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A25887 A great wonder in heaven, or, A lively picture of the militant church drawn by a divine pencill : Revel. 12, 1, 2 : discoursed on in a sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons, at Margarets, Westminster, on the last monethly fast-day, January 27, 1646/7 / by John Arrowsmith ... Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659. 1647 (1647) Wing A3776; ESTC R441 30,018 49

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tribulation and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the Isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ I was in the Spirit on the Lords day 'T is thought that all contained in this book was revealed to him on that one day Who ever spent a Sabbath so well who ever had so many discoveries in so short a time how was his banishment sweetned herewith and his Patmos turned into a paradise How excellent is thy loving kindness O Lord how glorious are thine influences upon suffering Saints what Psalmes doth Dauid indite in the cave what Epistles doth Paul write in the prison what apparitions doth John see in a desolate Island there appeared A great wonder The more lightsome any thing is the more glorious the more glorious any thing is the more wonderfull Glorious things are spoken of thee ô thou Citie of God sayth the Psalmist of the Church which is therefore a great wonder because all the Luminaries of heaven concur to the making up of the glory thereof and that in a posture sutable to the stations they hold in the firmament There the highest lights are the stars the lowest the Moon the Sun in the midst So here the stars are allotted to the Churches head the Moon to her feet the Sun to those parts of the body that are between both She is all over glorious and consequently altogether admirable because lightsome all over for her head is crowned with stars her body apparelled with the Sun and she hath the Moon for her footstool so as to tread in paths of light If any here discern no glory in the Church to be wondred at but say of her as they of Christ Isa. 53. 2. she hath no form or comlinesse and when we shall see her there is no beauty that we should desire her it is not for want of light in her but of spirituall sight in them A skilfull painter to an ignorant man that wondred at his gazing so much on a curious peece sayd Friend Si meos oculos haberes hadst thou myne eyes thou wouldst be ravished with the sight of this picture as I am and instead of wondring at mee fall a wondring with me So if wee had the eyes and spirit of John the Church of Christ would appear a great wonder to us as it did to him A great wonder in heaven We read of a door opened in heaven and of a call that John had to come up thither Chap. 4. 1. That was the Scene of all his Visions there did this great wonder appear to his mentall eyes And well it might seeing the Church whose hieroglyphick it is hath her originall from heaven her tendency to heaven her conversation in heaven and her dependance upon heaven 1 Her originall from heaven Except a man be born {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which may be rendred from above he shall not see the kingdom of God John 3. 3. Converts are all born of God John 1. 13. and Jerusalem which is above is the mother of them all Gal. 4. 26. Mihi patria Coelum may be the motto of every Saint during his pilgrimage in the World Heaven is my Country there I was born and I am returning thither which is the next thing 2 Her tendency to heaven Those Martyrs and Confessors Heb. 11. 14 16. declared plainly that they sought an heavenly country All Saints as Saints naturally move to this centre of rest and because their motion is naturall it commonly proves swiftest at last As the approches of a needle are so much the more quick by how much it draws neerer to the loadstone and rivers run with a stronger stream when they are about to empty themselves into the Ocean whence they came so true beleevers when their bodies smell most of earth as towards death they are wont to doe have the strongest sent of heaven in their souls 3 Her conversation in heaven Phil. 3. 20. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the phrase imports their living and trading as denizens of heaven there being governed by the locall statutes and municipall Laws of that City their conversing with God in Christ and having fellowship with the Spirit here below whence it is that when death comes the godly are sayd to change their place but not their company 4 Her dependance upon heaven knowing as she doth that every good and perfect gift is from above Jam. 1. 17. she accordingly expects from thence supplies of grace to help in every time of need When the German Princes in a Diet at Norimberg had framed certain Decrees against the Protestant cause Luther comforted himselfe and his Patron the Duke of Saxony to whom he wrote with this weighty consideration That the Princes at Norimberg had concluded one thing in that businesse but God had decreed another in heaven and the Counsell of the Lord that should stand Let us now proceed to shew more distinctly what this great wonder in heaven was viz. A woman {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a married woman That 's the importance of the word in other places as in Chapter 21 of this book Verse 9 Come hither and I will shew thee the bride the Lambs wife {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Yea the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the decency of the allegory requires it should be so taken here because we finde the woman with childe and in her travell Being so taken it imports a mystery one of the greatest in all Divinity viz. the Churches relation to Christ as her husband Paul who was well skild in Gospel-secrets to which the depths of other Sciences are but shallows gives the title of great only to two Evangelicall mysteries that of our Saviours incarnation 1 Tim. 3. last Without controversie great is the mystery of godlinesse God manifest in the flesh and this of the Churches mariage to Christ Ephes. 5. 31 32 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joyned unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh This is a great mystery but I speake concerning Christ and the Church That which was one of Pauls great mysteries might well be part of Johns great wonder But I forbeare to inlarge upon 't because I hasten to a discovery of this womans rare perfections the first whereof is her being Clothed with the Sun That which some Platonists say hath savour in it Lumen est umbra Dei Deus est lumen luminis The light is but the shadow of God God is he that inlighteneth light it selfe Now of all visible lights there is none so radiant as the Sun Scripture accordingly styleth God a Sun and a shield Psal. 84. 11. and Christ is called the Sun of righteousnesse Mal. 4. 2. He it is and no other person or thing whom we are to understand by the Sun in my Text The resemblances are many Christ
