destroy them I that he will But whence was it that he did not destroy them Ezek. 29.4 The Lord put an hook on his Nostrils and a bridle on his Jaws The Dark Lanthorn of Faux is famous the Match was ready to give fire to have blown up all Uno actis tactis but God wet the Powder The dark side of the Lanthorn was to man the light side toward God Afflictions are Gods blood-letting and by them he not onely cures but prevents diseases David had gone astray if he had not stumbled As distracted a Nation as England is we had perished if we had not even perished It was a good mans contemplation on this Ladder Lord thou hast pardoned those sins I have committed and those sins which by thy Grace I have not committed How many Souls had never gone into Heaven if God had not carried them by the gates of Hell How many sinners had been undone indeed if they had not been undone in their own sense Let Gods Jacobs lie at the foot of the Ladder and admire what hardness of heart hath God prevented what an hard heart hath God softened how miserable in sin had I been if God had not had mercy on me and how miserable notwithstanding all my sense of his love and power over my corruptions should I be if yet God should not have mercy on me God is not onely to be admired for bringing good out of evill but for preventing evil and doing good Great God! no sooner born but we begin Babels accurs'd Foundation by our sin Our thoughts our words our deeds are ever yeelding The sad Materials of our sinful building Should not thy Grace prevent it it would even Rise and rise up untill it reacht to Heaven Lord ere our building shall begin to show Confound our language and our building too And so in a publique sense when the overthrow of Religion is determined at mans Council-Table it is not determined at Gods Council-Table mens designs are not so deep but the Lords designs are deeper And though Satans enterprises are in the Dark to us yet they are in the light to God God often blows up and undermines the malice of men for his Children who sometimes neither feel nor hear the blow O Lord how often are we delivered from visible dangers but how oftner from invisible dangers Remember for ever that the Devil and Men may often level their Ordnance against Sion but they shall never do Execution till God say Give fire Deus justè patitur quod nos non justè agimus 2 In this Ladder there is a permitting Providence The Devils are kept in chains as Jude speaks In chains not onely of Justice but also of Providence that they can neither torment the Body or torment the Soul without commission or permission from God God did not allow yet he suffered the treachery of Judas and the cruelty of Pilat toward Christ Act. 2.23 The Apostle chargeth Christs death on them and yet brings in the fore-knowledge and counsel of God The Father delivered the Son the Son delivered himself out of love Judas delivered Christ for money the Jews crucified Christ out of malice so that in the same tradition God is to be magnified and man condemned because in the same thing which they did the cause was not the same for which they did it God permits weeds in his Garden and tares in his Field Why may some say doth not God prevent the sprouting and growing of such blasphemies and errors as range up and down and rage in England How says unbelief can the Lord be tender of his Flowers his Saints and Truths and yet be content to see such thorns and weeds to grow about them Remember That God is not bound to do all he can and how could God be Almighty if he did all hee could and that when the Wheat is ripe as Luther speaks the Husband-man will burn the Tares If a man should find fault with the shadowing of a picture in a Table it would be answered Let not the Cobler go beyond his Last for the dimming sets off the bright and the art of the Painter could not be perceived without diversity of colours A Father holds a Lyon in chains Rugiat Leo quantum vult tantum non fugiat Ovis Christi the child trembles for fear lest the Lyon should devour him but the Father suffers the child to tremble but will not suffer the Lyon to devour the Saints in England are afraid for the Lyon of Hell roars indeed our sins have both lengthened his chain and opened his month but let them consider the Lyon is not so powerful but their Father is as pittiful and that God that suffers the Lyon to roar will not suffer the Lyon to tear Satan though politick cannot slip his collar though powerful cannot break his prison The Devill hath men to be his prisoners but the Devil himself is Gods prisoner Providence binds Satan over to the Peace to his quiet behavior Christ hath the keys of Hell at his girdle Hell is under his conquest and therefore under his command Rev. 20.2 an allusion to Conquerors who having taken a Fort the keyes are presently surrendred to them Diabolus contra sanctos tempestatem movet sedipse naufragium patitur This Ladder of Providence reaches as far as Hell and extends to the utmost line of the Devils Kingdom Satan cannot enkindle one fire in Sion if Providence did not suffer him to go up and down to gather sticks The whole Creation Men and Devils though they are not all under the protection yet they are within the Precincts of Providence and let us not murmur at Gods permissive Providence but consider God judgeth it more for his glory to bring good out of evil than not to suffer evil to be at all and God