them To sever the King and the Kingdome and pretend the weale of the one without the other is to shake and discompose Gods building Historically this was the Jewes case when Ieremy lamented here if he lamented the declination of the State in the death of the King Iosiah And if he lamented the transportation of Zedekiah and that that crosse were not yet come upon them Or if he lamented the future devastation of that Nation occasioned by the death of the King of Kings Christ Jesus when he came into the world this was their case prophetically Either way historically or prophetically Ieremy looks upon the Kingdome but yet through that glasse through the King The duty of the Day and the order of the Text invites us to an application of this branch too Our adversaries did not come to say to themselves Nolumus Regnum hoc we will not have this Kingdome stand the materiall Kingdome the plenty of the Land they would have been content to have but the formall Kingdome that is This forme of Government by a Soveraigne King that depends upon none but God they would not have So that they came implicitely 〈◊〉 Nolumus Regnum hoc we will not have this Kingdome governed thus and they came explicitely to a Nolumus Regem hunc as the Jewes were resolved of Christ We will not have this King to governe at all Non hunc Will you not have him you were at your Nolumus hanc long before Her whom God had set over you before him you would not have Your not Anniversary but Hebdomadary Treasons cast upon her a necessity of drawing blood often and so your Nolumus hâ—nc your desire that she were gone might have some kinde of ground or colour But for your Nolumus hunc for this King who had made no Inquisition for blood who had forborne your very pecuniary penalties who had as himself witnesses of himself made you partakers with his Subjects of his own Religion in matters of grace and in reall benefits and in Titles of Honour Quare fremuerant Why did these men rage and imagine a vaine thing What they did historically we know They made that house which is the hive of the Kingdome from whence all her honey comes that house where Iustice her self is conceived in their preparing of Laws and inanimated and quickned and borne by the Royall Assent there given they made that whole house one Murdring peece and charged that peece with Peers with People with Princes with the King and meant to discharge it upward at the face of heaven to shoot God at the face of God Him of whom God hath said Dii estis You are Gods at the face of God that had said so as though they would have reproached the God of heaven and not have been beholden to him for such a King but shoot him up to him and bid him take his King again with a nolumus hunc regnare we will not have this King to reign over us This was our case Historically and what it is Prophetically as long as that remains to bee their doctrine which he against whom that attempt was principally made found by their examination to be their doctrine That they and no Sect in the world but they did make Treason an article of Religion That their Religion bound them to those attempts so long they are never at an end Till they dis-avow those Doctrines that conduce to that prophetically they wish prophetically they hope for better successe in as ill attempts It is then the kingdome that Ieremy laments but his nearest object is the King Hee laments him First let it be as with S. Hierome many of the Ancients and with them many of the later Rabbins will have it for Josiah for a good King in whose death the honour and the strength of the kingdome took that deadly wound to become tributary to a forain Prince for to this lamentation they refer those words of the Prophet which describe a great sorrow In that day shall there be a great mourning in Ierusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon which was the place where Iosiah was slain There shall be such a lamentation says the Prophet in this interpretation as was for the death of Iosiah This then was for him for a good King Wherein have we his goodnesse expressed Abundantly Hee did that which was right in Gods fight And whose Eye need he fear that is right in the Eye of God But how long did he so To the end for Nero who had his Quinquennium and was a good Emperour for his first five years was one of the worst of all Hee that is ill all the way is but a Tyran Hee that is good at first and after ill an Angels face and a Serpents taile make him a Monster Iosiah began well and persevered so He turned not aside to the right â—and nor to the left That is if we apply it to the Iosiah of our times neither to the fugitive that leaves our Church and goes to the Roman nor to the Separatist that leaves our Church and goes to none In the eighteenth year of his reign Iosiah undertook the reparation of Gods house If we apply this to the Iosiah of our times I think in that year of his reign he visited this Church and these wals and meditated and perswaded the reparation thereof In one word Like unto Iosiah there was no King before nor after And therefore there was just cause of lamentation for this King for Iosiah historically for the very loss of his person prophetically for the misery of the State after his death Our errand is to day to apply all these branches to the day Those men who intended us this cause of lamentation this day in the destruction of our Iosiah spared him not because he was so because so because he was a Iosiah because he was good no not because he was good to them his benefits to them had not mollified them towards him for that is not their way Both the French Henries were their own and good to them but did that rescue either of them from the knife And was not that Emperour whom they poisoned in the Sacrament their own and good to them and yet was that any Antidote against their poison To so reprobate a sense hath God given them over herein as that though in their Books they ly heaviest upon Princes of our Religion yet truly they have destroyed more of their own then of ours Thus it is Historically in their proceedings past And Prophetically it can be but thus since no King is good in their sense if he agree not to all points of Doctrine with them And when that is done not good yet except he agree in all points of Iurisdiction too and that no King can doe that will not be their Farmer of his Kingdome Their Authours have disputed Auferibilitatem Papae whether the Church of God might not be
own Iesuits though some whom in that Canon they seeme to follow make this Booke of Lamentations but an Appendix to the Prophecy of Ieremy determines for all that Canon that it is a distinct Book Indeed if it were not the first Chapter would have been called the 53 of Ieremy and not the first of the Lamentations But that which gives most assurednesse is That in divers Hebrew Bibles it is placed otherwise then wee place it and not presently and immediately after the Prophecy of Ieremy but discontinued from him though hee were never doubted to be the Author thereof The Booke is certainly the Prophet Ieremies and certainly a distinct booke But whether the Book be a history or a Prophecy whether Ieremy lament that which hee had seen or that which he foresees calamities past or future calamities things done or things to be done is a question which hath exercised and busied divers Expositors But as we say of the Parable of Dives and Lazarus that it is a Historicall parable and a Parabolicall history some such persons there were and some such things were really done but some other things were figuratively symbolically parabolically added So wee say of Ieremies Lamentation It is a Propheticall history and a Historicall prophecy Some of the sad occasions of these Lamentations were past when he writ and some were to come after for we may not despise the testimony of the Chalde Paraphrasts who were the first that illustrated the Bible in that Nation nor of S. Hierome who was much conversant with the Bible and with that Nation nor of Iosephus who had justly so much estimation in that Nation nor of those later Rabbins who were the learnedest of that Nation who are all of opinion that Ieremy