offend them yet on the sudden remembring it selfe as it were it tooke fire and destroyed them So that me thinkes this fiery Element of Powder spake to and dealt betweene them these Popish miscreants and us the Church of God amongst us much after the same manner as the evill spirit mentioned Acts 19.15 both spake and dealt by those Vagabond Jewes those Exorcists in respect of Iesus and Paul When these Exorcists adjured this evill spirit by Jesus whom Paul preached the spirit answered and said to them Iesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye And the man saith the Text in whom the evill spirit was ran on them and they fled out of the house naked and wounded So when these Popish Exorcists had adjured and charged the Powder to doe execution upon this Kingdome and State professing the truth and Gospell of Jesus Christ the Powder made them answer The State and Church of England I know the servants of the living God I know those that worship the Lord Christ in Spirit and truth I know I have nothing to doe with these I can doe nothing against them but who are you you cursed enemies of truth Church of God I owe you no such service Therefore looke to your selves and keep out of the dint of my fiery Whirlewinde Otherwise your flesh will be before me but as stubble before the winde I will devoure you But this for the second motive to perswade enemies to desist it is a worke that never hath and therefore certainly never will prosper but only to destruction of the workers themselves A third motive followes Let this consideration also prevaile with the enemies of the Church to cause them to cease from the violence that is in their hand against it because this Church of God and the members of it whom they persecute living amongst them in the world are the rock as it were upon which their City is built they are the foundations of all the peace and all the pleasure and all the contentments they enjoy upon earth these are the partition wall between them and hell for the time These are the Chariots and Horsemen for defence and faseguard of their States and Lives against the fury and indignation of the Lord which otherwise would breake in upon them and consume them in a moment The great Master housholder of this great house the world would soon break up house if his owne Children were once disposed of in marriage to their great husband If these were once setled in their inheritance the wicked would soone with Iudas be packed away and sent every man to his owne place When God shall once speake come yee blessed depart ye cursed followes presently sently after it The Chaffe is not in danger of burning as long as it lies in the same heap intermixt with the Wheat but if the Wheat be once divided by it self from it then it is neare the burning with unquenchable fire It is true that which our Saviour saith Mat. 5.45 God makes his Sun to arise upon the evill and the good but with this interpretation and in this order as one glosseth the place well he makes the Sun to arise upon the evill and the good but upon the evill for the goods sake And that manner of speaking I take it is much to be noted where it is said that God maketh his Sun to rise upon evill and good q. d. If God himselfe did not mediate and interpose with a strong hand betweene that glorious creature of his the Sun and evill and wicked men they would never agree for an houre together the Sun being once set would never rise upon such men again There is a naturall unwillingnesse and gainsaying in the whole Creation in the Heavens Sun Moone and Stars to doe any service to or to gratifie wicked men that are enemies to God though otherwise it be most agreeable to their particular natures to give forth their light and influences to the world and they may seem to rejoyce as it were and triumph to doe it yet since man rebelled against God that created him through that naturall sympathy they have with God and his glory there is an utter aversnesse and unwillingnesse upon them even to doe that office and service to the world for which they were created and are able freely to afford without any offence hinderance or prejudice to themselves otherwise But that which is their glory their excellent light and lustre and those heavenly influences they give downe upon the world in this respect is not their glory but a griefe and burden upon them to pleasure the enemies of God with them and to strengthen their hand as if through a zeale they have to Gods glory they would rather lose their beeing though excellent and glorious then to remain and continue doing service to his enemies So that did not God over-rule them in the thing by a strong hand the Sun would presently clothe himselfe with a sackcloth the Moone would give over shining and the Stars would fall out of their place in heaven rather then shine here to pleasure the enemies of their God This I rather take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 8.20 Because the creature is subject to vanity not of its owne will but by reason of him that hath subdued it under hope That vanity whereunto the creature is said to be here subject is not to be understood of a vanity of corruption properly so called or dissolution for it is a great question whether it be at all subject