would never suffer evill to be if he could not bring good out of it The Almighty doth not approve of all he permits and therefore let none undertake to reprove him for what he permits there being nothing that is permitted which shall not in the end prove for Sions comfort and his glory For either thy command or thy permission Lay hands on all they are the right and left The first puts on with speed and expedition The other curbs sins stealing-pace and thest Nothing escapes them both all must appear And be dispos'd and drest and tun'd by thee Who sweetly temperst all If we could hear The skil and art what musick would it be Plures sunt gratiae privativae quam positivae 3 In this Ladder there is a restraining Providence Thus far shall the Designs of men and Devils go and no further That 's the authoritative Dialect of the Almighty God will shake the World Nahum 3. as a Fig-tree men shall neither have leaves to cover their nakedness nor fruit to satisfie their hunger the Lord can make the Saints in beleeving not to care as we say a fig for the
visible Protectors and good Angels are invisible Protectors of Sion under God The King of Glory can never want forces for he hath a Militia of Angels thousands and ten thousands of Angels are his Chariots to ride in These heavenly Hosts are the horse-men and Chariots of Israel It is desperate to provoke a General marching in the head of a puissant and numerous Army The Angels observe their Rank and File they wait but for the word Nec boni Angeli nisi quantum Deus jubet nec mali Angeli injusta faciunt nisi quantum justè ipse permittit Aug. de Trinit l 3. c. 8. and they immediately take wing either for the comfort of Sion or confusion of her Enemies God sent one Brigade of Angels to help Elisha 2 King 6.17 another Brigade to aide Lot against the Sodomites one Squadron to help Jacob against Esau another to help Hezekiah against Zenacherib Gen. 32.24 Isa 37.36 Gods heavenly Forces quarter up and down about all the afflicted Churches in the World An Army of Angels Gen 32.2 was sent to convoy Jacob and therefore he called the place Mahanaim that is two Hosts or Camps either because the Angels appeared in two Bands and so made as it were a guard for Jacob to pass between them or because the great Angelical and Royal Army quartered and marched with Jacobs little Army and so two confederate Armies appeared in the field together so say Rivet and Caryl Our strongest Militia is either of Angels that are Spirits or of Angelical Spirits Psal 88.17 Angels Ezek 1. have the face of a Man to signifie their knowledge Wings to signifie their swiftness they cannot pass from one place to another in a moment because all motion is from one term to another term by a middle Angelus est nomen officii no◠naturae ex eo quod est spiritus est ex eo quod agit Angelus est Idem in Psa 111 yet Psal 10.4 they are compared to a flame of fire The Cherubims have wings on their feet which is strange they cannot foot it fast enough and therefore must speed their Race with flight Thirdly They represent an Ox to signifie their obedience to God Hence we pray Let thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven that is freely as the Angels obey God without reluctancy And fourthly they are compared to a Lyon for their strength One Angel killed an hundred fourscore and five thousand in one night 2 King 19.35 One Angel wants neither hands nor weapons to rout and ruin an whole Army The good Angels stopped the Lyons mouths when Daniel was shut up in the Den restrained by Gods allowance the force of the fire when the three children were cast into the furnace The Angel of the Lord encamps about Sion Psal 34.7 That is the Angels for he speaks of an Host and the Criticks observe that in the Hebrew one is put for a multitude as the inhabitant for the inhabitants 2 Chron. 11.4 Quail for Quails Psa 105.33 40. When Christ is set forth by the name of an Angel it is in Scripture with some additions as the Angel of the Covenant and when you read of the Angel of the Lord it is meant of Christ unless there be some contradictions of that interpretation in the context as is apprehended Angels are Sions Centinels at home and File-leaders abroad As there are good men against evill so there are for Sion Angels against Angels Rev. 12.7 The Ethiopians supposed that Angels attended on Judicatories and therefore were accustomed to leave twelve Chairs empty in the Judgement place which they say were the Seats of Angels When Sion is in distress Faith and Prayer is able to press the Angels and to bring them into the batlet but they are Voluntiers not Mercenaries The Stars fought against Sisera that is say some the Angels in the Stars as in their War-Chariots as if the Angels according to the odd old proverb of Intelligences did inform the Stars but they are heavenly wide as one saith In the first of Zechary vers 8. the Mirtle trees in the bottom signifie the low estate of the Church or the Church in a low estate The divers coloured Horses were Angels appointed for divers Offices says Junius the red Horses for Judgement the white for Mercy the speckled for mixt actions being sent out at once to help Sion Non tribuere Angelis audeo quod forte non possunt nec debeo derogare quod possunt and oppose her Enemies An Angel smote bloody Herod two Angels defeated Zenacheribs Host and Angels by name if not by nature saith Mr. Caryl poure out