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
Kingdom to the Father yet so as that God that is the Son also with the Spirit may be all in all Thirdly None dare say That as God now rules by the Mediator so then the Mediator shall rule by God for the Mediator as such is subordinate to God and to say the Mediator may rule as well as God is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a necessity as to us that God rule us by a Mediator in the Church Militant but it is no way inconsistent either with the wisdom or glory of God to communicate himself immediately to the Church Triumphant Lastly Christ gives up the Kingdom not onely not as God but not absolutely considered as Mediator Christus ut Deus nos cum illo subjectos habet sed ut Sacerdos nobiscum illi subjectus est Aug. for Christ even now as Mediator is subject to God really For though Christ reigns yet so still as that God reigns by Christ though there be an immediate exercise of the Mediators Kingdom in the world yet God keeps in the Essential Throne of his glory But then further he shall be subject relatively and respectively as to his Church or Body now Christ rules his Church as Mediator and not as God onely and the very Mediator is King in actu over Sion but then this administration shall cease and the Head with the Body or Christ as part of his Church or Christ mystical shall be subject to God and thus he is not at present but shall be hereafter the Mediator being yet in the Throne but there is a time a comming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he shall give up the Kingdom to wit that Kingdom which God gave over to him and cease to reign as Mediator and it is observable that for Christ to surrender up the Kingdom and be subject to God are of all one importance vers 28. By the surrender of the Kingdom therefore we cannot understand such or such an administration of the Kingdom and not the Kingdom it self for all that Kingdom he receives he surrenders And secondly Christ must so surrender as he must be subject the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must go together And I am much pleased with the Apostles sweet Criticism that as now Christ Col. 3. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and in all So God hereafter shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all in all the Messiah hath two times especially the time of his sorrows and the time of glory In the sixth of John vers 15. they had royal blood in their veins and they would force Jesus to be a King surely that they might have preferment under him but Christ departed and flew from the Crown few men would have done as Christ did Satis pro imperio quisquis est says the Comick Men will wade up to the chin in blood for a Kingdom and stretch fair and far for a Crown it shines so amiably in their eyes Says the Devil if Jesus will but accept of the Title and Place of a King he will be so taken up with the Affairs and Offices of the world that he will not have such liberty to look after the conversion of souls the Revenues of the Devils Crown would have come in the more by such a worldly Negotiation but there is a day a coming when Jesus will not fly from a Crown nor refuse a Scepter his glory shall be as eminent as ever was his shame The Daughters of Sion shall go forth and Crown King Jesus in the day of his solemn Espousals and such a day shall be the gladness of his heart Jesus hath born all the wrath of the world and he is able in a spiritual visible sense to bear all the glory of the world on his shoulders Can. 3.11 The children of Judah and of Israel shall be gathered together at a place of their general Randezvouz and by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Election by lifting up their hands and voyces appoint themselves one head and they shall one and all as we say come up out of the Land for great and glorious shall be the day of Jezreel Jesus Christ is a righteous King and he hath a right to his Kingdom It is utterly impossible that ever he should prove either an Vsurper or a Tyrant He thinks it no robbery to be equal with God then certainly it is no robbery for him to be preheminent above men Phil. 2.6 It is no robbery for King Jesus to pull Saint Peter out of his Chair and there in Majesty to rule the Nations with a Rod of iron if he please No robbery for him to melt all the Crowns in Europe to make a Diadem of glory for his own Temples If any think they have gone deeper in a purchase for the Government of the world than our Lord Jesus let them stand up if they dare and lay their claim let them now speak or ever after hold their peace In the expectation therefore of these things let the Saints rejoyce Vniversal Redemption will then prove a Truth when all yoaks shall be taken off the necks and all burthens off the backs of the children of God It is observable that the substance of all the Revelation is contained in these two