to this vanity or no whether in the heavens which are the principall parts of the creature there shall be any such change that shall answer the death and dissolution of man It is hard to conceive how the heavens should be invested with a condition more glorious and excellent then that wherein they now stand which seemes necessary to be held and to bee beleeved if we hold any such change comming upon them answerable to death What God is able to doe in this case we do not here dispute or deny And againe secondly if it were this kinde of vanity the holy Ghost should here meane I suppose the Apostle would never have mentioned that circumstance as a matter so weighty and worthy of consideration that it should be contrary to the will of it For who knowes not that corruption and destruction is contrary to the naturall desire and inclination of any thing whatsoever therfore those words would taste too flat and dry for the wisdome of the holy Ghost if such a sense were admitted Thirdly and lastly the vanity here meant must be such a vanity from the subjection whereof the creature desireth even for the present and that with fervency to be free and to be delivered ver 19. Now from the vanity of corruption properly so called it cannot be delivered but by undergoing and suffering corruption first and so it would follow that the fervent desire of the creature should
such a creature as man is or compell him by a strong hand of power without gaining in his will and affection thereunto to receive and own him for his God Nay secondly the truth is though God be of an omnipotent and irresistible power yet can he not compell any creature whatsoever indued with understanding and will to receive and owne him against their will because it is by an act of the Will that he is and must be received and so long as there remaineth an unwillingnesse in a man to receive or owne him for his God impossible it is that he should be received or owned by him So that now God must finde out a sutable and fitting meanes to worke the heart or will of his creature to a desire or willingnesse of receiving him Thirdly and lastly there was no other way or meanes conceivable at least none so con-naturall proper and sweet for such a purpose but only to propound and offer himselfe in a free and gracious Covenant unto it And so in pleading his owne infinite worth and excellency incomparably above the emptinesse and vanity of other things to fall in with the effectuall working of his Spirit and hereby to awaken quicken raise and strengthen the heart and soule of his creature to a willingnesse of embracing and accepting his offer that is himselfe Thus you see another Ground or Reason of the point The gracious Covenant of God The fourth and last Ground we shall now insist upon is the performance of the condition required in this Covenant by the Church and People of God namely Their faith in God or dependance upon him which is nothing else but their acceptance of him according to his offer for their God This is another thing that makes him theirs in that full and compleate manner that he is He requires upon the matter nothing else of men to make himselfe theirs or to give them the entire propriety we speake of in himselfe but barely that without which it is simply absolutely impossible that he should be theirs God cannot be the God of any man but his that is willing to take him and have him for his God Dagon could not possibly have been the God of the Philistims nor Chemosh the God of the Ammonites c. except they had been willing to acknowledge and have them for their gods All violence and compulsion in the world exercised upon them could not have made these Idols or false gods theirs had they not been willing and consented to have acknowledged and owned them in that relation Now then this willingnesse in men to take owne and acknowledge the true God for their God without which it is simply impossible as hath been said that God should be theirs is all that is required to make him theirs or to give them this speciall and peculiar propriety in him To believe in Christ or rather in God through Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 Iohn 12.44 is nothing else being interpreted but by the meanes or encouragement of the Lord Christ given unto them really and unfainedly to take and acknowledge the great God of heaven and earth for our God and to addresse our selves unto him accordingly as well inwardly with Love Feare Reverence Dependance c. as outwardly in all manner of conversatiō sutable hereunto And all this in the roote and first spring of it in the soule is nothing else but a willingnesse of minde to take and owne him for our God or to trust him and make our dependance upon him This disposition being truly begotten and effectually raised in the soul containes all those other things mentioned in the loines of it Begotten and raised it is by the meanes of Jesus Christ and the word of salvation through him preached unto us which word the Holy Ghost taking as it were in his hand and managing it upon the soule overcommeth the evill of the heart with the goodnesse thereof and smiting the crooked spirit of unbeliefe which is the grand indisposition of the soule to accept of God for our God with the glorious