refuge for the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble Psal 91. 1 2. He that dwelleth in the secret places of the Most High shall abide under the shaddow of the Almighty with many more words to the same purpose The Lord at that day of indignation from the house of Saul and all the mighty men of Israel against David and such as did adhere to him calling David to retire as into his chambers from the storm that was against him till the indignation was overpast and the Lord hid him from the wrath of man as hath been shewed Of the same import is that word Prov. 11. 10. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower and the righteous runneth into it and are safe There are three Names of God to which his people in a day of indignation fly unto The name of his Goodness that Name which the Lord made known and proclaimed to Moses after the People of God had sinned and Moses had cryed to him for the forgivenesse of their sin and begs his presence may go with them I will make saith the Lord all my goodness to pass before thee Exod. 33. 19. and chap. 34. 6. The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed The Lord God Merciful and Gracious long suffering abundant in goodness in truth c. So when David pleads with God in his distresse Psal 89. the argument of Faith is v. 5. For thou Lord art good and therefore ready to forgive c. and when he flyes unto God Psal 31. he makes this as the wing of God the Name of his goodness vers 19. Oh how great is thy Goodness thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men thou shalt hide them c. And Psal 144. My Goodness my Fortress and my high Tower c. not onely my good good but goodness it self c. Yea this Name of God that he proclaimed to Moses was as the great refuge of the Saints in the day of their distresse and which they urged upon him as Psal 86. and 103. and 145. and Neh. 9. 17. 31 because in all Generations hee would be known to his people by this Name and by Faith they were to live upon it in all their difficulties The Lord abundant in goodness and mercy and truth c. And when Judah was going into captivity the Lord offers himself to them by this Name if they would turn unto him and commands Jeremiah to proclaim it as it was proclaimed it as it was proclaimed before Moses Jer. 3. 12. Go and proclaim these words towards the North and say Return thou back-sliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause my anger to come upon you or to settle upon you for I am merciful c. A heart-breaking word if that people had hearkened to it To this Name of the Lord do his people retire for shelter and refuge in an evil day though they have sinned against him we have sinned yet the Lord is infinitely good and therefore ready to forgive Who is like unto him a God pardoning iniquity Micah 7. And therefore where ever the Lord gives out promises of help and deliverance to his People from captivity and destresse hee also annexeth free promises of grace in abundant forgivenesse Esay 43. 16 17. speaking of the glorious Salvation of his people though they had wearied them with their iniquities verse 24. yet I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins see chapter 24. 22. see Jeremiah 33. 5 6 7. Behold I will bring it health and cure and I will cure them though a wounded broken scattered people and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth and verse 8. I will cleanse them from all the iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and whereby they have transgressed against me though Against me thrice repeated against all my kindnesse to them and my often Salvation of them yet I will cleanse them and though they are become a reproach to all Nations yet it shall be to me a Name of joy a praise and honour before all the Nations of the Earth See Jeremiah 51. 5. for Israel hath not been forsaken nor Judah of his God of the Lord of hosts though their land was filled with sin against the holy One of Israel Under these wings of grace thus spread forth in pretious promises do a poor sinfull broken people shelter themselves in humbling and turning to the Lord and they are safe this being the great Covenant Name of God they fly to and take hold of in all their sins and distresses Secondly the People of God retire into the Name of his Almightiness Psal 91. 1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide or lodg as in a house of defence under the shadow of the Almighty c. As a God infinitely able to preserve and keep safe all the concernments of soul and life that his people commit to him able to save in and out of all distresses from every snare of the Devil from the wrath of man as Paul 2 Timothy 1. 12. For I know when I have believed and am perswaded that he is Able to keep what I have committed to him c. Thirdly The Name of the Lords Everlastingness sameness unchangeableness is a Refuge to retire to Abraham called on the Name of the Lord the Everlasting God Genesis the 21. the last verse So the Lord comforteth his people Esay 40. 28. Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the Everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the Ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary c. So the People of God in their Plea Esay 63. 