ordinances of the Moon and Stars for a light by night which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roare the Lord of hosts is his name vers. 36. If these ordinances depart from before mee saith the Lord then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a Nation before me for ever I might alledge other Scriptures also as Jer. 32. 39 40. Ezech. 36. 26 27 28 29. Esai 54. 10 11 12. Esai 59. 21. Heb. 8. 7 8 9 10 11. Now then because God hath bottomed the eternity of his Church upon his own unchangeable counsell they must raze the acts of Heaven who can take away the Church of God I leave it to the thoughts of the judicious if the rooting out of the Protestant Religion bee a rationall purpose of intelligent men What if we should imagine a society of transported men should convene in Parliament and make Statutes thus We ordain as a Law and Statute that from the 22. of January the Sunne shall shine no more by day and the Moone and Starres shall give no more light by night also we inhibite and discharge under the highest pain of treason from this time forth the Sea shall never ebbe or flow again These or the like should be but the notions of sick imiginations acts of night counsels have been these first fire the City of London secondly cut off the Parliament thirdly leave not alive in Ireland a Protestant or their seed fourthly roote them all out of France and Germany fifthly destroy Scotland and their Covenant sixthly undoe all reformation of Religion in Brittain Secondly Consider the strength of the Church of God Numb. 24. 8. He hath as it were the strength of an Vnicorn he shall eat up the nations his enemies he shall break his bones and pierce them thorow with his arrowes Why and the Church is but a feeble worme let it be so yet he saith Esay 41. 14. Feare not worm Jacob and yee men of Israel I will helpe thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee vers. 15. Behold I will make thee worme as thou art a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hils as chaffe vers. 16. Thou shalt fanne them and the winde shall carry them away and the whirle winde shall scatter them You have not seen such a miracle that a worme shall destroy a great mountain and blow it away as chaffe But it is Gods way that Omnipotence rides on a straw on a worme and triumph And how can it be but thus The Church is the weakest thing in the earth but in God incomparably the strongest Psalme 46. 1. God is our refuge and strength Gods strength is the absolute greatest strength and so overcome God and overcome the Church for a greater strength must overcome the lesse Where dwelleth hee in earth in Hell or in Heaven who hath strength above the strength of God they doe not flie to the strongest side who desert the Parliament and flie to Oxford they run but downe to Egypt but Esay 30. 7. Their strength is to sit still Thirdly the destroying of the Church is not a worke of reason or deep policie as men suppose they will but swallow downe and drinke the Protestants let them be doing and goe on Put the Church of Christ in a cup and drink her but you will be sick when shee is in your belly and had better drinke many quarts of lead or brasse melted and coming hot out of the furnace for Zach 12. 2 There is poison and death in the cup I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about The gall the wormwood the poyson of the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of his Temple is in the cup Drink who will they shall be sick and drunken and vomit and fall and die in their vomit and never rise again Pharaoh dranke of this cup but he was killed with it and made fishes meat Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazar dranke but they swelled hand and foot and died Herod Acts 12. had the cup at his head and tooke a draught of this wine but he was stricken with wormes Papists Prelates the Irish good Catholique subjects the Emperour Spaine Rome the Antichrist the powers of the earth are now drinking one to another and the cup of trembling goeth in a round to them all but consider how sick they shall be Zach. 14. 12. And this shall bee the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their eye-holes and their tongue shall consume away in their mouths Babylons cup-bearers and Atheists and Malignants to whom the morning of a sound reformation is as the shadow of death would then know how deadly a cup is now at their head Fourthly consider Gods promises to his Church There is a true Diurnall written from Heaven that God is to make a glorious Church in the end of the world Esa. 30. 26. Moreover the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And when the new resurrection shall bee I mean the in-coming of that elder sister the Church of the Jewes Rom. 11. 15. and when all Israel shall be saved What a glorious house shall he build for the Lord when that shall be fulfilled Esay 60. 13. And the glory of Lebanon shall come unto theee the fir-tree the pine-tree and the boxe together to beautifie the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious v. 14. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending to thee and all they that despised thee shal bow themselves down at the soals of thy feet and they shal cal thee The City of the Lord The Zion of the holy One of Israel v. 19. The sunne shal no more be thy light by day neither for brightnesse shal the moon give light unto thee but the Lord shal be thine everlasting light and the dayes of thy mourning shal be ended All which with many other places do make God say That the Church shall stand and never be prevailed against by the very gates of hell Fifthly Christ cannot leave off to be a King therefore his Kingdome must stand there is a seed and a reward promised to Christ for his labours Esay 53. 10. There bee Articles of grace concluded betwixt the Father and his Sonne which cannot be broken Sixthly there are in all the sufferings of the Church two things most considerable first a turn secondly a contexture a turne or returne Gen. 39. 21 22. Joseph was cast in prison But the Lord was with Joseph Gen. 49. 23. The archers have sorely grieved Joseph and shot at him and hated him but consider the returne vers. 24. But his
