Rest and Glory both 1. Rest 1 a. 3 ae Job 14. When we are born we are born to Labour sayes Holy Job when we dye we dye to Rest sayes holy John If we dye in the Lord Every man while he lives Psal hath many Troubles sayes holy David even the Righteous Every one when he dyes hath not many hath not any Comforts For some are tormented in Hell sayes holy Abraham But the Righteous have many Comforts sayes holy Isaiah Isa 31.17 The work of Righteousness shall be Peace The End of Righteousness shall be Quietness and Assurance for ever The Righteous while he liveth is troubled in his Body by Diseases In his Soul by Temptations In his Goods by Plunder In his Name by Ignominy But when he is Dead he hath a Quietus est from them all His Body feels no Sicknesse His Soul fears no Temptation His Goods fear no Miscarriage His Name feels no Reproaches For he rests from his Labours Noâ— is this Rest like mans in the Night Natural by sleep from the Sorrowes of the Day nor like Servants every Sunday Ceremonial from the Labours of the Body not yet meerly like Christians upon those Sacred Festivals spiritual from sin but it is Eternal like that of Angels from sin and sorrow both And here you are to mark That this Rest follows Labour q. d. No Labour here No Rest theâ—e If you labour not while you live but sit down to Eat and Drink and Rise up to Play no Rest when you Dye And therefore labour here labour after a sanctified Rest while you live that you may enjoy a Glorified Rest when you Dye And here again you may mark That the Allegory of this Word compares Death to sleep For as they that sleep Rest so they that Dye If they Dye in the Lord Rest The difference in onely this All that sleep Rest All that Dye sleep but All do not Rest some Rest not at all To make it hold in all to you I beseech you to mark one thing in our Common Rest we never sleep so well at Night as when we work hard in the Day No Rest to the Labourers It is an old Proverb and true So That you may sleep when you Dye Rest â—n â—haâ— sleep I beseech you again and again To labour and to labour out the Salvation of your soul though it be with Fear and Trembling as the Apostle speaks Phil. 2.12 That when you have slept the night of Dâ—ath you may Rise in the Morning of your Resurrection to Rest â—om your Labours and have your Works follow you That 's one Blessedness of the Dead mans 2 a. 3 ae his Relaxation He rests from his labouâ—s And this is another His works follow him For by this Phraise is meant Reward because God rewards us according to our works But here you must take heed of Popery It is not for the merit of our works that we are rewarded but by the Mercy of our Rewarder that our works follow us We press Good works as hard as they They are necessary and so necessary to salvation that without them we cannot be saved For how shall They follow us if we have none of them But they do it to make their Proselytes proud We to make you and our selves Fruitful We are Trees and the Husband-man is not beholding to the Tree if it bears him Fruit when he hath bestowed much cost upon it It is the Duty of a Tree to bring forth Fruits and it is the Duty of Christians to bring forth Good works For that the Tree is spared from Burning and suffered to continue in the Orchard because their Fruits follow them from Year to Year And for this we are spared from Hell and suffered to enter into the Joyes of Heaven that our works may follow us from Generation to Generation for Ever and for Ever The Tree by his Root is entitled to the Orchard but by his Fruit it hath Possession of the Orchard And we by our Faith have Dominion a title to Heaven but by our Good works we have Possessionem i. e. Pedis Positionem the Possession of Heaven Labour therefore for Faith that as Abraham by the Promise of God had a Title to Canaan so you by Faith in the Mercies of God may have a Title to Heaven But let this Faith Travel with and bring forth Good works that as Abraham by his Travel took Possession of Canaan so you by your Good works may take Possession of Heaven One thing more for the Necessity of Good works It is here said They follow you It is to let you know They are your Servants and therefore you must cloath them with Good Liveries such as may do you service and credit both For if they be of a Course Wool or a False Dye They will do you neither Let your works then be sincere i. e. sine Cera without any Wax or Gum Let your Works of Piety Prayer and Fasting be without Hypocrisie Let your VVorks of Charity Almes and Benevolence be without Vain-glory Let your VVorks of Loyalty your Armes in bringing home King Charles the second And punishing the Murther of that Blessed Martyr King Charles the first be without self-ends Do none of these to be seen of men but in secret Maâ— That your Father which seeth in Heaven may reward you openly And an open