16. Thy name is from Everlasting c. And Psal 102. Where is set forth a day of sore indignation and distresse as verse 10. Thou hast lifted us up and cast us down c. What is their stay and Refuge in such a case why this verse 12. But thou oh Jehovah shalt endure for ever And ver 27. But thou art the same c. And though wee perish thou art the same Thou art the same in thy Covenant mercy is from everlasting and to everlasting c. The same in goodness pity and wisdom and power the faithful God that keepest Covenant and Mercy for ever as good to save as ever thou wast and as able to save so hee strengthens and comforts his People with the discovery of his Name Mallachi 3. 6. For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Let the state of the people of God be what it will there is support in this Thou Lord art still the same we have known what thou hast been to thy people in dayes of old and what thou hast done for them Oh where are
THE LAMB CALLING HIS Follovvers TO Retirement Being an Humble Enquiry into the duty of Churches Ministers and all that fear the Lord under the present dispensation of God By one that would be found though unworthy the Lords Witness and Servant and of all his SAINTS 1 COR. 4. 5. Judge nothing before the time Printed in the year 1662. TO THE READER THe different apprehensions of the People of God in this day concerning their present duty being cut off from their publick liberties of Worship gave occasion to the ensuing Enquiry some judging it of absolute necessity to assemble openly though they expose themselves or at least their Teachers to the utmost hazard others that Retirement is that which the present dispensation calls for which later this brief Discourse endeavours to prove as justifiable from the Scripture and the practise of the People of God in former Ages but more especially to be the voice of the Lord to his people in the present day in which there is a concurring judgement of many But that Retirement which is first called to namely unto the Lord Jesus himself which is briefly prest in the former part is that which is commended to all as absolutely necessary as ever they expect to be found under his wing at his coming and appearing and Reader hear the call of Jesus Christ therein that thou mayst lay up thy immortal soul with him that when storms are coming upon the World thou mayst be found in thy Sanctuary in thy Chambers of Rest and Safety where they shall not reach thee As to the Case of Retirement from open Assembling it is plainly stated from Scripture evidence as is humbly apprehended wherein if there be not enough said to satisfie a doubting Conscience yet at least there may be sufficient to engage humble and sober minds to a mutual forbearance The duties of all Saints under this Retirement are but briefly hinted because of brevity and in that they have been more at large prest by the Servants of God in the two years of mercy we have enjoyed as the peculiar blessing of this City to the honour of the Lord Jesus the establishment of the Saints in the faith and worship of the Gospel and in the Resurrection of the Cause of the Kingdom of Christ in these Nations the vindicating and asserting whereof hath as is hoped left a gratious and powerful impression and savour upon the Spirits of the Lords people that so they may be found the more quietly submitting to the dispensation of the Lord as blessedly establisht in the forementioned truths and may in those holy principles in which they have been built up continue in a more private way edifying one another in love as those in this their retirement that are waiting for the speedy return of their Lord that when he comes he may find them so doing This you may do as under the wings of the Almighty in a probable security and not hasten your selves into your own sufferings and if the providence of God single out any of you to a suffering testimony in the loss of liberty or goods or to banishment verily you will know the tender heart of Jesus Christ towards you and his faithfulnesse in making up all to you and yours and that in this life a hundred fold Be quiet you Captives of hope for in returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietnesse and confidence shall be your strength And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into corners any more but thine EYES SHALL SEE THY TEACHERS Do not think that the Lord is now at the end of twenty years work and that the present dispensation is the last issue of all his glorious providences you have sometime believed that the Exaltation of the Lord Jesus would be the issue of all the shakings the Lord hath made in these Nations and you have as great if not a greater ground to abide in the same Faith as ever Take heed of a bewildred Spirit under the dark providences the Lord is leading us but consider what the Lord hath been doing and what work hath been upon the wheele and by faith labour to look to the end of the Lord and you will be able quietly to wait for him I wish the Case in hand had been stated by an abler hand but finding nothing herein I have found my Spirit often looking for light from the Father of lights drawn out to cast in this mite to the present Generation of the righteous as hoping that the voice of the Lamb is in it in the main scope of it And though it may be in what is hinted about the death of the witnesses I may differ from some of the Lords Servants yet I promise my self their forbearance it being an houre of enquiry and we would be all glad to know the mind of Christ in our day Something more may be offerd to consideration to clear those hints and of the nature of the Kingdom of Christ in this World if the Lord permit Now the blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve all his in this houre of temptation and lead us into his whole Counsel and Will to whose immutable grace I commend thee in the patient waiting for Zions Redemption The 25. of the 5. Month 1662. Resting Thy Brother and Fellow-Servant in the Patience of Christ ESAY 26. 