writ these Lamentations after hee saw some declinations in that State in the death of Iosiah and so the Book is Historicall but when he onely foresaw their transportation into Babylon before that calamity fell upon them and so it is Propheticall Or if we take the exposition of the others That the whole Booke was written after their transportation into Babylon and to be in all parts Historicall yet it is Propheticall still for the Prophet laments a greater Desolation then that in the utter ruine and devastation of the City and Nation which was to fall upon them after the death of Christ Iesus Neither is any peece of this Booke the lesse fit to be our Text this day because it is both Historicall and Propheticall for they from whom God in his mercy gave us a Deliverance this day are our Historicall Enemies and our Propheticall Enemies historically wee know they have attempted our ruine heretofore and prophetically wee may bee sure they will doe so againe whensoever any new occasion provokes them or sufficient power enables them The Text then is as the Booke presented to Ezckiel In it are written Lamentations and Mournings and Woe and all they are written within and without says the Text there within as they concern the Iews without as they are appliable to us And they concern the Iews Historically attempts upon that State Ieremy had certainly seen and they concern them prophetically for farther attempts Ieremy did certainly foresee They are appliable to us both ways too Historically because wee have seen what they would have done And Prophetically because wee foresee what they would doe So that here is but a difference of the Computation here is stilo veteri and stilo nove here is the Iews Calendar and the Papists Calendar In the Jews Calendar one Babylon wrought upon the people of God and in the Papists Calendar another Babylon Stilo veteri in the Jews Calendar 700 yeare before Christ came there were pits made and the breath of their nostrils The anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits Stilo nove in the Papists Calendar 1600 yeare after Christ came in all fulnesse in all clearnesse There were pits made againe and The breath of our nostrils The anointed of the Lord was almost taken in those pits It is then Ieremies and it is a distinct Book It concernes the Iews and it concerns us too And it concernes us both both wages Historically and Prophetically But whether Ieremy lament here the death of a good King of Iosiah for so Saint Hierome and many of the Ancients and many of the Iewes themselves take it and thinke that those words in the Chronicles have relation to these Lamentations And Ieremy lamented for Iosiah and all the people speake of him in their Lamentations Or whether he lament the transportation and the misery of an ill King of Zedekiah as is more ordinarily and more probably held by the Expositours we argue not we dispute now we imbrace that which arises from bothâ— That both good Kings and bad Kings Iosiah and Zedekiah are the anointed of the Lord and the breath of the nostrills that is The life of the people and therefore both to be lamented when they fall into dangers and consequently both to be preserved by all means by Prayer from them who are private persons by counsell from them who have that great honour and that great charge to be near them in that kinde and by support and supplly from all of all sorts from falling into such dangers These considerations will I thinke have the better impression in you if we proceed in the handling of them thus First the main cause of the Lamentation was the Ruine or the dangerous declination of the Kingdome of that great and glorious State The Kingdome But then they did not seditiously sever the King and the Kingdome as though the Kingdome could doe well and the King ill That safe and he in danger for they see cause to lament because misery was fallen upon the Person of the King perchance upon Iosiah a good a religious King perchance but upon Zedekiah a worse King yet which soever it be they acknowledge him to be Vnctus Domini The anointed of the Lord and to be Spiritus narium The breath of their nostrills When this person therefore was fallen into the pits of the Enemy the Subject laments but this lamenting because he was fallen implies a deliverance a restitution he was fallen but he did not ly there so the Text which is as yet but of Lamentation will grow an houre hence to be of Congratulation and then we shall see That whosoever in rectified affections hath lamented a danger and then congratulated a deliverance he will provide against a relapse a falling again into that or any other danger by all means of sustaining the Kingdome and the King in safety and in honour Our first step then in this Royall progresse is That the cause of this Lamentation was the declination the diminution of the Kingdome If the Center of the world should be moved but one inch out of the place it cannot be reckoned how many miles this Island or any building in it would be thrown out of
God would give or at other times then God would give them is displeasing to him Use his meanes and stay his leisure But yet though God were displeased with them he executed his own purpose he was angry with their manner of asking a King but yet he gave them a King Howsoever God be displeased with them who prevaricate in his cause who should sustaine it and doe not Gods cause shall be sustained though they doe it not We may distinguish the period of the Jewish State well enough thus that they had Infantiam or pueritiam their infancy their minority in Adam and the first Patriarchs till the flood that they had Adolescentiam A growing time from Noah through the other Patriarchs till Moses and that they had Iuventuâ—em a youth and strength from Moses through the Judges to Saul but then they had Virilitatom virilem atatem their established vigor under their Kings and after them they fell in sâ—nectutem into a wretched and miserable decay of old age and decrepitnesse their kingdome was their best State and so much God in the Prophet intimates pregnantly when refreshing to their memories in a particular Inventory and Catalogue all his former benefits to them how he clothed Ierusalem how he fed her how he adorned her he summed up all in this one profecisti in regnum I have advanced thee to be a kingdome there was the Tropique there was the Solstice farther then that in this world we know not how God could goe a kingdome was really the best State upon Earth and Symbolically the best figure and Type of Heaven And therefore when the Prophet Ieremy historically beheld the declination of this kingdome in the death of Iâ—osiah and prophetically foresaw the ruines thereof in the transportition of Zedekiah or if he had seen that historically too yet prophetically he foresaw the utter devastation and depopulation and extermination which scattered that nation soon after Christ to this day and God and no man knows for how long when they who were a kingdome are now no where a village and they who had such Kings have now no where a Constable of their owne historically prophetically Ieremy had just cause of lamentation for the danger of that kingdome We had so also for this our kingdome this day God hath given us a kingdome not as other kingdomes made up of divers Cities but of divers kingdomes and all those kingdomes were destined to desolation in one minute It was not onely the destruction of the persons present but of the kingdomâ— for to submit the kingdome to the government of a forein Prelate was to destroy the Monarchy to annihilate the Supremacy to ruine the very forme of a kingdome a kingdome under another head besides the King is not a kingdome as ours is The oath that the Emperour takes to the Pope is by their authours called Iuramentum Sidelitatis an oath of Allegiance and if they had brought our Kings to take an oath of Allegiance so this were no kingdome Pope Nicolas the second went about to create two kingdomes that of Tuscan and that of Lombardy his successors have gone about to destroy more for to make it depend upon him were to destroy our kingdome That they have attempted historically and as long as these Axiomes and Aphorismes remaine in their Authors that one shall say that De jurs by right all Christian kingdomes doe hold of the Pope and De facto are forfeited to the Hope and another shall say that Christendome would be better governed if the Pope would take the forfeiture and so bring all these Royall farmes into his owne demesne we see also their propheticall desire their propheticall intention against this kingdome what they would doe In their Actions we have their history in their Axioms we have their prophecy Ieremy lamented the desolation of the kingdome but that expressed in the death and destruction of the King Hee did not divide the King and the kingdome as if the kingdome could do well and the King in distresse Umnipotentia Dei Asylum haeresicâ—rum it is well said by more then one of the ancients that the Omnipotence of God is the Sanctuary of Heretiques when they would establish any heresie they flye to Gods Almightinesse God can doe All therefore he can doe this So in the Roman Church they establish their heresie of Transubstantiation And so their deliverance of soules not from Purgatory onely but from Hell it selfe They think to stop all mouths with that God can do it no man dares deny that when as if that were granted which in such things as naturally imply contradiction in themselves or contradiction to Gods word cannot be granted for God cannot do that God cannot lye yet though God can do it concludes not that God will do it or hath done it Omnipotentiâ— Dei Asylum haereticorum The omnipotency of God is the Sanctuary of Heretiques and so Salus Regni is Asylum proditorum Greater Treasons and Seditions and Rebellions have never been set on foote then upon colour and pretence of a care of the State and of the good of the Kingdome Every where the King is Sponsus Regni the husband of the Kingdome and to make love to the Kings wife and undervalue him must necessarily make any King jealous The King is Anima Regni The soule of the Kingdome and to provide for the health of the body with the detriment of the soule is perverse physick The King is Caput Regni The head of the Kingdome and to cure a Member by cutting off the head is ill surgery Man and wife soule and body head and members God hath joyned and those whom God hath joyned let no man sever Salus Regni Asylum Proditorum To pretend to uphold the Kingdome and overthrow the King hath ever been the tentation before and the excuse after in the greatest Treasons In that action of the Iews which we insisted upon before in their pressing for a King The Elders of Israel were gathered together and so far they were in their way for this was no popular no seditious Assembly of light and turbulent men but The Elders And then they came to Samuel And so farre they were in their right way too for they held no counsels apart but came to the right place for redresse of grievances to their then highest Governour to Samuel When they were thus lawfully met they forbeare not to lay open unto him the injustice of his greatest Officers though it concerned the very Sonnes of Samuel and thus farre they kept within their convenient limits But when they would presse Samuel to a new way of remedy to an inconvenient way to a present way to their own way and referre nothing to him what care soever they pretended of the good of the State it is evident that they had no good opinion of Samuel himself and even that displeased God That they were ill affected to that person whom he had set over
not harbouring for not visiting The sum of all is that this is the overflowing goodnesse of God that he deales with man by the sonne of man and that hee hath so given all judgement to the Sonne as that if you would be tryed by the first judgement are you elected or no The issue is doe you believe in Christ Jesus or no If you would be tryed by the second judgement are you justified or no The issue is doe you find comfort in the application of the Word and Sacraments of Christ Jesus or no If you would be tryed by the third Judgement do you expect a Glorification or no The issue is Are you so reconcil'd to Christ Jesus now by hearty repentance for sinnes past and by detestation of occasion of future sin that you durst welcome that Angel which should come at this time and sweare that time should be no more that your transmigration out of this world should be this minute and that this minute you might say unfeignedly and effectually Veni Domine Iesu come quickly come now if this be your state then are you partakers of all that blessednesse which the Father intended to you when for your sake he committed all Judgment to the Son SERMON XIII Preached at Lincolns Inne JOHN 8. 15. I judge no man THe Rivers of Paradise did not all run one way and yet they flow'd from one head the sentences of the Scripture flow all from one head from the holy Ghost and yet they seem to present divers senses and to admit divers interpretations In such an appearance doth this Text differ from that which I handled in the forenoon and as heretofore I found it a usefull and acceptable labour to employ our Evening exercises upon the vindicating of some such places of Scripture as our adversaries of the Roman Church had detorted in some point of controversie between them and us and restoring those places to their true sense which course I held constantly for one whole year so I think it a usefull and acceptable labour now to employ for a time those Evening exercises to reconcile some such places of Scripture as may at first sight seem to differ from one another In the morning we saw how Christ judged all now we are to see how he judges none I judge no man To come then to these present words here we have the same person Christ Jesus and hath not he the same Office Is not he Judge certainly though he retain'd all his other Offices though he be the Redeemer and have shed his blood in value satisfactory for all our sins though he be our Advocate and plead for us in heaven and present our evidence to that Kingdome written in his blood seal'd in his wounds yet if hee bee not our Judge wee cannot stand in judgement shall hee bee our Judge and is hee not our Judge yet Long before wee were hee was our Judge at the separation of the Elect and Reprobate in Gods eternall Decree Was he our Judge then and is hee not so still still he is present in his Church and cleares us in all scruples rectifies us in all errors erects us in all dejections of spirit pronounces peace and reconciliation in all apprehensions of his Judgements by his Word and by his Sacraments was hee and is he and shall he not be our Judge still I am sure my Redeemer liveth and he shall stand the last on earth So that Christ Jesus is the same to day and yesterday and for ever before the world begun and world without end Sicut erat in principio as he was in the beginning he is and shall be ever our Judge So that then these words are not De tempâ—re but De modo there was never any time when Christ was not Judge but there were some manner of Judgements which Christ did never exercise and Christ had no commission which he did not execute for hee did all his Fathers will 1. In secularibus in civill or criminall businesses which belong meerly to the Judicatures and cognisance of this world Iudicat neminem Christ judges no man 2. Secundum carnem so as they to whom Christ spake this who judged as himself says here according to fleshly affections Iudicat neminem he judges no man and 3. Ad internecionem so as that upon that Judgement a man should despair of any reconciliation any redintegration with God again and be without hope of pardon and remission of sins in this world Iudicat neminem he judges no man 1. Christ usurps upon no mans Jurisdiction that were against justice 2. Christ imputes no false things to any man that were against charity 3. Christ induces no man to desperation that were against faith and against Justice against charity against faith Iudicat neminem First then Christ judgeth not in secular judgements and we note his abstinence therein first in civill matters when one of the company said to him Master bid my brother divide