I check my selfe I shall go to Heaven and there newes will come thick thick thick When others came to him and pressed him with importunity to tell them his judgement concerning the future state of the Church saying to him That he had travelled much in the Revelation and they were perswaded God had revealed something more then ordinary to him What do you thinke Shall we have Popery once againe or no Hee answered You shall not need to feare fire and fagot any more but such dreadful divisions will be amongst Gods people and professors as will equalize the greatest persecutions A man met him neer his house and called to him O Mr. Carter what shall I doe My Wife is entring into her Travell and I thinke shee will dye with very fear Sayes he to the man Make haste run to your Wife and tell her I am going to my Closet as fast as I can to pray for her bid her not faint but be of good comfort The man ran to her and told her what had passed Presently her feares vanished God gave her strength shee was delivered immediately and very safely and her Husband came back to my Father as I remember before he came out of his Closet to tell him what God had done Another time a poor man met him by the way and cryed to him piteously Mr. Carter What shall become of mee I work hard and fare hard and yet I cannot thrive I continue bare and know not how in the World to live Hee answered him You want one thing I will tell you what you shall doe Work hard and fare hard and Pray hard and I warrant you thrive There dwelled in his Parish a Tanner a very godly man and one that had much communion with my Father This man as he was very busie tawing of a Hide with all his might not so much as turning aside his head any way My father coming by accidentally came behinde him and merrily gave him a little clap upon the back hee started and looking behinde him suddenly blushed Sir saith he I am ashamed you should finde me thus To whom my Father sayd again Let Christ when he comes finde me so doing What sayes the man doing thus Yes saith my Father to him Faithfull in the duties of my Calling Being at Dinner in Ipswich at one of the Magistrates houses diverse other Ministers being at the Table One amongst the rest who had years enough learning enough to have taught him more humility was very talkative bragged of his parts and skill and made a challenge He sayd to them Here are many learned men do any of you propound any question in Divinity or Philosophy and I will dispute with you and resolve and satisfie you fully All the Table but he himselfe were silent a while Then my Father when he saw no body else would speak sayd to him calling him by his name I will go no further then my Trencher to puzzle you Here 's a Sole Now tell me the reason why this Fish alwayes living in the salt water should come out fresh My Gentleman could not say any thing to it and so he was laughed and shamed out of his vanity A certaine man came to him and made his moane Saith he I have lost the greatest Freind I had in the World I had in a manner my livelihood from him My Father answered him When the Fountaine dryes up in one place God will open it in another To me he sayd once John God hath alwayes brought water for me out of the hard flinty rock Those covetous hard-hearted men who have beene enemies to my person and Ministry have many times come in and given me countenance and maintenance My elder and onely dear Brother a blessed Instrument in the church of Christ being dead my Father took care of his eldest Son he sent him to Cambridge and walking with him towards the Stable took his last leave of him in these words in Latine Cave mi fili fastum ignaviam Antichristum i. e. My Son beware Pride Sloth Antichrist He would say a Traveller must have a Swines belly an Asses back and a Merchants purse Meaning to fare with all dyet to beare all injuries and to provide for vast expences Wee are Pilgrims and Travellers here and we must prepare for Want Wrongs and spoyling of our Goods It may wel be sayd of him Semper erat ubi non erat His heart was where his head is and where now his soule is in Heaven His whole life was nothing else but a Communion day I have often thought that old Jacob lived in him I am sure the spirit of God breathed as much in him in his words writings holinesse dropped from his Pen in every ordinary Letter that he writ in his actions Soliloquies as in any man of later times He was alwayes distilling precious precepts exhortations instructions consolations into those with whom he had to converse A godly Woman told me once That she had been servant to a religious Gentleman to whose House my Father did often resort and that she was won to Christ at first by the heavenly speeches and sweet principles which dropped from him as she was warming his Bed and waiting upon him in his Chamber A man he was most just and exact in his dealings he put a clause into his Will for the carefull payment of his debts And when my Sister Eunice and I his Executors enquired wee could finde nothing that he owed except to the Smith for shooing of a Horse or two In his Library I found two or three Books I beleeve not one of them worth a groat upon which he had written This Book is borrowed of such an one Let it be restored or if the Owner cannot be found allow something to the poor for it and that liberally Once being in a journey many miles from home in changing a peice of Gold at a Shop he tooke