the seven Vials of Gods wrath in the Revelation In Luke they are called the Host of Heaven These Armies are all of one mind no difference of Colours though possibly different Orders yet no difference in their Orders They on the Ladder ascend and descend they give place one to another there is no justling between them The Rabbies suppose on what ground I am careless of inquiring four Angels to be the Presidents of the four quarters of the World Michael of the East Raphael of the West Gabriel of the North and Uriel of the South The Barbarians had once taken Constantinople but that in the night season they were frighted by the appearance of armed Angels Socrat. l. 6. c. 6. Wherefore as Alexander the Great slept soundly though the enemy was at hand and being asked the reason of such security replied that Antipater his Captain was awake so may the Saints sleep in peace in these stormy times because they have Dan. 4. Guirin vigilantes the watchful ones about them Solomon Cant. 3.7 had sixty valiant men all with swords to defend him for fear of the night but the Saints are incompassed with Guards of Angels and as Elisha said 2 King 6. to his fearful Servant there are more with us than against us we need not regard the Malicia of Devils for we have the Militia of Angels This is spoken in subordination to Gods presence who useth them not as Princes that need their Guards but for the glory of his Majesty and for the support of our weakness but to testifie his great love to us in imploying such honorable creatures for our service and to maintain amity and correspondency between Saints and Angels untill they both walk arm in arm in Heaven 9 Angels attend on the Saints at their deaths Angels are the Protectors of Sion while they live and their Porters when they die They are as careful of the Saints as Nurses of their Babes God puts his children when they are born out to them to tender and tutor and at their death they bring them home to him again Lazarus Luk. 16. was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosom It is probable the Devils attend on dying men if possibly to tempt them to despair the less time they have to reign the more they rage and therefore good Angels attend too to
cutting of Throats than now we have cutting of Purses Which deserves consideration with some male-contents who while they seek to establish the old Government may unawares run into confusion and blood and at length have no Government at all Without Magistracy robbery would be a Law and men like Dogs would try all right as is noted by their teeth How excellent were it Ut imbecillis scala eum qui ascendit Dejicit sic superbiae scala eum qui eam ascendit Nilus in loc while others are hugging the world for the Saints to be trampling on the world How few are there that climb this Ladder of honor but they leave a good Conscience at the bottom That man that will be great by any means must needs leave off to be good by all means But alas it is not a Velvet pantofle can remove the Gout nor a golden Diadem the head-ach nor a purple robe the Cholick How many deal with Religion as a Mason deals with a Laddder Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem when he hath work to do to climb oh then he hugs imbraceth the Ladder carrys it in his arms and on his shoulders but when he hath done climbing presently the Ladder is hung on the wall or thrown into a corner So many set the Ass on Christ and not Christ on the Ass making Religion a stalking-horse for preferment and when men have got their ends by religion then there is an end of their Religion Mundus est cadaver perentes eum sunt canes How many that were poor enough in the world have grown rich in the profession of poor Jesus and have followed the chase onely with Jonathan till they have met with hony It is damage for a man to win the whole world and lose his Soul but what a poor bargain make they that lose their souls and win not the thousandth part of the world That Scholar paid a great price that made this Contract with the Devil Give me learning and I le give you my soul The ambitious Pope made but a foolish Bargain that sold his Salvation and bought his Damnation for the Popedom How far is two or three hundred a year below the worth of a Soul and yet how many such Chapmen are there in the world But let ambitious men consider The Stairs of Honor are steep the standing slippery and the regress a downfall Praepositioni quot accidunt Unum Quid Caesus tantum Quot casus Duo Qui Accusativus Ablativus Haec enim Pilatum oportet timere accusari à crimine auferri à Regimine ignominiose cadere Clem. Oct. Secondly Climb above the world from this glorious Ladder of Contemplation you may have many glorious sights upward and downward forward and backward 1 You may have a sight upward and downward As our Lord and Master said strive so I may say climb You have a long journey to go before you come to heaven little time to go it in and less time than strength Wherefore pass the world as through a Fair stand not gazing on every Pedlars shop or silly gue gaw till you come to your home These are not the Jerusalem said the Traveller concerning Lyons and Paris though they were beautiful Cities Faelix cui invisibilium scientia fit scala ad invisibilia cognoscenda cui scientia fit scala ascensionis non ruina dejectionis Victor Riches and Honors are not Heaven Heaven is of another colour and complexion