the inheritance with me as Saint Augustine says the Plaintiffe thought his cause to be just and hee thought Christ to bee a competent Judge in the cause and yet Christ declines the judgement disavows the authority and he answers Homo quis me constituit Iudicem Man who made me a Judge between you To that Generall which we had in the morning Omne judicium the Son hath all judgement here is an exception of the same Judges own making for in secular judgements Nemo constituit he had no commission and therefore Iudicat neminem he judges no man he forbore in criminall matters too for when the woman taken in adultery was brought before him he condemned her not It is true he absolv'd her not the evidence was pregnant against her but he condemned her not he undertook no office of a Judge but of a sweet and spirituall Counsellor Go and sinne no more for this was his Element his Tribunall When then Christ says of himself with such a pregnant negative Quis me constituit Iudicem may not we say so too to his pretended Vicar the Bishop of Rome Quiâ—te Who made you Judge of Kings that you should depose them in criminall causes Or who made you proprietary of Kingdomes that you should dispose of them as of civill inheritances when to countenance such a pretence they detort places of Scripture not onely perversly but senselesly blasphemously ridiculously as ridicolously as in their pasquils wheÌ„ in an undiscreet shamlesnes to make their power greater then it is they make their fault greater then it is too fil their histories with examples of Kings deposed by Popes which in truth were not depos'd by them for in that they are more innocent then they will confesse themselves to be when some of their Authors say that the Primitive Church abstain'd from deposing Emperors onely because she was not strong enough to do it when some of them say That all Christian Kingdomes of the earth may fall into
have born the image of the earthly so let us beare the Image of the heavenly there from Tertullian it must necessarily be referred to the first Resurrection the Resurrection by grace in this life for says he there Non refertur ad substantiam resurrectionis sed ad prâ—â—sentis temporis disciplinam the Apostle does not speak of our glorious resurrection at last but of our religious resurrection now Portemus non portabimus Let us bear his image says the Apostle Let us now not that we shall bear it at the last day Praeceptive dictum non promissive The Apostle delivers it as a duty that we must not as a reward that wee shall bear that image And therefore in Tertulliâ—â— construction it is not onely indifferent and probable but necessary to refer this Text to the first Resurrection in this life where it will be fittest to pursue that order which we proposed at first first to consider Quid regnum what Kingdome it is that is pretended to And then Quid haeredetas what estate and term is to be had in it It is an Inheritance And lastly Quid care sanguis what flesh and blood it is that is excluded out of this Kingdome Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God First for this kingdome of God in this world let us be glad that it is a kingdome that it is so much that the government is taken out of the hands of Saints and Angels and re-united re-annexed to the Crown restoted to God to whom we may come immediately and be accepted Let us be glad that it is a kingdome so much and let us be glad that it is but a kingdome and no more not a Tyranny That we come not to a God that will damâ—e us because he will damâ—e us but a God that proposes Conditions and enables us to performe those conditions in such a measure as he will vouchsafe to accept from us A God that governs us by his word for in his word is truth and by his law for in his law is clearnesse Will you aske what this kingdome of God is What did you take it to be or what did you mean by it when even now you said with me in the Lords prayer Thy kingdome come Did you deliberately and determinately pray for the day of Judgment and for his comming in the kingdome of glory then Were you all ready for that when you said so Purae conscientiae grandis audaciae est It is a very great confidence and if it be not grounded upon a very pure conscience it must have a worse name Regnum Dei postul are judicium non timeâ—â— To call upon God for the day of Judgment upon confidence of our own righteousnesse is a shrewd distemper To say Vâ—ni Domine Iesu come Lord Iesuâ— come and take us as thou findst us is a dangerous issue But Adveniat regnum and then veniat Rex let his kingdome of grace come upon us in this life and then let himselfe come too in his good time and when his good pleasure shall be in the kingdome of Glory Sive velimus sive nolimus regnum Dei utique veniet what need we hasten him provoke him says Saint Augustine whether we will or no his kingdome his Judgment will come Nay before we called for it even his kingdome of grace was come Christ said to the Scribe Non longè Thou art not far from the kingdome of God And to the Pharisees themselves he said Intra vos the kingdome of God is among you within you But where there is a whole Hospitall of three hundred blinde men together as there is at Paris there is as much light amongst them there as amongst us here and yet all they have no light so this kingdome of God is amongst us all and yet God knows whether we see it or no. And therefore Adveniat ut manifestetâ—r Deus says S. Augustine his kingdom come that we may discerne it is come that we may see that God offers it to us and Adveniat regnum ut manefestemur Deo his kingdome come so that he may discernus in our reception of that Kingdom and our obedience to it He comes when we see him and he comes again when we receive him Quid est Regnum ejus veniat quà m ut nos bonos inveniat Then his Kingdome comes when he finds us willing to be Subjects to that Kingdome God is a King in his own right By Creation by Redemption by many titles and many undoubted claimes But Aliud est Regem esse aliud regnare It is one thing to be a King another to have Subjects in obedience A King is not the lesse a King for a Rebellion But Verè justum regnum est says that Father quando Rex vult homines habere sub se cupiunt homines esse sub â—o when the King would wish no other Subjects nor the Subjects other King then is that Kingdom come come to a durable and happy state When God hath shewed himself in calling us and wee have shewed our willingnesse to come when God shewes his desire to preserve us and we adhere onely to him when there is a Dominus regnat Latetur terra When our whole Land is in possession of peace and plenty and the whole Church in possession of the Word and Sacraments when the Land rejoyces because the Lord reigns and when there is a Dominus regnat Laetentur Insulae Because the Lord reigneth every Island doth rejoice that is every man that every man that is encompassed within a Sea of calamities in his estate with a Sea of diseases in his body with a Sea of scruples in his understanding with a Sea of transgressions in his conscience with a Sea of sinking and swallowing in the sadnesse of spirit may yet open his eyes above water and find a place in the Arke above all these a recourse to God and joy in him in the Ordinances of a well established and well governed Church this is truly Regnum Dei the Kingdome of God here God is willing to be present with us that he declares in the preservation of his Church And we are sensible of his presence and residence with us and that wee declare in our frequent recourses to him hither and in our practise of those things which we have learnt here when we are gone hence This then is the blessed state that wee pretend to in the Kingdome of God in this life Peace in the State peace in the Church peace in our Conscience In this that wee answer the motions of his blessed Spirit here in his Ordinance and endevour a conformity to him in our life and conversation In this hee is our King and wee are his Subjects and this is this Kingdome of God the Kingdome of Grace Now the title by which we make claim to this Kingdome is in our text Inheritance Who can and who
