whereof the Father is the first the Son the second This Person alone is incarnate uniting in the fulnesse of time to his Divine Person the nature of Man The holy Ghost is the third and yet all three are equall in Glory in Eternitie and every Divine attribute Hold fast in thy minde these plain Catechetick Scripturall Notions of God Beware to make to thy self an Idoll in thy brain to frame a false erroneous and unwritten conception of the true God If thou worship the Trinity as three divers Gods thou becomest a Pagan abolishing by the multitude of Gods the Unity of the divine Nature If thou apprehend God so much one as not three Persons thou turnest Turk a Jew an old Arian and Macedonian Heretike and which is all these in one a Socinian a reall Atheist for it is Christs own Conclusion Who honoureth not the Son Ioh. 5 23. honoureth not the Father which hath sent him The neglect the contempt the denyall of any one Person reflecteth alike on all the three and the whole God-head A third Observation upon the Reproof if time did permit A fourth Observation would be the holy and gracious practice of Christ in his hotest zeal he bringeth no false 2 Pet 1.11 no railing accusation against the devill himself the farthest he goeth against this arch-enemy is to commit him to God to be rebuked Lyes calumnies railings agianst the devill are inexcusable and would not be countenanced It is a foolish policy and a profane zeal to advance the Cause of God by the arts of the devill Lying calumnies malicious bitternesse are hellish weapons a gracious hand must not take them up were it against their very author The Arsenall of God is not so unprovided of lawfull Arms his Quiver not so disfurnished of his own Arrows that we need go borrow from Askelon or Gath from hell it self these poysoned Darts dipped in the venome of Asps in the blood of that old Serpent the father of Lyes the great Calumniator from the beginning A fourth Observation A fifth Observation God rebuketh Satan before his finall destruction his children in this are heirs to their father After a little time death will put all the wicked in a full possession of their inheritance their souls first and after the Resurrection their bodies also shall be placed in these lakes of fire but before they are to be infeoffed and seized they are to have the earnest of their fathers portion they are to be rebuked of God their secret wickednesse is to be brought to light their well-covered villanies to be proclaimed on the house tops shame and confusion to be poured on their faces their malice and violence is to be restrained their pushing horns to be hammered off by the Carpenters Satan and they will bee coopt up within so narrow a circle and bee bound with so short a chain that all may understand they are rebuked of God Also it would be a comfortable consideration to meditate on the zeal of Christ for Sion A sixth Observation against all her enemies He speaketh here as a man in a passion repeating and ingeminating his angry words The Lord rebuke thee even the Lord rebuke thee The Lord proclaimeth the sounding of his Bowels before he got Flesh the tendernesse of his compassion towards the Church before his Incarnation Certainly the sympathie of his heart and his fellow feeling with us in all our afflictions is not now diminished but rather if possible increased after his experimentall knowledge on the earth in his own person of these evils which Satan and wicked men inflict upon the godly From the Reasons which the Lord useth for Satans reproof A seventh we may behold the Devill his end and intention in molesting of Joshua the thing he seeketh is the overthrow of Jerusalem Satan driveth most at the eversion of the publike Phil. 2 21. Therefore the preservation of the publike ought to go neerest our heart Many seek their own things and not those of Jesus Christ They minde themselves much more then either Church or State This self-wisedom is foolish for if the Ship wherein thou sailest be drowned what will become of thy Goods if the house wherein thou art locked be burnt how shall thy life be saved From the first Reason the choosing of Jerusalem observe An eighth That Election is a principall ground of comfort against all Satans tentations True the difference is wide betwixt a nationall and personall Election betwixt the choice of Jerusalem or any other place to be the seat and habitation of the Church and betwixt the Election of persons to grace and glory This I may not stand to cleer onely strive to make our personall Election sure for upon the grounded assurance thereof we come to a glorious confidence that no creature neither Satan nor the World nor conscience nor any other shall ever be able to confound us Rom 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed One of the sweetest private fruits of such a dayes exercise is to get our calling and our Election sealed Verily a penitent soul who throughly