words Hosanna and Halelujah God bless us and we bless God hitherto we have been a singing Hosanna but Halelujah is a coming Praise and Honor and Glory to the Lamb that sits on the Throne If any object That any of the above-mentioned Promises concern the Jews I answer True but not the Jews onely and though Promises are not to be confounded and applied to one people if they should onely belong to another yet it will be found according to the Promises that the glory of the Jews will be the glory of the Gentiles and though now we are divided yet then we shall be one fold Rom. 11.12 What God hath joyned together let no man separate To conclude The Saints must pray for and endeavor to promote the more glorious part of this Kingdom of which we speak in which there shall be neither such covetousness nor complaint But all endeavors will fall short of setting of it up on Earth till our Lord Jesus the King shall come down from Heaven in the Clouds We shall never have such a Kingdom untill we have such a King The Feet of the Saints shall not all be out of their Fetters till the King of Saints comes into his Throne Dan. 7.13 27. Princes will never so rule in Judgement till this King shall reign in Righteousness Is 32.1 The New Jerusalem will be Gods Creature The Stone is cut out without hands there may be something of the heart of the Saints in this glorious Structure but it shall neither be the work of their Head nor Hands This model of Government is beyond the invention of Saints as it is beyond the beleef of man Many shall welcome it in the
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
makes the Alcoran his Ladder the Jew makes the Temple of the Lord his Ladder the carnal Protestant makes his charâ—ty his Ladder and the Papist hath his Ladder also there is a Red Ladder by the blood of Christ but they will have a White Ladder by Marys obedience this they accompt the easier way mee thinks these men mistake Jacobs Ladder yet something like it is for they are in a dream as Jacob was these are all rotten Ladders and the climbers have rotten hearts Thirdly A Providentiall sense and thus I shall handle this Vision The Ladder signifies the Divine Providence and in this Ladder wee have many things observable First The variety of Providence in the many steps The Providence of God hath indeed but one end yet it hath divers waies to that one end every living creature hath four faces and four wings to signify the several appearances and swift execution of Providence Eze. 1.6 It is a difficult thing to take the picture of Providence at this time in the world it maketh and hath so many faces let our eyes be never so exact in observing and our hands ready in describing its waies The locks of the Spouse in the Canticles are black and curled black for their obscurity and curled for their various intricacy There are not so many several countenances of men as there are dispensations of God and it s as rare a thing to find dispensations as men of the same complexion In heaven God will appear to the Saints in one glorious form but now as it was said of an Emperor that every day he put on a new suit so it is the Lords honour to apparell himself in changeable robes the imbroidery of Providence is made up of divers colours Sion is not allwaies in one condition nor the soul allwaies in one posture sometimes Christ frowns and sometimes he smiles sometimes hee casteth down sometimes hee lifteth up sometimes the Church of God is in the wildernesse sometimes in Canaan sometimes on the raging sea sometimes in her harbour The Lord keeps his people from infection by leading them into divers aires black and bloody Providences set off the wisdome and faithfullnesse of our God the better Standing waters corrupt and breed noysome creatures but running waters are pure and preservative Every new day brings with it a new tentation and wee shall never be experienced Souldiers till we are tryed at all sorts of weapons Credend a plura sunt de Deo quam scienda We must not look on the scattered lines of Providence but tarry till God hath made a conclusion never say Providence scribles til you have seen the whole copy Princes letters wee say ought to bee read thrice Let us consider the waies of God and wee shall never censure them Secondly In this Ladder we have the seeming uncertainty of Providence The Ladder is partly above the Clouds and partly visible in the Air as the Spirit Joh. 3. blows where it listeth so God in his works worketh how he listeth It is observable that usually of old when God appeared in the Tabernacle a Cloud ushered in his presence All the world is in the light to God but God is in the dark to all the world Sometimes the Lord walks so plainly in his works that he that runs may read that the dim-sighted'st Christian may say this is the Lords walk and this is the Lords work at other times he wraps himself in a cloud Si vides ubi fides and overcasteth Syon