GODS MASTER-PIECE A SERMON Tending to manifest Gods glorious appearing in the building up of Zion PREACHED To the Right Honourable the House of Peers in the Abbey Church of Westminster March 26. 1645. Being the day of the Monthly publike Fast BY Stephen Marshall B. D. Minister of Gods Word at Finching-field in Essex Published by Order of the House of Peeres Esa. 60. 14. They shall call thee the City of the Lord the Zion of the Holy One of Israel Psal. 68. 24. They have seen thy goings O God the goings of my God my King in the Sanctuary LONDON Printed by Richard Cotes for Stephen Bowtell and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible in Popes-head Alley 1645. To the Right HONOVRABLE THE House of Peeres Assembled in PARLIAMENT Right Honourable THis plain Sermon when preached was entertained by Your Lordships with singular attention and now comes to publike view by Your command I shall not presume now to make another tryall of Your patience by a long Epistle as I did then in a long Sermon I onely present it unto You and since You please to have it so to the eye of the World humbly beseeching the Lord to accompany it with his blessing that all who read it especially Your Lordships may in it behold as in a Glasse the Glorie of the Lord and be changed into the same Image by the Spirit of the Lord thatso they may account it their greatest Honour to promote this Worke to beautifie the place of Gods Sanctuary and to make the place of his feet glorious So prayeth Your unworthy Servant Stephen Marshall A SERMON PREACHED To the Right Honourable the House of LORDS at the Monethly Fast March 26. 1645. PSALM 102. 16 17. When the Lord shall build up Zion hee shall appeare in his glory hee will regard the Prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer I Have chosen a Text Right Honourable and Beloved which is neither difficult in it self nor which is the lot of many plain Texts made to seem obscure by the variety of glosses and interpretations put upon it There is a generall agreement concerning the scope and meaning of the Spirit of God in this Psalm some little difference is found amongst Interpreters concerning the time and the Pen-man of it Some conceiving it was about the time when the Jews were stopt and interrupted in the works of building the Temple by their ill neighbours but most doe agree that the time was about the end of the seventy years captivity when God had raised up the spirits of the Prophets to encourage the people to expect this mercy according to that of Esay 40. Comfort yee comfort ye my people saith the Lord speak ye comfortably to Hierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished and also stirred up the spirits of the people to pray to the Lord to accomplish his good word for their returne according to that of Jer. 29. Then shall yee call upon mee and I will hearken unto you And as for the Penman of it who ever it was for that is altogether unknown most certain it is that hee neither penn'd nor spake these things in his own name or of his own condition but in the name of the whole Church of God like another Jeremy writing a book of Lamentations for the desolations of Zion bemoaning them before the Lord and most earnestly begging mercy and deliverance In the 11 first Verses you may behold the afflicted Church of God sitting alone like a desolate widow with her tears on her cheeks her belly cleaving to the dust her heart smitten and withered like grasse eating ashes for bread mingling her drink with weeping as a Pelican in the wildernesse as an Owl in the desart her enemies many and raging against her shee looking round about and all her Lovers and friends departed from her enquiring after succour and comfort and it is farre removed Behold to what a sad condition the sinnes of Gods own people doe oft times bring them and that is the first part of the Psalme But in this dark and tempestuous night of calamity and desolation this afflicted soul with Jonah in the whales belly with weeds-wrapped about his head looks up to God begins to remember those everlasting mercies that may bee found in the Lord Jehovah and presently there darts in a beam as from a new created Statre of light and comfort in the 12 and 13 Verse which shines into the soule and inables this poore desolate creature to conclude very comfortably that that God who had broken her would yet again heal her that his wrath should not alwayes continue but he would return and revive and quicken them after all the days wherin he had afflicted them and so suddenly begins to renew its strength and mount up with wings of comfort as an Eagle And from the 12 Verse to the end of the Psalme after all this sad lamentation there is a comfortable propheticall story of all the good that God did mean to doe fot this afflicted Church which now lay in the dust and rubble wherein there are three remarkable things The first is A strong confident propheticall conclusion that the deliverance of Gods Church was nigh at hand in these words Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to deliver her yea the set time is come that 's her conclusion that it must of necessity be the Lord was resolved speedily to raise them out of their low condition Secondly you have the Argument which satisfied this afflicted desolate soul that the time of Zions deliverance was at hand because all Gods servants took pleasure in the dust of it and pityed the very stones and the rubbish of it their hearts were deeply humbled for