visibly the Devil hath been up in the world so the rise of Christ shall be the fall and downfal of Satan 2 From hence we may see the perpetuity of this Kingdom We are not now to expect a Kingdom de novo but the progress and prosperity of Christs Kingdom already in being for the Kingdom of Christ takes date from his Resurrection and Intercession Psa 2.6 I have set my King an the holy hill of Sion and all power in Heaven and Earth was given to him Matth. 28. So that Christ hath been in hâ—s Throne not as a private person but as a King these sixteen hundred years and hath acted as a King not onely over the Consciences of Beleevers but also in giving Laws for to govern his Church by And it is supposed by some lastly That Kings even now reign by Christ as King of Kings as well as Christians are ruled by Jesus the King of Saints Further Dan. 2.44 In the daies of the four Monarchies that is before they were all expired the God of Heaven sets up a Kingdom Gradus gradus non variant speciem not when they are all expired though this Kingdom shall stand when they shall lie by the wals The difference then between his reigning now and hereafter as at present I apprehend is not specifical but gradual now Christ reigns as it were in a corner and then he shall reign over the whole world His Kingdom then though it shall be in yet it will not be of the world the meaning of which is not onely that his Kingdom shall not be of a wicked complexion void of Injustice and Oppression but also not of a worldly constitution Saints shall have heavenly not golden carnal Thrones for their Thrones shall be in Heaven in Heaven upon Earth in a word they shall neither have worldly troubles nor worldly joys We read of two different States of Christs Kingdom but never of two different Kingdoms of Christ on Earth as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God Man The Stone and the Mountain in Daniel the second comprehend in a Synopsis the whole Sphear of the Dominions of Christ intensively extensively and protensively all the Kingdom which he hitherto hath had now hath or ever shall have in this world The Stone which at first lay but in a corner was kicked up and down by Persecutors and rowled since by Providence from one Nation to another gathering greatness like a ball of snow and will be so still till it swels and grows into a Mountain filling the whole Earth The Stone in order of time being long before the Mountain for it hath been growing these Sixteen hundred years already and yet is nothing nigh arrived to its stature and glory The Stone then is of the same nature with the Mountain though not of the same magnitude I understand not yet how the Stone which was cut out when our Lord Jesus first entred on his Throne and the Mountain which must fill the Earth in his more glorious Coronation differ in specie wherefore if they differ as of necessity they do it must be chiefly in degree For to deny that Christ hath not ruled yet visibly in the world is to affirm that because the sun in a summers day is not in its meridian it doth not shine at all Lastly This Kingdom of Christ shall stand for ever Which implies first That it shall not be destroyed by any forein power of Men or Devils Secondly That it shall not be left to another people Christ shall not have a Successor either by an Heir or by a Conqueror Dan. 2.44 Other Kingdoms are transient Kingdoms handed from one man to another but the Kingdom of Christ is a durable a permanent Kingdom The Babylonish Kingdom first appeared in the world The Babylonians delivered over their Kingdom to the Persians the Persians delivered up their Kingdom to the Grecians the Grcians delivered up their Kingdom to the Romans the Roman Power must surrender and Christ our Lord must enter the Stage of the world and his Kingdom shall be everlasting that is no other Kingdom shall succeed him His Kingdom shall be the greatest and the last Virgil speaks of Rome the Lady of the World Imperium sine fine but that Empires glass shall run out and have an end These Promises being not already fulfilled are yet to be fulfilled and that in this world hath Christ now a name visibly above every name doth he actually rule over all the Kingdoms of the world And Secondly we must understand this glorious and universal Kingdom of Christ of which the Scriptures so much speak not to be in the Heavens but on the Earth The weak Christian is desired to overlook what follows as not penned to puzzle Babes but to exercise the understanding Whether the Kingdom of Christ as Mediator shall not at length give place to the Essential Kingdom of the God-head is disputable I shall not positively affirm but rather propose it as probable to the Intelligent and humbly leave the determination of this Quaere to the experience of the Saints in glory Thus since our first Apostacy all our communion with God is by the mediation of Christ we by our fall are but as dry stubble and dare not think of immediate converse with God for as the Apostle saith he is a consuming fire now whether when the formal and proper end of the mediation of Christ is accomplished which will be not onely in the satisfaction of the Law the conquest legally of the Devil ad extra but in the perfect evacuation of the guilt and filth of sin even as to its moral inherency in the Saints we shal not have immediate communion with God being presented at the last day spotless by Christ as in the state of innocency and that more gloriously That God 1 Cor. 15.28 may be all in all that God not Personally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Essentially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine being Father Son and Spirit may be all in all that is communicate himself to the glorified Church without the intervention of Ordinances and Creatures and also to our purpose without the proper and immediate exercise of the Kingly Office of the Mediator Quae res simil Illustretur Finge plures esse globos ex pellucida materiâ eo situ ut sint inter se paralleli finge etiam animo alium quendam esse globum interjectum inter istos globos corpus solis ita ut radii solares ad reliquos globos nisi per eum solum nequaquam pertingant eodem plane modo Deus nunc se hominibus communicat mediatè nempe per Christum at finge tandem ita accidisse ut sol omnes istos globos irradiet non amplius per primum illum qui medius interjectus erat sed immediatè ita ut rectà radii solares ad unumquemque eorum pertingant nullo interposito medio sic plane videtur futurum esse aliquando ut