20. Come my People enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast THE special Wisdome of the People of God in all Generations under the variety of his dispensations hath been to know what the Lord hath spoken and called his People to under them in the knowledge of which hath been bound up their mercy and peace in every Generation All their miscarriages have been for want of attending hereunto either in a day of peace and outward blessing or in a day of affliction and judgement The safety of this people to whom this word was spoken Enter into thy Chambers c. did lye in the obedience thereof at that day which let us a little more particularly consider This Prophet though many years before the day of it spake of the Captivity of Judah and also of her return and restauration with the blessings that should attend it which restauration he more at large begins to discover at the 14. Chap. For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob and will yet chuse Israel and set them to their own Land c. Upon which the Prophet having denounced the burden of the Lord against Babylon Chap. 13. threatens all other Nations to the 25. Chap. that but helped in or rejoyed at the day of his Peoples Captivity as Moab and Syria and Egypt and Tyre c. As is more generally exprest ch 17. 12 13 14. Wo to the multitude of many people which make a noise like
Administrations of Worship are cut off and laid dead wherein the last slaying of the Witnesses doth specially consist yet the main body and generation of the Saints preserved but so as they are in all respects either Civil or Ecclesiastical call'd off from the publike Stage to a retired condition and do lye as dead men onely they are not buryed but are as it were still kept above ground till the Spirit of Life from God enter into them So at the Text when the People of God are called into their Chambers he said in the 19th verse of the 26. chap. of Isaiah Thy dead men shall live c. while in their captivity they lay as dead men So Hosea 6. 1 2. When smitten and wounded in their captivity they shall lye as dead but after two dayes he wil revive them But more particularly when doth the Lord call them thus to retirement call them off from the publike stage and bids them enter into their Chambers 1. In the case of the text When the wrath of man is kindled against them when the Nations and people among whom they converse are in a confederacy against them and say of Zi on Let her be defiled and let our eye look upon Zion Micah the 4th and the 11th Verse Then he knoweth how to hide his people as in his Pavillion then shall they be his hidden ones Psal 83. So he hid the seven thousand in Samaria that did not bow the knee to Baal whom the text saith He reserved to himself Rom the 11th chap. ver 4. And yet that people at that day were under an obligation of Worship at the Temple at Hierusalem but God did indulge them as may further bee shewed So as hath been hinted the Lord hides the Woman in the wilderness from the Wrath of the Dragon who casts a Flood after her 2dly Jesus Christ calls his people to retirement when he reserves them for a Day of Mercy and greater Service and a more pure Reformation when hee thus layes them dead in order to a more glorious resurrection So in severall Ages have they been wonderfully kept under the variety of the Lord's Dispensations to them as in Egypt and David and the remnant of Judab that adhered to them Many instances might be given 3dly The Lamb calls to retirement when he hath been contesting with the Spirit of the Beast in any of the Nations by the called and faithful and chosen Rev. 17. 14. When he hath set on foot his controversie with any of the Horns and hath overcome them hath often carried it against him yet hee suffers his Enemies to rally again and his own followers are scattered when he seems to turn aside from the pursuit to drink of the Brook in the way as it were to refresh himselfe and then makes a short turn to the Prey again Psalm 110. Verse the last that hee may gather his Enemies as sheaues into his floor Micah 4. 12 13. and will make the Horn of the Daughter of Zion as Iron to thresh them in such a day The Lamb withdraws and retires and calls his Saints to retire with him And this is to follow the Lamb wheresoever be goeth Revel 14. to go as he goeth and to retire as he retires and not to run out without him upon any account whatsoever In such a season the Lamb doth indulge them nay call them off from their publike Administrations and Services and Prophesyings and they are to wait till the Cloud appear and goe before them in which they can see the Presence of the Lamb and heare his Voice calling them thereto 4thly The Lord as it follows from the former calls them to retirement when hereby he will fit and separate a genetation to follow him in his next appearing when hee will prepare them in the fire melt them and try rhem Jer. 9. 