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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

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

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

Church got over both in that shee not only saw the abolition of legall ceremonies which saith he might well be signified by the moon seeing all the feasts of the Jews and whole course of their Ecclesiasticall year depended upon and were regulated by the motion of that Planet but also the extirpation of those Idols which the heathens formerly worshipped For then did Satan fall down like lightning from heaven Luke 10. 18. he fell from being adored as God to being slighted as an Impostor yea abominated as a wicked spirit Then was fulfilled that which is written Revel. 12. 9. The great Dragon was cast out the old Serpent called the Devill and Satan which deceived the whole world he was cast out into the earth and his Angels were cast out with him Yea then was that promise in part fulfilled the language whereof hath great affinity with the phrase in my Text The God of peace shall tread Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. 2 The affronts of the world The Church got these under her feet when she gloried in tribubation was above her persecutors and had patience to endure as much as their malice and cruelty could inflict I take pleasure sayth Paul in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weake then am I strong 2 Cor. 12. 10. The Apostles rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ Act. 5. 41. They in Heb. 10. 34. tooke joyfully the spoyling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance Laurentius the Martyr when they layd his body upon a gridiron with a purpose to broile him to death is reported to have sayd I have alwayes longed for such cheere as this To mee these very flames are cooling and refreshments rather then torments Gordius desired his Executioners not to grudge him overmuch happinesse telling them that the more they tormented him the more GOD would reward him 3 The enjoyments of the World 1 John 5 4. Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith Carnall reason paints the things of this life and sets them out in beautifull colours but faith washeth off the complexion and then their deformity appears Those Christians in the primitive times that layd their estates at the Apostles feet had first got them under their own learnt to trample upon and to have a low esteem of them in their most serious thoughts Take the goodliest things in the world there have been some in all ages found that were above them One of the Fathers will not allow temporall riches the name of Goods but accounts it enough if wee forbeare to call them evils Another thinks him too dainty for a Christian that desires pleasure on this side heaven too foolish that imagines carnall delights to be reall pleasures A third being tempted with preferments to a revolt said Offer them to children not to Christians As for me I can part with life but not with truth Many such instances there are wherein yee may cleerly discern the Moon under the womans the World under the Churches feet Her third and last perfection follows to wit having Upon her head a Crown of twelve Stars That is holding fast the pure doctrine of the Gospell first preached by the twelve Apostles and after them by succeeding Ministers which is as a Crown on the Churches head So as here three things are to be made out First That the Apostles are here meant and such faithfull Ministers as succeeded them not excluded The number exprest points us directly to the Apostles who are often called the twelve in Scripture There were no more chosen at first Luke 6. 13. and when Judas was faln from his Apostleship Matthias was substituted in his roome to make up the number yea though there was a superaddition of Paul and Barnabas yet in memory of the first election they are still spoken of as twelve long after that in the Apocalypse I will not trouble you with discoursing of the twelve stones taken up out of the midst of Jordan the twelve Spies sent out to search the land of Canaan the twelve Oxen under the brazen Sea the twelve Lyons that supported Solomons Throne the twelve Officers appointed by him to provide for his houshold all which are by some made types of the twelve Apostles Neither will I insist upon that notion which Hierom presumes to be unquestionable and sets a nec dubium est upon viz. that those twelve wells of water and seventy palme trees at Elim Exod. 15. last did undoubtedly prefigure the twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples It may perhaps be worthy of more consideration that as the Iewish Church had twelve Patriarks from whom the twelve Tribes of Israel descended so Christ ordained twelve Apostles to be as fathers of his Israel under the Gospel the Christian Church And that the Spirit in Revel. 4. 4. where mention is made of twenty foure seats and twenty foure Elders sitting upon them alludes both to the twelve Patriarks and the twelve Apostles which put together make up those twenty foure by whom the whole Church under both Testaments is represented It appears by what hath been sayd that the Apostles are certainly meant in this place The reason why I conceive other Ministers not excluded is because the Angels of the seven Churches are called stars Revel. I. l●st as well as the twelve Apostles here Which is The second thing to be cleered viz. That the Apostles and all faithfull Ministers are like stars Wherein it were easie to be large seeing they and the stars resemble each other in many things But I will content my selfe with a few 1 As the stars are heavenly bodies shining but with a borrowed light so the Apostles of old were and all godly Ministers ever since have endevoured to be men of an heavenly conversation heavenly men and earthly Angels as Paul was styled by Chrysostom They shine as lights in the world acknowledging all the light they have to be derived from Christ as the Sun of whose fulnesse they all receive That which one of the German Divines made his Motto fully speaks every one of their hearts Nil scio nil possum nil sum quoque quod tamen esse Scire posse aliquid dicor id omne Dei est They are most ready to professe that of themselves they know nothing can doe nothing are nothing that good is and that whatsoever good they are or do or know they owe it wholly to the free grace of God in Christ 2 As the Stars are in continuall motion for the good of the Universe so were the Apostles for the good of the Church Paul ceased not to warne every one night and day with tears Acts 20. 31. went from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum preaching the Gospel

