blessings and prayers of the good husbandman Christs Father came on the flower Psal. 133. 3. The dew of God lieth all the night upon the leaves of the flower it is alwayes greene The Church is a house that is builded up in love that raiseth the wall up to heaven Ephes. 4. 16. Secondly Christ our redeemer whose wee are being bought with a price is a masse of love hee hath a heart very hospitall to lodge all our infirmities when hee saw his people as touching the condition of their soule like sheepe without a shepheard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} hee was bowelled with compassion toward them Esay 40. when the Prophet speaketh of his power and his ruling arme hee also prophecyeth of his meeknesse and bowels of compassion to weake ones there bee three sorts of persons in the Church that hee shall handle tenderly 1. The simple but gratious and for these Vers 11. hee shall feede his flâ—cke like a shepheard hee hath the heart of a shepheard who tendereth and careth for the flocke 2. There bee young ones babes in Christ and of these it is said hee shall gather the Lambes with his arme and carry them in his bosome two excellent sweet expressions hee shall not throw his club at the Lambs nor bee froward and cruell to them but in lieu of a club hee shall gather them with his arme 3. And as for the young and weake that have not legges he shall carry these in his bosome the bosome of Christ is a seat of love and tendernesse of bowels 4. There bee some in the Church that want not their infirmities and sinnes and have legges and a little strength yet the tendernesse of the bowels of compassion must yeeld them some Christian condescension and accommodation and they must not bee forced and driven roughly Christs Spirit is a spirit of accommodation Sir I le make you in despight of your teeth is not for these and therefore it is said hee shall gently lead those that are with young so Esay 42. 2. Jesus Christ shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voyce to bee heard in the streets Christ hath not the art of rayling shouting and thundering against the meeke of the flock Yea Christ rideth and triumpheth in meeknesse Zach. 9. 9. his horse hee rideth on is meeknesse Psal. 45. 4. it is spoken to him Ride prosperously upon truth and meeknesse and Psal. 147. 6. This Lord lifeth up the meeke and Psal. 76. 9. bee will save all the meeke of the earth Christs heart is King Solomons Chariot the pillars of it is Cant. 3. 10. Silver the bottome thereof Gold the covering of it of purple the midst thereof beeing paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem And Christ chooseth to dwell in a heart paved with love and meeknesse Thirdly the Spirit of the Lord is a Dove the spirit of grace is a gaul-lesse and gentle spirit Grace grace is the innocentest thing of the world there is no wild fire of sinfull wrath in grace Bitternesse rayling jeering persecution with the tongue outcries against Assemblies Presbyteries are not the tooles of the spirit of grace yea calumnies salt writings on either side are not from that spirit of Christ which hath a hand to wipe teares off the faces of the mourners in Zion To all raylings all bitter mockings against Presbyteries and Assemblies wee say wee are desirous not to bee driven off the roade way to heaven but to goe on Through honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as deceivers and yet true One inch of a good conscience is rather to bee chosen then a thousand yards of windie credit Meeke Jesus Christ and his Apostles used not such a stile of language nor is such Grammar from heaven nor smelleth it of the holy Ghosts pen Fourthly if wee bee the children of one father it might breed strange thoughts in our minds when the sonnes of one father Independents and Presbyterians spare mee necessitie not love of factions forceth mee to these tearmes shall sing one song up before the throne to him that liveth and reigneth for ever that wee cannot gather heate and warmnesse of love in one arke and in one Church here in the earth pens and tongues salted and steeped in the gall of bitternesse are not the fruits of the Spirit Shall wee kill and devoure one another all the day and lodge together in one heaven at night and can wee say one to another in heaven hast thou sound me O mine enemy shall there bee any factions any sides either religious of Presbyterian and independent in heaven or nationall of England and Scotland which yet differ not essentially I am sure but onely in the poore accidents of North and South and yet on earth wee must bee at daggers at rentings divisions are there two Christs because two nations Fiftly truth is never victorious by persecution now the Scripture speaketh of a persecution with the tongue Jer. 18. 18. Come say they let us smite Jeremiah with the tongue Job thus complayneth of his friends who never put violent hands in him Chap. 19. 22. Why doe you persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh then tongue persecution is an eating of the flesh Sixtly the Gospel which wee professe is a Gospel of peace wee preach warre betweene the flesh and the spirit and warre betweene the womans Seed and the Serpent But oh should wee preach warre betweene the Saints wee have choyser golden chaines to tie us together Ephes. 