knowest it is wind by that but knowest not whence nor whither So is every one that is born of the Spirit The cause and course is secret but the effect discernable As in Creation our soul and body meet by breathing so here the mystick work is Inspiration and infusion of manifold graces but those graces have activities and such whereby you shall easily perceive that you were once darkness but are now Light in the Lord. These Graces then will give us further Light whose excellencies are laid out in those expressions of Water Floods Fountains and Fire and Milk and Manna and Oyntment and their Efficacies in those names of Seal and Evidence and Earnest and Witness and Joy and Consolation And are there not fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. Fruits that grow not up from the bitter Root of corrupted nature but from another Principle and which in their bloom and freshness render a man not like those Ethnick Graces only facile and sweet in conversation though they do that too but gracious in Gods aspect and glorious too shining as a Light in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation If we shall taft a fruit or two in specialty I will only trie to do it in this notion here and under this Capacity of Light 1. Knowledge even that of nature is a Light and mans soul still is the Lamp of God saith Solomon and a Wisdom residing therein that Recedes as far from folly as Light ftom Darkness and this was all those great Philosophers Animalia Gloriae had which puft them up so For this hath some tincture of the Serpent and soon inflates yet alas Mans salvation is that Grove and Mysterie Nulli penetrabilis astro not pervious nor peirceable by the star-light of Reason There must come a supernatural Light from Heaven which as in the Giver it is called a Sun of Righteousness rising with healing in his wings the day-spring from on high and the True Light so in the Receiver it is called a great and marvellous Light of which Will you hear St. Paul I count all loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the supereminence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord this indeed is all for in this is all This is Eternal life to know Thee and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ to know him for my Jesus to apprehend him for my Justifier by a second Grace by a true and lively Faith 2. Faith then is another Light of the sanctifying Spirit superinduced on the Light of Reason to raise and perfect it for it is not in stones or beasts God can from stones raise up Children unto Abraham but if so the work must first be done by Infusion of a rational soul and the golden Key of this Grace then fitted to the prepared wards of reasonable Nature It is not amiss to compare it to Sybillaes golden bough which grew to and upon the Trce and as he adds Auri per Ramos aura refulsit So this superstructure out-shines the utmost endeavours and perfections of Nature and Reason and resembled it is by some as the Seal to Wax It is not naked and meer reason as Air is Fire but Faith is rather printed reason and there joined Light if we wilfully exstinguish not their flames will yield the bearer fair Direction and Confidence and Consolation There may be there will be a coarctation a compression of this flame in the act of Faith a damp upon the alacrity thereof yet if there be not in us an evil heart desirous nay wilfully set to depart from the living God If you abide in me saith our Saviour then certainly as his Father and he with the sacred Spirit joyntly made Light at first and pin'd it to that Sun which was never wholly darkned since and as he the true Light breaking from the clouds of the blessed Virgins body and joyned to mans nature retains that nature still now glorified so the Spirit of this Grace possessing thy spirit loves never to part again but grieves when we offer to quench his coelestial fires O then learn not to despair of Mercy and Assistance Clouds and Eclipses obscure and wandring and wicked thoughts self-accusings and self-condemnings and Satans suggestions may trouble and affright us But if we abide in him and be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might and resist the Devill he will flie from us and our hope in Christ and the Power of his Resurrection like a rising Morn will scatter all the delusions and rebellions of the Night and remember his gracious Promise Hell-gates shall not prevail against a Faith of Adherence All the Powers of Darkness let loose upon St. Paul yet he was safe I know in whom I have believed I live saith he no not I but Ckrist lives in me and it is his Spirit only that can give assurance that whereas I was darkness my Faith in him makes me light in the Lord. 3. As for Love another Grace the Grace of Graces the bond of perfection and especially of that coelestial Armor and Ardor of the soul to God What might we say Whatdo they feel into whose breasts is shot this right coelestial flame and there shed abroad by the holy Ghost which is given them Away then with all wanton fires of earthly Love or ambition set them but by this and they will appear poor and wan discolour'd pale and drousie things and like meretritious females shewn with modest and noble Matrons dasht all out of countenance 4. Lastly for I am not too long to insist on these Graces so perceptible to the Possessors if we would have true and lasting joy Where shall we seek it Is it to be found among those Pangs and Convulsions and Palpitations of an earthly sensuall mind Mala mentis gaudia as the heathen Poet calls them and plac'd by him far within the Porch of hell Meteors of imperfect mixture Scansory and seeming to mine and aim at lightsomness and height of Spirit But having crackt awhile and blaz'd down