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<DATE>2009-01-07</DATE>
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<NAME>Emma Leeson Huber</NAME>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
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<P>Heaven Ravi&s;hed: OR A Glorious <HI>Prize,</HI> atchieved by an Heroicall <HI>Enterprize: As it was lately Pre&s;ented</HI> In A SERMON TO THE Honourable Hou&s;e of Commons, at their &s;olemn Fa&s;t, <HI>May</HI> 29. 1644. By HENRY HALL, <HI>B. D.</HI> late Fellow of <HI>Trin.</HI> Coll. in <HI>Cambridge.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Printed by Order of the &s;aid Hou&s;e.</HI></P>
<Q><BIBL>1 COR. 9.24.</BIBL>
 Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that ye may obtaine.</Q>
<P>Printed by <HI>J. Raworth,</HI> for <HI>Samuel Gellibrand,</HI> and are to be &s;old at his &s;hop at the &s;igne of the <HI>Bra&s;en-Serpent</HI> in <HI>Pauls-Churchyard.</HI> 1644.</P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
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<HEAD>TO The Honourable Hou&s;e of <HI>Commons,</HI> now a&s;&s;embled in PARLIAMENT.</HEAD>
<P>_I Have offered violence to my &s;elfe to &s;atisfie your de&s;ires, in Preaching fir&s;t, and next in publi&s;hing, the&s;e weake and cour&s;e-&s;pun meditations; fitter indeede for a popular auditory then &s;uch an awfull and judicious a&s;&s;embly concerning which I may fitly &s;ay what <HI>Zeba</HI> and <HI>Zalmunna</HI> &s;ometimes did of <HI>Gideons</HI> brethren, <HI>each one re&s;embled the chil|dren of a King,</HI> Jud. <HI>8.18.</HI> or as <HI>Cyneas</HI> the Emba&s;&s;ador of <HI>Pyrrhus</HI> being asked af|ter his return from Rome, what he thought of the City and State, made an&s;were <GAP DESC="foreign">, the &s;ame may I, with better rea&s;on, &s;ay of your Honourable Se|nate, It &s;eemed unto me to looke like a little Common-wealth of Kings. When fir&s;t I under&s;tood you had de&s;igned me (the unfitte&s;t in many re&s;pects you could have thought upon) unto this &s;olemne &s;ervice: I re&s;ented it truely no otherwi&s;e than <HI>Jonah</HI> did his me&s;&s;age to <HI>Nineveh,</HI> with much trouble and emotion of &s;pirit, not to &s;ay di&s;content: and as forward &s;hould I have beene as he (had not a &s;trong band of rea&s;on and con|&s;cience held me backe) to flye to <HI>Tar&s;us</HI> or any whither el&s;e, rather then undertake the Province you had called me to: Not out of any di&s;affection to the worke, or the Authority that &s;ummoned me to it, which I &s;hall alwayes honour, and next to that of Gods, e&s;teeme &s;acred; but being &s;en&s;ible of nothing more in all this world, then mine owne defects: and knowing well how hard a matter I finde it to &s;atisfie my &s;elfe, I held it impo&s;&s;ible for me to bring forth ought that might &s;atisfie others (e&s;pecially &s;uch a grave Court of great State&s;men) either in the Pulpit or the Pre&s;&s;e. However &s;ince you are plea&s;ed out of your ingenuity and candor, not onely to owne this worthle&s;&s;e piece, but to over value it &s;o far, as to call it forth into the publique light, having no|thing el&s;e to &s;way with me, be&s;ides the obedience I owe to your commands, I do there|fore in all humility pre&s;ent it unto your honourable acceptance, &s;uch as it is it glorieth to be yours, and were all the body of this &s;imple di&s;cour&s;e, like <HI>Solomons Lineae aureae cum punctis argenteis, Cant. 1.11.</HI> wrought with lines of gold and en|ameled with pearles, I &s;hould not hold it too rich a pre&s;ent, for &s;uch unparalleld Wor|thies, which have honoured God &s;o much, and are &s;o much honoured by him. Your ex|emplary zeale and piety, your Noble and heroicall atchieuments, for the honour of our God, and the advancement of his kingdome, hath already &s;tamped for you &s;uch an Im|pre&s;&s;ion of re&s;pect and reverence, in the e&s;timations and thoughts of all the godly, that you &s;eeme to be <HI>as the &s;tones of a crown lifted up, and as an En&s;igne upon our Land, Zech. 9.16.</HI> Go on and pro&s;per, mo&s;t worthy Senators, in the great worke which you have &s;o happily begun, till you &s;hall have fully crowned our hopes, and perfected your owne mo&s;t glorious undertakings. Never had any Parliament ei|ther
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&s;o glorious a prize as you have to contend for, or &s;o many potent adver&s;aries, op|po&s;itions, and difficulties, to encounter with: but this may &s;erve as a more then &s;uffici|ent encouragement to hearten you on, that you have a good God, a Noble Cau&s;e, an Honourable Reward, and what could you wi&s;h more? See what you have done alrea|dy, and let your former, many and precious experiences of divine favour and a&s;&s;i&s;tance, animate you to waite upon God, with an unwearied patience, till he &s;hall make all your enemies of the Synagogue of Sathan, to come and wor&s;hip before your feete, and to know that he hath loved you. Con&s;ider how many great and &s;tupendious workes God hath already made you in&s;truments to bring about. How many mighty <HI>Nimrods</HI> have you cut down? how many yoakes of oppre&s;&s;ion and tyranny have you broken? how many dying Saints have you revived? The Lord hath made darkene&s;&s;e light before you, and crooked things &s;treight, he hath levelled mountaines, and rai&s;ed vallies; what enterprize have you taken in hand, which hath not in the I&s;&s;ue pro&s;pered beyond your expectations? You have &s;prung a myne under the walls of <HI>Babylon,</HI> un&s;etled the Throu of the Bea&s;t. Behold how the Antichri&s;tian faction langui&s;heth, the Pontificall chaire reeles, the Miters wither, the triple Crowne &s;hakes: that which the Lord threatned &s;ometimes again&s;t one of the wor&s;t of the Kings of <HI>Judah,</HI> the &s;ame he &s;eemes to doe now again&s;t the great Monarch of <HI>Babylon, Remove the Diadem, take away the Crown, I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, untill he come who&s;e right it is, and I will give it him, Ezek 22.26, 27.</HI> Me thinkes I &s;ee the proud turrets, and battlements of Rome falling, and Sion ri&s;ing up faire as the morning, <HI>cleere as the moone, terrible as an Army with Banners.</HI> How&s;oever this is certaine, God hath promi&s;ed, and he will no doubt in due time make it good, which we have in the Prophet. E&s;ay <HI>24.23. The moone &s;hall be confounded, and the Sunne a&s;hamed, when the Lord of Ho&s;ts &s;hall reigne in Mount Sion, and before all his ancients gloriou&s;ly.</HI> I hope the happy time is at hand, which God hath appointed for the full working out of his Glory and our deliverance, and that this dawning of our hopes may break forth into a perfect day of joy and tri|umph, It is and &s;hall be the earne&s;t and con&s;tant prayer of</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>Your mo&s;t unworthy Servant in the worke of Chri&s;t, HEN: HALL.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
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<BIBL>MATTH. 11.12.</BIBL>
<Q>And from the dayes of <HI>John</HI> the Baptist untill now, the Kingdom of the heavens &s;uffereth vio|lence, and the violent take it by force.</Q>
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<P>_THis Text is not entire of it &s;elf, but linked in ne|ce&s;&s;ary connexion with that which went before, for clearing whereof we may borrow light at the next doore: If we plea&s;e to go back a little and take the advantage of a run, the coherence will &s;hew that our Saviour having in the former chap|t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">r cho&s;en the 12. Apo&s;tles, and &s;ent them out to Preach in the Cities of <HI>Jury,</HI> here in the beginning of this he goes him&s;elf about the &s;ame errand, to preach the Go&s;pell in the Cities of <HI>Galilee,</HI> for &s;o the current of Interpretors carrieth the &s;ence of tho&s;e words,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Paraeus in loc. Cor. a lapide in loc. &amp; a<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">i Com|plares.</NOTE> <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 1. <HI>He departed thence to Teach and to Preach in their Cities,</HI> re|ferring it to the Apo&s;tles who were all or mo&s;t of them of <HI>Galilee.</HI> The promulgation of the glad tydings of the Kingdom of heaven, now ready to be revealed, it was a matter of that grand importance and generall concernment unto all, that our Saviour thought fit to di&s;per&s;e him&s;elf and his Apo&s;tles &s;everall wayes, that all the Cities and parts of the land might with more convenience be &s;ummo|ned to take notice of it.</P>
<P><HI>John</HI> the Bapti&s;t, he had indeed awakened the people as with the &s;ound of a Trumpet, and &s;tirred them up to a generall expectation of the <HI>Me&s;&s;ias</HI> his comming, but yet many of them remained in &s;u&s;pence, and were not &s;o well &s;atisfied about the per&s;on of the <HI>Me&s;&s;ias,</HI> whether <HI>John</HI> him&s;elf or <HI>Je&s;us</HI> was He, as appeares <HI>Luk.</HI>
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3.15. This &s;cruple was nece&s;&s;ary to be cleared, and therefore <HI>John</HI> being ca&s;t into pri&s;on, and now neere unto his Martyrdom, he di&s;|patcheth out two of his Di&s;ciples in an Emba&s;&s;y unto Chri&s;t, to know of him whether he was <GAP DESC="foreign"> that grand Redeemer of <HI>I<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">rael,</HI> &s;o much de&s;ired and &s;o long expected, or whether they &s;hould look for &s;ome other, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 2.3.</P>
<P><NOTE PLACE="marg"><P>J<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">n Ma<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 span"></P><P><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 span"> c. 12.</P></NOTE>It was not out of any doubt that <HI>John</HI> him&s;elf had (as &s;ome An|cients have thought) that he &s;ent unto Chri&s;t this me&s;&s;age, for the Oracle from heaven had &s;atisfied him in this, and He others, <HI>John</HI> 1.32, 33. &amp;c. But it was out of a pious de&s;ire to imform and &s;ettle his Di&s;ciples who were not yet &s;o well re&s;olved in that matter, as <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom</HI> and other Interpreters Ancient and Modern have ob|&s;erved.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Luk <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> 22.</NOTE> Our Saviour therefore having at that time, as appeares by another paralell place, wrought &s;undry miracles in healing the &s;ick, clen&s;ing the Lepers, rai&s;ing the dead, he returnes this an&s;wer, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 4, 5, 6. <HI>Go and &s;hew unto Iohn what things you have heard and &s;een,</HI> implying fairely, that &s;uch divine words and works, carried light and conviction enough along with them, to bewray the Author of them, and that he were little other than a miracle of unbeleef, whom &s;uch great wonders and miracles could not move.</P>
<P>Hereupon the Di&s;ciples of <HI>Iohn</HI> being &s;ent away with their an|&s;wer, he turnes his &s;peech to the multitude, and gives out a large and ample te&s;timony unto <HI>Iohn,</HI> commending him greatly for his per&s;onall vertues, and his High Office, and the &s;ingular effect and fruit thereof, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 7, 8, 9, 10 11, 12.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, for his per&s;onall vertues he was a man of a grave &s;pirit, of a con&s;tant and wel-&s;etled Judgment, not wavering and reeling to and fro, like a reede &s;haken with the wind in which is no &s;tedfa&s;tne&s;&s;e; for how&s;oever the people might haply think by occa&s;ion of this me&s;&s;age,<NOTE PLACE="marg">John 1.19. and <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">.34. &amp; <HI>cap.</HI> 3.28.</NOTE> that <HI>Iohn</HI> after his impri&s;onment might change his minde and not retaine the &s;ame opinion of Chri&s;t which he had before, yet our Saviour cleares him from any umbrage of &s;uch a &s;u&s;pition by that <HI>quaere</HI> which he puts forth to the multitude, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 7. <HI>What went ye out into the wilderne&s;&s;e to &s;ee?</HI> intimating that they could not in rea&s;on &s;uppo&s;e that Camell-hayred Prophet, haunting the Wil|derne&s;&s;e, to be &s;uch a fickle, humorous, and de&s;ultory temporizer as tho&s;e &s;mooth &s;ilken Chaplains are wont to be, that are in the Courts and Palaces of Princes.</P>
<P N="2">2. He extolls his Office and Function, he being not onely a Pro|phet
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but much more then a Prophet, <HI>v.</HI> 9. The ancient Prophets they &s;aw Chri&s;t a far off but <HI>Iohn</HI> &s;aw him face to face; they fore-&s;hewed his comming, but <HI>Iohn</HI> was his harbinger and immediate fore-runner, that pointed him out with his &s;inger, &s;aying, <HI>this is he,</HI> in which re&s;pect our Saviour rankes him above the chiefe of Pro|phets, and makes him the greate&s;t meere man that ever was born of a woman, and yet withall gives a prerogative of excellencie to the meane&s;t Officer in the Kingdom of heaven above him, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 11. which mu&s;t not be under&s;tood of inherent holine&s;&s;e or per&s;onall grace (for in that re&s;pect the ordinary mini&s;ters of the Go&s;pell are much inferiour unto <HI>Iohn</HI>) but it is to be interpreted of their more honourable Office and Function, in which they go beyond <HI>Iohn,</HI> and excell him as far as he did the former Prophets, it being a re|ceived maxim,<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Minimus maximi e&s;t ma|jor maximo mi|n<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">mi.</NOTE> that he that is <HI>lea&s;t</HI> in a greater Order, is greater than the <HI>greate&s;t</HI> of a le&s;&s;er Order; as in the Schools, he that hath pro|ceeded a ma&s;ter in the Arts, though but an Inceptor and of the la|te&s;t Edition, is above the highe&s;t Batchelours; and the meane&s;t Knight above the greate&s;t E&s;quire.</P>
<P N="3">3. But the principall commendation of <HI>Iohn</HI> and the faire&s;t flower in all his garland is taken from the &s;ingular effect and force of his mini&s;tery, it being not dull and &s;luggi&s;h, but lively and powerfull in operation upon the con&s;ciences of men, and crowned with a more then ordinary &s;ucce&s;&s;e and fruit, and that is pre&s;ented unto us in the Text now in hand; <HI>From the dayes of John the Bapti&s;t untill now, the Kingdom of Heaven &s;uffereth viol<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nce, &amp;c.</HI></P>
<P>The words then hold out unto us a glorious Spectacle, a goodly &s;ight well worth the beholding, and that is the Kingdom of hea|ven ravi&s;hed; or if you will here's a Noble prize atchieved by an honourable and heroicall enterprize, together with the condition and &s;ucce&s;&s;e of the enterprizers, and the period and date of all this.</P>
<P N="1">1. The Noble prize to be atchieved is the Kingdom of Heaven. 2. The honourable and heroicall enterprize is to invade and &s;eize upon this Kingdom. 3. The condition and quality of the enter|prizers, they are not remi&s;&s;e and &s;lack, but eager and violent. 4. The I&s;&s;ue and &s;ucce&s;&s;e of the enterprizers, they prevaile in their de&s;ign and take the Kingdom by force. 5. The period or date from which this violence begins, and how long it continues, <HI>from the dayes of Iohn the Bapti&s;t untill now. Johns</HI> mini&s;tery was but of a few dayes and of a &s;hort continuance, but he kindled in that &s;hort time &s;uch
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a light of knowledge, and &s;uch a flame of affection in the hearts of men, as no oppo&s;ition could put out, but it continued like the mor|ning &s;tar, &s;till blazing and glowing more and more till Chri&s;t came the Sun of righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, and he with his Apo&s;tles was &s;o far from quenching the &s;moaking flax, that taking the Lamp out of <HI>Johns</HI> hands, he blew it up to a greater height, and made it burn more cleer and bright.</P>
<P>And from Chri&s;ts time to the end of the world, where&s;oever the Go&s;pell is preached, which is the mini&s;tery of the Spirit, di&s;cove|ring glorious things in the Kingdom of heaven, and working mighty impre&s;&s;ions upon the con&s;ciences of men by meanes of &s;uch di&s;coveries, there will be violence offered and re&s;olute at|tempts and enterprizes taken in hand, for the atchieving and com|pa&s;&s;ing of tho&s;e glorious things.</P>
<P>The&s;e are the parts of this Text, all fraught with precious and choyce materialls; I &s;hall endeavour fir&s;t <GAP DESC="foreign"> to top the&s;e &s;heaves and to beat out the meaning of the &s;everall parts, and then we &s;hall the better come to reape from them &s;uch fruits of In&s;tru|ction as they will afford.</P>
<P>I begin with the fir&s;t particular propounded, The glorious prize here held out, which is the Kingdom of heaven; and to omit the various u&s;e of the notion (if yet it be taken at all in a various u&s;e) for I rather hold with the Judicious <HI>Cameron,</HI> that it imports al|wayes one and the &s;ame thing,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Cam. praelect. in Mat. <HI>c. 18. v. 1.</HI> Regnum Caelo|vum unum &amp; idem &s;ignificat in &s;criptura nempe regnum Chri&s;ti, quod &amp; regnum Dei dicitur &s;ive Statum &amp; con|ditionem Eccle&s;iae quae proprie Chri&s;tiana dici|tur.</NOTE> even the Kingdom of Chri&s;t the me|diator over the Church and people of the <HI>New Te&s;tament,</HI> with the preaching of the Go&s;pell and the other Ordinances of Evan|gelicall and Chri&s;tian wor&s;hip which properly belong there|unto.</P>
<P>There is fir&s;t a Kingdom of power and providence which Chri&s;t hath, as God over all the world; Angels, and men, and devils, be|ing put in &s;ubjection under him, and of this the Prophet &s;peakes, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 102. <HI>v.</HI> 19. <HI>The Lord hath prepared his Throne in heaven, and his Kingdom ruleth over all,</HI> this is not meant here.</P>
<P N="2">2. There is a Kingdom of Grace, which Chri&s;t as Mediator ex|erci&s;ed in a more e&s;peciall and peculiar manner, over the Church and Common-wealth of the <HI>Jewes,</HI> before the time of his Incar|nation and comming into the world; for even the <HI>Jewes</HI> as well as we,<NOTE PLACE="marg">vid. <HI>Iud.</HI> 8.23. 1 Sam. 1.7. &amp;c. <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">1 Sam. 12.12.</NOTE> were unto God a Kingdom of Prie&s;ts and an holy Nation, <HI>Exod.</HI> 19.5. and the Lord was their King, Judge, and Lawgiver,
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<HI>E&s;ay</HI> 33.22. and <HI>Salomon,</HI> after <HI>David</HI> his Father, is &s;aid to raign over <HI>I&s;rael</HI> &s;itting upon the thron of Jah, 1 <HI>Chron.</HI> 29 23. and hence as one of the Ancients <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Eu&s;ebius praep. Evan. lib. <HI>8.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> &mdash; <GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> well ob&s;erves out of <HI>Jo&s;ephus,</HI> The Poli|tick State and form of Government among the <HI>Jewes,</HI> It was nei|ther a Monarchy, nor an Ari&s;tocracy, nor a Democracy, but a Theo|cracy or Divine Government, the Son of God being in that Com|mon-wealth Commander in Chief, and ordering all things therein according to his own will.</P>
<P>Chri&s;t therefore reigned over the <HI>Jewes</HI> as mediator many hun|dreds of yeeres before he was born of the Virgin Mother, the Kingdom and government even then was upon his &s;houlders, yet you &s;hall never finde throughout all the whol Scripture, that State and manner of Chri&s;ts Raign over the Church of the Old Te&s;ta|ment called The Kingdom of Heaven, and the principall rea&s;on &s;eemes to be this, becau&s;e the whol policy and form of it, was Typicall and Ceremoniall, all things being carried then in clouds and &s;hadows and my&s;ticall prefigurations of good things to come, the truth and &s;ub&s;tance whereof was not yet exhibited and re|vealed.</P>
<P>Hence the Apo&s;tle &s;huns not to call the Jewi&s;h Tabernacle, <HI>a worldly Sanctuary, Heb.</HI> 9.1. and their Ordinances and rites of Wor&s;hip, <HI>carnall Ordinances,</HI> impo&s;ed onely untill the time of reformation, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 10. the like cen&s;ure he is bold to pa&s;&s;e upon their &s;acrifices and offerings, They were only patterns and <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> figures of things in the heavens, and not the heavenly things them&s;elves, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 23. the people al&s;o were in compari&s;on of the Chri&s;tian Church, a carnall people, and the whole oeconomy and frame of their Religion, wor&s;hip, and government, was to be &s;haken and removed, as with an earth-quake, at Chri&s;ts comming, <HI>Heb.</HI> 2.27. <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Vid. E&s;tium &amp; Cor. a lapide in loc.</NOTE> therefore that pollicy and ceremoniall forme of Church admini|&s;tration, was not fit to be called by &s;o high and glorious a Title, <HI>The Kingdom of heaven.</HI></P>
<P>But now in the dayes and by the mini&s;tery of <HI>John</HI> the Bapti&s;t the Leviticall Paedagogie, with all the carnall rudiments and um|brages of it, began to wax old, and to weare out of date; another manner of Church State much more &s;pirituall, entring then up|on the Stage and comming in by degrees in the roome of it, which therefore in the New Te&s;tament is commonly called, The Kingdom of heaven.*</P>
<P><PB N="6" REF="6">The mother place in Scripture from which this notion was de|rived is <HI>Dan.</HI> 2.44. <HI>In the dayes of tho&s;e Kings the God of heaven &s;hall &s;et up a Kingdom which &s;hall never be de&s;troyed, &amp;c.</HI> this pa&s;&s;age <HI>Aben-Ezra</HI> and the Jewi&s;h Rabbins do generally interpret, as <HI>Ca|meron</HI> ob&s;erves, of the <HI>Me&s;&s;ias</HI> his Kingdom, which they were wont to call <GAP DESC="foreign"> the Kingdome of heaven. <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><P>Dru&s;ius praet. in <HI>Luc. 15.18.</HI> peccavi in cae|lum <HI>i.e.</HI> in deum nam <GAP DESC="foreign"> unum e&s;&s;e ex no|minibus dei &s;ci|unt omnes qui illam lingnam callent.</P><P>Lucae <HI>20.4.</HI> Bapti&s;mus Joh. dicitur e&s;&s;e e cae|lo. i. a Deo. &s;ive divini tus.</P><P>Scitum e&s;t illud apud Hebraeos &s;it Reverentia prae ceptoris tui &s;icut reverentia caeli: &amp; illud qui venit ut &s;e mundet, adiu|vant cum de caelo.</P><P>Sic apud Latinos caelo grati&s;&s;imus omnis.</P></NOTE> The denomination is not taken as is commonly thought, from the &s;ubject or place of re&s;idence, but from the efficient rather, for with them in their Dialect, the Kingdom of the <HI>Me&s;&s;ias,</HI> or Son of God, and the Kingdom of the heavens are termes of promi&s;cuous u&s;e as they are al&s;o in Scripture, compare <HI>Mat.</HI> 70.7. with <HI>Luke</HI> 10.9. and you &s;hall finde that which in the former place is called the Kingdom of heaven, in the latter is the Kingdom of God, the difference in the thing it &s;elf being none at all, but onely in the &s;ound of words.</P>
<P>But now this Evangelicall &s;tate of the Chri&s;tian Church, called the Kingdom of heaven, it is either Militant or Triumphant, the State of Grace or the State of Glory, which for kinde and nature are both one, and differ but onely in degrees; for the State of grace what is it el&s;e but glory begun: the way to the Kingdom is not without &s;ome fir&s;t fruits of the Kingdom, &s;aith <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Non e&s;t via ad regnum &s;ine pri|mitiis regni.</NOTE> <HI>Bernard.</HI> And the State of glory on the other &s;ide, what is it el&s;e but grace fully perfect and con&s;ummate. It is the former of the&s;e which is here principally meant, to wit, the Militant E&s;tate of the Chri&s;tian Church, in which men are brought to live under the gracious and milde government of Chri&s;t; their minds being inlightned, guided, and powerfully moved and over-ruled. 1. To repent of all their &s;ins, and then, 2. To accept of the pardon and remi&s;&s;ion of them in &s;uch &s;ort as it is offered in the tenor of the New Covenant. 3. To render back as a Tribute of thankfulne&s;&s;e a free, cheerfull, univer&s;all and con&s;tant obedience to all the revealed Will of God.</P>