hath mourned for sin and fled to Christ for mercy who hath gotten of his spirit for a reall and sincere beginning of a through Sanctification and amendment in every thing which either within or without hath been amisse A soul this farre proceeded in Grace useth to receive the stamp of the Spirit The inward unction and witnesse that they are the Sons of God Elect and called who shall be glorified Rom 8.17 2 Pet. 1.11 after they have suffered a while to such an entrance useth to be ministred aboundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of Christ From the last Reason take but some few brief notes An ninth Jerusalem the Church of God and Joshua the chief Member of it for the time were like a Stick half burnt in the fire of the Babylonish Captivitie Out of that fire they were pulled in Gods mercy to be preserved against all the malicious assaults of Satan and his instruments From hence you see the best beloved people of God by the Devill and wicked men may be brought exceeding low and so neer to utter destruction as a stick burning in the fire is to Ashes So it was with Israel in Egypt in Babel and oft elsewhere We therefore in our most desperate cases must not despair Exod 3 2. Isai 43 2. Dan. 3.25 The burning Bush will not be consumed God hath promised to be with us in fire and water One like the Son of man walketh in the fiery Furnace with the three Children When to the eye of the World our condition is most desperate when sence maketh us cry out Lam. 3.48 â—3 My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord They have cut of my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me yet
holinesse none can see his face such of our selves we are not we are like to our Father old Adam till we become ingraffed in a new stock till Christ become to us a head it is he that sends down into us as living members the influence of his Spirit which begins continues and increaseth in us that life that light that love which makes us like our heavenly Father partakers of the divine nature 2. Pet. 1.4 Phil. 2.14 Iohn 15.5 Of our selves we cannot think a good thought It is he that works in us to will and to do without him we can do nothing out of him we are but lifelesse saplesse withered branches fit for nothing but the fire but in him we are the trees of righteousnesse bringing forth all manner of fruit in due season The use of this doctrine is The first use first for our information of the true cause why much of our devotion is fruitles oft times we draw neer to God but have no accesse we cry and call at the door of heaven but there is no hearing no opening no answer The reason is we have mistaken our way we have gone to the wrong door we have run ever alone in the vehemencie of our owne spirit in the fervour of our naturall desires we have forgotten our Mediator and gone to the Father without the Son or if we have begun to take him with us at once as foolish children we have run before our guide No wonder then we be disciplined for that error that Christ permitting us to assay how much we can do of our selves without him we feel our labours lost our prayers in vain no marvell there commeth no voice no message no fire from heaven on our sacrifice to give us any assurance of our acceptation Matth. 3.17 God will not shew himself well pleased with us for any thing we do when we come without the Son in whom alone he is well pleased A second use A second Use is for direction Hold fast to Christ in all thy wayes especially in thy approaches to God most of all in thy solemne Prayers on such a day as this Set Christ betwixt thee and God let all be offered up by his hand he is thy only Priest no man was permitted under the Law to offer his own sacrifice all was put in the Priests hand who laid all upon the Altar Christ is the true Altar which sanctifieth and maketh acceptable all that is laid on him When we draw neere to God by him he covereth all our infirmities he supplyeth all our defects he enableth all who seek their life in him to do every duty in such a way as is well-pleasing in the sight of God he taketh all our desires and prayers in his hand put teth them in his golden censer he kindleth them with his own fire Revel 8.3 and perfumeth them with the incense of his own merits that so dressed they may have a sweet savour in the nostrils of the Father A third use is for caution in our magnifying of Christ A third use for caution against the Antinomians beware of an old trick of the devill which of late he hath resumed and by it done more mischiefe then ever Grace and wantounesse in themselvs are most opposite yet Satan striveth to conjoyn them To turn the grace of God into wantonnesse Iude 4. Mat. 27.29 It is no new thing to adore Christ in shew while you buffet him in truth There is a generation of people who under the colour of magnifying the free grace of God of setting Christ in his Throne of advancing a Gospel way of crying