serve the Church in general and the members in particular The Angels that are good of which I speak 1 Are beholders of the Affairs of the Church Ephes 3.10 That unto the Principalities in heavenly places might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God The highest Angel in Heaven may go to School and learn of the lowest Saint on Earth For as the Angels teach the Church so the Church teacheth Angels The Disciple here in some sense is greater than the Master The visible Church is the Stage whereon Jesus Christ displaies the fruits of his Redemption 1 Pet. 1.12 And Angels are spectators of the free Grace and wisdom of the Gospel which things the Angels desire to look into Angelis maximè in publico coetu circumsistuntur pii ideo tabernaculi aulâ—a Cherubinis inâ—vâ— foris referta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely to look on but to look into an allusion to the Cherubims which were so placed that they did look down on the Mercy Seat They stretch out their necks they stoop down and pry into the Mysteries of the Gospel It is an honor for the Preachers of the Gospel to hold a multitude of men by the ears but what an honor is it to hold the Angels q. d. by the ears to have those Divine Beings like Doves to flock to the windows to have an Auditory of Angels I dare say that how basely soever the Atheists and Worldlings of this age esteem of the Preachers of the Gospel many of their Congregations are fuller than their purses are of Angels An Evangelical Orator hath an Auditory of Angels 2 Angels are affected with the conversation of sinners and Saints as the Devils rejoyce in the Prophanness and Apostacy so the Angels rejoyce in the Conversion and Perseverance of men The regeneration of a Soul makes the Angels to sing and the Devils to roar Luk. 15.10 There is joy in the presence of Angels over every sinner that repents Angels may say as the angelical Apostle Doctor Angelicus to professors If you persevere you are the Crown and Glory of our Ministration but licentious professors are a grief to Angels not onely to Ministers that are Angels but to Angels that are Ministers 1 Cor. 11.10 When poor sinners run to Christ on earth the glorious Angels spiritually dance in heaven Lachrymae paenit entium sunt vinum Angelorum according to the old observation That the tears of repenting sinners are the wine of Angels As an Army that is broken and hath lost many Ranks and Files of Souldiers long to be recruited and to have their number filled up again So the Angels that stand are glad to see sinners list themselves under Christ to fill up in Heaven the void places of the fallen Angels As Turtle Doves cannot indure filthy stenches nor Bees smoak no more can the good Angels abide to converse with noysom and prophane sinners 3 Angels descend on the Ladder to comfort and support the Saints in times of tentation and trouble Luke 22.43 They strengthened Christ in his Agony and without controversie they exercise the same influence on the Body that they did to the Head in proportion The good Angels are ever removing our hindrances from good and our occasions of evill mitigating our tentations helping us against our enemies delivering us from dangers comforting us in sorrows furthering our good purposes they comforted deserted Hagar Gen. 21. Jacob fearing Gen. 32. Paul fainting Act. 27. the distressed women at the Sepulchre Mat. 28. The good Angels suffer with the Saints suffering rejoyce with them rejoycing incourage them contending and triumph with them crowned against Satan and over his evill Angels Where ever the love of God goes there their love goes they keep those whom God keeps and forsake them whom God forsakes The good Angels are not more terrible to evil men than the evill Angels are terrible to good men and the good Angels are not more terrible to evill men than they are comfortable to good men Angels are fellow-Souldiers with the Saints and fight under the same colours and hearten them in their conflict with Devils onely they march invisibly and upon the higher ground Though Jacob be asleep his Angels are awake 4 Angels descend the Ladder to instruct the Saints As the Angels learn by the Church so the Church learns by Angels God sent his Angel to teach Daniel the mystery of the visions Dan. 8.9 an Angel was sent to instruct John Revel 1.11 The Law was revealed and the Gospel foretold and proclamed by Angels Gal. 1.8 Luk. 1.31 I dare not say Angels are properly in the ministerial Function to preach salvation to the world much less have they power to change the heart Conversion is the joy but not the work of Angels They are called Heb. 1. Ministring spirits Preachers of the Hierarchy indeed Ministers of the Gospel Liturgie so the word signifies commissioned for the good of the heirs of salvation to promote their spiritual good doubtless as well as their temporal good A Saint exceeds an Angel in experimental but an Angel exceeds a Saint in natural Knowledge How sweet to consider in these times of temptation if God should suffer which he will not suffer the world to pull down the Gospel-Ministry by man yet they cannot assault much less overthrow Angelorum induistis nomen induite naturam the Ministry of Angels If Sion should be deprived of her Evangelical Teachers yet none can banish from her the Angels her Teachers 5 The Angels descend the Ladder to suggest holy and good thoughts unto us Notwithstanding it be peculiar to God to enlighten the mind and enliven the heart yet why may not God use the invisible ministry of Angels as wel as the visible ministry of man Or rather Secondly What hinders to deny but that as evil Angels have liberty to suggest evill so why may not good Angels have liberty to suggest good thoughts For first The Devil is said to put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ Joh. 13. And to fill the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit Secondly If Satan 2 Cor. 11.4 be called an Angel of light because he suggesteth good things for evil ends or evill things for good ends certainly then Angels of light good Angels as is observed suggest good Distinctio Angelorum inter assistente ministrantes est vana quod omnes sunt assistentes ministrantes imo ideo assistunt ut ministrent Heb. 1.14 Rivetus for good ends how else could Satan be their Ape Not that it is supposeable that good Angels can change the heart for though it be granted that they do stir up good affections by removing impediments and in driving away the evil spirits and wicked illusions by exciting and stirring up the phantasmes and presenting or representing good thoughts to the mind and lastly by moving the passions in the sensitive appetite inclining the Will to discharge her duty