<P>The next thing to be cleered is how this Kingdom may be &s;aid to &s;uffer violence? And here Interpretors varie, I &s;hall give a touch of their &s;everall de&s;cantings. It may be the very di&s;cords will help to make the Mu&s;ick better and the harmony more plea&s;ing; the &s;um of all or mo&s;t of the tendries I have met with, is reducible to the&s;e three heads. The violence here &s;poken of may be taken either as it is oppo&s;ed, 1. To Natures, 2. To Ju&s;t and right, or 3. As it is oppo&s;ed to temper and moderation.</P>
<P><PB N="7" REF="6">Fir&s;t it may be taken as oppo&s;ed to that which is according to Nature: the Philo&s;ophers are wont to di&s;tingui&s;h of motion thus,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><P N="1"><HI>1.</HI> Grandis e&s;t violentia in terra nos e&s;&s;e genitos &amp; caelorum &s;edem quaerere Hieron. inloc.</P><P>Qui homo natus e&s;t angelus e&s;se de&s;iderat &amp; ter|r<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">num animall cael &s;te quaerit habitaculum Hier. ad Alga|&s;iam, Epi&s;t. <HI>151.</HI></P></NOTE> That it is either naturall or violent; naturall motion &s;prings from naturall principles, and tends to naturall objects and ends, but the motion, &s;aith <HI>Hierome</HI> of the&s;e enterprizers was not &s;uch, but vio|lent and &s;trained in re&s;pect of its principles, object, and end. It was in all the&s;e beyond the &s;pheare and compa&s;&s;e of nature: tho&s;e that were by nature born men of an elementary con&s;titution, being upon the matter little other then mu&s;hromes &s;prung out of the earth, were tran&s;ported with a more then generous affectation to become Angels, and their ambition was &s;o tran&s;cendent and &s;uper|naturall that nothing could &s;atisfie them under heaven, and this &s;ee|med to be &s;uch an extream violence again&s;t the common cour&s;e and &s;train of nature; as if fi&s;hes &s;hould affect to leave their watery Element to live in the earth, or as if Camels, and Elephants &s;hould &s;trive to leave the earth, and go live and &s;wim in the Sea.</P>
<P N="2">2. But this Interpretation it &s;elf is judged by &s;ome to be too much forced and violent, and therefore <HI>Ambro&s;e</HI> and <HI>Hillary</HI> take violence here, as oppo&s;ed to ju&s;t and right.<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Id dicitur vio|lentum quod e&s;t contra fas &amp; jus. Glo&s;&s;a &s;ic expo|nit Regnum Dei Chri&s;ti merito ju&s;titiaque ex pugna tum peca|toribus in prae|dam datur, adeo ut illi id occupent qui eo Indigni&s;|&s;imi &s;unt &s;icut raptores alieno labore parta per libitum occu|pant. &amp;c.</NOTE> We are wont you know to call them violent who invade and &s;eize upon that by force, which they have no good right nor title unto, as theeves and rob|ters do by the high way In like manner the Gentiles, &s;ay the&s;e Authors, who had no right unto the Kingdom of Heaven (for they were &s;trangers from the Common-wealth of <HI>I&s;raell,</HI> aliens from the Covenants of promi&s;e, without God and without hope in the world) yet they came thronging and crowding in how&s;oever: whether they had any good tenure or no <HI>quo jure quaque Injuri&acirc;,</HI> they came according to our Saviours prediction, from the Ea&s;t and from the We&s;t, and from the North, and from the South, and &s;ea|ted them&s;elves in the Kingdome of God, whiles the Jewes which were <HI>the children of the Kingdom were ca&s;t out of doores,</HI> Luk. 13.28.29. <HI>Rapuit Eccle&s;ia regnum,</HI> a Synagogue &s;aith <HI>Ambro&s;e,</HI> the Jewes being <HI>Abrahams</HI> children thought this kingdom to be an inheri|tance due unto them onely, in re&s;pect of their lineall de&s;cent and propagation from their Ance&s;tors, but the Gentiles came by force and &s;houldered them out, and took all their Ancient rights and Priviledges from them. This expo&s;ition carries &s;moothne&s;&s;e and concinnity enough with it, and might well be admitted were it not that it antedates a little too &s;oone the conver&s;ion of the Gen|tiles
<PB N="8" REF="7">
who &s;prung not in with &s;uch violence nor in &s;uch numbers and multitudes&punc; till after the dayes of <HI>Iohn</HI> the Bapti&s;t in who&s;e time yet this violence began.</P>
<P N="3"><NOTE PLACE="marg">Hi &s;unt qui per vim irrumpunt ac veluti Januam fracturi urgent. Adeo avidi &s;unt ut nulla vi ab &s;trahi po&s;&s;unt &s;ed potius moriuntur quam ab&s;tra|hu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">tur ab Evan|gelio. <HI>Luth.</HI> in loc. &s;ic plerique alu.</NOTE>3. Therefore the more received, and as I think the more judici|ous interpretation of this violence here takes it as oppo&s;ed to tem|per and moderation, for &s;o in moralls we account them violent who are not dull and &s;luggi&s;h, but earne&s;t and &s;erious in their work, warm and zealous in their pur&s;uite, impetuous and re&s;olute in their undertakings, and &s;uch was the di&s;po&s;ition of many people in <HI>Johns</HI> dayes, they were &s;o bent and &s;et upon the Kingdom of heaven, that no difficulties or di&s;couragements could take them off, they would have a &s;hare what&s;oever it co&s;t them. As Souldiers when they lye before a be&s;ieged City, they &s;et to their long ladders and Scale the walls, and when they are got in they flye upon the &s;poyl, and &s;eize upon what ever comes next to hand; &s;o was the cour&s;e of the&s;e violent ones. The Kingdom of heaven was no &s;ooner opened, but they &s;prung in and took hold of this glorious prize, and carried all away before them with maine force.</P>
<P>But there is yet another Interpretation of this place given by <HI>Melancton,</HI> which though it lye a little out of the common rode, and is not much, nor &s;o far as I can finde, at all taken notice of by others, yet it &s;eemes to me very con&s;iderable and worthy of due re|gard, as well as any of the former: the &s;um of his notion, to give you an account of it in a word,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Regnum caelorum vi irrumpit, ve|nit vi non quod Chri&s;tus vi oc|cupetimperia &s;i|cut <HI>Alexander</HI> &s;ed potentia divi|na erumpit con|tra &s;urores diabo|lorum &amp; tyran|norum, &amp;c. <HI>Melanc.</HI> in loc.</NOTE> it is grounded upon the proper &s;ignification and common u&s;e of the word <GAP DESC="foreign"> which in all &s;orts of Authors is for the mo&s;t part taken in the active, and but &s;eldom and very &s;paringly in the pa&s;&s;ive, and if you plea&s;e thus to take it here, the &s;en&s;e will run cleer and &s;mooth to this effect, from the dayes of <HI>John</HI> the Bapti&s;t untill now, <HI>regnum caelorum vi ingruit vi irrumpit,</HI> the kingdom of heaven breakes in by force. As the &s;un though it may be over-ca&s;t with a dark cloud, yet the beames of it will at la&s;t break out, or as a mighty violent flood or winter torrent, though it meete with many ob&s;tructions to dam up its cour&s;e, yet it will bur&s;t through and flow over them; &s;o the king|dom of heaven how&s;oever there were oppo&s;itions rai&s;ed to ob|&s;truct the pa&s;&s;ages and proceedings of it, yet it violently ru&s;hed in bearing down all re&s;i&s;tance, removing all rubs, and raigning over all impediments that lay in the way of it.</P>
<P>This Expo&s;ition hath nothing forced nor &s;trained in it, it agreeth
<PB N="9" REF="7">
well with that native force and common u&s;e of the word, and there is another paralell place <HI>Luk.</HI> 16.16. which much favoureth this &s;ence, <HI>From the dayes of Iohn the Bapti&s;t untill now, the King|dom of heaven is preached, and every one pre&s;&s;eth into it:</HI> the word is the &s;ame there and here, and I know no rea&s;on of any force why the Active &s;ignification of it may not be admitted here as well as there, the places being parallell, its probable enough that one and the &s;ame line of Interpretation may &s;erve them both.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides the currant u&s;e of the word in this &s;en&s;e among other Authors, the <HI>Septuagint</HI> as far as I can finde, takes it alwayes thus;<NOTE PLACE="marg"><P>Vid Septuagint in <HI>Gen. 19 3.</HI> &amp; <HI>cap. 33.11. &amp;</HI> Judicum cap <HI>19.7.</HI></P><P>Sic Tert. vocat Johannem Limi|tem con&s;titutum inter vetera &amp; nova ad quem defineret Judai&s;|mus &amp; a quo inciperet Chri|&s;tani&s;mus. lib. <HI>4</HI> cont. Mar. vid. <HI>Ireneus</HI> lib. <HI>4. c. 8.</HI></P></NOTE> to wave other places for the pre&s;ent, that in <HI>Exod.</HI> 19.24 is full and punctuall for this, <GAP DESC="foreign">. Let not the Prie&s;ts and people break through to come up unto God; and the next clau&s;e to the Text (for the Law and the Prophets were untill <HI>Iohn</HI>) fairely admits, if not requires this con|&s;truction; his Mini&s;try being the common bound-&s;tone betwixt the Jewi&s;h and the Chri&s;tian Church, the limits from which the Law and the Prophets took their conclu&s;ion, and the Go&s;pell and Kingdome of Chri&s;t its commencement and inauguration.</P>
<P>However becau&s;e I delight not to to recede from the beaten tract, unle&s;&s;e it be upon urgent nece&s;&s;ity, therefore choo&s;e whether &s;ence you plea&s;e, the difference will not be materiall in re&s;pect of the ob&s;ervations ari&s;ing hence, which before I enter upon, there is yet one thing more to be explained in a word or two, and that is, Why from the dayes of <HI>John</HI> the Bapti&s;t this Kingdome of the heavens doth thus violently come in, or if you reli&s;h the former notion bet|ter, Why it &s;uffered &s;uch violence in his dayes more then in former times.</P>
<P>The Rea&s;ons are 1. Becau&s;e the Law and the Prophets were in force untill tho&s;e dayes, and then upon the expiring of that di&s;|pen&s;ation, <HI>Johns</HI> mini&s;tery, with the Go&s;pell and Kingdome of Chri&s;t, like time and the motion of the heavens took beginning to|gether at one and the &s;ame in&s;tant; therefore the Evangeli&s;t hath coupled them both together, <HI>Mar.</HI> 1.1, 2, 3. and S. <HI>Peter</HI> hath done the like, <HI>Act.</HI> 10.37. <HI>The Word you know which was publi&s;hed through all Judea, beginning at Galilee, after the Bapti&s;me which John Preached. Iohns</HI> Mini&s;tery it was you &s;ee preparatory and intro|ductive unto Chri&s;t, the whole de&s;igne of his Preaching and Bap|ti&s;me was to di&s;cover Chri&s;t, and to make him manife&s;t unto
<PB N="10" REF="8">
<HI>I&s;rael, Iohn</HI> 1.31. His preaching being in the Spirit and power of <HI>Elias</HI> tended unto this, <HI>to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, Luke</HI> 1.17. and his Bapti&s;me being a &s;ummons to <HI>repentance for the remi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins, Mar.</HI> 1.4. did manife&s;tly pre-ingage the peo|ple to beleeve in him that &s;hould come after him, that is, on Chri&s;t Je&s;us, <HI>Acts</HI> 19.4. Now the go&s;pell being preached, which is the word of the Kingdom, it never returnes back without &s;ucce&s;&s;e, but like a draw-net when it is let down, &s;ome or other are caught and converted unto Chri&s;t by it.</P>
<P N="2"><NOTE PLACE="marg">Omnia prius f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">geban<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;ub mi|ni&s;terto Scrita|rum &amp; phari&s;ae orum Mu&s;c. in loc.</NOTE>2. <HI>Johns</HI> mini&s;tery was mighty and powerfull, above the pro|portion of former times: the people lived under &s;hadowes and dark clouds before, which ca&s;t forth but little light and yeelded le&s;&s;e heate, their hearts were as cold and frozen as yee, under the Mini&s;tery of the Phari&s;ees and Scribes, but <HI>Iohn was a burning and &s;hining light, Ioh.</HI> 5.35. His Doctrin and conver&s;ation kindled a light of knowledge and an heat of zeal in the hearts and con&s;ci|ences of men, which drew them to Chri&s;t with much violence.</P>
<P N="3">3. When <HI>Iohn</HI> had once begun this cour&s;e, &s;oone after, our Sa|viour with his twelve Apo&s;tles and 70. Di&s;ciples came after him advancing and carrying on the work to a greater height and pro|gre&s;&s;e, and look how far <HI>Iohns</HI> mini&s;tery excelled all that went be|fore, &s;o far did the mini&s;tery of our Saviour and his followers ex|cell and go beyond him, both in re&s;pect of a more cleer manife|&s;tation of glorious truths, and al&s;o in re&s;pect of a more forcible operation upon the con&s;ciences of men.</P>
<P>And now having rubbed out the&s;e eares of Corne, come we in the next place to reap from them &s;uch fruits of in&s;truction as they will afford; the points ari&s;ing hence are foure. 1. <HI>That the Church and people of the New Te&s;tament, is the Kingdom of heaven.</HI> 2. <HI>Where it plea&s;eth God to rai&s;e up choyce and pr<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ious In&s;truments to Pre<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ch the Go&s;pell</HI> (as he did here) <HI>there the Kingdom of Chri&s;t will forcibly come in, and numbers will as forcibly pre&s;&s;e and throng into it, though there be never &s;o much oppo&s;ition again&s;t it.</HI> 3. <HI>Tho&s;e that would have a &s;hare in this Kingdome, they mu&s;t not be dull and remi&s;&s;e, but ear|ne&s;t and violent in their pur&s;uit.</HI> 4. <HI>All tho&s;e, and onely tho&s;e, which are thus earne&s;t and violent, &s;hall prevaile in their de&s;ign, and carry the prize which they are &s;o eager for.</HI></P>
<P>For the fir&s;t of the&s;e, <HI>That the Church and people of the New Te|&s;tament, is the Kingdom of heaven;</HI> This is coucht in the Text and
<PB N="11" REF="8">
implyed onely as a ground, and therefore to in&s;i&s;t upon it at large would be a little impertinent. I &s;hall therefore hint you to &s;ome rea&s;ons for this manner of denomination and &s;o pa&s;&s;e it over.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, therefore the Church of the New Te&s;tament is called <HI>The Kingdom of heaven,</HI> becau&s;e in the Church, and in it onely the <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Scitum e&s;t qoud Judaei na<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">rant de R. Simeon F. Jo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">hai, cum ille vid<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ret occ<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">em aviculis in&s;idias &s;truente naudi|vit vocem caeli|tus delap&s;am i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> haec verba. Sine Caelis (i. e. &s;ine deo) ne una qui|dem avis capta e&s;t aucupio quan|to minus tot &amp; tot animae filia|rum hominum. Lud. Capell. Spei leg ex Bere &s;hith. Rabba. Sect. <HI>7<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">.</HI></NOTE> Hea|vens govern and that not onely in a generall way of power and providence, for &s;o is all the world under that government: <HI>Ne|buchadn<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">zz<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">r</HI> when he had been &s;chooled by grazing 7. yeeres a|mong the bruits, he came to &s;ee this cleerly, that <HI>the heavens do rule, Dan.</HI> 4.26. But the Church is under the rule and government of the heavens in another manner then the world is. God raignes o|ver the world onely in a Providenciall way, ordering and di&s;po|&s;ing all things according to his &s;ecret Councell; but he raignes over the Church according to his own hearts de&s;ire, by the Scepter of his Word and Spirit: looke upon which you will, of all the States and Governments in the world, even tho&s;e that are mo&s;t exactly ordered according to the rules of Civill Policy, Ju&s;tice and pru|dence, and you &s;hall finde that they are but men at the be&s;t, and often wor&s;e then men, bea&s;ts and &s;ometimes wor&s;e than bea&s;ts, devils that beare all the rule and carry all the &s;troak.</P>
<P>The foure great Monarchies which have been &s;o glorious in the world, would you know what Emblem the Holy Scripture &s;ets them forth by <HI>Dan.</HI> 7.17. They are foure great bea&s;ts which ari&s;e out of the Earth, and to the la&s;t bea&s;t of this litter, the wor&s;t of all the former, though in outward re&s;pects the mo&s;t glorious, the Dra|gon re&s;igned his power, and his Throne and great authority, <HI>Rev.</HI> 13.2. S. <HI>Augu&s;tin</HI> is in the right for this <HI>Magna Regna, Magna l<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">tro<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ima,</HI> the great Kingdomes of the world, what are they el&s;e in plain Engli&s;h but Tabernacles of Robbers, dens of Lyons, and mountaines of Leopars, <HI>Job</HI> 12.6. <HI>Cant.</HI> 4.8. <HI>Copernicus</HI> his con|ceit is here no paradox, the earth mooves and the heavens are at a &s;tand, the Wi&s;dome, the Councell, the Policy, and Intere&s;ts of the Earth, turne all the &s;pheares, move all the Engins, and do all in all; but the Wi&s;dome, the Councell, the Policie and Intere&s;ts of heaven &s;tand &s;till, and &s;trike never a &s;troke, carries no &s;way at all. But in the Church its otherwi&s;e, there the Lord alone raignes in a peculiar manner, and <HI>his Will is done in earth as it is in heaven, &amp;c.</HI> that is the princiall rea&s;on, others are of inferiour remark which I &s;hall briefly glyde over.</P>
<P N="2"><PB N="12" REF="9">2. The Church is the <HI>kingdom of heaven,</HI> becau&s;e the Prince that commands there, is the Lord from heaven, <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Dan. 2.45. 1 C<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">r. 15.47.</NOTE> <HI>The &s;tone cut out of the mountaine without hands;</HI> heavenly, in re&s;pect of his extraction and originall, as being &s;prung from the bo&s;ome of his Father, by an eter|nall and ineffable generation; and from the womb of his Mother by a Divine and miraculous conception, without any concurrence or help of man; and heavenly to, in re&s;pect of his Inauguration and entrance into his Kingdome, which was neither by popular Ele|ction, which cour&s;e he declined <HI>John</HI> 6.15. nor by &s;ucce&s;&s;ion, for his Kingdome re&s;ts &s;olely in his own hands, and never did nor can pa&s;&s;e from predece&s;&s;our to &s;ucce&s;&s;or; nor yet by conque&s;t or force of Armes as other Princes enter. Chri&s;t waved all the&s;e wayes, and came into his Throne by an Ordinance from heaven, <HI>Dan.</HI> 7.13.14. When <HI>Peter</HI> drew his &s;word he commanded him to put it up, <HI>For my Kingdome</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>is not of this world,</HI> its <HI>in this world,</HI> but not <HI>of this world,</HI> the prime &s;ource and originall of it is not from hence, <HI>John</HI> 18.36.</P>
<P N="3">3. The fir&s;t planting, e&s;tabli&s;hing, and the continuall advance|ment and propagation of this Kingdome, proceeds not from any councell, policy, or &s;trength of the world, but from the Wi&s;edome and Power of God. It is God alone, and no other, <HI>That plants the heavens, and layes the foundation of the Earth, and &s;aith unto Sion, Thou art my people, E&s;ay</HI> 5.16. As they &s;ay of <HI>Thebes,</HI> That it was built by the &s;ound of <HI>Amphious</HI> harpe, &s;o its true much more of the Church and Kingdome of God, it was built by the Fi&s;hermen of <HI>Galilee,</HI> and not any other way, but onely by the preaching of the Go&s;pell, <HI>Micah</HI> 7.11. <HI>In the day that thy walls &s;hall be built the D<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">|cree &s;hall be far removed,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">P<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;c. in locum.</NOTE> which <HI>Pi&s;cator</HI> Interprets thus, <HI>longe lati&abque; propagalitur Evangelium;</HI> the Go&s;pell &s;hall be propaged far and wide all the world over.</P>
<P N="4">4. In re&s;pect of the Subjects who are not of this world, but &s;e|vered and &s;eparated from it. 1. By an heavenly Election, <HI>They are the Congregation of the fir&s;t born, who&s;e names are enrolled in heaven, Heb.</HI> 12 23. And 2. They are taken and bought from the earth, by a &s;peciall work of Redemption, <HI>out of every Country, and Kindred, and People, and Nation, Revel.</HI> 59. and <HI>cap.</HI> 14.3, 4.3. They are &s;ingled out from others by a powerfull conver&s;ion, upon which ground they are &s;aluted, <HI>Holy brethren partakers of the heavenly cal|ling, Heb.</HI> 3.1. And 4. Their trading and traffique is not for the
<PB N="13" REF="9">
things of this world, <HI>but their conver&s;ation is in heaven,</HI> Phil. 3 20.5. Their inheritance and portion is not in the earth, for here they are but &s;trangers and pilgrims out of their own Country, but they have an <HI>inheritance immortall,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Dan. 8.10.</NOTE> <HI>undefiled re&s;erved in the heavens for them,</HI> 1 Pet. 1.4. In the&s;e and divers other re&s;pects the Saints which are members of the Church, though they live in the earth, yet they are accounted in Scripture, the Citizens and Inhabitants of heaven.</P>
<P N="5">5. The Lawes and Ordinances which the Church is governed by, are all extracts taken from an heavenly originall,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>1 Chron. 28.12.19. Heb. 8.5.</HI> Vmbra in lege Jmago in Evan|gel&iacute;o, vtritatus in caelo <HI>Am|bro&s;.</HI></NOTE> copies and draughts derived from the Pattern in the Mount, as <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> Taber|nacle, and <HI>Solomons</HI> Temple, were <GAP DESC="foreign">. The Church of God, &s;aith <HI>Nazianzen,</HI> which is the inferiour Ta|bernacle and Hou&s;e of God here below, it is in all its in&s;titutions, rites, and Ord<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nances, commen&s;urable to its pattern and prototipe for the heavenly Tabernacle which is above.</P>
<P N="6">6. The Acts and admini&s;trations of the Church, if they be &s;uch as they &s;hould be, divine and Spirituall, they &s;ent not of the earth, breathe not of the world, but the whole &s;avour and relli&s;h of them is heavenly; when the Word is Preached, it is not the Wi&s;dome and Spirit of man, <HI>but the Lord from heaven that &s;peakes, Heb.</HI> 12.25. <HI>Mat.</HI> 10.20. And the Apo&s;tle tels us likewi&s;e, that when men Prophecy, there is &s;uch a demon&s;tration of divine power, that un|beleevers comming in are convinced by it, &s;aying, <HI>God is in you of a truth,</HI> 1 Cor. 14.25. The like may be &s;ayd of prayer, its the Spi|rit that mu&s;t frame every reque&s;t, and indite every Petition, if it be according to Gods Will, <HI>Rom.</HI> 8 27. So the execution of Church cen&s;ures, and generally all Church admini&s;trations they are not &s;uch as they &s;hould be, if they carry not with them a certaine perfume as it were, or odor of heaven.</P>
<P>This may &s;uffice for the fir&s;t point, I defer the U&s;e of it till I have done with the next; which is this, <HI>Where the Lord rai&s;eth up choyce In&s;truments to Preach the Go&s;pell, as he did here in the dayes of Iohn and of our Saviour, there the Kingdom of heaven comes in amaire, and multitudes take hold of it.</HI> For the proof of this, &s;ee the truth of it in cleer predictions and prophecies, foretelling that it &s;hould be &s;o, <HI>E&s;ay</HI> 2.1, 2, 3. <HI>It &s;hall come to pa&s;&s;e in the latter dayes, that the Mountaine of the Lords hou&s;e &s;hall be lifted up</HI> (not onely on the Mount Marlah at Jeru&s;alem) <HI>but on the top of the Mountaines, and
<PB N="14" REF="10">
all nations</HI> (not the Jews only &s;hall flow unto it; but how &s;hall this be brought about) <HI>the Law of the Lord &s;hall go out of Sion, and the Word of the Lord out of Jeru&s;alem, and then he &s;hall rule among the Nations.</HI> If the Go&s;pell be preached, the Kingdome of God will advance and get ground among all the Nations of the world.</P>
<P>The like Prophecy we have <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 110.2.3. When Chri&s;t &s;ends out his Go&s;pell, which is that rod of his power, out of <HI>Sion, he will then be ruler in the mid&s;t of his enemies,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Populus &s;umme voluntarius fi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> Pi&s;c. inloc</NOTE> <HI>In the day when he &s;ends out his Armies</HI> (to wit of Apo&s;tles and Prophets) <HI>His people &s;hall be a willing people,</HI> or as &s;ome Interpretors turn it, they <HI>&s;hall be all vo|luntiers in the beauty of his holine&s;&s;e, and the dew of his youth</HI> (that is, the multitudes of children that &s;hall be born unto him) <HI>&s;hall be as numerous as drops of dew in a &s;pring or &s;ummers morning.</HI></P>