Though mine iniquities be got over my head as a wall of separation yet in Christo omnia possum In Christ I can doe all things Mine iniquities are got over my head but my head is Christ and in him I can doe whatsoever hee hath done by applying his sufferings to my soule for all my sins are his and all his merit is mine And all my sins shall no more hinder my ascending into heaven nor my sitting at the right hand of God in mine own person then they hindered him who bore them all in his person mine onely Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus blessed for ever SERMON XXIV Preached at White-Hall EZEK 34. 19. And as for my flock they eate that which yee have troen with your feet and they drink that which yee have foulded with your feet THose four Prophets whom the Church hath called the great Prophets Esay and Ieremy Ezekiel and Daniel are not onely therefore called great because they writ more then the lesser Prophets did for Zecbary who is amongst the lesser writ more then Daniel who is amongst the greater but because their Prophecies are of a larger comprehension and extent and for the most part speake more of the comming of Christ and the establishing of the Christian Church then the lesser Prophets doe who were more conversant about the temporall deliverance of Israel from Babylon though there be aspersions of Christ and his future government in those Prophets too though more thinly shed Amongst the four great ones our Prophet Ezekiel is the greatest I compare not their extraction and race for though Ezekiel were de genere sacerdotali of the Leviticall and Priestly race And as Philo Iudâ—us notes all nations having some markes of Gentry some calling that ennobled the professors thereof in some Armes and Merchandize in some and the Arts in others amongst the Iews that was Priesthood Priesthood was Gentry though Ezekiel were of this race Esay was of a higher for he was of the extraction of their Kings of the bloud royall But the extraordinary greatnesse of Ezekiel is in his extraordinary depth and mysteriousnesse for this is one of those parts of Scripture as the beginning of Genesis and the Canticles of Solomon also are which are forbid to be read amongst the Iews till they come to be thirty years old which was the Canonicall age to be made Priests In so much that Saint Gregory says when he comes to expound any part of this Prophet Noctunum iter ago that he travelled by night and did but ghesse at his way But besides that many of the obscure places of the Prophets are more open to us then they were to the ancients because many of those prophecies are now fulfilled and so that which was Prophecy to them is History to us in this place which we have now undertaken there never was darknesse not difficulty neither in the first emanation of the light thereof nor in the reflection neither in the Literall nor in the Figurative sense thereof for the literall sense is plainly that that amongst the manifold oppressions under which the Children of Israel languished in Babylon this was the heaviest that their own Priests joyned with the State against them and infused pestilent doctrines into them that so themselves might enjoy the favour of the State and the people committed to their charge might slacken their obedience to God and surrender themselves to all commandements of all men This was their oppression the Church joyned with the Court to oppresse them Their own Priests gave these sheep grasse which they had troden with their feet doctrines not as God gave them to them but as they had tampered and tempered them and accommodated them to serve turnes and fit their ends whose servants they had made themselves more then Gods And they gave them water to drink which they had troubled with their feet that is doctrines mudded with other ends then the glory of God And that therefore God would take his sheep into his own care and reduce them from that double oppression of that Court and that Church those Tyrannous officers and those over-obsequious Priests This is the literall sense of our text and context evident enough in the letter thereof And then the figurative and Mysticall sense is of the same oppressions and the same deliverance over againe in the times of Christ and of the Christian Church for that 's more then figurative fully literall soon after the Text I will set up one shepheard my servant David And I will raise up for them a plant of renoune which is the same that Esay had called A rod out of the stem of Iesse and Ieremy had called A righteous brâ—nch a King thus should raigne and prosper This prophecy then comprehending the kingdome of Christ it comprehends the whole kingdome of Christ not onely the oppressions and deliverances of our forefathers from the Heathen and the Heretiques in the Primitive Church but that also which touches us more nearly the oppressions and deliverance of our Fathers in the Reformation of Religion and the shaking off of the yoak of Rome that Italian Babylon as heavy as the Chaldâ—an We shall therefore at this time fix our meditations upon that accommodation of the Text the oppression that the Israel of God was under then when he delivered them by that way the Reformation of Religion and consider how these metaphors of the holy Ghost The treading with their feet the grasse that the sheep were to eae and the troubling with their feet the water that the sheep were to drink doe answer and set out the oppressions of the Roman Church then as lively as they did in the other Babylon And so having said enough of the primary sense of these words as they concern Gods Israel in the first Babylon and something by way of commemoration and thankfulnesse for Gods deliverance of his Israel from the persecutions in the Primitive Church insist we now upon the severall metaphors of the Text as the holy Ghost continues them to the whole reigne of Christ and so to the Reformation First the greatest calamity of those sheep in Babylon was that their own shepherds concurred to their oppression In Babylon they were a part but in Rome they were all In Babylon they joyned with the State but in Rome they were the State Saint Hierome notes out of a Tradition of the Iews that those loafes which their priests were to offer to the Lord were to be of such corne as those Priests had sowed and reaped and threshed and ground and baked all with their own hands But they were so farre from that at Babylon and at Rome as that they ploughed iniquity and sowed wickednesse and reaped the same and as God himselfe complaines trod his portion under foot That is first neglected his people for Gods people are his portion And then whatsoever pious men had given to the Church is his portion too and that portion
in that Dispersion which hath continued upon the Jews ever since the destruction of Ierusalem the Jews have been so far from having had any King as that they have not had a Constable of their owne in any part of the world no interest at all in any part of the Magistracy and Jurisdiction of the world any where but they are a whole Nation of Cains fugitives and vagabonds But howsoever it be the heat and the vehemency of this Commination fals upon this particular sine Rege they shall be without a King It was long before God afforded the Jews a King and he did not easily doe it then when he did it Not that he intended not that form of Government for them but because they would extort it from him before his time and because they asked it onely in that respect That they might be like their neighbours to whom God would not have had them too like And also because God to keep their thankfulnesse still awake would reserve and keep back some better thing then he had given them yet to give them at last For so he says as the Coronation of all his benefits to Israel of which there is a glorious Inventary in that Chapter Thou didst prosper into a Kingdome Till the Crown of glory be presented in the comming of the Messias thou canst not be happier Those therefore that allow but a conditionall Soveraignty in a Kingdome an arbitrary a temporary Soveraignty that may be transferred at the pleasure of another they oppose the Nolumus hoc we would