made not God his strength Mahhuzzo his fortitude saith Jerome and in the matter of giving assent to truthes Consider in this comparison how Faith layeth it selfe upon God There bee six men condemned to die for treason the King sendeth a sealed pardon to one all the sixe reade the pardon and all believe it is the true deed of the Prince but five of them doe beleeve it with sorrow and no love to the Prince because their names are not in the pardon but the pardoned man beleeveth it not onely as true but his heart cleaveth to it with a heate and warmenesse of soule resting upon the grace of the Prince So doth the believer thrust his heart upon Christ and his free grace and hath a soule-kindenesse to the promises when hee heareth them which is not in these who onely take the word as true Canticles 8. 5. Who is she that cometh upout of the Wildernesse associating or neighboureth her selfe upon her well-beloved Faith maketh Christ a neighbour and a companion to the soule and therefore here must bee an Application of the heart to God in Christ 2. Assertion Some even deserted and missing the Lord to their feeling may and doe apply him to themselves as their owne Lord Psalme 22. 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Canticles 5. 6. I opened to my well-beloved and my well-beloved had withdrawne himselfe then a God hiding himselfe and withdrawing his felt love to my faith may be my God Esay 49. 14. Zion saith My Lord hath forgotten me so Mary Magdalen saith Iohn 20. 13. They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him then hee may be a forgetting and taken away Lord to my feeling and yet to my faith also my Lord as though I were in Hell and Christ in Heaven I may beleeve and apprehend the relation standing to mee as the wife may beleeve that the angry and the forsaking husband is still her husband Gods glooming sometimes doth not breake the relation of a Lord or Saviour to mee no not in my apprehension and feeling 3. Assertion To beleeve that God is my Lord who from eternitie did chuse mee and of intention sent Christ to die for mee is not essentiall to saving faith for the doubtings of many beleevers who dare not say hee is my God and yet dare not renounce God or give over their claime and interest in Christ doth evidence manifestly that such doubting ones doe also beleeve though they cannot beleeve so much as appropriation of Christ as proper possession Hence two cases they be in who thus doubt 1. They beleeve but in the darke They stay on Jehovah and yet see no light Esay 50. 10. as children say their lesson sometimes without their booke and as those who are in the darke make their hands serve for their eyes and grope with their hands stretched out when they cannot see with their eyes 2. They be ready to halfe the Covenant and to divide it betwixt God and their soules and beleeve God to bee a father and yet dare not say they are Gods sonnes so the Prodigall divideth as it were the relation of a father from the relation of a sonne which is the bad Logicke of unbeleefe Luke 15. 18. I will arise and go to my Father and say Father I have sinned against thee then hee beleeved him with a broken and halting faith to bee his Father yet his petition saith hee did not fully beleeve himselfe to bee a sonne and therefore hee craveth a place in the house inferiour to a sonne ver. 19. Make me as one of thy hired servants The other question is What warrant hath any weake doubter to beleeve that God is his God in Christ And there bee two grounds on which the doubt is bottomed 1. No man knoweth whether he be elected or reprobated when he is first charged to beleeve 2. The Lord is not really a parte rei the God and the Lord of the thousand part who heareth the Gospel and are condemned because they beleeve not on the onely begotten Sonne of God I set downe these Assertions for an Answer 1. Assertion The question is often not so much whether a poore soule would have Christ or no for there is no question of that as if hee would have Christ to bee his God in his owne legall way that is if hee would first be holy and worthy and then take Christ for his Saviour 2. Assertion Gods Decree of Election or his intention to save me is not the proper object of my Faith but rather of my sense and feeling wee goe mightily beside the line in the method of beleeving when we goe to beleeve at first Gods intention to save me The order is being humbled for sinne wee are to adhere to the goodnesse of the promise not to looke to his intention to persons but to his complacencie and tendernesse of heart to all humble sinners So Paul 1 Tim. 1. 