Zions miseries they had set themselves earnestly to pray to the Lord to give him no rest night nor day till hee had set it up and this spirit of prayer powred out upon the Church was to her as sure a token of approaching deliverance as the day star is a token of an approaching morning That is the second The third part of this prophecy is the use or fruit which he doth foretell should be made of this great work of Gods raising and building up of Zion which is very excellent partly the use that the rest of the Nations of the world should make of it all the heathen should stand and wonder at it and praise Gods name for it yea their Kings even all the Kings should behold the glory of the Lord and come in and worship and honour him who had wrought such a great work as the raising Zion out of the dust and then for the Church the people that are created on purpose to bee for Gods glory it should bee written for them from generation to generation that they and all their posterities should perpetually love and serve the Lord who did thus remember his people in their low condition Now
lest some body might wonder why the Prophet should make such a stupendious businesse of it and demand a reason why all the world must thus take such notice of the building of Zion what is Zion and what is the work as he said of Abana and Parphar were they not better rivers then all the rivers of Samaria Are there not other Empires and States more pompous and powerfull and glorious and excellent then Zion what is Zion to Nineveh or Babylon that all must so stand amazed at the reparation of it To satisfie all the world about it that the work of building up of Zion is indeed admirable and wonderfull and deserves all the praises that the hearts and tongues of men can utter the Prophet in the 2 Verses which I have read doth setdown two remarkable Circumstances which perpetually accompany this work which if they but interpreted and rightly understood will satisfie all the World that this alone is the work deserving admiration and these they are The first is It is such a work that when ever the Lord goes about it Hee doth appeare in his glory when the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory The second is when the Lord doth build up Zion He doth then return an answer to all the prayers of his afflicted people Whatsoever they had been begging from year to year from generation to generation now was the Jubilee now comes the return of all into their bosomes full measure thrust together shaken and running over When the Lord doth build up Zion he doth then regard the prayer of the afflicted and however before hee might seem to despise ehem now he doth no longer despise their cry The first of these is that which by the Lords assistance I shall this day clear unto you this remarkable circumstance which accompanies the building and reparation of Zion When the Lord shall build up Zion hee shall appear in his glory and in it observe handle these two lessons That the building of Zion is the Lords work and the Lords onely When the Lord shall build up Zion the second and main the which I shall insist upon is That when ever the Lord goes about this work hee doth appear in his glory The first I shall onely touch and that but to make way for the second That the building of Zion is the Lords own work There is nothing difficult Zion you know is in the Scripture taken sometimes in a literall but ordinarily in a mysticall and a spirituall sense Zion in a literall sense was that strong part of the City of Jerusalem which David did take from the Jebusites fortified it and beautified it with excellent buildings and called it the City of David the most beautifull part of Jerusalem this is Zion literall And this Zion may besaid to be built when it is furnished with stately houses with strong walls and replenished with people accomplished with Magistrates and good Civil laws But this Zion I have nothing at the present to doe with the Zion which my text means is spirituall Zion mysticall Zion the Zion whereof this City of David was a type as David himself was a type of Christ and that is the Church of God which in a hundred places at least in the Old and New Testament is called by the name of Zion he reason why Zion this part of Ierusalem was such a celebrated type is because all Davids time and untill Solomons Temple was built upon mount Moriah the Ark of God was placed in Zion where hee is therefore said to dwell this is the Zion that we are to speak of and this Zion this Church of God is then built when the doctrine of Jesus Christ is made known the new and living way to life by him is opened when Ministers and Ordinances are given the elect called in Churches gathered and established the worship and government of Christ set up for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till all the Saints come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ when the Curtains of the Church are thus enlarged and the Tents of it made firm when God doth thus prosper and blesse the Church of Christ then doth hee build up Zion This I say is first Gods own work and secondly a work which when ever hee goes about hee doth appear in his glory That the building up of the Church is a work peculiar to God onely I might easily prove out of many Scriptures aedificabo Ecclesiam I will build my Church is a speech to be uttered by none but by Jehovah himself and I know you will grant the truth of it by that time I have cleared unto you these two