down nature and legall righteousnesse with these glorious shows and pleasant words they are misled by a spirit of delusion to patronize profanity to grieve and extinguish the Spirit of grace to scoffe at repentance and sorrow for sinne to foster the fruits of the flesh to bring in the highest degree of all wickednesse a dedolence of minde a reprobation of spirit when a man has committed all wickednesse with greedinesse to be nothing grieved for it as if the Spirit of the just Lord were nothing offended with it Among the many devils who very boldly this day are walking up and down the land this is one of the worst albeit masked with the fairest shews of piety and reason Who magnifies not the Lord Iesus let him be Anathema maranatha let Iesus be all in all to thy soule make him alone thy Righteousnesse thy Sanctification thy Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 but for all that beware to divide Christ from his Spirit his death from his life his blood from his grace Separate not faith from repentance dash out none of thy Lords commandements so long as thou livest wert thou never so holy thou hast need from thy heart to beg pardon for thy sins whosoever will neglect repentance must perish who ever will have true comfort must be a mourner Christ eurseth them that laugh now and no laughter more devillish then in the act of sin he blesseth them that mourn now and no mourning in a child of God more pious then for the offending of God and grieving of his Spirit by sinne I thought to have laid open other stratagems of Satan by occasion of the words in hand and pointed at some other very dangerous errors wher with lately this land was overgrown and which to this day are not altogether evanished First that Idolatry of the Papists in their standing before Angels and Saints for intercession before images for adoration further no Papist ever went and thus far Court-Divines here were wont to preach and print 2. Against the Arminians That wickednes of Arminius denying the commerce of the Israelites with the Angel of the Covenant taking away the knowledg of Christ from the very Patriarchs and Prophets that however Christ speak expresly of Abrahams seeing of his day reioicing therin yet the Lord must have the open lie and Abrahams both sight and joy must go no further then to his son Isaac the type of Christ they must be terminate in the shadow and not go through to the substance It is the lesse wonder that this man and his followers should steal Christ out of the Law since under the Gospel they really remove him from the hearts of the people putting free-will in the place of grace and in stead of our justification by Christ would teach us that old fundamental error of the Papists justification by works and inherent righteousness to wit by faith as a worke in us Strange that any Protestant Divines should yet stumble upon that infamous stone 3. Against the Socinians That horrible wickednesse of the Socinians denying the Angel of our Text to be Christ because he had no being before his conception denying his Incarnation abolishing his divine nature blaspheming the Trinity A wonder that so foul a spirit should ever have gotten entrance in any famous Divine or other man
chopping upon the slippery and half dead heart You see in this place he dealeth no otherwise with the very devil but be perswaded there is a time coming for a more severe reckoning The seventh of Ezekiel is often to be read by a secure people the sixth verse An end is come the end is come it watcheth for thee behold it is come the morning is come upn thee the time is come the day of trouble is neer and not the sounding of the mountains In that one verse the coming of the day of vengeance is five or six times proclaimed Happy are these who make use of the day of their mercifull Visitation The Lord hath been wonderfully good to us the War hath taken away the estates of many thousands the Sword hath bereaved many of their lives we are yet safe but can we tell how long manage well this happy day of grace humble your soul before the Lord make peace with him without further delay mourn for your known faults set your selves to amend the evil of your doings that you may be spared in the fearfull day of the Lords wrath when the sword of the field the famine and pestilence of the City may make havock of people without number Blessed are they who after so many warnings from the mouth of God in his Word from the hand of God in his Works have learned at last to be wise for their own great good Upon the Reproof The second Observation Christs rebuking of the devill will bring us to a victory over all our enemies observe first The onely way to remove all impediments and oppositions to the reparation of a Church and State is Christ his intercession with the Father against the devill That which hindered Jeshua and Zerubbabel to build the Temple to fortifie Jerusalem was that active spirit