A SERMON PREACHED To the Honourable HOVSE OF COMMONS At their late Solemne Fast Wednesday Jan. 31. 1644. BY SAMUEL RUTHERFURD Professor of Divinitie in the University of S. Andrews EXOD. 3. 2. And hee looked and behold the Bush burned with fire and the Bush was not consumed Published by Order of the House of Commons EDINBURGH Printed by Evan Tyler Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie 1644. Die Mercurii 31. Ianuar. 1644. IT is this day ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Mr. Rous do from this House give thanks unto Mr. Rutherfurd for the great paines he took in the Sermon he preached this day at the intreaty of the said Commons at S. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publike Humiliation and to desire him to print his Sermon And it is ordered that none presume to print his Sermon without authority under the hand-writing of the said Mr. Rutherfurd H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Richard Whittaker and Andrew Crooke to print my Sermon Samuel Rutherfurd To the Christian Reader WHether time or the fashion hath obtained of me worthy Reader that this Sermon should come under the providence of your favourable judgement and Candor I can hardly determine But you have it as it is onely I shall heartily desire in reviewing of it your serious thoughts in these insuing considerations 1. What I speak here of God and his excellency is but a shadow to the expressions of others and what others can say men or Angels is but a short and rude shadow of that infinite All the High Jehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth so my thoughts come forth as shadows of shadows for there behoved to be much honey in the Inke much of Heaven in the breast much of God in the Pen of any who speaketh of such a transcendent subject yet if these do affect you it is possible I say more if not I shall desire not to spill the Lords highest praises with my low-creeping under-expressions 2. Concerning Gods dispensation now in Brittaine and his Churches condition I shall be your debter in all humble modesty to beg these thoughts to go along with God As 1. Let the Lord have a charitable sense and good construction of his most wise dispensation and beleeve that he who hath his fire in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem seeth good that Christs Crosse should be the Church of Christs birth-right and that a life-rent of afflictions is a surer way for Zion then Summer-dayes 2. You are not to stumble that God will not fit his times to mens apprehensions when to raine and when to shine fair neither is clay to usurp the chair and dispute the matter to make the All-wise providence a School-Probleme nor asks Why is our Zion builded with carcasses of men in two kingdomes fallen as dung in the open field and as the handfull after the harvest man Why is the wall of the daughter of Zion sprinkled with blood One thing I know It is better to beleeve then to dispute and to adore then to plead with him who giveth not account of his matters 3. Innocencie in these times is better then court with princes and the condition of the heirs of Heaven yea their tears better then the joy of the hypocrite 4. Christs Church can neither shift nor adjourne such a share of affliction as is written in Gods book It is a standing and a current court which hath decreed what graines of Gall and Wormewood England must drink what a cup is prepared for Scotland and the Ballance of wisedome hath weighed by ounce weights how much wrath shall be mixed in the cup of wasted Ireland 5. You know it is generally the condition of the Church if she have any Summer that it is but a good day betwixt two Feavers Heaven heaven is the home and the desired day of the Bride the Lambs wife 6. It is much better to be afflicted then to be guilty and that the Church may have pardon and want peace 7. That the faith which is more precious then gold can bid the devil do his worst and that the patience of the Saints can out-weary the malice of Babylon or Babel on whose skirts is found the blood of the Saints 8 That it is now and ever true as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint so shall the multitude of all nations be that fight against mount Zion 9. Vengeance is gone out from the Lord against those who feast upon Zions teares and they must die the death of the uncircumcised who clapped their hands and stamped with the feet and rejoyced in heart with all their despight against the land of Israel 10. They are in no better condition who refuse to help the Lord against the mighty and whose heart is as a stone and a piece of dead flesh at all the revolutions and tossings of Christs Kingdome who daunce eat and laugh within their own orbe and if their desires bee concentrick to the world and themselves care not whether Joseph die in the stocks or not or whether Zion sink or swim because whatever they had of Religion it was never their minde both to summer and winter Jesus Christ 11. The rise of the Gospel-sun is like the prodigious appearance of a new Comet to the woman that sitteth on many waters to that mother Rome-planted as a Vine in blood the Lionesse whose Whelps Papists and Prelates in Ireland and England have learned to catch the prey and this Comet prophesieth Wo to the Pope King of the bottemlesse pit and his bloody Lady Babel if Christ shall arise and shine in the power of his Gospel 12. God hath now as great a work on the wheels as concerneth the race of the Chariots of Jesus Christ through the habitable world pray O let his Kingdome come and farewell Yours in the Lord Jesus S. R. A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of COMMONS At their last solemne Fast Wednesday January 31. 1644. DANIEL 6. 26. I make a Decree that in every Dominion of my Kingdome men tremble and feare before the face of the God of Daniel for he is the living God and indureth for ever and his Kingdome that which shall not bee destroyed and his dominion shall bee to the end MEthod requireth that first the words bee expounded secondly that they bee taken up in a right order thirdly that such observations bee hence deduced as serve most for the present condition of the times The words are plaine here first is a Statute of a great King Sim that the seventie interpreters render {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a decretall letter for sometimes though seldome the Lords cause findeth the grace of faire justice with men The matter of the Decree is that men tremble and feare Lehevon zognin vedachalin The Seventie render