they slide again and resolve into their first earth and drossiness But he that hath tasted of the heavenly gift the joy in the Holy Ghost wherein the Kingdom of Heaven on earth doth principally consist can tell you of a joy that is full a joy unspeakable and glorious consisting in a dispersion of all that is dark and desolate and a true Light that is Lux in Domine Light in the Lord. Thus have we trac'd this Oriens ex alto and thus far described that Method that Lucidus Ordo of Gods procedure in descent of his Spirit and defluence of his Graces Thus far we are come to meet with this great Bishop of all our souls this blessed Visitor and have observed his way of baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with enthean fire and confirming his People with the manifold Graces of his Spirit But yet since he is in Heaven and that Spirit is to descend on us we are not satisfied till we
Monarchies so after he had joined and made up a Church of Jews and Gentiles he blest and preserved it through the ten Persecutions and to this very day For now we are refining this Gold and extending this propriety of God in his Saints and servants under the new Testament as we have cause to do we that live since that fulness of time which delivered him to the world in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell Then cartainly this consideration of our being Gods Peculiar in Christ the Sen of his love will rise to a full consolation For in him we know the Covenant was renewed and sealed in his sacred blood whereby those great Rivers of Creation and Providence flow over and fall into the large sea of Redemption and by that sea we may sail fairly on to the fair havens of Sanctification and compassing the point of good hope of a true and lively hope arrive in the end at endless Glory All this will be done if once we be his own in him that is his only Beloved if once he admits us into the league make us Confiederates and Princes of the Union Kings unto God by his blood Rev. 1.7 The Emphasis is upon His for that blood of his that Unction that Inauguration will effect it He and They God and Man at distance at enmity before by him who is both God and man and so a fit Modus and Medium and a fit Mediator are reconciled God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself No wonder though this be not only called a grand Mysterie as it is considerable in the person of Christ alone God manifested in the flesh that God should be made our very flesh but also as it reflects as it returns to us and brings us back for our flesh his Spirit That 's a Mysterie even Marriage wherein of two is made una Caro one flesh but this is more when we are joined to Christ per eundem by one and the same Spirit The Fathers are bold and industrious in the mintage of new words to express the nearness of God and man in Christs Incarnation by Corporation Illumination Adunation Contemperation But what man or Angel knows a word large and entire enough and high enough to title that Union by wherein the Apostle saith Man joined to the Lord is one Spirit and changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory This is that nuptial mentioned in Hos 2.18 and rementioned in the Gospels and all Solomons song and Davids Psalm 45. are Epithalamions wholly spent in Celebration of this Solemnity It was an happy Contract the Union of great Brittain when in the worlds Temple two Kingdoms were the wedded pair a gracious King was Priest and the Sea like a marriage-ring encircling both That was the way had it held for the education of both Realms to a Grandeur and Convalescence And even in story of time past it is a pleasant a delightsom Consideration to behold an Infant-state rise to maturity as in Rome or Venice But will you put out the eyes of all History or Poetry and dis-illustre all the Senate and becloud all the Clarissimo's of all mankind Look then upon God in his Son Christ Jesus founding a most noble Incorporation whereof all bodies Politick are but weak representations Excellent things are spoken of thee thou City of God And we know how large that holy Father Augustine is in delivery of those excellent things in his Civitate Dei whereof Christ is the supream Head The parts of this society Kings and Priests venerable and sacred persons in all antiquity and where other bodies want a soul the Ligament and soul of this body is the holy Ghost For by one Spirit are we baptized into one body and all made to drink into one Spirit Eph. 4.4 So that in this Center all meet Gods possession the Saints priviledge and in that these are become words all of one signification His Chosen His Holy His own His Royall His Peculiar People Nor can this chuse but prove a pure refined golden Consolation indeed when we find the proof in Gods own Testament that Jesus is not only the Mine wherein all the Treasures of Wisdom are hid but Jesus is the pure and grand golden Ingot of all the Comforts contained in holy Scriptures out of which Ingot are coined so many Medals some with Serpents and Anchors and some with Lions and Lilies and Doves and Crowns and Roses and Carduus Benedictus too good for Tremor cordis and all with the Effigies of that Cross whereon our joyes depend and wherein is found that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Apostle the exceeding riches proclaimed and offered to sail by the Possessor himself saying Buy of me fine Gold for fine Gold is he to the worlds brasse-farthings or as the Sun let in on stars or seas on pools which over-run chase away engulph and strike out their petite drops and sparkles Shall we hope to reach it in a big comparison and so comprehend that which is incomprehensible and cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive What Speaker