brightnesse and power of the truth of it createth a right spirit of Faith in the stead which is nothing else in the first breaking of it in the soul but an aptnesse and willingnesse to believe that is to accept and entertaine the true God for our God For before there can be a distinct and compleat act of Faith or of accepting God for our God put forth in the soule there must be in the order of Nature an inclination or willingness to such an act going before Otherwise God should forsake his usuall method of proceeding à minus perfectis ad perfectiora from lesse perfection to greater Now as the first and weakest act of Faith or accepting God for our God being a reall performance of the condition required in the Covenant whilest it is yet secret in the hidden man of the heart gives a right and propriety in God according to the tenour thereof so doth the second act or outward testifying to the world a mans faith or dependance upon God draw out the particular and speciall benefits and advantages of this their interest in God This sets God on work to expresse himself freely unto them he cares not now if all the world know that he is theirs This faith of theirs in him openly manifested makes them fit and meet to be beloved I meane openly in the sight of heaven and earth and hell True God loves his Church and People as was said before they believe or else they could never come to believe Thine they were saith Christ and thou hast given them unto me Joh. 17.6 But till they come to believe in him other expressions of affection to them are but ordinary as to other men Though they bee his in some sense yet he will not owne them openly till they be worthy to be reputed his that is make their dependance upon him The first differencing expression of himselfe to be theirs and they his is the giving of faith unto them and when this is given and begins to worke and be active in them he cares not then what or how great blessings he gives them afterward The stumbling block is now removed out of the worlds way all the world cannot but confesse it just and equall that God should bee theirs that trust in him He was but a Heathen man that said it is right and equall that men should come to those gods for help whom they serve And so the Scripture still gives the reason of those speciall and extraordinary favours vouchsafed by God unto his Church to be their faith or dependance upon him Esay 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because hee trusteth in thee And Chap. 57.13 The winde shall carry them all away vanity shall take them but he that putteth his trust in me shall possesse the Land and shall inherite my holy Mountaine See Joh. 14.21 and Gen. 22.16 17.
eye hath cost the world deare The touching of it hath cost the blood of the greatest Monarchs of many Kings and Princes of the earth It hath cost whole Monarchies Kingdomes and States the greatest the richest the strongest that ever the world saw their whole Estates Riches Glory and Peace True we reade often of the jealousie of God over his great name in respect of any pollutions and prophanation of it by other sins but we do not reade of his great jealousie but only for and over Jerusalem his Church but as concerning the case of Jerusalem wee reade of it twice in the same Prophet Zach. 1.14.8.2 As if God had a jealousie and a jealousie a two-fold jealousie a double and a single a greater and a lesse and the lesser jealousie he puts on and armes himselfe with when he went forth to execute vengeance for other sins but whē he sets forth against the enemies of his Church when he comes to plead Jerusalems cause with her adversaries his double jealousie now went on his great jealousie was reserved for causes of this nature as of highest and greatest importance for his glory Yea I shall say yet more that when men have put forth their hands to this worke I meane to afflict the Church of God upon the fairest termes upon greatest advantage or likelihood that can be conceived of doing any good upon it and making earnings of it I meane when they have seemed in doing it even to give the right hand of fellowship to God himselfe when he hath begun to punish them yet did never any man come off fairely from the worke God still found something or other against those that were his workmen and executioners which made a breach between him and them they never eate of their labours nor ever rejoyced in any of these works of their hand seldome any of their heads went downe in peace to their Graves An instance hereof we may see in the Aegyptians according to the Lords owne prediction long before how it would fall out Know for a surety saith the Lord to Abraham Gen. 15.13 14. that thy seed shall be a stranger in a Land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them foure hundred yeares notwithstanding the Nation whom they shall ferve will I judge c. And that God did not only foresee and foretell this that the Israelites should serve the Aegyptians and be in bondage but that himselfe had a speciall hand in it in bringing it to passe it is evident from Psal 105.25 where it is said that God turned their heart i. e. the heart of the Aegyptians to hate his people and to deale craftily with his servants because they began now to be corrupted in