not have we would not live under this form of Government not under a temporall Monarchy Nolumus hoc Those that determine Allegiance and civil obedience onely by their own religion and think themselves bound to obey none that is of another perswasion they oppose the Nolumus hunc We will not have this man to reign over us and so make their relations and fix their dependencies upon forein hopes Nolumus hunc Those that fix a super-Soveraignty in the people or in a Presbytery they oppose the Nolumus sic we would not have things carried thus They pretend to know the happinesse of living under that form A Kingdome and to acknowledge the person of the King but they would be governed every man according to his own minde And all these the Nolumus hoc they that desire not the continuance of that form of a Kingdome in an Independency but would have a dependency upon a forein power And the Nolumus hunc they that are disaffected to the person of him that governs for the present And the Nolumus sic they that will prescribe to the King ends and ways to those ends all these assist this malediction this commination which God interminates here as the greatest calamity sine Rege They shall be without a King for this is to Canton out a Monarchy to Ravell out a Kingdome to Crumble out a King There is another branch in this Part which is of Temporall calamities That they shall be sine Principe Without a King and without a Prince The word in the originall is Sar and take it as it sounds most literally in our Translation The Prince is the Kings Son so this very word is used in Esay Sar Salem The Son of God is called the Prince of Peace And so the commination upon the Jews is thus farre aggravated That they shall be without a Prince that is without a certain heire and Successor which uncertainty more then any thing else slackens the industry of all men at home and sharpens the malice of all men abroad fears at home and hopes abroad discompose and disorder all where they are sine Principe without a certain heire But the word enlarges it selfe farther for Sar signifies a Iudge when Moses rebuked a Malefactor he replies to Moses Who made thee a Iudge And in many very many places Sar signifies a Commander in the Warres So that where the Iustice of the State or the Military power of the State faile and they faile where the men who doe or should execute those places will not or dare not doe what appertains to their places there this Commination fals They are without a Prince that is without future assurance without present power or Justice But we passe to the spirituall Commination that is They shall be without Sacrifice without Ephod without Image without Teraphim It is not that their understanding shall be taken away no nor that the tendernesse of their conscience or their zeale shall be taken away It is not that they shall come to any impiety or ill opinion of God They may have religious and well-disposed hearts and yet be under a curse if they have not a Church an outward Discipline established amongst them It is not enough for a man to beleeve aright but he must apply himself to some Church to some outward form of worshipping God It is not enough for a Church to hold no error in doctrine but it must have outward assistances for the devotion of her children and outward decency for the glory of her God Both these kindes are intended in the particulars of this Text Sacrifice and Ephod Image and Teraphim First it is a part of the curse to be without Sacrifice Now if according to S. Hieromes interpretation this Text be a Prophecy upon the Jews after Christs time and that the Malediction consist in this That they shall not embrace the Christian Religion nor the Christian Church entertain them if the Prophet drive to this They shall bee without Sacrifices because they shall not be of the Christian Church certainly the Christian Church is not to be without Sacrifice It is a miserable impotency to be afraid of words That from a former holy and just detestation of reall errors we should come to an uncharitable detestation of persons and to a contentious detestation of words We dare not name Merit nor Penance nor Sacrifice nor Altar because they have been abused How should we be disappointed and disfurnished of many words in our ordinary conversation if we should be bound from all words which blasphemous men have prophaned or uncleane men have defiled with their ill use of those words There is Merit there is Penance there is Sacrifice there are Altars in that sense in which those blessed men who used those words first at first used them The Communion Table is an Altar and in the Sacrament there is a Sacrifice Not onely a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving common to all the Congregation but a Sacrifice peculiar to the Priest though for the People There he offers up to God the Father that is to the remembrance to the contemplation of God the Father the whole body of the merits of Christ Iesus and begges of him that in contemplation of that Sacrifice so offered of that Body of his merits he would vouchsafe to return and to apply those merits to that Congregation A Sacrifice as farre
their places A declination in the Kingdome of the Jewes in the body of the Kingdome in the soul of the State in the form of Government was such an Earth-quake as could leave nothing standing Of all things that are there was an Idea in God there was a modell a platform an examplar of every thing which God produced and created in Time in the mind and purpose of God before Of all things God had and Idea a preconception but of Monarchy of Kingdome God who is but one is the Idea God himselfe in his Unity â—s the Modell He is the Type of Monarchy He made but one World for this and the next are not two Worlds This is but the Morning and that the everlasting Noon of one and the same Day which shall have no Night They are not two Houses This is the Gallery and that the Bed-chamber of one and the same Palace which shall feel no ruine He made this one World but one Eye The Sunne The Moone is not another Eye but a Glasse upon which the Sunne reflects He made this one World but one Eare The Church He tells not us that he heares by a left Eare by Saints but by that right Eare the Church he doth There is One God One Faith One Baptisme and these lead us to the love of one Soveraign of Monarchy of Kingdome In that Name God hath convayed to us the state of Grace and the state of Glory too and he hath promised both in injoining that Petition Adveniat Regnum Thy Kingdome come Thy Kingdome of Grace here Thy Kingdome of Glory hereafter All forms of Government have one and the same Soul that is Soveraignty That resides somewhere in every form and this Soveraignty is in them all from one and the same Root from the Lord of Lords from God himself for all Power is of God But yet this form of a Monarchy of a Kingdome is a more lively and a more masculin Organe and Instrument of this Soul of Soveraigntie then the other forms are Wee are sure Women have Soules as well as Men but yet it is not so expressed that God breathed a Soule into Woman as hee did into Man All formes of Government have this Soule but yet God infuseth it more manifestly and more effectually in that forme in a Kingdome All places are alike neare to Heaven yet Christ would take a Hill for his Ascension All governments may justly represent God to mee who is the God of Order and fountaine of all government but yet I am more eased and more accustomed to the contemplation of Heaven in that notion as Heaven is a kingdome by having been borne and bred in a Monarchy God is a Type of that and that is a Type of Heaven This form then in nature the noblest in use the profitablest of all others God always intended to his best-beloved people God always meant that the Jews should have a King though he prepared them in other forms before As hee meant them peace at last though he exercised them in Warre and meant them the land of promise though he led them through the Wildernesse so he meant them a King though he prepared them by Iudges God intended it in himselfe and he declared it to them 400 yeares before he have them