a halfe crowne peice in stead of a shilling neither he nor the Shopkeeper minded it As soone as hee came home he found that he had taken a halfe crowne for a shilling He could not rest but next day he took a long journey on purpose to that Towne to carry back that halfe crown againe He was of a sweet milde and gentle nature and of a gracious spirit A loving and faithfull Husband and an indulgent Father if he failed in any thing it was in his carriage to his Servants for truely he did not carry himselfe as a Master to Servants but as a familiar friend to his freinds He would make them to sit down with him and drinke to them at meat He and my Mother were marryed together well-nigh sixty yeares and I am confident in all that time there never was a distastefull word betweene them And indeed how could there be Hee lived with her as a man of knowledge he was a wise faithfull and tender guide and she was humble and meek did reverence and highly esteem him Every word
refresh your memories Here take him for your patterne Bee yee followers of God of Christ of your good Grand-Father also as dear Children and tread in his steps It was the saying of a learned and godly Divine unto his children when he was at the point of death How will you looke me in the face before the dreadfull Tribunall of Jesus Christ if any of you appeare before me then in an unregenerate condition How will any of you look your Venerable Grand-Father in the face at that terrible day If you be found in any Error Heresie Schisme or inordinate walking as becomes not the Gospell of Iesus Christ It is our great honour that we had such a holy root such a Father of our Family It will bee our greatest shame a blot never to be wiped out if any of us shal degenerate This was the Brand and Ignominy of multitudes of the Iewes they boasted and said We have Abraham to our Father but Christ said to them again Yee are of your Father the Devill for the lust of your Father ye wil do These things I write not that I suspect you much les condemn you Of many of you I am confident but in tenderness of love to warn you and excite you to walke accurately The blessing of my Fathers God be upon you al. Accept in good part this poor remembrance from Your Affectionate Vncle JOHN CARTER To his wel-beloved Country-men the Inhabitants of BRAMFORD AND BELSTED in Suffolk EVen Nature teacheth us to love dearely the Land of our Nativity I cannot but wish well to that place and people where I drew my first breath viz. Bramford as also to that place and people where my good Father finished his course and breathed his last viz. Belsted To both those places and peoples I send Salutations But that is not my main designe Brethren My hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that you may bee saved The meanes of Salvation you enjoyed a long time under the Ministry of yout Ancient Pastor my deare Father Mr. John Carter He appeared to you all that while as that bright Star Matth. 2. By his light and motion by his Doctrine and Conversation he guided you to Christ He so long as hee was in his Tabernacle of Clay was not negligent to put you alwaies in remembrance of those things which concern your everlasting peace That which I drive at is Now that hee hath put off his Tabernacle now in his stead to admonish you Remember therefore how you have received and heard and hold fast and repent Remember how hee was an example of Beleivers in word in conversation in Charity in Spirit in faith in purity Consider how shall you escape if you neglect so great Salvation Will it not be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom in the day of Iudgment then for you Now for the eternal good of your Souls here I send nou your old Pastor again I confesse his livelie voice that cannot be recalled but his life and example I endeavour to revive again The rich man in Hel spake thus Father Abraham If one were sent to my Fathers house from the dead they would repent I commend unto you your ancient spirituall Father in some sort raised from the dead Now look to your faith look to your repentance look to your holy walking else his Ministrie will rise up in iudgment against you For hee being dead yet speaks O that you would now so conform to his Doctrine and practise that when hee and you shall stand together at the last day before the great Shepheard of the Sheep Hee that had the rule over you might bee able to say with ioy Lord here I am and the Children which thou hast given me This is and shal be the prayer of him that is Your wel-wishing Friend and Country-man JOHN CARTER TO HIS REVEREND BROTHER AND Fellow-Labourer in the Lords Vineyard Mr. Samuel Clark Pastor of Bennet Fink LONDON Worthy SIR THAT which Naomi spake to Ruth concerning Boaz Hee hath not left off his kindnesse to the living and to the dead It is fully verified of your selfe you cease not to shew kindnesse to the living and to the dead To the living by your preaching and Ministry you make Saints daily To the dead Saints you shew kindnesse by perpetuating their Names to their honours and the good of many And herein you are a great gainer you shine your selfe by making others shine Amongst the rest of those that honour you I am one though I never saw your face otherwise then in the Frontispice of your learned Bookes In your first part of the marrow of Ecclesiasticall History We had information that you did resolve to add a second part and to put