governe them and so shall Gods gifts be snares plagues and no gifts If God give a fatherly power to a father to kill all his children and if a State give to their Generall a military power to fell and destroy all his Souldiers so as neither Sonnes nor Souldiers may defend themselves then the fatherly power should be of its owne nature a plague to the Sonnes If any say the Prince the Father because they feare God will not put forth in acts such a power I answer thankes to the Princes goodnesse for that but no thankes to his office and power God gave him the Sword as a Prince if he doe not draw that royall Sword to drink bloud we cannot impute the cause to the nature of the royall gift or intention of God the giver but to the goodnesse of a man which must be bad divinite Doct. 2. So much as Darius hath of God or any good Ruler so far is his spirit for the publick He heareth something of the God of Daniel now then he hath a publick spirit to send something of God to all nations people and languages v. 25. Though there bee nothing to prove that the man had saving grace yet the generall holdeth so much of God as any hath in so farre is he for the publick 1. Because grace is a publicke beame of God and a branch of Gods goodnesse and so of a spreading nature and the better things be the more publicke they are the Sunne is better then a Candle God best of all because every thing that hath beeing hath something of God and Christ best of all because he is the Saviour of many and Col. 1. 20. hath reconciled all things in heaven and earth to himselfe 2. Graces end is the most publick end of the world even Gods glory for all things are for God Rom. 11. 36. Prov. 16. 4. mens private ends are sinfull ends 3. The more gracious men be the more publick they are David will not be David alone in praising God but Psal. 148. he wil have a world in with him even Angels Sun Moone Stars Heaven of Heavens Dragons deeps fire hail snow vapour stormy winde mountains trees beasts creeping things fowles Kings Judges old and young to hold up the song Moses Paul would lay out in ransome their part of heaven to redeeme Gods glory and salvation to the Lords Church the Martyrs desired that their pain torment might praise and exalt God How broad how catholicke and publicke was his spirit who said 1 Cor. 9 19. Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe servant unto all that I might gaine the more 20. And unto the Iews I became as a Iew that I might gain the Iewes to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law 21. To them that are without the Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without Law 22. To the weake became I as weake I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some A publike spirit is not himselfe he is made a Jew a Gentile a weake man not a weak man he is made Law and Gospel he is made a bridge over a River that the Church may goe over him drie he complyeth with all who but lend out halfe a looke to Christ and he is in a complement of grace a servant to all 2 Corinth 4. 5. We preach not our selves except wee preach our owne sinnes our owne condemnation by nature and that wee under-preach all eminencie in our selves but our selves your servants for Christs sake yea your servants servants for Christ See the Complement of a publicke heart of one who is willing to stoope and put his head and haire under the feet of the Church and of the poorest and most despised passenger who maketh out for heaven Vse Then Grace maketh men rich Parliament men and there is a wide difference betwixt a publicke man and a publicke spirit all Parliament men are publicke men but they are not all publike spirits else so many of them would not have deserted the publicke and runne away from Christs Colours to seeke their owne private Idols Men void of grace make an Idol of themselves every wicked man is wholly himselfe and wholly his owne Phil. 2. 21. They all seeke their owne not the things of Jesus Christ Hee who is for the Bridegroome cannot bee against the Bride nor against the Common-wealth he who is a Statesman of heaven and knoweth savingly the fundamentall Lawes of Jesus Christ the power and prerogative roall of the King of Kings he who is acquainted with the frame and constitution of the Kingdome of sinne in his owne heart he who feareth God who feareth his owne light and is awed with the Decrees and Lawes of an inlightened conscience shall be fast for the publicke and the man who selleth his Religion and his soule for his private ends will soone sell his countrey his Parlament the Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome Will hee put the Law of God and the Crowne and Scepter of that Princely Lord Jesus to the market and will hee sticke for his Court and Honour to sell the Lawes of England and will hee forfeit Heaven and will hee not forfeit you all and your Parliament and Liberties O then bee intreated now to bee for Heaven and Christ as his publicke State-wits to convey Decrees for Christs honour for Reformation against Babylon and her sonnes through this whole Kingdome You have now power and opportunitie to send the Glory of Christ over Sea to all Europe the eyes of Nations are upon you exalt the Sonne of God thinke it not sweet policie to have peace with Babylon and warre with God consider if Church and State did ever prosper since the Queenes Idol of the Masse was set up amongst you and what is your part when many Masses are now in the Kings Court at Oxford I make a Decree There was a wicked Law and a cursed Decree made by Darius that for thirtie dayes neither Daniel nor any of Gods people should pray to God or to any god save to Darius Daniels enemies prevaile thus farre that Daniel the Churches right eye now in the Court should be decourted and cast out to bee meate to beasts Behold the artifice and fathomlesse depth of Gods wisedome who bringeth a contrary Decree out of this wicked Decree even a Decree for adoring that God of Daniel whom they had dishonoured Doct. It is the art of the deepe wisedome of divine providence to bring good out of the sinnes of his enemies and the sufferings of his owne Iosephs brethren moved with envie sell their brother Potiphar casteth him in prison the wisedome of God commeth in in the game and hee exalteth Joseph and keepeth alive people in famine Herod Pilate Jewes and Gentiles crucifie the Lord of glory the Art
more affection should bee for Christs fundamentall Lawes for Religion then for the fundamentall Lawes of a Kingdome or for the power and priviledges of Parliament And it is cleare in ill actions the lesse affection the better Pilates slaying of Christ had lesse hatred and envie then the Scribes and Pharisees killing of him and the more innocent that the affection bee the bad action is the lesse evill feare is a more innocent affection then hatred Those who out of feare desert the Lords cause are not to be punished in that degree with those who out of malice and hatred to the truth joyned to the Malignant faction How ever God challengeth the floure of our affections and it is a sweet thing to spend the vigour and floure of the affection upon God and if you had ten tongues to speake for God a hundred hands to fight for him many lives to lose for him Achitophels wisedome to imploy in his services except you engage the heart and affections in his service you doe nothing to him If Prelates Papists and Malignants bee hated onely as hurtfull to your State to the gaine and externall peace of the Common-wealth and not as Gods enemies as Idolaters as they are under the King of the bottomlesse pit the Antichrist and Comets who borrow light from that fallen Starre and not as servants to our King the warre is shedding of innocent blood heart reduplications in the affections doe mightily invert the nature of actions Jehu 2 Kings 10. 30. 31. did right in the sight of the eyes of God and did to the house of Ahab according to all that was in Gods heart yet because hee did it with a crooked and bastard intention for his owne honour and Idol ends his obedience is Hosea 1. 4. murther before God art 4. The God of Daniel This is the fourth point considerable here Darius speaketh of the living God as naturall men doe with a note of estrangement of affection he applyeth him to Daniel as the God of Daniel but applyeth him not to himselfe as making him his owne God but rather doth insinuate that hee had another God then Daniels God So doe naturall spirits destitute of faith stand afarre off from God and bide at a distance with God whereas onely faith can claim interest in God and father it selfe upon the Lord Laban speaketh thus to Jacob Gen. 31. 29. The God of your father spake to mee yesterday Exod. 8. 25. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said Goe yee sacrifice to your God in the land 1 King 13. 6. Jeroboam saith to the Prophet Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God and pray for me and Rachab speaking in the name of the people of Jericho saith Iosh. 2. 11. For the Lord your God hee is God in the Heaven above and in the earth beneath unbelief maketh the unbeleever that which he is even a bastard and stranger not a sonne nor an heire whereas faith challengeth right and heritage in God Psalme 5. 2. Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my King and my God Psalme 7. 1. O Lord my God in thee doe I put my trust Psalme 18. 1 2. The Lord is my strength The Lord is my rock my fortresse and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my Buckler and the horne of my salvation my high tower here bee nine relations nine My'es 2 Chr. 20. 12. Our God wilt thou not judge them Ezra 9. 6. O my God I am ashamed c. Dan. 9. 4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God the three children say Daniel 3. 17. Our God is able to deliver us Ioh. 20. 28. Thomas said my Lord my God Daniel here is made proprietor and heritor of the true and living God and Darius and all his people have their owne Gods called the gods of nations and Darius puteth it as a ground That the God which any man serveth and trusteth in hee hath a relation to him as to his owne God every man may by Law claime what is his owne Hence are these two questions to be discussed 1. Quest Whether Application bee essentiall to Faith or not 2. What ground have those who heare of God and those within the visible Church to call God their God For the discussion of the first these following assertions may resolve us 1. Assertion Faith is more then a naked hungry and poore assent to the truth there is in it a fiduciall acquiescence and a leaning upon JEHOVAH expressed by divers expressions full of marrow as Psalme 22. 