15. embraceth by all meanes that good and faithfull saying Iesus Christ came to save sinners before he put himselfe in as the first of these sinners as the condemned man beleeveth first the Kings grace and clemencie to all humbled supplicants who sueth for grace before hee beleeve grace to himselfe and if this were not the method of applying Christ were unreasonable The woman diseased with the bloudy issue heard of Jesus and therefore came and touched the hemme of his garment What had she heard nothing of his exorable kindnesse and tender mercy towards her selfe but towards others and upon this beleeved so a Rope is cast downe in the Sea to a multitude of drowned men and all are bidden for their life lay hold on the Rope that they may be saved it were unseasonable and foolish curiositie for any of these poore men now upon death and life commanded to hold fast the Rope to dispute whether did the man who cast downe the Rope intend and purpose to save me or not and while my minde be at a point in that I will not put out one finger to touch the Rope but foole dispute with hands and armes and lay hold on the remedy and doe not thou begin a plea with Christ and leave that question to another time A Prince proclaimeth a free market of gold moneyes fine linnen rich garments and all precious Jewels to a number of poore men upon a purpose to enrich some few men whom of grace he purposeth to make honourable Courtiers and Officers of Estate all these men are now not to dispute the Kings secret purpose but to repaire to the market and to improve their Princes grace and buy without money Christ holdeth forth his Rope to drowned and lost sinners and layeth out an open market of the rich treasures of heaven doe thou take it for granted without any further dispute as a principle after to be made good that Christ hath thoughts of grace and peace concerning thee and doe but now husband well the grace
Gospel onely your inherent qualification leadeth you as a morall motive to looke to the promises of God which is the bottome and the foundation of your peace even as my walking eating drinking may assure me I am a living man and from the knowledge that I live I come to know what I stand in relation to the King as a sonne and an heire of a Crowne yet my right to the Crowne suppose I were the eldest sonne of a King standeth not on this pillar that I eat and drink and live but upon my birth and my relation to such a father All my inherent qualifications doe well prove that the tree and stock they grow on is faith but is it hence proved that the Tree is bottomed upon the branches nay but by the contrary the branches are stocked upon the Tree 3. If workes of sanctification be no sure markes of my interest in Christ because sinne adhereth to them and the sinne adhering to them involveth me in condemnation then neither can faith in Christ be a sure marke of my interest in Christ because faith is alwayes mixed with sinfull doubting for I do not thinke that Antinomians do beleeve with all their heart and sinne of unbeleefe adhering to our faith no lesse involveth the sinner in a curse being commited against the Gospel then sinnes against the Law And therefore as faith justifieth not because great and perfect but because lively true as the palsie hand of a man may receive a summe of gold no lesse then a strong and healthy arme so also doe our inherent workes of sanctification give us evidences that we are in Christ and so lead us to the promises of the Gospel as signes not causes of our interest in Christ and that under this notion because they are sincerely performed not because they are perfect and without all contagion of sin cleaving to them 4. In exalting Christs righteousnesse one way by making Christ all they make Christ nothing another way by vilifying the glory of sanctifying grace for we are not by good workes to make our calling and election sure to our selves and in the evidence of our owne consciences if our good workes be no signes of our interest in Christ 5. The spirit which these men make the onely witnesse must be knowne to us by Scripture not to be a deluding spirit for if this spirit cannot be knowne by these things which are called Galat. 5. 22. the fruits of the spirit to wit by love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance as the fruits are evidences of the life of the tree men are to labour for faith and the raptures impressions and immediate and personall influence of a Spirit from Heaven without any conscience of holy living and this is the path-way for men void of all sanctification and inherent qualifications to beleeve they are in Christ So the Divell putteth upon holinesse inherent and constant walking with God the foule scandall of faire white civility and market morality that so men may walk after the flesh and beleeve the testimony of the broad Seale of an immediate working Spirit Object 5. But what be these which goe before faith in Christ Answ. 1. Sense of sinne 2. Halfe an hope c. What if I venture out upon Jesus Christ for my life he is called a Saviour a Prince of much tendernesse of grace 3. The soule is first put to What shall I doe Luke 16. 