4. 4. There is one body and one spirit even as yee are called in one hope of your calling 5. One Lord one faith one Baptisme 6. One God and Father of all Have wee need of Prelats and a high Commission Court and pursevants sent out to hunt us for praying together that they may reconcile us and unite us together as wee were all one within these few yeares Seventhly the more grace and mercy wee have from God our Father and from our Lord Iesus the more peace amongst our selves and the more grace the more compassion toward the weaknesse of Brethren Christ is an uniting and a congregating Saviour his blood and his spirit soweth and needleth together the hearts of the lambe and the Leopard of the Calfe and of the young Lion Esay 11. 6. Eighthly the Saints of the most High are stiled the meeke of the earth Esay 11. 4. there bee no meeke creatures on earth but the regenerate Buls and Lions fight together Lions and Woolves pursue Lambes But wee have not heard of warre betweene Lambes and Lambes Why should wee strive for wee are brethren how unseemly that one redeemed one should hate persecute and chase another redeemed one even into the gates of heaven Ninthly are wee not debtors one to another and the sum wee owe is love O what a spirit of accommodation was in that chosen vessel Paul who said 1 Cor. 9. 22. I am made all things to all men that I
people with a stretched out arme Moses his word of deliverance and Gods decree of bringing out the people is upon the extreame banke and margin of perishing Israel hath an hoast of cruell enemies behind them and the raging Sea before them and mountaines on every side here bee many deaths in a circle round about the Church this is like to God sleeping and the wheeles of providence at a stand there is no place for helpe from a creature except immediate omnipotency break a gap in the circle and divide the red Sea the Church of God is a field of dry and dead bones so as it is said Ezek. 37. 2. Behold the bones were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} very or exceeding dry and they say Vers 11. our hope is losed and wee are cut off yet wee know God made his owne word good Vers 12. Behold O my people I will open your graves and bring you to the land of Israel Deut. 32. 36. The Lord shall judge his people and repent himselfe for his servants But when shall that be Omnipotency is good at a dead lift when hee seeth their strength is gone Heb. that their hand is gone and there is none shut up and left when the Saints have neither hands nor feet the Lord ariseth for Christ can saile with halfe wind and play about and fetch a compasse yea hee can sayle against tide and wind and with no wind hee never sincks his bark nor breaks his helme nor loses a passenger nor misseth his harbour so how hopelesse was the condition of the Church when loving Jesus Christ is couched under a cold stone in the grave the onely hope of Davids throane he who was to restore the kingdome to Israel is gone and what shall the people of God now do utter desolation is so neare that God is put to it and the poore Churches coale so cold that they are at Lord either now or never either within three dayes restore the head of the Church or never Then the Lord Act. 5. 31. exalted buried Christ with his right hand to bee a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes 1. Reason Omnipotencie can walke in the extreame and out most margin and most pendulous banke hanging over hell and not fall Christ can drive his Chariot over mountaines and rocks and not breake one pin or wedge of it poore nothing to omnipotency is as good as Speare and Shield 2. Reas. This declares the depth of the wisedome of Gods unsearchable dispensation he suffereth malignants to ride over his people that hee may perfume the worke of hell in the enemies who are as it were skullions to purge the vessells of mercy and to humble them and may instampe their Acts with supernaturall events of faith and patience malignants plow the Church and sow blood in the three kingdomes the father of Christ the good husband man comes in to breake the clods and the fallow ground and reape the crop of the quiet fruits of righteousnesse and it is depth of wisdome to consider how God maketh use of mens sinfull ingagements having chainzed men to his cause and carries his owne holy and cleane worke of reformation through many foule hands and durtie intentions so when men thwart and crosse Gods will of precept they serve Gods will of providence a passenger walkes on the hatches of the ship toward the west Sea and tide and winde doe carry both him his motion and ship to the east the wisedome of God the Pilot of his Church overpowereth mens intentions which are set on gaine honour factions their owne by-ends ease and pleasure It is not unlike that when this worke now under the Lords wheeles in Britaine is come to a height of extreame desolation that wee are at this Lord either now or never and the Sea is come in at the broad side of the ship that the Lord will deliver by some immediate way and wee see feavours come to a height and then decrease and coole and when doth the Sea turne to an ebbing not while it