can search out words fit for the unsearchable riches of Christ As Sopor Domini is the language of the Holy Ghost for the deepest sleep and Tuba Domini a superlative for the loudest found and Gandium Domini to express the very joy of Heaven so the Apostles Gaudete in Domino even here in the Kingdom of Grace implies the best and purest consolation 'T is with an Emphasis that if there be any consolation in Christ there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the joy as well as in the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord my Lord and my God with an Abfit too God for did I should prophane or mix this joy with any thing else I shall not need for this is enough to make St. Paul overflow exceedingly to abound with all joy and St. Peter to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious This is comfort enough for every Christian to diminish and bedwarf and dis-illustre all those glimmerings and Glow-worms all those gleanings in risled fields and all that we are fain to feign to find in forelorn Ariadnes that is other mens leavings of Wealth and Beauty and Wit and Honor which are but empty Rinds and Husks and widowed shels and shoos thrown away in contempt and weariness And yet this Crown of Consolation here set on our souls in Grace is topt and phan'd and crown'd again This Consummation hath another Consummation yet above it The Emperor that keeps his hungry Eagle still poor man when the Romish Harpyes have devoured his dainties is glad after two duller Crowns to take a third of Gold which his holiness forsooth puts on and off at pleasure But the Christian faith which makes us Kings in Jesus blood and embalms us with his oyl of gladness assures us of a tripled Comfort when on those Crowns of hope and joy below the holy of Holies who will
our relict condition as also of the spreading venom and malignity of original corruption Nascimur morimur that 's bad enough comes up and is cut down like a flower but this is worse Nascimur inficimur we cannot come up like a flower which lifts his pure Crown into the air and rising through unclean earth is not sullied contracts retains nothing of the saeculency and dusty soil No flower in all the garden of mankind but Jesus of Nazareth but only that one Lilly among the Thorns one Rose of Sharon one flower of Jesse that was ever growing in God from all Eternity had a Proviso put in for him that nor in birth nor life nor death he should see or know or take any Corruption But upon all mankind that is meerly so the infection works the infection of sin as it is entred here in Adam so it went over all like a deluge in as much as in one all have sinned and all rise tainted with their Fathers leprosie which is by some supposed to be the meaning of that speech in St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.18 where he tels the Saints They are redeemed from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain conversation received by tradition or by traducement from your Fathers and from this Great grand-father of all those Fathers from which taint nothing can purifie our souls but the precious incorruptible blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish But of this the Apostle plentifully in that fifth Chapter to the Romans By one mans disobedience many were made sinners but expresly verse 12. By one man sin entred and past over all These two contemplations are enough to break up the spring-head of our tears and with strong cries make us declare and deplore our misery But who believes our report or who spends his tears upon this subject We find a prophane Esau crying cut with a great and exceeding bitter crie for the loss of a blessing in the things of this life Corn and Wine and Lordship Gen. 27.34 And so I find even David werping and crying for a wicked son And the earth is full of such howling habitations for earthly grievances But who will follow the example of David Psa 51. Behold I was shapen in iniquity the warmth of my conception in the womb was sinfull O purge me wash me create in me a clean heart O God renew a right spirit in me who considers rightly the cursed radical contagion of our nature which strives even after the grafting into Christ and receipt of the Grace of sanctification in our spirit and struggles for Dominion That which we should hourly watch lest it prevail over us that shrub and bramble which would top or dwarf the Cedar of Gods Grace in us and hath force in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Rom. 7.5 Such forcible entry makes this inborn corruption that like the strong man keeping possession or as a Sheriffe that hath Posse comitatus and seises and outs the owner and bars him from the use of his goods Such rule this unruly wickedness keeps in our hearts and such a sway it bears so that it is no longer I that do it but sin saith the Apostle that raigns in me and makes me lose all power and all good even Bonum possibilitatis a loss irrecoverable irremediable and no cure for this wound in nature They talk of a natural Balsom in mans body for all bodily diseases But were it not for a spiritual bleeding balm from that anointed holy Saviour were it not for that double spring of Grace and Blood derivable to us and to be let in upon us for the reviving and refreshing of our fainting souls what would become of our salvation And though in that fountain set open for Judah for Jerusalem for sin and for transgression I may wash and be cleansed from this leprosie yet mark how that Gospel begins both in the language of the Baptist and his Master afterward Repent and then the Kingdom of heaven is at hand then the Kingdom of heaven is within you that sweet sorrow of a contrite sinner that usefull pulp of those tears we fall at the