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
Sions Orator and Ambassador to plead and prevail with God Prayer puts challenges on God and dares him q. d. to a denial Why hast thou made us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts from thy fear Es 63.17 chides the Lord I cry O my God in the day time and thou hearest not Psa 22.2 It puts Queries to God and will have them all answered How long wilt thou forget me for ever Psa 13.1 How are the bowels of our God turned within him at the weeping and tears of his crying Church Jer. 31.20 Prayer awakens and jogs the Almighty when he seems to sleep Why sleepest thou O Lord Psal 44.13 When the wheels of Providence stand still q. d. prayer oyles them and puts them into motion It engaged God to divide the Red Sea and to break open the prison doors for Peter and Paul Oratio hominis est res omnipotentissima Luth. Hyperb. Oratio est telum quo vulneratur cor Dei Ambr. in Cant. Prayer like the wind getting into the bowels of the earth will make Earth-quakes in the Territories of Babylon and like a Pioneer undermine and blow up all the designs and Babels in the world Prayer will make all the Devils in Hell and enemies to Sion on earth to strike sail for it hath q. d. Omnipotency it self under its lee Edesia totum mundum sanguine oratione convertit Luther It were better to have all the Spears Bows and Ordnance in the world against us than to have an Army of Prayers or to have prayer in arms against us Armes and Armies and Armor cannot pull down Antichrist without Faith and Prayer Oratio quast quaedam persona ad Deum intrat Aug. but faithful Prayer can pull down Antichrist without them Generals cannot fight with lame and sick Souldiers but the prayers of lame sick men have done more in war for the interest of Christ than an Host of an Hundred thousand men Saints fear not to lose the day when Christ shall take the field While Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed While Sion cannot lift up a Spear against Amalek yet it is sufficient if they can but lift up their hand the victory is theirs Prayer can put a reeling and tottering on the Kings Courts Prelats Pilates of Babylon and like white Gunpowder can destroy Babylon and make no noyse Prayer can yoak all the Swords in Europe against the Scarlet whore and her Paramors and though she hitherto hath been grinding the faces of Sion yet to bring Grice q. d. to the Lords Mill the poorest Boy or Girle if he be but a Jacobine can do more to lift the King of Saints into the Throne than all the Powers and Potentates on this side Eternity can do to keep him out of his Throne Prayer cannot be conquered untill Christ with whom it is potent and great be conquered Prayer sets Christ in the front of the Battel against Hell and saith Devil beat Christ and you beat me take Omnipotency captive and I am your Prisoner Prayer hastens the nuptials of the Bride to the Lamb and though now Hypocrisie Unbeleef c. forbid the Banes yet the Match goes on and they cannot hinder the Marriage Our Father and thy Kingdom come are the strongest weapons in the world they thunder and lighten in Satans Regions and his followers cannot but both hear their report and feel their power Prayer will pull down that in an hour of the Devils Kingdom which he hath been building for several ages Preces sunt bombardae instrumenta bellica Christianorum It will ere long enkindle those fires in the world that neither can ever be extinguished or repaired Prayer though it made not the world yet it shall unmake it and set up a new Heaven and a new Earth A Saint may not fear the Devil though he meet him in the dark if he be armed with Faith and Prayer He that hath God on his side need not care whom he meets in the face Prayer is Sions scaling Ladder It is true an Angel brought Peter out of Prison Act. 12. but prayer first stirred the wheel in heaven vers 5. Prayer was made without ceasing to God for Peter by the Church I have heard of a young-man that had bargained with the Devil upon some condition and he should have his soul the Indentures were drawn in his blood but God disposed the heart of Luther and other Servants of the Lord to pray together for him and while they were earnest with God for the deliverance of the prisoner of Satan Satan was so netled and stung with their zeal that he was forced to come flying by the window and threw in the Indenture amongst them as much as if he had said I cannot stand before the power of Faith and Prayer Prayer we see is not onely a charm to bind but a whip also to torment this Leviathan Athanasius by his prayers hindred the proceedings of the Devil in the Churches Enemies they took off his Charriot wheels that he could drive his plot no further When Devils and men conspire and consent against Sion prayer under Christ hath the Prerogative yet of a negative voyce The keyes q.d. of Heaven and Hell hang at the girdle of Faith and Prayer O admirabilem piarum precum vim quibus coelestia cedant hostes terret manus illa quae victoriae suae trophaea in ipsis coeli orbibus figit Buch. Du bartus prettily brings in David answering Goliah his Challenge Goliah Come ten come twenty nay come all of you And in your aid let your great God come too David The odds is mine Villain I scorn thy boasts I have for aid the Almighty Lord of Hosts Rev. 19.6 I heard as it were the voyce of a great multitude and as the voyce of mighty thunderings saying Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth This is the Hosannah Rabbah as the Jews call it It is reported that the old Brittons marching under the conduct of one Germanus who came over from France to subdue the Pelagian heresie did obtain a victory against the Saxons which victory because of their singing Hallelujahs in the Battel they afterwards termed Victoria Hallelujatica the Halleluja victory This Victory will ere long be sung again over Sions enemies When God shall open a door to burn the flesh of the Scarlet Whore there will be a famous occasion to cry out as some Souldiers did some years since Now for the fruit of Prayer The witnesses have a flame at their lips fire proceeds out of their mouths which devoures their enemies Rev. 11.5 which many interpret to be their prayers In hoc incendio uruntur Daemones The Enemy ly and level their designs against Israel but Prayer dismounts them and turns their Artillery against their own breasts How confident in God may his Jacobs be till the Devil and the malignant World can throw Christ down from his Throne theâ— cannot cast Sion out of the world It is the Prophets character