<P N="2">2. See the reall performances and accompli&s;hment of the&s;e Pro|phecies. In the fir&s;t dawning of the Go&s;pell, when the &s;tate of the Jewi&s;h Church was exceeding corrupt, even then by the preaching of <HI>Iohn</HI> great numbers of people came over unto Chri&s;t, and by Solemn Bapti&s;me took the oath of allegeance unto him, <HI>Mat.</HI> 3.5, 6. And the Mini&s;tery of Chri&s;t and his Apo&s;tles was yet more effectuall, their diligence was &s;uch, that they <HI>went through every Ci|ty and Village preaching and &s;hewing the glad tydings of the Kingdome of God, Luk</HI> 8.1. <HI>And the people flocked after them in &s;uch multi|tudes that they trode one upon another; Luke</HI> 12.1. And they were &s;o eager and violent for the Kingdom of God, that they came by break of day to &s;eek Chri&s;t in the de&s;ert <HI>and they layd hold of him that he &s;hould not depart from them, Luk.</HI> 4.42. And the &s;ucce&s;&s;e of tho&s;e endeavours was &s;uch, that <HI>Satan fell from heaven like light|ning, Luke</HI> 10.18.</P>
<P>All this came to pa&s;&s;e whiles the Go&s;pell and Kingdom of Chri&s;t was yet pen<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">o as it were in a corner, &amp; confined only to the <HI>Jews;</HI> but after that Chri&s;t was once by his A&s;cention lifted up unto hea|ven,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Mark. 9.1.</HI> Sic interpritan|tur illum locum Cal. Beza Bu|zer. To&s;&s;. <GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> <HI>then he drew all men after him,</HI> John 12.32. then was fulfilled, and not before as &s;ome learned conceive, that prediction of our Saviour <HI>Mat.</HI> 16.28, <HI>Verily I &s;ay unto you, there be &s;ome &s;tanding here, that &s;hall not ta&s;te of death till they have &s;een the Kingdome of God come with power.</HI> The Kingdom of God came with power when <HI>the Holy Gho&s;t came down like a mighty ru&s;hing wind, and &s;hooke the place where the Apo&s;tles were on the day of Penteco&s;t gathered together, Act.</HI> 2.2. This violent ru&s;hing wind, was an Emblem of the great
<PB N="15" REF="10">
power of the Go&s;pell which &s;hooke the foundations of Sathans Kingdom, and overthrew all his &s;trong holds, demoli&s;hed Idols,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Rom. 16.26.</NOTE> &s;ubdued all the learning, policy, and power of the world, and captivated all Nations to the obedience of faith. The Jewes had mo&s;t of them a &s;trong prejudice again&s;t Chri&s;t, yet S. <HI>Peter</HI> with his Fi&s;h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">rs net came over them and caught 3000. of them at one draught, <HI>Act.</HI> 2.41. The <HI>Samaritans</HI> had for a long time been held under the power of Sathan by the Inchantments and Sorceries of <HI>Simon</HI> the Conjurer, but the Go&s;pell comming among them, tho&s;e Magick Spells lo&s;t their force, and were un-witched by a more po|t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nt and effectuall charm, <HI>Act.</HI> 8.12. Its recorded there, <HI>That when they beleeved the things that were &s;poken by</HI> Philip <HI>concerning the king|dome of God, and the Name of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, they were Baptized both men and women:</HI> When the Word is Preached, its as po&s;&s;ible to keepe down the Sun from ri&s;ing, as to hinder Chri&s;t from getting up into his Kingdom.</P>
<P>But how comes the empty breath of a few weak and de&s;pi&s;ed men to be &s;o effectuall and prevalent?</P>
<P>The Rea&s;ons are, 1. This is the In&s;titution and Ordinance of God, which therefore mu&s;t needs be mighty and powerfull,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Non vi no<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> armis nec carce|ribus &s;ed &s;olo gladio Spiritus quod e&s;t verbum dei tot victorius tot triumphos pa|ravit Eccle&s;iae Chri&s;ti Po&s;&s;idon. de Augu&s;t. in vitaejus.</NOTE> to bring about the end it was appointed for: this was the &s;ole Apo|&s;tolicke Weapon whereby they &s;ubdued all the world to the Scep|ter of Chri&s;t, 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 10 4.5. It is not the bare &s;ound of the Word, but the concurrence of God with his own Ordinance that did give it &s;uch life and &s;ucce&s;&s;e every where, <HI>Mark</HI> 16. <HI>ult.</HI> As the woman of <HI>Tekoah</HI> was &s;ubtile, becau&s;e the hand of <HI>Ioab</HI> was with her, &s;o the Preaching of the Apo&s;tles was powerfull becau&s;e the hand of the Lord was with them, <HI>Act.</HI> 11.21 <HI>Zabarell</HI> gives this ac|count why heate being but a meere accident is yet the cau&s;e of all nutrition; It is not as it is a bare quality,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Zabar. phy&s;.</HI> non ut &s;o<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">us &s;ed ut in&s;trumentum animae.</NOTE> but as the In&s;trument of the Soule. And if any aske, How the Preaching of the Go&s;pell workes &s;uch rare effects, it being &s;o weak and contemptible a thing, the an&s;wer is, <HI>Non ut &s;onus &s;ed ut in&s;trumentum dei,</HI> not as it is a &s;ound, but as the In&s;trument of God; there was never any man more excellently accompli&s;hed, or more diligent in this great work, then the Apo&s;tle S. <HI>Paul,</HI> he carried the Word of the King|dom and &s;et up the Scepter of Chri&s;t, well neere to the third part of the know world, <HI>Yet I dare not &s;peak,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>of any thing which Chri&s;t hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient by word
<PB N="16" REF="11">
and deed, through the mighty power of the Spirit of God,</HI> Rom. 15.19, 20.</P>
<P N="2">2. In the Go&s;pel there is a di&s;covery of great and glorious things, which objectively and morally work upon the apprehen&s;ions of men. All objects make impre&s;&s;ions upon the hearts of men accor|ding as the worth and excellency, the u&s;e and nece&s;&s;ity of them is more or le&s;&s;e apprehended, every man is drawn by that which ap|peares be&s;t for him in his own judgment: As a &s;heepe may be led along with a green bow, &s;o may an Epicure with plea&s;ures, an ambitious man with a baite of honour, and covetous men with a bribe,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">. Homer. de A. hill.</NOTE> a martiall man with feats of Armes, and every man with that which carries the greate&s;t &s;troke with him, and which he hath the greate&s;t apprehention of. In like manner doth it fall out here; the great things propounded in the Go&s;pell, when they are &s;eene and under&s;tood according to their own worth, they attract the heart and ravi&s;h the affections; the <HI>Arminians</HI> &s;ay, That the Word preached,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Vid.</HI> Came<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">. in Ep<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t. ad viram Do|ctum.</NOTE> workes upon the under&s;tanding irre&s;i&s;tibly; in the Elect no doubt it doth &s;o, when the houre is come which God hath ap|pointed, and when there is an impre&s;&s;ion of light &s;et on irre&s;i&s;tably upon the minde, the will and affections are alwayes in a due pro|portion, equally moved and &s;tirred as the hinder wheeles in a coach are with the former, and when both the under&s;tanding is conque|red, and the will caught, and the affections ravi&s;hed, what then can hinder men from comming into the Kingdome of Chri&s;t. If the Phari&s;ees by taking away the key of knowledge, debarred men of entrance into the Kingdome of God, <HI>Mat.</HI> 23.13. <HI>Luke</HI> 11.52. Surely then the preaching of the Go&s;pell, and the di&s;pen&s;ation of the my&s;teries of it, being the right u&s;e of the Keyes of knowledge, mu&s;t needs be a meanes to give people admi&s;&s;ion and entrance into that Kingdom.</P>
<P N="3">3. In the Preaching of the Go&s;pell there is not onely a bare Propo&s;ition and di&s;covery of glorious things to whet up and pro|voke the affections of men, but there is an offer and tendry of them upon the ea&s;ie&s;t and free&s;t termes; as if the Lord were weary of his Kingdome, and would gladly make it over unto men, he of|fers it for nothing, requires nothing but acceptance and thankes; more than this, he intreats and woo's and &s;ollicites men, yea he im|portunes and urges, and in a manner offers violence unto them, to make them plyant and tractable to their own happine&s;&s;e.
<PB N="17" REF="11">
As <HI>Lot</HI> urged the Angels and offered violence to them to come and lodge with him,<NOTE PLACE="marg">In his locis <HI>70.</HI> Interpretes utun|tur hoc verbo <GAP DESC="foreign"> &amp; aliis pa&s;&s;im.</NOTE> <HI>Gen.</HI> 19.3. and <HI>Jacob</HI> in like manner was urgent with his brother to accept his pre&s;ent, <HI>Gen.</HI> 33.11. and the Levites father-in-law would needs with much importunity heape kind|ne&s;&s;e upon him; &s;o the Lord he &s;eemes with a loving violence to obtrude, as it were, his Kingdom upon men,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Nolite cogitare invilum trahi trahitur animus &amp; amore, <HI>Aug. tract. 26. in Joh.</HI></NOTE> and to pre&s;&s;e it upon them with &s;uch eagerne&s;&s;e of affection, as if he knew not how to be happy without them. When the gue&s;ts that were invited to the marriage Supper of the Kings Son, refu&s;ed the offer, <HI>Go,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>into the high wayes and hedges and Market places, and bring in the blinde, and the lame, and the halt, <GAP DESC="foreign">, Luke</HI> 14.23. <HI>compell them to enter in,</HI> that is, u&s;e all your uttermo&s;t endeavours to allure and draw them, try all conclu&s;ions by per&s;wa&s;ions, pro|mi&s;e&s;, threats, to work upon them.<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Gen. 19.26.</HI> Nemo&s;e ab in|vito coeli vellet ne homo quidem <HI>Tert.</HI></NOTE> As <HI>Lot</HI> when he lingred in <HI>Sodom,</HI> and was loth to depart; the Angells layd hold on him and pluckt him out: &s;o the Lord would have his &s;ervants to enforce as it were, and hale men into his Kingdom, that they might be &s;aved; not that he doth in proper &s;peech con&s;train or enforce the will; for that agrees not with its nature, it being a rational faculty which cannot be compelled, but the Lord drawes it with a &s;weet and li|berall <GAP DESC="foreign"> a loving and gentle violence, a plea&s;ing &amp; power|full nece&s;&s;ity, which in effect is all one with tho&s;e cords of a man and bands of love which the Prophet &s;peakes of, <HI>Ho&s;ea</HI> 11.4. and when men are thus drawn its no marvell if <HI>they come and offer vio|lence to the Kingdom of heaven,</HI> when it hath fir&s;t offered &s;uch vio|lence to them.</P>
<P N="4">4. The Go&s;pell and Kingdom of Chri&s;t is of an increa&s;ing and growing nature, it &s;preads like a <HI>leaven, Mat.</HI> 13.33. growes <HI>like a graine of mu&s;tard &s;eed, ver.</HI> 31. It got fir&s;t into families, then it crept next into Cities, afterwards it advanced into whole Provin|ces, Countries, Common-wealths, <HI>that little &s;tone that was cut out of the mountaine without hands,</HI> figured the Kingdome of Chri&s;t which will break in pieces all other Kingdomes, and grow into a great mountaine filling the whole earth, <HI>Deut.</HI> 2.34, 35.</P>
<P N="5">5. And that which is yet more ob&s;ervable, this <HI>Kingdom of Chri&s;t</HI> it growes by its lo&s;&s;es, thrives by its decayes, pro&s;pers by its oppo|&s;itions: it is in this like unto a bed of Cammomill, the more its trodden down the more it gets up, and ri&s;eth; the old rule here if ever holds true, <HI>Punitis ingeniis gli&s;cit it authoritas,</HI> oppo&s;ition makes
<PB N="18" REF="12">
the Go&s;pell it &s;elf,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Manife&s;ta &s;etum <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">i virtus contra odia humana porrex it cum tanto magis Chri&s;tus praedi|caretur quanto magis praedicari inhiberetur, <HI>Hilar. cont. Auxent.</HI></NOTE> and tho&s;e that bring it, gather &s;trength and win the more Authority: when the Apo&s;tle was ca&s;t into pri&s;on, the Word of the Lord was not bound, how&s;oever the Adver&s;aries thought to &s;top the proceedings of the Go&s;pell by that cour&s;e, yet it tended rather to the enlarging and propagation thereof, <HI>Phil.</HI> 1.11, 12. Lo here how bonds and fetters helped forward the happy &s;preading and progre&s;&s;e of Chri&s;ts Kingdome; oppo&s;ition at <HI>Je|ru&s;alem,</HI> made it get footing in <HI>Rome</HI> the Imperiall City; and not onely &s;o, but even grow famous too in <HI>Cae&s;ars</HI> Palace, the Apo&s;tle tooke notice el&s;e-where, of a great doore and effectuall, which was opened unto him, when yet there were many adver&s;aries, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 16.9. which plainly imports great &s;ucce&s;&s;e in de&s;pight of great re&s;i|&s;tance; when the Dragon lay in waite to devoure the Churches man-childe as &s;oone as it was borne, he was fru&s;trate of his hopes, notwith&s;tanding all his rage, the childe was <HI>caught up to the Throne of God, Revel.</HI> 12.5. So in <HI>Diocle&s;ians</HI> time, when there was &s;et up an Edict in the Market place for the utter extirpation of Chri|&s;tianity, the whol world &s;oon after turned Chri&s;tian.</P>
<P><NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">. U&s;e for In|&s;truction.</NOTE>See then how great and &s;ingular a ble&s;&s;ing it is which God af|fords unto any people, when he rai&s;eth up &s;tore of precious and choyce In&s;truments to Preach the Go&s;pell among them. How&s;o|ever we may haply de&s;pi&s;e the day of &s;mall things, and make but &s;light account of &s;uch a mercy, yet it is a favour certainely of as much worth in the intendment and con&s;equence of it, as the king|dome of heaven amounts unto. Its a &s;ign that God is comming to Keep his Court of re&s;idence, where he &s;ends out harbingers to take up roomes and to prepare lodging and entertainment for him. When <HI>Saviours come upon mount Sion,</HI> the next newes is this, <HI>That the Kingdom is the Lords,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Spirituallter &s;ig|nificati &s;os A|po&s;tulos &amp; mini|&s;tros verbi qui &s;ervare dicun|tur cos quibus Evangelium annuntiant. <HI>Dra&s;.</HI> in loc. confer. <HI>1 Tim. 4.16.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Obad. v.</HI> 21. God abates nothing to a peo|ple of the height of his favours when he vouch&s;afes unto them this mercy, <HI>Jer.</HI> 3.14, 15. Its promi&s;ed as a &s;peciall token and pledge of Gods matrimoniall love, <HI>Return unto me ye back-&s;liding children, for I am married unto you;</HI> how doth that appeare? <HI>I will give you Pa&s;tors according to my own heart, which &s;hall feede you with know|ledge and under&s;tanding;</HI> and would you know of what con&s;e|quence that is, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 17. <HI>At that time they &s;hall call Jeru&s;alem</HI> the <HI>Throne of the Lord:</HI> the Lord Raignes to be &s;ure, and hath a Throne where he is plea&s;ed to plant a faithfull and powerfull mini&s;tery; and where the Lord Raignes, there is,</P>
<P N="1"><PB N="19" REF="12">1. The greate&s;t Honour and advancement that can befall a Na|tion. Its that which makes a Country to be <HI>the land of Immannel, E&s;ay</HI> 8.8. <HI>A glorious high Throne, Jer.</HI> 17.12. <HI>A Crown of glory and a Royall Diadem in the Lords hand, E&s;ay,</HI> 62.3. In a word,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">. Hero. dian.</NOTE> this is it which lifts up a people as <HI>high as heaven, Mat.</HI> 11.23. Let <HI>Italy</HI> glory in this, That it is, for plea&s;ure, the garden of the world; we &s;hall never neede to envie them, whil&s;t it may be truly &s;aid of great <HI>Britain,</HI> That it is the Court and pre&s;ence Chamber of the great King; this is the Churches peculiar honour, The name of it &s;hall be called from henceforth, <HI>The Lord is There, Ezech.</HI> 48 35.</P>
<P N="2">2. As the greate&s;t honour, &s;o the greate&s;t &s;afety and protection attends where the Lord Raignes. The Church, it is the Kingdom of heaven upon Earth, and it is a <HI>&s;trong City, having Salvation for its walls and Bulwarkes, E&s;ay</HI> 26.1. It may indeed before a&s;&s;aulted and battered, but cannot be overcome; it may be endangered,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Mat. 26.18.</NOTE> but not de&s;troyed; Chri&s;t mu&s;t be plucked out of heaven, and the Scep|ter wre&s;ted out of his hands, before the Church can mi&s;carry.</P>
<P N="3">3. The Kingdome of heaven is a &s;torehou&s;e of all ble&s;&s;ings, tem|porall, Spirituall, and Eternall; <HI>the ble&s;&s;ings of the heaven above,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Deut. 33.13.</NOTE> <HI>and of the deepe that coucheth beneath, Irriguum &s;uperius &amp; irri|guum inferius</HI> the upper &s;prings and the nether &s;prings, yea all Gods <HI>fre&s;h &s;prings</HI> have their cour&s;e here, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 87.7.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Qui po&s;&s;idet po&s;|&s;identem omnia nunquam pauper erit. <HI>Ber.</HI></NOTE> Chri&s;t hath un&s;earchable riches of grace and glory, and he makes them all over, together with him&s;elf, to tho&s;e that receive him. That State can never be bankrupt, that po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth him who is the po&s;&s;e&s;&s;our of all things; looke over all the world and con&s;ider what good thing we would have in reference to our private or publike well-fare, whe|ther it be riches, honour, wealth, peace, liberty, policy, plenty, pro|&s;perity, or what&s;oever el&s;e, which heaven can afford, they come in as additions with the <HI>Kingdom of God, Mat.</HI> 6.33. We value our <HI>Magna Charta</HI> much, our civill rights and liberties we count them precious, and yet they are but for this life, but the grand Patent and Charter of heaven Feoffes us in the promi&s;es of the <HI>life that now is, and of that al&s;o which is to come,</HI> 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 4.8.</P>
<P>To winde up therefore this clew, Where&s;oever the Lord is plea&s;ed by the Mini&s;tery of his Servants to e&s;tabli&s;h him&s;elfe a Kingdom among men, there is a Throne of honour, a myne of wealth, a &s;tore|hou&s;e of ble&s;&s;ings, an Ocean of comforts; In a word, there is the &s;pring-head where all happine&s;&s;e flouri&s;heth and all mi&s;ery withers.</P>
<P N="2"><PB N="20" REF="13"><NOTE PLACE="marg">2. V&s;e for Con&s;olation.</NOTE>2. Here's matter of comfort and encouragement, That where&s;o|ever the Go&s;pell is preached, there the Kingdom of heaven comes in, and no oppo&s;ition can keep it out. The Prophets are wont to make this as a ground of greate&s;t comfort, even in the mid&s;t of &s;ad times. <HI>How beautifull are the feete?</HI> how welcome the acce&s;&s;e <HI>of tho&s;e which bring this good tydings unto Sion, Thy God raignes, E&s;ay</HI> 52.7.<NOTE PLACE="marg">E&s;ay 40.9. Rom. 10.15.</NOTE> We may feede upon this cordiall, even on our &s;olemne Fa&s;t, in our greate&s;t mourning, in the mid&s;t of all our teares, this may excite us to &s;ome expre&s;&s;ions of thankfulne&s;&s;e and &s;trains of gra|tulation. <HI>The Lord raignes,</HI> &s;aith the <HI>man after Gods own heart,</HI> and what then, <HI>let the earth rejoyce, let the multitudes of the I&s;les be glad thereof, P&s;al.</HI> 97.1. If any other people in the world, &s;urely wee of this I&s;land have great cau&s;e to rejoyce and be glad in this regard, how&s;oever it be with us in other re&s;pects, yet ble&s;&s;ed be God it may not,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Brittanorum in acce&s;&s;a Romanis loca Chri&s;to ta|m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">n &s;unt &s;ubdita <HI>Tert.</HI></NOTE> it cannot be denyed, but that the Lord raignes and hath had his Throne among us for a long time. <HI>Tertullian</HI> ob&s;erved long &s;ince, that Chri&s;t &s;et up his colours, and came in as a conquerer before the Roman Eagles could &s;pread their wings here; and S. <HI>Hierom:</HI> hath an expre&s;&s;ion to this purpo&s;e,<NOTE PLACE="marg">De Brittanniis aeque ac Hiero|&s;ol, mis aequali|ter patet Aula caeleftis. <HI>Hier.</HI></NOTE> That the Court and Kingdom of heaven is as open at great <HI>Brittaine</HI> as at <HI>Jeru&s;alem;</HI> and although in the generall Apo&s;tacy of Antichri&s;t the Kingdom of heaven was here fa&s;t locked and barred up for many hundreds of yeares, yet it was afterward by the happy reformation in the dayes of our Fa|thers, here al&s;o, as well as in other Churches &s;et open againe accor|ding to that prediction, <HI>Revel.</HI> 15.5. <HI>After this I looked and behold the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Te&s;timony in heaven was opened;</HI> I neede not tell you what &s;tore of excellent and glorious In&s;tru|ments the Lord then rai&s;ed up,<NOTE PLACE="marg">No&s;tram doctri|nam a prima ejus praedicatione pro|hibent reges du|ces &amp; magi&s;tra|tus cum univer|&s;es &s;atellitibus illa tam<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">n non flacce&s;cit ut do|ctrina humana &s;ed magis f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">oret. Clem. Alex. &s;trom <HI>7.</HI></NOTE> both of Magi&s;trates and Mini&s;ters, nor how mightily they carried on the work, though again&s;t a world of oppo&s;ition. It &s;ufficeth that we all know that the foundation of the Temple and Tabernacle of God was layd, and the &s;treet and walls of the heavenly <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> built, though in troublous times; and from that day forward to this, the Lord that hath the key of the hou&s;e of <HI>David,</HI> that <HI>opens and none &s;huts, and &s;huts &amp; none opens,</HI> he hath &s;et before us an open door, as he did for <HI>Philadelphia; Rev.</HI> 3.7.8. and although there hath been, and &s;till is, much oppo&s;ition, and great endeavours to have this door &s;hut and fa&s;t bolted, yet &s;till its kept open in de&s;pight of <HI>Rome</HI> and hell, and is not this ju&s;t matter of comfort, that God hath by his Word opened us a pa&s;&s;age into
<PB N="21" REF="13">
his Kingdom which no Art or power of the Enemies can block up? Doth it not revive and cheer up our Spirits in our &s;adde&s;t droopings; that although the Lord &s;uffers our trea&s;ures to wa&s;te, our e&s;tates to be drayned, our provi&s;ions and &s;upplies brought low; though he feede us with the <HI>bread of adver&s;ity,</HI> and <HI>water of affli|ction,</HI> as it is in the Prophet, <HI>E&s;ay</HI> 30.20, 21. <HI>Yet he &s;uffers not our teachers to be &s;cattered into corners;</HI> notwith&s;tanding all op|po&s;ition, he &s;till continues a fre&s;h Spring of the Go&s;pell, and with it the cloud of his pre&s;ence among us.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Nil &s;entit erus in nervo cum animus e&s;t in caelo, <HI>Tert.</HI></NOTE> Surely we are injurious to the bounty and goodne&s;&s;e of our God in this kinde, and value it not aright. If it beare not &s;uch weight in our e&s;timations and thoughts, as to counter-vaile, and more then countervaile, to out|ballance all our afflictions.</P>
<P>And though there be &s;ome that would make us beleeve, That we are &s;till in the mid&s;t of <HI>Babylon,</HI> and that it is not Chri&s;t but Anti|chri&s;t that hath his Throne among us, yet that is not a more malici|ous then an ignorant &s;lander, and tends not a little, were it true, to the honour of that man of &s;in: For how almo&s;t can you honour him more, as a reverend and grave Author &s;ayes well,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Mr. <HI>Ball</HI> Mod. Tryall of the grounds ten|ding to &s;ep:</NOTE> then by holding him to be &s;uch an one under who&s;e raigne a faithfull and effectuall mini&s;tery takes place, the Word of the Kingdom being purely preached, the Sacraments rightly admini&s;tred for &s;ub&s;tance, thou&s;ands of people converted, and the way to Salvation and life eternall as open as in any other place in the world, Surely we &s;hould be wor&s;e &s;cared then hurt with tho&s;e expre&s;&s;ions of horrour and atrocity, which the Scripture brands the kingdom of Anti|chri&s;t with, if this were the condition of his raign and govern|ment. <HI>Sed non &s;ic notus Vly&s;&s;es,</HI> I hope we are taught of God to know the manners of that man of &s;in otherwi&s;e then &s;o.</P>
<P>But to pa&s;&s;e over this, let us de&s;cend into a more particular &s;urvey and di&s;covery of our pre&s;ent condition,<NOTE PLACE="marg">3. V&s;e for Hu|miliation.</NOTE> and then I doubt me we &s;hall finde but too much ground of ju&s;t mourning and humiliation, for although it is true, that there is a Kingdom of heaven among us, which pro&s;pers and flouri&s;hes in a con&s;iderable degree; yet it hath not &s;pread and got ground in &s;uch a large manner as might have beene expected and de&s;ired.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ho&s;. 9.3.</NOTE> A man would think that we who have been tenants in <HI>the Lords land,</HI> and have had a Patent and Charter of the Go&s;pell lea&s;ed out unto us, for the terme of more than foure&s;core yeeres, with many other great advantages, above
<PB N="22" REF="14">