3. 4. It is put to an halfe prising of Christ and to some raw wishes to have Jesus Christ but otherwise no man can prize Christ but he who hath him already However we have in all this an advantage of our adversaries the Papists now in Armes they call faith and resting on God as our God Pride as if it were pride for the drowned man to flee to the rocke and pride for the Physician to cry O my Physician help Yet doe Papists really cry O my Idol awake O my god of bread heare O my intercessour Mary answer me But be not afraid of their gods Nor are we to feare their prayers to Saints or the Cavailiers Fridayes fasting But we are to learne how in time of need to make use of faith and let Israel trust in the Lord he is an hiding place and a covering in the ill day and let the weake soule that findeth nothing but darknesse wants feares from that flee to Christ bleeding of wounds is here preparatory to beleeving Want is beginning of motion let it be made a motive of beleeving the lesse evidence let adherence be the stronger The God of Daniel The History maketh it most evident that Daniels God and his Honour and Court both were aimed at to be laid on the dust by his enemies Here Daniels name goeth through verse 25. all people nations languages that dwell on all the earth and the God of Daniel is exalted Hence observe first how God blesseth right precisenesse and strictnesse in his way Moses standeth by this not an hoofe and he obtaineth his end God bringeth him and Israel out of Egypt Mordecai not halfe a legge to Haman and hee is promoted to great honour What lost they ever who stood upon the latitude of an haire for Christ either they gained both life and Gods Cause as Daniel did here and Jesus Christ who died but put his life in pawne three dayes and tooke it up againe and gained the Cause or if they lost their lives they gained the Cause as the Martyrs of Christ and therefore let not the Saints beare the name of Precisians except in an heavenly sense because they walke precisely Ephes. 5. 15. These be the right Precisians who contend for substance for God for Heaven for the purity of the Gospel And certainly God is not a thing indifferent and excellent Jesus Christ is no circumstance but those be damnable Precisians who contend for feathers and things indifferent Now Court-favour of Princes this clay-world honour ease are really in their nature things indifferent and being compared with Christ and Christ is no trifle but all substance are lesse then things indifferent even toyes shadows losse dung therefore the Malignants who make this choice are the Precisians 2. Obser. How God disappointeth all the purposes of his enemies and honoureth those who feare him and maketh Daniel evidently known to be the true Royalist and observe how the enemies must be disappointed how can it be otherwayes for first they take two crosse wayes to compasse their end First sinfull meanes there is no way for the Princes of Zoan to come by their ends but idolatry surely they are fooles and drunken men staggering in their vomit Isa. 19. 11 14. and the adversaries now finde no better means to set up their Idol-god in Brittaine and their abominable Masse then after they have made the Prince glad with their lies to kill and destroy the innocent and devour and eat up the Lords people as bread Secondly they set the policie of hell
that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisedome but by the grace of God we have our conversation in the World 2 Cor. 1. 12. must be a dream David Job Moses Samuel the Prophets and Apostles their joying in a good conscience arise from doubtfull and conjecturall evidences yea no man can say in any assurance I beleeve in Christ in the inner man I delight in the Law of the Lord I am crucified to the world my conversation is in Heaven for all these are inherent qualifications in the childe of God but they are doubtfull and uncertain How then hath God promised to love the righteous to reward beleeving with life eternall to give the prize to him that runneth c. 2. The testimony of the Spirit bearing witnesse to our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. is in this sence an immediate act of the Spirit because reflex acts of the soul are performed without any other medium or means but that whereby the direct acts are performed I know that I know I know that I beleeve my sence by that same immediate operation of the Spirit by the which I know God without any other light teacheth me to know that I know God even as by light I see colours but my common sense needeth not another Sun or another light to make me know that I see colours The Lambe when it seeth a Wolfe though it never did see a Wolfe before knoweth it to be an enemy and fleeth but to make it know that it knoweth the Wolfe there is nothing required but the internall and common instinct of nature So when I beleeve in Christ that habituall instinct of the grace of God actuated and stirred up by the Spirit of God maketh me know that I know God and that I beleeve and so that I am in Christ to my own certain feeling and apprehension but this doth not hinder but the assurance of my interest in Christ is made evident to me by other inferiour evidences 1 Joh. 2. 