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
cease to be their Creator nay than cease to be Psal 147.9 According to the old observation God is present in Heaven by his Glory in his Church by his Spirit in Hell by his Justice in earth by his Providence though it be not full for God is every where in his Essence If any from Gen. 2.3 object That God rested from all his work The answer is He rested from his works of Creation not of Providence or from creating any new kind of creatures for otherwise Providence is a continual creation Joh. 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work The Rabbies have a saying There is not a plant on Earth but it hath a star in Heaven and the flowers you see below on earth are begotten by the flowers of light the Stars you see in heaven God is in smal things great not smal in any His even prayse can neither rise nor fall He is in all things one in each thing many For he is infinite in one and all The least Creature hath something of God in it and the best Creature something of nothing Secondly In their Government In God as the Apostle saith we have our being we are his Creatures in him we live by him all things are preserved in him we move all things are at his beck and command Every Creature as it hath a being from God as its Maker so it hath an order from God as its Governor and that order is warlike Ut in aqua solem sic Deum in operibus contemplamur whereby all Creatures are mustered and trained and serve under the colours of the Almighty Look into Egypt and you find a Band of Frog march into Pharaohs Bed-Chamber Look on Herod and God sets his Vermin on him and all the Kings Guard cannot Master the Lice God hath Hornets for the Hivites and 23 Mice fo◠the Philistims I Sam. 6. Rats for th◠Prelate and a Fly for the Pope When God hath service to do he ca◠never want an Army to do it all th◠Creatures stand ready prest to receive th◠word of Command If he bids the◠go they go if he bids them come the◠come God fed the Prophet by Ravens I know not which most to admire whether preservation without food or for by such messengers were greatest those ravenous creatures which took food from others brought it to Elisha The Philosopher says Deus sic singula curat quasi universa sic universa quasi singula God is the first Agent that is true but not all God leaves not the world to be governed by Fortune after he made the World God is the first Agent as the first mover which sets all the inferior Sphears in motion and so continues them It is the custom of the Jews to let the Book of Hester fall on the ground before they read in it because they say there is no name of God in that book But every Creature hath a letter of Gods Name in it and therefore not to be trampled on All the World is Gods work in Folio the History of the Almighty Here the Acts of our Father are to be seen and read of all the Heavens declare his glory they are the Regii Professores the Divinity Readers of God to the World The World 's a School where in a general Story God always reads dumb Lectures of his Glory The World 's a Book in Folio printed all With Gods great works in Letters Capital Each Creature is a Page each Effect A fair character void of all defect But as young Truants toying in the Schools Instead of learning learn to play the Fools We gaze but on the Babies the cover The gawdy flow'rs and edges gilded over Secondly Providence extends toward all rational and intellectual Creatures Men and Angels good and bad generally and specially of which last I shall discourse as it is exercised for the good of Sion 1 This Ladder of Providence is exercised on man for good The answer of the tongue Prov. 16.1 is from the Lord we cannot speak a good word without the influence of God much less can we do a good work I dare not say that the Graces as Faith Hope flow formally from God yet certainly they flow efficiently from God that is though it be not God that beleeves but man yet man would not beleeve without God It is the Tree that brings forth fruit yet the Tree would not bring forth fruit were it not for the light of the Sun and the dew of Heaven It is certain that man may repent when he will but it is the Lord must give him that will to repent A man must needs repent when he will for repentance is seated in the Will of man for man cannot repent without his Will but not in the power of man It is a truth man cannot repent because he will not repent and also Requiritur opera hominis sed operatio Dei that man will not repent because he cannot The conversion of the Soul is supposed to be as considerable a work if not a greater than the Creation for in the Creation God had no Adversary The Light did not say I will not be created the Earth did not say I will not be formed but in the new Creation sinners labor to prevent the conception of Grace take down antidotes against Salvation and study how to defeat the Spirit of God and make its works abortive Deus amavit nos non existentes imo resistentes God when he comes finds the house not onely empty of Grace but filled with Lusts and the strong man up in armes not a rasa tabula a milk white Paper but he finds the Devil to have been scribling and the World to have been scribling Angels may knock at the door of a sinners heart but God onely can open it The Body is not so much at the command of the Soul as the Soul is at the command of God Without me Joh. 14. ye can do nothing The Lord opened the heart of Lydia Gratiam non à nobis praesumpsimus sed à Deo sumpsimus Mans heart is Gods Lock and not mans wisdom but the Spirit of the Lord is the Key that must unlock it Not that Providence offers violence to natural principles it works necessarily but not coactively It is a true Rule those things which are contingent in respect of second causes are necessary in respect of the First by a necessity of immutability not of compulsion How many Lyons in this age hath our God made to lie down with Lambs How many Lyons has he effectually turned into Lambs It is Gods Prerogative to make and it is the royal flower of his Crown to mend the heart under the prayses of Nature lurk the enemies of Grace Secondly This Ladder of Providence reacheth as fr as wicked men and Devills And that four ways 1 In this Ladder there is a preventing Providence Pharaoh Exod. 14. resolves on Israels ruin he will