other parts of the world; a man would think I &s;ay, we &s;hould have been long &s;ince a people &s;o refined in Religion, &s;o ripe in know|ledge, &s;o eminent for the life and power of godline&s;&s;e, &s;o exempla|ry for purity of Ordinances, Mini&s;tery, Doctrine, Wor&s;hip and Government, as might have rendred us a prai&s;e in all the Refor|med Churches, and a &s;ingular pattern and myrrour to the other parts of the world. But alas how far &s;hort are we of &s;uch a con|dition, and what great cau&s;e have we of mourning and humilia|tion in &s;undry re&s;pects?</P>
<P N="1">1. Its matter of mourning, That although there be &s;ome, yet we have not workmen enough rightly fitted and furni&s;hed with abi|lity and fidelity for the Kingdom of God; if we had as many la|bourers as <HI>Solomon</HI> had for the building of the Temple, and he had many hundreds of thou&s;ands, 1 <HI>Kings</HI> 5.15.16, yet all this would be no more then &s;ufficient, in re&s;pect or the great Work of God now in hand and upon the wheeles among us. But alas, we have &s;carce the tithe of that number, <HI>the harve&s;t is great, and the labourers but few,</HI> as our Saviour complained in a like ca&s;e, <HI>Luke</HI> 10.2. The Apo&s;tle having mentioned &s;ome 4. or 5. men of principall note, who a&s;&s;i&s;ted him in the great work of Preaching the Go&s;pell, hee doth as it were fetch a &s;igh and breath out his &s;oul in an expre&s;&s;ion of &s;ome griefe, for that there were no more &s;uch, <HI>Col.</HI> 4.11. <HI>The&s;e onely</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>are my fellow workers unto the Kingdom of God, which have beene a comfort unto me:</HI> you know how our Saviour mour|ned, and how his bowels yearned with compa&s;&s;ion over the mul|titudes, when he ob&s;erved them to be de&s;titute in this kinde, <HI>and &s;cattered abroad like &s;heep without a &s;heepheard. Mat.</HI> 9.36.</P>
<P N="2">2. Its yet more to be lamented, that we are clogged and cumbred with others, who in &s;tead of promoting and carrying on, do indeed retard and &s;et back the proceedings of the Go&s;pell and Kingdom of Chri&s;t <GAP DESC="foreign">, as the &s;aying of <HI>Byas</HI> was, their very help is a di&s;advantage and an hinderance, rather, there be no &s;mall numbers imployed in the Service of the hou&s;e of God, whom a man would di&s;daine to &s;et with <HI>the dogs of his flock,</HI> as <HI>Job</HI> hath it, <HI>Chap.</HI> 30.1. of this &s;ort are,</P>
<P N="1">1. Tho&s;e troopes of blinde guides, ignorant &s;ots, prie&s;ts of <HI>Je|roboams</HI> order, the &s;cum and froth of the people. Indeed the &s;illie&s;t creatures in the world, if they were but men, were good e|nough as one fayes to make prie&s;ts for <HI>Jeroboams</HI> gods,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Dr. Stoughton.</NOTE> which
<PB N="23" REF="14">
were but calves, but what hath the Go&s;pell and Kingdome of Chri&s;t de&s;erved, that it &s;hould be put into the hands of &s;uch huck|&s;ters.</P>
<P N="2">2. Little better upon the matter, though &s;ome of them are more learned, are tho&s;e Loiterers, rather than labourers in Gods Vine|yard, who feede them&s;elves and fami&s;h their flocks, <HI>Non-re&s;idents</HI> I meane, who through covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e make Merchandize of the Church of God, and care not what becomes of the &s;oules of the people, bought with Chri&s;ts blood, &s;o they may wallow in their pomp and jollity. Ma&s;ter <HI>Greenham</HI> wi&s;hed that this In&s;cription or Motto might be written on their doores and po&s;ts, on their beds and tables, on their &s;tudy, bookes, plate, and all their furni|ture, <HI>precium &s;anguinis, pretium &s;anguinis,</HI> The price of blood, The price of blood.</P>
<P N="3">3. Wor&s;e then both the former, are tho&s;e &s;onnes of <HI>Eli,</HI> or &s;ons of <HI>Belial</HI> rather, who by their corrupt Doctrine, or &s;candalous con|ver&s;ation, poy&s;on tho&s;e who are committed to their charge, pul|ling down the Church and Kingdom of God with both hands, but building it up with neither; if the people call <HI>for bread,</HI> they <HI>give them a &s;tone,</HI> and when they <HI>aske a fi&s;h, reach them a Serpent;</HI> are not Chri&s;ts flock, trow ye, well provided for, when they are &s;et over to the feeding of &s;uch Wolves?</P>
<P N="4">4. That &s;mall &s;prinkling of faithfull Mini&s;ters and people that are in the Land, have they not been di&s;couraged, oppre&s;&s;ed, and per|&s;ecuted with all extremity of rigour, onely for that power of god|line&s;&s;e which they held out, as if they that are them&s;elves and would gladly draw others to be &s;ubjects in the Kingdom of heaven, were for that rea&s;on not worthy to live upon the earth. That which we reade of the <HI>Jewes, Ezek.</HI> 11.15. It was me thinkes an exact image and portraiture of the late face of our times; The great ones that bare the &s;way, ca&s;t out all the Mini&s;ters and people of God, &s;aying, Get ye far hence from the Lord, to us is this Land given in po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion: oprre&s;&s;ion was in power, &s;uper&s;tition in credit, Luxu|ry Idlene&s;&s;e in favour, Ignorance cheri&s;hed, prophanne&s;&s;e coun|tenanced, negligence harboured, all Impiety fo&s;tered and maintai|ned,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Nil pet<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">avit agnus tantum lupus e&s;uriit.</NOTE> onely the faithfull &s;ervants of Chri&s;t were and eye-&s;ore and a burthen which the land could not beare; and what was the quar|rell? Why they could not reconcile their Con&s;ciences to the <HI>piety of tho&s;e times,</HI> the new revived Popery would not relli&s;h antiqua|ted
<PB N="24" REF="15">
&s;uper&s;titions then obtruded were not plea&s;ing, they could not concoct Idolatry with witty di&s;tinctions, In a Word, they could not &s;wallow the doctrine of <HI>Balaam,</HI> which &s;ome great Prelates and their adherents &s;et abroach, teaching men to bow to a piece of wood or &s;tone, the work of the hands of the Ma&s;on or Carpenter, no doubt a right wor&s;hipfull block, therefore the enemies either drove them out and per&s;ecuted them into &s;trange Cities, as <HI>Jeroboam</HI> did the con&s;cientious Levites, 2 <HI>King.</HI> 17.21. Or if they tarried &s;till in the Land, <HI>they were appointed out as &s;heepe to the &s;laughter, Zach.</HI> 11.45. con&s;ult the place and it will &s;eeme a Prophecy calcu|lated for our Meridian.</P>
<P N="5">5. To affect our hearts with ju&s;t griefe, yet more, &s;ee if there be not a mighty Reigne of all manner of Iniquity almo&s;t every where in the Land. Is there not an overflowing Deluge of Popery, Athei&s;me, Here&s;ies, Sects, Schi&s;mes, Idolatry, Tyranny, Simony, Bribery,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Merito quis <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">i|rari po&s;&s;it quo|modo in tam di&s;|&s;olluta con&s;u<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">|tudine omnium|que rerum excep|ta pra&s;ulatus &s;ug<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">illatione do|ctrina tum diu incorrupta per|&s;titit <HI>Bright|man</HI> in <HI>3. cap. Apoc.</HI></NOTE> Sacriledge, Oppre&s;&s;ion, Rapine, Whordom, Drunken|ne&s;&s;e, Adultery, Murther, with all other abominations, that can be named? are not all the&s;e as you heard worthily from the reverend Doctor in the morning, broken in like a torrent or winter land|flood upon us? It was a &s;ad complaint of a learned and worthy Divine of ours divers yeeres &s;ince, That there was &s;uch a generall corruption of manners here, that all things &s;eemed to be lawfull, and might be acted freely and with impunity enough, except med|ling with the Prelates Myters, which only were &s;o &s;acred that they might not be toucht: the Jewes have a &s;aying, That when all the creatures were de&s;troyed by the flood, <HI>Noah</HI> had a copy of them in the Arke, which was after re-printed to the world; and &s;ure I think, were all the corrupt Religions, and all the notorious &s;innes of the world lo&s;t, a new Edition might be &s;oon &s;upplyed and &s;ent out by the Copies and Paternes of them that are among us. Where the&s;e things are, and abound, it may be que&s;tioned whether the Lord raigns; but it is out of all doubt that &s;o far forth at lea&s;t Sathan hath a Throne there, as in the Church of <HI>Pergamus, Revel.</HI> 3.13.</P>
<P N="6">6. That which may heighten our griefe as it doth our mi&s;ery yet further, &s;ince the beginning of the Reformation none of all out former Princes or Parliaments have ever yet &s;o laid the&s;e mi&s;|chiefes to heart, as to make any effectuall provi&s;ion again&s;t them. <HI>Daut animum ad libere loquendum ultimae mi&s;eriae.</HI> Extreame mi&s;e|ries will force a man to &s;peak out more freely then otherwi&s;e
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were perhaps fitting, Let me therefore intreate you, mo&s;t honoured Senators, to lay your hands on your bre&s;ts, and tell me whether this be not true. What law hath ever yet been enacted to enforce diligence and painfulne&s;&s;e in preaching, or to e&s;tabli&s;h a learned and faithfull mini&s;tery? Nay hath not the doore unto the Mini&s;try been &s;et wide open, and Sacred Orders pro&s;tituted to all &s;orts of per&s;ons though never &s;o apparently unfit or unworthy? And hath there ever yet been any &s;ollid well-grounded cour&s;e, either to pre|vent the entrance of &s;uch at the fir&s;t, or to eject and remove them afterwards? The like may be &s;aid of the un&s;uppre&s;&s;ed growth of &s;candalous &s;innes, dangerous errours, de&s;tructive opinions and here&s;ies, be&s;ides the prodigious ignorance next to Barbari&s;me, which hath been &s;uffered to overflow the Dominion of <HI>Wales,</HI> and the neighbouring Kingdom of <HI>Ireland;</HI> to &s;ay nothing of the blinde corners in our own Land, in all which there is &s;o little knowledge of Chri&s;t and the Go&s;pell, that a man could hardly take it upon his con&s;cience, that the mo&s;t of the people are not Infidels; &s;urely ve|ry few would &s;u&s;pect them to be Chri&s;tians; Who would think that &s;uch a Kingdom as this, profe&s;&s;ing the Go&s;pell and faith of Chri&s;t,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Pudet haec appr<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">|brianobis &amp; dis|potui&s;&s;e &amp; non potui&s;te refelli.</NOTE> &s;hould &s;uffer &s;uch abu&s;es and prophanations, and take no effectuall cour&s;e for the redre&s;&s;e and reformation of them. It may be a ju&s;t griefe and &s;hame unto us that &s;uch things may be layd to our charge and that we cannot an&s;wer for them.</P>
<P N="7">7. But this is yet wor&s;e then all the re&s;t, and more to be lamented, That the Publique State of the Kingdome hath heretofore by Parli|amentary Acts and Decrees Legitimated &s;ome of the former and &s;undry other mi&s;chiefes:<NOTE PLACE="marg">Vid. Mollerum in P&s;al. <HI>94.2<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">.</HI></NOTE> and is it not a &s;trong conviction of &s;in reig|ning in a land, where the throne of Iniquity e&s;tabli&s;heth mi&s;chiefe by a Law? <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 94.20.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Qui non impedit peccatum quum pote&s;t Jubet.</NOTE> Other &s;ins may be charged upon private per&s;ons, but the publique &s;tate mu&s;t beare the guilt of tho&s;e evills which it might have hindred and did not, much more of tho&s;e which it did command; and how can that State be excu&s;ed from commanding of &s;in, which enacteth lawes again&s;t Gods Lawes? what &s;hould I neede to tell you of the errours and over&s;ights of former times, in which the civill Authority and &s;anction of Par|liaments hath confirmed and ratified, not onely <HI>Non-re&s;idency,</HI> Plu|ralities, Impropriations, and a dumb Mini&s;tery, with other like corruptions, but that which hath given growth, and &s;preadth to all the&s;e, and many other horrible abu&s;es, a pompous high towring
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and mo&s;t unprofitable Hierarchy, with a multitude of Chauncel|lours, Commi&s;&s;aries, Surrogates, and other inferiour Officers de|pending thereupon; the mo&s;t of which have beene ever found by con&s;tant experience, very bitter enemies to the Kingdom of God; and now the whole faction of them, with all its dependants, is ri|&s;en up in Armes to oppo&s;e Religion and Liberty,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Nunquam <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> religio ni<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">i inter reve|rend<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;&s;i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">os, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"></NOTE> and to &s;acrifice to their unbounded ambition, the pro&s;perity, honour, and happi|ne&s;&s;e of three Kingdomes. It was a har&s;h expre&s;&s;ion, but too true, Religion is never in danger but among the <HI>Right Reverend.</HI></P>
<P N="8">8. Once more, look upon all the&s;e great evills, not as &s;innes onely, but as Judgements al&s;o, e&s;pecially that Church-de&s;troy|ing, &s;oul-damning cur&s;e of a corrupt Mini&s;tery, which is one of the fore&s;t plagues that God is wont to puni&s;h a wicked people with. Its undeniable this, upon the former grounds, for if Pa&s;tors after Gods own heart be &s;uch undoubted pledges of &s;peciall favour and grace, &s;ure then the contrary mu&s;t needs be interpreted as &s;ymptomes of wrath and infallible arguments of much di&s;plea&s;ure: God is angry with a people to purpo&s;e when he inflicteth upon them &s;uch a Judgement, <HI>Ho&s;.</HI> 9.7. <HI>I&s;rael might well know</HI> (and &s;o may <HI>England</HI> now by the &s;ame token) <HI>that the dayes of vi&s;itation and recompence were come, when the Prophet it a foole, the &s;pirituall man mad,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Ideo muitum e&s;t odium Dei vide|licet in te<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> <HI>Dru&s;.</HI> in<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">.</NOTE> an heavie condition God wot, but hark what followes; <HI>For the multitude of their Iniquity and the great hatred:</HI> we are for the mo&s;t part &s;light and &s;hallow in &s;earching out the true roote and ground of &s;uch a Judgement when <HI>the Prophets are fooles, and &s;piri|tuall men mad,</HI> we &s;hift off the blame from our &s;elves, and derive it upon others; oh we may thank the Prelates for this, or we may thank corrupt and Simoniacall Patrons; the&s;e commonly be our thoughts, but truely we may thank our &s;elves mo&s;t of all, who by our manifold great &s;innes have provoked our God to &s;courge us with &s;uch a dreadfull vi&s;itation, Let us therefore &s;it in the du&s;t and accept of our puni&s;hment, acknowledging and owning our deme|rit. If there be multitudes of Prophets fooles, and multitudes of Spirituall men, that are no better then mad or di&s;tracted, take the Prophets word for it, and write it down as an Oracle, That it is for <HI>The multitude of our Iniquity, and for Gods great,</HI> but ju&s;t, <HI>Ha|tred,</HI> conceived again&s;t us.</P>
<P>It was <HI>Hirams</HI> complement to <HI>Solomon, Becau&s;e the Lord loved his people, therefore he made thee to be King over them,</HI> 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 2.11.
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And let me &s;ay in the &s;ame manner,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Jer. 5.6.</NOTE> <HI>becau&s;e the Lord was angry with his people,</HI> therefore in Church and State he made &s;uch and &s;uch Lyons, Wolves, and Leopards, to rule over them; when a Religious man in an expo&s;tulatory &s;traine, complained to God of <HI>Phocas</HI> that Paracide, who paved his way to the Throne by the murther of <HI>Mauritius</HI> his predece&s;&s;our, &s;aying, Lord, wherefore ha&s;t thou made this man Emperour: The &s;tory records,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bi&s;hop</HI> V&s;her <HI>in his Tract</HI> De Chri&s;tiana|rum Eccle&s;i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">um &s;acce&s;&s;ione &amp; &s;tatut <HI>relates this out of</HI> Ce|drenus.</NOTE> that the Lord retur|ned this unto him in an&s;wer, <HI>enimvero quomodum non inveni pejorem,</HI> Verily, becau&s;e I have not found a wor&s;e: It &s;eemes the &s;innes of the Romane State were then grown to &s;uch an height, that if God could have culled out a wor&s;e In&s;trument then <HI>Phocas</HI> was, they &s;hould have had him to &s;it at the Helm, and Steere their Common-wealth with a vengeance. And if any &s;hould expo&s;tu|late now, and complaine in like manner unto God and aske, Why he hath &s;et over the Church &s;uch multitudes of blinde Seers, mon|gr<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ll temporizers, &s;uper&s;titious Chemarims, de&s;perate malignants, Incendiaries and furies, May he not returne the &s;ame an&s;wer, <HI>Be|cau&s;e he hath not found any wor&s;e;</HI> Verily, the &s;ins and provocations of our Land are ri&s;en to &s;uch an height and &s;woln to &s;uch a Number, that if the Lord could have raked together a wor&s;e generation of pernicious and de&s;tructive in&s;truments, from any corner of the world on this &s;ide of hell; Its not to be doubted but that &s;un|dry of our Pari&s;hes and Congregations &s;hould have been thought worthy to be plagued with them.</P>
<P>I know this will &s;eeme a &s;ad, and perhaps too grievous a charge, but will ye plea&s;e to con&s;ider how the Lord lightens and thunders, and with how tragicall an accent he u&s;hers in &s;uch a Judgement, <HI>E&s;ay</HI> 29.9, 10, 11, &amp;c. <HI>Stay your &s;elves and wonder, and cry y<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">e out,</HI> Wherefore is all this noi&s;e? What meanes &s;uch unu&s;uall ful|gurations? Sure the matter mu&s;t needs be great, more then ordi|nary, when the expre&s;&s;ions are &s;o full of horror; Indeed &s;o it is, for the Lord was now preparing a Judgement for his people,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>i. e.</HI> Spiritum pro&s;undi&s;&s;ini &s;o|poris.</NOTE> little &s;hort of the damnation of Hell, at the 10. <HI>ver&s;. He powres out upon them a Spirit of &s;lumber,</HI> rockes them fa&s;t a&s;leepe in a profound &s;ecurity, and that they might never be awaked, <HI>Their eyes were clo&s;ed</HI> (as dying men u&s;e to be) <HI>their Prophets, Rulers, and Seers, were co|vered;</HI> a black and palpable mi&s;t of <HI>Egyptian</HI> darkne&s;&s;e, enclo&s;ed and over-clouded them all, learned and unlearned, The vi&s;ions of heaven <HI>were unto them a Sealed booke,</HI> ver&s;. 11.12. Utterly inexpli|cable
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and unintelligible: and if we would know what meanes the heate of this fierce wrath, &s;ee the ground and meritorius cau&s;e of it, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 13, 14 It is for the <HI>Iniquity of an hypocriticall and &s;uper&s;ti|tious, people,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Propter p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">etata populi principes &amp; prelati exca+cantar. A Lapi|de in loc.</NOTE> <HI>which draw neere unto God with their mouth, and with their lips do honour him, but their hearts recede far from him, and their wor&s;hip of him is taught by the precepts of men.</HI> Therefore doth the Lord proceede to do this marvellous work and wonder in their dayes: when he would &s;eale up a people unto de&s;truction, he &s;trikes them with a &s;pirit of giddine&s;&s;e,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Quos perdere <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">lt Jupiter de|mentat.</NOTE> and makes their wi&s;emen that &s;hould be, as blinde as beetles, &s;o as they can &s;ee nothing.</P>
<P>Let me with you patience adde one place more, of many others, to clo&s;e up this,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Zach. 12.16. 1 Kings 22.20. Revel 9.1, 2, 3.</NOTE> <HI>Mich.</HI> 2.6, 11. <HI>They &s;traightned the Spirit of the Lord and &s;ilenced his Prophets,</HI> they liked not their Prophecies which ne|ver boded unto them any good, but &s;till, as they thought, put them to &s;hame; therefore to fit their humour, that there might be like Prie&s;t like people;<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> <HI>If any man,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 11. <HI>walking in the &s;pirit and fal&s;hood do lye,</HI> &s;aying, <HI>I will Prophecy unto you of wine and &s;trong drink he &s;hall even be the Prophet of this people.</HI> The vi&s;i|ons and in&s;pirations of faithfull Prophets, which like golden &s;howers came dropping from heaven, the&s;e were loathed, there|fore the Lord lets them have &s;uch as they be&s;t reli&s;hed, drunken &s;ots &s;etting all their doctrines abroach from their wine cellar. Doe but turn the key of the &s;peech and alter the Scene, and it will &s;uite our condition to an haire. If any man walking in the Spirit, and fal&s;hood, will Preach again&s;t Preaching, and cry up the divine right of Epi&s;copacy with Altar and Image wor&s;hip, and the only lawfull devotion of May games and Morrice dances, for the San|ctification of the Lords day, he &s;hall even <HI>be the Prophet of this people.</HI></P>
<P N="4">4.This may reach out a word of exhortation, Fir&s;t to all in gene|rall, and next in a more &s;peciall addre&s;&s;e to mini&s;ters, and la&s;tly to our honourable Senators.</P>
<P N="1"><NOTE PLACE="marg">1. To all &s;orts.</NOTE>1. It generally concerns us all of what degree or condition &s;o|ever we be, to helpe forward as much as lyeth in us, the powerfull preaching and receiving of the Go&s;pell, which is the onely meanes by which the Kingdome of heaven comes in and gets po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion: Indeede we cannot all be Chri&s;ts Scepter bearers that is, an Office peculiar to &s;ome few that are de&s;ign'd to it by &s;peciall appoint|ment; we cannot all promote the affaires of the Kingdom of
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heaven by Preaching, but there is &s;omewhat which we may all doe,</P>
<P N="1">1. We may prepare and make way for the erecting and &s;etting up of Chri&s;ts Throne in our owne hearts and in our families and dependants; we may do much, if we put our &s;trength to it to do our utmo&s;t. If Chri&s;t raigne in our own con&s;ciences by the Scep|ter of his Word and Spirit, <HI>and the Kingdome of God be within us,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">. Ho|mer.</NOTE> as the expre&s;&s;ion is, <HI>Luke</HI> 17.21. We &s;hall then &s;traine our indea|vours with all violence, to make our hou&s;es <HI>Bethels</HI> little Temples, and Sanctuaries, and courts for Chri&s;t to keepe re&s;idence in, there &s;hall be roome for no &s;wearers, drunkards, &s;corners of Religion or any other children of <HI>Belial,</HI> that turn the broad &s;ide again&s;t Chri&s;t, and will not have him reigne over them.</P>
<P N="2">2. We may hold fa&s;t what we have got already, not &s;uffering any enemy to take our crown and Kingdom from us; there is a holy art of violence if we could hit on it, by which <HI>the King may be detained and held in our galleries</HI> by the chaines of an ac|ceptable and well plea&s;ing captivity, <HI>Cant.</HI> 7.5. If he &s;ee us earne&s;t and zealous, with all our mo&s;t &s;erious de&s;ires and affections, win|ding about him, and pa&s;&s;ionately enamored and &s;ick of love for him, and &s;tedfa&s;tly re&s;olved to retaine him with us in de&s;pight of all oppo&s;itions, it will not then be in the power of any enemies to drive him out or pluck him away from us.</P>
<P>It may be we cannot prevaile to advance the Kingdom of hea|ven to a further extent and progre&s;&s;e, and to the achieving of new acqui&s;itions; but we may, if we be zealous and re&s;olute, make good the ground, which it hath already won, maintaine and defend all the Forts and &s;trong Holds, which it hath already taken in and conquered. We cannot be all Souldiers to fight the Lords battels in the field, but there is an holy war which we all may and mu&s;t wage again&s;t Chri&s;ts and our enemies, which would if they knew how, plunder him out of his Imperiall Soveraignety, and us out of our Salvation. S. <HI>Jude</HI> would have all Chri&s;tians <GAP DESC="foreign">,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Dicant nos prae|fractos dures pervicaces dum in eo &s;unt ut Chri&s;tum enobis ripiant hic &s;u|pervi&s;&s;um &s;umus &amp; e&s;&s;e volumus, <HI>Luth.</HI></NOTE> earne&s;tly to contend and wra&s;tle for the faith which was <HI>once de|livered to the Saints.</HI> Here it behooves us all to be &s;tout and invin|cible Champions to take up the Armes of our Chri&s;tian warfare, again&s;t Sathan and Antichri&s;t, and all their En&s;igne-bearers: who|&s;oever go about to encroach upon our con&s;ciences, and to raigne over us in matters of faith and Religion be&s;ides Chri&s;t, we mu&s;t