sight and feeling of our strong corruptions is best to make conserve and preserve of grace in our bearts which God and his holy Angels beholding as it is Vinum Angelorum making them rejoyce in Heaven so himself will renew his Miracle upon such souls and turn that water into the wine of consolation Thirdly After this mournfull lecture of bemoaning our loss and deprivation and depravation natural Let me speak a word in season against that solemn sin of Pride Look to the rock from whence thou art hewn Some boast of original descendings from famous Ancestors and yet too many sons are born in original debt and diseases of their Parents of whom they are so apt to brag But it is enough and more for ever to strip all sorts of men out of all vain and mad dressings and coverings of themselves under that mishapen and monstrous vice of Arrogance that here they find Illud quod dicere nolo Quod dici no lunt dici potuisse non potuisse refelli That which men cannot endure to hear or think upon we are all loth to turn and look upon our Fathers nakedness not out of modesty as Shem and Jophet but because in height and pomp and in the vaniry of high-soaring imaginations we strive to forget both God and him and our selves It is therefore that God in this Text comes still and calls after us and shews us both the Receipt and the Probatum two dusts brings Adam in his hand and presents every man to himself as in a general Glass of humane frailty And this Vbi tu is now no more a question but an Indicative and Demonstrative an Adverbial and a Proverbial a very radical Primitive and Affirmative of Egomet with Tute and Ille Ipse and brings all to Idem in Adam here and jumbles all the genders of mankind common and doubtfull or epicoene Sparrows and Eagles and all sexes and professions and degrees of mankind Princes and People and calls in that voice of the Psalm O ye sons of men How long will you love to belie your selves Quid superbis Why so goodly O thou earth and ashes Monstrons Incongruity to behold servants in the saddle saith Solomon and Princes to foot it by but an incomprehensible ugliness in the looks of a proud man when we look up to Heaven and contemplate him that came down from Heaven for us men came down indeed stript and empty of all his Glory An incarnate crucified and humble God Will neither his main Precept Learn of me learn this above all thy Learning Nor his Example Behold I have given you an example Will nothing swage the swelling of thy proud stomack Think yet there is no Grace but for the humble no sight of God and his Glory but for the meek And if thou resist that spirit of
may undo thee nor can it redeem or preserve thee or thou it For Fool thy soul may be suddainly snatcht away And then whose shall those things be But if made a man indeed made for ever thou must be melted and refined and new made the Son of God in Christ Thirdly If long life be a blessing desireable Think all thy possessing here of all those dreams of the-shapes of pleasures shaddows can endure but for a vapory moment saith St Janes but he that believes in the Son of God hath everlasling Life saith St. John haves it in full and quiet possession by the power of his faith and having named everlasting life there need no addition of pleasure Food Rayment yet all these in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even in this life fulness of joy as full as humane nature can hold yea overflowing exceedingly abounding with all joy and peace in believing which Graces and replenishing of his Saints bosomes are therefore in the old resembled by saturity marrow fatness and in the new by manna hid and living fountains of water which mixt and cuited by the bleeding balm which drops from those holes of the Rock the peirced side of our Saviour becomes a cordial and soveraign Receipt against venom of sin and poison of the Serpent And lastly If felicity consist in knowledge or as he puts it Sapere fari with sapience like believing with the heart What Eloquence so puissant and clear like confessing with the mouth to salvation What learning to that Cross which makes Philosophy a fool suspends pales the sages and Disputers of this word Angels desire to prie into it and he that was full of Revelations desired to know nothing else 6. But take another view of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the two usual notions of the word Honour and Power Honour first It is so thin and aerie a thing as who can tell you what it is Something derivable from the prince the fountain of Honour yet he only alike to direct us where to lay and place the Title and the Ornaments He can bow no mans heart to any performance for it is a thing wholly in honorante in him that will do us honour if he lift and when he lift And what are the materials and the dress Reckond they are Esd 13. Thirdly Clothed in Purple and fine linnen eat in gold sleep on gold a Chariot with bridles of Gold Now usurpt by vulgars and then to sit next the King and to be called his Cousin Glories well worth the wearing when purchased by a long descent of noble blood and vertue mingled or by that vertue singular Yet how uncertain is the Possession In times of Peace how oft hath Glory vanisht all honour been laid in the dust and still attended on beside the shade of envy with those two certain Ravishers extream old age and death and in times of war or danger how subject to the pillage and affront of every Ruffin But here 's an honorable addition with a perpetuity enough if our hearts were filled with ambitious fires to give satisfaction and acquiescence Sons of the most high which stile though some on earth may wear yet God their Father wears it with a difference Some most high among men in their morning and meridian Glory may be