which moved and stirred up all the malignant instruments that appeared against them The Jews till this time were never able to overcome their enemies but behold so soon as Christ taketh the work in hand so soon as he rebuketh and restraineth Satan the principall enemy incontinent all the inferiour instruments on earth all these malignant men and women did fail and succumb they were no more able to trouble Gods people in their work This is the ground of our hope and comfort The opposers of the Reformation of our Church in the midst of so huge difficulties as this day on all sides beset us how shall our Sion be gotten builded when we look to the opposers their strength is exceeding great a mighty faction of declared Papists a great number of Episcopall Clergie and people openly joyning with Papists against us and both avowedly supported by Soveraign Authority Also a multitude of Sects Anabaptists Antinomians Separatists and others pushed on by a deluded conscience to oppose with all their skill with all their might all solid Reformation beside all the former a great number in all ranks and estates profane and loose persons exceeding unwilling to behold the setling of any Order which may controll them with any power in their wonted licentiousnesse Concerning the walls of Jerusalem The opposers of the Reformation of our State the establishing of Justice and Peace in the Civill State with what insuperable difficulties this work is compassed wofull experience doth teach A mighty faction of lawlesse men who have drawn away partly by perswasion and partly by force a great part of the people the greatest part of the Nobles and Soveraign Authority it self this faction of it self very potent is also supported with the help that forraign friends are able to afford and which is more then all yet named and more terrible then all flesh and blood we have to do with Principalities and Powers who act and guide with all the craft and force they are able our humane adversaries And which is yet the greatest strength of all the grievous sins of the Land which provoke the Lord God to be on the side of our enemies men and devils to strengthen their arm against us The sight of these mountains of Impediments would discourage the stoutest heart Our Comfort against both if above them all we did not see our mercifull high Priest intreating the Father for the remission of our sins for the rebuking of Satan with all vehemency the favour we know the Son hath with the Father will make him obtain all his desires Surely when these are obtained when the sins of the Land are remitted and Satan restrained all other impediments will soon be removed when the soul is separate from the body the members languish and cannor more stir when Christ hath confounded Satan men his instruments will quickly either be perswaded or forced to reason It is in vain to deal with men so long as a malignant spirit prevaileth over them The streams will run till the fountain be stopped Our first and main labour would be with Christ to restrain Satan for he is the life that vegetates he the spirit that stirres up all our opposites both in Church and State Observe againe how Christ in his debate with Satan A third observation Ioh. 8.50 Ioh. 10 30. 1 Ioh. 5.7 hath recourse to the Father that he would rebuke him The Sonne honoureth the Father he seeketh not his owne glory but the honour of the Father The Father and the Son are one for all these three that witnesse in Heaven the Father the Son and the Spirit are one true God Yet this is the order of the Divine Persons that the Father is the first the Sonne and the Spirit are both from him The Sonne from Eternity begotten of him The Spirit from Eternity proceeding from him and from the Sonne So long as the vaile of Flesh covereth the eyes of our Soule we must not enquire too curiously in this unsearchable Mystery 1 Kings 19.13 Elias wrapped his face in his Mantle when the Lord passed by him God will not be gazed upon he dischargeth it expresly under the pain of death Exod. 19.21 The malapart and Irreverent boldnesse of sundry Divines subjecting to the foul feet of their idle speculations the deepest and most unaccessible Mysteries of the holy Trinitie is justly plagued with evident and foolish errour Their eyes who will gaze on the Sun in the noon day cannot but be dazled and if that madnesse continue blindnes and excaecation inavoidable will follow Faith here if any where is the Mother of modestie The companion of simplicitie and reverence it setteth us limits at the foot of the Mountain in a farre distance Exod. 19.23 which we must not break through When we do behold with the most open face 1 Cor. 13.12 the Godhead we must be looking on our Glasse the eye must never wander from the Spectacles of the Word Onely what we see of God let it be holden fast against all contradiction Worship the Father the Son and the Spirit one true God three truely distinct Persons
