an end and the Glass of Antichrist almost run and certainly the King of Sion shall be as publique in his glory as ever he was in his shame his Deriders little considering that while they willingly add to his shame they really though unwilling add to his glory for as he was not crucified in a corner but at Jerusalem the eye and center of the world so he shall descend from Heaven in Majesty with shouts riding on the Clouds as in his Charriot attended by millions of Angels and Saints his royal Favorites all eies beholding of him and every knee bowing to him Jude 14 15. Woe be to the great ones of this world then when Pilat that sat on the Bench shall stand at the Bar and our Lord Jesus that once stood at the Bar shall sit on the Bench when we shall see not Persons but Causes heard the Judges being judged and the judged being Judges when Emperors and Kings shall be brought not in Chains of Gold about their necks but in Fetters of Iron about their heels When the Peers and Powers and Potentates of the World shall hold down their heads and hold up their hands and cry guilty When most of all the Mighty and all the almost All mighty of the Earth that have disrobed Christ of his Title and robbed him of his honor shall be led up and down this Court q.d. as Tamberlain led Bajaret in an iron Cage through Asia to be gazed on and howted at by all the Saints Psal 149.6 7 8 9. 1 Cor. â— 2 as the Prisoners of the Law and Prizes of Justice what then will become of all those Politicians that make Covenants in Conscience and break Covenants out of necessity That like children stand on the earth with their heads and boldly shake their heels towards Heaven That set up the Kingdom of Christ no faster than they can rear their own Kingdoms of all those that had rather themselves should reign in a corner than that our Lord and Master should rule in the whole World Never thinking how those Crowns that now sit light on their Heads will ere long lye heavy on their Consciences For God though he suspends the execution yet he hath not altered the method of his Justice on such offenders It is a maxim of the Law Right sometimes sleeps but it never dies The reconciling Sion and Babylon Pride Oppression the intollerable tolleration of all kinds of Religions Bribery and Intemperancy are now acted on another Stage by other persons but they are the same sins aliena scena eadem fabula if that Headship that flattering Prelates in former ages took from Jesus Christ be yet taken from Christ and given to men in the Nations if Christs Crown be pulled off his head no matter whose head it warm in the world Mal. 3.15 Mal. 4.1 And as for this Nation in special my prayers to the Lord are that Holiness may not onely have a tolleration but an Authority amongst us against Licenciousness both of Judgement and Conversation that the Rulers of England may not say The time is not come that the Lords house should be built but rather hear God say is it time for you O ye to dwell in your sciled houses and this house lie waste Hag. 1. That they would expeditiously do the work of this age Because to every purpose there is a time and judgement therefore the misery of man is great upon him Eccles 8. That our Officers may not onely be Peace but that our Exactors Righteousness that we may be made an eternal excellency and the joy of many Generations Isa 60. That saying in your hearts the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be our strength in the Lord of Hosts they may be like an Hearth of fire among the wood and like a Torch of fire in a sheaf devouring Sions enemies round about on the right hand and on the left Zech. 12. For shame therefore let Virgins arise and either get oyle or cast away their Lamps Security makes you uncapable both of seeing your reward or doing your work First Think not because you can properly be but once regenerated that you need but once to repent Converted David q d. must repent of his Adultery before he be saved Repentance is not onely as life to the dead but as salve to the wounded sinner Repentance is as the Vowels in the Alphabet which we have not onely need of to spell with while we are Babes but to read with all when we are men in Christ Mortification and Humility are not accidents or things by the by but of the very substance the very Materials and Pillars of the New Jerusalem The Gospell it self I suspect will ere long be but an old Almanack to them to whom Repentance and confessing of and mourning over sin is now upon what glorious pretences soever out of date Secondly Plead for Opinions as Opinions and for Graces as for Graces I fear those that plead for disputable Opinions as infallible Truths will ere long hold vital and indisputable Truths as conformity to the Gospel sincere Faith in and repentance towards Christ but as failable and fallible Opinions This is intollerable folly to see men slaves to Opinions and Masters over Graces if the Lord extinguish not this fond zeal the carnal world hence forward will take advantage to think that Religion lies onely in thinking and conceiving and in the next age conclude they are not to seek Religion in their Bibles but in the brains of men O Lord How many are true to false Principles and false to true Principles and will rather die Martyrs for Error than bow as Servants to Truth These are some of them that have been over wise in their own eyes and yet as the wiseman speaks have not known the way to the City that call this or that way Christ and not Christ the way that set up an Image in their own Opinions and censure all the world as Idolaters that will not do homage to it proclaiming subjection with Lutes and Cymbals of peace and though on the first entertainment of such Opinions men have had a calmness in their Consciences yet afterwards have found themselves burning in a Furnace of discontents and doubts as then remembring that neither this or that Opinion availed any thing to peace in Christ but a new creature Thirdly While you cry out against the old Superstition beware of being tainted with the new disease of this age not the plague of the guts but of the heart not the Rickets in the head but the pride of life alias Hypocrisie alias apparent Prophaneness Fly as far from Licentiousness as you do from the formality of Rome Woe be to the profession of Religion if your Profession should stand or fall to the verdict of the world Oh! let not those whom you must one day judge justly judge you now Some possibly may say The world are dogs and their mouths must be stopped Christ is a mystery our principles are above their
into our own Vessels Christians look about you you live in an infectious Air therefore take cordials where ever he hath a poyson have you an Antidote take down the antidote of Humility against the poyson of Pride of Sincerity against Hypocrisie of Zeal against Apostacy It is easier to keep sin out of the conscience than to cast it out when in The Devil is a fiery Serpent and if he can but get in his head he will get in his whole body and if he do not yet the sting is in his head How many virgin Professors have lost their spiritual chastity in an hour that they have been procuring many years and that dear peace of Conscience in a moment that they have not imbraced again till eternity But alas while we should give cordials to others we faint our selves we should awaken others and we sleep our selves we should uphold others and we fall our selves we should help to revive others and we are dead Many that have time to reprove and advise others have not hearts many that have hearts have not time their own hearts are so out of frame and tune Like dying men we take hold of one another and we love to perish in company But Christians Arise and prepare for the coming of your Master for as it is certain so it will be sudden If it were the last hour in Pauls time sure now it is the last minute of that last hour Oh Lord never was the Judge nigher to come and never less preparation for his coming Christians have we not Closets to mourn in or rather do not we want hearts to mourn with all Hath Christ cast his Cloak of love over you and said live and will you not pitty those that yet lie as it were dead in their blood if you have any Knowledge advise any Faith pray any Zeal endeavor any Wisdom soberly wait for the coming of the Lord draws nigh How can Christ wipe tears from our eyes if we never wept for his absence or come to answer our prayers if we never pray for his coming Awake awake the night is far spent arise the Day star is risen in the world we have slept too long already Endeavor that when the Father comes he may not find you like Prodigals out of his house that when the Captain of your Salvation comes he may not find you in the Trenches of the Devil or of the World a Lying a Swearing a beating your fellow Brethren for even to these monstrous sins our natures are inclineable Pray Pray That when the Judge comes who is even at the door that you may not have your Accounts to be cast up when they are to be given up Judge your selves that you may not be judged The noise and news of the Bridegrooms approach is at hand Awake arise go ye out to meet him If these following Discourses may any way advantage you in your spiritual Watch against the Devil they are yours read them in love apply them to experience let them not swim in your heads but sink into your hearts And in your prayers to the Throne of Grace let him have a room who subscribes himself in our Lord Jesus A Friend to Sion FRA. RAWORTH LEt Angels now descend from thee O Lord and with this Ladder flee Abroad and in their glorious arms Guard and safeguard it from all harms That Jacobs Sleep and Dream may those awake Who without Jacobs Dream his Sleep yet take JACOBS LADDER OR The Protectorship of SYON GEN. 28.12 And Jacob dreamed and behold a Ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angells of God ascending and descending on it and behold the Lord stood above it THere is a threefold sense of this Vision literall allegorical and providentiall First literall The History of Jacob consists of three generall parts First Jacobs going to Padan Aran. Secondly his stay there Thirdly his return from thence In his going to Padan Aran the motives which induced him to go thither are recorded which were to take a wife of his own kindred and that hee might withdraw himself from the fury of his enraged brother Secondly the accidents that fell out by the providence of God in his journey and these were the Vision of the ladder his consecration of Bethel and his vow all contained in this chapter my purpose is only to paraphrase and apply the Vision of Jacobs Ladder The Lord open this Vision to our eies to see it and open our eies to see it Four things might perplex Jacob in this journey That he should leave his Country that hee should forsake his friends that hee might fall into poverty lastly solitarinesse and want of company wherefore the Lord seasonably appears to Jacob in this Vision though thou leavest thy country yet be content I will not leave thee and as for thy friends be not troubled I am thy friend can you mend your self Jacob and for shame fear not poverty if the word of thy God may be taken east and west shall be at thy command Let Jacob say certainly I shall never see God want and wherefore should I be dismayed seeing the Lord saith I will never see Jacob want and let not Jacob fear to be alone for Angells shall travell with him and that which is security enough Jacob shal have in company not only the Angells of God but the God of Angells The Ladder is the journey of Jacob the Angells ascending and descending his royal attendants going to returning with him frō Padan Aran the Lord stands on the top of the Ladder as guiding and governing all Jacob I am perswaded never had a sweeter nights lodging than at this time when the stones were his pillow and the Heavens his canopy when Providence made his bed and Angells rockt the cradle How pleasant is it to consider Angells guard Jacob God guards the Angells and God guards Jacob with Angells what ground then hath Jacob to fear either men or Devills to disturb him when hee hath a guard of God and of his Angells Secondly an Allegorical sense and so Christ is this Ladder John I. ult by his Divine nature he reached to Heaven by his humane to the earth his incarnation being a commerce between Divinity and humanity the steps of this Ladder are either the genealogy of Christ or the successive works of his redemption John the tenth Hee that climbs up or thinks to climb up any other way to heaven than by this Ladder is a thief for John the 14. hee is the only way for satisfaction for justification for sanctification the only way from God to man and from Man to God every poor sinner hath liberty to ascend these stairs Tolle scalas Aetii tu solus Coelum introibis and the righteous Pharisee shall never enter the star-chamber of heaven at a backdore Every man by nature sees the necessity of some Ladder or other to climb up to salvation by the Mahumetan
