God did then for his people and How and When setting before us as in a Type the state and condition of our owne Church at present both what it Is and what God is about to doe amongst Us as will easily appeare by Paralleling the particulers of the One with the other For first that Church of the Iewes was then and had full Seventy yeares been held in Captivitie and bondage under the Babylonian Monarchy Our Church had bin farre longer oppressed under a more heavie yoke of the spirituall Babylon the Mother of Fornications Secondly during that Bondage the Church of the Iewes was deprived of all Gods Ordinances as with much bitternesse themselves complaine Psal 74.9 We see not our signes there is no more any Prophet neither is there any amongst us that knoweth how long Our condition in this respect was every way as sad and miserable as theirs we had indeed amongst those that occupied the roome of Seers but those that should have been our Watchmen were all Blind sleeping and loving to slumber Shepheards that could not understand looking all to their owne way every one to his gaine from his quarter as the Prophet Isaiah complaines of the Priests of his time Isa 56.10.11 Thirdly that yoke of the Babylonish-captivity was sodainly and unexpectedly broken and taken off from the necks of Gods people insomuch that those who were restored to liberty scarce believed that which they enjoyed but seemed to themselves like men that Dreamed Psal 126.1 Our deliverance from the Romish Bondage was no lesse sodaine no lesse unexpected then theirs even in a Moment that yoke was broken and we were restored to liberty to the admiration of all the Churches of Europe who said as the Heathen did of the Iewes The Lord hath done great things for them Psal 126.2 Fourthly that sodaine and unexpected Change of the state of the Iewes was wrought by the change of the Princes God sodainly cutting off
Observe Gods Church must be united into a well compacted body furnished with needfull helps both for safety and order That the building of cities aims both at safety and orderly government I conceive cannot be denied The first builder of a city left upon record was Cain as is supposed for his own security being cast out of Gods protection Gen. 4.14.17 And Solomon to expresse what confidence worldlings put in their riches tells us they account it their strong Citie Prov. 10.15 Implying that Cities are accounted places of great strength and security Secondly it is evident both by reason and experience that Bodies neerly compacted are more easily and better governed and kept in order then a people scattered and dispersed abroad Now that the Lord himselfe had these ends before him in uniting his Church into a body is cleare enough to those that will understand When hee plants his vineyard the House of Israel he means Isai 5.7 the first thing which hee doth is the fencing of it vers 2. And Cantic 4.12 The Church is therefore resembled by a Garden inclosed or barred as it is in the original that is strongly fortified to keep out all that might break in to spoyle or destroy This wall of the Churches defence is the power of the Magistrate for whom we are to pray that under him we may lead a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 that is that being by his power preserved in peace we may serve the Lord without disturbance in holinesse the sword being put into the Magistrates hand for the terror of the wicked and for the praise of them that doe well Rom. 13.3.4 Wherefore the Lord promised that in the erecting of Christs Kingdome Princes shall be unto his Church a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest Isa 32.2 so that none shall hurt or destroy in his holy mountain Isa 65.25 There is besides the Magistrates sword an inner wall Ecclesiasticall discipline by which the little Foxes as they are termed Cant. 2.15 are taken or kept out such as speak perverse things to draw Disciples after them of whom the Apostle gives the Elders of Ephesus a speciall charge to take care Acts 20.30 31. And commands Titus to proceed against them by Ecclesiasticall censure Admonition and Rejection Tit. 3.10 And by the same Discipline Christs Ordinances are preserved pure as the Temple was preserved from pollution by the Priests who were to teach the people the difference between the clean and unclean and to give judgement accordingly Ezek. 44.23 24. These are indeed the true Rails about the Lords Table to keep out Dogges and Swine as Christ terms them Matth. 7.6 from polluting and profaning holy things and these are Jerusalems walls The second thing that God will build in Jerusalem is her streets both for Order and Beauty If the body were a grosse lump as some say Bears whelps are when they are newly fallen not distinguished by parts and members it were both uncomly and unserviceable 1 Cor. 12.18 19 20. There must therefore be streets in Jerusalem distinction of Offices and Functions and distributions of the people into Tribes Cities and Daughters of Cities as the Scripture terms them Villages and particular Congregations without which there can be no orderly government as Jethro tels Moses Exod. 18.18 21. That resemblance of the Church to an Army terrible with Banners Cant. 6.4 may perhaps upon the by under the type of an Army consisting of severall Troops and Companies marshalled under their severall Standards and Banners and yet making up but the entire body of one Army shadow out these divisions of the Church into her several members making up together the body of one Church which by this unitie and order growes and increaseth not as Cities doe in outward wealth but in those durable Riches as Solomon terms them Prov. 8.18 of faith love and other spiritual graces as the Apostle testifies Eph. 4.16 and as experience made it manifest in the Church newly gathered in the Apostles time which having some time of rest and opportunity thereby to joyn in fellowship not only increased in numbers but besides thrived in grace being edified and walking in the feare of the Lord Acts 9.31 which was furthered by those Ordinances which they enjoyed in common called living waters streams from Lebanon Cant. 4.13 conveighing that oyle of grace which like the oyntment powred on Aarons head and running down to the hem of his garments Psalm 133.2 flowes from Christ our head full of grace and truth of whose fulnesse we all receive grace for grace John 1.14 16. These are the advantages that the Citie of God and Church hath by uniting into a well compacted body fenced with Civill and Ecclesiasticall power and in an orderly manner divided into streets or congregations according to Gods appointment Why God will have it so there may be given these reason First God is One and his Name One wherefore the Apostle setting out the unity of the Church in One Body one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptisme shuts up all in one God and Father of all Eph. 4 4 5 6. implying that this unity of the Church flowes from him who is One Whence also but Saviour prayes for the Church that the members thereof may be all one as he and the Father are one John 17.21 22. And indeed seeing the Church is united to Christ as the Head thereof it must needs be one Body Now from this spirituall union of the mysticall body of the Church ariseth a kinde of necessity of uniting the members of the Church visible as much as may be Secondly this unity of the Church and order thereby credits Religion It is a good and delightfull thing for brethren to dwel together in unity Psa 133.1 Unity begets Order which proceeds ab uno and diverts ad unum and Order follows Decency which moves the Apostle to joyn them together 1 Cor. 14.40 Both these Unity and Order thereby so grace and commend the Church that many are thereby moved to joyn unto that Society When the Church was magnified of the people many were joyned unto it Acts 5.13 14. A third reason of the necessity of the Churches unity and order is her preservation A Kingdome a Citie an House divided against it selfe cannot stand saith our Saviour Matth. 12.25 26. This care of the Churches preservation is the more needful because it is but a little Flock Luke 12.32 And which is more dangerous a flock of Sheep amongst Wolves Matth. 10.16 which moves Saint Paul to warn the Elders of Ephesus to look to themselves and their Flock because grievous wolves shall enter in amongst them after his departure Acts. 20.29 Vse The Use of this poynt being manifold that I may not hold you ever-long I shall for the present apply it onely by way of Exhortation to that duty in the performance whereof Gods honour and the Churches good are so much interessed wherein if wee