Be Star-gazers in a spiritual sense climb to the top of Jacobs Ladder How little would the world seem to us if the great God were not little in us who ever took a prospect of Heaven and did not fall in love with it and who ever loved Heaven that never took a prospect of it Either Heaven will take us off from viewing the World or the World will take us off from viewing Heaven The World would seem no such peece of glory if the Glory that shines on the top of the Ladder were but unfolded to us They say Naples is a City to be seen onely on Holy-days because of its beauty and formosity Heaven is a Non-such that day is a high day indeed when the soul sets Heaven an holy heart is onely fit to see that holy place If those that live under the Line have all the influences of Heaven and see as they say the motions of the Stars and Orbes how more glorious is it to be above them and to see the Stars and Orbes to move below us Jacobs Ladder is as sweet a repast as Moses his Pisgah Zacheus his Sycamore-tree and Peters Mount We miss many a brave shew of Providence for want of climbing It is glorious to think of Glory but more glorious to possess Glory Some Mountains in the World are above the Clouds and Storms and Winds what a glorious thing is it to contemplate Eternity and every day with Enoch to fetch a turn or two in the Royal Exchange of Glory to be above the passions and persecutions of this lower world to look downward and behold the eclipses of Honors and Crowns to be cloathed with the beams of the Sun of righteousness and to have the world out of our heart and under our feet There are no storms of Passions no thunders of Wars no winds of Temptations no proing and conning about Opinions not one party for Luther and another for Calvin no clashing and clamoring about Presbytery Independency and Anabaptism no dissenting brethren in Heaven When the Apostle Paul had a window opened in Heaven 2 Cor. 12.4 and heard such unspeakable things he had nothing but Heaven in his mouth Deus res creatas ad modum scalae adoptavit ut per eam sui amantibus ascensum ad se extruxit Basil and Christ Jesus ever after whom he names many hundred times in his Epistles Like as children when they have been in a famous City their eyes and thoughts are so filled with the rich Shops rare Buildings that their tongues always run on them and run over with them and have nothing else to speak of If one thought so highly of the study of Astronomy because it was occupied about the Sphears and Stars and celestial Bodies that he pronounced the first Authors happy How happy are those souls that are busied in the contemplation of God himself Jacobs Ladder of Piety is better than Jacobs Staff of Astronomy Second Prospect from this Ladder we may look backward and forward and notwithstanding all our unworthiness and unthankfulness see what God hath done for England and will do for Sion First We may look backward and admire four things 1 That we are not made a Sodom If the preaching of the Gospel lift a Nation up to Heaven then certainly England is not upon the Earth Matth. 11.23 The sin of Sodom was fulness of bread Their sin was not plenty of bread but emptiness of obedience England I fear is guilty of a
not to climb to the top Many run that never obtain the prize Many shoot but few hit the mark Gaze not on the Lords Ladder mind your journey to Heaven these are giddy and dizzy times If ever you would not be falling Stars be not Planets not wandring Stars not one in a thousand that is a wandring Star but a thousand to one he proves a falling Star Neither come down Gods Ladder with Demas nor fall off Gods Ladder with Judas in a moral sense or spiritual rather be Angels ascending not descending the falling sickness is much abroad we fall not forward but backward as Ely did and many break their necks The Lord grant you may not be blazing stars for they are portentous nor fallen Angels How soon as the Apostle said are we removed into another Gospel How sad to consider the last year visibly an Angel and this year a Devil yesterdaies Professor is to daies Ranter The Well is deep said the Samaritan and there is need of a Bucket So the Ladder is high and the ascent is great we need Faith Faith and Love are the two hands by which you must climb take good hold Patience and Perseverance your feet Think not to climb with your hands full of dust beware of Covetousness Dream not on Gods Ladder if you would dream come down to the foot of the Ladder you no sooner begin to sleep but you begin to fall Those that stand high had need to stand fast for there is more fear of their falling and danger if they fall Eutichus was asleep Act. 20.9 in an upper Loft and he fell down dead David was high on this Ladder but when he committed folly with Bathsheba he almost brake his neck and so Peter a glorious Professor when he denied his Master Many Graces run in the Race but only Perseverance obtains the Crown Despise not Providences yet be ruled onely by the Word Observe but serve not the time Providence by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I confess is made a stalking horse to all designs and most lay more on its back than it doth willingly bear Providence and Conscience are the greatest Martyrs this day in the world The sufficiency of Providence is no warrant for us to neglect our Callings or the use of means God feeds us but eating God cloaths us but by our