this Lord Angels and glorified soules are not able to look off his Face for all eternity Mat. 18. 10. Revel. 22. 3. Esai 24. 23. The Moone shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reigne in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously He must be a fair Lord when the fair Sun blusheth and is ashamed to appeare and shine before him Nothing David desired in this side of time but to dwell all the dayes of his life in the house of the Lord and behold the beauty the heavenly increated beauty of the Lord Psal. 27. 3. Put all the imaginable colours of the Firmament Of the morning skie Of all the Lillies and Roses of the Earth which surpasse Salomons royalty in one Imagine a Rose to bee of the quantity of the Earth all these should be but created shadowes to him Zach. 9. 17. How great is his goodnesse how great is his beauty he is both good and fair 6. Who can speak of omnipotence and boundlesse power in God Esai 40. 12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out Heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in Scales and the hils in Ballance there is but one in all the World and from eternity to eternity never was there any save one who can do all this What fingers be those which at one time are in the furthest borders of the Eastern Heaven and of the Western Heaven ver. 15. Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are compted as the small dust of the ballance behold he takes up the Iles as a very little thing And he can take up the whole I le of Brittain in his hand can hang the weight of the massie body of Heaven and Earth on the top of his finger who is he who hangeth the Earth yea the whole world upon nothing what hindreth seeing there be such Broyles Tumults Motions in Heaven Earth and Hell but this great huge vessel of the great All this whole world should fall to the one side and break but omnipotence holdeth it up who hath Arms to spread a web of black darknesse from the East to the West Esai 50. 3. I cloath the Heavens with blacknesse and I make sackcloth their covering and alas all that I say here is nothing it must be true here praestat tacere quam pauca discere better be silent in so great a matter as speak little Vse is To teach us not to be in love with the creature or with men What is man but a weeping groning dying nothing Esai 40. 17. All Nations are before God as nothing and lesse then nothing and vanity VVhat is nothing it is the least thing that can be but I pray you what is lesse then nothing nothing can be lesse then nothing but all Nations being compared with God evanish infinite miles out of the world of some things and if one man be nothing nations of men and nations of nations are nothing multiply Cyphers to millions of millions they cannot make a number because every Cypher is nothing and therefore the product must be nothing so multiply infinitely Nations let Spaine France Italy Ireland Denmark and what the power of men can make the product shall be nothing Millions and Hosts of men are millions and Hosts of vanities God is all and in infinite all and what can we do to make him lovely and desirable We may preach this admirable Lord but we shall never out-preach him and praise him but shall never outpraise him his favour is more to be sought then favour of Kings he is more to be feared then Kings Esai 5 12. I even I am the Lord the Lord that comforteth you Who art thou that shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the Son of man that shall be made as grasse Hence are you to see to the prerogative royall of the King but more to the prerogative royal of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth And therefore O Judges be wise O all you who carry on your heads Diadems and royall Crowns of yellow dust and glistering clay I meane of gold and precious stones stoope stoope before this Monarch cast down your Crownes and Scepters at the feet of the King of Kings Know your Superiour the highest Land-lord of dying Monarchies Zach. 2. 12. It is said The Lord shall inherit Judah and shall chuse Jerusalem O but Kings and Dominions who keep Judah captive cry out with a shout Judah shall serve us and our King and Jesus Christ shall not raigne over us but there is a royal Proclamation given with an ô yes from his palace of glory who inhabiteth Eternity v. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord So Psal. 2. 2. Jew and Gentile are upon foot raging and consulting with all Let us break his bands and cast his cords from us nay v. 6. one who is not on foot but sitteth in Heaven laughing not troubling himselfe with the Tumults of clay-nothings sent out a princely mandate I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion I have put the Crown on Christs head what men of dust and ashes shall pull it off his head Psal. 46. 9. He breaketh the Bow and cutteth the Spear he burneth the Chariots in the fire The heathen cannot endure this they flie on armies and cry with a shout He shal not break our Bowes He shal not burne our Chariots with fire therefore a royal Commandment and Decree cometh out v. 10. Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted above the heathen I will be exalted on Earth He is crying O Rome O Spaine O Ireland O Kings and powers of the world O Babylon Lady of Nations O Pope and Cardinals hold your peace speak no more Esai 46. 13. I bring near my Righteousnesse it shall not be far off and my salvation shall not tarry and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel for Brittain my glory 2. Vse is To bring hearts in a fervour and sicknes of love with God and make us mould higher and more Majestick thoughts and conceptions of this most high Lord then ordinarily we do and therefore consider how inconsiderable incomprehensible he is 2. Summon all created glory before him by way of comparison 3. Look at him as the last end First then consider two words that Paul hath Eph. 3. 18 19. That you may be able it is his prayer with all the Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Now from the love of Christ you may take the measure in some proportion of this great Lord himself Then conceive a love higher then the Heaven of Heavens deeper then the Earth broader then the Sea yea broader and longer then the circumference of the outmost shel or orbe of the
Heaven of Heavens that love should not passe knowledge but seeing I am warranted to speak of love according to dimensiones of Height Breadth Depth Length But imagine in the capacity of knowledge and understanding ten thousand millions of new created Heavens and Worlds at the East end of this Heaven that now is and ten thousand millions of new Worlds created at the West end of this Heaven that now is and let your knowledge run along to the North and the South and to the thirty two points of the foure Cardinall arches here would be great Height Length Breadth and Depth of love yet I am sure this love should not passe all knowledge for the understanding of man will go along through all these to multiply and multiply againe and againe and yet all love within knowledge What then must himself be if we could separate God and Gods Love Again conceive so many multiplyed new Worlds new Heavens new Earths new Seas new Forrests Woods Trees Reeds Herbs Grasse Stones and all the rest multiplyed and conceive so many worlds of men and new created Angels and let all these millions of VVoods Trees Forrests Herbs Grasse be all made pens and let all these thousands millions of new created Seas Fountaines Rivers be all Ink and all these thousands millions of Heavens yea of Heavens Aire Earth be paper and let these thousands of millions of men and Angels write Books and Psalms of praise of this infinite and incomprehensible Lord and let their wits be enlarged in the capacity of so many thousand millions of degrees of understanding above what they now have according to the former multiplied numbers and let their wits for all eternity conceive new expressions and most heavenly conceptions of the infinite excellency transcendent glory incomparable goodnesse and matchlesse and boundlesse highnesse greatnesse omnipotence of this never enough admired and adored Lord of this high and loftie one who inhabiteth eternity and yet all these should not passe knowledge for you and I and any ordinary understanding of no great capacity may know all this and therefore all these should not say any thing to expresse this Love and this Lord who passeth all knowledge O if we could be drawn to a higher measure of Love and to put a greater price on this Lord then we do 2. From this we may easily see the comparison betwixt this Lord and Peers of created nothings And if all Nations be before him as nothing as lesse then nothing as it is said by himself Es. 40. 17. Then say O smal base nothing of a Creature O highest O excellency of all things in the Creator O little and really small creature O great and surpassing great and incomparable Creator O man poor man that living lie and that dying and expiring nothing but O infinite all O unspeakable and infinite glory of uncreated being O man a breathing fable a living and a laughing vanity O self-sufficient and al sufficient life of solid happinesse O creature a dying vanity and a weeping nothing a nothing rejoycing eating drinking sighing dying O highest Creator O eternity of ever-living and ever-joying life O self-living immortality of endlesse and uncreated joy O created sparkes and poore drops of creature-goodnesse and creature-mercy O Sea O boundlesse world of worlds of infinite goodnesse and bottom-lesse mercy in the Creator of all things O shamed and despised royaltie of Princes of Earth and Clay O never enough admired glory of uncreated royaltie in the incomprehensible God! O fair Sun O beautifull Moone but rather O confounded and shamed Sunne and Moon Esa. 24. 23. and O infinitely fair and glorious Lord who made Sun and Moon O pleasant Roses and Lillies but O pleasanter Lord the Creator of Roses and Lillies O mighty and powerfull Kings and Emperours but most mighty and matchlesse King of Kings O foolish and unwise men O unstedfast and changeable Angels O Lord there is no searching out of thy understanding O unchangeable and unmoveable mover of all things O peeces of Breathing Laughing and then dying Clay O creature of yesterday of the last by-past hour for the world is not of one weeks standing to him seeing a thousand yeers are to him as one day But O Lord The ancient of dayes Daniel 7. 13. O Father of eternity Esai 9. 6. O King of ages 1. Tim. 1. 17. And King of time O weak men O mightlesse and infirme Heavens which shall wax old as a garment O eternall Lord O what an Arme of omnipotency is in him who shall with a shake of his right Arme move the Heavens and loose all the fixed Stars and cause them to fall out of the Heaven as Figs fall off a Fig-Tree shaken with a mighty Winde Revel. 