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
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
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
world but none are able to rear it the King himself will bring it with him Not many know how to set up Christ in their Consciences Many know how rather to pull down Antichrist than to set up Christ And too many know how rather to set up themselves than the Kingdom of Christ in the world Governors must reform if the Providences of God speak truth in explaining the Promises it is high time and Governors must be reformed But I am yet perswaded that some of Nebuchadnezzars Image will stand in all Nations till it have an immediate blow from Heaven Dan. 2.34 Though men do trample under foot the Toes of Clay and break the Legs of Iron and smite on the Belly of Brass yet I am perswaded they will more or less either imbrace the Silver Arms or wear the Golden Head and the Gold the best Government of this old world is part of the Image as well as the Clay Israel was Gods people and though they pulled down the brazen Serpent yet they helped to set up the golden Calf but when we once come to Canaan we shall neither bow down to the Image of brass nor low after the Calf of gold In the mean time Sion is to travel with Prayers and Tears and all regular and righteous endeavors toward a perfect Reformation but I do not yet beleeve that ever we shall see that Man-child untill the appearance of Christ doth Midwive it into the world Omnis Christi anus est crucianus If it should be objected How can the expectation of such glory consist with the Prophecies in Scripture of the tribulations and errors in the last daies I answer 1 Tim. 3.1 In the latter times some shall depart from the Faith and shall speak lies in hypocrisie Sceptici in intellectu Epicurei in affectu c. 2 Tim. 3.1 In the last daies shall come perillous times men shall be lovers of themselves covetous proud unholy Traytors heady lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God I answer By the last daies in the Prophets and Apostles we are to understand the days of the Gospel the time of the messiah from his first to his second comming indifferently and have not all these symptoms of Apostacy been already in the world nay in the primitive times Secondly If by the last days we sometime understand the daies a little while or immediately preceding the second comming of Christ in person the comming of such prophanenesses are no argument against the comfortable appearance of Christ but are made in Scripture fore-runners not formally of his Kingdom ☜ and how seasonably will the Physician appear when the world will be so diseased how sweetly and refreshingly will the light of the Sun of Righteousness be at such a midnight Zech. 14 7. 2 Pet. 2.14 Christ though he brings day with him comes at midnight Matth. 25.6 And if by the latter daies we are to understand as we may the last daies are not the last daies and the last of daies in the world did ever men love others less and themselves more Judas his plague was his bowels gushed out But O Lord our curse is we have no bowels of love at all Is not this a covetous age Many have rich Arras to hang the walls of their Chambers with and have not Canvas to cloath a naked member of Christ withall how many Lazaruses are daily laid at our doors and how few have money in their purses to relieve nay not compassion or hony in their hearts to pitty them what iron hearts have we in this golden and in this gilded age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 golden I mean not in a moral but natural sense as for the love of God whereas we should be lovers of God more than lovers of pleasure we are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God nay lovers of pleasure and not lovers of God unless that by our God we mean our pleasure And as for the rest of the gang of Vices I shall say no more but that we need not go up and down with a Candle and Lanthorn to find proud unholy heady Traytors in the world How long Lord how long ere thou appearest the Judge of thine Enemies the Father of thy Children and the King of thy Subjects Come Lord Jesus come quickly and blessed are all they that love his appearance his appearance in his Spirit in his Cause and in his Person In this prospect of what God will do in the world take these three or four Cautions 1 Limit not God to your means Some indeed have power to help Sion but no heart some have an heart but no power others have power in their hands but no hearts to help Sion Powers Armies cannot work without God but God can work without them Gods work cannot be done by the mighty for ordinarily it is opposed by the Mighty the mighty Pharisee derides Christ the mighty Pilat condemns Christ for the most part all the mighty in the world are against the Almighty of the world What say Monarchs that are prophane If Christ come to reign over us what will become of our honors Say the unrighteous Judges what will become of our Fees and the lazy Shepheards what will become of our Livings Remember Creaturae potius sunt media deferentia quam operantia if all men were willing for God yet the best of men are but men at the most the most of men or all men are but men at the best Men are but Vials and they have no more of Vertue in them than Providence infuseth not a drop more All the Tribute that God requires is to attribute all to him and he is resolved on the glory of all Means are not used by God because they are effectual but means are therefore effectual because God useth them A straw in the hands of Omnipotency proves a Spear and a Spear without an Omnipotent influence turns in a mans hand to a Straw It is not improbable that the nigher Christ comes to his Throne the meaner the instruments of his advancement may be ☞ Who art thou O Mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain There are many Mountains against Sion visible and invisible Mountains but Jacob the worm shall thresh Mountains Parturiunt montes generatur ridiculus mus strange as we say a Cat may look on a King so a worm may crawle on a Mountain one Mountain is able to crush a million of Worms but if Sion be trampled on in Christs day she will turn again and one worm shall thresh a million of Mountains Providence can turn Mountains into Mole-hils and the proud politick Hills of the World into Hell God doth such things by such inconsiderable means That no flesh might glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.31 If any creature will glory as if the Apostle had said let it glory behind the Lords back which it cannot do God will face down all the glory and glorying of the