the feare of future mis-accidents in life in death yet at last in all these they become more then Conquerours the Devill by the mouth of Christ is chased away from further molesting them the spots of sinne are washed off as if they never had been on the strength of corruption is abated they are clothed and made Beautifull with the graces of the Spirit they are assured of perseverance and Gods acceptation of continuall service at their hand they have the Lords Protestation that after all their labours for his honour the welfare of his Church and their mother countrie they shall be translated to an Evangelick felicitie to stand before the celestiall throne injoying the face of God and all the fulnesse of joy thence flowing when others the opposits of the worke of God the retarders of the building of the Temple and Citie shall be rebuked with Satan their leader and cast with him into that utter darknesse where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth The true procurer of all these favours was Christ the Messias to come Of the third spoken of in the third part from the eight verse to the end Ioshua and his companions were wondred at as mad fools The builders of Sion are wonders who would venture their peaceable and quiet estate in Babel with the hazard of a long and dangerous voyage to the desolate Land of Judea and when they came there would not rest in ease but without feare of provoking the great King of Persia without regard of plottings within by false friends of open armes without by professed foes not considering their owne weaknesse nor the greatnesse of the interprize of building a temple of fortifying a City went on with courage this by some was derided by others wondred at Psal 96.7 Psal 124 8. yet themselves understood very well what they were doing The Lord of hosts was with them their help was in the name of the Lord. Michael their Prince was a mediatour for them at the throne of God though yet he was not borne Christ the branch yet in his divine nature he did execute the office of an intercessor for them with the Father and the time did draw neere when he was to be brought forth as a branch then he did lurke and lie hid within the vaile of heaven as a roote under the ground yea the stock of Iesse whence he was to take flesh was a withered tree in a dry Land yet he was to spring out of it as a branch which from a small twigg was to become a great boulke wherein all the plants of God behoved to be graffed that by his fatnesse they might flourish in the Courts of the Lord and bring forth their fruit in due season Also he is the carved stone full of eyes This branch was that stone which Ioshua did lay in the foundation of the second temple for Christ is the rock wherupon the Church is builded so firmely that the Ports of hell may well assault but shall not prevaile against it he is a stone with seven eyes not a dead blinde stone but living and seeing filled with the Spirit of providence able to foresee with a multitude with a great and perfect number of eyes all the dangers which can befall that House and every living stone therein which is builded upon him he is a carved and ingraven stone polished and adorned by the hand of the Father with all the perfection of divine beautie in which the carvings of his flesh by the wounds of his crosse the agonies of his Spirit From his ingraving comes our pardon and peace wherewith it pleased the Father to bruise him are not of the least consideration for from these chiefly flow the two great blessings Pardon and Peace wherewith the Chapter is closed The Father for the sake of the passion of Christ put away the sinnes of the Land Revel 13.8 Hebr. 10.4 Hebr. 10.4 and that in on day for the sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world was of another nature from these under the Law these though continually offered could never make the commers thereto perfect but he by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Hence flowes a full and perfect peace they who had been long vexed with a cruell and bloody war by the Prince of peace are reconciled with God for their sinnes in one day being removed by that one sacrifice Phil. 4.7 the wrath of the Father was satisfied Peace with God brings inward peace of conscience that passeth understanding Prov. 16.7 and also peace with men so much as the Lord findeth expedient when a mans wayes pleaseth the Lord he maketh his very enemies to be at peace with him Esay 1.11.6 The branch that sprang from the stem of Jesse makes the wolfe and the Lamb to dwell together the Leopard to lie down in peace with the kid the lion to eat straw with the oxe the sucking child to play on the hole of the Aspe the weaned childe to lay his hand safely on the cockatrice den and these men who have been spoiled of all and banished from their habitations to returne to their homes and quickly so to prosper there that they can call