full low before the evening But thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom Thou O Lord art most high for evermore With cordial water it is that the Church sprinckles all our hearts when she teaches us to pray O Lord whose Kingdom is everlasting and Power infinite To be Son then to him is a Title which anoints us in Grace as Christ in nature above all our fellows of mankind and in a sort above Angels For to which of the Angels said God at any time Thou art my Son A Title wherein all Titles imperial are appaled impoverisht lost or far exceeded For I can ask as great or I can think beyond all honour ever worn by mortal But this Gods tells me is above Demand and Cogitation above all that we are able to ask or think Secondly In the notion of Power as it is here rendred What a formidable army doth the people present and oppose to the militant Christian Eph. 6.14 Principalities and Powers and then the vantage ground in high places enough to daunt the courage of the stoutest flesh and blood to encounter Legions of such spirits yet mark his oration to the soldiour verse 11. My Brethren Be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might There is a compleat armour beaten out in Heaven and we fight under him who hath blood and spirit ready to run into and fill our veins to make us stand and standing fight and fighting conquer more then Conquerors for we are made to triumph in Christ who triumpht over all those powers for us And if there be more Troopers in the way of our Salvation as there is a world of enemies yet this is your victory whereby you overcome the world even your faith and against all the treasons and rebellions of the flesh the servant of God hath no other rescue granted him upon his instant petition but my Grace shall be sufficient for thee and my power shall be made â—erfect in Weakness PARTICVLAR 3. 7. I Have done with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and am come to Torcular the Wine-press of Application By which I promised first to draw a cup of consolation which is soon done by contemplating the Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus His abundant manifold Grace and the multitude of his Mercies his sweet and tender mercies differenced from mens first in being sure then in their eternity The Lord is gracious and his mercy is everlasting And lastly mercy mingled of pardoning and rewarding both together which no man uses to a riotous Son or refractory servant yet our case was more desperate and behold God sets forth his love to us being enemies and in defiance Then he sent again his only Son that whosoever believes might not perish Is not that enough No But might have everlasting life The solemnity of this fulness of delight in the enjoying of Gods mercy thus in Christ makes it up a wedding Hos 2. and in the Gospel And the Saints said to rejoice in their beds The spouse in Thalamo And all that Psalm of David Ps 45. and all Solomons Song are nothing but Epithalamions at these nuptials wherein the Bride though bare and poor and naked and miserable before is now by the rich Dowry and Joynture of her Grace in Christ stated and possest and enobled and arayed and adorned above her wish and to her everlasting consolation but for we are too apt too easily to let such Comforts issue from such Texts as this therefore I told you this cup must awhile be set by till we have tasted first a Cup of sober consideration for a cooler Be sober and suspitious was the Heathens and Christians rule alike is Be
and defiled both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soon after they were made There 's opprobrium ab origine Thence all slanderers may count their Pedigree For the devil infusing this venom into those Giants enflamed them to the scaling of Joves Throne or if not that we will believe the Scripture that if Nimrod the mighty light upon a rout of Populorum such babling and bawling sots as he found in Shinar all of one lip Gen. 11.1 they in their wicked conspiracy so it is called Wisd 10.5 would soon be at it for a City and Tower unperishable Make it of Brick incombustible and for drowning they 'l take order with the Almighty for the top shall reach to Heaven 9. So deduce Opprobrium from the old Dragon to a Serpentine Cadmean Nimrodian race of Giants mixt of Populorum and Maximorum too And what shamefull work will they make a mad work indeed even a world of wickedness time to look to the Circumference For if these have all one language concur in voting for a new frame and have a mind to be towring aloft nothing will stay them but Sidera feriam ero sicut Altissimus then that 's reaching Heaven right but the wrong way for they are not at Heaven yet Such a piece of work in hand and they bragged of a mountain-birth But Quid exit You know who blasted the business by a consusion first and a diffusion and dispersion afterwards and observe the just recompence the Sentence ex ore tuo Nequam Their babling to marr their building their own tongues to make them to fall fall out and fall off no longer able to stand to their great work because unable to understand one another 10. But for all that sundring at Babel soderd again we find them in the Text. This Generation of Nimrod Belus let him be and these right sons of Belial for no yoak will hold them for observe this confluence of Omnium Populorum Maximorum and find Jusque datum sceleri ex plebiscitis Senatus consultis seelera exercentur all exceeded When mens hands are once at liberty no King in Jsrael why then every man doth what seems good in his own eyes and so here when their tongue 's once loose the Lords anointed shall be reproacht The Lord himself blasphem'd And what Lord shall controul them so floats the ship without an Helm so flings the