3 And hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements By the keeping of Gods Commandements we doe not know simply that we know God by certainty of faith But wee know that we know God these two wayes 1. We know the instinct of the new man being stirred up to action by that winde which bloweth when and where it listeth our knowing of God to bee sound saving and true Wee doe not so much know our knowing of God by this supernaturall sense as we know the supernaturall qualification and sincerity of our knowing of God So that we rather know the qualification of the act that the worke is done according to God then the act according to its substance though wee doe also know it in this relation 1 Ioh. 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren that is our love to the brethren doth evidence to us both that wee are translated to the Kingdome of grace and also it doth evidence that that translation is reall true sincere sound and effectuall by love and all the fruits of the Spirit 2. By these works of sanctification we have evidence that we have interest in Christ not as by former light suggesting to us that the immediate impression of this great and broad Seale of the King of glory and his personall and particular testimony is true for Gods Spirit needeth not another witnesse to adde authority to what hee saith but because this conclusion Thou Iohn Anna hast interest to Christ to thy owne feeling must be proved by Scripture except with Enthusiasts and fanatick Spiritualists wee separate the Word and the Spirit therefore these workes of sanctification prove the conclusion consequenter by Scripture and sence and so lead us to the word of promise thus to prove this conclusion I Iohn Peter Anna have interest in Christ to my owne reflect and private assurance the major proposition is made good by Scripture the Assumption by sense and the conclusion leadeth us to the certainty of faith in the promises as He that beleeveth and maketh sure his beliefe by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit hath a cleare evidence to his owne feeling that he hath interest in Christ But I Iohn Peter Anna doe believe and doe make sure my beliefe by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit Therefore I Iohn Peter Anna have a cleare evidence to my owne feeling that I have interest in Christ The proposition is Scripture Iohn 3. 36. Ioh. 5. 24. Ioh. 11. 25 26. Rom. 8. 1 2. 1 Ioh. 1. 4. 1 Ioh. 2. 3. The Assumption is made sure by sense not at all times but when the wind is fair and the Spirit is breathing upon the soul for though I do believe and walk after the Spirit yet to my owne feeling I have onely evidence of my interest â—n Christ when the Spirit stirreth up my sense to compare my saith and walking with the promises of God in Christ But saith the Antinomians Alas all the certainty then and the whole personal evidence that I have to know that I have interest in Christ is ultimately and principally resolved on this weak rotten foundation to wit On my own good works which being examined by the law of God will be found so sinful as they shal involve me under the curse of God so the debate of conscience shal stand in ful vigor I shal never be satisfactorily resolved of my interest in Christ for you lead me from the impression of the immediate seal of the spirit to my good works this is to drive me off Christ and put me back again to my old Jaylor and my old keeper the law But I answer this consequence is just nothing for if my good works of sanctification were causes of my peace of conscience this connexion had some colour of truth but though those works be sinfull by concomitance because sin cleaveth to them yet because my supernaturall sense of the Spirit suggesteth that these works are the fruits of faith and are done in some measure of sincerity and flow not from the spirit of the Law but from the Spirit of the Gospel therefore they lead me to Christ and drive me upon a cleare Evangelick promise That 1. the adhering sinfulnesse of my workes are purged in Christs bloud 2. That this promise is a shoare before mine eyes He that fighteth the good fight of faith a Crown of righteousnesse is laid up for him 2 Tim. 4 7 8. He that runneth shall obtain 1 Cor. 9. 24. And here is an Evangelick word Revel. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandements that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates to the City So that the right of your peace and clear evidence in assurance of your right to the Tree of life is not laid upon your works but upon the promises of the