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hold our owne again&s;t them to the la&s;t ga&s;pe.</P>
<P N="3">3. If we can do nothing el&s;e, yet we may help forward the pro|pagation of the Go&s;pell by our prayers, S. <HI>Paul</HI> often moves the people to <HI>pray that a doore might be opened unto him,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Col. 4.3, 4.</NOTE> <HI>and that the Word of the Lord might run and be glorified. Habebat ille verbi toni|truum &s;ed dari ei viam querebat,</HI> &s;aith <HI>Gregory,</HI> He had the thunder of the Word, and yet he de&s;ired the peoples prayers that it might get the ea&s;ier entrance,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Nos in tanta ra|bie ho&s;t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">a un|dique p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">r&s;equen|tuum nihil al<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ud <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">amus ni<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">i ed<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">re gemitus c<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">&s;u&s;piria &s;ed <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> &s;unt bom|bardae no&s;trae &amp; in&s;trumenta bel+lica quibus di<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> pavimus tot in|notreanum An|tichri&s;ti. <HI>Luth. Acts. 12.6, 7, 8, &amp;c.</HI></NOTE> and make the &s;wifter progre&s;&s;e through all the difficulties and rubbs which he knew it would meete with. There are great mountaines of oppo&s;ition that lye in the way of Chri&s;ts Kingdome, but <HI>prayer, if it be earne&s;t and faithfull,</HI> will remove them, <HI>Mat.</HI> 7.20. This was the Engine which the Prophet plyed when he would with his breath blow downe the great Monarchy of <HI>Babylon,</HI> which &s;o long hindred the Churches re&s;titution, <HI>E&s;ay</HI> 64 12. <HI>Oh that thou would&s;t rend the heavens and come down, that the mountaines might flow down at thy pre&s;ence;</HI> when the &s;pirit of pray|er growes hot and violent, it melts mighty mountaines, and makes them flow downe as &s;now before the &s;un, or wax before the fire.</P>
<P>There be many faithfull Mini&s;ters which now lye in chaines, and &s;uffer Impri&s;onment as <HI>Peter</HI> did, <HI>when Herod &s;et a &s;trong guard of Souldiers to keepe him:</HI> the enlargement of them were a great ad|vantage to the Kingdome of God, a &s;trong Gale of prayer would turne the lock of the Pri&s;on doores, &s;hake off all their fetters, and fetch them out with &s;afety; there be many blinde corners in the Land, where the people &s;it in darkne&s;&s;e, <HI>and the &s;hadow of death,</HI> having &s;carce any more knowledge of Chri&s;t and the Kingdom of heaven, then tho&s;e that live in the wild de&s;erts of <HI>America,</HI> how mi&s;erable is the condition of &s;uch poore &s;oules, which are be&s;ie|ged with hell fire, and yet know not their owne danger: The key of knowledge not being with them, the kingdom of heaven is fa&s;t locked and &s;hut up upon them with Iron gates and barres. If we can do nothing el&s;e, yet we may at lea&s;t pitty &s;uch poore &s;oules and weep over them, and pray for them, that the Lord would thru&s;t &s;ome faithfull labourers into his harve&s;t among them, <HI>Mat.</HI> 9.38.</P>
<P N="4">4. We may and mu&s;t with our prayers joyne our endeavours, imploy our Intere&s;ts, friends, pur&s;es, withall the contributions, talents, and advantages that we have to help forward the propa|gation of Chri&s;ts Go&s;pell and Kingdom, that it may prevaile and pro&s;per every where, e&s;pecially in our own Land. We all pray
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<HI>that his Kingdom may come,</HI> we are not in good earne&s;t, but do in effect mock God, when we u&s;e not all po&s;&s;ible meanes to accom|pli&s;h what we pray for. If we be de&s;irous to have a Kingdom of heaven upon earth, we mu&s;t &s;pare for no co&s;t, but like the wi&s;e Mer|chant man, venture all we have for this pearl; Wherefore were our e&s;tates given us, but to honour God, advantage our &s;elves and helpe our neighbours? which we can no way procure more effectually then by laying them out to purcha&s;e a &s;ound Mini&s;tery, we can ne|ver put out our wealth to a nobler u&s;e; riches are then <HI>Goods,</HI> when they are thus imployed: if there be any other, this is the be&s;t way <HI>to make our &s;elves friends of the unrighteous Mammon, Luke</HI> 16.9. We may at once ingage God and man to be our friends by this cour&s;e. For what can be more to the honour of God,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Tyrii ad Chri|&s;tum conver&s;i di|vitias &s;uas con|&s;erunt ad u&s;us Sanctos, <HI>i. e.</HI> ad Cultum dei &amp; &s;u&s;tentionem mini&s;terii Evan|gelici, <HI>Pi&s;c.</HI></NOTE> or benefit of man What more acceptable to both then to do with our E&s;tates as <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> did after its conver&s;ion, write upon them <HI>Holine&s;&s;e to the Lord, L<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">in</HI> 23.18. Happy are tho&s;e &s;tones, &s;aith the Philo&s;opher, of which Temples are made; and happy is that Sacred Revenue, &s;ay I, which is imployed <GAP DESC="foreign">, to make a bridge for men to go to heaven by. Oh that &s;ome common &s;tock might be rai|&s;ed for this purpo&s;e. There was an honourable de&s;ign on foot &s;ome few yeeres &s;ince, for the buying out of Impropriations, and the redeeming of the Churches patrimony; it was a worke of as emi|nent piety and charity as ever any this Age hath produced, and the &s;topping of it by &s;ome execrable in&s;truments, was an act of as pure Sathanicall malice again&s;t, the glory of Chri&s;t, and the Soules of men, as ever i&s;&s;ued out of Hell; and were there no other exception again&s;t &s;ome great Incendiaries but this, it were enough to render their per&s;ons hatefull, and their memory infamous to all gene|rations.</P>
<P>But how&s;oever all are intere&s;&s;ed in this, yet the Mini&s;ters of the Go&s;pell it belongs to them in a more &s;peciall manner,<NOTE PLACE="marg">2. To Mini&s;ters.</NOTE> to endeavour the pro&s;perity, honour, and enlargement of Chri&s;ts Kingdome; their very office and calling, be&s;peakes this at their hands, where|fore el&s;e are they appointed of God and &s;eparated from others,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Oratio ejus Toni|traum vita &s;ul|gar. <HI>Nazian.</HI> de <HI>Ba&s;il.</HI></NOTE> but to be both by their preaching and conver&s;ation builders of his hou&s;e, Stewards in his family, Watchmen in his City, Labourers in his Vineyard, burning Lamps in his Temple: the &s;ucce&s;&s;e and fortune of Chri&s;ts Kingdome depends next unto God upon the I&s;&s;ue of their endeavours. If they who&s;e office it is to attend the
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Sanctuary, had but the fire of the Sanctuary burning on the Altar of their own hearts; If they were like <HI>John</HI> the Bapti&s;t, <HI>Burning and &s;hining lights,</HI> oh what a goodly light of knowledge, and flame of zeale, would be kindled in the hearts of the people; How would multitudes come flowing in, to borrow fire from their hearth, and light their candles at their Lampes? What a &s;ingular honour would this be to have it recorded as ('tis here of <HI>John</HI>) That from the days of &s;uch and &s;uch a Mini&s;ter, &s;ince the time of his arivall and con|tinuance, in &s;uch and &s;uch a Congregation, with the parts adjacent, there hath bin great contention, much wre&s;tling and <HI>violence for the Kingdome of heaven,</HI> great trading and trafficking for remi&s;&s;ion of &s;innes, the Graces of the Spirit, which before were &s;carce at all looked after.</P>
<P>How much better were this, then to have it left upon record, That &s;ince the entrance of &s;uch and &s;uch a Dumbe Mini&s;ter or lazie Drone, there hath been a great decay of Religion and piety, a great famine of the Word, with a Mighty Inundation of Popery, A|thei&s;me, and all Prophanne&s;&s;e, &s;ince the entrance of &s;uch Idoll Sheepheards, and Prie&s;ts of <HI>Baalam;</HI> all vices have grown, all ver|tues withered: What a wofull account will &s;uch men have at the day of judgement, when it &s;hall be charged upon them, as upon the Phari&s;ees, That they neither entred them&s;elves into the King|dome of God, and that they hindred others that were de&s;irous to enter; mole&s;ting, di&s;couraging, and doing what they could, to ca&s;t them out with a rage, that reached as high as heaven; with &s;uch a violence as this, they will finde that God was not, nor ever will be well plea&s;ed.</P>
<P><NOTE PLACE="marg">3. To the Par|liament.</NOTE>I de&s;cend to that part of this Exhortation which concernes our honourable Senators: If powerfull and plentifull preaching of the Go&s;pell, be the next way to bring down the Kingdome of hea|ven among us; you &s;ee then Worthy Patriots, what it is which the Lord and his people expect and call for at your hands. The gene|rall complaint is from every corner of the Land, That the people have been for a long time almo&s;t quite <HI>without the true God, and without a teaching Prie&s;t, and without the Law,</HI> as the <HI>I&s;raelites</HI> were, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 15 3. No Mini&s;tery, no Wor&s;hip, no Ordinances, or that which is little better then none; and the generall reque&s;t and de&s;ire is like to that motion of the man of <HI>Macedonia,</HI> That you would &s;end &s;ome over to helpe them. If therefore the glory of
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Je&s;us Chri&s;t and the Salvation of his people, bought with his own blood, be deare and precious unto you, as we know they are. If ever you de&s;ire to have the honour of being the chiefe&s;t In&s;tru|ments to plant a new heaven and a new earth in this Land, Helpe every Congregation to faithfull Pa&s;tors, and pure Ordinances; you are as <HI>Jo&s;huah</HI> and <HI>Zerubbabel,</HI> the two Olive-branches, or the two anointed ones, which &s;tand before the Lord of the whole earth; Oh let the golden Oyle &s;till &s;tream out in abundance from you to feede <HI>the Lamps of the golden Candle&s;tick, Zach.</HI> 4.12, 14.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Hi &s;unt duo &s;illi magnatum qui &s;tant coram Do|mino totius ter|rae. Chal. Para|phra&s;tes.</NOTE> God hath made you <HI>nur&s;ing fathers, and nur&s;ing mothers to his Church,</HI> ble&s;&s;ed be God we have found you &s;uch: Go on &s;till with your honour, and make yet more full and liberall provi&s;ions for all the children of his family; by this meanes Religion and the Church &s;hall flouri&s;h more than ever, and thou&s;and, thou&s;ands, &s;hall ble&s;&s;e God for you.</P>
<P>If you would &s;traine your &s;elves to do a work of the riche&s;t merit, and grande&s;t importance for the Churches of Chri&s;t, I do not know any other that may be of &s;uperiour, or but of equall con|&s;ideration with this, which among many things u&s;efull is without all doubt, <HI>That one thing mainely nece&s;&s;ary, Luke</HI> 10.42. The King|dome of God cannot be held up without this, The key of know|ledge (you know the cu&s;tody of it, <HI>in the Prie&s;ts lips</HI>) it is the key of heaven; take away this, and &s;uppo&s;e the whole land were paved with gold, and walled with rockes of Adamant; &s;uppo&s;e we were crowned like the fortunate I&s;lands, with the riche&s;t confluence of all worldly pro&s;perity, honour and happine&s;&s;e:<NOTE PLACE="marg">Satius erat &s;o|lem non lucere quam Johannem non docere &s;ic populus de Chry&s;. in vita ejus.</NOTE> what would all this availe whiles the heavens are &s;hut up and fa&s;t locked again&s;t us. Take away a right Mini&s;tery and what is the mo&s;t flouri&s;hing Common-wealth? but as a Paradi&s;e without the tree of life, as the firmament without the Sun, or as a goodly Pa|lace richly furni&s;hed and hung about with &s;tately ornaments, but without any windowes to let in the light of heaven.</P>
<P>Among all the Religious and worthy Acts of <HI>Jeho&s;haphat,</HI> this is recorded as one of the chiefe, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 17.7, 8 9. <HI>That he &s;ent his Princes, and with them the Levites, to teach the People in the Cities of Judah,</HI> and I neede not tell you, for its well knowne how pro&s;pe|rous and &s;ucce&s;&s;efull that de&s;ign prooved. I doubt not but this pra|cti&s;e of that incomparable Prince, will be &s;et up unto you, as a pattern for imitation. Ble&s;&s;ed be God ye have begun well, I
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&s;hall neede to &s;ay nothing, but as that Greek Commander &s;aid un|to <HI>Teucer,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, go on and pro&s;per, <HI>Gather out of the King|dome of our God, <GAP DESC="foreign">, all things and per&s;ons, that are offen&s;ive and that do Iniquity, Mat.</HI> 13.41. Ye have di&s;placed &s;un|dry unworthy and &s;candalous ones, which like drones cumbred the hive and preyed upon the honey, which &s;hould have &s;erved for the laborious Bees; take the &s;ame cour&s;e with the re&s;t, <HI>Remove the &s;tumbling blockes,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">E&s;ay 62.10.</NOTE> <HI>prepare the way of the people, lift up a &s;tandard that they may flocke to it, as doves to their windowes,</HI> this is the way to leave the Church a Pallace of Marble, which you found as a cottage of brick. I have in&s;i&s;ted but too long upon this, where|fore I pa&s;&s;e it over, and come to the next. <HI>Tho&s;e that would put in for a &s;hare in this Kingdome, they mu&s;t not be dull and &s;luggi&s;h, but earne&s;t and violent in pur&s;uance of it.</HI></P>
<P>There is indeed a violence, nothing prai&s;e-worthy, held out in Scripture, which is either, 1. In generall, when men put forth them&s;elves to the uttermo&s;t, and draw out their &s;trength in any &s;infull way, be it what it will, As the Prie&s;ts and people when <HI>Ahab</HI>-like they &s;old them&s;elves over to Idols, and the full bent and &s;way of their &s;pirits was unto &s;in, here was a violence, &s;uch as it was,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"> Sept.</NOTE> <HI>Jer.</HI> 23.10. <HI>Their cour&s;e was evill and their force not right.</HI> Or 2. There is a violence taken in a more &s;peciall and re&s;trained fence, which is all one with oppre&s;&s;ion and rapine pillaging, &s;poy|ling, plundering, and other &s;uch practi&s;es which <HI>Jehoiakim</HI> that wicked Prince is branded for <HI>Jer.</HI> 22.17. <HI>John</HI> the Bapti&s;t reads a Lecture to the Souldiers that came to his Bapti&s;me,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Luk 3.14.</NOTE> <HI>to beware of this violence,</HI> it being &s;uch a character as lea&s;t of all &s;uits with tho&s;e that pretend towards the Kingdome of heaven, S. <HI>Paul</HI> is peremp|tory, that <HI>none &s;uch &s;hall ever come there,</HI> 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 6.10.</P>
<P>It is a violence quite of another nature and &s;traine, which is here hinted unto and commended. An hone&s;t and ju&s;t violence, an holy Rapine, a lawfull and heavenly Robbery, a divine Sacriledge, which to give you in a word a rude and cur&s;ory de&s;cription of it, is nothing el&s;e, But a vehement bent of de&s;ires, affections, endea|vours, inten&s;ively a&s;piring, and reaching after the Kingdome of God, and greedily laying hold of all helpes, meanes, and advantages which may conduce and tend thereunto.</P>
<P>We have &s;undry in&s;tances in Scripture of &s;uch a violence as this. The woman of <HI>Canaan, Mark</HI> 7.27. &s;he was &s;o ob&s;tinate in dri|ving
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on her de&s;ign, that &s;he could not be beaten off, no not with re|pul&s;es, the more Di&s;couragements &s;he had, &s;o much the more re|&s;olute and violent &s;he grew, taking a &s;trong hold-fa&s;t of Chri&s;t, and cleaving to him like a bur, and never giving him over till &s;he had got what &s;he came for. So the blind man which &s;ate begging by the high-way-&s;ide, you may enter him into &s;ame Li&s;t, <HI>When he heard that Je&s;us pa&s;&s;ed by, he cryed after him with a loud voyce,</HI> and when the Di&s;ciples di&s;couraged him, he cryed yet <HI>out the more a great deale,</HI> and clamored after him, <HI>Je&s;us thou &s;on of David have mercy on me, Luke</HI> 18.35. And were not tho&s;e Auditors of Chri&s;t exceeding violent who thronged after him in &s;uch crowdes <HI>that they trode upon one another, Luke</HI> 12.1. and tho&s;e al&s;o no le&s;&s;e, who forced their acce&s;&s;e unto Chri&s;t by digging through <HI>&s;tone walls, and uncovering the roofe of the hou&s;e where he was? Mark.</HI> 2.4. What &s;hould I neede to &s;tand upon particular In&s;tances, the Scripture is full of them every where. The Souldiers, Publicans, and Harlots,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Surgunt Indocti &amp; caelum rapi|unt &amp; nos cum doctrinis no&s;tris &s;inc corde ecce ubi volutamur in carne ac &s;an|guine, <HI>Aug.</HI></NOTE> in tho&s;e dayes, they ro&s;e up in great numbers and took the King|dome of heaven by force; whiles the Phari&s;ees and Scribes and tho&s;e profound Schollers were left behind. Tho&s;e that &s;eemed fir&s;t were the la&s;t, and they that were la&s;t proved fir&s;t. This violent Di&s;po&s;i|tion and &s;traine of Spirit, I &s;hall endeavour to &s;hew wherein it con&s;i&s;ts, how it workes and wherefore it is &s;o requi&s;ite and ne|ce&s;&s;ary.</P>
<P N="1">1. Therefore this violence con&s;i&s;ts in earne&s;t and vehement de&s;ires. 2. In &s;tedfa&s;t purpo&s;es and Re&s;olutions. 3. In &s;tirring and impetuous indeavours. To begin with the fir&s;t of the&s;e. Earne&s;t and vehement de&s;ires; They are the next and mo&s;t immediate i&s;&s;ues, and out-goings of the &s;oule, the feete on which it runnes, the wings on which it mounts and flyes towards the object de&s;ired and lon|ged for; and the&s;e de&s;ires are either good or evill, carnall or &s;pi|rituall, thereafter as the object is, on which they fix, and the order and manner in which they move. A man may know what the con&s;titution and temper of his &s;pirit is in relation to the King|dome of God, if he can but di&s;cerne how the pul&s;es of his de&s;ire beate, and what the chiefe and principall thing is, which the mo&s;t quick and violent motions and ebullitions of his heart workes af|ter. If a man be <GAP DESC="foreign"> as the Philo&s;opher &s;pake, a Citizen and inhabitant of this world, his de&s;ires grovell on the earth, he pants after riches, honours, plea&s;ures, reli&s;heth nothing el&s;e; but
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now on the other &s;ide, if a man be <GAP DESC="foreign">, a Citizen and inha|bitant of another world, then the currant and full &s;treame of his de&s;ires is &s;till ri&s;ing and working up towards heaven, <HI>He will pant after God, as the cha&s;ed Hart doth for the water brookes,</HI> P&s;al. 42. <HI>And thir&s;t for him as the dry and parched ground doth for &s;howres of raine,</HI> P&s;al 63 1. <HI>He will long</HI> (like a woman with child) <HI>for his Salva|tion, P&s;al</HI> 119.174. and if it be deferred <HI>he will faint and fall into a &s;woune, P&s;al.</HI> 119.81, 82. <HI>And be &s;ick of love, Cant.</HI> 5.8. Such de&s;ires as the&s;e are violent, and they are of &s;uch force and prevalence that nothing can with&s;tand them.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Tae<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">am qui&s;que pot<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t in negotio religionis quan|tu <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> optime ve|hementi&s;&s;im<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">que vult, <HI>Cam.</HI></NOTE> A man may do what he will and carry what he will in matters of Religion if he have but ear|ne&s;t and vehement de&s;ires, <HI>Matth.</HI> 7. <HI>Aske and it &s;hall be given you, &s;eeke and ye &s;hall finde, knocke and it &s;hall be opened unto you,</HI> This asking, &s;eeking, knocking, is nothing el&s;e but prayer; and prayer is nothing el&s;e but the ejaculation or darting out of earne&s;t and impe|tuous de&s;ires, which pierce the clouds and &s;trike up unto God, get into his bo&s;ome, charme his wrath, opens or &s;huts his hands, extorts mercies, removes Judgements, and never will away with|out its errand.</P>
<P>This is that golden Key, as one fitly calls it, which can open all lockes,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Vehementi&s;&s;imum &agrave; &s;iderium e&s;t elavis aurea to|tius pro&s;ectus in regno Dei <HI>Harph. Theol.</HI> m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t.</NOTE> remove all barres, raigne over all Impediments in heaven and earth. Its a kinde of omnipotent thing that can prevaile with God and man above all expre&s;&s;ions and thoughts. As they write of <HI>Proteus,</HI> that when any came to con&s;ult with him, and to receive Oracles from him, he would at the fir&s;t turne him&s;elfe into a thou|&s;and varieties of colours and &s;hapes, but if they pre&s;&s;ed on him with importunity, and held him hard and clo&s;e to it, he would then give them at la&s;t &s;atisfactory oracles; So the Lord, though he &s;eeme for a while to neglect and take little or no knowledge of the de|&s;ires of his people, and &s;eemes to put them off, and winde from them, yet when their de&s;ires grow violent, and when they knock at his gates with importunitie, then he lets them be their owne carvers, and is content that they &s;hould ravi&s;h from him what|&s;oever they will. By this you may &s;ee how &s;trong and forcible de|&s;ires be, though they &s;eeme but of a &s;oft and gentle &s;traine, they ra|vi&s;h the objects they are &s;et on; As if a man looke upon an object of beauty, and lu&s;t after it, you know what interpretation our Savi|our makes of that; &s;o if a man look upon the Kingdom of heaven, and lu&s;t after it, <HI>he hath already ravi&s;hed it in his heart.</HI></P>
<P N="2"><PB N="37" REF="21">2. This violent di&s;po&s;ition and &s;traine of &s;pirit di&s;covers it &s;elfe in &s;tedfa&s;t purpo&s;es and re&s;olutions, <HI>Re&s;olution it is the &s;pring of Action.</HI> Its that which poy&s;eth and &s;teeres a mans cour&s;e, &s;uch as our purpo&s;es and re&s;olutions are, &s;uch be our actions and enter|prizes, the hand of the dyall goes without, as the weights and wheels of the clock turn it within; &s;o the head plots, the hand acts, according to the &s;way of a well or ill &s;etled Re&s;olution. The heart &s;aith (if it be &s;et right for heaven) I mu&s;t and will have the King|dom of God; let honours and wealth go which way they will, to &s;et up Chri&s;t upon his Throne, that he may raigne in heaven and earth, and in the hearts of men: Though it be a difficult, a painefull, and chargeable de&s;igne; yet this I mu&s;t and will drive to the worlds end; let other things &s;ink or &s;wim, pro&s;per or wither, it skills not, the Go&s;pell of Chri&s;t &s;hall prevaile with me univer|&s;ally; let the world lye at &s;ix and &s;even, this cour&s;e I mu&s;t and will follow, though all the du&s;t of the earth, &s;ands on the &s;hore, and tyles of hou&s;es were devills, this I will &s;et in hand with, come what will come; &s;uch a re&s;olution as this is violent, and it will overcome all re&s;i&s;tance, and make a man <HI>with a full purpo&s;e of heart cleave unto God, Act.</HI> 11.29.</P>
<P>We may &s;ee a lively portraict of &s;uch a &s;pirit, in the Apo&s;tle S. <HI>Paul, Act.</HI> 20.22. <HI>He went bound in the &s;pirit,</HI> as in a chaine, to <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> and though he knew him&s;elfe, and others told him too, by the in&s;piration and in&s;tinct of the &s;pirit, <HI>That nothing but bonds and impri&s;onments waited for him in euery City, yet all this could not move him,</HI> he had &s;uch a magnanimous and adamantine re&s;oluti|on to go through with his work, and fulfill his mini&s;tery; that his life was not at all deare unto him, neither did he &s;et any value on it in compari&s;on of the &s;ervice which he was now upon. So true is that of the Spou&s;e, <HI>Cant.</HI> 8.6, 7. <HI>Love is as &s;trong as death, zeale as hard</HI> (<HI>i.e.</HI> inexorable) <HI>as the grave, much water cannot quench it, neither can the floods drown it,</HI> no difficulties or oppo&s;itions can allay or abate, much le&s;&s;e extingui&s;h the heate of it, <HI>If a man would give all the &s;ub&s;tance of his hou&s;e for it, it would be utterly contemned.</HI></P>