wicked man as wicked as Cain to prolong his life and to have the world at command but yet carp not at providence let the Lord be down before you think to lift him up enter not into the Chair to offer knowledge to God about his Works There is no reason that the Lord should give man a reason of all his ways he often wils a change but never changeth his will God may retreat in his Providences as to us and undo all he hath been doing in England these fifteen years and make Sion put on her mourning apparel and yet not be either unconstant or unfaithful though I hope better things For it is observeable that Providence in the main is never Excentrical and in the main is never Retrograde The Lord oft looks backward but never goes backward He led Israel forty years about in the wilderness and yet never carried them back to Egypt Abraham is promised a Son and a numerous off-spring but as if Providence had forgot it self to us Abraham is commanded to offer up Isaack and whereas he might have objected Lord thou art wont to call for Oxen to be sacrificed and dost thou require me to sacrifice my son Thy word saith I must not kill Certum est quia impossibile est and thy mouth saith I must kill and Lord thou hast promised to multiply my seed and now thou callest for my Isaack How can the branches grow if the stock be cut down and yet Abraham obeyed winking and putting his hand into the Lords hand following him though Providence as it were crossed the Promise We now have as the Prophet speaks a wheel in a wheel So I trust ere God hath done with England we shall have as the Rabbi speaks a miracle in a miracle Fourthly In this Ladder we have The independency of Providence The Ladder we see is onely reared and supported by God it is not a crooked Ladder but stands upright toward Heaven It Leans not on the mountains of men nor Palaces of Kings Many quarrel and find fault with the Ladder of Providence but this Ladder shall never fall down before man or to man The Prophet undertakes the challenge Isa 40.15 Who hath been the Counseller of God or hath taught the Almighty The wise King of Aragon was so foolish as to think he could have made the Creation better if he had been of Gods Counsel and some men think there are Erratae's in the volume of Providence by their murmurings and would fain be a correcting the Lords Copy and amending the Lines of his Government in the world methinks false-hearted man is like flattering Absolom who would insinuate to the people neglects in his Fathers Government There is no man deputed of the King to do Justice and that he was able to guide Israel in a better order But John the 15. The Church is compared to a Vine and God will have it lean on himself and not to be supported by the poles and policy of men It is observed that the weakest women have often the strongest children and that the Lord hangs the heaviest weights on the smallest wyars The stone in Daniel is cut out of the mountains without hands The Gospel and Sion are neither framed nor forged by man both are the handy-works of God as there was no concurrence of mans power to the generation of Christ personal so there is no concurrence of the wisdom of man to the generation of Christ mystical Cicero fell in with Caesar when Pompey was defeated and it is no dishonor for man routed in his way to fall down to God Man must lean on God but God will never lean on man man must go to God God will never come to man If the mountain will not come to Mahumet Mahumet will go to the Mountain said that bold Impostor when he could not work a miracle which he promised to his followers Oecolampadius had a good cause as they said but he wanted Souldiers to bear it up but let Sion remember that her cause is not so good but the strength of her Protector is as great to maintain it Quod est causa causae est causa causati There is nothing that God doth by the creature but he can do without the creature rather than Sion shall fall the God of Sion will not stand on miracles Fifthly In this Ladder we have the extent of Providence The Ladder is set upon the earth and the top of it reached to Heaven Providence extends 1 To all senseless and irrational creatures both in their Preservation and Government First Virtus est maxima pertingere quam remotissimae In their Preservation The Epicures confine God to the Palace of Heaven as if it were below his Majesty to take notice of the lower world The Stoicks limit him to the middle Region But the Lord deals not like a Carpenter or Artizan who have done all their work when a house is built and a Clock put together There is as much need of a Divine wisdom to preserve as there was of a Divine power to make the world There is a necessity not onely of a privative influx from God that is not onely that he does not destroy his creatures but of a positive influence to maintain the creatures in being Job 6.9 If the Lord take away his hand Job would fall not onely to the ground but also to his first principles of nothing Mithridates a General knew all the names of all the Souldiers in his Army The Heavens are the Lords Hosts and they in all their rancks and orbes are known and kept by the Lord of Hosts Cincinnatus his honor was at the same time to hold the Plow and the Helm of State The Lord made as well the least worm on earth as the most glorious Angel in Heaven Deus nec laborat in maximis nec fastidit in minimis and it costeth the Lord as many words to make a worm as to make an Angel for all was done with a word It is no disgrace for the Lord to walk up and down by his Providence and over-look all his creatures the baseness of any creature no more defiles God than a dunghil vapor infects the Sun beams The lesser a clock is as if it can lie under the wings of a Fly the greater is the skill of the Clock-maker The Smith was commended for beating iron into chains and nets that they could hardly see them being thinner than the smallest thread or the web of a Spider God is great in the greatest creatures and he is great in the smallest creatures It is to be feared that those that at present question Providence Deus est in culice in pulice Saeculum est speculum upon the same accounts may ere long deny the Creation A King is confined to his proper Ubi and Palace and he orders things in his Dominions by Deputies and Viceroys but the Lord can no more be absent from his creatures than
of comfort or rods of afflictions God saith in Scripture he will give peace If all the Angels in Heaven should have said so we should soon have replied as Corah and his company to Moses and Aaron Numb 16. Yee take too much on you It is observed that God in Scripture is called a man of War and yet nothing so much discovers him to be a God as war 2 This Ladder of Providence reacheth the publick Honors and Governments of the World God 1 Sam. 2.8.9 raiseth the poor from the dust and lifts up the Beggar from the dunghill though too often they forget the ground from whence they came and the hand that lifted them up Promotion Psal 75.6 comes neither from the East nor West nor South That is from the Power and Policy of men Euthymius thinks there is an allusion to the Southsayers who promised good success according to the Stars of Nativity as if a man be born under Jupiter he should be honorable if under Mercury he should be witty no saith God Promotion comes neither from this or that Star from this or that quarter of the Heavens but from the Lord. It was accounted by a great man mentioned in our Chronicles a greater honor to make Kings than to be a King himself The Lord is a King and Kingdoms are his donatives and he Crowns and Uncrowns at his pleasure Nebuchadnezzar was cast down on purpose that he might see that God set him up Dan. 4.17 Kingdoms are not bound to Princes in chains of Adamant as one said his was Kings are faster bound to their Kingdoms than their Kingdoms are bound to them All Kingdoms on earth are Regna transcuntia moveables going and coming at Gods order from one man to another The Earth is the Lords and all the Kingdoms of the Earth are but Copy-holds belonging to his Kingdom as the Capital Mannor and Hold from him The Heathen well fancied a golden chain to reach from the divine Chair in Heaven to all the Crowns in the world Here we must shun two main Rocks against which the judgements of men are apt to split 1 What if some have exchanged a Prison for a Throne and Fetters of iron for chains of gold What if it hath been observed in the Journal of Providence Eccles 10.7 That Servants have been seen on horses and Princes walking as servants on the earth Subjects to prove Kings Tota ratio facti saepe pendet à ratione facientis and Kings to prove scarce Subjects Take heed of Atheism say not these things are fortuitous or unjust in God these are the chances q. d. and changes of Providence whose ways are sometimes secret but never unrighteous All Nations were made of one blood all blood is of one colour and if men take their descent from Adam they all stand on even ground When meanness is exalted do not bate The place its honor for the persons sake The Shrine is that which thou dost venerate And not the beast that bears it on his back I care not though the Cloth of State should be Not of rich Arras but of mean Tapestry 2 What if some rise on this Ladder of Providence as many have done and leave a good conscience at the bottom The Devil is visible in the best Governor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui conatur excipere conatur decipere and something of God invisible in the worst Governor on earth All the waies and kinds of Government are from God though the means and manner of getting those Governments are not always from God Magistracy is a civil Ordinance of God and so in it self good now the well or ill management of that Power is consequent to and not constitutive of the Power so that though Magistrates are bound to do well they may possibly do ill through their own corruption yet the Power is as much of God when they do ill as when they do well for though oft they want a Will to do good yet they have no Commission nor Power from God to do evill Good Magistrates are the garment in which God apparrels himself and he that shoots at the Cloaths cannot say he means not the man The objection of the Devils Power is inconsiderable because his power is not civil but moral and in it self evil and we are commanded to submit to the Civil Magistrate though evil but never to the Devil nor to pray for his Government that under it we may lead a quiet and godly life 1 Pet. 2.13 1 Tim. 2.2 Ephes 6 12. Every Power Rom. 13.1 is of God speaking of worldly Powers for there was not then a Christian Magistracy in the world point blank The power of Nero was from God Secundum merita subditorum Deus disponit corda praepositorum as well as that of Constantine The Apostle argues from the Author of that Authority It is certain all Higher Powers are from the Highest Power Let Subjects remember that Magistrates are Gods with Men and let Magistrates remember they are but Men with God I said ye are Gods there is their Coronation But ye shall dye like men there is there Funeral The Name and Title of God is never in Scripture as I know attributed to any one single or individual person but with a certain limitation as God said to Moses I have made thee a god thou art a made god in my place thou art a god to Pharaoh What if Governors as there have been such should as the Proverb is more mind the beautifying their own houses than the building of Italy If when they put on a publick Gown they should not put off a private person that they should obtain their Crowns as Alexander the sixth did by giving his soul to the Devil and afterwards may prove Nebuchadnezzars the Lamentation of their Generations as the word signifies That when their single words should be as good as Oaths that they should play with Oaths as children do with Rattles What if when they enter into Office they should put Conscience out of Office That they should buy places of Judicature and sell Justice and that not at a cheap rate because they bought dear What if they should be men not compounded of flesh and blood as other men are but as it is said of Richard the Third made up all of blood If they lastly should not write their Laws in Milk with Edward the Sixt but as Draco in Blood Yet every Prince is the Minister of Providence and if men were wise for their good if a good Prince for their temporal good if a bad Prince Si bonus nutritâ—r tuus sin malus tentator tuus for their eternal good by their temporal evil If it be questioned whether Inferiors ought to honor Superiors that are evil I answer yes for the wickedness of man cannot make void Gods Ordinance no more than mans unbeleef can frustrate Gods promise We must honor Magistrates that are evill but not in evill Hos 8.4 They have