in the Lives of such godly Divines and others as were eminent in these latter times if you were furnished with faithfull information Hereupon divers did set upon me with very great importunity to write the life of my deare Father and to send it up to you Truely Worthy Sir I was desirous of the thing but durst not undertake the work I was sensible of mine own weaknesse and also that his sayings and doings had so far slipped the memories of this Generation that I should have brought to light such an imperfect thing as rather would have been a blemish to so eminent a Saint then an honour Hereupon I laid all thoughts aside of medling or attempting such a thing I knew that he is glorious in heaven and on the Earth too so far as his name is spread Now good Sir let me be bold to give you a short account of my selfe Some few daies since I went about to make a new Diary for my selfe I was desirous in the first place to set down some passages of my Father for mine own satisfaction and use I began so and before I was aware it amounted to so much as I thought better that published then nothing at all and at the last my Spirit grew restlesse I could not satisfie my selfe till I had digested it into some order and made it publike And now Sir here it is I present it to your judicious view accept it in good part from a meer stranger Because it was so short therefore I joyned it to a weak and unworthy piece of mine own to make it a Book My humble request to you worthy Sir is this that though I slipped the last opportunity yet if you shall set forth any more lives or if you shall have a new Impression of any of the former that you would extract so much of my precious Fathers life as you shal judge fit and place it where you please in your Ecclesiasticall History Your Monuments will bee lasting in after ages when my poore Pamphlet will bee worne out with time Pardon my boldnesse The Lord strengthen out your daies for the good of his Church and the honour of his Saints Your most observant Friend and Brother that
truely honoureth you JOHN CARTER THE LIFE OF Mr. JOHN CARTER Pastor of Bramford in Suffolk MAster John Carter my deare Father of blessed memory and now a glorious Saint in Heaven was borne at Wickham in Kent neer Canterbury about the yeare of our Lord 1554. He was descended but of meane Parents yet religious and of good repute not able to maintaine him at the University wholly at their own charge One Mr. Rose a rich man in Canterbury as my Father hath told me Surely taking notice of his piety in those his tender years and of his studiousnesse and proficiency in all Learning beyond the pitch of a Grammer Scholar and finding him hopefull likely to prove a precious instrument in the Church of Christ took him into his care and disbursed monyes from time to time as was needfull for his maintenance in Cambridge He was of Clare Hall Pupill to Doctor Byng the famous Civilian Master of that House whose Son Doctor Robert Byng a learned and worthy Gentleman was my Tutor afterwards in the same Colledge when he was first admitted into the Colledge he was presently taken notice of to be of singular learning and ripenesse for one of his yeares He had with the rest of his year a Theme given him to make The Thesis was Frugalitas virtutum maxima When the young Schollars brought in their Themes the Lecturer took them and read them and when he came to Carters Theme he stood a little at a stand at last sayes he before them all here is the best Theme that I ever read and gave him money commended and encouraged him and alwayes after had a carefull eye over him and sought opportunities to do him good After my Father had taken his degrees Batchelor and Master of Arts His Tutor Doctor Byng out of his singular love to him and respect to his learning and piety gave him a Chamber in his own lodgings where he continued a yeare or two which made much to the compleating of him for the work of the Ministry And all that while he continued a gremiall in the bosome and Lap of his Mother the University he had constant meetings with divers of his famous contemporarys and that weekly Doctor Chaderton Doctor Andrews afterwards a Prelate Master Culverwell Master Knewstubs c. and divers others whom God raised up and fitted to send forth into his Harvest to gather his Corn then ripe for the Sickle into his Barne At their meetings they had constant exercises They prayed together they bent themselves to the study of the Scriptures one was for the originall Tongues anothers taske was the Grammatical interpretations another for the Logicall Analyse another for the true sense and meaning another to gather Doctrines Thus led they their severall employments till at last they went out like Apollos eloquent men and mighty in the Scriptures And the Lord was with them They brought in a great Harvest into God's Barne He would not run before he was sent he would not enter upon the exercise of the holy work of the Ministry till he had not only an inward calling but also an outward viz. an assignation approbation and solemne admission by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery When he was ordained the Bishop who in those dayes was primus Presbyter or praeses going about to oppose him asked him this question Have you read the Bible through Yes said he I have read the old Testament twice through in the Hebrew and the New Testament often through in the Greek and if you