<P>The whole world, though vayled with the mo&s;t glorious and gli&s;tering temptations, would be &s;corned, as too meane and poore a bribe, to draw off the heart of a man from the kingdom of God, when it is once well fixed and &s;teeled with a firme and adaman|tine re&s;olution; no di&s;wa&s;ions, &s;loth, feare, policy, covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e,
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ficklene&s;&s;e, nor any other thing, can either divert, or &s;top, or inter|rupt him in his enterprize.<NOTE PLACE="marg">E&s;to ob&s;irmatus ad morem pardi ad faciendum voluntatem pa|tris t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">i qu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> e&s;t in caelo, <HI>Dru&s;.</HI> praer. ex libro <HI>Abeth.</HI></NOTE> When a man is thus ob&s;tinately and couragiou&s;ly bent unto his worke, this is violence well plea&s;ing unto God. The Jewes have a &s;aying, <HI>That a man &s;hould &s;et his face as a flint, and that his countenance &s;hould be like a Leopard, &s;tout and &s;tearn and ob&s;tinate to do the will of his father in heaven.</HI></P>
<P N="3">3. This con&s;i&s;ts in &s;trong and &s;erious endeavours; A man is not violent in matters of the Kingdome of God, if he do not put forth him&s;elfe into action, trying every conclu&s;ion, rolling every &s;tone, and leaving nothing unattempted that may conduce to the atchieving of his end.<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"> Ari&s;t.</NOTE> Every man &s;aith the Philo&s;opher, workes as he is, and his acts, and operations are &s;uch as his principles. If the inward principles of his de&s;ires beat faintly, if his purpo|&s;es faulter and reele and be not &s;teady and con&s;tant, then his Actings in like manner, will either be none at all, or feeble, and un&s;piri|ted, and con&s;equently fruitle&s;&s;e and bootle&s;&s;e; as an arrow weakely &s;hot off will not carry home, but fall &s;hort of the mark; and &s;hort &s;hooting, we &s;ay, loo&s;eth many a game; it doth &s;o in religion al&s;o: but now, when the de&s;ires are as hot as a flame, and the purpo&s;es as &s;trong as &s;teele, then to be &s;ure vigorous and Spirited endeavours will follow unavoydably. The Church in <HI>Solomons Song</HI> may &s;erve for an in&s;tance to cleer this; for a long time &s;he lay langui&s;h|ing, and as I may &s;ay wind-bound; no excitations, wooings, or en|treaties of her lover could prevaile, to get her up out of her warme bed, her &s;ecure and &s;lumbring condition; &s;ome velleities and imper|fect wi&s;hings and wouldings &s;he had, but &s;till the door was lock|ed again&s;t Chri&s;t; her will was not bowed, there lay the inward im|pediment, the will was but halfe &s;tirred, and therefore no ari&s;ing, no motion, till Chri&s;t comes and puts in his hand to the hole of the doore, and takes away the bar, &s;hoots the bolt, removes the Impediments, and then her bowels were affected and moved to|wards him, <HI>Then &s;he aro&s;e and &s;ought him with a curious diligence every where, her hands be&s;tirred them&s;elves till they &s;weat, till they dropt againe,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">O<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nis animae motus radix e&s;t amor. <HI>Pari&s;.</HI> quodlibet agens propter amorem agit qoud cunque agit. <HI>Aqui. 1.2. q. 28. art. 6.</HI></NOTE> <HI>her feete trudges up and down the &s;treets to finde him whom her &s;oule loved, and a world now for them that could tell her of any tydings of him, Cant.</HI> 5.2, 3, 4, 5, &amp;c.</P>
<P>Its a true &s;aying, That love is the roote and principle of all the motions of the &s;oul; for though there be other affections, and tho&s;e active, yet all are reducible to love; and in the &s;trength thereof
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they Act, and put all the wheeles of the &s;oule in motion, as <HI>David</HI> when his heart was caught with a violent pa&s;&s;ion of love towards God, how doth he extend and &s;pread out his armes, and put forth all oares and &s;ailes in a &s;trong pur&s;uance after him. <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 63.8. <HI>My &s;oule followeth hard after thee:</HI> there was never a more difficult and in humane view, a more unfea&s;ible de&s;ign then that of the <HI>Jewes</HI> in <HI>Nehemiahs</HI> time, when they were to build the hou&s;e of God, they had a potent faction at Court, and malignant Councellours at home, to retard and &s;top the proceedings of the work, they were faine to build with a trowell in one hand, and a &s;word in the other, yet they prevailed again&s;t all difficulties, and this is given in ac|count at the rea&s;on of it, <HI>The people had a minde to worke, Neh.</HI> 4.6.</P>
<P>You &s;ee now what this <HI>violence</HI> is, and wherein it con&s;i&s;ts, &s;ee in the next place how it workes, either in relation to the good which it reacheth after, and would obtaine; or el&s;e in relation to the evill which it would remove, and be rid of.</P>
<P>In the relation to the good which it de&s;ires to obtaine. 1. It &s;tirreth up a generous and mighty ambition to excell in the inward gifts and graces of the Spirit, which are nece&s;&s;ary qualifications for all them that would have a &s;hare in the Kingdome of God. A man that is in a violent &s;traine, he cannot re&s;t in any medio|crities, never thinkes he hath vertue and grace enough, &s;till he is a&s;piring and reaching after more, <HI>He gives all diligence to adde un|to his faith, vertue, knowledge, temperance, brotherly kindne&s;&s;e, godli|ne&s;&s;e;</HI> all the re&s;t of that chaine of pearls which the Apo&s;tle &s;trin|geth up, 2 <HI>Peter</HI> 1.5, 6, 7, as well knowing, that <HI>if the&s;e be in him, and abound, they will make that he &s;hall neither be barren nor unfruit|full in the knowledge of Chri&s;t,</HI> and then to be &s;ure,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Ari&s;t.</NOTE> <HI>an entrance &s;hall be mini&s;tred unto him abundantly into the everla&s;ting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Je&s;us Chri&s;t, v.</HI> 11. As a &s;choller thinkes he can never have learning enough, and a covetous man thinks that he can never have wealth and riches enough; &s;o is it with a Chri&s;tian of a violent Spirit, he never re&s;ts contented with his pre&s;ent pitch&punc; but labours &s;till to abound more and more; &s;trives, if po&s;&s;ible,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Ari&s;t.</NOTE> to get up a note above <HI>Elah,</HI> &s;ets him&s;elfe no bounds, counts all that he hath attained, as nothing, like the Apo&s;tle S. <HI>Paul,</HI> who&s;e zeale and covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e, and ambition, in this kind was &s;o beyond all mea&s;ure <HI>&s;uper &s;uperlative,</HI> that although he had already gotten the greate&s;t mea&s;ure of grace that ever any mortall man attained on
<PB N="40" REF="23">
this &s;ide of heaven, yet he forgot it all, and &s;carce thought it any competencie, &s;till pre&s;&s;ing forward to an higher marke, as if he would pre-occupate the &s;tate of glory, and attaine even in this world, <HI>unto the re&s;urrection of the dead, Phil.</HI> 3.11.</P>
<P N="2">2. In the wor&s;hip and Service of God, and in the u&s;e of all the Ordinances, publique and private, the violence of a mans &s;pirit workes much in this:<NOTE PLACE="marg">Eccle&s;. 9.10.</NOTE> the <HI>Jewes</HI> have a rule, That what&s;oever a man doth in the &s;olemn Wor&s;hip of God, he &s;hould &s;tretch and &s;traine his inventions to do it with all his might, el&s;e it is not cur|rant nor allowable with God;<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> and the Apo&s;tle requires the like, <HI>Rom.</HI> 12.11. He would not have a man &s;light and formall, but <HI>fer|vent in Spirit, &s;erving the Lord;</HI> and the word notes an ebullition or boyling up of our &s;pirits to the height. The oddes is not great, if any at all, between the omi&s;&s;ion of duties altogether, and the re|mi&s;&s;e performance of them, &s;eeing a man is a loo&s;er both wayes. Acts of wor&s;hip and devotion when they are livele&s;&s;e and &s;uper|ficiall, are like a bow &s;lack bent, which will not carry the arrow home to the marke. S. <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> ob&s;erves further, That &s;uch &s;lighting over duties,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Ba&s;il.</NOTE> is not onely unprofitable, but hurtfull and prejudiciall to the State of the &s;oule, as tending onely to nouri&s;h an hypocriti|call and barren formality. There is nothing in the world more unbecomming the wor&s;hip of God, then &s;uch a &s;light wanton &s;u|perficiall &s;traine of &s;pirit, when a man playes with Religion and &s;erves God as if he &s;erved him not. It was <HI>Davids</HI> ju&s;t prai&s;e, that the <HI>Zeale of Gods Hou&s;e did eate him up, P&s;al.</HI> 69.9. <HI>And he daunced before the Arke with all his might,</HI> and when <HI>Michael</HI> &s;coffed at him for it, <HI>I will,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>be yet more vile then thus, for God,</HI> 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 6.14, 22. Nor was <HI>Hezekiah</HI> behind him in this, of whom to his everla&s;ting honour it is recorded that 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 31.27, <HI>In every worke which he began in the &s;ervice of the hou&s;e of his God, and in the Law, and in the Commandements to &s;eeke his God, he did it with all his heart and pro&s;pered.</HI> The ancient &amp; primative Chri&s;tians when they met,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Coimus in Caetum &amp; congregatio|nem ut deum qua&s;i manufacta precationibus ambianus orantes haec vis deo gra|ta e&s;t, <HI>Tert. Apol. 39.</HI></NOTE> and crowded together with one &s;houlder, at their devo|tions, were &s;o earne&s;t that they &s;eemed to be&s;iege the Throne of Grace, and to rai&s;e a common &s;trength to invade, and make a riot upon God in their prayers, and this, &s;aith <HI>Tertullian,</HI> was a <HI>violence</HI> right welcome unto God: <HI>Jacob</HI> was honoured and called <HI>I&s;rael</HI> for this, becau&s;e he <HI>wre&s;tled in prayer, and by main &s;trength prevailed like a Prince with God, Ho&s;.</HI> 12.3, 4, 5. <HI>Gen.</HI> 32.28.</P>
<P N="3"><PB N="41" REF="23">3. Nor is the violence either le&s;&s;e acceptable or le&s;&s;e nece&s;&s;ary which we are to u&s;e for the Word and wor&s;hip of God, either to maintaine and hold it up when we have it, or to re&s;tore and reco|ver it, if lo&s;t or endangered: S. <HI>Jude</HI> held it nece&s;&s;ary to write unto beleevers to &s;tir them up <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>Earne&s;tly to contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the Saints, v.</HI> 3. and the angell of <HI>Pergamos</HI> is much <HI>commended for holding fa&s;t Chri&s;ts Name, and not denying his faith in a time of per&s;ecution, Revel.</HI> 2.13. If wicked men would rob us of the Go&s;pell, take from us the Wor&s;hip and Ordinances of God, plunder us of our glory, our crown, our Sal|vation, <HI>here we mu&s;t hold fa&s;t what we have, Revel,</HI> 2.25.<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> <HI>Not gi|ving place by &s;ubjection, no not for an houre, Gal.</HI> 2.5. nor yeeld to betray one &s;illable unto them, as <HI>Ba&s;ils</HI> worthy re&s;olution was; we value not the truth of God, nor &s;et a right e&s;timate upon his wor&s;hip and Ordinances, if we be not violently bent to maintaine and defend them to the la&s;t drop of our blood.</P>
<P>And if there be a famine of the Word, a want or lo&s;&s;e of any part or piece of wor&s;hip, it mu&s;t be violently &s;triven and contended for. <HI>Solomon would have us buy the truth and not &s;ell it, Prov.</HI> 23.23. at any rate to purcha&s;e it, at no rate to part with it: a man that is rightly principled for heaven, will venture through an Army of <HI>Phili&s;tims</HI> for water of life, as <HI>Davids</HI> worthies did, unto the well of <HI>Bethlehem;</HI> the people would part with their very Jewells, the mo&s;t pretious things they had, for the erecting the &s;etting up of Gods Tabernacle, <HI>David would not take an houres re&s;t till he had prepared an habitation for the Arke, P&s;al.</HI> 132.3, 4, 5. and becau&s;e <HI>he &s;et his affection upon the hou&s;e of God, he prepared for the building of it with all his might,</HI> 1 Chron. 2, 3, 4 He thought it a thing un|becomming him, to dwell him&s;elfe in a hou&s;e of Cedar, when the Arke of God dwelt under curtaines:<NOTE PLACE="marg">Jo&s;eph. de Bell. Jud.</NOTE> and the <HI>Jewes</HI> in the &s;ore fa|mine and &s;iege of <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> brought ever the faire&s;t and fatte&s;t Cattell for &s;acrifices, though they were con&s;trained them&s;elves to feede upon Rats and Mice and other wor&s;e vermine; they cho&s;e rather to pine and fami&s;h their own bodies, that the Altars of God &s;hould be altogether unfurni&s;hed, or take up with the wor&s;t: and when the Tribunes complained for want of gold in the Trea&s;ury,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Livy Hi&s;t.</NOTE> to offer to <HI>Apollo,</HI> the Romane Matrons plucked off their chaines, bracelets, and rings, freely offering them to the Prie&s;ts to &s;upply that defect in the &s;ervice of their gods; This certainly was a high
<PB N="42" REF="24">
&s;traine of devotion in tho&s;e <HI>Jewes</HI> and Heathens, And what do you think of the Primitive Chri&s;tians, were not they al&s;o thus violent when they &s;old their e&s;tates, and layd down the price of them at the Apo&s;tles feete, to purcha&s;e the meanes of Salvation for them|&s;elves and others? If the people of this land would bid &s;o high for the rich pearl of the Go&s;pell, <HI>The Kingdom of heaven</HI> were ours.</P>
<P N="2"><NOTE PLACE="marg">2 In remo|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ing of evills.</NOTE>2. And as in procuring of helpes, meanes, and advantages for the attainement or advancement of the kingdom of God, &s;o in removing the lets and impediments, this heaven-&s;prung-violence will work and be&s;tir it &s;elf to the uttermo&s;t. If the Go&s;pell of Chri&s;t, the Word of the Kingdom, chance to be brewed with hu|mane traditions, or the Wor&s;hip and Ordinances of God adulte|rated with &s;purious in&s;titutions and impure mixtures, <HI>Quid non audet amor,</HI> what will not a man of violence do or &s;uffer? What labour or co&s;t will he &s;pare? What adventures will he not make? What hazards not run, rather them &s;uffer (if he can helpe it) &s;uch pollutions? He will &s;et his &s;houlders, with <HI>Samp&s;on,</HI> to the pillars of Dagons hou&s;e, and pull them down, though him&s;elfe be oppre&s;|&s;ed in the ruines; he will cut down the grove of <HI>Baal,</HI> and over|throw his Altars, though the men of the City cry out of him, and threaten to have his life for it. He will do his uttermo&s;t to remove &s;candalls and &s;tumbling blockes as <HI>Hezekiah</HI> did the brazen Serpent when Idolized; to &s;courge out of the Temple corrupt Church|men, which make merchandize of holy things, as our Saviour did the money-changers; to reforme abu&s;es and prophanations of Gods Name, his Sabboth, and Sanctuary, as <HI>Ezra</HI> and <HI>Nehemiah</HI> did; He will not connive at his neere&s;t friends, but eject and ca&s;hiere them, if Idolatrous or &s;uper&s;titious, as <HI>A&s;a</HI> did <HI>Maacha</HI> his Queen Mother, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 15.16. <HI>Hezekiah</HI> made it his fir&s;t work when he came to the Kingdom to &s;et open the doores of the Lords hou&s;e, which for a long time had been &s;hut up; he was &s;carce warme in his Throne when he was fiery hot, for a full and through reforma|tion, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 29.3. And <HI>Io&s;iah</HI> his grand-childe, when he was yet but young was nothing le&s;&s;e, if not more eminent in this violent zeal than he. All the Altars, Groves, Images, and what&s;oever o|ther trinkets, reliques, and monuments of &s;uper&s;tition were found in the land, he offered them up for a hecatomb, made a bone-fire of them, as you may &s;ee at large, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 34.3, 4, 5, &amp;c.</P>
<P>You &s;ee now the chiefe Ingredients of this heroicall Di&s;po&s;ition,
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and &s;traine of Spirit, and &s;ome few (for I cannot name all) of the principall operations of it, &s;ee now the Grounds and Rea&s;ons of it.</P>
<P N="1">1. In re&s;pect of God <GAP DESC="foreign">, Its meete and our bounden duty, that we &s;hould u&s;e all our violence, and if 'twere po&s;&s;ible more then all, in matters of this nature; Its good councell that of the wi&s;e man, <HI>Eccle&s;.</HI> 9.10. <HI>What&s;oever thine heart findes to do, do it with all thy might,</HI> &s;lightne&s;&s;e of heart in carrying on any bu&s;i|ne&s;&s;e is naught, but wor&s;t of all in Religion, God likes it well when we put on to purpo&s;e, mu&s;ter all our Forces,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"> Ex omni valde tue.</NOTE> <HI>and &s;tir up our &s;trength to lay hold of him, E&s;ay</HI> 64.7. He lookes for what we can, <HI>Deut.</HI> 6.5. And if we offer him le&s;&s;e than all, we might as well offer nothing. When our intentions in his Wor&s;hip, are not &s;crew|ed up to this height, its a &s;ign that our hearts are divided and cloven, and therefore hypocriticall: when the Jewes were carele&s;&s;e and perfunctory in their devotions, and put God off with any &s;acrifices which came next to hand, he accounted this as a di&s;honour to him, and as a derogation to his Maje&s;ty and greatne&s;&s;e, and there|fore he thundred out a dreadfull cur&s;e again&s;t them, <HI>Mal.</HI> 1.14. <HI>If ye offer the blinde and the lame for &s;acrifice, is it not evill; offer it now un|to thy governour, will he be plea&s;ed with thee, or accept thy per&s;on, &s;aith the Lord of Ho&s;ts, ver&s;.</HI> 8. This carriage of theirs bewrayed plainely how little re&s;pect their hearts bare him. It was a cleere evidence again&s;t them, that they made him not <HI>their chiefe;</HI> therefore he lets them know how &s;en&s;ible he was of this di&s;re&s;pect, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 14. <HI>Cur&s;ed be he that having a male in his flock, offereth unto the Lord a corrupt thing, for I am a great King, &s;aith the Lord of Ho&s;ts.</HI> If there be not a &s;tamp and impre&s;&s;ion of zealous violence in all our religi|ous addre&s;&s;es unto God, our deportment is not &s;uch as becomes the Maje&s;ty and greatne&s;&s;e of &s;uch a King.</P>
<P N="2">2 And as this violence is ju&s;t and nece&s;&s;ary in re&s;pect of God, who requires and calls for it at our hands, &s;o is it al&s;o in re&s;pect of the prize it &s;elfe, which is here contended and &s;triven for, it being the Kingdome of heaven, and therefore well worthy of all the violence which we can u&s;e for it: to be eager and earne&s;t in other things of an inferiour allay <GAP DESC="foreign"> it will not quit the co&s;t, vio|lence for the mo&s;t part is above the proportion and value of them; but the Kingdome of God is a matter of the greate&s;t importance and con&s;equence of any other in the world. It is worthy of all
<PB N="44" REF="25">
the courage, zeale, and re&s;olution that we have; where can we lay them out better, or &s;o well, as for the atchievement of a kingdom. The heathen man could &s;ay, <HI>Imperia pretio quolibet con&s;tant bene:</HI> A kingdom cannot be over bought, the crown Imperiall of a mortall Prince, it is a radiant and &s;parkling object; what&s;oever a man payeth for it,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Occidat, modo imperet, <HI>Suet.</HI> in vita <HI>Ner.</HI></NOTE> it is held a rich purcha&s;e notwith&s;tanding. <HI>Agrip|pina</HI> thought the Romane Empire a good penni-worth, though &s;he bought it for her &s;on <HI>Nero,</HI> a very wretch, with the lo&s;&s;e of her own life. What violent running, wre&s;tling and &s;triving was there of old in the Olympique games? what combates and contentions? yet all was but <HI>for a corruptible crown,</HI> as the Apo&s;tle &s;peakes, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 9.24, 25. The greate&s;t reward they could looke for, was but a crown of Lawrell, a chaplet of flowers; and be&s;ides, they all ran in tho&s;e ma&s;teries, and yet it <HI>was but one onely that could receive the prize:</HI> but we &s;trive for an Incorruptible crown, and if we &s;trive <HI>violently,</HI> as we ought, we &s;hall all obtaine the prize we &s;trive for; and when it is obtained, it will be more worth then all the crownes and diadems in the world.</P>
<P>The Crownes of the greate&s;t earthly Monarchs, though the pearls in them be never &s;o gli&s;tering, yet they are &s;tuffed, for the mo&s;t part, with &s;uch thornes, attended with &s;o many piercing cares and &s;orrowes and di&s;contents, that a wi&s;e man, if he &s;hould meete with one of them lying before him in the way, he would &s;carce thinke it worth the taking up; but the crowne of this King|dome which we &s;trive for, if by all the violence we can u&s;e in do|ing or &s;uffering we may win it at the la&s;t, it will &s;uper-abundantly make amends for all.</P>
<P>Its po&s;&s;ible that we may, nay its certaine that we mu&s;t endure much, if we will &s;et our &s;elves with ob&s;tinacy and violence to run this cour&s;e; tis a Law enacted in heaven, <HI>That we must all through many tribulations, enter into the Kingdome of God, Act.</HI> 14.22. But this needs not di&s;courage. If our &s;uffering be great, our Reward is Hyperbolicall, 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 4.17. <HI>Our light afflictions which are but for a moment,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">2 King. 11.14.</NOTE> what compari&s;on betwixt them and the re|ward which they work out for us, which is, <HI>a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory.</HI> Its po&s;&s;ible, in the&s;e plundring times, we may lo&s;e our e&s;tates, it skills not much; if we part with that which we cannot keep, to gaine that trea&s;ure which we cannot lo&s;e: The Primitive Chri&s;tians, <HI>&s;uffered the &s;poyling of their goods
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with joy, knowing they had in heaven a better and more enduring &s;ub|&s;tance,</HI> Heb. 10.34. It may be, whiles we are zealous for the ho|nour of God, we &s;hall be in danger to lo&s;e all our owne re&s;pect, and reputation among men; the black mouth of Calumny may a&s;|per&s;e the loyalty of our intentions, and &s;ully our Names with hor|rid imputations of trea&s;on and Rebellion; <HI>Jehoiada</HI> did but endea|vour to put down unju&s;t u&s;urpation, and to &s;et up the right heire in this throne, and to draw the people into a Covenant with God, and yet <HI>Athalia</HI> cryed Trea&s;on, trea&s;on. Oh, but &s;ayes Saint <HI>Peter, if ye &s;uffer reproach for Chri&s;ts &s;ake, hapyy are ye, for the &s;pirit of glo|ry and of God re&s;ts upon you,</HI> 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 4 14. A Chri&s;tian is never &s;o glorious as when he &s;uffers mo&s;t reproach and ignominy for Chri&s;ts &s;ake. There is nothing in the world, &s;aith <HI>Chri&s;o&s;tome,</HI> no|thing at all comparable to that glory.<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Chry&s;. in Mat. Homil. 8.</NOTE> <HI>When men revile and per&s;ecute you, and &s;ay all manner of evill again&s;t you fal&s;ly for my &s;ake, rejoyce and be exceeding glad,</HI> &s;aith our Saviour, <HI>for great is your reward in heaven, Math.</HI> 5.11. A dram of credit well lo&s;t, in a good cau&s;e, and for a good con&s;cience, will amount to as much in the returne of it, as an eternall Crown of glory is worth: but we may haply yet further endanger our liberties, forfeit our deare&s;t content|ments, incurre the di&s;plea&s;ure of our friends, lo&s;e our intere&s;ts, yea our lives and all we have in this world: we could never bring them to a better market, we &s;hall gaine an hundred for one, take his Word for it who cannot lye, you cannot de&s;ire better a&s;&s;urance, it being all which heaven and earth have to &s;hew for their conti|nuance, <HI>Luke</HI> 18.29. <HI>Verily I &s;ay unto you, there is no man that hath left hou&s;e, or Parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the King|dome of Gods &s;ake, who &s;hall not receive manifold more in this pre&s;ent time, and in the world to come, life everla&s;ting.</HI></P>