this Lord Angels and glorified soules are not able to look off his Face for all eternity Mat. 18. 10. Revel. 22. 3. Esai 24. 23. The Moone shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reigne in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously He must be a fair Lord when the fair Sun blusheth and is ashamed to appeare and shine before him Nothing David desired in this side of time but to dwell all the dayes of his life in the house of the Lord and behold the beauty the heavenly increated beauty of the Lord Psal. 27. 3. Put all the imaginable colours of the Firmament Of the morning skie Of all the Lillies and Roses of the Earth which surpasse Salomons royalty in one Imagine a Rose to bee of the quantity of the Earth all these should be but created shadowes to him Zach. 9. 17. How great is his goodnesse how great is his beauty he is both good and fair 6. Who can speak of omnipotence and boundlesse power in God Esai 40. 12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out Heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in Scales and the hils in Ballance there is but one in all the World and from eternity to eternity never was there any save one who can do all this What fingers be those which at one time are in the furthest borders of the Eastern Heaven and of the Western Heaven ver. 15. Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are compted as the small dust of the ballance behold he takes up the Iles as a very little thing And he can take up the whole I le of Brittain in his hand can hang the weight of the massie body of Heaven and Earth on the top of his finger who is he who hangeth the Earth yea the whole world upon nothing what hindreth seeing there be such Broyles Tumults Motions in Heaven Earth and Hell but this great huge vessel of the great All this whole world should fall to the one side and break but omnipotence holdeth it up who hath Arms to spread a web of black darknesse from the East to the West Esai 50. 3. I cloath the Heavens with blacknesse and I make sackcloth their covering and alas all that I say here is nothing it must be true here praestat tacere quam pauca discere better be silent in so great a matter as speak little Vse is To teach us not to be in love with the creature or with men What is man but a weeping groning dying nothing Esai 40. 17. All Nations are before God as nothing and lesse then nothing and vanity VVhat is nothing it is the least thing that can be but I pray you what is lesse then nothing nothing can be lesse then nothing but all Nations being compared with God evanish infinite miles out of the world of some things and if one man be nothing nations of men and nations of nations are nothing multiply Cyphers to millions of millions they cannot make a number because every Cypher is nothing and therefore the product must be nothing so multiply infinitely Nations let Spaine France Italy Ireland Denmark and what the power of men can make the product shall be nothing Millions and Hosts of men are millions and Hosts of vanities God is all and in infinite all and what can we do to make him lovely and desirable We may preach this admirable Lord but we shall never out-preach him and praise him but shall never outpraise him his favour is more to be sought then favour of Kings he is more to be feared then Kings Esai 5 12. I even I am the Lord the Lord that comforteth you Who art thou that shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die and of the Son of man that shall be made as grasse Hence are you to see to the prerogative royall of the King but more to the prerogative royal of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth And therefore O Judges be wise O all you who carry on your heads Diadems and royall Crowns of yellow dust and glistering clay I meane of gold and precious stones stoope stoope before this Monarch cast down your Crownes and Scepters at the feet of the King of Kings Know your Superiour the highest Land-lord of dying Monarchies Zach. 2. 12. It is said The Lord shall inherit Judah and shall chuse Jerusalem O but Kings and Dominions who keep Judah captive cry out with a shout Judah shall serve us and our King and Jesus Christ shall not raigne over us but there is a royal Proclamation given with an ô yes from his palace of glory who inhabiteth Eternity v. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord So Psal. 2. 2. Jew and Gentile are upon foot raging and consulting with all Let us break his bands and cast his cords from us nay v. 6. one who is not on foot but sitteth in Heaven laughing not troubling himselfe with the Tumults of clay-nothings sent out a princely mandate I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion I have put the Crown on Christs head what men of dust and ashes shall pull it off his head Psal. 46. 