Rom. 15. 19. Succeeding Ministers have accordingly in their places acquainted themselves with continuall labours which Scripture calls upon them for Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet Isa. 58 1. Durante pugnâ non cessat tuba the trumpet must be sounding all the while the battle is in fighting Now there is no end of the Christian Warfare and therefore none of the Ministers pains The Church is Gods husbandry 1 Cor. 3. 9. her Ministers his husbandmen Redit agricolis labor actus in orbem The husbandman hath never quite done his work but the end of one task is still the beginning of another So it fares with painfull Ministers One while their employment is instructing poor ignorant souls then are they like Stars that shine in a cold Winter-night Another while convincing gainsayers and Hereticks then are they like those stars in their courses that fought against Sisera Judg. 5. The most benigne Constellation is not more promising to the World than their Associations are unto the Church 3 As the stars are said to differ one from another in glory 1 Cor. 15. 45. So the Apostles excell'd other Ministers in the universality of their commission the immediatnesse of their call the infallibility of their doctrine together with many other priviledges And among succeeding Ministers there hath been found very great difference in regard of their parts gifts and graces such as there is among Stars of the first second and third magnitude Melancthon speaking of the Divines of his age said Pomeranus is a Grammarian I a Logitian Justus Jonas an Oratour but Martin Luther is all these a miracle of men and one that penetrates the heart in whatsoever hee speaks or writes a Beza comparing the three famous Ministers of Geneva saith that Farellus excelled in Fervency Viretus in Eloquence Calvin in Sententiousnesse and that the concurrence of these endowments in any one man would have rendred him a compleat Evangelicall P●stour b The third thing which I am to cleer is That Evangelicall doctrine is as a crowne to the Church of Christ The prudent are crowned with knowledge saith Solomon Proverbs 14. 18. Now there is no knowledge saving but this of Evangelicall truth and therefore no such crown as that 'T is our Saviours counsell to the Church of Philadelphia Revel. 3. 11. hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown Some false Apostles it should seem had been tampering with this Church Christ commends her for keeping the word of his patience ver. 10. i. e. the Gospel which declares the sufferings of Christ and excites to patience by his example whereupon hee adds the fore-mentioned word of advice It would save much labour in debating one of the Arminian points if the place might be interpreted as for ought I know it may to this sense As if he had said O Philadelphia keepe that truth which hath been taught by those that planted thee at first That truth is thy crown let no man take it from thee no tyrant rob no seducer cheat thee of it A crown thou knowest is the most principall ornament take it from me evangelicall truth is the most principall crown I beleeve you expect some application of what hath bin already delivered before we close with the second verse and will therefore briefly infer somwhat first from the whole vision then from the womans severall perfections and lastly from the order of those perfections 1 Inferences from the whole vision Which are two 1 That besides the naturall there is a spirituall use to be made of all the creatures The Sun here points to Christ the Moon to the World the Stars to the Ministers of the Gospel Mans soule is an Alembeck in which when the creatures are laid like so many herbs if there be any fire of devotion within many sweet meditations may be distilled Naturall hearts are apt to make a sensuall use of divine things but spirituall hearts have an art of making divine uses even of naturall things which we should all doe well to learn 2 That the Whore of Babylon differs much from the woman in my Text the Apostaticall Church of Rome from the Apostolicall Church of Christ As not being clothed with the Sun but with outward pomp Revel. 17. 4. She was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and deckt with gold and precious stones more for state then for Christ refusing to accept of him for her only covering shelter and ornament and going about to establish a righteousnesse of her own Not having the Moon under her feet but in her heart loving the world maintaining her greatnesse by carnall policie and making prosperity a signe of the Church Not being crowned with these twelve stars but with the inventions and traditions of men recommended by the Councell of Trent as worthy to be received with the same affections and reverence which are due to the Holy Scriptures So as indeed the Moon is her crown and the Stars her footstool 2 Inferences from the severall perfections here ascribed to the woman Her being clothed with the Sun lets us see 1 The All-sufficiencie of Christ Jacob desired but bread to eat and rayment to put on Having food and rayment sayth Paul let us be therewith content Now besides spirituall meat and drinke which Christ affords us John 6. 55. my flesh is meat indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed he himself becomes apparrell to us Gal. 3. 27. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ 2 The true fountain of all that wisdome zeal and grace which appears in the conversation of true Saints They are clothed with Christ as with the Sun and he if is that communicates to them light of wisdom heat of zeal and influence of grace Such as have really put on him make not provision for the flesh as others do to fulfill the lusts thereof although but too many while they professe a being clothed with the Sun give just occasion to renew a sad complaint made by one of the Fathers viz. That the bloud of Christ when newly shed did as it were boyle in beleevers hearts whereas now 't is almost frozen in ours So much doe wee come short of the first love of those Primitive times Her having the Moon under her feet shews us how very ill it becomes the genuine issue of this woman to love the world the friendship whereof is enmity with God Jam. 4. 4. Mundus in maligno positus 1 John 5. 19. next after Satan this present evill world is the great Malignant Looke as the Moon when she is at the full is then in most direct opposition to the Sun so 't is the temper of the world to be most opposite to and rebellious against Christ when it receives the most light of prosperity from him and is fullest of the blessings of his goodnesse Jesurun waxed fat and kicked then he forsooke God which made him lightly