Aegypt and to displease him God tooke off the good will and the affections of the Aegyptians from them and yet we know how deare the Aegyptians paid for that worke and service the Israelites did them they had better have given double treble wages to other men to have made their Bricks then to have the people of God make them for nothing Other instances of like nature you may finde in Scripture Esa 36.20 if you reade Psal 78.61.2 with Psal 65.8 you shall finde a passage of like importance Rabsheka it is like lyed or at least spake upon a groundlesse presumption viz. because till then he had prospered when he told Hezekia's messengers that he was not come against Jerusalem without the Lord God had said to him destroy it But in Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel the case is plaine 2 Chron. 36.17 it is said expresly that God brought upon them the King of the Caldeans yet if you reade Ier. 50.17 18. besides many other places you shall finde he had his wages paid him in sorrow and desolation Israel is scattered as Sheep the Lions have driven him away First the King of Assyria hath devoured him and last this Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones Therefore saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Behold I will punish the King of Babylon and his Land as I have punished the King of Assyria c. So Iudges 3.12 you may reade the like of Eglon King of Moab it is expresly said that God strengthened his hand against Israel c. yet we know this medling with Israel was his ruine As for example of the just vengeance and fiery indignation of the Lord breaking out upon those who without any warrant or commission from him have evill intreated despitefully used oppressed and persecuted the Church of God these both in sacred Records and other Histories of the Church are without end or number There is not only a Cloud of such witnesses but the whole heaven is spread over with them and divers of them known unto all men So that it would be but time lost to produce them Therefore now I beseech you consider you that are enemies of the truth that have imbittered spirits against the holy City and Church of God consider and ponder with your selves the truth and weight of this motive There was no man ever spread a snare to take the People of God with but first or last if he continued his malice his owne foot was taken with it No man ever digged a Pit for such but fell himselfe into it no man ever attempted mischief against it and continued in it but it still returned upon him and fell on his own pate as David speaketh It was the argument the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe used to Paul when he tooke him hard at this worke busie in persecuting the Saints and meant to take him off from it Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9.5 It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against sharpe pointed Irons as Goads or Nailes have teaching that a man cannot lift up his hand or heele against the meanest of the servants of God but with as much folly and madnesse and with as little hope of doing themselves good as he that shall stand chopping and dashing his naked hands or feete against the sharpest points of weapons or instruments made of Steele or Iron Pilates wives argument that she used to take of her husband from having any thing further to doe against Christ was that she had suffered many things that day in a dreame by reason of him Mat. 27.19 But the argument wherewith the Holy Ghost now presseth upon you to have no more to doe against these men is of greater efficacy not only one womā hath suffered many things in a dreame but a thousand thousands both men and women whole Nations and Kingdomes and States as was said Kings and Princes and mighty ones of the earth have suffered really full waking in deed and in truth the soarest and most grievous destructions the most fierce fiery and horrid judgements that the world hath seen To let all other instances passe only to mention that fiery storme and tempest which was the
be unto dissolution corruption though not as the end yet as the meanes whereas wee know corruption in that sense whether considered as end or meanes is contrary to the desire much more the fervent desire of every creature Therefore the vanity whereunto the creature is here said to be subject and to be subdued unto viz. by the over-ruling hand and power of God seems rather to be meant of a vanity in their service and labour implying that they doe otherwise then they have a minde to doe or then stands with their owne inclination and so it is to be taken rather for a vanity of sorrow then of mutability which is called a bondage of corruption ver 21. either because to be thus subdued and held to it by God to serve his enemies it is to the creature as unpleasant and bitter as a bondage unto corruption or because such a subjection doth staine and corrupt the glory of the creature Notwithstanding it is the pleasure of God so to have it for a season and in respect of that hope God hath given it that it shall shortly be delivered the creature is well content with it it is no vanity to it in either of these respects Now if question be made Wherefore doth God subdue the creature to vanity in this sense and