a King he instructed them what kinde of King they should set over them when they came to that kinde of government And long before that he made a promise by Iacob to Iudah of a Kingdome and that the Scepter should not depart from him till Siloh came And when God came neare the time in which he intended to them that government in the time of Samuel who was the immediate predecessor to their first King Saul God made way for a Monarchy for Samuel had a much more absolute authority in that State then any of the Judges had Samuel judged them and in their petition for a King they ask but that Make us a King to judge us Samuel was little lesse then a King and Sauls reign and his are reckoned both in one number and made as the reign of one man when it is said in the Acts that Saul reigned 40 yeares Samuels time is included in that number for all the yeares from the death of Eli â— to the beginning of David are but 40 years God meant them a Kingdome in himselfe promised them a kingdome in Iudah made Laws for their kingdome in Deuteronomy made way for the kingdome in Samuel and why then was God displeased with their petition for a Kingdome It was a greater fault in them then it could have been in any other people to ask a King not that it was not the most desirable form of government but that God governed them so immediately so presentially himselfe as that it was an ingratefull intemperance in them to turn upon any other meanes God had ever performed that which he promised them in that which comprehended all Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people And therefore Iosephus hath expressed it well All other people are under the forme of Democratiâ— or Aristocratiâ— or such other formes composed of men Sed noster Legislator Theocratiam instituit The Jews were onely under a Theocratiâ— an immediate government of God he judged them himselfe and hee himselfe fought their battels And therefore God says to Samuel They have not rejected thee Thou wast not King But they have rejected mee I was To bee weary of God is it enough to call it a levity But if they did onely compare forme with forme and not God himselfe with any forme if they did onely thinke Monarchy best and beleeve that God intended a Monarchy to them yet yet to limit God his time and to make God performe his promise before his day was a fault and inexcusable Daniel saw that the Messiah should come within seventy weekes Daniel did not say Lord let it bee within fifty weekes or let it bee this weeke The Martyrs under the Altar cry Vsqueque Domine How long Lord but then they leave it there Even as long as pleaseth thee Their petition should have been Adveniat regnum â—wordsâ— Let us have that Kingdome which because thou knowest it is good for us thou hast promised to us But yet Fiat voluntas tua Let us have it then when thy Wisdome sees it best for us You said to mee says Samuel by way of Reproofe and Increpation You said Nay but a King shall reigne over us Now that was not their fault but that which followes The unseasonablesse and inconsideration of their clamorous Petition You said a King shall reigne over us when the Lord your God was your King They would not trust Gods meanes there was their first fault And then though they desired a thing good in it selfe and a good intended to them yet they fixed God his time and they would not stay his leisure And either of these To aske other things then
they their beeing their ever-lasting well-beeing for their service You will scarce receive a servant that is come from another man without testimony If you put your selves out of Gods service whither will ye goe In his service and his onely is perfect freedome And therefore as you love freedome and liberty bee his servants and call the freedome of the Gospel the best freedome and come to the Preaching of that He cals you children as you are servants filii familiares and he cals you children as you are Alumni nurse-children filii mammillares as he requires the humility and simplicity of little children in you For Cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus as the vulgat reads that place Gods secret discourse is with the single heart The first that ever came to Christ so as he came to us in blood they that came to him so before he came so to us that died for him before he died for them were such sucking children those whom Herod slew As Christ thought himself bound to thank his Father for that way of proceeding I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast revealed these things unto babes so Christ himself pursues the same way Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdome of heaven Of such not onely of those who were truly literally children children in age but of such as those Talium est regnum coelorum such as come in such a disposition in the humility in the simplicity in the singlenesse of heart as children do An habituall sinner is always in minority always an Infant an Infant to this purpose All his acts all the bands of an Infant are void all the outward religious actions even the band and contract of Baptism in an habituall sinner is void and ineffectuall He that is in the house and favour of God though he be a child a child to this purpose simple supple tractable single-hearted is as Adam was in the state of Innocency a man the first minute able to stand upright in the sight of God And out of one place of Esay our Expositors have drawn conveniently enough both these conclusions A child shall die 100 years old says the Prophet that is say some a sinner though he live 100 years yet he dies a child in ignorance And then say others and both truly He that comes willingly when God cals though he die a child in age he hath the wisdome of 100 years upon him There is not a graver thing then to be such a child to conform his will to the will of God Whether you consider temporall or spirituall things you are Gods children For for temporall if God should take off his hand withdraw his hand of sustentation all those things which assist us temporally would relapse to the first feeble and childish estate and come to their first nothing Armies would be but Hospitals without all strength Councell-tables but Bedlams without all sense and Schools and Universities but the wrangling of children if God and his Spirit did not inanimate our Schools and Armies and Councels His adoption makes us men therefore because it makes us his children But we are his children in this consideration especially as we are his spirituall children as he hath nursed us fed us with his word In which sense the Apostle speaks of those who had embraced the true Religion in the same words that the Prophet had spoken before Behold I and the children that God hath given me And in the same sense the same Prophet in the same place says of them who had fallen away from the true Religion They please themselves in the children of strangers In those men who have derived their Orders and their Doctrine from a forein Jurisdiction In that State where Adoptions were so frequent in old Rome a Plebeian could not adopt a Patrician a Yeoman could not adopt a Gentleman nor a young man could not adopt an old In the new Rome that endevours to adopt all in an imaginary filiation you that have the perfect freedome of Gods service be not adopted into the slavery and bondage of mens traditions you that are in possession of the ancient Religion of Christ and his Apostles be not adopted into a yonger Religion Religio à religando That is Religion that binds that binds that is necessary to salvation That which we affirm our adversaries deny not that which we professe they confesse was always necessary to salvation They will not say that all that they say now was always necessary That a man could not be saved without beleeving the Articles of the Councell of Trent a week before that Councell shut up You are his children as children are servants and If he be your Lord where is his fear you are his children as he hath nursed you with the milk of his word and if he be your Father so your foster Father where is his love But he is your Father otherwise you are not onely Filii familiares