9. He breaketh the Bow and cutteth the Spear he burneth the Chariots in the fire The heathen cannot endure this they flie on armies and cry with a shout He shal not break our Bowes He shal not burne our Chariots with fire therefore a royal Commandment and Decree cometh out v. 10. Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted above the heathen I will be exalted on Earth He is crying O Rome O Spaine O Ireland O Kings and powers of the world O Babylon Lady of Nations O Pope and Cardinals hold your peace speak no more Esai 46. 13. I bring near my Righteousnesse it shall not be far off and my salvation shall not tarry and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel for Brittain my glory 2. Vse is To bring hearts in a fervour and sicknes of love with God and make us mould higher and more Majestick thoughts and conceptions of this most high Lord then ordinarily we do and therefore consider how inconsiderable incomprehensible he is 2. Summon all created glory before him by way of comparison 3. Look at him as the last end First then consider two words that Paul hath Eph. 3. 18 19. That you may be able it is his prayer with all the Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Now from the love of Christ you may take the measure in some proportion of this great Lord himself Then conceive a love higher then the Heaven of Heavens deeper then the Earth broader then the Sea yea broader and longer then the circumference of the outmost shel or orbe of the
Heaven of Heavens that love should not passe knowledge but seeing I am warranted to speak of love according to dimensiones of Height Breadth Depth Length But imagine in the capacity of knowledge and understanding ten thousand millions of new created Heavens and Worlds at the East end of this Heaven that now is and ten thousand millions of new Worlds created at the West end of this Heaven that now is and let your knowledge run along to the North and the South and to the thirty two points of the foure Cardinall arches here would be great Height Length Breadth and Depth of love yet I am sure this love should not passe all knowledge for the understanding of man will go along through all these to multiply and multiply againe and againe and yet all love within knowledge What then must himself be if we could separate God and Gods Love Again conceive so many multiplyed new Worlds new Heavens new Earths new Seas new Forrests Woods Trees Reeds Herbs Grasse Stones and all the rest multiplyed and conceive so many worlds of men and new created Angels and let all these millions of VVoods Trees Forrests Herbs Grasse be all made pens and let all these thousands millions of new created Seas Fountaines Rivers be all Ink and all these thousands millions of Heavens yea of Heavens Aire Earth be paper and let these thousands of millions of men and Angels write Books and Psalms of praise of this infinite and incomprehensible Lord and let their wits be enlarged in the capacity of so many thousand millions of degrees of understanding above what they now have according to the former multiplied numbers and let their wits for all eternity conceive new expressions and most heavenly conceptions of the infinite excellency transcendent glory incomparable goodnesse and matchlesse and boundlesse highnesse greatnesse omnipotence of this never enough admired and adored Lord of this high and loftie one who inhabiteth eternity and yet all these should not passe knowledge for you and I and any ordinary understanding of no great capacity may know all this and therefore all these should not say any thing to expresse this Love and this Lord who passeth all knowledge O if we could be drawn to a higher measure of Love and to put a greater price on this Lord then we do 2. From this we may easily see the comparison betwixt this Lord and Peers of created nothings And if all Nations be before him as nothing as lesse then nothing as it is said by himself Es. 40. 17. Then say O smal base nothing of a Creature O highest O excellency of all things in the Creator O little and really small creature O great and surpassing great and incomparable Creator O man poor man that living lie and that dying and expiring nothing but O infinite all O unspeakable and infinite glory of uncreated being O man a breathing fable a living and a laughing vanity O self-sufficient and al sufficient life of solid happinesse O creature a dying vanity and a weeping nothing a nothing rejoycing eating drinking sighing dying O highest Creator O eternity of ever-living and ever-joying life O self-living immortality of endlesse and uncreated joy O created sparkes and poore drops of creature-goodnesse and creature-mercy O Sea O boundlesse world of worlds of infinite goodnesse and bottom-lesse mercy in the Creator of all things O shamed and despised royaltie of Princes of Earth and Clay O never enough admired glory of uncreated royaltie in the incomprehensible God! O fair Sun O beautifull Moone but rather O confounded and shamed Sunne and Moon Esa. 24. 