industry for though man lives not by bread alone Necessitas decretorum â—â—ei non tollit libertatem in creaturis rationalibus nec contingentiam in causis secundis Wollebii Epit. but by every word that proceeds out of Gods mouth yet that mouth that blesseth the bread bids us to labor for it so our labor is to be joyned with the Providence of God and yet nothing is to be attributed to our labor but all to Divine Providence neither is Providence an Apology for the use of unlawfull means We are not to walk accâ—rding to the secret but revealed Will of God He that useth lawful means to bring about an unjust end puts God into the Devils service but he that useth an unlawful means to bring about a just end puts the Devil into Gods service though indeed no man sins without Gods Providence yet no man sins without his own proper inclination Man is guilty in practicing but God is not guilty in permitting evil And yet God as he is gracious in his Word so he is glorious in his Providence In the agreement of which I shall conclude It is the greatest folly in the world to follow the dark cloud of Providence without the pillar of fire of the Scriptures It is ignorance the least that can be spoken of it to follow Providence without a Scripture arrant Atheism to follow Providence against Scripture No things can be Orthodox or sound in the Volumes of Providence that are erratas in the Volumes of Scriptures Those that undervalue the Authority of the revealed Word it is to be feared they either have or will manifest they have no other Old Testament but Lucian and no other New but Machiavil Methinks His works are like rich Tapistry Vnfolded all unto a Jacobs eye Our Fathers Image hangeth in this story Embroydered all with Power Wisdom Glory But Providence is neither the first figure In Gods Arithmetick nor yet a cipher They represent the mind of God above In golden Characters but not his love They do not prove a Cause good for to bee Yet make a Cause if good shine gloriously Scriptures declare the Lords approving Will Events his peremptory Will fulfill His Word shews us what he would have us crave His works shew what he would have us to have The royall and unchanged Word 's our Text Whereunto as a Commentary annext Gods Providences be These glosses are But that 's the Copy and Original fair There is a God these Works do plainly tell And out of them Reason his Name may spell Yet read them curiously you cannot smel In them the Rose of Sharon that 's Gospel Indicted by the Spirit from on high Engraven in the Scriptures not the Skie The Sun and Stars do not make a dumb show yet by them A God but not a Father we may know How many Vows in perils do we make And yet from Providence excuses take Against Performances How many now See Jacobs Ladder but forget his Vow To conclude Let Jacob now awake and preach and pray And sleep no longer for hee clearly may Without a Dream see by the Gospel light The Ladder which before he saw by night Let 's draw the Curtains shadows fly away Visions and Dreams be gone 't is break of day FINIS MONOMAXIA JACOB wrestling with the ANGEL OR A sacred Duel fought between God and Man at Peniel with the issue of the Combate Represented as a lively example of Faith and Prayer to all the Israel of God By J.R. of Shoreditch Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Isa 45.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid Pel. l. 4. Ep. 27. London Printed for L. Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head-Alley 1655. To his endeared Aunt Mris Dorothie Marsh Widow Living at Dover Endeared Aunt I Have much desired an opportunity to express my thankfulness to you for those real Kindnesses you have so long and often expressed to me and though it lay not in my Power to requite yet I would not want Affection to acknowledge your love It is an old observation that they that do a good turn must instantly forget it and they that receive it must constantly remember it you have done the former as for my self I will not deny but my memory hath long been asleep but I would now onely testifie by this publique remembrance of my duty that it is not dead The Lord made you an instrument though not of my natural yet of my spiritual birth you gave me not suck indeed from the Brest but you fed me with the sincere milk of the Word you first taught
that thou art Love Thy people see not so much Prophaneness in the world as the world sees passions amongst thy people We censure and condemn them for not agreeing with thy people while they see thy people agree not amongst themselves Ah Lord If charity were the onely badge of thy Disciples how few Disciples would our Lord and Master have in the world is this a time onely to pull down and not at all to build up to cast away stones and to divide and not to gather stones to raise thy Temple is the Providence of God resolved that no more Stories shall be built in his Sion till one stone be not left on another in Babylon are not our soars searched enough Deo nihil impossibile est nisi quod non vult that yet thou pluckest away the Plaisters thy poor people apply to their wounds Is thy Israel in the midst of the Red Sea and is Pharaoh at their heels ready to swallow them up and cannot Israel be perfectly delivered till the Sea be perfectly divided Hath Sion been travelling with Reformation these many years and even when thy people are ready to welcome it into the world