an house the least breath of Providence throws them down and the higher they were lifted up from the ground the greater will be their fall They are Gods Plowers ver 3. It seems when Sion is in many tribulations God hath many Plows agoing and when the back of Sion is furrowed and dunged with persecutions and reproaches the Lord will loosen the Cords and cut the Traces In a good sense God speed the Plow Though they build Amos 9.2 their nest in the Stars yet God will set his Ladder up and fetch them down and before their designs are fledged he will destroy both young and old and all though man cannot reach those Nests yet God can Fear not Numb 14.9 the people of the Land for they are bread to you They shall not eat us but we shall eat them they shall not eat our bread but be our bread Hath God built his House and will he suffer it to fall down for want of repair hath the Lord formed Children by his Spirit and will he grudge to be at charges to bring them up Some would have all Gods Enemys branded on the Fore-head with his broad Arrow as if God could not know them again But let his Enemys flee as far as they will he hath them in safe custody and sure guard Let men shift Apparel and Forms never so often God knows their faces and hearts It is not always Faith to beleeve quoad hic et nunc the ruin of such and such of Gods Enemies for oft we may more justly conclude they may prosper in this world because here is all the Heaven they are like to have God will take his time Oppression is mans work and punishment is Gods work and shall we think God will not be as perfect in his work as man in his He hangs up many men in Gibbets in this World lest his Providence should be doubted of Deo confisi nunquam confusi but not all lest the Judgement-Day should be denied As man hunts one Beast with another and catcheth one Bird with another so God useth one Man for the ruin of another Richard the Third used the Instrument of his bloody Plots as men do Candles burn the first out to a snuff and then having lighted another tread that under foot God makes men while they think to grind the faces of his people to bring grice beyond their own intentions to his own Mill. Cease therefore from man that is Gods Alarm Isa 2. whose breath is in his nostrils and whereof is he to be accounted How weak is Man how strong is God Take heed of idolizing man either in fearing or loving man above God That man fears God but as Man that fears Man as God When the prayers of Saints are crossed and the Enterprizes of their Enemies succeed Remember Jacobs Ladder and the Vision of Angels Gods Tryals are like bellows Satan's the Blower Blows out false Faiths makes true ones blaze the more Fear not then little Flock the greatest ill Your Foe can do's to scratch he cannot kill The second Conclusion from Jacobs Ladder Climb not but Climb First Climb not in the world The daies are evill says the Apostle The days particularly are now ambitious Oh that men did but creep up to Heaven as fast as they run up the stairs of honor on Earth that men were as greedy to be Gods people as they are of being gods over the people How few are there that had rather lie in the dust than rise by wickedness that had rather rum with Christ than reign with Caesar Nebuchadnezzar would needs be climbing Is not this great Babylon that I have built but the Lord tumbled him down headlong from his Throne to learn humility Haman would get above his Sphear and Element not high enough still aspiring till he was too high for his honor on that Ladder he made to hang poor Mordecai and some say he made it so high that he might the more highly and visibly disgrace Mordecai Who plants the Tree deserves the fruit 't is fit That he that bought the purchase handsell it The Angels were not high enough they would be above God as some think and out-grow their own skin Jude 6. but pride tript up their heels the steps brake and they fell to Hell they left their station The world was like a well ordered Army Angels once kept Rank and File the Devill first marr'd the Camp went out of his place and was cut off Aspiring Spirits march under Satans Colours and dance after his Pipe Satan would needs also lead mother Eve up these stairs Gen. 3. you shall be as God a tempting proffer she sought after the Tree of Knowledge Fortuna dum splendet frangitur and lost the Tree of Life Many have been one day high in honor and another day high on the Gallows and as they say of metal of which they make Glass it is nighest melting even when it shines brightest Shifting spirits are so used to climbing that they seldom find their legs till they break their necks The Spider Prov. 30.28 is made an Emblem of ambitious man they love the top of the Cieling So ambitious men weave their webs of honor and preferment but we know Spiders are poysonous creatures and weave their designs out of their own bowels and Providence hath a Besome with which he can easily sweep them down and especially Araneae telam â—exere it is notorious folly for Spiders to climb in that age wherein Providence is a cleansing the World Canutus promised to make him that would dispatch his Competitor for the Crown one of the highest men in England The Competitor was murthered and when the Attempter demanded the reward promised the King bad his head to be cut off and put on a pinacle in the Tower of London and so according to his promise made him one of the highest men in England so Satan serves his servants in the end Great men in high places seldom have been wise til after the blow as in the Roman storys and though they have had means to come down at their ease yet they have staid till Providence hath thrust them down headlong That exchange of verse between Q. E. and Sir W. R. is famous I fear to climb for fear left I should fall Either climb higher or climb not at all Not but that the Crown of honor is the gift of God and may be happily worn when the hand of Providence puts it on Magistracy is a Diadem and there is a lustre that God usually casteth on its Jewels especially when Religion and Righteousness bind it to the head Were it not for Magistracy Cheapside would be as notorious a place for robbery as Salisbury Plain Ubi nunc est Resp ibi fimus potius quam dum illam veterem sequimur fimus in nulla Dolabella Cice. in Ep. l. 9 and the distinction between mine and thine would fall to the ground and wee should more ordinarily have
sheep Saint and Saint Formerly we had more fire than light but the Lord knows now we have more light than fire more Knowledge than Love Every man pretends to be of the houshold of Faith Si essemus inseparabiles essemus insuperabiles but few are of the Family of Love while we contend for an ounce of Truth we lose a pound of Love Not onely for the Prophaneness and Errors but for the Divisions of England there are great thoughts of heart How far are those from one another that yet I hope are nigh to God How many that once lay in one anothers Bosoms now can hardly indure to stand in one anothers sight those that are Members of the same Body do carry themselves as if they were of different worlds How sad is it to see that many that prayed formerly one with and one for another now should pray one against another How is it said Zanchy that those speaking of the Lutherans that profess to eat the very body of Christ that milde and meek Jesus should bee so bitter against the Members of the same body O that we should agree in so much and differ for so little as in some things we do Maxima pars studiorum est studium partium Oh that though we cannot conclude all our Controversies yet we could bury up all our Contentions how long shall the greatest part of our studies be the study of parts How shall I Beleeve and Our Father be reconciled How shall those that are of different Creeds be of one Pater Noster if the division of tongues hindred the building of Babel how shall not the division of hearts hinder the building of the New Jerusalem While we have been contending about the windows we have almost lost the foundation of the Church while we have controverted for the well-being In veste fit varietas non scissura we have even lost the being of Religion in England Many of our differences are petty as that between one that was for Martin and another that was for Luther as if two should quarrel who should first enter in at the gate of Venice when neither possibly may ever come thither But further now our differences are so great that unless the Lord prevent while we contend who shall go up against Babilon we are like to go back to Babel and while we think to pull down a litteral we shall set up unaware a spiritual Antichrist But the time is a coming when those that have but one Heaven shall have one heart when they that have but one work shall have but one shoulder Zech. 3.