6. 13. O all you created Gardens and Orchards and Paradises be ashamed blush and hide your selves beside the Tree of life which beareth twelve manner of fruit every moneth Every Apple growing on this Lord who is the Tree of life is life eternall O Gold O Silver O Rubies O precious Stones much desired by Adams sonnes What are you to him whose City is fairer Revel. 21. 18. And the building of the Wall was of Jasper and the City was pure gold like unto clear glasse He saith not there was abundance of gold in the City and multitudes of precious stones but the City was all gold and precious stones a City like Rome Venetia or Constantinople in which Timber Wals Stones Streets all the buildings were nothing but precious stones and gold were admirable O all fair Rivers and Seas what are you but pooles of dead water being compared with a pure River of water of life proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22. 1. Every drop of that water is an heaven O created welbeloveds you are black and the Sun hath looked on you when you come out and stand beside the Standard bearer amongst ten thousand Cant. 5. 10. Oh who are sick of love for this Lord O for eternities leasure to look on him to feast upon a sight of his Face O for the long summer-Day of endlesse ages to stand beside him and to enjoy him O time O sin be removed out of the way O Day O fairest of Dayes dawne O morning of eternity break out and arise that we may enjoy this incomprehensible Lord And therefore O come out of the Creature 3. Make not Clay and the Creature whose mother is purum nihil pure meere nothing your last end Alas make not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus a post-horse to ride your own errands or a Covenant with the most high Lord a Chariot and Stirrop to mount upon the height of your carnall and Clay-projects this is as if one should stop the entry of an Oven with a Kings roberoyall Let God onely God be your last end 1. He is the living God The words Chajah and Havah to be and to live are neere of kindred together for living is the most excellent
A SERMON PREACHED To the Honourable HOVSE OF COMMONS At their late Solemne Fast Wednesday Jan. 31. 1644. BY SAMUEL RUTHERFURD Professor of Divinitie in the University of S. Andrews EXOD. 3. 2. And hee looked and behold the Bush burned with fire and the Bush was not consumed Published by Order of the House of Commons EDINBURGH Printed by Evan Tyler Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie 1644. Die Mercurii 31. Ianuar. 1644. IT is this day ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Mr. Rous do from this House give thanks unto Mr. Rutherfurd for the great paines he took in the Sermon he preached this day at the intreaty of the said Commons at S. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publike Humiliation and to desire him to print his Sermon And it is ordered that none presume to print his Sermon without authority under the hand-writing of the said Mr. Rutherfurd H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Richard Whittaker and Andrew Crooke to print my Sermon Samuel Rutherfurd To the Christian Reader WHether time or the fashion hath obtained of me worthy Reader that this Sermon should come under the providence of your favourable judgement and Candor I can hardly determine But you have it as it is onely I shall heartily desire in reviewing of it your serious thoughts in these insuing considerations 1. What I speak here of God and his excellency is but a shadow to the expressions of others and what others can say men or Angels is but a short and rude shadow of that infinite All the High Jehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth so my thoughts come forth as shadows of shadows for there behoved to be much honey in the Inke much of Heaven in the breast much of God in the Pen of any who speaketh of such a transcendent subject yet if these do affect you it is possible I say more if not I shall desire not to spill the Lords highest praises with my low-creeping under-expressions 2. Concerning Gods dispensation now in Brittaine and his Churches condition I shall be your debter in all humble modesty to beg these thoughts to go along with God As 1. Let the Lord have a charitable sense and good construction of his most wise dispensation and beleeve that he who hath his fire in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem seeth good that Christs Crosse should be the Church of Christs birth-right and that a life-rent of afflictions is a surer way for Zion then Summer-dayes 2. You are not to stumble that God will not fit his times to mens apprehensions when to raine and when to shine fair neither is clay to usurp the chair and dispute the matter to make the All-wise providence a School-Probleme nor asks Why is our Zion builded with carcasses of men in two kingdomes fallen as dung in the open field and as the handfull after the harvest man Why is the wall of the daughter of Zion sprinkled with blood One thing I know It is better to beleeve then to dispute and to adore then to plead with him who giveth not account of his matters 3. Innocencie in these times is better then court with princes and the condition of the heirs of Heaven yea their tears better then the joy of the hypocrite 4. Christs Church can neither shift nor adjourne such a share of affliction as is written in Gods book It is a standing and a current court which hath decreed what graines of Gall and Wormewood England must