flow to the utmost score of the coast and then be fullest seldome doth ever the Lord deliver his Church while their hope be gone and what if it bee so here that Parliaments Assemblies armies of and in both kingdomes navies shippings treaties victories can doe no more and then the Lord arise and by some immediate omnipotency wee never dreamed of calme our Sea and bring his owne ship to land First you never saw creatures doe any great worke but something was left to omnipotency and to God onely to bee done Moses led the people out of Aegypt but hee could not divide the red Sea and that was their way Secondly in Gods greatest workes immediate providence hath had hand The victory over Midian had more of Gods immediate worke then of Gideons Sword in it this truely to me is one continued miracle that these 1600. yeares God hath carried his ship and kept the passengers alive when persecuting Emperours when bloody Babylon when Hereticks Kings the hornes of the beast that rose out of the Sea fire faggots sword torments have torne the sailes of Christs Ship broken the Mast drowned the passengers yet wee live Joseph is blessed but when hee is separated from his brethren then blessings come upon the head of Joseph He was fast asleepe This is the saddest circumstance in their suffering What is death and the drowning of them all so they have Christ with them But Oh! Christ to their sense is as good as absent for hee is fast alseepe and as they complaine hee careth not for them Christ walking and working for a soule in the saddest affliction of the world is a blessed visitation To bee in heaven if Christ sleepe and bee not with you is a hell and to bee in hell and want his presence is two hells to bee sicke and the onely Physitian Christ will not come at mee is two hells Gods watching presence first bringeth the courage of faith To bee in the midst of devils the beleever having God with him walketh without feare even cold death that king of terrours walking with him at his right side hee hath a passe-port that will take him safe through the grave as these places prove Psal. 16. 8 9 10. Psal. 23. 4. Psal. 46. 2. 3. Mic. 7. 8. Secondly God is not present with his owne in trouble as the picture of a friend who hath much love in his heart while hee stands at your bed side seeing you goe to a great hell through a little hell of sicknesse and paine and cannot take off you one graine weight of sorrow and paine But God is in a farre other manner present Psal. 91. 15. I will bee with him in trouble but this is not all I will deliver him Esay 43. 2. when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the Rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou
walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt nor is Christ in trouble like our Summer-friends who in a great drough dry up But may not God be with his own though they be both burnt drowned then this is no consequent at all feare not that the fire shall burn thee or the waters shall drowne thee for I am with thee yea it is most strong this presence of God with his owne in trouble maketh God and them so one by Gods union of love for Gods love to us is infinitely more active to save us then either our faith and love to him that the fire that burneth Jacob must also seise upon God according to that Zach. 2. 8. Hee that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye Thirdly when Christ waketh and sleepeth not in heavy afflictions his love is so in action even while hee striketh that the rod falleth out of his hand that hee 1. giveth them not so hot a fire as silver and 2. hee acteth love and mercy on them in their saddest time of suffering and marieth them at their lowest condition both which are excellently expressed Esay 48. 10. Behold I have refined thee but not as silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction Fourthly wee may adde another benefit of the presence of God in afflictions that the very breath of Christ is sweet though hee should not deliver for the present yet the smoake of hell and the paine of the furnace is so perfumed and over-gilded with the breathings of the love of Christ that the paine of the furnace is allayed this is witnessed by the Martyrs singing at the stake If in these bloody sufferings wee want Gods presence how miserable are wee and therefore this is one of the proper markes of the children of God if wee can misse Gods comfortable presence in this fiery tryall that is now in the three kingdomes So Lament 1. 16. for these things I weepe mine eye mine eye runneth downe with water yea but these sufferings are but the materiall object of weeping there is a higher cause of weeping then that and set downe in the Hebrew as a cause with an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} because the comforter that should bring backe my soule is farre away Christ esteemed this the salt of his sufferings My God my God why hast thou forsaken me there is a great Emphesis in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and therefore the word is doubled as if hee would say any forsaking of friends is nothing but Gods forsaking is sad and Heman Psal. 88. 