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys The falling out of lovers shall then indeed prove the renewing of love The Lyon shall ly down with the Lamb and a little childe shall lead them Isa 11.6 Not that ever there shall be a composition made between Christ and Belial for that quarrel is of Five thousand years standing and shall be maintained to the end of the world Even now amongst most of the Saints there is a shadow of this future concordance as when a King is coming to Town one crys he comes this way another crys he comes that way at this time at that time they all go out to meet him and though they differ about the particulars yet they all expect the coming of the King Quae conveniunt in aliquo tertio conveniunt inter se and resolve to entertain him As at Athens when a Governor was to be chosen in the several Votes of the City one cryed up this man another that man but the second man still was Themistocles for such a man and Themistocles So now one crys O I am for Presbytery another I am for Independency another I am for dipping and for Christ all amongst these that are faithful centre in Christ But how glorious will it be to see all Gods children of one mind Uniones oriuntur ex mari sed magis pendent è coelo which will be when the Father comes into the Family to hear it said at last as it was said at first see how the Christians love one another Fifthly From this Ladder we may forsee the increase of righteousness Many hitherto in the world that should have been the Peace are the Troublers of a Nation those that should be Shepheards are Wolves against Sion How do the publick Enemys of Sion make the tears of the poor their wine the groans of the needy their musick Vt rei innocentes pereant siaut nocentes judices that paint the walls of the House and pluck up the foundation that beautifie their Kingdoms with Peace but never think of building of them with Religion That turn Judgement into Wormwood by delay and Righteousness into Hemlock by severity When a man fails in his Estate we say he breaks there are many broken men some broken in their Credit others broken in their Consciences but there are others that do not onely break by carelesness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but are broken by cruelty It is a great sin to take away the cloaths from a poor man but a greater to flea off his skin but there are some that rend the flesh and chop the bones for the sweetness and marrow they think to find in them Si libet licet Mic 3.2 Job 19.20 Some rob under pretence of Law others rob in the open field and think that what is got by might is got by right according to the antient Problem Jus vis apices parvo discrimine distant Jus nunc mundus habet vim quia semper habet Great Thieves have formerly worn chains of gold while little Thieves have lain stockt in chains of iron Robbin Hood was called an honest Thief because he would never rob the poor but there are few such honest Thieves instead of taking off have laid on oppression and instead of breaking yoaks have broken backs Oppressors Gen. 10.8 are called Hunters the poor are their Game Oppressions their toyles and nets mighty Oppressors are mighty Hunters In Zephanies time Oppressors were called Wolves Justitia non datur nisi vendatur Zeph. 3.3 but then they were evening Wolves but now those that are Oppressors are day Wolves Oppressors under the light of the Gospel They eate my people saith God as bread Psal 14.4 These are Man-eaters nay worse for among the Man eaters the living eat the dead but among Oppressors the dead eat the living But Jacob from this Ladder may see the new Heavens and new Earth a building wherein righteousness shall dwel If new Heavens then certainly new Suns and new Stars in a political sense new Magistrates or if you will Justitia non venit nisi provenit Magistrates with new hearts Isa 5.17 If any deridingly ask with the Epicure When shall we see this Structure where are the Carpenters whence shall come the Timber Let such remember there is no work since the Creation of the World greater
Kingdom to the Father yet so as that God that is the Son also with the Spirit may be all in all Thirdly None dare say That as God now rules by the Mediator so then the Mediator shall rule by God for the Mediator as such is subordinate to God and to say the Mediator may rule as well as God is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a necessity as to us that God rule us by a Mediator in the Church Militant but it is no way inconsistent either with the wisdom or glory of God to communicate himself immediately to the Church Triumphant Lastly Christ gives up the Kingdom not onely not as God but not absolutely considered as Mediator Christus ut Deus nos cum illo subjectos habet sed ut Sacerdos nobiscum illi subjectus est Aug. for Christ even now as Mediator is subject to God really For though Christ reigns yet so still as that God reigns by Christ though there be an immediate exercise of the Mediators Kingdom in the world yet God keeps in the Essential Throne of his glory But then further he shall be subject relatively and respectively as to his Church or Body now Christ rules his Church as Mediator and not as God onely and the very Mediator is King in actu over Sion but then this administration shall cease and the Head with the Body or Christ as part of his Church or Christ mystical shall be subject to God and thus he is not at present but shall be hereafter the Mediator being yet in the Throne but there is a time a comming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he shall give up the Kingdom to wit that Kingdom which God gave over to him and cease to reign as Mediator and it is observable that for Christ to surrender up the Kingdom and be subject to God are of all one importance vers 28. By the surrender of the Kingdom therefore we cannot understand such or such an administration of the Kingdom and not the Kingdom it self for all that Kingdom he receives he surrenders And secondly Christ must so surrender as he must be subject the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must go together And I am much pleased with the Apostles sweet Criticism that as now Christ Col. 3. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and in all So God hereafter shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all in all the Messiah hath two times especially the time of his sorrows and the time of glory In the sixth of John vers 15. they had royal blood in their veins and they would force Jesus to be a King surely that they might have preferment under him but Christ departed and flew from the Crown few men would have done as Christ did Satis pro imperio quisquis est says the Comick Men will wade up to the chin in blood for a Kingdom and stretch fair and far for a Crown it shines so amiably in their eyes Says the Devil if Jesus will but accept of the Title and Place of a King he will be so taken up with the Affairs and Offices of the world that he will not have such liberty to look after the conversion of souls the Revenues of the Devils Crown would have come in the more by such a worldly Negotiation but there is a day a coming when Jesus will not fly from a Crown nor refuse a Scepter his glory shall be as eminent as ever was his shame The Daughters of Sion shall go forth and Crown King Jesus in the day of his solemn Espousals and such a day shall be the gladness of his heart Jesus hath born all the wrath of the world and he is able in a spiritual visible sense to bear all the glory of the world on his shoulders Can. 3.11 The children of Judah and of Israel shall be gathered together at a place of their general Randezvouz and by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Election by lifting up their hands and voyces appoint themselves one head and they shall one and all as we say come up out of the Land for great and glorious shall be the day of Jezreel Jesus Christ is a righteous King and he hath a right to his Kingdom It is utterly impossible that ever he should prove either an Vsurper or a Tyrant He thinks it no robbery to be equal with God then certainly it is no robbery for him to be preheminent above men Phil. 2.6 It is no robbery for King Jesus to pull Saint Peter out of his Chair and there in Majesty to rule the Nations with a Rod of iron if he please No robbery for him to melt all the Crowns in Europe to make a Diadem of glory for his own Temples If any think they have gone deeper in a purchase for the Government of the world than our Lord Jesus let them stand up if they dare and lay their claim let them now speak or ever after hold their peace In the expectation therefore of these things let the Saints rejoyce Vniversal Redemption will then prove a Truth when all yoaks shall be taken off the necks and all burthens off the backs of the children of God It is observable that the substance of all the Revelation is contained in these two words Hosanna and Halelujah God bless us and we bless God hitherto we have been a singing Hosanna but Halelujah is a coming Praise and Honor and Glory to the Lamb that sits on the Throne If any object That any of the above-mentioned Promises concern the Jews I answer True but not the Jews onely and though Promises are not to be confounded and applied to one people if they should onely belong to another yet it will be found according to the Promises that the glory of the Jews will be the glory of the Gentiles and though now we are divided yet then we shall be one fold Rom. 11.12 What God hath joyned together let no man separate To conclude The Saints must pray for and endeavor to promote the more glorious part of this Kingdom of which we speak in which there shall be neither such covetousness nor complaint But all endeavors will fall short of setting of it up on Earth till our Lord Jesus the King shall come down from Heaven in the Clouds We shall never have such a Kingdom untill we have such a King The Feet of the Saints shall not all be out of their Fetters till the King of Saints comes into his Throne Dan. 7.13 27. Princes will never so rule in Judgement till this King shall reign in Righteousness Is 32.1 The New Jerusalem will be Gods Creature The Stone is cut out without hands there may be something of the heart of the Saints in this glorious Structure but it shall neither be the work of their Head nor Hands This model of Government is beyond the invention of Saints as it is beyond the beleef of man Many shall welcome it in the
of a Jacobine He dwelleth in the secret of the most High they must conquer God before they conquer him they may strike at but they can never distress Sion till they q.d. strike thorow God Sion though she be not properly invulnerable yet she is invincible Qui Jacobum impetit Deum petit Wherefore now let Jacob wrestle again and reason with his God Humbly ask the Lord Whether he can see his Sion even a shipwracking Preces electorum sunt Deo coctoquia and yet not throw over a Plank to her his children a swouning and fainting under their temptations and not give them a Cordial his Spouse a dying and not once labor to visit her with Salvation Can the Shepheard be content to see the Wolves to worry his tender Flock and the Father love to behold his children to hate one another Dearest Lord is not thy Glory dearer to thee than it can be to thy Spouse and shall she be sollicitous and wilt thou seem not so to provide against thy dishonor Is the Crown of the Lord glistering enough on his head in the eyes of the Woâ—ld Hath our Jesus the purchase and full procurement of his blood Hast thou left thy compassions to as well as the infirmities of thy Body behind thee on earth Is our Joseph in Heaven where there are Barn-fulls of Glory and Provision enough and shall thy Brethren starve for want of Crums of Comfort from thy Table Are thine Affections altered with thy condition and doth the Lord trample under his feet his children while he is now in his glory whom he counted as the apple of his eye in the days of his sufferings Shall we give over praying for the opening the blinde eye and softning the hard heart Shall we fall asleep and urge thee no more Shall we pull our hands from thy Plow and our necks from thy Yoke will the Lord dispense with our lukewarmness and wink at our Apostacy Is it not thy grief to see thy Spirit so grieved to see such noysom weeds and errors to grow in thy Garden which thou so much regardest And so much backsliding after the profession of so much Reformation Shall wee see Sion bleed to death and never ask balm more Hath not the Lord said His Mountain shall be set on the top of all Mountains and that Jerusalem shall be made the joy of many Generations Is not this the hand of the Lord and his own broad Seal How long doth thy Charriot wheels stay Cui magis de Deo quam Deo credam Hath our Lord Jesus bled to death for his Saints and will he now suffer them to bleed to death Doth he love to see the face of his Church beautiful and will he never wipe off the tears of blood that yet are trickling down her cheeks Is the Lord angry at the Prayers of his people and is he not angry at the Blasphemies of his Enemies Art thou offended because we pray for Sion and wilt thou not be offended if we should not pray Is it not yet dark enough that yet the day doth not dawn because it is said at evening time it shall be light and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom commeth How many steps more will the Lord fetch before hee turn about and shew us his face Have we already the first fruits and shall we never have the Harvest Hath Sion often made Land and said now we are come to our Harbor and Rest and