with darkness that the poor children of God cannot tell where to find their Father that they can but guesse at his footsteps knowing not which way to march for their Leader hath hid himself Pompey the Great said when the scales weighed down on Caesars side that there was a mist on the eies of Providence but indeed the Sun shone clearly and the mist was on his eye that he could not see it I confess in this age it is easier to know what particular things in Providence God will pull down than what he will set up We often imagine there is a disorder in Gods works when if we mind it the disorder is in our imagination We know not how to beleeve and we phancy the Lord to be at a stand as not knowing what to do But we must take heed of charging the Lord to be out of his way when onely he is out of our sight Thirdly In this Ladder we have the seeming contradictions of Providence The Angels ascend and descend the Ladder One Providence seems to go one way and another Providence seems to go another way Sometime the Cloud in the wilderness seemed to carry Israel immediately to Canaan now for Canaan might Moses and Aaron say and on a sudden the Lord wheels about and Israel turns faces toward the Red Sea as if he intended they should never see Canaan more How plainly hath the Lord led England for some years toward a Reformation The Saints have encouragingly said one to another Certainly we are within two or three years journey of the New Jerusalem Have at the scarlet Whore of Babylon Now for the building of ruinate Sion But the Lord hath seemed to cry face about and follow me yet longer in the wilderness and some of the Saints conclude we are never like to go forward we shall return to our Leeks and Onyons The conversion of souls visibly goes backward and not forward About twelve years ago hundreds came out of the Devils Kingdom into the Kingdom of the Gospel but now many fly from the colours of the Gospell visibly Miremur non rimemur Providentiae reconditam viâ— and run into the Devils quarters again The Lord seems to seal up the hardness of mens hearts and to say to the womb of Grace Give forth no more let no more sinners be changed from darkness to light in England Well might Solomon Prov. 30.19 compare the Church to a ship in the midst of the Sea which as the Prophet speaks Now even mounts up to the Heavens and anon descends as it were to Hell God sees our works in our wills but we cannot many times spell out the Lords Will by his Works who can trace the Lord in his travel or find out the work or walk of the Almighty in the world The Texts of Providence are as difficult as the Texts of the Scriptures there are as high contests about Providence as about Predestination and it is as hard to reconcile the Works of God as to reconcile his Word though there is a real concordance and harmony in both Be not over righteous says the Preacher Eccles 7.16 Can a man be too righteous rather we think he should have said be not too prophane but as one Diamond cuts another so one Scripture opens another ver 15. I have seen a just man as just as Abel perish in his righteousnes and to lose his life because he would keep his conscience and on the contrary I have seen a
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
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
Deus nos omnes immediatè irradiet impleat Spiritu suo sine opera Mediatoris For Christ at the last is solemnly to make a surrender of the Kingdom to God and the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to God the Father when he hath put down all Authority Power and Rule both Civil and Ecclesiastical both Angelical and Diabolical Which to say is meant of the Kingdom of the God-head is blasphemy for the Kingdom of the Son in that sense is coeternal and coessential with the Fathers Wherefore it must be meant of the Vicarious Personal or Oeconomical Kingdom of the Mediator When the difference between God and the Creature is compleatly made up and God and the Creature made one what formal need will there be of a Mediator for we cannot make a Mediator of one nor of those that are made one It is an Apostolical maxim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3.20 Not that either our Lord Jesus shall depose his humane Nature and so the Hypostatical Union cease or that he shall ever have the glory of his Head-ship over his body eclipsed but onely that Christ mystical entirely be subject and so from God receive immediate and direct beams of Glory It is true The Kingdom of Christ is everlasting but that doth not hinder the supposition for that is salved by his victory over all the Kingdoms in the world and in its not being subverted by any Forein Power whatsoever and thus his Kingdom is everlasting in opposition to the Four Monarchies Dan 7. which succeeding one another and at length were all conquered by our Lord Jesus And Secondly his Kingdom is everlasting as the Gospel of