things First that the building of Zion is such a peace of work as no other workmen have any skill to do And secondly as they have no skill so they have no will to doe it and if no other have either power nor heart neither skill nor will it must needs bee done by God if ever it be done at all First I say no other workmen have any skill to build Zion but God alone there is not one piece of Timber belongs unto it not one Cord not one pin not one nail not any one thing from the foundation to the Cap-stone but it is beyond the understanding the value skill or artifice of any created Nature that what God said in the 49. Psalme concerning the keeping of a man from death is most true of this work great men can build houses and purchase Lands but there is not one of them can redeem his brothers soul from death no he must let that alone for ever that is too hard a task for him to keep a man that hee should not goe down to the grave Men may build Houses make Kingdoms erect Common-wealths Corporations c. But as for the building of the Church of God all mortall men must let that alone for ever In this work our help is onely from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth I looked said Christ but there was no help there was none to uphold therefore my own arm brought salvation neither could they were all their perfections joynd into one when man is dead in sins and trespasses sticks fast in the miry clay of ignorance and iniquity not able to think a good thought or speak a good word a voluntary bondslave of Satan under the power of Hell and the curse of God what men what Angels have any gifts or strength to help him out of this condition It is true indeed that in the building of it God doth make use of mortall men and other creatures visible and invisible hee calls Ministers Apostles Prophets Pastors and Teachers to bee the
and other evill Neighbours in the type and literall sense but especially from Satan death and Hell in the spirituall sense to pardon them call them in and build them upon himselfe the rock against which the gates of hell should never prevaile This was the work which occasioned him thus to put on his glorious apparell Many other Scriptures speak the same Exodus 15. 1. When God did deliver his Church out of Egypt hee triumphed gloriously But I forbeare because the third branch will cleare it all more fully and that is Thirdly to discover How and wherein the Lord doth appeare in glory when hee builds up his Church and for this I shall lay down this one conclusion and indevour to make it good to you in the following Discourse That although all the workes of God are great and glorious and worthy to bee sought into by all his people there is not the least atome the least Ant but proves this quaelibet herba every little herbe but shews it to bee Gods workmanship Psalm 19. 12. The heavens declare his glory and the firmament shewes his handy work Yet this work of gathering and building of the Church of Christ is a work which is carryed in a quite differing straine and way from all other workes which ever the Lord puts his own hand to Look upon all his other workes and you shall seldome finde that the work goes beyond what the matter and the instruments may promise and within the compasse and fadome of second causes may you finde the summe of all that doth appeare in any other work of Gods hands so that although every thing that is done may truely bee said to bee the Lords and to bee wrought if I may speak with reverence in his shop yet because God carries them on by a concatenation and subordination of second causes every one working according to their nature though secretly carryed by his own hand these workes of God may truely bee said to bee wrought by Gods servants by his apprentises and inferiour servants but the whole carriage of the businesse of the Church of God is reserved for Gods owne hand as his Master peece carryed in such a way as none may lay any claime to have any thing to do in it unlesse he can challenge to have the perfections of Jehovah in him and this I am certaine you 'l acknowledge if you please to lend me your reverent attention while I cleare these foure things unto you First the Materials out of which the Lord uses to build his Church Secondly the Instruments by which hee uses to build it Thirdly the Time when hee doth it And Fourthly and chiefly the Manner how hee doth it For the first 1. For the Materialls out of which this stately peece is to bee erected you know that in all other buildings if the work bee to bee a glorious work the materials are the excellentest that can be found and Mercury must not be made of common wood When Solomon meanes to build a Temple it must be with Cedar Trees over-layed with Gold If Noah be to build an Arke it shall be of Gophir wood firme and strong substantiall Timber No man would imagine that a stately fabrick should be erected out of rotten Willowes and broken stickes and refuse chips c. But now the materials out of which God builds the Church are the very refuse out of as arrant refuse stuff as is in all the world is this goodly building erected Satans kingdome the damned in Hell that cursed state of darknesse is not built out of worser stuffe then the Kingdome of Christ is take the materials as they are when he first findes them When God tooke the Nation of the Jewes to be his people some people say they were the ill-favouredst people in all the world a loathsome people to looke upon but it is certaine they were as