shall we be driven into the tempestuous Ocean again Is not our dross separated from our gold that yet we are not taken out of the Furnace Are we not yet holy enough that we are not delivered or are we not yet ripe enough in sin that we are not perfectly destroyed Will the Lord comfort us mourning or enliven us dying or raise us when buried and in our graves O Lord Though thou dishonorest thy people yet wilt thou disgrace the Throne of thy glory Will not the Adversary say Surely if God in love had begun thus to build he would have gone on to finish Though we are trampled under feet must thy Christ be trampled under feet Though his Body hath deserved to sit on Dunghils and lye in fetters of iron yet our Head hath merited to sit on a Throne and to have the liberty of his Spirit in the world Though our prayers are rejected yet wilt thou not fulfill thine own Promises we humbly confess thou hast a royal Prerogative to save and to destroy but O Lord art thou not bound in Covenant to set up thy Son and if thou makest not hast for his glory will not the world be ready to say the Lord is gone back of his word Is it onely Free Grace and Mercy and not also Justice and Righteousness for our God to justifie condemned sinners and to sanctifie prophane Conversations and to carry on the building of the New Jerusalem to its desired perfection Doth the Lord seem to cast us off to see whether we wil indeed cast him off or hide himself to see whether we will earnestly seek after him Preces fundimus coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus Because his smiles have not caused us to love him will he now frown on us to make us to fear him are the golden days of his spiritual presence gone and not to come as we hoped they were that we should rather put mourning on our backs than take Harps into our hands Because England hath been perfidious and perjurious to God will God now break his Covenant of Faithfulness with England Shall the unfaithâ—ulness of man make God unfaithful Did the Lord of old wait to be gracious and will he now wait till we are gracious Was the Lord wont to be found of those that sought him not and will he not be now found of those that seek him Wilt thou not pardon our Hypocrisie Pride Passions and Prophaneness till we repent and wilt thou not graciously give us an heart to repent of those evils Shall the new Heavens and new Earth never be built till we are fit Inhabitants And shall disconsolate Sion never be ransomed from her spiritual slaveries and distractions till they are worthy to be ransomed Is not the price of her Redemption already paid and will the Lord seem to require the debt again O Lord are we so far gone from thine house like Prodigals that either we want an heart to return or an hope if we return that our Father will accept of us Art not thou the God of Peace Is not thy Son the Son of Peace thy Spirit the Spirit of Peace thy Gospel the Gospel of Peace and shall not thy Children be Children of Peace is Christ in one of his followers against Christ in another is Christ divided Blessed Father how shall the world know we are thy Children if we have not thy Image thy Servants if we wear not thy Livery Will the World be convinced by our Divisions
saying this way or that way God shall go in the Lord at length will both have his Will and the Wall of man The Seventh remarkable in this Ladder is Deus quiescens agit agens quiescit The Activity and negotiation of Providence The Angels stand not still on the Ladder but are alwaies in motion ascending or descending Many may say I have lost this day Man may lose his day of Grace but God can never lose his day of Glory Providence is as seldom without success as without action The Governors of Israel Psa 121.3 may sleep but the Governor of the Governors of Israel can never sleep Providence as the Apostle saith oft winkes at the sins of men but it never yet slumbered much less slept an hour since the Creation of the world If God should give over his watch over Israel but for a moment in that moment Israel would give up her hope Let the Saints remember Zech. 4. The eyes of the Lord run through the world The Egyptians in their Hieroglyphicks pourtrayed an Eye on a Scepter to signifie the vigilancy and regency of Providence A wise man saith the wisest of men Eccles 2.14 hath his eyes in his head but God is all eie and th t not only for vision but for motion God at this day hath an eye on France and an eye in England There are Zech. 3.9 Seven eyes in one stone And in the Revelation there are seven Spirits before the Throne By the Stone we are to understand Christ mystical The seven Eyes and seven Spirits are of one importance and signifie the several Influences the Wisdom Power Patience c. of Providence Providence hath the hands of Briareus and the eyes of Argus It is supposed by some that the seven Spirits bear allusion to the seven Chamberlains or royal Officers Ester 1. of the King of Persia God hath his Secretaries of State his chiâ—f Council as well as others Some Heathens phancied Providence as the Great King of Persia keeping himself in his Palace in Heaven from the view of his Subjects or as sitting aloft in a stately Tower onely beholding the passages of the world below But Providence is not idle but active 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath reference as Calvin observes not onely to the eye of God Multicum Epicuro verbis relinquunt Deos retollunt Cice. de nat Deorum l. 1. but also to the hand of God Providence doth not onely observe but order the world There are no Ciphers in Gods Arithmetick no rests in his Musick no pauses nor stops in Providence Away with the blasphemy of those that say Let God rule in Heaven and man rule on Earth David Psal 23. sweetly describes the active and pearly influence of this Ladder of Providence Thou Lord art my Shepheard thou preparest me a table thou annointest my head how humbly doth David Thou God! Thou Thou Thou Many men go out of Gods vineyard but Providence is never idle in the Lords vineyard God is always either a pruning or a ripening his Vine always either a cloathing or correcting his children Always a providing for them as a Sun or a protecting them as a Shield It is reputed a shame for a man to see by anothers eyes but it is our wisdom in this dark age to see by the Lords eyes Whose eyes run through the world Providence never stands still or goes backward it wearies man but is never it self weary The Sun posteth thousands of miles in a day and yet tires not Spiritual beings much more the being of Spirits are uncapable of tyring or delassation In the description of a circle in paper though the circle bee brought within one inch of finishing yet if the compass be removed a man can never make a perfect circle but must begin all again to find out the same center If the Lord should cease a moment from his works of Providence Sion would run to ruin and God would be put to the labor of working a new The Eighth remarkable in this Ladder is The gradation of Providence Here is a climax of Providences one step above another in the Ladder As first In a spiritual sense As in the natural birth there be many preparations but the birth is in a moment so in Grace there are many dispositions to Grace as sense of sin mourning and desires which yet I dare not call formally Grace though the former alwaies and the last mostly goe before Grace and by some to their ruin are taken or mistaken for Grace but Regeneration it self is in a moment Psal 84.7 The Saints go from strength to strength from one vertue to another There is an allusion to the Israelites journying yearly to the Temple they went from City to City before they came to Jerusalem or to Schools of learning where there is going from one form to another from one Science to another The martyr it seems numbred his steps one stile more and I am at my Fathers house that is at the top of Jacobs Ladder The Lord formerly in the wilderness carried and now carrys Sion from one Mile-post to another from one Stage to another Ebenezra Legimus de Angelorum ascensu descensu sed non de alis ascensusigitur hic nobis injungitur non volatus hitherto hath the Lord helped us So Ebenezra hitherto have we climbed by the Lords help Angels fetch long strides on the Ladder but Saints cannot fly but creep up to Heaven Rom. 5.3 So in a more publick sense Rome was not built in a day neither will Rome be pulled down in a day indeed in Rev. 18.17 it is said in one hour so great riches are come to nought but that is as the Husbandman chalks a line about a sere Tree which he intends to have for firing he fetches many a blow and yet the Tree stands still but at last one sound blow fell the Tree Providence hath fetcht many a blow at the Scarlet Whore but her climacterical day is at hand her critical day is at hand and then she shall fall fully finally fatally Providence hitherto hath mostly been but a lopping the branches but now the Axe is laid to the very root of Antichrist If any wonder why the ruin of Antichrist in the Letter goes on no faster I Answer The Devil and Pope must in some sense fall together for they have supported one anothers Cause now and then Providence fetcheth a blow at the Pope and seems as if he gave over the work because in the respite he is striking at the Devil So the downfal of the Spirit and Body of Antichrist keep pace together and therefore the work seems to be so long a doing There are various steps in one Ladder and we must neither appoint the Lord which way to walk nor what steps to fetch be not discouraged God works gradually and also he works certainly What course soever Providence steers he will not miss a point of his Divine Compass but at length
notwithstanding all winds and waves of men and Devils the Church shal arrive at her harbor The Ninth remarkable in Jacobs Ladder is The security of Providence and that both mediately and immediately 1 Immediately God sits on the top of the Ladder not Angels nor men One Translation renders it Deus stat ut vindex sedet ut â—judex God leans on the Ladder but the Ladder rather leans on God than God on the Ladder The Chalde The glory of the Lord stands on the Ladder Oh say some if we had but such Judges as Sampson as Gideon were these words are bad though proceeding from good men if proceeding from distrust and are all one as if they should desire not that God but man stood on the top of the Ladder Remember God is better than a thousand Gideons than a thousand Sampsons The best of men as experience hath taught are but men at the best and all men are but men at the most It is well for Sion that God stands on the top He doth not reside in his Palace but comes to the door and Porch visibly to his people ready to receive the Petitions of his Jacobs by out-stretched armes Revel 4.3 God is presented there as sitting on a Throne as a King in his Chair of State curâ securâ to note how easily he rules the world The eye of God in Scripture is said to be against a Nation and that is able to discountenance any design God blew on Pharaoh and his Host and when breath comes out of Gods mouth then breath goes out of mans nostrils and he dies He is said to turn his hand on his Enemies and indeed with the turning of an hand he turns man into Hell Quod Deus loquitui ridâ—ns tu lege lugens And lastly Psal 2. the Lord is said to laugh at wicked men and woe be to those men at whose fooleries the Lords laughs Arise Lord says David and let thine enemies be scattered There needs no more the very arising of God is the downfall of the ungodly There is nothing God doth by man or means but he can do without man or means Can God destroy Babylon with Armies then God can destroy Babylon without Armies Armies cannot destoy Antichrist without God but God can if he please destroy Babylon without Armies What a sweet order is in Divine Providence Jacob lies at the foot of the Ladder the Angels go up and down the Ladder and the Lord gloriously stands on the top of the Ladder 2 Mediately Providence secures his Church by Angels For in the Ladder you have mention of Gods