drink what a cup is prepared for Scotland and the Ballance of wisedome hath weighed by ounce weights how much wrath shall be mixed in the cup of wasted Ireland 5. You know it is generally the condition of the Church if she have any Summer that it is but a good day betwixt two Feavers Heaven heaven is the home and the desired day of the Bride the Lambs wife 6. It is much better to be afflicted then to be guilty and that the Church may have pardon and want peace 7. That the faith which is more precious then gold can bid the devil do his worst and that the patience of the Saints can out-weary the malice of Babylon or Babel on whose skirts is found the blood of the Saints 8 That it is now and ever true as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint so shall the multitude of all nations be that fight against mount Zion 9. Vengeance is gone out from the Lord against those who feast upon Zions teares and they must die the death of the uncircumcised who clapped their hands and stamped with the feet and rejoyced in heart with all their despight against the land of Israel 10. They are in no better condition who refuse to help the Lord against the mighty and whose heart is as a stone and a piece of dead flesh at all the revolutions and tossings of Christs Kingdome who daunce eat and laugh within their own orbe and if their desires bee concentrick to the world and themselves care not whether Joseph die in the stocks or not or whether Zion sink or swim because whatever they had of Religion it was never their minde both to summer and winter Jesus Christ 11. The rise of the Gospel-sun is like the prodigious appearance of a new Comet to the woman that sitteth on many waters to that mother Rome-planted as a Vine in blood the Lionesse whose Whelps Papists and Prelates in Ireland and England have learned to catch the prey and this Comet prophesieth Wo to the Pope King of the bottemlesse pit and his bloody Lady Babel if Christ shall arise and shine in the power of his Gospel 12. God hath now as great a work on the wheels as concerneth the race of the Chariots of Jesus Christ through the habitable world pray O let his Kingdome come and farewell Yours in the Lord Jesus S. R. A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of COMMONS At their last solemne Fast Wednesday January 31. 1644. DANIEL 6. 26. I make a Decree that in every Dominion of my Kingdome men tremble and feare before the face of the God of Daniel for he is the living God and indureth for ever and his Kingdome that which shall not bee destroyed and his dominion shall bee to the end MEthod requireth that first the words bee expounded secondly that they bee taken up in a right order thirdly that such observations bee hence deduced as serve most for the present condition of the times The words are plaine here first is a Statute of a great King Sim that the seventie interpreters render {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a decretall letter for sometimes though seldome the Lords cause findeth the grace of faire justice with men The matter of the Decree is that men tremble and feare Lehevon zognin vedachalin The Seventie render
against the wisedome of God hence so many plots first to divide then to seduce so many lies and perjuries in print and all with this profession To defend the true Protestant Religion But surely hee hath a strong Metaphysicall faith more subtill then solid who beleeveth that an army of Papists led on by the rules of Jesuits and helped by the forces of the Irish Rebels have a minde to defend the true Protestant Religion I hope never to beleeve it Yet as God disappointed Daniels enemies so are they mis-led in all their purposes God hath alwayes done this The enemy of God and a good Cause Psal. 7. 14. is with childe but the Justice of God is Godfather and giveth the name of the childe it is named A lie behold he travelleth with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and the birth when it is borne is no King no God hee bringeth forth a lie Esay 33. 11. Ye shall conceive chaffe and the childe is a monstrous bastard a childe of straw and stubble and ye shall bring forth stubble Iob 15. 35. They conceive mischiefe and bring forth vanity There is a long web now in weaving in England and many hands spin threds to the web as England Scotland Ireland Rome Italy France Spaine Denmarke Papists Jesuits Cardinals Princes Pope Prelates Politicians and Jehovah the Lord hath an hand eminently in the contexture and almost all except the Lord and his Church have sundry ends therefore they weave in threeds of sundry colours Babylon Rome and Papists are for their idolatry set up in Britaine God hath broken that threed once twice but they cast new knots and doe still spinne and weave Prelates ends with shouting and garments rolled in blood let our great Diana stand the honour the bellies of fourteen and twenty and sixe must bee defended by the sword and the blood of the Church of Christ God hath often broken their threed Ireland hath no end but that their Babel shall be built again with blood and their hearts like a piece of the nether milstone are grinding blood and revenge this end must fall The Politician and Malignants end is the world and the glory of Court and their glory is very lean Princes weave in their threed to set up their absolute and independent soveraignty and if any more be intended God knoweth but by the wooll wee may judge of the web But when all is done in this long and great web though the enemies black policy bee transparent and sevved vvith vvhite threed heare the conclusion of all Psal. 33. 