Towers or Powers of the World against Christ The Egyptians like ravenous Wolves would fain have been worrying the Lambs of God when they came out of their bondage but the Lord held them in and they did neither rend their Fleeces nor suck their blood The Lord according to the Proverb here truely held the Woolf by the ears The Saints Zech. 2.8 are the apple of Gods eye now we know the eye is the tendrest part of the Body and the apple is the tendrest part of the eye It is remarkable how the eye is secured by a trinity of Providences by Tunicles that sweat annoy it not by the Eie-lids that the dust hurt it not by the Eie-brows that it may be kept from blows or stroaks There was care on care Providence on Providence Tunicle on Tunicle for Sions good Oh that the glory of the Lord were as tender to us as our Salvation is both tender to and tendred by the Lord It is prettily observable Gen. 11.4 In the building of Babel Go to say the Babylonians go to saith God Divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur humanum consilium dum reluctatur comprehenditur Let us build a Tower say they let us go down and see it saith God That we may get a name say they that we may scatter them says God Thus God words it with them and confutes their folly from point to point I beleeve there are such Babels a building in the world and I am perswaded the Lord wil shortly come down and see them The pride of man shall flow to such a Tide and then it shal Ebb Errors and Blasphemies shall even lay the neck of the Gospel on the block but shall not cut it off Let the Devils raise storms and bluster with their winds round about the house of God Job 1. Let the men of the World bow down their backs and set to their shoulders they shall never overthrow it They shall neither prove themselves Sampsons nor the Saints Philistims Sion like a bottle may be dipt but it shall never be drowned God will never suffer such an Enemy to invade Sion that either he could not keep out or will not conquer Satan may be the Executioner but God is the Judge and the Executioner cannot lay on a stroak more than the Judge appoints Fierce Lyons roaring for their Prey and then Daniel thrown in and Daniel yet remains Alive there was a Lyon in the Den Was Daniels friend or Daniel had been slain Among a thousand Lyons I 'de not fear Had I but onely Daniels Lyon there 4 In this Ladder there is an ordering Providence The Ladder of Providence extends from Heaven to Hell Let men climb never so high and dig never so low Policy goes not so far but Providence goes further If the Lord suffers a poyson he knows how to bring a cordial out of it The Devil can turn cordials into poysons God can turn poysons into cordials nay make poysons cordials He suffers his Children to burn their finger in the candle to keep them from burning their whole body in the fire He like a Nurse suffers his children to reel and fall that they may cry for his arm to hold them up and learn to walk by his strength and under his Elbow There is nothing so firm Deus saepe facit opus non suum ut faciat opus suum but Providence sustains it nothing so small but he regards it nothing so evil but he can overcome it nothing so vile which serves not for his glory nothing so wrongful which executes not his Justice nothing so enemy-like which fights not for him nothing so much against him but hits the mark at which he aims It was a gâ—od speech if well understood of a good man once That he was as much beholding to God for his Infirmities as for his Graces If Peter had not fallen Lapsus Petri sit omnium Petra he had fallen The Saints sometimes fall that when they rise they may stand the faster David cut off Goliahs head with Goliahs sword Our Lord Jesus hath often beat the Devil in his own Kingdom and with his own weapons Many have shot with the Devil in his own bow as Eve Gen. 3. by disputing with him but never any except Christ ever out shot the Devill in his own Bow As appears in two famous Instances The first of the first Adam Gen. 3. The Devil was a fallen Angel and he envied that Man should stand Adam was the Representative of all mankind If Adam had stood we had stood now also says the Devil all the world falls before me if I can but make Adam fall he makes the on-set gives the bait Adam swallows it and is poysoned the Devil laughs as we say in his sleeve exults as if all the world was his Adam is arraigned by God the Devil is a ready witness against him but before the sentence was pronounced the sin is pardoned the Messiah puts in bail The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head â—rodest peccavisse nocet peccare though the serpent bit the womans heel but the serpent had but one head and the woman had two heels I cannot tell which most to admire the disease or the remedy Christ is the glory of the Church the King of Saints Sure I am we had never heard of Free Grace if man had not fallen The second Instance is of the second Adem Diabolus dum irruit ruit dum quaerit hominem incidit in salvatorem The Devil sets on the Captain of our Salvation Oh thinks the Devil if I can but destroy the Shepheard the Sheep are mine Judas betrays his Master the Jews crucifie their King Christ is laid in the grave Satan danceth and triumphs as if he had got the victory But Satan stay the bels Thou hast won the Field but Christ hath won the Day Christ ascends from the Grave marcheth through the Devils Kingdom and receives a Crown from the Father Christi fel nostri mel as Victor over Men and Devils who could neither prevent his Resurrection nor Reign Oh the wisdom of Providence If Christ had not been bâ—und we had not been freed if he had not died we had died for ever This was Satans Master-peece and yet it was his overthrow Providence brings the wheel over all designs against Sion Prov. â—0 26 Satan was the first fool though not the onely fool in the world Providence is usually exercised in contraries Opposita juxta se posita magis clucescunt It is the Divine method to humble that he may exalt to kill that he may make alive to bring light out of darkness and Hell out of Heaven We wonder oft why God suffers those to reign who make Christ to suffer and will not suffer Christ to reign little considering that the Lord oft makes the Earth to help the woman and loves to strike strait stroaks with crooked sticks He makes wicked men though they
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