standing and the Angels motion on the Ladder Though God did not create the world by Angels as some phancie from Elohim barah yet he Governs the world Melius est nescire fine crimine quam scire cum discrimine and especially his Church by Angels Angels ascended and Angels descended one Jacob but many Angels there were as we say questionless a number of Angels though we are at as great a loss to find out the number of Angels on this Ladder as in the world Now to let pass the curious and vain enquiry of the Schoolmen about the nature number order of Angels I shall onely discourse of Angels according to the revealed word with just consequence in order to their influence on or about Sion Of which Discourse I wish you as much profit in reading as I have had in the penning of it by the assistance of the Lord. Angels are conversant about the Church in relation to the Head and Members First In relation to the Head our Lord Jesus I confess I beleeve not that Christ is the Redeemer of Angels they were never Captives and how can they be ransomed they never were obnoxious to guilt and so are not capable of a pardon yet that Jesus that raised up man that was fallen caused that the Angels should not fall Qui urtique redemptio solvens illum servans istum delivering man out of and defending Angels from captivity and so in some sense may be said to be redemption to both curing man and keeping Angels Angels had not stood and man had never risen being fallen from his standing but for Christ He reconciled man to Angels and Angels to men and by vertue of his mediation he is the Redeemer of man but the Governor of Angels God gathered together in one all things in Christ in Heaven and on Earth Ephes 1.10 Hence Angels in Scripture express their homage to Christ as their Lord Exod. 26.30 The veil of the Tabernacle which covered the most holy which signifies the incarnation of Christ was made of broidered work with Cherubims which shadowed out the service of Angels to the Mediator Hence Matth. 16.27 they are called not onely the Angels of God for man but the Angels of God man It is observable in that space of time which was from his Incarnation to his Ascension they served him ten times 1 They carried the message of his miraculous Conception to the Virgin Ad Evam malus Angelus accessit bomo separaretur à Deo ad Mariam bonus Angelus venit ut in ea Deus uniretur homini Fulge 2 They advertised Joseph whom the ignorance of this Mystery had perplexed 3 They published his birth unto the Shepheards 4 They gave order to carry him into Egypt to avoid the fury of Herod 5 They had care to cause him to be brought back into Judea after the death of the Tyrant 6 They accompanied him and ministred to him after his temptation in the wilderness 7 They comforted him in his Agony in the Garden 8 They roled back the stone from the door of the Sepulchre wherein he had been inclosed 9 They declared his Resurrection 10 They instructed his Disciples who looked up after him ascending into Heaven that one day he would return Filius Dei caput Angelorum est non redemtionis sed creationis Wollebii Epitome Never did the Angels serve any person so often nor in so great a number of occurrences nor in so high charges nor through such diversity of means as they served the Son of God Christ had not a guard of men as the Kings and the Nobles of the World have but a Guard of Nobles and Princes and not onely of Princes but of Principalities and Powers Some Psal 91.11 say the Angels keep not Christ but Christ keeps Angels and that that promise of keeping thee in all thy ways belongs to Christ Mystical or Christ in his members not to Christ personal or thus that Angels ministred to Christ but did not keep Christ But this we are sure of Joh. 1. ult The Angels ascended and descended on the Son of Man not that they minister to Christ alone but that they for his sake and honor do minister to and are carefull for the whole Body of the Elect. Wherefore Secondly The Angels attend on Sion on the Saints First While in the world they
yet it is the onely Royalty and Prerogative of God so to offer Grace as that man shall neither prove a dissenter or stand Neuter for on the contrary the Devil may flatter but he cannot force man to sin He is but the father begetting the evil heart is the Mother conceiving and the Father can do nothing in this moral sense without the Mother It is remarkable in Scripture that ordinarily when there is mention made of mans sinning there is mention likewise made of the tentations of the Devil but there is seldom or rarely mention made of the good Angels moving men to holiness and the reason probably is God who is the effectual worker of Grace will have the glory of every gracious work himself I intend not the least to disparage the Ministry of the Gospel thus in exalting the Ministration of Angels for the Gospel-Ministry is more suitable if not in some sense more excellent Well may Angels be dry Nurses to preserve and watch and wait on and protect the children of God but to be Fathers to beget them to be wet Nurses to suckle them with the immortal seed and sincere milk of the word belongs to the Gospel ministry Yet the Angels suggest good thoughts The Sadduces imagined that thoughts were Angels I confess it is honorable for human nature to be filled with Divine and Angelical thoughts and it is comfortable to beleeve thoughts are suggested by Angels but we must in no wise think that thoughts are Angels 6 Angels descend the Ladder for the preservation of the Saints Eccl. 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgement and Justice which things are yet to be seen felt and understood plain enough marvel not at the matter as though there were no Providence to Govern the World or Justice to punish disorders for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they Here be three degrees of comparison High Higher Highest and three degrees of Powers There are Kings highest on Earth there are Angels higher than Kings and there is God Father Son and Spirit higher than Angels to whom yet as Executioners of Gods Justice and Ministers of his Providence is committed the care of the Empires of the world and chiefly of the Church Dan. 4.17 Men are not Lords of the World nor of the Church of God Oppression cannot sit so high but Justice will sit above her If oppressors be above the reach of Man yet they are not above the reach of Angels yet if they were there is an higher than the highest and there are higher than they The Devil had learned so much Divinity our of the Psalmes Angeli custodiunt bonos non in praecipit is sed in vâ—is cum non habemus perfectionem Angeli non habeamus praesumtionem Diaboli Matth. 4.6 he spake not without book when he said He shall give his Angels charge over thee to carry thee in their Arms he could not away with the clause following in his waies The Angels are the Life-guard of Saints as Officers of State they attend on and journey with them they hold them in their Arms that they fall not and take them up in their Arms when they are down or as in a Family the greater children delight to carry the Sucklings in their Arms The Church Militant and Triumphant make but one Family and the Angels our Fathers eldest children delight to carry the weak Saints Saints in their minority in their Arms Gods Jacobs on their shoulders and they do not this at their liberty when they please or whether they will or no for they have a strict command for it he hath charged them yet let us not be secure It is a custom for Princes during their infancy to have Guardians to keep and rule for them till they come of age Angels are the Guardians the Protectors of Sion Gods children never go unattended Angeli descendunt à Deo referentes divina nobis ascendunt à nobis referentes nostra Deo Cajet iâ— loc but like great persons they are always in the midst of their Guard they possibly may be contemned and contemptible in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God scorn not to observe no not to serve them We may keep the Sun out of our houses but we cannot keep the Air much less these immaterial and immortal spirits They watch over us when we sleep they attend on us when we awake they are our Companions in Prison and in Exile No walls nor bolts can sever them from our sides Tyrants may forbid men but cannot forbid Angels from out Society That of Theodoret is famous That found so much sweetness on the wrack complained that his Persecutors increased his torment when they took him down for said he all the while I was on the wrack and you venting your malice against me methought there was a youngman in white an Angel stood by me which wiped off the sweat which comfort now I have lost Every Saint is in Joshua the High-Priests case with Satan on one hand and an Angel on the other without this our danger were greater than our defence and we could neither stand nor rise We sin too often and should catch more falls if these Guardians did not uphold us Aâ—geli ministrabant Christo non tanquam misericordes indigenti sed tanquam subditi omnis potenti 7 Angels descend the Ladder to provide for the Saints After Christ had fasted Matth. 4. The Angels ministred unto him questionless to nourish and refresh his outward man being wearyed with fasting some say brought him food they ministred to Christ not as the rich to the poor but as Servants to their Master While we continue within the Precincts of God we are under the protection of Angels Manna in Scripture is called Angels food not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of excellency because it was rare and dainty food but Instrumentally because it was says a Critick ministred by the hands of Angels Rather than the Church shall starve God will send Angels to Market to cater for them Jacobs Ladder is the Stage the Angels are Sions footposts q d. that daily run from Heaven to Earth from Earth to Heaven back again They carry news to Heaven and bring intelligence from Heaven When Sion lyes under Burthens and Oppressions the Angels presently fly and ride post to Heaven and tell God the Father what his children stand in need of and will not depart or descend from the Palace of Heaven on the Ladder without supply and provision If the covetous man could when he was reproached abroad comfort himself in his Counting-house when he came home to see his many lovely Angels to smile on him how may Gods Jacobs refresh themselves in the midst of the scorns and scoffings of the World when they remember and review the Vision of the Angels 8 Angels descend armed to fight for Sion Good Magistrates are