crosse and perverse in their spirits as any living the Lord told them often that they were the unworthiest of all Nations when he chose them bids them never thinke that they were chose out to be his before the rest of the world for any thing that was in them for he protested there was nothing to allure him And for the Church which Christ now ownes and builds the same things are manifest In the 11 of Isaiah you have a Prophesie of Christs Church what they are by nature till his grace change them Lions and Tigers and Bears and Wolves and Cockatrices and Aspes and such kinde of Vermine are the creatures out of which Christ Jesus chooses and makes up his Flock of Sheep Read Pauls Epistles and you will finde that all the Saints the excellentest of the earth whom Christ thought not himselfe and all his glory too good for were Mancipia Satanae Bond-flaves and Hell-hounds going on in their wicked wayes A description you have in the 16 of Ezekiel that fits every one of them where the Lord tells the Church what kinde of people they were when he fell in love with them their Navell not cut cast out in the day of their birth lying in their mothers bloud no eye to pitty her nor no hand to doe her any friendly office and when he past by her in that pickle then did he fall in love with her and spread the skirt of his garment over her And if you take another place of Scripture to see what kinde of Spouse he had Aholah and Aholibah two Whores were the Spouses that he did chuse plainly shewing to us that this glorious work that which all eternity shall give honour to him for that the materials out of which it is built are as bad as any are who goe to Hell and destruction And this is one great part of a demonstration to let you see that when God doth such a work as this is he doth appeare in his glory It must needs be an excellent Work-man who can raise so glorious a peece out of such base stuffe Secondly and by what Instruments doe you thinke the Lord doth build it and what are their Tooles who are his Work-men you 'll wonder by that time I have told you a little about them God hath sometimes strong Cities of his enemies to overthrow from which he meanes to rescue his people and then the Armies which he brings to doe it are Rams hornes Wormes and Lice and Mice and Frogs and Locusts and Caterpillars c. by such as these doth the Lord sometimes overthrow whole Kingdomes when he pleaseth to breake all their Iron barres asunder to fetch his poore captived people from amongst them and when in a spirituall way he sends his Instruments to subdue people unto him he goes not to the Schooles to finde out the learned and excellent parted men but a few Fisher-men poore despicable men brought up in no Arts or Learning shall be the Champions who shall goe and subdue the great and the wise men of the world
and out of this he looks for no other glory then from a Cabul a land of dirt or a shepheards cottage or a goard which springs up in a night and withers in a day but this peece he sets up for a higher end to be the eternall mansion of his holinesse and honour this is his Metropolis his Temple his house where his fire and furnace is his Court his glorious high Throne and therefore his glory is much concerned in this work when Nebuchadnezzar would have a City for the honour of his kingdome and the glory of his Majesty he will make it a stately peece Solomon made all his Kingdome very rich and glorious but he made his Court and especially his Throne another manner of thing so stately that the like was not to be seen in any other kingdome and therefore no wonder though he appeare in his glory in building up of that which we may boldly say must one day be made as glorious as his wisdome can contrive and his power bring to passe Having thus plainly opened and proved this excellent Doctrine give me leave in the Application to present you with some matter first of Joy and consolation secondly of Reproof and Terrour thirdly of Exhortation and Duty Here is a further excellent encouragement and strengthening of our comfort in that which I touched before viz. an assurance that this work must goe on doe all the world what they can they can never hinder the building up of Gods Church because God hath so set his heart upon it that for the doing thereof he hath cloathed himselfe with his glory and girded himselfe with strength and will he be hindred in it though all the Nations of the world should rise up against him to hinder it It is true the gates of Hell doe alwayes appeare with all their wisdome and strength against it but what of that it is his glory to build it and can we imagine that any shall be able to spoil him of his glory that any can pull downe what he will build or root up his pleasant plant when he hath called it his house of glory which he will glorifie that poore wormes shall be able to defile or deface it No no this work must be carried on feare it not He hath evidently begun it among our selves and we are often discouraged in it there is yet much to be done much rubbish still remaines to be carried out and we are very low our estates wasted the builders discouraged their hands weakned but not by might or an Army but by my Spirit saith the Lord must this work proceed and then what art thou O great mountain thou great mountain of Popery Prelacy superstition oppression division heresie schism what art thou before my servants the builders thou shalt flow down thou shalt be made a plaine Be strong therefore ye Nobles and servants of God whose hearts are set upon this work you shall notwithstanding all opposition see the cap-stone set upon the head of it and cry Grace Grace unto it The Lord useth an excellent similitude in Esay 31. 