his Kingdom is everlasting Rev. 14.6 which is to be understood not formally but vertually and the Saints shall by vertue of that purchase possess everlasting glory Secondly The relation of his Headship in Heaven doth not oppose for though he shall remain Head of his Body to all eternity yet in a different manner than he is Head now His Headship in the Church Triumphant is rather for precedency than Principality rather for priority and dignity than for guidance and government And this must be confessed that the relation between the Head and the Members in heaven shall still be relatio disquiparantiae non aequiparantiae Thirdly Neither doth this resignation of the Kingdom as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redound to the disparagement of the Mediator no more than the first designation or donation of this Kingdom to Christ was diminution to the glory of God and the Father The Lord Jesus shall suffer no loss of Glory but onely undergo a change of State As suppose a Captain General Commissioned by a Prince with the accommodation of Armies to subdue a Colony of Rebels the Rebels are defeated the Captain General returns home from that field and forein Service surrenders his commission to his Prince he is honored further by his Master for his noble Service he is applauded by the Souldiers for his valor and prowess and ever after by way of honor is called Captain yet we cannot say he is Captain in act His Colours are lodged his Sword is sheathed both the Captain and the Souldiers are under the immediate presidency of the Prince but in a different degree of favor and glory So the Saints shall make it their business in Heaven to extol the Lord and the Lamb to sing Halelujah's and Hosanna's for ever All Honor and Dignity be to our dear Mediator who redeemed us when we were captives washed and cleansed us with his blood comforted our souls by his Spirit that while others were apostatized we by his grace were kept to this great Salvation The consideration of Redemption-work shal be the Theam of Praises for the redeemed throughout all ages And I heard the voyce of many Angels round about the Throne and the beasts in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living Creatures and the Elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands Saying with a loud voyce worthy is the Lamb that is slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing c. Revel 5.11 12. there will be no more need as I apprehend of Christs Kingly Office than of his Priestly or Prophetical Office Glorified Saints are in the highest Form of Divine knowledge and have no need of Intercession for they are above fears and falls above fear of falling in the way or away and all their lusts are conquered of old by Christs Scepter they are in their harbor and therefore out of all storms they have their Crown shining on their heads and have no stumbling-blocks more in their race the Devil then shall never be seen to devour nor heard to roar farewel hardness of heart perplexities of conscience fear of grieving the precious Spirit any more Jacob is ascended to the top of the Ladder and never needs more to fear his feet or hands should slip in climbing and therefore it is said he shall reign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill he shall have put down all his Enemies Fourthly Neither is it necessary there should be an immediate power from Christ as Mediator to preserve and persevere the Saints in glory For everlasting glory is the purchase of his death as well as glory And Secondly Though their glory is not natural yet the first seizure of glory is confirmation in glory Glory and eternall glory differing not in kind possibly not in real degree There being properly no posterius in Heaven or succession of hours Heaven is an eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly The immediate presence of God is a a sufficient ground of their preservation Fourthly Why is the mediation of Christ made eternal à parte post by any rather than eternal à parte ante or rather thus why may not the merit of our Redeemer be as effectual after the solemn resignation of his mediation as it was to the Jews before ever actually he entred his Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regnando id jam acquisivit quod aeternum est regnum ergo aeternum merito habere dici potest quod attinet ad regnandi actum Christus regno sese abdicaturus est quod vero ad regnum attinet regni ejus nullus erit finis Fifthly Whereas it is objected why may not the Kingdom of the Mediator actually in glory be consistent with the government of God as well as now the Kingdom of God is consistent with the Government of the Mediator To this I could answer Our enquiry is not de re possibili vel impossibili in the first place but de re vera vel falsa But Secondly If we speak of the Government of the Mediator as God it is true and if I mistake not some Commentators mean so That as the Father rules as well as the Son now so then the Son shall rule as well as the Father for though he surrender the