please to examine me in any particular place I shall endeavonr to give you an account Nay said the Bishop if it be so I shall need to say no more to you Some words of Commendation and encouragement he gave him This passage I had from my Fathers own mouth An. 1583. The Vicaridge of Bramford in Suffolk neer Ipswich fel void Mr. Rose of Canterbury before mentioned procured the presentation of it for my Father from the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury The salary was only twenty Marks per Annum at first afterward the Church raised it to twenty pounds per Annum and that was the most that ever he had there He accepted of it and being settled in it he set himselfe to do the work of Christ faithfully with all his might as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed Every Lord's day he preached twice very powerfully and Catechised the younger sort He preached a Lecture every Thurseday to which multitudes from Ipswich and other adjacent places did resort And God gave such successe to his Ministry that from time to time many were gathered in to Jesus Christ There are many precious Christians that remaine unto this day that acknowledge their conversion was by Mr. Carter's Ministry Before Sermon he prayed very short and ever in the same words After Sermon he was large and full and expressed himselfe with great variety and fervency and alwayes closed with Christs Prayer He was very diligent in visiting the sick especially the poore He never went to the house of a poore creature but he left a Purse-Almes as well as a spirituall Almes of good Heavenly advice and Prayer No poore body ever came to his doore that went away empty And this my dear Mother would see to as carefully as himselfe The Milk of his Cows he gave to the poor of the Town every Saturday throughout the whole yeare I am confident he gave more to the poore every year then the Revenue of his slender Vicaridge came to in all Yet God so blessed him that whilest he was in Bramford he quickly paid Mr. Rose of Canterbury all the money he laid out towards his education in Cambridge and before he left Bramford he purchased about twenty pounds per Annum God's blessing only makes rich He brought up both my elder and only Brother and my selfe at the University in a good fashion and for my selfe I must acknowledge beyond my desert or rank He was Orthodox and sound in his judgement an able and resolved Champion against all manner of Popery and Arminianisme as also against Anabaptisme Brownisme that then did begin to peep and infest the Church and to teare the Seamles Coat of Christ He was alwayes A Nonconformist One of the good old Puritans of England He never swallowed any of the Praelaticall Ceremonies against his Conscience He was often in trouble by the Bishops but God ever raised him up friends that brought him off He was of a peaceable Spirit and never censured any that were conformable if he judged them conscientious and saw any thing of God in them At his first comming to Bramford he saw the travel of his Soule he had a plentifull Harvest many Soules were added to the Church daily by his powerfull Ministry and holy life But after many yeares the people were glutted with Manna and began to loath it there grew a great decay in their first love About the yeare 1615. or something
hee spake was an Oracle to her and her will ever closed with his Judgment He lived to eighty yeares of age When I the youngest of nine and the unworthiest of all was born he was forty years of age He called me the Son of his age yet lived to see me forty yeares old before he dyed He was much and frequent in secret fasting And when he kept a day hee told none of the house of it save my Mother onely who would not eate that day that he fasted but oft-times she was with him in his retyring Chamber to joyn with him in prayer yet all the Family knew it because at night hee supped not but onely had a Toste and a draught of ordinary Beer to sustaine nature On the Sabbath day he never had any thing rost to Dinner because hee would have none detained at home from the publique Ordinances The Pot was hung on and a peice of Beefe and a Pudding in it that was their constant Lords-day Dinner for well-nigh sixty years His Church at Belssed stood in a very solitary place He alwayes kept a Key of it and would often resort thither all alone A Gentleman once espying him going to the Church-ward on a private day hid himselfe till my Father was past and in the Church then hee came close up to the Church wall desirous to peep in at some Window to see what he did and to listen him if he sayd any thing And the Gentleman told me the last time I was at Belsted that he prayed then read a Chapter and after that prayed largely and very heavenly as if he had been in his Family or in the publique Congregation He vigorously held on the course of his Ministry to the last It may be said of him as of Caleb and Joshua he was as fit for Service in Gods Harvest-field at fourescore as he was at forty Some abatement of bodily strength there was as old Age did steale upon him After his after-noon Sermon on the Sabbath he would be something faint and commonly when he came home he would call for some comfortable Draught and when he had lifted up his eyes to Heaven and taken it he would say to them about him these are Crutches to shore up a ruinous house But in his Intellectuals and Spirituall strength there was no