hand of God so Paul possibly in a proper sense might feel the Devils fingers It was good for Paul to be buffeted by Satan for otherwise through temptations to pride because of his revelations he might have buffetted God As one complaining of his lameness the Philosopher told him he would remember vertue the better every step he fetched God made Jacob halt as he was wrestling that he might understand he stood not on his own legs but was carried in his Arms. God here did as Wrestlers that strive to distort the limbs of their Adversaries to weaken them in their wrestling Thirdly By the hurting of the hollow place wherein the Huckle-bone moveth which being so hard a place for a man to come unto Jacob did understand he was no ordinary man with whom he wrestled And lastly Jacob had this sensible hurt and visible lameness that hereafter he might know Claudus in viâ melior est quam currens extra viam and others understand from him that he did not wrestle in a dream or dream of a wrestling with an Angel He beheld the testimonies of a divine Power about him Every Jacob hath his halting but there are some that halt that are not Jacobs How long will you halt between two Opinions 1 King 18. Where almost is the Christian of whom it may be said as once it was of Nathaniel behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile The Habassines are Jacobites and Christians from the girdle upward and Jews downward admitting both of Baptism and Circumcision So many divide their love between Christ and the world look on their heads and they are all of gold they have golden professions but look on their feet and they are of clay they have worldly affections Some fancy as if Jacob were cured of this halting the next day but it is beleeved he kept his halting as long as he kept on earth his blessing and went not onely Israel but halting or limping to the grave Jacob halted and yet was blessed his blessing did neither take away his halting nor his halting did not remove his blessing How many halt with Jacob that are not blessed with Jacob which made an Antient cry out Oh that I might halt with Jacob and that God would put the hollow of my Thigh out of joynt that I might be humbled that my sinew of pride might shrink that I might with Jacob prevail with God Jacob halted and yet the Jews honored him with a daily remembrance Neither the blindness of Isaack nor lameness of Mephibosheth nor the halting of Jacob made them less beloved of God nor less noble in the eyes of wise and good men Such Infirmities and deformities that are not contracted by our wilfull wickedness but cast on us by Providence are matter not of scorn but of thanks to those that have them not and matter not of despair but of humility to those that have them The wound of Jacob is not so grievous as the sign is comfortable Well is that part of us lost which may give assurance of the salvation of the whole and our Faith is not yet sound if it hath not taught us to neglect pain for God and more to love the seal of his presence than our flesh It is yet remembred who had the sense of the following Distincts Stigmata maxillis bajulans insignia laudis Exultam redeo victima grata Deo But notwithstanding Jacob halts Christus pendebat tamen petebat hic Jacobus laxatus est tamen luctatus est yet he wrestles In that Jacob halted it was a sign of Gods presence in that though hee halted yet hee wrestled it was a sign of Gods approbation Jacob wrestles though he halts Valorous Jacob Secondly He wins the Victory in conclusion over the Angel though he halt And that two ways 1 Jacob prevails Polemically or as I may say by Power As a Prince he had power over the Angel Gen. 32.28 Hos 12.3 O Lord How few Jacobs are there in the world Either we wrestle not at all or we get not the victory Jacob prevailed with God that 's a wonder indeed for it had been nothing for God to have prevailed with Jacob yet I dare say it is a hard thing for God to prevail over man as it is for man to prevail with God and the reason is plain because even when God prevails with man man prevails with God when man yeelds to God then God yeelds to man But doth Jacob indeed prevail with God O the Princedom of Prayer None so strong as the Lyon of Judah for he overcame the roaring Lyon yet a beleeving Tongue an humble Knee and a broken Heart conquers even our Conqueror Prayer is omnipotent for as sin is called infinite objectively not formally because it is practised against an infinite God so Prayer is as it were Omnipotent because it prevails with an Omnipotent God When God saw that he prevailed not When he saw God knew the issue of the Combate before he took the Field this is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to our capacity the experience of the thing is taken for Gods fore-knowledge the Lord with the blast of his mouth could have confounded Jacob the Lord could not because he would not Gods cannot in Scripture is his will not He disposeth of his Power according to his own will and purpose and therefore as long as he can do all he will he is Omnipotent The object of the Omnipotency of God is whatsoever is adverse to his Nature and doth not imply a contradiction and therefore it is no disparagement of the Power of God not to be able to sin sin being rather a defect than an act rather a sign of Impotency than Power We say often concerning those things wee will not doe wee cannot do especially when though we have Power to do those things yet we have determined the contrary which reason is more considerable with God than with man because the decrees of man are changeable and may be broken off but the divine Decrees are immutable and unalterable and therefore when it is said Christ could not do many mighty works because of unbeleef in his own Country Mat. 13.58 the meaning is Christ would not in respect of their unbeleef not because absolutely he could not and that the Angel could do nothing till Lot came to Zoar Gen. 19.22 it was not in respect of Lots Power as of the Angels pitty So here God would give Jacob the victory Even as lovers are disposed for the nonce to take a fall one of another the stronger of the weaker so God shall wrestle a fall with thee O Christian as he did with Jacob and yeeld so much in love to thee as to suffer thee to give him the foil and fall and to prevail against him Deus qui contra se viribus nullis superatur precibus vincitur The Lord fell down before Jacob Jacob did not throw him down God was as willing to be
the Lord will do according to the word of Moses If we keep his precepts he will fulfill our prayers God repenting once that he made man was resolved to destroy him from the face of the earth yet when Noah built an Altar and prayed to God the Lord Gen. 8. smelled a savor of Rest and said henceforth I wil not any more curse the earth for mans sake God was once so displeased with his people that he said flatly I tel you truly I will deliver you no more yet when they asked a Deliverer of him Judg. 10. His soul was grieved for their misery and he gave them Jephtha Therefore when God hath resolved on a Nations ruin he shuts his doors against Prayer The Prophet complains Lam. 3.8 He shutteth out my prayer q.d. God will not suffer his Favorite Prayer to speak with him It is a royal way for a Prince to correct the injuries of another Nation that is inferior to deny their Ambassadors audience Psa 80.4 How long will God be angry but with his people that is not all with the Prayers of his people God is oft pleased to be angry with prayer Jer. 15.1 Though Moses and Samuel stood before me and intreated for this people yet I le cast them out of my sight q d. You think to hinder me now as you were wont to do you will send out your old friend Prayer and if you cannot pray enough your selves you will procure aid from my friends Moses and Samuel but you shall not prevail I will destroy you the best means shall fail you therefore all means shall fail you To resort to other means after prayer is to fasten an Anchor with a twined thread which hath broken a Cable or to think to conquer an Enemy with a Bulrush when we could not with a Cannon In vain is God attempted by Power or sollicited by Prayer against his own mind And as God will not sometimes be intreated so he ought not at any time to be questioned But I hope the Lords door is yet to be opened to our knocking and his ears to our crying And because in this age so many prayers are frustrated be sure to pray that you may be heard I intend not a Common-place of Prayer Briefly First be sure to limit your prayers according to the Revealed Word Let us pray that Gods Will not that our Wils may be done as that Jacobine did Lord let my will be done and mine because thine We often ask and miss because we ask amiss Your Father oft gives that in anger which he would deny to give if he were pleased It s better to be without Quails than to surfet to have either a long delay or rather a full denial than an answer in wrath The contradictions by God put to the prayers of the Saints in this age is one of the greatest wonders of the age Our hearts are oft as the Spirit of God saith like crooked Bows and no wonder the Arrows we shoot are lost when many times we never aim at the mark We must take heed of praying backward with Jonah who rather than he would be accompted a false Prophet cared not so much for the salvation of Nineveh as for his own reputation Says he was not this my saying one would have thought that the salt Sea should have washed away those briny humours Take heed of the heady prayers of the Disciples Cause fire to come down from Heaven q.d. these are Rebels to thy interest we have preached the word of Life to them and they scoff at and scorn us for our labors surely O Lord if they were thine elected they would have beleeved ere now they have sinned against their own light and against the revelation of thy love they are finally impenitent Lord consume them But these were hot spirits and Christ cools them You know not of what spirits you are of Joh. 15.7 you have not the persons and therefore it is not convenient you should have the prayers of Elias Every one that rides in a fiery Chariot is not an Elias Non petitur in nomine salvatoris quicquid petitur contra rationem salutis Lastly Let us beware of sinister prayers not to write after that copy Lord when thou commest into thy Kingdom let one of my Sons fit on thy right hand another on thy left At the left hand of Christ Surely she did not know for what she prayed for none but Goats shall stand at Christs left hand The rule of our prayers is not what pleaseth our apprehensions but what is correspondent to and agreeable with the Revealed Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato III. de legibus p. 811. That which is glorious in the eyes of a man nay of a good man is often abominable in the eyes of God Pray for nothing but what God hath promised if ever you would have God to perform what you pray for It is better to beleeve that the will of God shall be fulfilled Deus non dando dat nobis nos non accipiendo à Deo accipimus than to behold our own wills fulfilled The Saints in this age justly condemn the former Generation for doing that which was never commanded and I beleeve the next Generation will as justly condemn the Saints in this age for beleeving some things which were never promised The Intercession of our Lord Jesus is a censer of gold and can we desire him to offer up our drossie prayers for Incense they are often filthy in our sight and how can they be sweet in his Fathers nostrils Many of Sions Petitions are now in the Lords accompt but waste paper and at the last day shall never be seen hung on the file in Heaven and indeed how can they speed when our consciences bearing witness they are neither worded by the Scriptures indited by the Spirit nor subscribed by a bleeding heart Eo modo sunt omnia petenda quo modo sunt promissa Aut praeter verbum petis aut non propter verbum petis Secondly Be sure to pray not only for love but in love It is true that Love is a stately Garment to be worn by the Lords children in their Mansion house of Glory but you must not put off this Garment till that day as the world doth Holiness Oh say they holiness is for Heaven Love and not Parts Love and not Praying Love and not the participation visibly of the body and blood of Jesus Christ Non debet esse simultas inter eos qui sunt simul is the badge of a Disciple of Christ By this shall all men know ye are my Disciples if yee love one another Joh. 13.35 Said he that was as much for Faith and more than any of his followers Christians Love is asleep I hope not in a dead sleep for shame awaken it Gardiners speak of an Herb Love lies a bleeding and if ever that Herb grew in Sions Garden it is now Oh revive it Hosius was so in