that thou art Love Thy people see not so much Prophaneness in the world as the world sees passions amongst thy people We censure and condemn them for not agreeing with thy people while they see thy people agree not amongst themselves Ah Lord If charity were the onely badge of thy Disciples how few Disciples would our Lord and Master have in the world is this a time onely to pull down and not at all to build up to cast away stones and to divide and not to gather stones to raise thy Temple is the Providence of God resolved that no more Stories shall be built in his Sion till one stone be not left on another in Babylon are not our soars searched enough Deo nihil impossibile est nisi quod non vult that yet thou pluckest away the Plaisters thy poor people apply to their wounds Is thy Israel in the midst of the Red Sea and is Pharaoh at their heels ready to swallow them up and cannot Israel be perfectly delivered till the Sea be perfectly divided Hath Sion been travelling with Reformation these many years and even when thy people are ready to welcome it into the world and to name it Glorious must it enter into the womb again Is it our indiscreet importunity that hath hasted to bring it to the birth before the Lords time and day and therefore shall there be no strength given to bring forth Are the grounds of our fears not onely from thy secret or open Enemies but also from the vain conversations of the Professors of thy Name and indeed howl ready have we been to censure the persons and condemn the practises of others and to say there goes an Oppressor an Apostate an Hypocrite so as if there were none of those lusts in our hearts which are visibly reigning in others lives Will the Lord consume their Gold and Silver as well as the others Hay and Stubble pull down many of their works before he set up his own Or wil the Lord further suffer worms and no men to reason with him O Lord are we partly brought out of Egypt and shall we want the cloud of thy presence because that either we long to go backward or fear to go forward Must thy children begin to spell their A B C and go again to School to learn what Mortification and their first love mean before they take out further lessons of experience of Faith Wretched England How many sins do we make that our God did never call sins and how many Articles do our passions put into the Creed which thou didst never enjoyn to be beleeved for Salvation How have one form of thy people been trampling and triumphing over another whiles mostly they have been tithing Mint Annice and Cummin neglecting the Salvation of souls and the advancement of thy Sons Kingdom amongst us when will the Candle of the Almighty shine on the heads of thy people as of old when shall the name of thy Son be poured out as a precious oyntment that the Virgins again may love thee O Lord let us be thy Patients though thou woundest us Let us be under thy rod rather than we should be out of thy Covenant rather than we should sleep to death sound thy Trumpet beat thine Alarm if thou shouldest not administer physick to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cle. Alex. our Disease were desperate Thrice happy will that storm be that shall drive us to our Harbor We will not appoint thee the Rod to lay on our backs onely we intreat that when thou purposest to strike first break our hearts before thou breakest our backs rather than we should not have thy presence let us with the three children go into a furnace thy Son let us with thy Disciples have a storm Rather then we should not be thy children whip us thy Servants beat us thy Spouse chide us thy Friends frown on us Ah Lord Those that lost their blood together cannot now shed tears together those that fought together in the field can scarce now pray together in a family Blessed God! If it be thy will sound a retreat speedily to these disorders Let some publick Enemy of thy Sons Kingdom abroad come upon the Stage that thy Saints may one and all engage together both their prayers and their persons against him that Sion may be terrible as as Army with Banners that the Brats of Babylon may come and worship before her feet Hinc Syncreâ—ismus Synchristianismus and know that thou hast loved her If the building of Sion may not go forward in this age Lord let it not go backward if with Solomon we may not build thy spiritual Temple let us at least lay up stuff for the building of it with David in the next generation If the Lord had never smiled on us we could better have born his frowns if we had not known what the presence of his Spirit Wisdom Glory had meant in England we could better have born his absence Our darkness is now the greater because that our light formerly was so great How dolorous is it to consider that we that have been brought up in Scarlet