hearts to pray withall though you want words it is no matter if you have tears though you cannot speak yet cannot you sigh nor groan Though with the Disciples you cannot say Our Father nor with Thomas My Lord yet with the Prodigal cannot you say Father cannot you cry Lord It is no matter for babling a word is enough to the wise and more than enough to a friend especially such a friend as your God is Coimus in Congregationem ut ad Deum quasi manufacta precationibus ambiamus orantes haec vis gratia Dei est grata Deo Tert. Cannot you fight says the Lord come I le give you Armor do you want an Helmet here is Salvation do you wish oh that I had a Sword here take the Spirit If you want a Brest-plate here take Righteousness It may be says the Lord when you come to my door En quam negare nollet qui sibi etiam neganti qualiter extorqueretur ostendit Chrysost I may be as it were a sleep and you may be ready to think I have not heard when the Lord called and now the Lord will not hear when I call It may be if I come not at your first call you will presently conclude that I will not come at all But saith the Lord Sinners be not discouraged if I come not at your call I le come at your knock bring my Sons name with you if I come not at your knock I le come when you bounce at my door of Grace Oh how willing is God that we should hit the mark when hee teacheth us how to shoot and how willing to answer our prayers when that God whom we pray to indites our Petitions Oh Lord how desirous art thou we should prevail when thou tellest us how we should wrestle Aut in respondendo quam facit moram qui in dictandis precibus vota supplicum sit praevenit idem God wrestles with man by tentations and man wrestles with God by prayers Where is the spirit of prayer generally we had rather sleep than wrestle with Jacob. O said the lazy Husbandman stretching himself on his bed at noon day in the Summer-time that this were working So now says the worldly Politician when he is framing his plots for preferment O that this were the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ O says the Apostate Professor that spends his time in the Ale-house or in gaming O that this were repenting and recovering a good Conscience So crys the lazy Christian folding his arms like Solomons Sluggard in his bed yet a little slumber yet a little sleep O that this were wrestling or praying with God and gaining the blessing Sed hoc est opus pulveris non pulvinaris I would wrestle if I had strength say some Saints Never complain for want of power if you have a will by strength that is our strength shall no man prevail the Lord teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight he that bids us come into the field resolves to give us strength to fight and to give us the day we are not so impotent but Christ is as powerfull The Spirit of God helpeth our infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as the Nurse helpeth the child holding it by the sleeve Quomodo non exauditur Spiritus à Patre cum exaudit cum Patre or as the Staff upholds an old man that else cannot stand or as the Father seeing the child lifting at a great weight too heavy for him runs to assist him clasping hands about the burthen with him We have no strength but what is given us and if the Lord withdraw the influence of his Grace either we fight not or we are foiled Christ conquered by dying and we conquer by yeelding Prayer prevails with God not as it is our act but as it is the Lords institution God looks on Prayer as his image he knows his children by their crying and when they cry he presently runs to help them As Q. E. gave Sir W. R. a Ring as a pledge of her favor and bid him send that token to her when ever he was in distress and she would relieve him so the Lord tels us we shall see him if he hear of us It is true Jacob prevailed over God but it was with God That God that called Jacob to fight gave him weapons to foil himself He that fought against Jacob fought also in Jacob it was not Jacob prevailed over the Angel but the Angel in Jacob that prevailed over the Angel he fought not against God without God he that provoked him to fight instructed him how to resist at the same time both contending against him and for him as being both Opponent and Defendant assaulting him with the one hand and assisting him with the other supplying him with more strength in resisting than expressing strength in opposing him how sweet to consider The Angel contends with Jacob with his left hand and contends for Jacob with his right hand otherwise who dares enter the Lists with the Almighty by whose breath man is consumed by whose looks the Mountains are melted at whose nod at whose voyce the whole Creation trembles We must distinguish between natural strength and strength conferred by Grace by the former Jacob had been conquered by this he overcame If the Angel that strove with him had not strove for him he had been so far from gaining the name of Israel that he had lost the name of Jacob. Wherefore beleevers fall to wrestling but if you measure your success by your own power you are vanquished before you fight he that would overcome must neither look on his own arm nor on the arm of his Adversary but the mouth of that God that hath promised and can perform The Match is too unequal with the Devil much more with God We are like Grass-hoppers to those Gyants when we compare our selves with them how can we but despair but when we compare our selves with God how can we despair He that brings Jacob into the field gives him the victory The example of Abrahams contending with the Lord in prayer is notable also and shews what a friend at Court prayer is when otherwise man dare not look the Lord in the face Prayer is the Asylum the last refuge we have to fly to Deus qui certamini praeerat vires etiam ad vincendum praestat De la Hay in loc and if Justice beat us out of that Hold we are conquered That which was an argument of the Athenians weakness they fought with King Philip onely with words and writings is our Fort Royal and an argument of our strength Litieris verbisque solis valemus There are Four Duels that every Jacob is to fight in the world besides that wherein he contends with God and unless he be first a Prevailer with God he cannot be a Conqueror in the rest There is an inferior Duel with man not so much with sinful man as with the