6. Thou hast laid mee in the lowest pit in darknesse in the depths 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon mee thou afflictest mee with all thy waves but this is the heaviest of all 14. Lord why castest thou off my soule why hidest thou thy face from mee positive wrath is not so heavy as the meere negative absence of God Mary her want of the man Christ is sad but shee wants him under an higher reduplication John 20. 13. The Angels say unto Mary Magdalen Woman why weepest thou shee answereth with a because {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Because they have taken away my Lord Sword and pestilence yea the civill sword are heavie plagues on a land but this is heavier God hath left us O terrible the Lord is not with us Luke 8. 24. And they came to him and awoke him saying Master master we perish The third part of the text containeth the course they take in their trouble It is good that in their trouble they agree in these foure First that there is a great danger even present drowning Secondly they looke spiritually on it in this that the face of death is so much the more awefull that Christ their deliverer sleepeth Thirdly they agree in judgement that Christ onely can helpe them Fourthly they agree in practise all joyne in prayer to awake Christ and by faith to awake him and set him on worke to helpe and save them It is excellent when one heart and one mind is amongst all the passengers of Christs ship especially in a troublesome Sea storme Gen. 13. Abraham and Lots herdmen strive But it is so much the worse that it is said Vers 7. and the Canaanite and the Perizite dwelt then in the land they had common enemies and therefore striving was unseasonable holy Joseph when his brethren was in great distresse falling out was unseasonable therefore saith to them Gen. 45. 24. See that yee fall not out by the way Alas wee are in great trouble and yet wee fall out by the way it was a sad time with the Disciples neare to the time when the shepheard was smitten and they scattered sheepe when Christ said John 13. 35. By this shall all men know that yee are my Disciples if yee love one another Doe but heare how Paul is most copious in arguments for this in one Verse Philip 2. 1. If there bee therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies 2. Fulfill my joy that yee may bee like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one mind Psal. 133. 1. to bee of one mind in love is the fulfilling of the joy of the Saints biting and devouring is a hole a gap a great blanke to the joy of the holy Ghost love neighboureth with the sweet consolations of Christ it is the birth a fruit an Apple growing on the spirit of Jesus Gal. 5. 22. in the wombe and bowels of love lodgeth bowels of tender mercies pardoned sinners cannot so hate pardoned sinners as to jeere them out of the hearts of the Saints end them to the lake of Brimstone Ps. 133. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unitie Many things are good as workes of divine justice and destroying the enemies of God yet they are not pleasant and many things are pleasant that are not good as the pleasures of sinne for a season must bee pleasant but because unlawfull they are not good but unitie amongst brethren is both good and pleasant now because striving and bitter divisions in this land and Church are so sad and a lovely and peaceable union so necessary give me leave to presse this a little the motion of a loving union were desirable First because our Father the Lord appeared to Elias not in the thunder but in the calme voyce Love is not onely from God but 1 John 4. 8. God is love and that in all the foure causes of love See how much of God is in any as much of love and meeknesse is in them love is the breathings of heaven love is the aire and element wee live in in the highest new Jerusalem 1 Cor. 13. 8. 13. The redeemeds breath smells of love and love hath the smell of another world it is a flower of Christs planting the
might by all means save same This is Pauls charge Gal. 6. 1 2. who will have love to put in joynt an overtaken sinner in the spirit of meeknesse and so it is love doth not onely beare it selfe but also the burdens of our brethren and so fulfilleth the Law of Christ love planted by Christ is the Law of Christ and why doe wee by ruptures and divisions labour to frustrate the end of Christs prayer which is John 17. 2. I pray saith Christ that they may all bee one as thou Father art in mee and I in thee if wee bee one in uno tertio in the heart of Christ and of Christs Father why but wee should bee one amongst our selves yea love is burnt in tender feeling and compassion with the very smoake of a brothers house that is on fire 1 Cor. 13. 