8. He trusted the Hebrewes say He rolled himselfe on JEHOVAH which is when a wearied man sweating under a burden casteth himself and his burden both upon a place or a bed of rest Gol El-Jehovah as that Psal. 55. 22. Cast thy burden on JEHOVAH and 1 Pet. 5. 7. Roll all your care on him Psalme 37. the Chaldee Paraphrase saith on the place for he rolled himselfe on God I spake prayses to God which holdeth forth that Faith is a worke of the heart and affection rather then of the minde So Psalme 37. 5. Resigne and give over or roll over thy wayes to the Lord as Jerom doth well turne it Bibl. Complutense flee in to Jehovah Psalme 18. 18. They prevented me in the day of my calamitie but Jehovah was my stay referring this to the Lord his bearing up of Davids heart in his trouble which in reason cannot be denied Misâ—gnan is as Arias Montanus turneth it fulcrum Junius scipio or baculus the seventy Interpreters {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Lord was Davids stay and his staffe so is the word used Esay 3. 1. The Lord taketh from Judah the stay and the staffe and it is not evill that Christ is the sinners stay and the lamed mans staffe Esay 26. 3. Thou wilt keepe him in perfect peace whose minde is stayed as a house holden up by a proppe on thee Psalme 112. He that feareth the Lord is not afraid of ill tidings because his heart is fixed Samuch Libbo leaning on the Lord and beleeving is not simply in the word a giving credit to God in what hee saith but it is when men put their weight on God as Esay 10 20. The residue of Israel shall leane upon the Lord the Holy one of Israel and so is the word Micah 3. 11. They leane upon the Lord saying Is not the Lord amongst us and faith is termed Hebrewes 11. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the substance of things hoped for some doe not ill expound it to bee the pillar and ground-stone of the soule in expecting good from God and so is it the buckler of faith Ephes. 6. 16. and these two words say that Faith is a most valiant Souldier which yeeldeth not to that which commeth against it but that the beleever when hee is killed and fallen doth still stand and live Doeg is thus made a wicked man Psalme 52. 7. Loe this is the man that
God that the flying roll and book of vengeance twentie cubits long and ten cubits broad shall enter into such a mans house and remain in the midst thereof and shall consume it both timber stones Zac. 5. 4. When God declareth himself angry mountains and hils do tremble Psal. 114. 3. The sea saw it and fled Jordan was driven back 4. The mountaines skipped like Rammes and the little hils like Lambs 5. What ailed thee O thou Sea that thou fleddest thou Jordan that thou wast driven back ver. 7. Tremble thou earth at tho presence of the Lord Hab. 3. 10. The mountains saw thee and they trembled That God is now angry it may appeare 1. Because your adversaries never prospered in any warres before and now the Lord hath girded them with strength 2. The godly man is taken away it is cleare then there is evill comming Esay 57. 1. Mich. 7 1. When an old sheep fleeth into an hedge it is like a storme is comming 3. There be more bloud shed then would have recovered the Palatinate 6. We are to tremble when the Lord is like to depart and that Christ and the Gospel shall depart from this Kingdome is intended by Papists and Prelates for the extirpation of Protestants and Protestant Religion is the designe of Babylon and of those in whom is any of her spirit and consider what this is Hos. 9. 12. Though Ephraim bring np children yet wil I bereave her of them that not a man shall be left that is a sad condition but this is a sadder case comming also wo be to them when I depart from them Zach. 11. 9. Then said I I wil feed you no more Nay but say some we are not to tremble at that if the Gospel be removed and Popery come in we shall have the good old world and plenty of all things Take heed of that good old world in these same words I will feed you no more that which perisheth let it perish and that which is cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eate the flesh one of another woe woe to the Land if the Lord depart from us and remove his Kingdome this is worse then the Sword therefore let Christ have welcome in the land and his Throne be exalted and his Temple builded that hee may delight to come and fill the Temple with the Cloud of his Glory That they tremble and feare Darius requireth outward subjection to the God of Daniel even trembling and inward subjection feare and both being put together he then would teach that the true God should have the highest bensill and outmost pitch of the strength of the affections of feare desire joy love c. Hence it may bee questioned whether or no affections in their highest pitch are conducible in Gods Service I answer in these Assertions 1. Assertion Those affections which goe before the deliberate acts of understanding doe overcloud and mist reason and marre the acts of beleeving in God and serving and obeying God Luke 24. 