horse without a Bridle and so their tongues run madding through the world far worse so that the Apostle St. James cries it thrice Fire Fire Fire How great a mischief comes of this Fire setting on fire the the course of nature and is set on fire of Hell thirher still it brings us you see this untuly evil full of deadly and divelish poison all contract in this Malady all concentered in opprobrium 11. But be this poison of Populorum never so noxious and those that ejaculate never so mighty What are these all to the Almighty these Maximi to him Christ is opt max. Shall Jehovab suffer by such a Typhoeus or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be liable to such aspersion No Inimici tui Domine shall not be able to do this violence to thy anointed David nor move a tongue to infest the meanest of thy servants This is indeed the point under tryal for all this seems asserted in holy Scripture 1. First Servi are servati They should indeed be sure to be pelted and dusted and stoned from this Center painted with infamous spots and tokens of this plague in their bosom but for Jehovah here a good Domine that hath chosen and though not quite taken them out of this present evil world yet as good for they use it as if they used it not their Conversation is in Heaven and themselves within three steps In Eph. 2. He hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus And is not that high and aloof far and free from Opprobrium 2. Next is David the Lords anointed his body secured in the Sepulchre and this Monster is no Hyena Pascitur in vivis His immortal part is mounted not on Doves but Angels wings and past the clouds and storms of Populorum here hath met those acclamations on mount Zion and made one of that innumerable company the general Assembly and Church of the first-born among the Spirits of just men made perfect and in a Kingdom that cannot be moved all this in Heb. 12.22 23. So David himself is free body and soul from the strife of tongues and left above this world of wickedness 3. Much more is Davids Lord advanced set on the right hand of his Father all his enemies made his foot-stool far above all Principalities and Powers and at his coronation all knees have bowed and all tongues confessed that Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father 4. And for God the Father What can Opprobrium do to him The Lord is King be the people never so impatient the earth never so unquiet God that is very high exalted higher then the highest far aboue all Gods above all men sure out of their reach 't is he too that can still the raging of the waves and the madness of the people If the Fremuerunt be never so loud against the Lord and against his anointed He that sits in Heaven shall laugh The Lord shall have them in derision And now where is Davids Petition What is become of our Circumserence Servi Christus Domini Jehovah all free from Opprobrium nay never a one of all these for all this begin with the highest first and if this Monster set on Jehovah flie in his face he will sure spare none of the rest 1. And we need not go far for proof they corrupt others and speak of wicked Blasphemy their talking is against the most high they blasphem thee dayly saith David even weeping ripe that God would not redress and repress those Blasphemies We need go but to this very Text Remember it O Lord thy enemies have blasphemed thee we need not so much Alas We cannot stop our ears against words cloathed in death and jeasts flumine dignos and those execrable Oaths and Perjuries for which the land mourns spent in despight of God and of his Prophets flying roul full of plagues against such Swearers who yet roul on and roul out their hours in hellish Blasphemies as if they practised here against their coming thither No wonder then if earthly Gods put up and bosome many and mighty reproaches and abuses when it is here upon Record and evidence too much every where of this Crimen laesae Majestatis as high as Heaven 2. Next for Christ Jesus Pursue his story but from his Baptism for all the opening of Heaven and the Doves descent and his Fathers attestation coming among his own How did they receive him Not as the Lord Messiah but as a Messiah in
Hosts in that Psalm we may first consider God in this Name as a Warriour and as the Lord Generalissimo of the War but not so as men receive that Name for their Command over one and their own Army but as Commander over all Armies and all wars Offensive or Defensive that have been are or shall be in the world For it is not only in spiritual Furn ture that Isay dresses God and arms him Cap à pee but the Prophets ost in the literal sense as if God took a special complacency in the stile and none more frequently then David so present him In Psalm 46.8 9. he calls us to behold his Mirabilia and addâ— a special proof of all by Gods not Warring but doing a greater work then that in making wars to cease in all the world O were it once so his great and gracious work in this our orbis Divisus our little world of great Britain He breaks the how and knaps the spear in sunder and burns the Chariots in the fire But when he will war and shew how dreadfully he can come on the Text tells us he looks but on the earth and it trembles but touches the mountains and they smoak And even Nebuchadnezzâ—r will in the end acknowledge as much to his glory that all the Inhabitants of the earth are reputed before him not only as Grashoppers but as meer nothing and he does what he will in the Army of Heaven and him that walks in pride he is able to abase And therefore an horse is counted but a vain thing to save a man from this God of Battails No King can be sase by the multitude of his Host 'T is this Lord incline the Victory as he pleases Secondly