should imbrace Dunghils And that England that was the terror of the Lord to the Nations round about us should so much be a scorn unto them and a terror one to another You that are Gods Jacobs up and be doing surely we have little love to if we have not a sigh a tear or two for Sion If ever you would rejoyce in Sions deliverance pray for it Faith and Prayer are Sions Granadoes and truely make her the Thundering Legion onely take heed of counterfeiting these heavenly Ordnance and Artillery with the wicked Emperor these weapons are not artificial but infused Methinks I hear Faith and Prayer say Saints in England be patient and persevere in the holy and sincere profession of the Gospel though your God be long before he come yet he will certainly and comfortably come Endure reproaches hold on and hold out notwithstanding your doubts and difficulties your trials and temptations Though your way to Paradise be dirty yet the Tree of Life in the midst thereof the Rivers of divine pleasure and Gates of pearl will richly make amends for all Be beleeving in prayer and in this age especially If once with Jacob you prevail with God you need not fear all the world If any thing in the world can perswade the Lord to preserve a Nation it is Prayer Prayer hath often met God as Abigal did David and moved him to put up his Sword Pharaoh being plagued with Frogs got the man of God to pray for him and Exod. 8.13 The Lord did according to the word of Moses And the Lord obeyed the voyce of a man It is plain that Moses did according to the word of the Lord but it is strange that the Lord should do according to the word of Moses yet it is so If Moses will do according to the word of the Lord
love with Charity that he thought there was no other Word of God than this of Love But oh that Love were by many at least in their carriages accounted to be a Word of God I know there is a kind of unity amongst High-way-men or else their Trade of Robbery would fall And that love is often pretended against Faith and oftner against Holiness The Souldiers that were for the crucifying of Christ were not q.d. for the crucifying of his coat they tore his Body and yet kept his Coat whole but not out of love to Christ but out of love to themselves every one of them would fain have had it all The Souldiers had not Christ but they had his Coat and shall Christians have Christ and not his Coat the Body and the Garment must go together Never expect your Sacrifice of Prayer should be accepted til it be salted with Love Love knows no difference between party and party but owns all as fellow-members that are partakers of the influence of the Head Remember That the Father will not agree to answer the prayers of his children that disagree God will answer the prayers of one childe for another but not of one child against another If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee where by brother in the lowest kind you must not as some do understand men of the same Opinion but men of the same Faith in and same Communion with God Secondly It is not said if thou hast ought against thy Brother Mark that leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift This Precept is Religious and certainly the Practise is not Superstition To expect that God should answer our divided prayers is to put a jeer on Omnipotency and to charge the Almighty with inconsistency it puts an absurdity on God in making him to please man nay an impossibility to please all men The divisions of our prayers may possibly cause some Professors to suspect that God is divided Deus nequit facere quod nequit fieri to whom we pray and in time occasion the world to beleeve there is no God at all for God is but one and not divided The Lord at this time must frustrate q.d. in specie many prayers of some Christians as he will be true to the principles of his own Glory To speak with reverence God cannot grant all our Petitions and be God All the godly of all parties pretend the Kingdom of Christ and these Opinions as rigidly maintained are apparently inconsistent together What a temptation is it then to attempt unlawful means q.d. to force the Lord out of his way and all that man might not be proved false to his own interest and be cryed up and down for a lyar God forsooth shall not be God unless he will please man Multi benè cogitant sed malè precantur Et si volunt esse felices Deum orent ne quid illis ex his quae optantur eveniat Sen. L. Benef. c. 37. Oh! that the Lord would reconcile these divisions that are betwixt his own people However in the interim let every particular Jacob wrestle with God and ly quietly asleep at the bottom of the Ladder I shall conclude here with the advice of Divine Mr. S.R. on the woman of Canaan in 4 Rules First Go not before but follow God and Providence Prescription of such and such means to God and no other is to limit Omnipotency and to stint the holy one of Israel It is arrant