set up Kings but not by me but I knew not of it Honorandus genitor sed praeponendus Creator as if the Lord had said they never asked my advice they would not be Headless but in this they were heedless for though in some sense they ran on Gods Errand yet they as we say went on their own heads for Hos 13.11 God gave them a King though in his anger The Gods on Earth must be obeyed but in nothing that crosses obedience to the God of Heaven and Earth And this distinction must be added that what honor is done to wicked Magistrates is to be done to God himself not to Man not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the person but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the vizard that God hath put on him as the Heathen Emblem was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Ass laden with the Image of the goddess Isis and the people falling down and worshiping but with this inscription Not to the Ass but to the Goddess All Civil Power is of God is a Truth in these apostate as well as it was a Truth in the primitive times and though it be another hour of the day then was when the Apostles lived yet the same Sun shines still If that Maxim be cancelled as if there were some Civil Powers in being that are not of God let the Hand be produced that cancelled it and the Annus Domini the year of the Lord when it was done All Government is from God originally yet by designation it is laid on the shoulders of the Messiah Matth. 28. and though the Providence of God hath already and will yet righteously justle many Rulers out of their Authorities yet it is the onely Prerogative of our Lord Jesus to put down all Authority and Rule 1 Cor. 15. It lies not in the power of the children of God to repeal the Constitutions of their Father Governments were onely founded by God in essence and shall onely be dissolved by God in person by God-man Ejusdem est instituere destituere ligare solvere Yet let Powers remember that God is not bound to maintain them in their Kingdoms if their design be to cast Christ out of his Kingdom and that God will in due time make the Scepters of all such Persecutors and Oppressors to shake in their hands and their Crowns to tumble off their heads and justly bring them to the dunghill that unjustly keep Christ from his Throne Those that will not entertain Christ as their King shall whether they will or no submit to him as their Conqueror Thirdly This Ladder of Providence extends to is visible in the ruins periods of Kingdoms and Commonwealths Dan. 2. Dan. 4.32 Some think Kingdoms arise to a certain greatness by the uncertain course of the world and then decline and decay being not able longer to maintain their glory But as we say of Marriages so I may say of Kingdoms they are made in Heaven before they are made on Earth and dissolved in Heaven before they are dissolved on Earth The unchangeable God in Heaven hath an hand in all the changes on Earth The Epicure ascribes the periods of Kingdoms to Fortune the Stoick to destiny the Platonist and Pythagorist to number Aristotle to Asymmetry and disproportion of members Copernicus to the motion of the Center of the Excentrick Circle Cardanus and most of the Astrologers to Stars and Planets But these wise men of the world never yet observed with Jacob God on the top of the Ladder who maketh Kingdoms Ludibria Fortunae mocking-stocks of Fortune who tosseth Kingdoms like a Tennis Ball and hurleth whole Countries into ruin When a General of an Army after much success grew proud and boastingly said In this Fortune had no hand he never prospered after What man in the world can say and in this Honor in this Preferment Providence had no hand men may gather sticks but it is Providence sets on fire Providence is the first Founder and Dissolver of Kingdoms Man deserves and God inflicts ruin The Sixth remarkable in this Ladder is The unchangeableness of Providence You may see in this Vision of Jacob the Ladder to stand firm neither moved nor removed The Laws of the Medes and Persians Dan. 6.8 are unchangeable right or wrong they stand I will not say so of the Divine Decrees yet they are unchangeable and like himself Gods eternal purposes are unalterable He sets not his love on sinners to day and takes it off to morrow Divine love is neither fickle nor fantastical The threatnings of the revealed Word are unchangeable hath God said that no unbeleever shall be saved that is irrevocable and be it to the peril of that man that dies in unbeleef So in Providence The Sun runs round and round the Dyal the pin notwithstanding stands immoveable Many are the imaginations of our hearts but says the wise man the Counsel of the Lord shall stand that is certain whatever fall Proud man in this age shall neither put God out of his way nor off from his end Man must bow to God the Ladder will not bow to man In the Primitive times the persecuting Emperors would have hewn down the Lords Ladder In the Marian days I mean in Queen Maries days they would have burned down the Lords Ladder In Eighty eight they would have blown up the Lords Ladder and Politicians in the world would in their Policies with their shoulders throw down the Lords Ladder But though the wind and storms blow too and fro and round about yet the Ladder stands where it did and Christ is in the Road-way to his Kingdom Shall the Rock Job 18.4 be removed out of his place for thee Job says Bildad for shame give over Gods Projects are rockie and men in opposing God do but blow a feather against a Rock Shall God alter the method of Providence for man Shall the Lord write a new model of governing the world to humor man Shall it be said of an Heathen that it was as possible to turn the Sun out of his Ecliptick line as to put him out of the course of righteousness and shall Providence comply with unconstant man A man may easily break his brains in studying the Providences of God and that man will certainly break his head that will knock heads with God In Providence there are shallows wherein the Lamb may wade and Seas wherein Elephants may swim and it is a thousand times easier to lose our way than to find Gods way to drown our selves than to sound the depth of Providence It is impossible to sail against the wind and dangerous to swim against the stream of Scriptures and Providence as in external things it breaks over and bears down all before it The stile of man is I will if God will but as the Name of God is I Am that I Am So the stile of God is I will do what I will Let proud man wrestle and wrangle never so long with God in
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
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
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