<P>Its a thriving trade indeede, thus to part with tran&s;itory things,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><P>Si aliqua ami&s;i|&s;tis vitae gaudia, negotiatio e&s;t ali|quid amitteris ut majora lacre|ris, <HI>Ter. in lib. ad Mart.</HI></P><P>Si homo mille annis Deo &s;ervi|ret quam ferven|ti&s;&s;ime, non me|reretur dimidi|um diei in calo. <HI>An&s;el.</HI></P></NOTE> and gaine eternall, to exchange dro&s;&s;e for gold, peebles for pearles, withering flowers for an inacce&s;&s;ible crown: Who would not traffique in &s;uch a merchandize? <HI>An&s;elme</HI> hath a &s;aying, That if a man could &s;erve God, with all fervency of zeale and devotion, for a thou&s;and yeeres, yet all this were as nothing in compari&s;on of the happine&s;&s;e to be for one halfe of a day in heaven; I will &s;ay yet more, If a man could performe all the vertuous exploytes, and &s;uffer all the mo&s;t exqui&s;ite tortures which all the Saints and Mar|tyrs have &s;uffered from the beginning of the world, yet all this
<PB N="46" REF="26">
would not beare up the &s;cales, nor hold any proportion of weight, &s;o as in any &s;ort to be judged <HI>worthy to be compared with the glory which &s;hall be revealed, Rom.</HI> 8.18. We can never therefore be over violent for this prize.</P>
<P N="3">3. And as in re&s;pect of God and his Kingdom, this is nece&s;&s;ary, &s;o in re&s;pect of the enterpri&s;ers them&s;elves; who, except they &s;train hard, pre&s;&s;e on with much violence, might as well &s;it down, and &s;et their hearts at re&s;t, giving over the Kingdome of heaven and eternall Salvation, as a lo&s;t prize: ca&s;t your eyes about which way you will, whether on God, or your &s;elves, or the world, enemies or friends, nothing can &s;et before us the lea&s;t door of hope that ever we &s;hall come to heaven, <HI>Except we &s;trive to enter in at the &s;traight gate,</HI> Mat. 7.13.1. Looke upon God and you &s;hall finde that he hath fixed it as an irrever&s;ible order, <HI>that &s;uch as &s;trive for ma&s;tery, &s;hall not be crowned, except they &s;trive lawfully,</HI> 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 2 5. We mu&s;t conquer before we triumph; win the Garland before we weare it: we are too well conceited of our &s;elves, and pre&s;ume too much upon Gods love, without any ju&s;t ground: if we expect that he &s;hould bring us by a nearer way, and &s;horter cut, unto eternall glory, than he did his onely begotten &s;on, who came not ea&s;ily by his crowne, his conque&s;t over death and hell, and the &s;poyles ta|ken from them, were not <HI>Salmacida &s;polia &s;ine &s;anguine &amp; &s;udore,</HI> &s;poyles got without &s;weat or blood-&s;hed, for he did both &s;weat and bleed in his &s;triving and &s;trugling for them; and I do not finde where entrance into heaven is propo&s;ed unto us but upon &s;uch like termes in quality, I meane not in equality which is impo&s;&s;ible. <HI>Revel.</HI> 2.3. <HI>To him that overcommeth will I give to &s;it with me on my Throne, even as I al&s;o overcame and am &s;et downe with my Father in his Throne:</HI> Loe here God hath held out his Kingdome as a <GAP DESC="foreign">, an honourable prize, for brave &s;pirits to contend and &s;cuffle for: this is the ju&s;t price which he hath pitcht, <HI>He that overcomes,</HI> the Crown is his, upon other termes it cannot be expected. The old rule was <GAP DESC="foreign">; The Gods &s;ell all for &s;weate, and it is indeed true, that there is nothing of worth in all this world which can be got better cheap: a Scholler cannot compa&s;&s;e any competency of skill in the Arts and Sciences without much &s;tudy and travell; <HI>Multa tulit fecitque puer &s;udavit &amp; al&s;it,</HI> it will co&s;t much &s;weat and much toyle to excell in learning. A mechanicall artificer cannot thrive nor grow rich in his ordinary trade, without
<PB N="47" REF="26">
more then ordinary diligence; and &s;hall we think the Kingdome of heaven will come dropping in our laps, whil&s;t we &s;it &s;till and fold our hands, and will do nothing, or that which is to as little purpo&s;e as nothing, for it.</P>
<P>I confe&s;&s;e that of <HI>Tertullian</HI> in proper &s;peech is mo&s;t true,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Pretio res nulla Dei con&s;tat. <HI>Tert.</HI></NOTE> That nothing of or belonging unto God can be either bought or &s;old; God is a mo&s;t liberall Benefactor and gives us all things, even his Kingdome too, freely; we have nothing that good is, in relation to time or eternity, but it comes in upon us as a gratuity; and we for our parts <GAP DESC="foreign">, we have no price in our hands to give in exchange for &s;uch ble&s;&s;ings, e&s;pecially the Kingdom of hea|ven, which his more worth then all the world, though turned into a Globe of gold or mountaine of Diamonds, yet it is as true in another &s;ence, That all the ble&s;&s;ings of God, yea even the King|dome of heaven too, mu&s;t be traded and trafficked for; <HI>Salomon</HI> calls in cu&s;tomers to the &s;hop of truth, and he requires them to buy it; and our Saviour commends this practi&s;e in two parables,<NOTE PLACE="marg">E&s;ay 55.1. Revel. 3.18.</NOTE> The one of a rich Trea&s;ure, the other of a precious pearle, <HI>Mat.</HI> 13.44, &amp;c. Many &s;uch like expre&s;&s;ions we meete with every where in the Scripture, all which import a kinde of trading and trafficking with God, for the great things of his Kingdom, which mu&s;t be bought and purcha&s;ed by laying out what&s;oever we are or have,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Sapiens num|mularius e&s;t Deus, nummum fal&s;um, nec fra|ctum recipiet, <HI>Bern.</HI></NOTE> for them. When we offer him the flower of our de&s;ires, the high|e&s;t pitch of our affections, and the marrow of our be&s;t endeavours, this is <HI>pretium legitimum,</HI> God will accept of it, as of a ju&s;t and currant price; and if any bid &s;hort of it, and will not be at &s;uch co&s;t for heaven; I can give him no other comfort but this, He may go to hell, if he plea&s;e, good cheap.</P>
<P N="2">2. Looke we towards our &s;elves, or the world about us, and we &s;hall finde all the contention and violence we can u&s;e,<NOTE PLACE="marg">In re&s;pect of oppo&s;ition&punc; from our &s;elves.</NOTE> no le&s;&s;e then nece&s;&s;ary: The Kingdom of heaven is unto us as <HI>Canaan</HI> was unto the <HI>I&s;raelites,</HI> a Land of promi&s;e indeed, but yet a land of conque&s;t too; there is a multitude of Gyants, the &s;onnes of <HI>Anak</HI> that we mu&s;t encounter with, and prevaile over, ere we can take po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of it; there be Gyant-like corruptions in our owne hearts, which will finde us work enough to re&s;i&s;t, and much more to over-come them; &s;ometimes our unbeleefe will da&s;h our hopes, melt our cou|rage, ema&s;culate our re&s;olution as it was with the <HI>I&s;raelites,</HI> and the ten low-&s;pirited Spies, which gave over <HI>Canaan</HI> as de&s;perate,
<PB N="48" REF="27">
becau&s;e of its fenced Cities, and high battlements, and the &s;onnes of <HI>Anak</HI> the great <HI>Zanzummims</HI> that lay in the way, we had neede of a mighty violent operation of faith, to over-looke and over-ma&s;ter &s;uch difficulties: &s;ometimes Ambition will &s;olicite us with a baite of honour, and other-whiles covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e will tempt us with a bribe, to &s;top our cour&s;e; and either, altogether to let our de|&s;igne fall,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Qui diliberant, de&s;civerunt, <HI>Tacit.</HI></NOTE> or el&s;e to be more remi&s;&s;e and moderate in the pur&s;uance of it; here if we be not violent, we lye open to much danger. Its no hard matter for temptations to break in and prevaile, when our de&s;ires linger after &s;uch things, when our affections are but luke|warme, and our re&s;olutions not &s;teady, now we are upon the point of being betray'd; a faint deny all begets new &s;uites, and a doore left unbarred gives ea&s;ie entrance, <HI>When we cleave not unto God with full purpo&s;e of heart, Act.</HI> 11.23. Other things will get in betwixt him and us. Its onely a Spirit &s;teeled with Chri&s;tian re&s;olution, that can make a man in &s;uch a&s;&s;aults &s;teady and unmoveable like to the Roman <HI>Fabritius,</HI> of whom it was &s;aid, That one might as well offer to &s;tay the motion of the &s;un in the firmament, as to put him out of his way; &s;ometimes carnall policy will endeavour to take us off, and &s;ometimes ea&s;e and &s;loath will retard us; and &s;ometimes carnall feare will hold out a <HI>Gorgons</HI> head of dangers and di&s;cou|ragements, telling us there is a Lyon in the way, and that it is bet|ter to &s;it &s;till then to be&s;tir our &s;elves, and be active, when there is &s;o &s;mall probability of &s;ucce&s;&s;e. The&s;e, and a world of &s;uch other oppo&s;itions and encumbrances, we &s;hall be &s;ure to meete with from our &s;elves;<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ecce adver&s;arius in pectoretuo Chri&s;tum cona|tur occidere, <HI>Hier. Epi&s;t. ad Heliod.</HI></NOTE> we have a traytor that lyes in our owne bo&s;ome, an adver&s;ary in our bre&s;t, which will ever and anon endeavour to kill Chri&s;t in us, as <HI>Hierome</HI> &s;peakes, and to &s;mother all de&s;ires, mo|tions, and affections, which proceede from him, or breath after him.</P>
<P N="3"><NOTE PLACE="marg">2. From Friends.</NOTE>3. Nor is there le&s;&s;e oppo&s;ition to be expected from the world, both friends and enemies will interpo&s;e hinderances and blockes &s;ometimes, which we may have much ado to leap over, The world is never more prevalent then when it comes alluring and wooing us in a way of love, with &s;weete promi&s;es and plea&s;ing blandi&s;h|ments. When that Noble <HI>Italian</HI> Marque&s;&s;e <HI>Galeatius Caracciolus</HI> was &s;olicited with great offers of preferment from the Emperour and Pope to draw him off from his Religion, it was a &s;hrew'd temptation, and would no doubt have taken with him, if he had
<PB N="49" REF="27">
been of a flexible Spirit, but he returned this peremptory an&s;wer, <HI>I e&s;teem one dayes communion with Je&s;us Chri&s;t, in the Go&s;pell, above all the honours and riches in the world;</HI> If carnall friends and coun|&s;ellors a&s;&s;ault us, with bewitching entreaties, to worke us to a complyancy, we &s;hall be hard put to it, to turn them off; except we violently &s;top our eares, again&s;t their plea&s;ing charmes, as <HI>&V;ly&s;&s;es</HI> did again&s;t the <HI>Syrens</HI> Songs. It may happen &s;ometimes, that our neere&s;t kindred and acquaintance, our deare&s;t parents, or the wives of our bo&s;ome, may with weeping eyes, and moving words, winde about us, and offer to mi&s;-per&s;wade us,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Etiam &s;i parun|lus ex collo pen|deat nepos, &s;i flens pa&s;&s;is crini|bus ubera quib<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters"> te nutrieral ma|mater o&s;tentet, per calcalum per|ge patrem&mdash; &s;ocum pretatis genute&s;t hic e&s;se crudelem: <HI>Hie|rom.</HI></NOTE> as <HI>Dalilah</HI> did <HI>Samp&s;on;</HI> and to draw us from God, as <HI>Peter</HI> would have done our Saviour with, Ma&s;ter, <HI>Pitty thy &s;elfe;</HI> and it will be a great degree of violence, to &s;hake them off as Chri&s;t did him, with, <HI>Get thee behinde me Sathan:</HI> or as Saint <HI>Hierome</HI> exhorts in this ca&s;e, to trample upon the gray beard of our Father, to treade upon the wombe of our Mother that bare us; to &s;hake off children and Nephewes, as S. <HI>Paul</HI> &s;hook off the Viper from off his hands. It mu&s;t be a fixed and all-conquering re&s;olution, that can, like <HI>Samp&s;on,</HI> &s;nap a &s;under &s;uch cords, and not be bound with them.</P>
<P N="4">4. And if it be no ea&s;ie matter, to make good our re&s;olutions,<NOTE PLACE="marg">3. From Ene|mies.</NOTE> again&s;t the batteries, which we our &s;elves, and our friends too of|ten rai&s;e again&s;t them; &s;urely then we had neede of <HI>Robur &amp; as triples circa pectus,</HI> a bre&s;t-plate of Adamant, an helmet of &s;teele, to make us impenetrable again&s;t the hail-&s;hot of oppo&s;ition, which we mu&s;t expect from our enemies; the more clo&s;e we cleave to God, and the more we &s;eparate in our wayes and cour&s;es, from the world; &s;o much greater will be the rage of the devill, and his a|gents again&s;t us, to vex us with all har&s;h tryalls. If we be &s;o vio|lently bent, that nothing will &s;erve our turne, but a full and through Reformation of Doctrine, Wor&s;hip, and Government; we &s;hall meete with as fierce oppo&s;ition as the <HI>Jews</HI> in <HI>Ezra</HI> and <HI>Nehemiahs</HI> time did: a mighty Court-faction, and a Potent Army will be rai&s;ed again&s;t us, &s;o as we &s;hall be forced to build the Temple, as they did; with a &s;word in one hand, and a trowell in the other.</P>
<P>If the three children, would have beene content to conforme them&s;elves to the Court Religion, and to re&s;igne their con&s;ciences to the Kings plea&s;ure, all had beene well enough; but when they declared a contrary re&s;olution, and were as &s;tiffe as oakes, and
<PB N="50" REF="28">
would not yeeld,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Infantiam Chri|&s;ti &s;tudio&s;e per&s;e|quantur &amp; ante|quam &s;ormetur Ch<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">i&s;tus in nobis in ip&s;o viae con|ver&s;ationis iaitio ut extinguatur &s;piritus &amp; &s;u&s;&s;o|cetur vita ju&s;ti|tiae peni&s;us ela|borant, <HI>Cypr.</HI> Ser. de &s;tella &amp; magi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">.</NOTE> then there was but one way with them; an arti|ficiall hell was prepared, and they mu&s;t be <HI>ca&s;t into the burning fiery furnace, Dan.</HI> 3.15. It is, and ever hath beene the elaborate and great de&s;igne of the world, &s;aith S. <HI>Cyprian,</HI> to &s;trangle Chri&s;t in his cradle, as &s;oone as ever he begins to be &s;haped, and formed, and brought forth in the manners and conver&s;ation of a Chri&s;tian, now to kill him in his Infancy.</P>
<P>The Church met with no per&s;ecution, that we reade of, whiles &s;he lay &s;lumbring in her drowzie bed, <HI>and opened not the doore to her beloved that knocked,</HI> but when &s;he aro&s;e and went about the City, and left no corner un&s;earched, and made all the towne know who &s;he was in love with; now &s;he falls into the Inqui&s;ition; the Pre|laticall Faction met with her; <HI>the watch-men and keepers of the wals wound d her, and tooke away her vaile,</HI> with other cour&s;e u&s;age, <HI>Cant.</HI> 5.7. When the blinde man had the eyes of his minde, as well as of his body, &s;o far enlightned, that he declared him&s;elfe in the face of the Court, to &s;tand for Chri&s;t; now there was no re|medy but he mu&s;t be excommunicated; for the Pontificall tribe had made a Canon, That <HI>who&s;oever confe&s;&s;ed Chri&s;t, &s;hould be put out of the Synagogue, John</HI> 9.22, 34. If once we begin to advance in good earne&s;t, and &s;et forward towards heaven, it will not be long to be &s;ure,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t opinio quae|dam &amp; per&s;ua&s;io exitialis quae pri|mum mundum &amp; Jud. remp. perdidit quae Noviquoque Te|&s;tamenti caetu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> va&s;tat &amp; &s;ebolas de&s;truit Novum dicitur Evange|lium, dogma, vid&z;. de mi&s;eri cordia Dei patris vimi&s;. peccato|rum &amp; &s;alute <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">rnat er exter|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">um dei cultum con&s;equentda, Sixt. Amam. in Praef. ad Anti|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="4 letters">.</NOTE> ere &s;ome furious &s;torme of per&s;ecution be rai&s;ed, to drive us back againe (if po&s;&s;ible) to the gates of hell. In all the&s;e, and &s;undry other re&s;pects, there mu&s;t be much fervency in our de&s;ires, affectionate ob&s;tinacy in our re&s;olutions and endeavours, much wre&s;tling and conflicting with God and our &s;elves, friends, and enemies; or el&s;e admi&s;&s;ion, and entrance into the Kingdome of heaven is a thing to be de&s;paired of.</P>
<P>I come now to inferences of u&s;e and practi&s;e, and to omit others which offer them&s;elves in variety: I pitch upon three onely. 1. For In&s;truction. 2. For Reproofe. 3. For Exhortation. For In&s;truction in two Branches.</P>
<P N="1">1. This may informe us, That Salvation is a prize, not &s;o ea&s;ily won, as its commonly Imagined. There is an opinion in the world; * <HI>Paulus Tarnovius</HI> calls it, <HI>Novum Evangelium,</HI> A new Go&s;pell; that if &s;o be a man profe&s;&s;e the true Religion, and be Or|thodox in his Judgement, and not gro&s;ly notorious for any enor|mious crymes, in his conver&s;ation; if he come to Church, and heare the Word, and receive the Sacraments, and have forme of Godli|ne&s;&s;e,
<PB N="51" REF="28">
though not the power and life of it; why then &s;uch a man &s;hall certainely be &s;aved. This new Go&s;pell, as that Reverend and worthy Divine calls it, is an old Delu&s;ion and fallacy of Sa|than, which hath prevailed in the world from the beginning; and in all ages, jugled thou&s;ands out of their Salvation; and where&s;o|ever it is received, and entertained, it will be the de&s;truction, not of particular per&s;ons alone, but of whole States and Kingdomes, as it was of the old world, and the <HI>Jewi&s;h Common-wealth,</HI> and of <HI>Germany</HI> too, now of late; if the judgement of that learned man mi&s;tooke not its marke. Oh this <GAP DESC="foreign"> as <HI>Nazian|zen</HI> &s;peakes; this new Go&s;pell without charges, this cheap Religi|on, which would open us &s;uch an ea&s;ie way, with a few good words, with a little whol&s;ome breath, to purcha&s;e the Kingdome of heaven, we could relli&s;h it well; its marvellous plea&s;ing and delightfull to our lazie and &s;luggi&s;h di&s;po&s;itions. As <HI>Marcus Lepi|dus</HI> when he &s;tretched him&s;elf, and lay along on the gra&s;&s;e;<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Tull.</HI> de Orat. lib<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">o <HI>2.</HI></NOTE> <HI>O uti|mam hoe e&s;&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t laborare:</HI> Oh, &s;aith he, that this were to labour, and to get the Ma&s;tery: &s;o many of us, when we &s;tretch our&s;elves, on our beds, like them in <HI>Amos,</HI> and live at ea&s;e in <HI>Sion,</HI> denying no|thing to our carnall affections and appetites, which we have a minde to; Oh, &s;ay we, that this were to be <HI>violent for the Kingdom of heaven,</HI> for then we would li&s;t our Names, and be as forward as who mo&s;t: but let us not be deceived, <HI>The Kingdome of God con&s;i&s;ts not in Words, but in power,</HI> I <HI>Cor.</HI> 4.20. If Chri&s;tianity were a &s;oft and delicate profe&s;&s;ion, were the way to heaven over green meddowes, and floury plaines, &s;trewed with Ro&s;es and Violet; and not be&s;et with tryers and thornes, with difficulties, encum|brances, and oppo&s;itions; every <HI>Agrippa</HI> would then be not onely <HI>almo&s;t, but altogether per&s;waded to be a Chri&s;tian,</HI> every prophane <HI>E&s;au</HI> would come in for a &s;hare, none would &s;it out:<NOTE PLACE="marg">Non e&s;t ad a&s;tra mollis a terris oi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> <HI>Sen.</HI></NOTE> but heaven is not got with a wi&s;h, nor Paradi&s;e with a &s;ong. Remi&s;&s;ion of &s;innes, and the Graces of Regeneration, they are not obtained with a &s;igh, victory over all oppo&s;itions from earth and hell, is not at|chieved with a breath: its not dull and faint wi&s;hes, cold and lan|gui&s;hing velleities, feeble and heardle&s;&s;e endeavours, that can hope to win the crowne of Glory, there mu&s;t be pa&s;&s;ionate longings and breakings of the heart, with continuall de&s;ires after God: the operation of Gods Word upon us, mu&s;t be as a burning fire &s;hut up in our bones, <HI>Jer.</HI> 20.9. Our zeale for God mu&s;t eate us up,
<PB N="52" REF="29">
<HI>P&s;al.</HI> 69.9. <HI>We mu&s;t be valiant for the truth, Jer.</HI> 9.3. <HI>Re&s;i&s;t oppo&s;i|tions and temptations unto blood, Heb.</HI> 12.4. El&s;e were there as ma|ny heavens as there be dayes in the yeere, we are never like to arrive in any of them.</P>
<P N="2">2. This may let us &s;ee what we are to judge of temper and mo|deration in matters of Religion. In other things it is a vertue and worthy of much prai&s;e, and it is not to be denyed, That even in Religion too, there are &s;ome things, in which it may have place. When there was too much heate in the Church of <HI>Rome,</HI> about &s;ome matters of indifferency, not much importing any way, the Apo&s;tle to calme both parties, and to compo&s;e them unto mode|ration, and mutuall bearing with one another; <HI>The Kingdome of God,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>is not meate and drinke, but righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, and peace, and joy in the holy Gho&s;t, Rom.</HI> 14.17. All truth carries Gods &s;tampe, and is pretious, but not alike; there be &s;ome truths of &s;uch moment and con&s;equence, as that they cannot be over violent|ly &s;triven for; but there be others of an inferiour alloy which need not be held, much le&s;&s;e pre&s;&s;ed upon others, with &s;o hard a hand, &s;uch are not a few &s;peculative opinions and rituall practi&s;es, in matters of externall Wor&s;hip; in contending about which, if the exce&s;&s;es of zeale, were corrected and allayed, with a little coo|ling of moderation, no doubt it would be much better then now it is with the Church of God.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Bonum e&s;t mel rum favo Sapor Scilicet devotio|nis cum modera mine di&s;cretionis, <HI>Ger&s;on.</HI></NOTE> Its a good rule to this purpo&s;e, that of the famous Chauncellour of <HI>Paris: Honey is good with the honey comb, and &s;o is the Savour of Devotion, when it is &s;ea&s;oned with a di&s;creete mixture of moderation.</HI></P>
<P>But although it be true, that in the&s;e punctilioes, as it were, in Religion, moderation is a Jewell, yet in the profe&s;&s;ion and practi&s;e of tho&s;e maine fundamentalls of Faith, and Wor&s;hip, with other &s;uper&s;tructions, neerly bordering and coa&s;ting thereupon, it is far o|therwi&s;e. In the&s;e things its ea&s;ie to be too moderate, but impo&s;&s;ible to be over violent.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Non legimus re|prehen&s;os qui ni|mium de &s;onte aquae vitae hau|&s;erint, <HI>Cal.</HI> praef. ad In&s;titut.</NOTE> If we &s;eeme to be tran&s;ported into an exta&s;ie, &s;o as the world judgeth us to be be&s;ides our &s;elves, it matters not much; <HI>If we be be&s;ides our &s;elves, it is unto God,</HI> 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 5.13. Reli|gion is a tender bu&s;ine&s;&s;e, and of great concernment; the glory of God, and our Salvation, depends on it; and as <HI>Calvin</HI> &s;aid, of drawing too much water out of the well of life; &s;o may I, of drawing out our Spirits in too much violence for the honour of God. I do not know where any man is blamed in all the Scripture
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for &s;uch a fault. If it were po&s;&s;ile that in hearing the Word, a man were all eare, if in prayer he could be rapt up into an exta&s;ie in mourning for &s;in, if he could melt out his &s;oule at his eyes; in all the other parts of wor&s;hip and practi&s;es of piety, could he be all devotion, and pure, pute zeale, it would become him well, and there &s;hould be no danger of exce&s;&s;e; How is it po&s;&s;ible, that we &s;hould have too much of that whereof we can never have enough?</P>
<P>The world is generally of another minde, a little violence in matters of Religion, a very little upon the knives point will &s;uf|fice, a dram or two is enough of all con&s;cience; but for moderati|on, as much of that as you will, the more the better; This is the opinion of Politicians, Court-Divines, and all the re&s;t of that &s;tampe, they cry up that bo&s;ome-Idoll of di&s;cretion, as the onely fit temper, for a wi&s;e and well-compo&s;ed Chri&s;tian; and if &s;park|lings of zeale, breake out, and di&s;cover them&s;elves, If any violence appeare, this they cry down as faction, folly, frenzie. It hath in|deede beene ever &s;o with this wi&s;e world in all ages.</P>