and the Sun agree 1 In point of Sovereignty The Sun is the Prince of Planets a body so glorious that all admire many adore it for a God because they see more Majesty in it then any thing else that can be seen Whence it is that the idolatrous Chaldeans as Bodin observes gave it the name of Baal a Lord whereas the Hebrews with whom were the Oracles of God call it Shemes which signifieth a servant for so it is to him that made it Christ tooke upon him the forme of a servant but is indeed the Lord of all And as God made the Sun to rule by day and to diversifie seasons of the year by its approches and recesses So hath the Father appointed Christ to be King of Saints and upon his various aspects depend the Churches Summer and Winter the souls Spring and Fall the seed-time of grace and harvest of glory 2 In point of singularity There is but one Sun in the firmament which made that great Conquerour say The heaveus could neither bear two Suns nor the earth two Alexanders Looke to Christs person it is but one although there be two natures in him When the light which was created the first day did as it were assume a star three dayes after that star and the light made but one Sun so when the Word who was God from all eternity assumed flesh in fulnesse of time the Word and flesh made but one Christ Looke to his office he is so a Mediatour as not to admit of any copartnership in the work To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and wee by him 1 Cor. 8. 6. One God and one Mediatour between God and man the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. Is Christ divided saith Paul elswhere We may say is Jesus multiplyed No verily As but one Sun so but one Saviour None but Christ as the Martyr cryed None but Christ 3 In point of necessity When men would expresse the removall of somwhat absolutely necessary they use to say this were Solem è mundo tollere to take the Sun out of the World If that were removed how would all beauty vanish and as some think all motion cease The potters wheele say they could not turn upon earth if the Sun should not move in heaven So take Christ from a soul 't is impotent to all good Without me ye can doe nothing John 15. 5. Were it not for the Sun it would be perpetuall night in the world notwithstanding all the torches that could be lighted yea notwithstanding all the light of the moon and stars It is neither the torch-light of naturall parts and creature-comforts nor the star-light of civill honesty and common gifts nor the moon-light of temporary faith and formall profession that can make it day in the soul till the Sun of righteousnesse arise and shine there Once indeed there was a time when fruits were produced without a Sun when God to prevent the idolizing of this creature as the only cause of all fertility enabled the earth to bring forth on the third day whereas the Sun was not made till the fourth But never was there any the least moment of time since the fall wherein man could bring forth fruit to God without the cooperation of Christ 〈◊〉 that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Iohn 5. 12. Neither can any vitall action be performed but by his special grace 4 In point of purity Other creatures admit of some defiling mixtures the sun doth not It looks upon filth but contracts none Christ is a lambe without blemish and without spot Such as cast aspersions upon him in the dayes of his flesh calling him glutton wine-bibber and friend of Publicans and sinners did but act the mad mans part throwing dirt at the Sun which none could possibly fasten upon He came indeed into a sinfull world but as a Physitian among his sick patients to cure them without taking the sicknesse of them being antidoted by his Divinity against all infection He hath an hand even in sinfull acts as they are acts for in him we move but not in the sinfulnesse of them shines into the noysome dunghils of our hearts with beams of grace yet continues most pure He was borne of a sinner lived and conversed with sinners dyed with and for sinners yea as a sinner yet had not in himselfe the least sin of his own to answer for 5 In point of sufficiencie There is in the Son a fulnesse of created glory All the light that had been disperst throughout the great fabrick of the new-born world for the first three dayes was gathered together on the fourth into that one body So it pleased the Father that all fulnesse should dwell in Christ And the seuerall graces that shined in the Patriarks Fathers and Prophets of old under the Law were all to be 〈◊〉 once in him The innocence of Abel perseverance of Noah obedience of Abraham devotion of 〈◊〉 chastity of Ioseph patience of Iob meeknesse of Moses courage of Ioshua zeale of David and whatsoever any of them excelled in was an ingredient 〈◊〉 that fulnesse of grace and truth which was found in Christ Quae divisabeatos efficiunt conjunctatenet Each of them had the fulnesse of a star he the sufficiencie of a Sun that filled them all and had a fulnesse beyond them all 6 In point of efficiency The efficacy of the Sun appears in imparting three things Light Heat and Influence Each whereof is so qualified as to resemble the grace of Christ in sundry particulars First The Sun imparts light a discovering guiding cheering growing light 1 Discovering what was hid from our sight before But for it we should neither see the Sun it selfe nor any thing else in heaven or earth Without irradiati●● from Christ men would for ever continue igno●● of the only true God and of their Redeemer we should never know either our sins or our duties our dangers or our priviledges but for Christ With him only is the fountain of life and in his light we see light 2 Guiding Luke 1. 78 79. The day-spring from in high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darknesse and the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace The dim light of nature in common people shines a little but is not strong enough to guide like that of a gloworm or rotten stick The light of worldly wisdome and policie in men of great parts but prophane spirits shines more strongly but misguides like the meteor which Philosophers call Ignis fatuus we the Lanternman There is a third kind of light that shines strongly and guides too but the head only not the feet I mean that of hypocrites who contemplate things of God but reduce not their brain knowledge to practice Yea a fourth that guides both