15. Love is not easily provoked it is a pardoning grace and hath strong shoulders to beare the madnesse and infirmities of a fellow heire of heaven Love thinketh not evill love must abound in love and charitable thoughts towards others as every element aboundeth in its owne spheare it thinketh not that the Saints doe hunt for a dominion over Saints 6. Love rejoyceth not in iniquitie Cursed bee that love that exulteth when malignants prevaile and rejoyceth not when the cause of the Lord and his people are victorious Love rejoyceth in the truth then love is wounded and sicke when heresies and sects prevaile and sigheth to see Altars multiplied and that many false Christs and false teachers arise Wee cannot deny but God hath put his seale to the ministery of the servants of Christ that went from this to New England and in the wisdome of God they saw and doe see that libertie of conscience is no remedie but physick worse then the disease against false religions It is now off my way to dispute But I know certainly a negative argument from the practise of Christ and the Apostles because they stirred not up heathen Magistrates and Wolves not fathers to punish false teachers is not good divinitie to infer libertie of conscience for in their practise they stirred not up the sword of the Magistrate against extortions and rapines in publicans nor against the persecuting and killing of the Lord of Glory nor against sedition incests tyranny over the Apostles and Christians bribing and unjustice used against Paul by Felix and others who were subject to higher Magistrates and many other scandalous sinnes against the second table any might inferre libertie of conversation in matters of the second table no lesse then libertie of conscience in matters of the first table if this argument hold good But the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles giveth to the Magistrate the Sword against evill doers Rom. 13. 4. but teachers of false doctrine though in the matter of ceremonies are evill doers Phil. 3. 2. and they pervert soules Act. 15. and kill soules and subvert whole houses and make their followers twofold more the Children of hell then they themselves Matth. 23. 15. nor did wee ever dreame that the bloody sword was a mean of conversion of soules the Gospel is so the onely power of God to salvation but that hindereth not but the Magistrate is to restraine by a coercive power the man that teacheth that Jesus Christ is not true God consubstantiall with the Father because the Sword ought to curbe the spreading of false doctrine it followeth not that it is a meane of propagating true doctrine But of this more possibly in another place Nor doe I intend the bloody sword should bee drawne against every different opinion holden by the truely godly though in the government of the Church all see not with the same light Luke 8. 24. Master master wee perish Marke 3. 38. Master carest thou not that wee perish It is too ordinary for us because of the greatnesse of the stroake and no present deliverance to put unkindnesse upon Christ as here they complaine that Christ is carelesse of them because hee sleepeth and they perish few of the Saints have ever beene in extremitie of heavie afflictions but they have uttered hard thoughts of Christ Psal. 77. as the Prophet in name of the Church when hee was troubled and his sore ran in the night Vers 7. saith will the Lord cast off for ever will hee bee favourable no more 8. Is his mercy cleane gone is his word or oracle rotten 9. Hath hee forgotten to be gratious hath hee in anger shut up his tender mercies It is a strange word Vers 7. will hee bee favorable no more will hee never put forth in action one act of good will againe for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} it were a prodigious thing as the Prophet calleth it his infirmitie Vers 10. that all acts of reconciliation toward the elect should dry up Jeremiah when hee cryed out in his great trouble Chap. 15. Vers 10. Woe is me my mother that thou hast borne mee a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth complayneth Vers 18. Wilt thou bee altogether to me as a lier as waters that are unfaithfull that is I hoped thou shouldest have helped mee as the thirsty traveller trusteth in a dry pit seeing it afarre off and beleeving it to bee a refreshing fountaine but thou hast beguiled mee and my hope to this you may adde the cursing of the day that hee was borne in Chap. 20. David Psal. 31. when Vers 12. hee was forgotten as a dead man and laid aside by all the world as an uselesse and a broken vessell complaineth Vers 22. For I said in mine hast I am cut off from before thine eyes and wee know the sufferings of Job who beside his other agues uttereth these words Chap. 13. Vers 14. Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest mee for thine enemy The Reasons are First extreame afflictions as Physicke stirre up both the good and the bad humours they make legible both the good and the ill in the man and which of them is the predominant when the fire boileth extremely if there bee a scum in the liquor it is that which is first seene yea and it is not onely the vertue and strength of the fire but also of the gold that the drosse goeth to its owne place if it were all gold there should bee no separation at all the Disciples here put a false Character upon Christ that hee hath neither love to them nor care of them they double the word Master master and that is a check being added to the other carest thou not for us it saith 1. that hee is worse then other masters better serve any master then Christ a master will care for his servants so hee can helpe them no earthly master will sleepe when hee knoweth his servants are drowning 2. They object his sluggishnesse carest thou not for us hee bath neither