10. The Lord bringeth the counsell of the heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the people of none effect 11. But the counsell of the Lord standeth for ever For he is the living God Darius saith in this verse and in the follovving much of God and of his Nature Greatnesse Povver and Soveraignty Hence learn vve that how much of God is revealed to us so far are we to have high noble thoughts and suteable expressions of God hence are vve Christians far more to think and speak of God and that upon these grounds Because he is 1. God 2. Great 3. Gracious 4. Glorious 5. Beautifull 6. Omnipotent 1. The notion and that great thing God is admirable God wil say no more to put Abraham upon a course of contentment when he had the spoil of the Kings of Sodome and to set him in a way of obedience but Gen. 17. 1. I am God all-sufficient and goodnes mercy are included in the very essence of God Hos. 11. 9. I will not execute the fiercenesse of my wrath against Ephraim for I am God and not man And he saith no more in the Covenant and it is much and all I will be your God for if you say God you say all that can be said 2. For greatnes any way he is above all heare what Zophar saith Job 11. 7. Canst thou by searching finde out God canst thou finde out the Almighty unto perfection 8. It is high as Heaven what canst thou doe deeper then hell what canst thou know 9. The measure thereof longer then the Earth and broader then the Sea 2. Consider the supreame absolute Soveraignty that hee hath over Heaven and Earth what created royalty is in the pieces of Clay who carry diadems of clay on their heads is eminently in him Artaxerxes is but King of some Kings but God is absolutely the supreame Monarch Superiour Landlord and King of Kings and of all Kings and Lord of Lords Ahashuerosh sent his royall mandates through an hundred and twenty seven Provinces hee sendeth his Officers of the state of Heaven his Angels through his Monarchy of Heaven and Earth and they fulfill his will Psal. 103. 20. He sendeth his Sea-posts stormy winds to destroy Armado's and to breake the ships of Tarshish Psal. 30. verse 4. The Lord is great and greatly to be praysed he is to be feared above all Gods And wee put him out of his Throne when we appoint Peeres to sit and give Counsell and make Lawes with this highest Lord make a Throne of glory the height of thousand thousand millions of Heaven of Heavens and set that Throne above the circumference of all these Heavens set Worlds of Angels and millions of Seraphims or if there be created Arch-Angells and thousand thousands of Dominions Thrones and Principalities as servants under the foot-stoole of his Throne yet hee were set too low hee deserveth a Throne above that Throne 3. Consider his gracious nature 1. How tender hearted to his afflicted people Jud. 10. 16. The Lords soul was grieved for the misery of Israel Jer. 31. 20. Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant childe for since I did speake against him I doe earnestly remember him my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him saith the Lord What tendernesse O what compassion in the heart of an infinite God! Psal. 147. 3. The Lord healeth the broken in heart he bindeth up their wounds O how softly and compassionately doth his heavenly hand put in joynt the bones of a broken heart his Son Christ hath a roome in his heart for the Lambes which are not able to go there alone Esai 40. 11. He shall gather the Lambs with his arms he shall carry them in his bosome 4. He is Psal. 13. 1. Clothed with glory Psal. 104. 1. Clothed with honour and majesty 2. Covered with light uncreated light as with a garment How dear must every yard of that garment be poor earthly Kings ride upon horses of flesh He rode upon a Cherub and did flie upon the wings of the winde Psal. 18. 10. Nor is he then upon his highest horse he can ride higher then on the wings of the winde Psal. 104. 3. Psal. 18. 10. Kings of Clay have their Tents on the cold Earth He maketh dark Clouds his pavilion It should kill the holiest on earth to see one glimpse of his glory 5. What beauty must be in
being and it is most agreeable to reason that JEHOVAH who is the first being and hath being of himself should be the living God And you do not finde man called living man though man have a life as God is called the living God he is the living God because all life is originally in him Psal. 36. 9. With thee is the well of life Joh. 1. 4. In him was life all heat is orignally in fire and in other things at the second hand all light originally in the Sun and other things have light by loane onely and light in other things is from the Sun by a sort of grace 2. He is the living God in opposition to dead Idols who Psal. 115. want life 3. And have mouthes and speak not eyes they have but see not you need not be afraid of the Paâ—ists gods of wood and silver and gold But because I haste to an â—nd The use is 1. If all things that live and we mortall men borrow our life from God we are to correct three errours 1. We take this borrowed breath for our proper heritage and we make this lifâ— our Idol and our last end hence all is done for this life men betray the cause of God for their life men desert the cause of God Parliament Countrey and Religion for a life to them and theirs men kill and destroy for life men rise early in the morning and go late to bed at night and eat the bread of sorrow for life but oh little do wee for the living God and a communion with the living God in the best life the life of grace Our second error is that as our life is but a borrowed thing we do not think on two things 1. The paying of the annuall of this borrowed sum even