7. I will melt them and try them for how shall I do for the Daughter of my people Then he will cast out the treacherous dealers from among them as Verse 4. of that 9th of Jeremiah Take heed every one of his Neighbour and trust ye not in any Brother for every Brother wil supplant c. And they will deceive every one his Brother and will not speak the truth ver 5. Now God will discover and cast out such a mixture and spiriâ— from among his people in the day that he will melt them and try them v. 7. and Ezek. 22. 18 c. When the Lord is doing this work by letting out the wrath of man upon them he then calls them to retirement 2. Why doth the Lord thus call them c. 1. The Lord calls his people into their Chambers into a retired condition to express his tenderness of them as he calls them the Apple of his Eye Zach. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine eye c. Keep me as the Apple of thine eye Psal 17. and his peculiar Treasure Exod. 19. 5. Psal 135. 4. Such a day is a day of making up his jewels Mal. 3. 17. referring to a day of retirement when the wicked were set up v. 15. then when he makes them up he not onely purifies them and puts a lustre upon them but spares them as a Father spares his Son and doth not spend them but rarely upon the rage of men 2. The Lord thus takes them into his Chambers that the glory of his Power may be seen in restraining the wrath of man and causing it to praise him that his people should be in the waters and not be overwhelmed and in the fire not be consumed this is because the Lord is with them because he is the Lord their God the holy One of Israel their Saviour Isa 43. 2 3. That the Enemies of his People should not be able to act their own counsels nor to execute their own rage by a mighty hand of God restraining This is and should be marvellous in the eyes of his people 3dly The Lord calls to retirement when the generation of the ungodly and oppressors are ripening for wrath then doth the Lord lay up his people in the secret of his Presence so Psal 91. which is a word holding out the Lord 's hiding of his people as hath been hinted So see verse 8. 9. Onely with thine eyes shalt thoubehold and see the reward of the wicked c. Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon and Adder the young Lyon and the Dragon shalt thou trample under foot v. 13. Now the People of God will discern through the light of the Spirit in the Word the Marks and Characters of a generation of God's Wrath which in this place I shall not insist on They are such as these When a generation of men do worse then their Fathers Jer. 7. 2. and chap. 16. 12 13. Ye have done worse than your Fathers for behold ye walk every one according to the imagination of his evil heart c. therefore will I cast you out of this Land
a holy Seed from one generation to another and not to be exposed to the blood thirstiness and rage of their persecutors though still honoring himself by the suffering of some And as this hath been the practise of the Churches of Christ in times of persecution so of particular Ministers and Witnesses of the Lord in all ages namely as they were led by the spirit of the Lord to retire from particular persecution especially when their case was different from the rest of the saints as in som ages it hath bin the first blow was at the Ministers of Christ so Moses fled before the face of Pharoah and dwelt in the Land of Midean till the time of deliverance came to the Israelites in Aegypt Exod. 2. 15. So David from the persecution of Saul who retired into the Wilderness where the Lord hid him till the time that the promise should be fulfilled in his reign over Israel 1 Sam. 19. 18. though in his retirement he was deprived of the Institutions of the Worship of God in the temple as he complains complains in several Psalms Elijah had given an eminent Testimony against Ahab and the abominations of that day and prophesied the wrath of God to come upon Israel But when he knew the mischief that Ahab intended and he had finished his Testimony the Lord commands him to go and hiâ—â—e himself 1 Kings 17. 2. 8. and Chap 10. 10 And we know Elijah was an eminent Type of the Witnesses of Jesus Christ under the New-Testament Babylon though in the third year when it should rain again according to the word of the Lord which made way for Elijah's appearance he shewed himself to Ahab and God was with him to deliver him But when Jezebel sought after him again ch 19. he went into the Wilderness and hid himsel in a Cave v. 9. At the same time before the three years were finished and the Persecution by Jezebel continued against all the Lords Prophets 1 King 18. Obadiah hid the Prophets by 50. in a Cave who at other times were publikely prophesying So when the King had sent out a Warrant and Officers to take Jeremiah and Baruch Jer. 36. 26. 't is said The Lord HID them which implied their own retirement at that time So our Lord Jesus himself when he heard that John was cast into Prison he retired into Galilee Matth. 4. 12 And when he further heard that he was beheaded he withdrew into a desert place Mat. 14. 13. And so when the Jews sought to kill him c. till his hour was come which places are ordinarily urged by interpreters upon them for the case in hand So our Lord Jesus allows his Disciples Matth. 