children because servants nor onely Filii mammillares children because noursed by him but you are also Filii viscerales children of his bowells For we are otherwise allied to Christ then we can be to any of his instruments though Angels of the Church Prophets or Apostles and yet his Apostle says of one whom he loved of Onesimus Receive him that is mine owne bowells my Sonne says he whom I have begotten in my hands How much more art thou bound to receive and refresh those bowells from which thou art derived Christ Iesus himselfe Receive him Refresh him Carry that which the wiseman hath said Miserere animae tuae bee mercifull to thine owne soule higher then so and Miserere salvatoris tui have mercy upon thine owne Saviour put on the bowells of mercy and put them on even towards Christ Iesus himselfe who needs thy mercy by beeing so tome and mangled and embowelled by blasphemous oaths and execrations For beloved it is not so absurd a prayer as it is conceived if Luther did say upon his death bed Oremus pro Domino nostro Iesu Christo Let us pray for out Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Had we not need pray for him If he complaine that Saul persecutes him had we not need pray for him It is a seditious affection in civill things to divide the King and the kingdome to pray to fight for the one and leave out the other is seditiously done If the kingdome of Christ need thy prayers and thy assistance Christ needs it If the Body need it the Head needs it If thou must pray for his Gospell thou must pray for him Nay thou canst not pray for thy selfe but thou must pray for him for thou art his bowells when thou in thy forefathers the first Christians in the Primitive Church wast persecuted Christ cryed out why persecutest thou me Christ made thy case his because thou wast of his
expressed that David determined himself or declared his choice of any of the three Hee might conceive a hope that God would forbear all three As when another Prophet Nathan had told him The childe shall surely die yet David said for all that determined assurance Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live and he fasted a fast and mourned and prayed for the childes life Beloved no commination of God is unconditioned or irrevocable But in this case David intimates some kinde of election Let me fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are exceeding great and not into the hands of men Susanna when shee was surprised and in a straight too though of another kind she resolves that it is better for her to fall into the hands of men let men defame her let men accuse her condemn her execute her rather then sin in the sight of God and so fall into his hands So that if wee compare offences wee were better offend all the Princes of the earth then offend God because he is able to cast body and soul into hell fire But when the offence is done for the punishment which follows God forgives a treason sooner then thy neighbour will a trespasse God seales thee a Quietus est in the bloud of his Son sooner then a Creditor will renue a bond or withdraw an Action and a Scandalum magnatum will lie longer upon thee here then a blasphemâ— against God in that Court. And therefore as it is one degree of good husbandry in ill husbands to bring all their debts into one hand so doest thou husband thy afflictions well if thou put them all upon thy debts to God and leave out the consideration of Instruments And he shall deale with thee as hee did with David there that plague which was threatned for three days he will end in one In that trouble which if men had had their will upon thee would have consumed thee thou shalt stand unconsumed For if a man wound thee it is not in his power though hee be never so sorry for it whether that wound shall kill thee or no but if the Lord wound thee to death he is the life he can redeem thee from death and if hee doe not he is thy resurrection and recompenses thee with another and a better life And so lies our first comfort that it is Ejus His The Lords And a second is that it is In virga ejus In his rod. Iob would fain have come to a cessation of arms before hee came to a treaty with God Let the Lord take away his rod from me sayes he and let not his fear terrifie me Them would I speak As long as his rod was upon him and his fears terrified him it was otherwise he durst not But truly his feares should not terrifie us though his rod be upon us for herein lies our comfort That all Gods rods are bound up with that mercy which accompanied that rod that God threatned David to exercise upon his son Solemon If he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men I will let him fall into the hands of men This was heavy Therefore it is eased with that Cordiall But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul But for this mercy the oppressions of men were mercilesse But all Gods rods are bound up with this mercy and therein lies our comfort And for the rods of other men O my people be not afraid of the Assyrian says God Why blessed Lord shalâ— the Assyrian doe thy people no harm yes says God there He shall smite them with a rod and he shall lift up his staffe against them Some harm he shall doe He shall smite them with a rod And he shall threaten more offer at more he shall lift up his staffe where then is the peoples reliefe and comfort In this The Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him God shall appear in that notion of power The Lord of Hosts and he shall encounter his enemies and the enemies of his friends with a scourge upon them against their rod upon us Gods own rods are bound up in mercy they end in mercy And for the rods of other men God cuts them in pieces and their owners with his sword Gods owne rods even towards his owne Children are sometimes as that rod which he put into Moses hand was chang'd into Serpents Gods owne rods have sometimes a sting and a bitternesse in them but then they are chang'd from their owne nature Naturally Gods roddes towards us are gentle and harmlesse When Gods rod in Moses hand was changed to a Serpent it did no harme that did but devoure the other Serpents when Gods rods are heaviest upon us if they devoure other rods that is enable us to put off the consideration of the malice and oppression of other Men and all displeasure towards them and lay all upon God for our sinnes these serpentine rods have wrought a good effect When Moses his Rod was a Serpent yet it return'd quickly to a Rod againe how bitter so ever Gods corrections be they returne soone to their naturall sweetnesse and though the correction continue the bitternesse does not with this Rod Moses tam'd the Sea and divided that but he drowned none in that Sea but the Aegyptians Gods rod will cut and divide between thy soule and spirit but he will destroy nothing in thee not thy Morality not thy Christianity but onely thine owne Aegyptians thy Persecutors thy concupiscencies But all this while we have but deduced a comfort out of thy Word Quia Virga though that be a rod but this is a comfort Quia Virga therefore because that is a Rod for this word which is here a Rod is also in other places of Scriptures an Instrument not of correction but direction Feed thy sheep with thy Rod saies God and there it is a Pastorall Rod the direction of the Church Virga rectitudinis virgaregni tui saies David The Scepter of thy kingdome is a right Scepter and there its a royall rod the protection of the state so that all comforts that are deriv'd upon us by the direction of the Church and by the protection of the State are recommended to us and conferr'd upon us in this His Rod. Nor is it onely a Rod of comfort by implication and consequence but expresly and literally it is so Though I should walke thorough the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill Thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me He had not onely a comfort though he had the rod but he had not had so much comfort except he had had it we have not so good evidence of the joyes of the next life except we have the sorrowes of this The discomfort then lies not in this That the affliction is ejus his the Lords