41. The disciples beleeved not for joy and wondered So hungring for Christs presence doth sometime hinder faith and this is seene here tam misere cupio ut vix credam I so eagerly long for Christ that I beleeve never to enjoy him 2. Assertion The more grace the lesse passion I meane the lesse inordinate affection this is cleare in Christ Jesus in whom was the fulnesse of grace and therefore affections in him were rather actions then passions Iohn 11. 3. Jesus groaned in spirit and was troubled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he troubled himselfe Christ did call upon sorrow to rise and sorrow in him did not arise uncalled affections in Christ were servants in us they are masters There is mud in our bottome even when our affections are liquid and cleare in the brimme especially the sensitive part is clayie and drimmely water 2. Grace is a good stirseman and overmastereth passion and reason in the renewed man is made a masse of Grace and the most mortified have most reason and strongest light Romans 8. 7. The carnall minde that is the unmortified minde is enmitie with God Philippians 3. 8. Yea doubtlesse and I count all things losse for the super-excellent knowledge of God in Christ Iesus my Lord Then he was dead to all his priviledges that hee might excell in the knowledge of Christ and where there is little or no mortification there is little or no heavenly light therefore 2 Pet. 3. 5. walkers after their lusts and mockers and scoffers at the day of Christs second comming are willingly ignorant and brutish in that which they should know and so there is as much Clay in the Fountaine as Water 3. Assertion The more faith the lesse passion for as some say of the Sunne that light is not an accident of the Sun but the essence thereof so as the Sunne is but a masse and body of pure light so is faith a Globe of heavenly light of reason The beleever is the most reasonable man in the world hee who doth all by faith doth all by the light of sound reason and Paul 2 Thess. 3. prayeth to be delivered from unreasonable men but how unreasonable because verse 2. they have no faith faith is a beame of Heavens light Idolaters are farre from faith and so they are cruell and superlative in passions of anger hatred envie for this cause Babylon is fat with drinking much blood When mortification is commanded Rom. 12. 1. it hath the name to be called reasonable service to God 4. Assertion If the action bee done in faith the more affection in the action the better But if it bee not done in the light of faith the action is the worse Jehu casteth downe Altars from anger and fury not from faith Hezekiah casteth Altars from the light of faith and zeale If a strong ship bee faire before the winde if all other things bee right the more winde the better so two principles of grace in Hezekiah are better then one carnall principle in Iehu In reformers of the Lords house and in those who purge the Temple and cast out the buyers and the sellers there should bee strong affections of love anger zeale but all these are bad principles if there bee not much light of sound faith in reformers yet a caution is here needfull In actions of the second table where our selfe or our neighbour and not God or Religion hath place the higher bent the affection bee the action is the worse duties to Prince parents husband wife children Parliament require not all the love all the feare all the joy halfe love is best here and it is good that love feare joy desire anger goe by ounce weights but Reformation God Religion calleth for all the heart all the soule all the strength Psalme 42. 2. Davids soule and his flesh are allowed in seeking after the living God to long to faint to cry out with a shout for the living God so
ordinances of the Moon and Stars for a light by night which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roare the Lord of hosts is his name vers. 36. If these ordinances depart from before mee saith the Lord then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a Nation before me for ever I might alledge other Scriptures also as Jer. 32. 39 40. Ezech. 36. 26 27 28 29. Esai 54. 10 11 12. Esai 59. 21. Heb. 8. 7 8 9 10 11. Now then because God hath bottomed the eternity of his Church upon his own unchangeable counsell they must raze the acts of Heaven who can take away the Church of God I leave it to the thoughts of the judicious if the rooting out of the Protestant Religion bee a rationall purpose of intelligent men What if we should imagine a society of transported men should convene in Parliament and make Statutes thus We ordain as a Law and Statute that from the 22. of January the Sunne shall shine no more by day and the Moone and Starres shall give no more light by night also we inhibite and discharge under the highest pain of treason from this time forth the Sea shall never ebbe or flow again These or the like should be but the notions of sick imiginations acts of night counsels have been these first fire the City of London secondly cut off the Parliament thirdly leave not alive in Ireland a Protestant or their seed fourthly roote them all out of France and Germany fifthly destroy Scotland and their Covenant sixthly undoe all reformation of Religion in Brittain Secondly Consider the strength of the Church of God Numb. 24. 