whereas other names of God in Scripture are less luminous in reference to his servants succour and protection such as shield and fortress and Desence like particular refulgent stars in the Firmament of his Power and Providence This as the Sun wherein he shines forth more Illustriously more diffusively more manifoldly This a whole Heaven a circling and enwrapping skye with all the Constellations and affluences of his own Essential and immediate with those of the Angels and other Creotures co-assistances So that a gracious and a glorious a full and clear and constant consolation is derivable from the fulness of this Name and every souldier and servant of his may sing and say with the Prophet and the Apostle The Lord is my light and my salvation the Lord of Hosts is with us And if that Lord be with us no matter how many Lords and earthly Kings be against us Diogenes could boast deride and chuse all Tragick fortune upon that conceit that he was a friend of Jupiters and the Jesuit Serarius sayes even the flames of Purgatory are not dreadful respecting the assistance of the Patients good Angel How much more and on what better ground may we build and raise a foot of comfort and erect a lively hope from the true Jupiter Opt. max. the God of those good spirits and whose Charriors are two hundred thousand even thousands of his victorious Angels What wars or rumors of wars what numbers of enemies can dismay the man of God when Eliahs boy can espy these battalias in the clouds of Heaven whereof one alone in one night without hoft or Cannon or sword or spear or noise is able to slaughter 180000 thousand of Assyrians And as great Chiefs are vigilant to take places of advantage and so to dispose their troopes as one may give Relief unto another so this Soveraign Commander for the succor of his poor Infantry here below hath lodg'd those Legions and bright squadrons of winged spirits above to be in readiness and in whose aid that man of God sayes he will be confident and so he may and so may every Dauid for God himself hath plac'd that Guard while himself is pleas'd to attend the watch and go the round and designs and emploies those flaming Ministers in their Ranks and Orders for the service of his Elect. Is it not so Art they not all ministring spirits sent out for the good of all them that shall be heirs of Salvation Thus far the Materials of comfort drawn from this Mine both in the radiant mixture and connexion and expansion of those diffusive joyes whose nature is to supple and sustain them in adversity and all this again complicated and arrested upon the contemplation and proof of their Lords being Dominus Exercituum And now lastly to keep promise I shall trie to superinduce a Roof and Crown of pure Gold over all these Materials which is the Consummation of the Saints Consolation as God becomes ours and we His in the only Mediator Christ Jesus which before we can well discern it is requisite we discover to the bottom of this Mine and find the first foundation of Gods people laid upon the only love of God in making choice of them at first for his Peculiar For to be his in general is the common lot of all his Creatures The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Again His delight was ever with the sons of men Acts 17. and he made of one blood all mankind to dwell on all the face of the earth All live and move and are in Him and His Off-spring and Generation and he provides for all Light and Influences and showers of fatning rain to fill their hearts with food and gladness But in Exodus 19.5 where we find this very word in the Text denoting Singularity and Choiceness God tells his Israel whom he had derived from Abraham the father of the faithfull that if they would obey his words indeed and keep his Covenant then they should be a peculiar Treasure to him above all people For all the earth saith God is mine but not so mine as You for he goes on You shall be a kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation Only the Lord there laies down the Corner-stone of this building and discovers the bottom reason of his electing them which was not saith he your multitude for you were the fewest nor your inclination to my service for you were an obstinate and stiff-necked people but only he had a delight in their Fathers so we have it Deut. 10. to love them above all people Which love of God as it drew on his first calling them so it occasioned his preserving them from all the world when planting this Vine in Aegypt where it was pincht and straitned he made room for it and transplanted it to grow and flourish in the vast and barren Wilderness and on the sandy botome of the sea till removing Nations greater and mightier then they he made that people possess the gates of their enemies and his Blessings and Protections still eminent and imminent still over their heads even then when they provoke him to send them into captivity from whence yet he gathered them again and as that daughter of Sion that Church through the four