Idolatry to limit God to means as well as to bow down to an Idol A Rams horn is as near of blood to cause the walls of Jerico to fall in Gods hand as Engins of war It is easier to see what is inflicted on us than to see who inflicteth it and we look no higher than the creature as if the world created it self so is this when we dream the creature moveth it self and is not moved by God Quietly submit to the Lords waies beleeving can ease us disputing cannot Secondly The book of Providence is full both Page and Margin God hath been adding to it sundry new Editions and like children we are in love with the golden Covering the Ribbons filleting and the pictures in the Frontispeece but understand little of the Argument of Providence Who is wise and will observe these things Degener animus est qui emendare mavult Deum quam se carpens Divina Providentiam alia illa esse velit magis quam se alium Sen. even he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord Psa 107.43 God is worthy to be Chronicled there is a contexture of Decrees Actions Events in Providence from the creation to the conflagration of the world and not a thread shall ever be broken though this web be woven of threads of divers colours black and white comfortable and sad passages of Providence yet all make a fair order to God in the way and shall be beautiful to us in the end As many Herbs and various sorts of Flowers make up one pleasant and well-smelling Meadow many Roses Lillies and the like one sweet-smelling Garden so there is a sweetness and order in all Gods dispensations Thirdly Let your spirits be kept in aequilibrio in an indifferency in all casts of Providence and so you are above the cross 2 Sam. 15.25 26. David puts his soul on Gods two Ifs if he save it is good if he destroy it is good Make sure this general Christ is mine at this Anchor in this Harbor my vessel shall ride What ever wind blow in externals Christ dyed for me if I live its Christ if I dye its Christ if I ride with Princes on Horses its good if I go on foot with Servants it is good If Christ hide his face and frown it is Christ it is good if he overlade the soul with rays and beams of glory it is also Christ Faiths speculations to the worst and hardest in point of resolution is sweet Suppose the Devil and Hell form the Principles Faith can make a conclusion of God and Heaven Job puts on a conclusion of faith from bad premises What if God should kill me yet I le trust in him Job 13.15 What if God throw me into hell it were well resolved I would out of the pit of Devils cry Halelujah praise the Lord in his justice Fourthly Give not over praying though God seem to give over answering God hears often when he doth not answer and oft his not answering is an answer pray go on The Father will cause the child to say over again what he once heard him say because he delights to hear him speak I pray for victory to Gods people in this battel they lose the day yet I am heard and answered because I prayed for that victory not under the notion of Victory but as linked with Mercy to the Church and honor to Christ now God shews mercy and gains Glory in humbling them which is the formal object of my prayers Some Letters require no answer but are meer expressions of the desire of the friend the generall prayers of the Saints That God would gather in his Elect that Christ would come and marry the Bride and consummate the Nuptials do refer to a real answer when the King himself shall make his second appearance In the expectation of and patience for which appearance let the Saints beleeve and rejoyce for the Marriage of the Lamb is a coming and his wife hath made her self ready and to her is granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness righteousnesses gr of the Saints And blessed are they which are called to the marriage Supper of the Lamb. And behold he commeth quickly and his reward is with him therefore let the Spirit and the Bride or the Spirit in the Bride or the Bride in the Spirit say Come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Even so come Lord Jesus Rev. 22.12 17 20. Possibly Jacobs Vow may follow FINIS ERRATA PAge 2. line 17. read the Lord open this vision to our eyes and open our eyes to see it p. 14. l. 17. r. shoulders p. 19. l 4. r. Elijah p 59. l. 2. r. is visible p. 36. l. 14. r. rather Heaven out of Hel p. 103. l. 25. nobodies p. 132. l. 1. r. between wolves and sheep p 146. m. r. parem p. 158. l. 6. r. were all to be conquered p. 161. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 163. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 186 m. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 213. m. r. pendet p. 219. m. r. irrita irritantur p. 221. m. r. Deo p. 135. m. r. luxatus luctatus p. 237. l. 6. r. not adverse p. 235. r. Distich r. Laudis Exultans p. 262 m. after non read dabit p. 296. l. 4. r. Ecclesia p. 302 l 11. for once labor read once more