8. He hath as it were the strength of an Vnicorn he shall eat up the nations his enemies he shall break his bones and pierce them thorow with his arrowes Why and the Church is but a feeble worme let it be so yet he saith Esay 41. 14. Feare not worm Jacob and yee men of Israel I will helpe thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee vers. 15. Behold I will make thee worme as thou art a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hils as chaffe vers. 16. Thou shalt fanne them and the winde shall carry them away and the whirle winde shall scatter them You have not seen such a miracle that a worme shall destroy a great mountain and blow it away as chaffe But it is Gods way that Omnipotence rides on a straw on a worme and triumph And how can it be but thus The Church is the weakest thing in the earth but in God incomparably the strongest Psalme 46. 1. God is our refuge and strength Gods strength is the absolute greatest strength and so overcome God and overcome the Church for a greater strength must overcome the lesse Where dwelleth hee in earth in Hell or in Heaven who hath strength above the strength of God they doe not flie to the strongest side who desert the Parliament and flie to Oxford they run but downe to Egypt but Esay 30. 7. Their strength is to sit still Thirdly the destroying of the Church is not a worke of reason or deep policie as men suppose they will but swallow downe and drinke the Protestants let them be doing and goe on Put the Church of Christ in a cup and drink her but you will be sick when shee is in your belly and had better drinke many quarts of lead or brasse melted and coming hot out of the furnace for Zach 12. 2 There is poison and death in the cup I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about The gall the wormwood the poyson of the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of his Temple is in the cup Drink who will they shall be sick and drunken and vomit and fall and die in their vomit and never rise again Pharaoh dranke of this cup but he was killed with it and made fishes meat Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazar dranke but they swelled hand and foot and died Herod Acts 12. had the cup at his head and tooke a draught of this wine but he was stricken with wormes Papists Prelates the Irish good Catholique subjects the Emperour Spaine Rome the Antichrist the powers of the earth are now drinking one to another and the cup of trembling goeth in a round to them all but consider how sick they shall be Zach. 14. 12. And this shall bee the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their eye-holes and their tongue shall consume away in their mouths Babylons cup-bearers and Atheists and Malignants to whom the morning of a sound reformation is as the shadow of death would then know how deadly a cup is now at their head Fourthly consider Gods promises to his Church There is a true Diurnall written from Heaven that God is to make a glorious Church in the end of the world Esa. 30. 26. Moreover the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And when the new resurrection shall bee I mean the in-coming of that elder sister the Church of the Jewes Rom. 11. 15. and when all Israel shall be saved What a glorious house shall he build for the Lord when that shall be fulfilled Esay 60. 13. And the glory of Lebanon shall come unto theee the fir-tree the pine-tree and the boxe together to beautifie the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious v. 14. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending to thee and all they that despised thee shal bow themselves down at the soals of thy feet and they shal cal thee The City of the Lord The Zion of the holy One of Israel v. 19. The sunne shal no more be thy light by day neither for brightnesse shal the moon give light unto thee but the Lord shal be thine everlasting light and the dayes of thy mourning shal be ended All which with many other places do make God say That the Church shall stand and never be prevailed against by the very gates of hell Fifthly Christ cannot leave off to be a King therefore his Kingdome must stand there is a seed and a reward promised to Christ for his labours Esay 53. 10. There bee Articles of grace concluded betwixt the Father and his Sonne which cannot be broken Sixthly there are in all the sufferings of the Church two things most considerable first a turn secondly a contexture a turne or returne Gen. 39. 21 22. Joseph was cast in prison But the Lord was with Joseph Gen. 49. 23. The archers have sorely grieved Joseph and shot at him and hated him but consider the returne vers. 24. But his
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