invest us with a Light yet inaccessible will also place another Crown of Glory inaccessible And so in the allusion the contemplation of those joyes that go before the entrance into our Masters Joy and those that follow after in fruition will easily stir and fire our souls to cry or sing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this son of David Blessed be he that comes thus in the name of the Lord and is the Lord that comes thus from the Father and God Totius of all consolation anointed to his great Office and Design of binding up the broken hearted by the Holy Ghost the Comforter Luke 1. and is himself by way of Excellency stil'd the consolation of Israel And thus this first glad priviledge of Gods fearful and faithful servant is refin'd and wrought up to perfection from this Mine in Malachy the last of the Prophets to that Mine of St. John the last and liveliest of the Evangelists or rather that Mine of our Lords own discovery in Iohn 17.10 Thine they are and all mine are thine and thine are mine Mine But who is he All our comfort even now was complicated and conserv'd in Dominus Exercituum And is he so That stile indeed wears out in the New Testament but is abundantly recompenc'd in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The only Potentate the Lord of Life and Glory Most of all in that name above all names which all tongues must confess and at which all knees should bow that sweet and powerful that gracious and glorious Name of Jesus a Saviour and able to save to the utmost in whom all fulness dwels and in whose hand is all power in heaven and earth And had not their eyes been held down and the Jews hearts vaild over they would have perceived and received him for the true Messiah in this very notion and nature of a Lord of Hosts For in him were all their Moses's Joshuales all their Captains and Saviours their Baraks and Gideons and Sampsons and Davids and Macchabees all reviv'd and restor'd to the world But they knew not the manner of their King and to mistake a King may be a world of misery nor of his Kingdom nor the force of his Artillery in the dreadful Canon and Ordinance of his Word Spirit Nor that the Scepter of his new Law should prove the Iron Rod to break and subdue both men and Devils They considered not his stupendious Miracles proving him the Lord of Hosts in commanding over the whole frame of Heaven and Earth and Seas and all the host of them and bowing whole created nature to his obedience To rebuke tempestuous winds roaring waves as a Nurse her child with Peace and be still nay suspend and silence and deprive Devils of their possessions with a word To lay his command on Death it self and force him to let go his hold after four dayes seisure in the grave Will Iews or Jewish hearts attend my voice that would not hear the thunder of those Miracles But for support of the true Catholick faith and for the consummation of all our consolation King and people Christ Jesus is become our Dominus Exercituum Christo auspice regno regnabo too and his bloody Cross a braver badge then that of Castor and Pollux This is polleus lux ipsa For is it not he alone destroyes our raging lusts and nails them to his cross and he alone that ' gainst a world of opposition and all the opposition of this evil world cryes to his host be of good comfort I have overcome the world He alone that came to dissolve destroy the works the strong holds of Satan and to vanquish powers and Principalities in high places that had the vantage ground over us He that breaks in on death and sin and hell and like a Conquerer in the triumphal Chariot of his Cross made a shew of them openly and as Triumphers us'd to do when he ascended up on high and led captivity captive he gave gifts unto men But yet more to prove him the Lord of Hosts by being more then that name can imply for this Name is observed to be too yong for the ancient of Dayes that is a Name taken up since and from the Creation A Name indeed that draws and scatters on us all we can look for from our Maker and Preserver But all his powers and mercies are resolved and melted into this Name of Christ Jesus Without Christ without God sayes the Apostle in the world we are but meer pieces of the masse nay far worse is our condition born children of wrath and in state of enimies and so the Lord of Hosts is against us and all the hosts of Heaven and spirits of Hell and all the creatures and our selves against our selves And when there was no Name under heaven to save and deliver us from present and wrath to come then came this Prince of peace and became our Peace pledg'd himself for us gave his life a Ransome so making peace So prevailing over the Lord of Hosts binding his Almighty hands and God content to accept terms of peace may we not say so Came not that Voyce from Heaven This is my beloved Son in quo acquiesco in whom I am at peace with all the world If all this prove him not a Lord of Hosts he will one day to the further consolation of all that love his appearing appear to the consternation of all his Despisers in flaming fire to render vengeance And as in the dayes of his flesh then unglorified and compast about with all mans infirmities he could have been encompast with more then twelve Legions of Angels so then he will meet those two Hosts those droves and flocks of sheep and goats with another Army of his Saints and Angels from Heaven with whom we shall be caught up to meet that Lord in the ayr and so shall be ever with the Lord. If we desire yet higher to raise this Crown of consummate consolation in Christ I will come to Visions and Revelations I will open that of St. Steven Acts 7.56 I see heaven opened and the son of man set on the right hand of God which place being further opened by St. John makes us see him on a Throne of Glory covered with light as with a garment under his feet Deaths pale head and a red Dragon and all his enemies about him stand the Armies of his Angels and of mankind a greater number then any man can number of all Nations Languages On his thigh that Name written Rex Regum Dominus Dominorum The Elders casting down their Crowns adore him that has many Crowns upon his head And we may safely add this Title to those Crowns of Dominus Exercituum and rejoyce to think how those Crowns are encinctur'd and enchas'd with precious stones for the twelve Tribes of Israel and with manifold unions of God and man of grace and glory for the consolation of the Gentiles also thereby fully made perfect