the dedication of our life actions wayes and purposes to God and his honour Secondly we doe not think of paying back again the principall sum and who hath the sum in his hand and his soul in readinesse to render to God 2. But like bankrupts we minde not to pay except we be arrested and then the soul is taken from money but if we do not render it the ghuest is pulled out but doth not come out anima ejicitur non egreditur Who liveth as having no morrow who walketh as if death were alwayes at his right side 3. We love best the worst of our life we are much for the time-accidents and the clay-accidents of this life such as are court honour riches pleasure ease some sell Religion to be free from plundering others to keep a whole skin and to go to heaven as they imagine without losse of bloud comply with Papists Prelates Court and the Times And for that which scarce deserveth the name of Life men give as the Lyer saith Job 2. 4. skinne for skinne and all that they have for life but oh that noble accident of life eternity of life or rather that excellent substance eternall life is much neglected the life hidden up with Christ in God Col 3. 3. is regarded 2. How sweet is it to make God a friend sure and induring to thy soule who cannot die is it sure to trust in the Prince who returneth to his Earth the Earth whereof he is a landed heritor when he dieth Psal. 146. 3. Is it not surer to trust in the Lord who made the Heaven and the Earth vers. 6. Is it sure to trust 1. Tim. 6. 17. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in riches which deale not plainly and fairly with us nor go out the high way but are uncertain like a friend and you know not when to have him and when to want him Is it not better to trust in that living God that God who liveth for ever whereas riches is a dead and a dying God David speaking of his owne greatnesse valour in war through Gods strength and of Nations People and Kingdomes who served him yet looketh on one above all Psal. 18. 46. The Lord liveth and blessed bee my Rock this putteth me in minde of a Prince who heard of the death of many of great and noble friends in war and that this Duke and this Prince and this and this worthy friend was killed in war yet comforted himself with this vivit imperator sat habeo the Emperour liveth and I am happy enough But is not this better to a soule that knoweth God my father is killed my brother lost my Prince dead my deare friend buried but God liveth and blessed be my Rock yea but say thy God the King of Brittaine liveth yet his favour to thee may die before he die himself and then what hast thou Court Court is made of glasse and can glister and be broken in one houre the pavement of the chamber of presence is Icy and slidy and thou maist fall It is known to many the Courtier is as a compter laid downe in the compting Table to day for a thousand pound and taken up and laid downe in the next accompt for a farthing O but these two be sweetly combined The ever-living God and The ever-loving God how comfortable that I beleeve Gods love toward me is as old as God and that as God did never begin to be God so he never began to love me but as he is eternall so his love is eternall and I know the Court shall not change upon me And abiding or stedfast for ever This is another attribute of Gods blessed nature that Darius ascribeth to God He is a God eternall Daniel 7. 13. He is the ancient of dayes Psal. 102. 26. The Heavens shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them wax old as a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed 27. But thou art the same and thy yeers shall have no end I know now that the whole created masse of heaven and earth and all therein is but as a web of cloth and as a Sute of clothes and the best end of the web is old and moth-eaten and shall bee laid by as an old threed-bare Cloak ragged and holed when God shall endure for ever and ever 2. Time goeth not about God as it goeth about creatures there is not with him yesterday and to morrow and this yeere and the last yeere but his duration is an instant standing alwayes still you and I slide through moneths and yeeres and at length wee are over ears in time and under the water by death but he standeth still his being is in no flux or motion from first and last from time past to time to come because he is Revel. 1. 17. The first and the last and v. 8. The Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord he which is and which was and which is to come Imagine there were a verbe that doth involve an action done and ended yesterday and in doing to day and to be done to morrow and yet a compleatly perfected action that should expresse
sunk and overwhelmed if those three hold good which Papists and Arminians hold 1. Our salvation were in danger if free-will which hath its rise and working in time were the Axeltree upon which are rolled the wheeles of eternall election and reprobation But there is as good reason to say that a sucking childe may reach up his arme above the Sunne and Starres and roll about the wheele of the first Heaven from East to West and turne the wheele again from West to East as to say that time-free-will can turn about the eternall counsel of God and that our acts of believing are not believing and our good and evil works which have their rise from yesterday and to day and are like Jonahs gourd up and down in one night doe roll about the eternall will and decree of God from favour and love to hatred and rejecting of men Better make the former of all things supreame and soveraigne then give the Prerogative Royall of all to naughty and sinfull clay 2. We could easily