and to name it Glorious must it enter into the womb again Is it our indiscreet importunity that hath hasted to bring it to the birth before the Lords time and day and therefore shall there be no strength given to bring forth Are the grounds of our fears not onely from thy secret or open Enemies but also from the vain conversations of the Professors of thy Name and indeed howl ready have we been to censure the persons and condemn the practises of others and to say there goes an Oppressor an Apostate an Hypocrite so as if there were none of those lusts in our hearts which are visibly reigning in others lives Will the Lord consume their Gold and Silver as well as the others Hay and Stubble pull down many of their works before he set up his own Or wil the Lord further suffer worms and no men to reason with him O Lord are we partly brought out of Egypt and shall we want the cloud of thy presence because that either we long to go backward or fear to go forward Must thy children begin to spell their A B C and go again to School to learn what Mortification and their first love mean before they take out further lessons of experience of Faith Wretched England How many sins do we make that our God did never call sins and how many Articles do our passions put into the Creed which thou didst never enjoyn to be beleeved for Salvation How have one form of thy people been trampling and triumphing over another whiles mostly they have been tithing Mint Annice and Cummin neglecting the Salvation of souls and the advancement of thy Sons Kingdom amongst us when will the Candle of the Almighty shine on the heads of thy people as of old when shall the name of thy Son be poured out as a precious oyntment that the Virgins again may love thee O Lord let us be thy Patients though thou woundest us Let us be under thy rod rather than we should be out of thy Covenant rather than we should sleep to death sound thy Trumpet beat thine Alarm if thou shouldest not administer physick to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cle. Alex. our Disease were desperate Thrice happy will that storm be that shall drive us to our Harbor We will not appoint thee the Rod to lay on our backs onely we intreat that when thou purposest to strike first break our hearts before thou breakest our backs rather than we should not have thy presence let us with the three children go into a furnace thy Son let us with thy Disciples have a storm Rather then we should not be thy children whip us thy Servants beat us thy Spouse chide us thy Friends frown on us Ah Lord Those that lost their blood together cannot now shed tears together those that fought together in the field can scarce now pray together in a family Blessed God! If it be thy will sound a retreat speedily to these disorders Let some publick Enemy of thy Sons Kingdom abroad come upon the Stage that thy Saints may one and all engage together both their prayers and their persons against him that Sion may be terrible as as Army with Banners that the Brats of Babylon may come and worship before her feet Hinc Syncreâ—ismus Synchristianismus and know that thou hast loved her If the building of Sion may not go forward in this age Lord let it not go backward if with Solomon we may not build thy spiritual Temple let us at least lay up stuff for the building of it with David in the next generation If the Lord had never smiled on us we could better have born his frowns if we had not known what the presence of his Spirit Wisdom Glory had meant in England we could better have born his absence Our darkness is now the greater because that our light formerly was so great How dolorous is it to consider that we that have been brought up in Scarlet should imbrace Dunghils And that England that was the terror of the Lord to the Nations round about us should so much be a scorn unto them and a terror one to another You that are Gods Jacobs up and be doing surely we have little love to if we have not a sigh a tear or two for Sion If ever you would rejoyce in Sions deliverance pray for it Faith and Prayer are Sions Granadoes and truely make her the Thundering Legion onely take heed of counterfeiting these heavenly Ordnance and Artillery with the wicked Emperor these weapons are not artificial but infused Methinks I hear Faith and Prayer say Saints in England be patient and persevere in the holy and sincere profession of the Gospel though your God be long before he come yet he will certainly and comfortably come Endure reproaches hold on and hold out notwithstanding your doubts and difficulties your trials and temptations Though your way to Paradise be dirty yet the Tree of Life in the midst thereof the Rivers of divine pleasure and Gates of pearl will richly make amends for all Be beleeving in prayer and in this age especially If once with Jacob you prevail with God you need not fear all the world If any thing in the world can perswade the Lord to preserve a Nation it is Prayer Prayer hath often met God as Abigal did David and moved him to put up his Sword Pharaoh being plagued with Frogs got the man of God to pray for him and Exod. 8.13 The Lord did according to the word of Moses And the Lord obeyed the voyce of a man It is plain that Moses did according to the word of the Lord but it is strange that the Lord should do according to the word of Moses yet it is so If Moses will do according to the word of the Lord