23. and O infinitely fair and glorious Lord who made Sun and Moon O pleasant Roses and Lillies but O pleasanter Lord the Creator of Roses and Lillies O mighty and powerfull Kings and Emperours but most mighty and matchlesse King of Kings O foolish and unwise men O unstedfast and changeable Angels O Lord there is no searching out of thy understanding O unchangeable and unmoveable mover of all things O peeces of Breathing Laughing and then dying Clay O creature of yesterday of the last by-past hour for the world is not of one weeks standing to him seeing a thousand yeers are to him as one day But O Lord The ancient of dayes Daniel 7. 13. O Father of eternity Esai 9. 6. O King of ages 1. Tim. 1. 17. And King of time O weak men O mightlesse and infirme Heavens which shall wax old as a garment O eternall Lord O what an Arme of omnipotency is in him who shall with a shake of his right Arme move the Heavens and loose all the fixed Stars and cause them to fall out of the Heaven as Figs fall off a Fig-Tree shaken with a mighty Winde Revel. 6. 13. O all you created Gardens and Orchards and Paradises be ashamed blush and hide your selves beside the Tree of life which beareth twelve manner of fruit every moneth Every Apple growing on this Lord who is the Tree of life is life eternall O Gold O Silver O Rubies O precious Stones much desired by Adams sonnes What are you to him whose City is fairer Revel. 21. 18. And the building of the Wall was of Jasper and the City was pure gold like unto clear glasse He saith not there was abundance of gold in the City and multitudes of precious stones but the City was all gold and precious stones a City like Rome Venetia or Constantinople in which Timber Wals Stones Streets all the buildings were nothing but precious stones and gold were admirable O all fair Rivers and Seas what are you but pooles of dead water being compared with a pure River of water of life proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22. 1. Every drop of that water is an heaven O created welbeloveds you are black and the Sun hath looked on you when you come out and stand beside the Standard bearer amongst ten thousand Cant. 5. 10. Oh who are sick of love for this Lord O for eternities leasure to look on him to feast upon a sight of his Face O for the long summer-Day of endlesse ages to stand beside him and to enjoy him O time O sin be removed out of the way O Day O fairest of Dayes dawne O morning of eternity break out and arise that we may enjoy this incomprehensible Lord And therefore O come out of the Creature 3. Make not Clay and the Creature whose mother is purum nihil pure meere nothing your last end Alas make not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus a post-horse to ride your own errands or a Covenant with the most high Lord a Chariot and Stirrop to mount upon the height of your carnall and Clay-projects this is as if one should stop the entry of an Oven with a Kings roberoyall Let God onely God be your last end 1. He is the living God The words Chajah and Havah to be and to live are neere of kindred together for living is the most excellent
bowe abode in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob Psal. 3. 2. Many say of my soul There is no help for him in God See so sweet a But vers. 3. But thou O Lord art a shield for me my glory and the lifter up of my head So is the childe of Gods condition made up of two haltes Psal. 18. 18. Hence the fall They prevented me in the day of my calamity Then the rise But the Lord was my stay Psal. 22. 7. All that see me laugh me to scorn c. Hence faiths rise vers. 9. But thou art he that took me out of the wombe c. Psal. 30. 5. Weeping may endure for a night then the returne But joy cometh in the morning Psal. 34. 19. Many are the troubles of the righteous this is their down but they lie not But the Lord delivereth them out of all Psal. 71. 7. I am a wonder to many that is dark night but the day dawneth againe But thou art my strong hold So doth the servant of God fall Psal. 109. 4. For my love they were mine adversaries but faith riseth again But I give my self to prayer Psal. 118. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall see the escape But the Lord helped me vers. 18. The Lord hath chastised me sore shall he lie in that condition No But he hath not delivered me to death Esay 54. 7. For a smal moment I have forsaken thee behold the returne But with great mercies wil I gather thee Esay 63. 6. For we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnes as filthy rags we all do fade as a leafe our iniquities like the winde have taken us away this is death and look to life again vers. 8. But thou O Lord art our Father c. Jer. 1. 