cutting of Throats than now we have cutting of Purses Which deserves consideration with some male-contents who while they seek to establish the old Government may unawares run into confusion and blood and at length have no Government at all Without Magistracy robbery would be a Law and men like Dogs would try all right as is noted by their teeth How excellent were it Ut imbecillis scala eum qui ascendit Dejicit sic superbiae scala eum qui eam ascendit Nilus in loc while others are hugging the world for the Saints to be trampling on the world How few are there that climb this Ladder of honor but they leave a good Conscience at the bottom That man that will be great by any means must needs leave off to be good by all means But alas it is not a Velvet pantofle can remove the Gout nor a golden Diadem the head-ach nor a purple robe the Cholick How many deal with Religion as a Mason deals with a Laddder Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem when he hath work to do to climb oh then he hugs imbraceth the Ladder carrys it in his arms and on his shoulders but when he hath done climbing presently the Ladder is hung on the wall or thrown into a corner So many set the Ass on Christ and not Christ on the Ass making Religion a stalking-horse for preferment and when men have got their ends by religion then there is an end of their Religion Mundus est cadaver perentes eum sunt canes How many that were poor enough in the world have grown rich in the profession of poor Jesus and have followed the chase onely with Jonathan till they have met with hony It is damage for a man to win the whole world and lose his Soul but what a poor bargain make they that lose their souls and win not the thousandth part of the world That Scholar paid a great price that made this Contract with the Devil Give me learning and I le give you my soul The ambitious Pope made but a foolish Bargain that sold his Salvation and bought his Damnation for the Popedom How far is two or three hundred a year below the worth of a Soul and yet how many such Chapmen are there in the world But let ambitious men consider The Stairs of Honor are steep the standing slippery and the regress a downfall Praepositioni quot accidunt Unum Quid Caesus tantum Quot casus Duo Qui Accusativus Ablativus Haec enim Pilatum oportet timere accusari à crimine auferri à Regimine ignominiose cadere Clem. Oct. Secondly Climb above the world from this glorious Ladder of Contemplation you may have many glorious sights upward and downward forward and backward 1 You may have a sight upward and downward As our Lord and Master said strive so I may say climb You have a long journey to go before you come to heaven little time to go it in and less time than strength Wherefore pass the world as through a Fair stand not gazing on every Pedlars shop or silly gue gaw till you come to your home These are not the Jerusalem said the Traveller concerning Lyons and Paris though they were beautiful Cities Faelix cui invisibilium scientia fit scala ad invisibilia cognoscenda cui scientia fit scala ascensionis non ruina dejectionis Victor Riches and Honors are not Heaven Heaven is of another colour and complexion Be Star-gazers in a spiritual sense climb to the top of Jacobs Ladder How little would the world seem to us if the great God were not little in us who ever took a prospect of Heaven and did not fall in love with it and who ever loved Heaven that never took a prospect of it Either Heaven will take us off from viewing the World or the World will take us off from viewing Heaven The World would seem no such peece of glory if the Glory that shines on the top of the Ladder were but unfolded to us They say Naples is a City to be seen onely on Holy-days because of its beauty and formosity Heaven is a Non-such that day is a high day indeed when the soul sets Heaven an holy heart is onely fit to see that holy place If those that live under the Line have all the influences of Heaven and see as they say the motions of the Stars and Orbes how more glorious is it to be above them and to see the Stars and Orbes to move below us Jacobs Ladder is as sweet a repast as Moses his Pisgah Zacheus his Sycamore-tree and Peters Mount We miss many a brave shew of Providence for want of climbing It is glorious to think of Glory but more glorious to possess Glory Some Mountains in the World are above the Clouds and Storms and Winds what a glorious thing is it to contemplate Eternity and every day with Enoch to fetch a turn or two in the Royal Exchange of Glory to be above the passions and persecutions of this lower world to look downward and behold the eclipses of Honors and Crowns to be cloathed with the beams of the Sun of righteousness and to have the world out of our heart and under our feet There are no storms of Passions no thunders of Wars no winds of Temptations no proing and conning about Opinions not one party for Luther and another for Calvin no clashing and clamoring about Presbytery Independency and Anabaptism no dissenting brethren in Heaven When the Apostle Paul had a window opened in Heaven 2 Cor. 12.4 and heard such unspeakable things he had nothing but Heaven in his mouth Deus res creatas ad modum scalae adoptavit ut per eam sui amantibus ascensum ad se extruxit Basil and Christ Jesus ever after whom he names many hundred times in his Epistles Like as children when they have been in a famous City their eyes and thoughts are so filled with the rich Shops rare Buildings that their tongues always run on them and run over with them and have nothing else to speak of If one thought so highly of the study of Astronomy because it was occupied about the Sphears and Stars and celestial Bodies that he pronounced the first Authors happy How happy are those souls that are busied in the contemplation of God himself Jacobs Ladder of Piety is better than Jacobs Staff of Astronomy Second Prospect from this Ladder we may look backward and forward and notwithstanding all our unworthiness and unthankfulness see what God hath done for England and will do for Sion First We may look backward and admire four things 1 That we are not made a Sodom If the preaching of the Gospel lift a Nation up to Heaven then certainly England is not upon the Earth Matth. 11.23 The sin of Sodom was fulness of bread Their sin was not plenty of bread but emptiness of obedience England I fear is guilty of a
Gospel Surfet And might not the Lord justly take us down and make us know the worth of the Gospel by the want of it Since we have plaid with the light of Truth might he not make us feel the fire Might not God lay down his Basket and take up his Ax and because we are not fit for fruit and building make us fit fuel for burning Have not the Ambassadors of the everlasting Gospel had as hard lot in England as they had in Sodom Who cannot but admire that when England is as chaffy as Sodom that we ave not the same flames as Sodom had Is not this salvation that when wee have been weary of God that yet God is not weary of us That when we have refused to be a holy Nation that yet we are a Nation That when our sins are the sins of Sodom that our sufferings are not the sufferings of Sodom God hath lighted up a flaming Candle of Justice in Sodom the Lord grant that luke-warm England may yet see to read her salvation by it Mercy always swims in Justice but with us Justice seems to be drowned in Mercy 2 From this Ladder admire that we are not made an Egypt God lately turned our waters into blood our Sea was then a red Sea indeed What a mercy is it that English darkness is not a proverb as well as Egyptian darkness England of old was called Albion from the white Rocks and Scotland as some Criticks fancy signifies a Land of darkness But how quickly can the Lord turn Albion into Scotia England into Scotland and Scotland into England we are their neighbors already We have much liberty to bless God Oh that there we not so much liberty to blaspheme God! We have more liberty than either we have deserved or been thankful for There was a time when the Saints in England had Conscience without liberty we have now much liberty of Conscience the Lord grant the time may never come that we should have liberty without Conscience Liberty and nothing else but Licentiousness and Atheism We had once hearts to bless God but wanted opportunity Oh that now we have opportunities we did not want hearts As when a doubting Christian complained that he had no interest in God he was such a stranger to God a Preacher of the Gospel replied But what will you take for that interest though as you think little you have in God not a thousand worlds said the doubting Christian Saints in England what will you take for that liberty you have Now your eyes see your Teachers what if they were all shut up in corners now the doors of the Congregations q.d. are open what if it were past Sermon-time and past Repentance-time what if the silver bell of the Gospel should no more sound in England Oh that we had as much conscience of liberty as we have liberty of conscience That of Omnium Deorum among the Romans of Omnium Sanctorum amongst the Papists of Omnium Sectarum here in England are monstrous Every variation from unity is a step to nullity If ever England should come from one Religion to all and we are in the high way we shall quickly go from all Religion to none 3 From this Ladder admire that we are not made a Germany Instead of the sword of War you have the Scepter of Peace instead of Garments rowled in blood and the noyse of Arms you have the blood of Christ sprinkled on your Garments Oh trample it not under feet Instead of the roaring Cannons you have the sweet sound of Gospel-Ordinances God hath but shaken his rod over us while he hath broken their backs while we have been let blood he hath even let them bleed to death God bid David chuse which of the three plagues of War Famine Pestilence he would have but God puts it to our choyce which of those three plagues we will not have inflicted on us Though God hath sheathed up his sword yet he holds it still in his hand therefore fear What salvation is this that parents are not drinking the blood of their ch ldren to quench their thirst and eat the flesh of their children to satisfie their hunger 4 From hence admire that we are not made a Babylon Pray pray that the Bibles may be opened in Spain and yet bless God that there are not Pad-locks hung on them in England Pray mightily that Antichrist may fall abroad and forget not to bless God that though there be much of Rome in England that yet England is not Rome that none can go to Market that none can buy or sel without the mark of the Beast Revel 13.17 either in their right hands or on their foreheads It is the opinion of some good men that the Protestant Profession shall be over-spread with Antichristianism again and that then the Lord will extraordinarily awaken them from their sleep and actively engage them against Babylon But I wish though we have looked on Babylon that we may not so lust after Babylon Spiritual longings in this kind are dangerous but I hope God will prevent Sions miscarriage in the birth of Reformation The Lord grant if we go to Rome it may not be to dote on her but to destroy her There is an old Prophecy that Antichrist shall never overcome Paris nor Venice nor London Let us not be secure for if his Soul have entertainment here his Body will not tarry long after But some may say What Salvation hath the Lord wrought for us what fruit is there of all the blood shed in England is not our condition as bad as ever nay in some sense worse the Saints were united are they not now divided how many Professors are turned Apostates nay Persecutors and Prophane This is sad indeed and to be lamented yet as the Disciples did not wish the blood in Christs veins again though they were distressed by his death So I dare not say though in our Distractions and among the Blasphemies of this age Man hath lost his way that God hath lost his end This is the support That as God hath laid the Foundation so he will carry on the Building that as the Great Turk makes a Bridge of the Bodies of his Souldiers to scale the wals of a Garrison So the Lord knows how to make his glory to rise by the fall of ours and to give life to his Cause by the death of his followers Secondly From this Ladder we may take many sweet Prospects forward on what God will do more apparently for Sion in the world There are eight famous Prospects The first Prospect from Jacobs Ladder is Gods Jacobs may foresee the abundance of knowledge yet to be poured out Isa 36 26. Isa 52.8 Isa 11. Knowledge shall abound as waters do upon the Sea Knowledge is now but at a low Ebb in comparison of that high Tide that shal flow hereafter Knowledge shall abound as the Sea intensively and extensively it shall more increase and be more clear As