compells it to serve and comfort wicked and sinfull men One maine reason is this It is because God hath yet many of his Children upon the way of their Pilgrimage in the world amongst them and he hath more to succeed them for a while But if these were once all through the Wildernesse of this world and entered into their glorious rest God would deliver the creature from the bondage mentioned it shall no more minister to the children of disobedience but shall be restored into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God it shall be as free from serving sinfull men as these in the state of the Resurrection shall be free from obeying any sinfull corruption Therefore those that seek to take away the lives of the Saints of God they make the foundations of the round world to reele totter and stagger and attempt to shake the pillars of heaven and earth They doe as if a man should undermine and dig down the foundations of the house he dwells in to cause it to fall on his head and those that were with him We see whilest Lot was in Sodome Gen. 9.22 Sodome was in Lot i. e. the safety and peace of Sodome was in Lot I can doe nothing saith the Angell to him meaning towards the destruction of the City till thou beest gone out of it and hast taken Sanctuary Now suppose the men of the City had persecuted Lot and thrust him out of their City before this as words brake out that way they were talking of such a matter ver 9. had not the storme and tempest of the fiery indignation of the Lord come swifter upon them then it did Except those daies were shortned saith our Saviour of the troubles of Jerusalem no flesh could be saved but for the Elects sake these daies shall be shortened Mat. 24.22 On the contrary concerning the mercies and good things wicked men enjoy in this world except these dayes were lengthened and prolonged there could none of these mercies be enjoyed but for the elect and righteous mens sakes these dayes are lengthened unto them And therefore the Prophet Esay makes a solemne and sad observation upon it that righteous men should perish and so few consider it and lay it to heart Esay 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart c. as if it were a thing of neare concernment and to be taken much to heart when a righteous member is cut off from the body of any State or Society of men and yet of the two it is a thing much more to be laid to heart that such a righteous man should be thrust our by men themselves from amongst them or lose his life by their hand then if God should take him away by death It is true in both cases it is likely he is taken away from the evill to come but in the former when men destroy the righteous from amongst them the evil to come is like to come both more suddenly more heavily upon those that are left Therefore they that persecute the Saints of God they call for fire as it were downe from heaven upon their owne heads they put a sword into the Lords hand wherewith to slay them If that Scarlet Whore of Rome had been or ever should be able to performe the devise she imagined and yet imagines daily to roote out all the holy Seed the whole family that is descended of Jesus Christ in all the world so that she had left none but her owne adulterous generation to possesse the earth she might then thinke indeed that she sate like a Queen but the truth is she should have prevented her judgment and torments so much the sooner Shee had but brought the feare and dread of the devill which was To be tormented before his time so much the more speedily upon his owne head Suppose the Lord had given us up into their bloody hands which yet we and our posterity shall have cause to blesse him so long as the Sunne and Moone indures that it was far from all his thoughts to doe but put case I say that she had been let alone with State People Gospell Religion that she might have done with all these as it is said the Jewes did by Iohn the Baptist Mat. 17.12 even what she list that she had triumphed in that fatall blow for ought that she knew or was aware of she might have shaken the foundations of her owne Mountaines and have caused her Sun to have set over her head even at noone dayes she might have thundered even the Lord Jesus Christ out of heaven to have taken speedy vengeance upon those that would bring up hell from beneath upon the face of the earth and that had destroyed out of the world the beauty and glory of it Fourthly and lastly this consideration also may prevaile with the enemies of the Church and People of God to cause them to desist from persecuting the Saints from attempting and plotting evill against them because they cannot lift up a hand against these but in a way of unrighteousnesse wrong They are called in Scripture The generation of the righteous and their waies are just and holy and good therefore whoever shall touch any of these to doe them any harme to afflict or bring evill upon them cannot be innocent but injustice and violence will be found in his hands Many of those that are the sourest enemies of the Church and that beare a tyrannicall and inveterate hatred against the Saints are men that for Morall honesty and Justice stand upon termes of honour and reputation and thinke it their great glory that they wash their hands in