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
Episcopacy Antichristian Ceremonies Superstition and Will-worship were injoyned by Law to pleasure an earthly King you willingly followed after the command against the direction of the King of Kings and now hath the Lord delivered the people of the Land into the hand of their KING And for this the Sword of the Lord hath gone through the Land 2. Vse From the perpetuity of the Lords Kingdome we may infer That this Cause of God shall prevail and that the Church though in the burning Bush cannot be consumed for JEHOVAH is in the Bush There be three grounds that there is hope that God will build his own Jerusalem 1. God never laid the foundation of so fair a building and then deserted the VVorke when he hath put it into the hearts of the Parliament and Land to enter into a Covenant with the Lord the Cause doth now in formall and direct termes become the Lords Cause And so the Lord is become surety for England 2. When did the Lord ever finally prosper his bloody-hearted enemies Babylons Womb and Bowels are swelled with blood they intend to root out the Protestant Religion Can God say Amen to this in Brittaine No he will not this end was sworne at the councell of Trent It was aimed at by Charles the fifth by Leo the tenth against Luther and the designe of the Actors of that bloody massacre of Paris yet hitherto all hath failed them 3. Gods Noble and stately acts of disappointing and discovering so many Plots give us hope for in them all God maketh true of England what is said Esai 66. 7. Before she travelled shee brought forth and before her paine came she was delivered of a man-Childe When she was sleeping ere the blow came the Childe was borne and the Woman delivered His Dominion shall be to the end Dominion is a power to use a thing as you please for such ends as you think good in the Creature our pleasure is supposed to be regulated by Law and Reason but men or Angels will or pleasure is not the rule of the use or lawfull exercise of Dominion but in God whose blessed will not being differenced from his holy reason and infinite wisedome it s the rule of the use of his Dominion and none may say to him What doest thou that but standeth still to the Creature as a binding Law Illud tantum possumus quod jure possumus we have no more lawfull morall power given to us of God then we can or do lawfully exercise according to the morall rule But Gods Dominion is to be discussed thus as it standeth in those following heads First in the manner of it its compleat Deus Dominatur in totum ens in totum entis God hath Dominion over every being of the Creature and over every part of the being God hath Dominion over his Creatures soule and his soules faculties his will minde conscience affections faith hope feare love joy over the body and all the powers and motions therof So God hath a compleat Lordship over the Creature One Creature hath not a compleat Lordship or Dominion over another yea a free reasonable Creature hath not a compleat Dominion over himself The reason is God made the Creature he made all and every being and part of the Creature He made the soule the body the faculties of both the actions and purposes of both Therefore he hath an absolute Dominion over both The potter hath a Dominion of art not a Dominion by creation over the Lame-pot he made the Lame-pot but he created not the Clay He hath therefore but a Dominion of art over the Clay not to annihilate the Clay as god can do His Dominion is of Art to frame of the Clay a Vessell of honour for a Kings Table or a Vessell of dishonour for the receiving of Urine The Master amongst the Jews might sell his man-servant and put him in his purse but the truth is when he sold him he sold but his bodily-service as hee was usefull to labour and work but he could not sell his servants soule nor his understanding nor his will nor his love nor his faith or Religion nor any of these Courtiers then and Cavaliers Prelates Atheists who professe they are of the Kings Religion and will dispose of their soules at the Kings pleasure to kill the innocent they make their soules bastards and unlawfull broods and they make the King the Creator of their soules and the absolute Lord of their Religion O foole the King did not make thy Soule there is an other Soule-Lord then the King Ezek. 18. 4. Behold all Soules are mine saith the Lord and there is another Soule-former then the King of Brittaine hear God speak himself Esai 57. 16. If I should contend for ever the spirits should faile before me and the soules that I have made O finde me an Earthly King that can forme Soules and then let the Cavaliers sweare that which many now practice I am the Kings wholly both soule and body faith and conscience But I pray you are not all in England the Kings Subjects yea trùly and all in Scotland also but not one soule not one conscience in all the three Kingdomes is the Kings Subject 2. Gods Dominion for the matter is universall he can presse an Army in the Clouds and in the Firmament Judg. 5. 20. The Stars in their course fought against Sisera he hath an host in Hell and raised an Army against the first-borne of Egypt Psal. 78. 49. Hee troubled them by sending Malokim ragnim evill Angels or Devils amongst them He can blow a Trumpet and cry to the dust of the Earth Arms Arms and there ariseth an host of Catter-pillers or Canker-wormes Joel 2. and vers. 6. before the faces of these Wormes the people is much pained and all faces gather blacknesse that is strange to see valient men of Warre tremble before a Worme and one man with a tramp of his foot may kill hundreds of them but this is the Dominion of JEHOVAH the Lord He hath an host of VVaters every wave of the Sea being a Souldier every fish receiving pay from JEHOVAH first to drown Pharoah and then to eat him and his Princes 3 He hath a Soveraigne Dominion over the salvation and damnation of men as Rom. 9. 21. The potter hath power over the Clay Arminians and Papists will have Freewil Lord and Carver of the white roll of election to glory but Gods own Pen from eternity did write in the Lambs Book of life so many and did book those from eternity whom he was of free grace to make Senators of heaven to walk with the Lamb in white nor doth freewill pen its own doome But God hateth Esau before he doth good or ill 4. God hath an absolute Dominion in all the operations of second Causes The Stars these five thousand yeers have marched so orderly and kept their Orbes Distance Line that not one of them ever transgressed the borders of another And Gods