grant that it were in mens power to destroy the Church of God and that the King of the bottomlesse pit and his Lady and Queen Babylon the great whore and their sonnes Papists and Prelates might cut off the name of the Lords Israel if upon the supposall of their dream of N. media scientia the new eyes which Jesuits with all humble submission and glory to the glorious God bee it spoken have given to the Almighty contingency did rule all for upon the nod and dominion of causes without all determination of Gods righteous providence and eternall counsel all revolutions of Church and Kingdomes depend say they and all hang upon these two poles may be may not be what hindereth then that Christ have no Spouse no redeemed people and that he be a husband without a wife a King without Subjects a Saviour without a ransomed people as they expresly teach who with Arminians are advocates for nature and pleaders against the grace of God but wee believe God to bee eternall and his counsel eternall and his eternall decree to have a strong influence in the safety of his Church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail and that Divels Men Babylon Rome Spain Irish rebels powers on earth in their plots machinations counsels endeavours battels victories all which come from free causes are yet chained and fast linked to the high dominion and independent soveraignty of an eternall God And we believe that this differenceth Jehovah from all other Gods who as Esay saith Can neither do good nor evil Therefore there is not an arrow steepd in hell and shot against the Church but it cometh out of Gods bow and he saith it Esay 43. 13. Yea before the day was I am he and there is none that can deliver out of my hand I wil worke and who shall let it The Churches victories and deliverance depend upon an eternall hand and therefore the sonnes of Belial prevail not and the sons of Jacob are not consumed 3. It were a desperate matter for the elect to be saved if the first Adam were our surety but our Tutor Jesus Christ is old and wise the ancient of dayes Daniel 7. 13. and he hath seven eies they cannot chuse but hold the apostasie of the Saints who make free-will our tutor And therefore if I were halfe in heaven and my one foot in eternity and my other in time if such a sinfull principle as free-will should tutour and guide me I should come back again out of heaven and be damned eternally If any weak soule apprehending wrath and under a fervour of desertion should complain What hindreth me to be eternally condemned for I am not distracted I am privie to my selfe that I have sold my birth-right and sinned against the grace of God hainously Let me answer That the selling of your birth-right dependeth upon the consent of your tutor Jesus Christ who is the King of ages as no minor can sell his inheritance without the consent of his tutor and if he should doe it it cannot stand in Law but may be revoked Christ is first heire and all the elect joynt heires with him Rom. 8. 17. and joynt heires in Law though many persons yet they make but one heire consider then if he who is your eternall King of ages and so unchangeable hath not given his consent to the bargaine that you should sell his birth-right and inheritance and under him your own birth-right you had no power to doe it Christ because he is God eternall cannot subscribe nor signe with his hand the writs wherein you have sold your inheritance therefore the bargaine in Law is a meere nullity Thirdly if he be God enduring for ever What fooles are we to place our hope in a King that shall die Surely they cast their anchor in ill ground who trust in the creature thou puttest thy heaven betwixt the browes of a King and in the light of his countenance he is but a man and may change and though his favour were constant yet when his eye-strings shall be broken with one breath he shall breathe out his own soule and thy heaven And what canst thou then say or do because sence and the flesh leadeth us and time goeth about us from the cradle to the grave we are all for time we are for a time-Court a time-Glory a time-Prince a time-Friend a time-Husband a time-Brother a time-Heaven and happinesse a time-deliverance in trouble time-Riches time-joy and time-pleasure time-triumphing a time-life c. But we may finde in this King of ages who indureth for ever these same good things of another nature as we finde in God eternall Court eternall Glory an eternall King an eternall Friend an eternall Husband an eternall Brother an eternall Happinesse an eternall Salvation eternall riches eternall victory and triumph and in summe life eternall His Kingdome such as cannot be destroyed The other classe of arguments to prove Daniels God to be the true God is from his government His Kingdome that is The people of his kingdome cannot be destroyed and now the King doth say though there be variety and choyce of gods in Chaldea and Persia yet Daniels God is incomparably above them all and Daniel and his fellowes are blessed and more happy in their God then all that serve other gods The Lord when he is tried will be found the onely excellent and matchlesse God above all gods and none like to him and his people the onely happy people that mans portion is fallen in pleasant lines who hath the Lord for his portion but I must go on to make good this doctrine That the Kingdome and Church of God is the most permanent and induring society on earth and a Kingdome which cannot fail and I go upon these grounds There is a most firm and sure Covenant made betwixt the Lord and his people Jer. 31. 35. Thus saith the Lord that giveth the Sun for a light by day and the