19. They shall fight against thee there were but a whole Parliament all the estates of the Land Kings Princes Priests and People against Jeremiah but he must not lie on the dust But they shall not prevaile against thee for I am with thee to deliver thee Joh. 16. 22. Ye now therefore have sorrow that is a sad case yet it hath a turne But I will see you againe and ye shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take from you so are these two at once in the Lords witnesses his Apostles 2. Cor. 4. 9. persecuted But not forsaken cast down But not destroyed 2. Tim. 4 16. At my first appearing no man stood with me but all men forsook me yet is he lifted up vers. 17. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me Secondly There is a contexture of contraries as black and white sweet and sowre woven through other as day-light and night in a morning twy-light as contraries in one subject 2. Cor. 6. 9. As dying and behold we live as chastened yet not killed verse 10. Or as sorrowfull yet alwayes rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things How can these two be in one They kill us but we die not they bury us but we live againe in the grave we have nothing and we have all things we have we want not Rom. 8 36. Killed all the day long and counted as sleep for the slaughter 37. Neverthelesse in all these more than Conquerours c. Hence they are killed all the day long and they live all the day long I know not how it is but the Churches death is a living and a breathing death their poverty a rich poverty their shame glorious shame their sadnesse joyfull sadnesse their foyles victorious foyles their paine an health and an easie paine their weaknesse strong and mighty weaknesse I desire to make some use of this And 1. There be no worldly States and Monarchies of whom this can be said Their Kingdome such as cannot be destroyed Where is there a worldly Kingdome that cannot be shaken Moab was a Kingdome and yet Moab shall die in his own vomit Jer. 48. 26. Aegypt is a great Kingdome and yet it is broken like an old Clay-pot or a lame Vessell The foure great Monarchies are become like foure May-flowres withered and their rosie blossoms are fallen off them in their moneth Did they mean no truth who said of earthly Kingdomes Omnis faelicitas ad culmen perducta retrogreditur and Magna suo pondere ruunt VVorldly felicity when it is at the height of the Stairs sitteth downe and slippeth back againe And great things of this Earth are a burden to themselves summisque negatum stare diu It is denied to great things to stand long Alas how long did one of the Kings of Gods People raigne even Zachariah poore six moneths Shallum came not to this he raigned in Samaria one moneth And Zimri who came to the Crowne by blood had a shorter raigne He did walk with a Crowne seven dayes If Pope Victor the fifth had a longer time of a golden chaire it was but five years and Clemens the third ruled but three yeers and Alexander the eleventh only two yeers And though it be but a fiction that Kingdomes have their fatall yeers and Monarnarchies are under Planetary houres yet some truth must be in this Kingdomes have their infancy and come to a greater strength till they come to their flowre and then they begin to turn and it is congruous to their experienced truth That Kingdomes finde old age And gray hairs are here and there upon Ephraim and he knoweth not 7. 9. It is much better to bee a subject or one of the States of the Kingdome of grace for grace knoweth no old age nor hath grace an internall principle of corruption for it is the seed of eternall glory and though the Powers of the Earth may subvert the foundation and Fundamentall Laws of earthly Kingdoms yet cannot Christs Kingdome or the constitution of it be broken But that which doth loose the Pillars of a Kingdome is sinne Amos. 1. For three transgressions of Edom and for foure I will not turne away the punishment thereof So Ammon Moab Judah are under the same punishment There is no way to secure England from wrath but turning to the Lord And especially two sinnes in the State are to be seriously taken to heart 1. You suffered many worthy servants of God who pleaded the Lords cause for a Reformation against the Prelates to be silenced deprived imprisoned banished Both in the reigne of Queene Elizabeth and of King James Prelates oppressed the servants of Christ and did tyrannize over the conscience of the Lords people in this Land former Parliaments did not give Christ and his servants faire Justice and now hath the Lord stirred up these oppressors to oppresse your Parliament and to raise bloody wars against the Land 2. It is said Hos. 5. 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement because he willingly followed the Commandement It hath been the sinne of this Land that when