4. when he came downe to rescue his people and they were discouraged just as we are now with a multitude of oppositions he compares himselfe to a Lion or a young Lion that hath caught his prey when the multitude of shepheards are called out against him he scornes to mend his pace or be afraid of their voice So will the Lord of Hosts doe in building of Zion let all the world rise up against this work and he scornes to draw back from them or be afraid of the shepheards or their dogges he can worry them and all their dogs to peeces And therefore I beseech you who are engaged in this great worke of God when any discouragements fall out before you remember the errand that God bids Hezekiah send to Senacharib who came with some two or 300000 fighting men and sent him a very proud scornfull and threatning message tell him said God the daughter of Zion sits and laughes at him shakes her head and scornes him bids him doe his worst and well she might for these proud mountaines soone flowed downe for in in one night one of God servants killed 180000 eâ—en all his Captaines and great men were all killed so say thou when great difficulties rise up and thou beginnest to think Lord by whom shall Jacob arise for he is small our money failes us our Trade is gone yea in many places Ordinances faile us mens hearts are discouraged what shall we doe say the Lord hath put on his glorious apparell and he must and will carry on this work he will never undergoe that reproach This man began to build and was not able to make an end But why doth he then so delay it alas it is worse with us then it was two or three yeares agoe the summer is past the harvest is come and yet we are not delivered much bloud is shed the enemy is yet strong and potent our hearts faile our instruments decay and yet the worke hangs if God did appeare in his glory why would it come on thus heavily I answere the Lord is a God of judgment he is a wise God he knowes the fittest time That he doth delay is neither because he is weary of the work or because he is not able to doe it or because the enemy is strong No no the Holy One of Israel never fainted neither is he weary but it is onely because his best time is not yet come he will it may be more fit the enemies for destruction and us for deliverance it may be he will hunt us yet more from all our self-confidence and lay us low but in the fittest and best time of all this work must proceed no weapon can prosper that is forged against it the Lord will carry it on and finish it whether we live to see it it 's no matter if we dye and goe to heaven we are well enough let us serve God in our generation in this work which himselfe will owne in all generations Is it the Lords glory to build up Zion then miserable and wretched and cursed are all they that are the enemies of Zion who would pull Zion downe who with the children of Edom who cry Downe with it downe with it even to the very foundation who with Sanballat and Tobiah doe strive all they can to keep it low to hinder the Work-men that they may not carry it on what doe you think will become of these I le tell you how you shall guesse you shall finde in the sixth of Ezra when a great Emperour of Persia came to understand a decree of Cyrus wherein it appeared he was stirred up of God to build his house at Hierusalem he wrote a Letter to Tatnai and Shethar-boznai and many others who were enemies to the Jewes and had writ to the Emperour to know whether they
the hands of Princes thus did Jehoshaphat thus did Hezekiah thus did Josiah thus did Ezra and Nehemiah all the good Kings of old they all made it their care to command the people to make them enter into an Oath and a Curse and none might live under their priviledge and protection who would not returne to the God of their Fathers I confesse I think it is not in the power of Magistrates to compell a people unto whom God can lay no claime by Covenant to alter from a heathenish Religion to be the Lords people yet they should be carefull to send Ministers to preach unto them and try if by any meanes they may be brought to receive the truth in love yea and to punish them severely if they blaspheme or seek to draw away Gods people to Idolatry c. When the Jewes David or Solomon or any of their Kings conquered the Nations round about them they never compelled any of them to forsake their false Gods and to turne Proselytes because those people never had chosen God to be their God but a people who once had in Covenant made themselves the Lords and so the Lord by virtue of the Covenant could lay claim to them and their posterity his Princes and servants have ever according to his will compelled these to stand to their Covenant or else they should not enjoy their protection and therefore Josiah and those good Kings put them all to death who followed Baal and returned not unto the Lord their God For our selves our Plantations ought never to endevour to convert Infidels by violence Christs people must be a willing people we leave such conversions to the Spaniards who worried the Indians to death with dogges and drove them into the river like cattell and compelled them to be baptized but for a people who have received Christianity and have been seduced to Anti-christianity to whom still the Lord continues