their neighbours as of old to feast and be glad with them under their Vine and Fig-tree without the feare of any enemy being safe and secure under the shadow of the Branch the Prince of peace So the Vision of this Chapter which began with great trouble and danger ends with as great peace and joy Satan in the entry with the assistance of sinne vexing the Church with all the opposition his strength and craft was able to make Christ in the end by his passion and spirit defeating Satan and sin closeth the Churches warfare with a happy peace All these things will be grounds to intelligent mindes of many sweet meditations in these times of perplexity but leaving the rest we will stand on the two first verses In the first whereof we have the great impediment of Sions reparation In the second The division of the Text. the powerfull removall of that impediment The former for memory and order may be divided into three First the information of it he shewed unto me This strong opposition which Satan made to the work was secret till God by his Angel opened the eyes of the Prophet Zachariah to behold it Secondly its time when Joshua was standing before the Angel of the Lord. Thirdly its matter Satan stood on his right hand to resist him Consider these three in order their sense the Doctrines arising from them and the Uses of these Doctrines In the first three things must be understood The Informer The exposition of the first part The way of his Information And the person informed This he who informs by the most ancient Greek and Latine Interpreters is expressed by the Lord Who is this informing Angel but our Translators
craft and might did assay to countercarve it and make it fruitlesse That which here is brought by some of Satan his accusing of Joshua we do not deny it as one of the means whereby he did crosse the high Priest For he is stiled a Devill an Accuser a Calumniator Revel 12 10. who is ever accusing the Brethren to God as he did Job sometimes falsly and sometimes truely but ever calumniously because ever upon malice The particular accusation is not expressed in the Text yet the Chaldee Paraphrasts put that in their targum on this place which is most likely That Satan pleaded against Joshua as a man who ought not to be heard of God or receive any assistance from him for the building of Sion since he and the rest of the people were clothed with the foul Garments of sin especially that one of suffering his Children to marry strange Women Ezra 9 3. The marrying with Idolaters was so grievous and dangerous a sin that it made Ezra lament very heavily before God Joshua his tolerating of this fault in his children was a matter of a just accusation and might have hindered the fruit of his Prayers and all his endeavours for Sion For Doctrine observe The first Doctrine That the great and chief leader of all who oppose the Reformers of a Church or State is the Devill Jeshua and Zerubbabell in their repairing of the ruines of the Church and Kingdom of Israel Satan is the leader in chief to all who oppose the Reformation of a Church or State Ezia 4 8. had opposites of many kindes and conditions Ezra 1. At the first founding of the Temple there appeared against them at the beginning secretly and then openly First the common people of the Land the Samaritanes the Brethren of our Cassandrian mixed professors half Idolaters half Israelites With them joyned the Rulers of the Provinces Rehum the Chancelor and Shimshai the Scribe also the bribed Courtiers of the King and at last the King himself This opposition did so prevail that the building was marred for many yeers When the work again was set on by the motion of Haggai and Zachariah Ezra 5.3 that same prophane multitude and their Governours Tatnai and Shethar-Boznai did oppose yet by the help of God the Temple was finished Afterwards they went to build the Wall of Jerusalem Gods order requireth that the Church be settled before the State For this is the holy and happy order of the People of God in their building to begin with the Temple and then to go to the Citie to perfit the Temple before they lay a Stone in the Wall of Jerusalem It is preposterous to begin with the State and end with the Church that order pleaseth not God it is not suitable to his honour and will not be blessed by him How ever so soon as Nehemiah began to make up the Wall there was about him a swarm of enemies to hinder his progresse Tobia Sanballat Geshem and not onely these prophane Forraigners but also many among themselves that professed friendship Nehem. 6 17. Many of the Nobles of Judah kept correspondence by Letters with the enemies and that in a way well near avowed and open Sundry of the Priests and Prophets were plotters against the work Nehem. 