10. when he sent them forth as sheep among wolves ver 10. that they should then be wise as Serpents walk with such a wisdom as becomes sheep among Wolves which is not rashly to put themselves into the mouth of the Wolf And ver 17. bids them beware of men and then being persecuted into one City â—o flye unto another v. 23. the 〈◊〉 that word being to direct them that when Rulers by their Edicts will not suffer them to preach in one place they might go to another if not in publike then in private and from House to House as the providence of God should lead them When the Jews sought for Paul at Damascus the Disciples did not press him to expose himself to be delivered up into their hands in appearing openly there but on the contrary at a hard rate conveyed him away Acts 9. 23. 2 Cor. 11. 32. In Damascus the Governor under Artas the King kept the City with a Garrison desirous to apprehend me and through a Window in a basket was I let down by the wall I escaped his hands which the Apostle there sets down among his persecutions when the Governor of the City would have apprended him he thought good and the Saints with him so judged to withdraw and yet he was not judged unfaithful or fearful in so doing So Acts 14. when Paul and Barnabas had spoken holdly in the Lord for a time at Iconium when they understood that the Jews and Gentiles with them made an assault at their meeting to use them despightfully and to stone them they were ware of it they thought it ground enough that they were ware of it and so fled into the next Province into Lystra When the Jews laid wait for him Act. 20. 3. he went not into Syria but returned thorow Macedonâ—a And when the Jews had gathered a company of lewd fallows to assault the meeting at Jasâ—ns house Paul and Sylas withdrew Act. 17. 5 6. for they found them noâ— ver 6. And at Berea the Brethren sent away Paul ver 14. So when he would have hazarded himself the Disciples suffered him not Act. 19 30. And when he would go up to Jerusalem all the Saints besought him not to go judging in an ordinary way he ought not till they nnderstood that Paul was under an extraordinary impulse of Spirit to go and then they ceased The case of those famous Ministers and witnesses of Christ at the See Book of Matt beginning of Q. Maries persecution who preached not after the Queens Inhibition and Proclamation though it were not a binding Law as appears by the Declaration of their Faith they gave forth when prisoners in the Kings Bench in which they thus express themselves We are not here in prisons as Traiâ—ors or seditious persons or transgressors of any Laws of this Realm Inhibitions Proclamations or Commandments of the Queens Highness or of any of the Councils God's Name be praised therefore c. Subscribed by Dr. Taylor Philpot Bradford Hooper Rogers Saunders c. the most eminent Ministers and Martyrs of that day who it appears preached not publickly after the Proclamation and Act of Parliament but were committed as having been men famous in King Edwards days and had preached to warn the people against Popery in the interval before the Proclamation was published and were taken after and were put to death because they would not deny the Truth they had formerly preached which the servants of Christ at this day hope through grace they shal not do if called to a tryal thereof and how far several of the servants of the Lord have exposed themselves notwithstanding a former Proclamation and the latter Act of Parliament and particular charges that way lye against some of them sober Christians may judge and not passionately censure any of them and the due consideration thereof and of what hath been said in this case may be more then enough to remove their prejudice or mistaken herein So that here is both precept and multiplied examples both of the Old and New Testament of the Prophets and Apostles and the ordinary Ministers of Christ that when particular and personal persecution hath been against them a design to apprehend them and a lying in wait for them they have at such a time withdrawn and
6 Though in this case also 't is not easie to lay down the uâ—most extent of duty sometimes the Witnesses of Christ have â—â—eely and openly upon their convention and examination without any proof against them witnesâ—ed to the whole tâ—uth and maâ—â—er of Fact as carryed â—orth 't is to be charitably judged by the Spirit of the Lord thereto as in Stephens case and Peter's Acts 3. Others have kept silence and held their persecutors to proof of matter of Fact against them yet so as they would not deny the Truth which is a Testimony to it Now such a witness-bearing before the Judicatories of men as the Spirit of the Lord carries forth our spirits is another way of having the Testimony of Jesus Christ Now if the Lord help this generation of his people to be faithful to their Light in these particulars they shall be found the Lambs followers keeping the Commandments of God and the Testimony of Jesus But for any to judge that nothing else is a finishing a faithful testimony but for the servants of Christ to put themselves into the mouths of those whom they know wait to devour them and have laid a snare for them and that such are unâ—aithful or fearful or worse that think iâ— not