failing I cannot but here intersert a Passage that now comes in my minde Old Mr. Benton of Wramplingham in Norffolke a holy man of God being upon occasion in Suffolke in those parts could not but give a visite to his old friend Mr. Carter of Belsted Being with him he heard him discourse with holy Gravity a mixture of all kind of Learning Solidity and Wit he stood amazed and said Mr. Carter I see you are like the Palm and Cedar that bring forth more Fruit in your Age. I thank you said my Father for telling of me what I should be And now the time of his departure was at hand Some fortnight or three weeks before his translation there appeared some decaies in his Body and his memory did a little faile He would sometimes but very rarely call to go to Sea and to his better Country Yet he sat up from morning to night and walked commonly up and down the Room and never failed the performance of Prayer and other Family duties and so as none could discern any considerable defect in his spirituall or naturall strength Onely this when he had done he would presently call to begin again and say Daughter Eunice for my Mother being dead about two yeares before she was the stay of his house and staff of his Age shall we not go to Prayer and when she should answer him you have been at Prayer already and you are weary he would answer I feare we have not done what we should do It was an ordinary yea a constant passage in every Prayer that God would vouchsafe a mercifull and easie passage out of this life And most graciously did the Lord answer it Febr. 21. 1634. being the day before the Sabbath in the Evening he calls very earnestly for Paper Ink and two Pens for by Gods grace saith he to morrow I will Preach twice But God knowes he was not in a fit condition for Study yet with that resolution he went to Bed and God gave him some rest that night In the morning upon the Sabbath-day he did rise out of his Bed as he used to do came out of his Bed-chamber into the Hall and after Prayer he called for his ordinary Breakfast before he went to the Church for still he held his resolution of Preaching which was an Egge he took it in his hand but alas it would not down Eunice saith he I am not able to go to Church yet I prethee lead me to my Bed I will lye down a little and rest me So he arose up out of his Chaire and walked she supporting of him And when he came to the Parlour-door before he put his foot over the Threshold Oh Eunice sayes he what shall I do Put your trust saith she in that God of whom you have had so much experience who never yet did leave you nor forsake you He said The Lord be thanked So he gather'd up himselfe went to the Beds-side sate downe upon it and immediately composed himselfe to lye down He lifted up one of his Legs upon the Bed without any great difficulty laid down his Body and rested his head upon the Pillow My poor Sister stood by expecting still when he should lift up his other leg she thought he had been fallen asleep And she was not mistaken so it was it proved his last sleep and before she could discern any change in him his Soule had taken its flight to Heaven even into the Armes and Embraces of his blessed Saviour whom he had faithfully served Hee intended a Sabbaths Labour for Christ and Christ gave him rest from his Labour even the rest of an eternall Sabbath When my Sister began to speak to him and lift him she found that his breath was departed and yet no change in his Countenance at all his eyes and his mouth continuing in the same posture they used to be in his sweetest sleeps Thus the Lord gave unto his faithfull Servant the desire of his Soule such an easie passage that his death could not be discerned from a sweet naturall sleep Not many daies before he dyed he called my Sister Daughter saith he remember my Love to my Son John I shall see him no more in this life and remember me to the rest of my Children and Family and deliver this message to them all from me Stand fast in the Faith and love one another This was the last message that ever he sent Hee ended his life with a Doxology breathing out his last with these words The Lord be thanked When he had thus yeelded up his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father my Sister Eunice dispatched a Messenger to me to
Deut. 4. 8. In the Lawes of other Kingdomes in humane Lawes there is the wisdome of men but in Christs Lawes there is the wisdome of God Humane Lawes may be unjust Christs Lawes are all righteous and holy The Lawes of other Kings may be burdensome and tyrannicall Christs Yoake is ever easie All other Lawes are imperfect but Christs Law is perfect converting the Soule Other Kings they can write their Lawes in Tables and hang them up upon 〈…〉 sts and Pillars but they cannot sway the hearts of their Subjects to obedience but Christ puts his Law in their inward parts and writes it in their hearts Jer. 31. 33. Yet more In this Kingdome are the best Honours Preferments Dignities and Priviledges There are all Favourites they have ever the Kings mouth and eare They stand before him and hear him speak to them in the Gospell and by the secret whisperings of his Spirit in their Soules And he alwaies holds out the Golden Scepter to them his eare is ever open to their Prayers And is it a small thing to be Favourite to such a King In the light of the Kings Countenance is life and his favour is as the latter raine Prov. 16. 