Rewarding you shall have For Angels and Devils Heaven and Hell Saints and Reprobates shall see you follow the Lamb to the Glory of God and they shall see your works follow you to the Glory of your selves This This is the Blessedness of them that Dye in the Lord and of the late King and all his Souldiers who have Dyed for the Lord And now what greater Blessedness can there be than this For here is Rest and here is Glory Rest from your Labours and Glory in your Followers Nor do you tarry long for this after your Dissolution though the Papist would have it so to maintain their Fire of Purgatory Nor can you blame them for it for if it be once quenched it will presently staâ—ve the See of Rome and make the Kitching in St. Angelos Castle very cold But St. John saies It is Amodo Immediatly Henceforth so soon as ever the Soul is gone out of the Body By and by the Body rests from sickness and all External Labour The Soul rests from sin and all Internal Labour and both their works follow them till at Doomes-day They shall both be reunited and Crowned with ternal Glory to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes Even so saith the Spirit And so may He say to us now by the Assurance of Faith that then we may have it by the Assurance of Fruition thorow Jesus Christ Amen Amen Amen Anno Dom. 1657. PSALM 106.29 Thus they provoked him to Anger with their own Inventions and the Plague brake in upon them NOW I have read the words you may happily think It is such a Plague as
Ver. 23.24 not only in Stature but also in power and therefore the People shouted and said God save the King 3. That Contributions to maintain a War against the King are unlawful because He is to be assisted in his War and therefore they are marked cum carbone for children of Belial who brought hius no presents Certainly then they are ten times more the Children of Hell who bring presents against the King Indeed this Text within it's own Verge resolves these three Queries 1. In the Description of Rebels They are Children of Belial 2. In the Expostulation of Rebels Division How shall this man save us 3. In the Condition of Rebells the Condition Positive and the Condition Privative Positively they despise the King Privatively they bring him no presents The Result of the whole falls into these Particulars thus 1. They accounted the King as one of themselves and as one chosen by themselves and therefore they said How shall this man save us and therefore they are called the Children of Belial Had they looked a little higher and observed how God chose him out of them they would then have believed That God by him would save them because God chose him to be King over them and Protector of them 2. They looked upon themselves Aggregatim and in Conjunction and thought themselves in that Bulk and Aggregation or Collection or Representation greater then Him and therefore they despised him and therefore they are called Children of Belial Had they looked upon him as Head of that Body whereof they were Members they would have confest That neither some of the Principal Members Representatively nor all the Members Collectively had been worthy of Comparison with him and that He the King had been greater not only then any one a sunder but then altogether 3. They looked upon their Enemies how strong they were and upon themselves how numerous how copious how many how rich and therefore how well able to defend themselves and therefore brought him no presents and therefore they are called the children of Belial and therefore not only by Symbolical but also by Rational and Logical Divinity It is unlawful to contribute to a war against the King I begin with the first And the Children of Belial said How shall this man save us and of the first Question Pars. 1. resolved thereupon The King is Gods not the Peoples Creature God and not the people is the Efficient of Monarchy The Children of Belial What is meant by Belial Why as Christ tacitely tells you That there are diverse kinds of Devils when he says expresly Mat. 17.21 This kind goes not out but by Fasting and Prayer so I tell you That there are divers names of Devils or The Devil hath divers Names and this of Belial is not the best As sometimes he is called Daemon for his Knowledge sometimes Satan for his Malice sometimes Baalzebub for his Filth Belial what sometimes Diabolus either for his Defluxion and falling down from Heaven or for his Traduction and seducing of men sometimes as here Belial for his Rebellion and casting of the yoake of Obedience for contending against him as much as in him lies by whom he should and shall at last be controuled For Belial signifies Absque jugo or Absque domino a meer Masterlesse Sir Children of Belial who and how But what then Did the Devil beget these men in my Text or else how are they called the Children of Belial