his claime by the same right that Jehu destroyed Baal and other good Kings Jeroboams Calves and the rest of their Idols and compelled them to stand to the Lords Covenant and Oath by the same warrant and rule may you root out Popery and Heresie and proceed against incorrigible Papists Hereticks Blasphemers and such as have apostatized from the Lord and refuse to returne This power the Lord hath given you for the purgation of Religion to remove and cast out the things that are abominable You have power also and it is your duty to set up all Gods Ordinances Ordinances for Worship Ordinances for Government thus did all the good Kings you shall read of You are also to finde out fit Ministers for the house of God to see that they be regularly called tried and ordained and sent forth in the way of the Gospel all this the Lord hath put into your hands This for the Reformation and when you have set the house of God in a good state the Lord calls you further to take care for the preservation of it by providing Seminaries of learning and piety that the Sons of the Prophets may be bred that there may never want a seed to furnish the house of God with able faithfull and skilfull Work-men and to provide and continue sufficient maintenance to them And so likewise to convocate Synods Assemblies and to encourage Ministers with putting them upon their duties quickning them up to it c. providing that the mouth of the Oxe be not muzled that treads out the Corne that the Levites be not compelled to leave their Cities All these things for the preservation of Religion hath the Lord put into your hands and these things God requires at your hands yea I say further the Lord would have you look to it that as none shall rob Gods people of the liberties Christ hath given them nor take away any of their priviledges from them yea and that the weak both in knowledge faith and practice be born with so far as the Apostles Canons doe require so on the other side to provide that Hereticks and false Teachers who would withdraw the people from their God who would steale them away from the knowledge and worship and service of God to licenciousnesse to profanesse to ungodlinesse to idolatry to blasphemy and to such things as overthrow Religion the Lord requires it at your hands not to permit such Wolves to live amongst them surely such are no more to be born with who thus murther soules then they who murther mens bodies Now my Lords these are admirable duties and dignities these are such things to be employed in that there is not an Angel in heaven not an Apostle now with God nor a Minister on earth but would as willingly be employed in this work as to be in the glory of heaven it selfe and seeing God himselfe appears in his glory when he builds up Zion my humble suit is that your Lordships would count it your glory and think with David you never are so gallant and glorious as when you are dancing before the Ark of God And to stirre you up to it I shall use two sorts of Motives one taken from your selves from your owne present standing and condition the other from the consequence and benefit of the work it self First your owne standing and condition affords you many notable arguments such as might even compell you to make it your glory to help forward this great building of the Church of God You are great men lifted up above your Brethren God hath done that for you which he hath denied to millions in the Kingdome you know your states bloud birth dignities priviledges so well that I need not reckon them Now God having made you greater then others he expects and certainly it would be a very comely thing that you should be the forwardest of all to help forward this work that God is so well pleased with And secondly God hath also put into your hands more talents and abilities and opportunities to doe this work then into the hands of others many willing men who would lay downe all would doe all and give all they have to further it yet are not able to doe so much as one Vote of yours may doe one I or one No given by you may more forward the building of this work then the lives and states of many thousands Now when such an opportunity is in your hands when you are so furnished and enabled to doe it how sad a thing would it prove if you should not improve it Nay thirdly my Lords you are Noble-men and therefore you cannot out of true Nobility but desire to have your hands in noble and honourable imploiments sure I am since you were borne or since this generation begun never was it in the hand or opportunity of men to be laid out more honourably then you may in cordially helping forward this great work never can you be so glorious in the eyes of God