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
rowles down the hill faster if tumbled down especially if by a strong hand the hand of an Angel Rev. 18.21 God will make bare his arm which fears neither blows nor blood for it hath a bone in it whereas mans arm is but the arm of flesh and likewise he will overthrow her compleately Vide totum lauda totum God never rested in the Creation till he hath finished all know that God will be as perfect in the works of Providence as in the works of Creation Her ruin shall as certainly be effected as it is determined The Decrees of God know no futurity time to come is the tense of mans Grammer Babylon is fallen Babylon is fallen Sion is more than a Conqueror Rom. 8. Shee overcomes by Faith before shee comes into the field she conquers before she conquers The day of Antichrist is almost at an evening the glass of Babylon is well nigh run the number of her Months are even expired Let all the Physitians in the world apply their Plaisters and afford their Cordials it is in vain her disease is mortal and her blood is now cold in her veins If Providence have not Armys on Earth it will have Armies in Heaven against her there is no halt to be made or if there be an halt in our sense there is no retreat to be beaten one Alarm after another shall be given till she be taken Mended or ended is here an useless Proverb But may some say who shall do this Deus si non legat emet milites si non inveniat faciet viam the Kings of the Earth are yet her Liege Subjects generally and will Satan cast out Satan and the sight of Rome is infectious and some think opposing Babylon in this age is much like Sauls sending Messengers to take David who in the way fell a prophecying 1 Sam. 19.20 How many have gone up to oppose Babylon and have returned her brats It is not setting Rome on fire will burn down Babylon yet the Lord will use military means Antichrist reigns properly in the Understandings and Consciences of men and it is far easier to kill the body than wound the soul of Antichrist therefore God will destroy her especially How with what Artillery with what Ammunition Even by the Spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his comming 2 Thes 2.8 The darkness of Popery cannot abide the Gospel Sun-shine Antichrist hath plaid his part on the Stage the Vizards are now a pulling off and the Stage it self a pulling down Rev. 18.21 Must is as we say for the King now Christ is King and he must reign 1 Cor. 15.24 Caesar non patitur priorem nec Pompeius patrem When Darius would have shared his Kingdom with Alexander no said the Conqueror The Heavens cannot hold two Suns The Devil at length possibly when he sees the Kingdom of Christ in holiness to be cried up and his own Kingdom to be cried down will gladly divide and part stakes with Christ but Christ will be King over all or not King at all The Throne of the Gospel and the Spouses bed cannot endure a Competitor an Equal much less a Superior Babylon now in the dark may for a while play the Rex but Christ certainly the Sun shining more clearly will be King It is reported that Nero viewed the flames of Rome on his Tower through an Emerauld The Saints through Faith may take a delightsome prospect of the ruin of Babylon Let the Saints of the most high lift up their heads for ere many glasses of Providence are run out though the Sun shall be cloathed with sackcloth and the Moon turned into blood and the Stars fall from the Heavens yet their redemption draws nigh The Eighth Prospect from this Ladder is The large extent and duration of Christs Kingdom in the World 1 The large extent of his Kingdom The Kingdom of Christ now is not much larger than a while after the Apostles daies as Mr. Mede observes for the West Indians are under force and constraint The World says Brerewood may be divided into Thirty parts whereof Heathenism contains Nineteen Turcism Six and Christianity but Five So that yet Christ is far from being universal Lord and Soveraign or having a Name above all Names which not onely relateth to the excellency of his Name above other names and so Jesus Christ is a more glorious Name than Grand Seigneur or Augustus Caesar but also in respect of visible honor above other names hitherto who but the Beast The Titles and Arms of Kings and Emperors have carried the day Most Excellent Most Illustrious but hereafter who shall be like unto Christ The constant stile of Universality of all Kingdoms all Tongues and Nations imply that yet Christ hath not the compleat possession of what he hath purchased Psa 22.27 Isa 1. Mal. 1.11 It is desperate ambition for any man to call himself Rex Catholicus Universal King Christ and not any man but Christ rather and the Devil divide the whole World They say the Spanyard hath for his Armes the Sun rising and setting on his Shield but Christs glory must eclipse his glory Christ will then onely be Canonical and Catholick King First Christ shall be above all Kingdoms and then he shall put down all Kingdoms 1 Cor. 15.24 Some think what is done in England is done all the world over when we are but a spot of Christs Kingdom though I hope a Garden-spot the Gospel was calculated for a larger Meridian Rev. 19.16 he shall be King of Kings and Lord of Lords The seventh Angel sounded and there were great voyces in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ Rev. 11.15 Now when had Christ this glory First It hath no relation to the Kingdom of his divine Nature for that he had coequally alwaies with the Father Secondly Neither hath it relation to the Purchase or Title simply that Christ had to these Kingdoms in his Ascension and Intercession when I confess he first had seizen of them But Thirdly It must have relation to the actual subjection of the Kingdoms of the world to Christ and his actual Exaltation above them for it is spoken Prophetically and for the time to come Now this shall be accomplished when the Prince of the Air is conquered and bound up and cast down to the earth Rev. 12.9 Now Satan rules principally and more visibly then Christ shall appear in the Clouds and he shall uncrown Satan and sit down in his Throne and then the Kingdom of Christ shall be more visible and observable in the world than the Kingdom of Satan Satan indeed was legally cast out of his Kingdom in the Resurrection of Christ Joh. 16.11 but he must also actually and more fully be cast out when Christ shall appear the second time for salvation As two Buckets in a Well while the one comes up the other goes down So as while Christ hath been down