No the Devil cannot beget any children neither as 1. the Common Cause For so Sol et homo generant hominnem the Common Cause is the Heaven Nor 2. as the proper Cause For every thing begotten of the Proper Cause is begotten either a simili genere as the Mule that is begotten by the Horse and Asse or else a simili specie as a Child begotten by a Man but Satan is a Spirit and hath at most and best when he hath any but an assumed Body but the Child hath a Body begotten of the Father and therefore are our Fathers called Hebr. 12.9 the Fathers of our Flesh and this is proper only to a Natural Father and in this sense Satan cannot be called Father Besides every Childe so begotten is bound to honour his Father but no Creature is bound to honour the Devil Nay every Creature is bound to the contrary Nor 3. can the Devil beget Children as the Material cause For all Generation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as speaks the Apostle Heb. 11.11 Through faith Sarah her self received strength to conceive seed or as the Prophet speaks Ex commixione seminum I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men Jer. 31.27 They are then here called the Children of Belial not by Naturall or vertuous Generation but by vitious and sinfull Immitation Joh. 8.44 As therefore Christ told the Jewes They were of their Father the Devil because they sought to kill him and be-lye him and gives this reason of it because the Devil is a murtherer from the begining and the Father of lyes so Samuel here calls these men the children of Belial i. e. of the Devil because they by his example and tentation sought to shake and cast off the yoake of obedience and therefore barely apprehended the King as a Creature of their own and chosen by themselves saying How shall this man save us and this brings me to the examination and resolution of the first Question viz. Whether God or the People be the Author and Efficient of Monarchy To this it is answered by the children of Belial 1 a. 1 ae for the People saying How shall this man This man and no more save us but by the Prophet of God it is answered for God saying See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen and now Beloved judge your selves whether it be fit to obey God or man as the Apostle speaks in another case Act. 4.19 whether it be fit to obey the children of Belial who from their Father have learnt to speak nothing but a lie or the Prophet of God who from the Holy-Ghost can speak nothing but Truth But that the falsity of this populous opinion and the verity of this Prophetical Assertion may more fully appear either to call you by Repentance to acknowledge the Truth and to do your Duty or that you may wander with more security and with less excuse to Hell I shall endeavour as much brevity and perspicuity as I can to examine this Question to the full When God first made the world He made many Angells but one man and yet God could if he had pleased as well and as easily have made and created a Company a Colony a Countrey a Kingdom a whole world of men upon Earth with his own one Faciamus Let us make as he did create so many Legions of Angels in Heaven and so might if he had pleased Gen. 1.26 have given
these several Countries or that whole world of men leave to make choise of their own Commander He could have done this by his power For his power had no bounds but he did not so So his Wisdom did mannage his power he made many Angels by his Power but in his wisdom he made but one Man And would you see a Reason of that I dare not pry into this Cabinet yet I shall shew you the outside of it God found not Heaven it self free from Mutiny amongst a multitude of Inhabitants and therefore to take off all colour to contention to with hold all pretext of disobedience to Soveraignty He made but one man one and no more thereby teaching us That the power of a King over his Subjects is as Natural as the power of a Father over his Childe That as Naturally there can be but one Father of one Child so Polittically there should be but one King over one people and all this to tell us That not only the King should have as great and pious a care over his Subjects as a Father hath of his children but also that the Power of Monarchy is from God and not from the People and so to be acknowledged by the People That 's the Duty of a King the Duty of a people He to use his power paternally and they to render their subjection Filially sic fuit ab initio Thus it was from the beginning And this is acknowledged by Aristotle himself Lib. 1. cap. 8. Polit. who was led only by Nature and saw as far into the Lawes of Nature as ever man did At first saith he Regal power belonged to the Father of the Family and he gives this Reason for it Because in the Infancy of the world the Fathers were so Grandevous and lived so long that each Father begate