like a ball in strange countries It is no thinking to continue greatnesse in despight of God who at his pleasure puls down and raiseth up But in this work you have him ingaged build you Gods house and hee will build yours give his blessing to your posterity or in case they faile give you a name that is better then of Sons and Daughters But I 'l tell you that which is better for you better to your soules when you have served him herein this glorious work when the day of account and reward comes they who faithfully work most in this building shall have the best wages they shall sit upon thrones there and shine even as the Sun in the firmament for ever Secondly The benefit of this work for the publique State The publique State my Lords is that that you have sweat and toyl'd for hitherto and you would rejoyce to see it well setled to see poore England buoide out of these quick-sands into which it is falne What a blessed man would he be that could but put us into the way how to pacify Gods wrath kindled against the Nation and secure it for the time to come Now my Lords this will doe both this will pacify the wrath of God No such way under Heaven to remove it as to goe on faithfully in Reforming the House of God in setling Religion according to the Word That Heathen King Artaxerxes sent a letter by Ezra to all the Governours and bids them that they should let Ezra have all that he would desire for the House of God so much Gold and Silver and Wheat and Oyle and Salt as much as he would and bids him goe on and set all in order and what was the great Motive For saith he Why should there be wrath upon the Realme of the King and his Sons marke it if all was not done that was requisite for the House of God there would be wrath and let it be done and there would be no wrath so I say to you that God who hath cast us into these combustions can easily quiet them how often when we have been ready to strike saile in the harbour hath some Euroclydon cast us out into the sea againe and on the other side when ready to sinke how unexpectedly hath he raised our hopes Our work lies with him and with him only pacify God and all is done this black storm will bee blown over if hee but speak all will bee quiet you may see this clearly in the prophecy of Haggai God was very much displeased with them and blasted and cursed every thing they took in hand but as soon as they cordially set upon this work his spirit was pacifyed towards them And then for time to come with which I end The doing of this work wil be the readiest way to secure England against the like danger I am perswaded you all think that the seeds of deadly and continuall feuds are now rooted between Family and Family Neighbour and Neighbour such are the plunders and havocks made out of cruell spight and God knowes whether the childe but new born will ever live to see an end of them these I think are your feares but carry you on this work and this will secure the peace of the State for the time to come I say againe the doing of this shall secure all so that no Enemy shall bee able to hurt you It 's said of the Trojans Palladium and the Romans Ancile that they were the protection of those Cities that while they were safe no Enemy could hurt them when they were stolne and gone the City was lost Certainely the establishing of this will bee the Palladium and Ancile of England you have a promise in the fourth of Isaiah the latter end of it The Lord would create upon every dwelling of Mount Zion a pillar of a cloud and a pillar of fire for Upon all the glory there shall bee a defence mark a defence upon all the glory Keligion is the glory the ordering of Gods House is his glory and that is a defence even a wall of fire And you have had good experience of the fruit of Religion in this huge conflict wee have had these three or foure yeeres together for our Religion and Liberty mark who are they that have left you and who adheard unto you whether the Counties that have forsaken you have not generally been the dark places the Cities and corners of the Land where nothing but superstition Prelacy Ignorance and profanenesse have dwelt and whether the City of London and the Counties which have had the Gospel where Christ hath been soundly preached have not been the men who to the exhausting of all have adheared to you in your righteous defence and it 's hard to name one Town that hath been against you where the people are subdued to the Gospel of Christ and you find the generality of godly men thorow-out the Kingdom resolved to sink or swim with you because Jesus Christ hath put it into your hearts to reform and build up Zion I will conclude with that promise in the 58 of Isaiah the latter end where the Lord exhorts his people to build the old waste places and repaire the Cities for the generations c. The great incouragement which the Lord there gives them is The glory of the Lord shall bee their Rereward not their reward onely but their rereward their reserve that that shall back them the glory of the Lord is Religion the Ark and Ordinances Set up Religion beautifie the place of his Sanctuary make the place of his feet glorious that will keep God among you and keep the people faithfull to God and your selves and establish you so that the Enemy shall not bee able to rise up or if he do and come one way he shall fly seven waies And this is the first Circumstance from which the Prophet so magnifies this work of building up Zion because when the Lord doth build up Zion hee appears in his glory Consider what I have said and the Lord give you understanding in al things FINIS Esa. 60. 13. The Introduction shewing the tenor and occasion and scope of this Psalme Esa. 40. 1 2. Jer. 29. 12 13. Esa. 40. 31. And of these words Doct. 1. Doct. 2. Doct. 1. The building up oâ—Zion is a work peculiar to God alone 2 Sam. 5. 7. What is meant by Zion and the building of it 2 Sam. 6. 12. compared with 1 King 8. 1. Ephes 4. 11 12. 13. Proved by Scriptures 1. Mat. 16. 28. Psal. 32. 13 14 c. 48. 12. 51. 18. 69. 35. 126. 1 Esa. 14. 32. 28. 16. Zach. 8. 3 4. Psal. 121. 1 2. And by reason 1. because no other builders have any skill to doe it 2. 1 Psal. 49. 1. 8. Though God use them as his instruments Psal. 121. 12. Esa. 63. 5. Yet they contribute nothing to this work 1 Cor. 3. 6