6.14 Some Women also are noted for Malignant Instruments by name the Prophetesse Noadia is Registred to her perpetuall infamy The greatest plot of the enemies of Sion was a subdolus accommodation for her correspondence with the enemy in prejudice of the good work in hand Many plots were set on foot to discourage the people of God and make them faint in their labour when the building was neer an end but one was most likely to prevail a friendly treatie propounded by Sanballat to Nehemiah pretending an Union of Counsells and an accommodation but intending to kill Nehemiah that the reparation of Jerusalem wherein he was the prime Agent should be interrupted by his death and quite given over This plot was assayed once Nehem. 6.4 twice thrice four times but without successe for it was the wisedome of Nehemiah to distrust them and never for any perswasion for any terrour to enter into conference with them while the Wall was once perfited and then the adversaries perceiving without further haesitation the hand of God in the work they opposed sate down in despair and gave over their enterprises All these oppositions from so many divers sorts of persons were cleer to the eye of all yet when God will discover to the eye of the Prophet the great and main hinderer of the work in hand he sets all other aside and points at Satan alone standing on the right hand of the chief workers to crosse and resist them It is cleer then that in all the opposition we feel to the welfare either of Church or State Satan is he on whom the eyes of the godly wise would principally be fixed The Reason of this Doctrine is this Satan is the head The first reason of the Doctrine the prince the father the god of all the enemies of the Church Gen. 3.15 I will put enmitie betwixt thee and the woman betwixt her seed and thy seed The fountain of all the enmitie of the wicked against the Church is here made the Serpent deriving his malice to men as to his seed and posteritie The wicked in their malicious actions against Christ and his Church are reputed the children of Satan and worke according to the nature of their father Ioh. 8.44 You are of your father the devill the lusts of your father you will do When the wicked are not ready enough to follow the motions of Satan against the Church as children to be directed by their fathers advice then like a Prince or Tyrant doth he drive them as captive slaves to commit mischiefs For this Ephes 2.2 he is called the Prince of the power of the Aire the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience 2 Tim. 2.26 The wicked are in the snare of the devill taken captive by him at his will 2 Cor. 4 4. He is the god of this world When servants do the commands of their masters what subjects or children are set upon by their prince or father what is done by members by the motion of the spirit that animates and moves them all these actions must be ascribed chiefly unto their principall agents A second reason is The second Reason The interest of Satan in the confusions of a Church and State is greatest Interest advantage losse make persons active when a State is confounded and a Church in trouble there is no restraint of Idolatry of Heresies of Schismes of Drunkennesse Blasphemics Oppressions or any villanie wherein the dominion and glory of Satan is openly demonstrate But when the times of licentious libertie come to an end when by the mercies of God the outward State is settled the execution of good Laws banisheth
Pastors of Gods House when they stand too high in worldly pomp above the people their light in so great a distance vanisheth and scarce is visible to men so far below them Yet it would be carefully considered That the Lights of the House of God be not too much brought down and set too low to put them under a bushell to set them under the feet of the family were to mar their shineing and hinder the communication of their light Above all great care would be used that when the superfluity of Oil which did choke and extinguish rather then maintain the light of some Lamps shall be diverted unto better employment neverthelesse that no Candle of God in any part of this Land be permitted to languish much lesse to die for want of so much Oil as is requisite for a convenient subsistence But a word to wise men and half a word of this kinde to men so religious and zealous for the House of God is enough So much for the Impediments which Satan made to the reparation of Sion Now follows their Removall in the which are three things i. A Preface The Lord said unto Satan 2. A Paraphrase on the second verse The Mean whereby these Impediments were removed and that Opposition quasht Christs cursing of Satan or his prayer to the Father to rebuke and represse him 3. Two Reasons of this Rebuke 1. Jerusalems election then her great sufferings For shortnesse we shall onely give a brief Paraphrase of all the words together without long exposition And for Doctrine we shall touch but on some few Observations which for Use we shall remit to your own meditation As for the Preface The Lord said unto Satan How Spirits can speak Angels