their duty certainly when good â—ouls are come to themselves and shall particuâ—â—â—ly know and weigh the cases of the Lord 's poor servants without which 't is unreasonable to judge we shall all have a tender hearted forbearance one of another as that case requires Obj. 2. But was not this the practice of the Apostles Acts 4. when commmanded not to preach any more in the Name of the Lord Jesus they answered They â—ught to obey God rather than men Ans 1. I humbly conceive that the servants of God at this day if they were in the like manner called before Magistrates and were charged by them as the Apostles were namely Not to preach at all nor to teach in the Name of Jesus for so it was they would answer as the Apostles did would continue preaching where the providence of God opened a way to them as they did 2 We do not find it exprest that Peter and John preached openly in the Temple after that though they witnessed and preached elsewhere until the Angel of the Lord opened the Prison doors and commanded them to go and speak in the Temple Acts 5. 3. The Apostles having an extraordinary Annointing were to witness to all Nations that they had seen the Lord and that he was risen from the dead which is not the case of every particular Minister They went and preach't by the special dictate of the holy Spirit in one place and not in another 't is not so with ordinary Preachers And the same Spirit that led them forth sometimes to expose themselves to hazards at another time led them to withdraw from danger as hath been shewed Besides it doth not appear that there was any more than a meer prohibition not to preach to Peter and John by the Council of the Iews without any penalty of imprisonment or banishment expressed 3. Obj. Is not there a strict command that the Professors of Christ should not forsake the assembling themselves together Heb. 10. Ans Let it be considered what forsaking of assembling this was It was the departing from all Christian worship and fellowship a casting off their pâ—ofession as ver 23. Let us hold fast our profession such a forsaking as was a leading to an Apostacy as is clear in the following verses For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth c. which is annexed as a reason of not forsaking their assembling this will not be judged the present case 2. Saints therefore do not forsake their assembling in that sence while they hold fast their profession and labour to keep up worship in a more private way where they may likely assemble more peaceably and with less distraction for so those Hebrews did and all the Churches as hath been shewed Meeting is a duty but meeting openly is an accidental thing 4. Obj. But how are the servants of Christ consistent to their own Doctrine who press others to be partakers of the sufferings of Christ and would prepare them for it when they do not expose themselves to the utmost Ans There may be a prodigal casting away of liberty or life as well as a giving them up upon the Call of God 'T is certain that 't is a duty to offer up every Isaac to the Lord when he Calls for it but we must see our Call to be clear we should through grace be ready rather to suffer the loss of all things then to deny the truth and to follow the providential leadings of God thereto But that 't is our duty and call from the Lord to continue publikely witnessiâ—g and to expose our selves to the utmost hazards rather then give place though we know the snare is laid for us and we in all likelihood put an end to our Work in so doing is not yet proved to our Consciences from any Word of God but indeed the contrary is cleare to them If it be said that the judgement of some Saints is a Call herein I answer That the Judgement of many more may be put in the ballance against them who judge otherwise which may have as great or it may be a greater weight with them Obj. 5. But did not Daniel worship openly notwithstanding the Decree Dan. 6. Ans Whatever is said to the contrary it will easily appear that the prohibition and Decree was that Daniel should not pray unto his God at all as v. 7. That whosoever shall ask a Petition of any God or man for thirty dayes save of thee Oh King c. Not that Daniel and the Jews should not pray towards Jerusalem So that the Decree concerned natural moral Worship and not positive instituted Worship which may sometimes be dispensed with 2. Daniel in this case had an extraordinary Annointing upon him as a Prophet which carried him forth in this particular which in every circumstance is not to be made a standing Rule Besides we do not hear of such an open appearing of the rest of the people of God then in Babylon And let it be seriously considered that sometimes God hath indulged his people in the matter of positive Institutions as the Israelites in Egypt who were obliged to sacrificing if they could have had liberty but we do not find it practised while they were in Egypt So of Circumcision in the Wilderness there was an indulgence of it and that rolling away the reproach of Egypt mentioned at their circumcision Josh 5. 9. was not the reproach as some learned Interpreters judge of not being circumcised but of not being brought for so many years into the promised Land which 't is like the Egyp ians reproached Israel with So the Building of the Temple which was Institution ceased Ezâ—a 4. last upon the