such a Numerous posterity as might People a whole Countrey Gen. 4.17 so we read That Cain built a City Certainly it was for his own Colony and that Colony certainly was his Natural generation and so he was at once as well their King as their Father and his Regal power over them as his Subjects was no lesse from God then his Paternall power over them as his Children And Justine though he did not see so well nor so far into Nature as Aristotle did yet he saw so far as to acknowledge so much saying Principio rerum gentium Nationumque imperium penes Reges erat The Rule of Nations of all Nations was in the hands of Kings from the beginning and the People had no more right to chuse their Kings then to chuse their Fathers because the Kingly Right pertained to the Father of the Family Therefore in the beginning if we believe these two lights of Nature Kings are of God not of the People sic fuit ab initio Thus it was from the beginning But hath not Moses since given a Bill of Divorce Hath it been so ever since and in all places It is a spacious and large demand and I shall as I am able for the present resolve it though briefly yet plainly Nor here will I tyre your Ears with the four steps or Ascents to Royalty viz. 1. Of Inheritance 2. Of Donation 3. Of Election In which only the People can claim some colour for chusing the person but not for bestowing the Power or at most for Administration of the power but not for Foundation of the power it self 4. Of Conquest Nor yet with the three Originals of Kingdoms 1. Natural which may also be called Civil 2. Violent which you may rather call Martial 3. Mixt of both In which last though the People had somewhat to do yet not any Absolute power and in the two former nothing at all God only therein is the Authour and Institutour Nor here will I tell you How Melchesedech Abraham and the Patriarchs were Kings and saluted Patres Patriae Arist loco prae dicto the Fathers of their Countrey where they inhabited without any Efficiency so much as of Curtesy from the People because Regal Power belonged to the Pater-familias so descended by Right of Primogeniture to the Eldest Sonne according to that Natural Moral Positive Divine Law That the younger should be subject to the Elder Gen. 4.7 I look first upon Moses who first efected Municipal and Natural Lawes amongst the Jewes and was the first Catholick visible King of over the Jewes for the Sanhedrim was but Moses his Privy Council or as Deligated Judges because of the numerous multiplicity of businesses and he as good a man as he was and enabled and endued with extraordinary abilities and fully perswaded that he was the Instrument appointed by God to be Israels deliverer Exod. 2.12.14 yet because he sought his Commission from the People Acts 7.25 before he had received his Commission from God he was fain to expiate the errour of his self-led Zeal with Forty years exile in the Wildernesse Exod. 3.10 and then and not till then God called him not the People for their approbation but to Pharaoh And all this was as for some other ends so also for this in particular To tell the People That they have nothing to do that yet they had nothing to do in the appointment of a King but that God himself and he only is the Author and efficient of Monarchy And that by him he Moses ruled Israel Forty years after him God appointed Joshua and he ruled Israel Sixty years and after these two Worthies died then God appointed Judah then Othniel then Ehud then Shamgar then Deborah then Gedeon then Tolah then Jeptha then Sampson still God appointed called and authorized them not the People These I confesse were not Kings so properly and absolutely as the former were They were yet Loco Regum instead of Kings and chosen and called by God When after God left them to themselves and gave them no Kings and that Monster the Multitude took the Power into their own hands Oh what hideous births did they produce The Danites instead of Libertie the Subjects Liberty betook themselves to Licenciousnesse the Benjamites instead of Property the Subjects property Judg. 19 gave themselves to Rapes and Rapines and in a word The whole Jury of the Tribes gave themselves to Revenge and have given up no Bill to their Posterity Judg. 20. but Astonishment and enough of that to affright any people unlesse they have lost their sense with their Conscience their Reason with their Religion from affecting Anarchy or almost any kind of Government whereof God is not the Efficient and Immediate Author Well After this when God in mercy looked upon their misery and gave them a little refreshment in the succession of two Judges Heli and Samuel and they were a weary of this Government and would needs have a King to govern them as the Nations had why even then God did not give them leave to chuse one themselves but he himself appointed one