all his tentations The Devil is not onely a roaring Lyon but a cunning Wrestler he wrestled with Job for his Integrity he threw him on the Dunghil but he could not throw him into Hell He wrestled with Peter and foiled him he cast him on the ground but could not keep him down He wrestled with Paul but met with his Match Pride wrestled against Humility Unbeleef against Faith the love of the world against the love of God The Devil lifts us up subtlely to cast and throw us down on our backs lye but on the ground for an humble Christian is on the ground already and hath not far to fall Thirdly There is a Duel to be fought with the world the world takes the field and under its conduct march that Trinity of the world that Three in one the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye the Pride of Life These set up their Standards in the world and few or none but wear their Colours The Pride of Life says to Nebuchadnezzar Absolon Caesar and all ambitious men who follows my Banner and he shall have Honors and Preferments The Lust of the Flesh beats up her Drum and makes Proclamation from the Prince of the Air to all the Sardanapaluses Amnons Adulterers who will follow my Camp and he shall have Pleasures Pastimes the Lusts and Loves of the world Then lastly comes the Lust of the Eye and sounds her silver Trumpet and says to all the Judases Julians Demases who will troop after me and he shall have Lands and Lordships Crowns and Kingdoms the Gold and Riches of the world Habet mundus venator animarum laqueos jacula alios telis afflictionum appetit alios voluptatibus irretire ambit This is but the first Army of the world Then if these be beaten or fly there comes up another Army and you have them marshalled Rom. 8. 1 Cor. 15. they are enrolled under the names of the Law Persecutions Reproaches Death if the world cannot prevail with its smiles it endeavors it by its frowns if not by its golden profers yet by its terrors and Elephants as he said this Enemy assails us by Prosperity Quid est mundus nisi Agon plenus certa◠minum Ambr. and then by Adversity What is this world but a race or course full of troubles It is a Field wherein is much Cockle but little Corn It is a Garden wherein are many weeds but few flowers there is not a Rose but it hath a thorn nor a Gourd but it hath a worm The World is more dangerous probably when it flattereth than when it forceth when it allures than when it rails As Judas by a kiss betrayed his Master so the world is a very Judas and who can either flie from or foil the world O Lord where shall we walk but upon snares there are snares abroad and snares at home snares in our Closets snares in our Consciences snares in the World snares in the Congregation snares in Preaching in Praying in Writing in Reading Who hath courage to fight who hath Power to conquer If Satan threw Adam in his strength how shall we throw Satan in our weakness What little cause have we to be proud of our Holiness when our first Parents who had no natural lust were foiled What is our strength to their strength As Alexander when the Milesians boastingly shewed him the Statues of their Wrestlers that were Victors in the Olympick and Pythick Games said Where were those vaste bodies when the Barbarians laid waste your City So hath the Devil often said to Professors what you conquer and overcome Where was your strength and confidence when I threw your Father Adam and Mother Eve in Paradise Non sic te expectat Deus certantem quomodo te expectat editor si forte Athleta sis in Amphitheatro ille tibi praemium dare potest si viceris adjuvare te periclitantem non potest Aug. in Ps 30. But yet we must enter the Lists Jacob was a man of contention and wrestling from the beginning contention with his Brother in the birth contention for the Birth-right contention with the Angel for the Blessing contention for his Wife and Wages with Laban now Jacob was a typical man his name was Israel and he was a pattern to the Israel of God Though we are weak yet God is strong though out of Christ we can do nothing but undo our selves yet in Christ we may do al things In him we are more than Conquerors and blessed be Christ that giveth us the victory Though lust in the regenerate be miserable because it disquiets the peace of the Soul yet it is not damnable because though it bring forth sin yet it doth not bring it up to perfection Christ is our Captain to lead us yea he is our Second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our fellow Combatant that fighteth against sin in us by Grace Look what he did what contradiction he indured Bonum Agonem subituri estis in quo Agono thetes Deus Xystarches Spiritus sanctus Corona Aeternitatis Ter. ad v. Marc. lest you be wearied in your minds Look what he promised a victory against our lusts and a Crown after our victory Look when he commeth he is even at the door The Duel shall not last for Centuries of years Jacob was a man of like passions with us and let us be men of like patience as he was As we say That man that prostrates the Devil conquers all his followers his Lusts So be but a Prince with God as Jacob was and you conquer the Devil and all He that fears God need not fear the Flesh nor the Devil nor the World Diabolus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hark! how the Apostle Paul in two places especially triumphs over his spiritual Enemies Ro. 8. We are more than Conquerors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through Christ that is more than all the Alexanders and Caesars in the world could ever say How more than Conquerors Yes for in Christ the Saints are perswaded they shall conquer before they combate And secondly They know they shall remain Conquerors when once they have got the victory Then he gives a challenge vers 34. Who is he that condemnes why blessed Paul the Law condemns thee and the World condemns thee and thy Conscience condemns thee well saith he I care not for that Christ hath died yea rather he is risen again and fits on the right hand of God why might the Devil say what was Christs victory to you his conquest to you What much his death was my death his triumph was my triumph he maketh intercession for us Mark that Devil He is fighting for me in Heaven while I am fainting on earth Satan conquer Christ and I am your Prisoner pull his Crown if you can off his head and never let there be a Crown put on my head And so he takes a further survey of his Enemys and their weakness ver 35. Who
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