and devils communicate with God and one with another not by speeches for Language requires bodily instruments which these Spirits want but as they apprehend every object without senses so they expresse what they have apprehended without Language in a way above our humane nature which we do not understand However in this place and elsewhere oft where by way of Vision the communication of one Spirit with another is represented for our apprehension all is set done in speeches as the ordinary way wherein men communicate their thoughts one to another The Lord said unto Satan Christ the Lord. He who before was called an Angel is here named the Lord even Christ as we shewed before the Lord and Creator of all the Heir even as he is man of all for there is one God and one Lord the man Jesus 1 Cor. 8.6 to whom the Father hath given a Name above all names and hath set all things under his feet Principalities and Powers themselves to be his servants and he their Lord and God The matter of his speech is an Invocation of the Father to reprove Satan The Lord speaketh to the Lord The Lord speaketh to the Lord. Psal 110 1. the Son to the Father so the words of the Psalm are to be taken The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand And that of Genesis Gen. 19 24. The Lord rained down fire upon Sodom from the Lord. The Son leadeth to the Father as to the fountain of the Godhead and all divine Operations which importeth no diversity of Essence Substance or Matter in the Trinity but onely a distinction of Persons and an heavenly Order in these Persons as in Being so in Operation The Father being the first The Son the second The Spirit the third but all equally infinite in Glory Power Eternity and all divine Attributes in these there is no inequality no posteriority among them This now is to be believed from divers Scriptures but not to be thorowly understood till afterwards when we shall see God as we are seen of him The rebuking of Satan imports not onely a bitter and sharp reproof of his malice What is the rebuking of Satan to his confusion and shame but also a restraint and cohibition of his power by the mercifull and strong hand of the Father This is repeated because of Christ his zeal to Jerusalems welfare and his detestation of Satans wicked designes against her The first Reason of that Reproof is The Lords chusing of Jerusalem to be the place of his Worship The first Reason of the Rebuke and Habitation of his Church Satan had the rest of the earth for his service but not content herewith that one place which the Lords Election had reserved for his own little Flock the malice of that unreasonable spirit would not leave to God The other reason The second Reason That same one place that one poor people which God had chosen out of all the families of the earth to be his peculiar Treasure had been cast in the fiery furnace of heavie tribulation and was but lately drawn out of the fire that mercilesse spirit the devill nothing satisfied with all the miseries of Jerusalem went about to procure her utter destruction and burning down to ashes that so on the whole earth there should have been left none at all to serve the Lord But Christ remembring his Election and having compassion upon their former sufferings defendeth their Cause poureth shame on the malice of Satan restraineth his power chaseth him away that he may no longer retard the welfare of his people From the Preface The first Observation Christ his wonderful patience towards the very devill observe the great patience and long-suffering of Christ he holdeh his peace long and when he speaketh at last to Satan it is but to rebuke him This evil spirit had seduced and destroyed the souls well-neer of the whole world he standeth here before the Lord for to swallow up the small remnant Did not such horrible wickednesse require a present destruction from the Lords hand and not a reproof onely from his mouth Consider well the Lord his way of proceeding with all the wicked both men and devils There is a time appointed for their full destruction and till that day come the Lord holdeth his peace or if he break out in words or deeds against them it is but in a small degree of wrath in comparison of what is following Satan is reserved in chains till the last day where he is to be bound and cast in the lake One of these spirits could say unto Christ Matth. 8.29 Art thou come to torment us before the time When the wicked are most proud and insolent God laugheth at them for he secth their day is coming the day of their vengeance the yeer of recompences the morning the hour of their calamity All of us would consider the state of our soul the abominations which conscience telleth us we are guilty of think them not forgotten with God though he keep silence and permit us to go on in the ways of our own heart without trouble or if he reprove it is but by his Word Now and then in the publike Ministery