15. They are and shall be all Kings They are already Kings in a state of grace Christ hath made us Kings Revel 1. 6. And they have a better Kingdome in reversion they shall be Kings in the Kingdome of glory Feare not little Flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdome Luk. 12. 32. Come in then all you that are yet under the tyranny of the roaring Lyon follow the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah And that you may 〈…〉 o so hearken to the voice of his Heraulds he sends them abroad to invite into his Kingdome The ministers of the Gospel are his Messengers by them he sends forth the rod of his strength Psal 110. 2. Pray pray Thy Kingdome come Matth. 6. 10. You have taken the Oath of Allegeance and Supremacy already all of you have put your Seale too in your Baptisme Now take heed that you revolt not come and joyne to the Tribe of Judah The Trumpet is blown now look to it who is of the Lords side 2. Is Jesus Christ the Lyon of Judah the annointed King of his Church Then be exhorted in the next place to partake of his Annointing take you also Kingly honour be you all Kings The men of Judah yea and the women too even the whole Tribe were Lyons Behold the people shall rise up as a great Lyon and lift up himselfe as a yong Lyon he shall not lye down untill he eate of the Prey and drink the blood of the slaine Numb 23. 24. And here I shall give you a Commission to be as bold as Apame the Kings Concubine in the Apocryphall book Shee took the Crown off the Kings head and put it upon her own yet in the mean season the King gaped and gazed on her and still grew more fond Do you so take the Crown of Christ and put it on not to depose him but to communicate with him in his Kingly Office yea in all the parts of it For this Lyon of the Tribe of Judah hath made us unto our God Kings and we shall reigne on the Earth as you have it in the 10. verse Do you communicate with Christ in the businesse of Vocation he gaines and gathers his Subjects by calling them in Do you so let Ministers of the Gospell in their holy Function and let every man and woman in their private Station endeavour to gain and gather Subjects out of Satans Kingdome into the Kingdome of Jesus Christ Do what thou canst to make thy Flock to make thy Children to make thy Servants to make thy Friends the Subjects of the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah Let the Minister do this by preaching the private person by education instruction and all by Prayer for those under their charge When thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren Luk. 22. 32. Communicate also with Christ in the work of ruling rule well in your severall charges Let the Elders rule well their Flocks Let the Householders keep good rule in their Houses and Families and in especiall manner set up Christs Government in your hearts rule your unrulely Passions and Perturbations and keep them in good order Againe Christ as a King protects his Church his Subjects He is a shield to them that trust in him Communicate with him in this part of his Kingly Office also Be every one of you according to your power and places a defence and a countenance to the true and poore people of God Magistrates by their Authority and all people by their Purses and Prayers let them be as the clefts of the Rock for Christs chased Doves to hide and shelter in And you must be Kings for War Christ had many sharp and sore Conflicts you also must fight and be ever in the field you must take up Armes against Satan against sinfull lusts that fight against the Soule You must war against your owne corrupt wills and carnall reasons yea you must fight against selfe dearest selfe If any man will come after me saith our King and Captain let him deny himselfe and take up his Crosse and follow me Matth. 16. 24. Beat down rebellious and stirring Affections Exercise judiciary power destroy your Malefactors slay mortifie your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affections evill concupisence and covetousnesse Once more Communicate with Christ in his Kingly Office in respect of his triumph and Royalty When he had conquered When he ascended up on high he led Captivity Captive and gave gifts unto men Eph. 4. 8. Araunah gave as a King Christ hath made you Kings you partake of his Annointing give gifts unto men give Almes spirituall Almes corporall Almes This is a Character of a spirituall King He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the poor his righteousnesse endureth for ever his horn shall be exalted with honour Psal 112. 9. Thus let me perswade you to be Kings For if you partake of his Annointing in grace you shall also reigne with him in glory There are multitudes that will not strike a stroke for Christ but let the strong man go away withall But as for you my beloved be as the Tribe of Judah Lyons Kings Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and the house of Israel with deceit saith the Lord But Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithfull with the Saints Hos 11. 12. 3. Jesus Christ is the Lyon because King and Governour of his Church So all other Kings and Magistrates they are Lyons Hieroglyphically represented by that generous and magnanimous Creature Are they Lyons then be exhorted to prostrate to them also The Prince of the Tribe of Judah is a Lyon then his Fathers Children shall bow down before him Gen. 49. 8. Let every Soule be subject to the