<P>When our Saviour was &s;o wholly taken up with the great af|faires of the Kingdome of God, ri&s;ing up early to Preach, and continuing often whole nights in prayer, &s;o as he had no lea&s;ure, no not to eate; his friends out of meere pitty, good folkes, <HI>&s;ent to lay hold on him; for they &s;ayd, he was gone be&s;ides him&s;elfe, Mark.</HI> 3.21. The like cen&s;ure pa&s;t upon Saint <HI>Paul,</HI> becau&s;e he was earne&s;t and zealous in the cau&s;e of God, it was thought he was gone mad, the man &s;ure had lo&s;t his di&s;cretion. <HI>Act.</HI> 26.24. And Saint <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> when he was pa&s;&s;ionately eager again&s;t the <HI>Arrian</HI> faction, then prevalent at Court, this was interpreted a &s;ymptome of dotage. If men will not be baffled out of their Religion, the wi&s;e world counts them fooles, and furious zealots, and complains &s;ore of them, for want of moderation. The le&s;&s;e wonder it is that our Honou|rable Senate, which hath &s;hewed &s;o much zeal for God, &s;hould meete with the &s;ame mea&s;ure, from Malignant and ill-affected &s;pi|rits. Among other virulent invectives, this is clamored again&s;t your Religious proceedings, with the greate&s;t noy&s;e, That you are and have been <HI>over violent;</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Quoditiana &s;or|nax no&s;tra Male|dicentium lin|gua, <HI>Au&s;t.</HI></NOTE> Oh you have undon the Kingdom with an high and Imperious reformation, you have let it blood in the <HI>Ba&s;iliks veine:</HI> In &s;um, the Phy&s;icke hath been wor&s;e then the di|&s;ea&s;e, &s;uch cavils and calumnies, are rife again&s;t you, in the mouths of your enemies, who in this, like Lapwings, cry aloofe from their
<PB N="54" REF="30">
ne&s;ts, the truth is, they have a bitter, and mo&s;t enraged de&s;pight a|gain&s;t you, for preventing, and counter-myning their execrable and Acheronticall de&s;ignes: they hate you mo&s;t of all becau&s;e you will not &s;uffer them to de&s;troy three Kingdomes, and to pull up Religion and property by the roots. This is the ground of their ma|levolent a&s;per&s;ions; ferrit their complaints to the bottome, and you &s;hall finde that this is it, That you have with all your force and &s;trength re&s;i&s;ted them who would de&s;troy us all, ruine Religi|on, introduce Popery and Tyranny, and purcha&s;e the meanes of damnation to us and our po&s;terity. <HI>Hinc ille lachrymae,</HI> Hence are the&s;e vollies of &s;landers, reproaches, and imputations di&s;charged again&s;t you, in which the enemies deale alike with you, for all the world, as <HI>Fimbria</HI> a mad fellow of <HI>Rome,</HI> dealt with <HI>Scaevola,</HI> a|gain&s;t whom having a quarrell, and endeavouring to murther him, with a &s;udden &s;tab; becau&s;e he braided a&s;ide a little, and warded the blow, &s;o as it proved not mortall, therefore he commenced an Action of tre&s;pa&s;&s;e again&s;t him, and &s;ued him at the Law; and wot you what was the Indictment, <HI>Quod telum toto corpore non exce|pi&s;&s;et,</HI> For that he would not open his body, and &s;uffer him to run up his dagger unto the hilts.</P>
<P>Or as <HI>Caligula</HI> when he practi&s;ed to poy&s;on a man, in a &s;lye un|derhand way, and the man &s;u&s;pecting the wor&s;t, tooke a counter-poy&s;on to prevent the mi&s;chiefe: the gentle, kind-natured Empe|rour, thought it was foule play, and complained much of the Ini|quity of the times; that men would be taking Antidotes again&s;t <HI>Cae&s;ar.</HI> No doubt a very haynous crime, a ju&s;t and rationall com|plaint and &s;ibbe to this again&s;t us, that we will not all lye downe and quietly &s;uffer our throats to be cut, our Cities fired, countries wa&s;ted, and all we have, taken from us.</P>
<P>But to return to the matter, whence I have a little &s;trayed, ju&s;t in|dignation tran&s;porting me: Honoured worthies, you will, I know like the Moone in the heavens, hold on your cour&s;e, though dogs and bawling curres, barke never &s;o much, you &s;hall never have cau&s;e to repent of your zeale and piety towards God; the next mor|ning after you are arrived in heaven, you will thinke all your la|bour and co&s;t well be&s;towed, and repent (were it po&s;&s;ible) that you have not done, and &s;uffered more; and for the pre&s;ent, the le&s;&s;e re&s;pect and thankes you finde from wicked men, the more e&s;teeme and honour you &s;hall have with God, and all that are vertuou&s;ly
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di&s;po&s;ed; yea that zeale and piety of yours, for which you are &s;o much maligned, and traduced it &s;hall make your memory precious unto the pre&s;ent age, and to all po&s;terity; and when the names of your enemies &s;hall rot above ground (as they do already) and they them&s;elves &s;hall be rung down with a peale of Satyres to their graves, your names &s;hall be as &s;weete as perfume, the generations to come &s;hall embalme them with honour, the children yet unborn &s;hall ri&s;e up, and call you ble&s;&s;ed, and every one that reades your Chronicles, or heares of your worthy acts, &s;hall &s;ay, This was the Reforming Parliament, which did, and &s;uffered more for God, then ever any that was before it; <HI>many Parliaments have done worthily, but this hath excelled them all.</HI></P>
<P N="2">2 This Text and Doctrine may &s;erve like the knuckles of a mans hand, appearing on the wall to <HI>Bal&s;hazzor,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">2. For Re|proof.</NOTE> to write unto many their &s;ad doome, to reade them their de&s;tiny, they are never like to come neere to the Kingdome of heaven. Of this &s;ort are not a few:</P>
<P N="1">1. Such as are enemies to the progre&s;&s;e and proceedings of the Go&s;pell, whether clo&s;e and &s;ecret, or open and notorious; there be many glozing Malignants, that can bite in their malice, calme their lookes, &s;mooth their foreheads; but their hearts &s;well like the Sea in a &s;torme: If they could rai&s;e any tempe&s;ts, cau&s;e any commo|tion, and the occa&s;ions and junctures of affaires would permit them to do it with advantage, we &s;hould ta&s;te as much of their Malig|nity, as of the mo&s;t de&s;perate oppo&s;ers, <HI>Gebal, Ammon,</HI> and <HI>Ama|leck</HI> they are now knotted together in a confederacy, and up in Armes; pillaging, &s;poyling, plundering, and laying all wa&s;te be|fore them, <HI>With a rage that reacheth up unto heaven,</HI> 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 28.9. <HI>Tobiah</HI> and <HI>Sanballet</HI> were not in a more pelting chafe, when the Temple and City of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> were like to be re&euml;dified. <HI>Herod</HI> and <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> were not more troubled when they heard that &s;ad and damping newes, That Chri&s;t was borne, then the&s;e malignants and Incendiaries are &s;tartled at the noy&s;e of a Reformation. The pow|erfull comming in of Chri&s;t into his Kingdome, the Maje&s;ty and lu&s;tre of pure Wor&s;hip and Ordinances is unto them (night-birds as they are) formidable as the &s;un-&s;hine to the Owle, or as the light of heaven to <HI>Cerberus</HI> the dogge of hell; they abhor it as the darkne&s;&s;e and &s;hadow of death. Oh the bright &s;tar of <HI>Jacob</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> the ri&s;ing and Orient lu&s;tre of it, to &s;uch as <HI>love darkene&s;&s;e better then
<PB N="56" REF="31">
light,</HI> it is of an Ominous and di&s;mall pre&s;age, it portends their kingdome will come downe, their mi&s;-giving hearts are afraid of the &s;corching Influence of it, as the devills were of Chri&s;ts com|ming, <HI>le&s;t it &s;hould torment them before the time, Mat.</HI> 8.29. And now, is it po&s;&s;ible, trow ye, that &s;uch &s;onnes of <HI>Belial,</HI> to whom the pre&s;ence of Chri&s;t in his Ordinances and Wor&s;hip, is the grea|te&s;t burthen and torment, and as it were an hell upon earth; Is it po&s;&s;ible that &s;uch &s;hould ever expect or conceive the lea&s;t hope of reigning with him for ever in heaven? Oh, yes, they pretend for heaven as much, and as loud as any others, and they are for Religi|on too, even <HI>for the true Reformed Prote&s;tant Profe&s;&s;ion,</HI> and they are zealous, yea violent for it, and that is the rea&s;on (you mu&s;t beleeve them) why they have drawne their &s;words, and taken up Armes; Its for no other end doubtle&s;&s;e, but to defend the true Prote&s;tant profe&s;&s;ion, with his Maje&s;ties ju&s;t Prerogative and Crown-rights, which the Parliament with the faction of Browni&s;ts, and Ana|bapti&s;ts that adhere to it endeavour to de&s;troy. Its a true &s;aying that of the Romane Orator, <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><P>Nihil tam in|cultum tam hor|ridum quod non &s;plende&s;eat Ora|tione &amp; tan|quam excolatur, <HI>Cic.</HI></P><P>Majore formi|dine Cae&s;arem ob&s;ervatis quam Jonem. <HI>Tert.</HI></P></NOTE> There is nothing &s;o horrid, no cau&s;e &s;o de&s;perate, which may not be palliated and covered over with glo|rious and glittering pretences; As <HI>Herod</HI> would have the wi&s;emen bring him word, when they had found Chri&s;t, <HI>for he meant to come and wor&s;hip the babe,</HI> when his intent was to &s;lay it. But as <HI>Tertul|lian</HI> wittily told the Gentiles, when they contended &s;o fiercely for the wor&s;hip of <HI>Jupiter,</HI> That what&s;oever they pretended, <HI>Cae&s;ar</HI> was their chiefe God, and that they wor&s;hipped him with more devotion, then <HI>Jupiter;</HI> The like may I &s;ay of the&s;e <HI>Herodians,</HI> or Court-zealots, call them what you will, and let them pretend what they li&s;t for God, they are <HI>Cae&s;ars</HI> by whole-&s;ale in Religion, affe|ction, con&s;cience, &s;oule, and body, and all <HI>Cae&s;ars;</HI> they mea&s;ure Religion by the length of the Scepter, being re&s;olved to beleeve the wor&s;t of Popery, and to practi&s;e the wor&s;t of Tyranny, even to the de&s;truction of the three Kingdomes,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Quid &s;i faces in ferre ju&s;&s;i&s;&s;et in capitolium nun|quid parui&s;&s;es? Re&s;pondit nun|quam ju&s;&s;i&s;&s;et id quidem &s;ed &s;i ju&s;&s;i&s;&s;et utique parui&s;&s;em <HI>Cic. de Amic.</HI></NOTE> if <HI>Cae&s;ar</HI> do but plea&s;e to declare the one to be the <HI>True Reformed Prote&s;tant Profe&s;&s;ion,</HI> and the other, <HI>The due Rights and Priviledges of Parliament;</HI> much like the <HI>Boutefew</HI> that <HI>Tully</HI> &s;peakes of, <HI>C. Blos: Cumanus</HI> I think it was, that would, to &s;hew his affection to his friend, do what&s;o|ever he &s;hould bid him, though it were to &s;et fire on the Capitoll.</P>
<P N="2">2 Not all out &s;o de&s;perate, though bad enough, is another &s;ort of neutralizing temporizers, that are ju&s;t of <HI>Gallios</HI> temper, for matter
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of Religion, not caring a jot whether the Arke or Dagon be &s;et up, whether Chri&s;t or Antichri&s;t prevaile, the true Religion or Popery, both, or neither, to them is a matter of indifferency, and not &s;o much as the turning of an hand; they pa&s;&s;e not at all for &s;uch things; onely, they have the di&s;cretion to &s;et their &s;ayles as the wind blowes, and to wheele about as they &s;ee occa&s;ion, that they may be of the prevayling &s;ide; much like the man in <HI>Macrobius,</HI> who du|ring the times of civill war betwixt <HI>Antony</HI> and <HI>Augu&s;tus Cae&s;ar,</HI> had with much Art and diligence taught his two crowes their &s;e|verall notes, the one to &s;ay <HI>Ave Imperator Antoni,</HI> the other, <HI>Ave Imperator Augu&s;t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">;</HI> that &s;o when the warres &s;hould be over, and the controver&s;ie determined, whether party &s;oever prevayled, he might be &s;ure to have a bird for the Conquerour.<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Bi&s;hop</HI> Andrew in Tort. Torti. Neque enim e&s;t ullus ulli locus mendius ut &s;it ni&s;i cum diabolo qui non e&s;t cum Chri&s;to, <HI>Aug.</HI></NOTE> If there chance to be any &s;uch within the&s;e walls, I wi&s;h they would &s;adly and ripe|ly con&s;ider that &s;peech of our Saviour, <HI>He that is not with me is a|gain&s;t me, Mat.</HI> 12.30. and that grave expre&s;&s;ion of a great Pre|late, This cau&s;e of God is of that Nature, that if a man do not ap|peare in it, and gather with Chri&s;t, he &s;cattereth from him, there being no middle condition po&s;&s;ible in which a man can clo&s;e or &s;ide with any other than the devill, who joynes not with Chri&s;t.</P>
<P N="3">3. Such as value their wealth, ea&s;e, credit, reputation, above Chri&s;t and his Kingdome; to come to Church now and then, to heare the Word, performe &s;ome cheape outward duties which may looke like a forme of godline&s;&s;e, none will, blame them for this. It were di&s;gracefull to be Athei&s;ts; unprofitable to be Papi&s;ts, or recu&s;ants, thus far they go and its faire too, but to be at any ex|pence for Chri&s;t, to purcha&s;e his kingdom with any prejudice to them&s;elves in their credit or e&s;tates, he mu&s;t pardon them for that: they love a Religion (contrary to <HI>Davids</HI> di&s;po&s;ition) which will co&s;t them nothing; the&s;e have taken the Covenant, many of them onely to &s;ave charges, for they &s;pare not to profe&s;&s;e that they will tru&s;t God with their &s;oules (though they perjure) rather then the Parliament with their E&s;tates. They will la&s;h out more in fur|ni&s;hing a banket, or &s;ome unnece&s;&s;ary entertainment, &s;pend more in one ca&s;t at Bowles or Dice, then ever they can be gotten to part with all their life long, for the glory of God, the upholding of his cau&s;e, and Go&s;pell, and the pre&s;ervation of an 100000. Chri&s;tians, in the three Kingdomes: the men of this world, they are violent
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for their Mammon: Give them the fatne&s;&s;e of the earth, Take the dew of heaven who will: A right brood of old <HI>Gadarens,</HI> who can be content to have a whole Legion of Devils roo&s;t in the Kingdome, and ne&s;tle in their own hearts, as in &s;trong holds, rather than they will be at &s;o much co&s;t, as the lo&s;&s;e of their hoggs, to purcha&s;e the di&s;po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of them.</P>
<P N="4">4. There be others that &s;eeme violent in matters of Religion, none more forward in appearance then they, but they are not &s;in|cere and cordiall. As it is with them that are &s;icke of a Fever, while the face and outward parts burne, the heart quakes and &s;hi|vereth with cold, &s;o it is with the&s;e pretenders; their countenance, <HI>Jehu</HI> like, is full of flu&s;hing heate; in their face and outward car|riage you may &s;ee their zeale for the Lord,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Pone in pectore d<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">xtram, nil ca|let. <HI>Per&s;.</HI></NOTE> but if you could put but your hands within their bre&s;ts, you &s;hould finde their hearts <HI>Nabal</HI>-like, as cold as a &s;tone. Its no new devi&s;e, but an old trick of hypocriticall &s;pirits,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">. Ign.</NOTE> to &s;eeme devout onely for their owne ends, to drive their own de&s;ignes under a colour of being zealous for God. <HI>Ignatius</HI> ob&s;erved, there were &s;ome of this &s;tamp in his time, who made a trade and an occupation of Chri&s;t, to get wealth by him, &s;huffling in Religon, to deale them&s;elves a thriving game in the world.</P>
<P>I know not whether it be true, but the <HI>Vox Populi,</HI> the Common opinion and voyce of the people is, That in Country, City, Armies, I hope not in the Parliament, there are and have beene too many, who in publike places of Imployment, at the publike charge, drive their private de&s;ignes; enjoying both at once, and improving the mi&s;eries of the times by dilatory proceedings, dead pay, fal&s;e mu&s;ters, betraying of advantages, and letting opportunities of acti|on &s;lip, with other &s;tratagems and feates of pollicy, <HI>very depths of Sathan,</HI> profound as hell, which I have not wit enough to reach. If there be any &s;uch <HI>Judas's,</HI> masked devills, here, let me informe them; If their bo&s;ome intelligencer, their Con&s;ciences I meane, be a&s;leepe, perhaps it may arou&s;e them a little, that thunderbolt, <HI>E&s;ay</HI> 29.15. <HI>Wo unto them that dig deepe, and &s;eeke to hide their Coun&s;ell from the Lord, and their workes are in the darke, and they &s;ay, who &s;ee|eth, and who knoweth us:</HI> and let them take that along with them too, <HI>E&s;ay</HI> 30.33. <HI>There is a Tophet prepared of old, its deepe and large, the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of the Lord like a &s;treame of brim&s;tone kindles it;</HI> and let me tell them yet further,
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If this fiery gulfe be not for &s;uch, I do not know whether it can challenge any gue&s;ts.</P>
<P N="5">5. There be others, zealous in Religion, but not enough; they have like the <HI>Laodiccan</HI> Angell and Church, &s;ome heate which makes them luke-warme, but they are not violent, their dram of zeale is tempered with &s;o many ounces of di&s;cretion, that the operation of it can &s;carce be di&s;cerned; they are Orthodox in opi|nion, not much exorbitant in conver&s;ation, owne the great cau&s;e of the Kingdom, &s;et their faces towards heaven, are not again&s;t Reformation: but then they mu&s;t not be over-driven, you mu&s;t not put them out of their owne pace, they like not a <HI>Jehu's</HI> March. Its good to be zealous, but not too much, &s;ay any what they will, doe what they can,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ille igitur nun|quam dir<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">xit brachia contra Torrentem, nec civis erat qui li|bera po&s;&s;et verba animi profeire vitamque im|pendere vero. <HI>Juven. &s;at. 3.</HI></NOTE> their affected moderation will never &s;uffer them to exceede the middle temper of that wi&s;e State&s;man in <HI>Tiberius</HI> his Court, who to be &s;ure would not &s;trike a &s;troke again&s;t the &s;treame, nor engage him&s;elfe &s;o far in any cau&s;e, as might tend to his prejudice; how-ever the world went, he would be &s;ure to &s;ave one. Such is the polititian and wordly wi&s;e-man, he will move no &s;tone, though never &s;o needfull to be removed, if he &s;u&s;pect that there lyes a Scorpion under it, or if he apprehend the lea&s;t feare, that any part of the wall will fall upon him&s;elfe; well fare yet the Roman Con&s;ul, that incomparable patriot,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Tempus omne po&s;t con&s;ulatum obiecimus iis fluctibus, qui pe|nos a communi pe&s;te depid&s;i in no&s;metip&s;os re|dundarunt, <HI>Cic.</HI> de orat. lib. <HI>1.</HI></NOTE> who in his private and retired condition, when he was removed from the Helme of the Common-wealth, imployed all his force and &s;trength to keep off tho&s;e waves from the great ve&s;&s;ell of the State, which had well-nigh drowned the cock-boat of his owne private Fortunes.</P>
<P N="6">6. There be others zealous and violent for a while, but they hold not out to the end: The Philo&s;opher &s;ayes, <HI>No violent thing la&s;ts long,</HI> Its true in Divinity, as well as in Nature: If the violent motion proceede from &s;ome externall artificiall cau&s;e, and not from a rooted &s;tirring principle within, when that which is the cau&s;e is removed, the motion ari&s;ing from it cea&s;eth. If our vio|lent &s;tirrings and heates of zeale, be not from the right fountaine of heate, the heart; tract of time and other occurrances will be calm them by degrees, and wear them out: the &s;tony ground &s;et forward, and put on with great animo&s;ity at the fir&s;t, but when difficulties and unlooked for dangers, when a &s;torme of per&s;ecution aro&s;e, then they plucked in the tender horne, their zeale cooled, their courage abated, their re&s;olutions fell like leaves in Autumne. In the begin|ning
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of this Parliament, when the Lord tolled us on with fre&s;h mercies, and allured us into the wilderne&s;&s;e as the Prophet &s;peakes, <HI>that there he might give us the valley of</HI> Achor <HI>for a doore of hope;</HI> when every day we were <HI>pa&s;ti miraculis</HI> as <HI>Cyprian</HI> &s;peakes, fea&s;ted with miracles in ordinary, the Lord &s;etting him&s;elfe on purpo&s;e to ingage us firmely in his worke, by divers rare and a&s;toni&s;hing pro|vidences, that all bridges might be cut off, and that we might never thinke to retire backe againe; At that time, many that were not &s;ound at the heart-roote, joyned with us, and who more re&s;olute then they, but when the wheele of Providence &s;eemed to turne, and many &s;ad clouds began to gather and threaten a &s;torme, now they tacked about, and &s;et their &s;ailes backe; they were willing to follow us out of <HI>Egypt</HI> when they had &s;eene the wonders and mi|racles of God at our departure thence; but when they came into the wilderne&s;&s;e, and met with Scorpions and fiery Serpents, and great afflictions, then their hearts fainted, and they fell on murmur|ing as the unbeleeving <HI>Jewes,</HI> and that mixed multitude did, <HI>Numb.</HI> 11.4. A man might as well never own the cau&s;e of God, as after|wards de&s;ert it; what&s;oever a man hath done and &s;uffered for Re|ligion, (and there be many that have done and &s;uffered much,) Its al lo&s;t and forgotten, when once he begins to looke backe, <HI>Ezek.</HI> 18.24. <HI>Judas,</HI> and <HI>Demas,</HI> and <HI>Hymaeneus,</HI> and <HI>Alexander</HI> the Copper-&s;mith, with other &s;uch flinchers; what were they the better for all their hopefull beginnings, when afterwards they declined, their zeale-being all &s;pent, their violence tyred, and all their alacrity lo&s;t. Its not good beginnings, but per&s;everance in Religion, that takes this glorious prize, and wins the garland. <HI>Be faithfull unto the death and I will give thee a Crown of life. Revel.</HI> 2.10.</P>
<P N="7">7. I may not pa&s;&s;e over another &s;ort without a gentle touch, &s;uch I meane as are unfeinedly cordiall in the cau&s;e of God, and zealous for it, yet do not a little hurt to them&s;elves and others, and the Cau&s;e it &s;elfe too, through their inde&s;creete and unwary managing of it: they de&s;ire nothing more then this, That Chri&s;t might raigne, and weild the Scepter of his Kingdom, according to his own hearts content, in all the parts of the Land; they are active in endeavours for Reformation, and this de&s;erves ju&s;t prai&s;e, but they &s;tep out of their bounds &s;ometimes, exceede the limits of their &s;peciall cal|ling in which the Will of God is, they &s;hould containe them|&s;elves.</P>
<P><PB N="61" REF="33">How happy were it for us, if all would keepe within their pro|per &s;pheare, and <HI>wherein &s;o ever they are called therein, to abide with God,</HI> 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 7.24. But there be &s;ome that do <GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>over&s;tretch them&s;elves beyond their line and Compa&s;&s;e,</HI> 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 10.14. They reach and &s;traine after a perfect Reformation of the Church, and that is well, but they run before the Parliament, and do anticipate the worke, taking it out of tho&s;e able and faithfull hands, unto which God hath committed it, and that de&s;erves ju&s;t cen&s;ure.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Rom. 10.2.</NOTE> <HI>That have a great zeale of God,</HI> Oh that it were a little more according to <HI>knowledge!</HI> We have all entred into the bonds of a Religious Co|nant with God, in which among other things we have vowed our utmo&s;t endeavours to reforme Religion, Wor&s;hip, Govern|ment, according to the Word of God, and the example of the be&s;t Reformed Churches; and withall, to draw the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes, to the neare&s;t uniformity; and to labour the extirpation of here&s;ies, &s;ects, and &s;chi&s;mes, which how we can make good, if every one take liberty to reare up a modell and platforme, according to his owne principles, without re&s;pect un|to publique, Authority I cannot &s;ee. How can it be avoyded, but there will be divi&s;ions in the worke, when tho&s;e that &s;hould carry it on, act &s;everall wayes without any regard to one another. I wi&s;h &s;uch would con&s;ider, that zeale in Religion, though it be exceeding good and nece&s;&s;ary, yet it needes a &s;ober guide: much wi&s;edome is requi&s;ite to pre&s;cribe when and where, and how far, and in what manner and order to proceede in carrying on a worke of &s;o great con&s;equence, as a publique Church-Reformation is. Zeale, except it be ordered aright, in conflicting with corruptions and abu&s;es, whether reall or pretended, u&s;eth the razor &s;ometimes with &s;uch eagerne&s;&s;e, that Religion it &s;elfe is thereby endangered, and through hatred of tares, the good corne in the field of God is pluckt up. That which <HI>I&s;ocrates</HI> &s;aid of &s;trength, is as true of zeale, that if it be tempered with &s;ound wi&s;edome, and a right Judgement,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, I&s;oc. ad Dem.</NOTE> it doth much good, but without &s;uch a mixture it doth much mi&s;chiefe to our &s;elves and others, like Granadoes and other fire Workes, which if they be not well looked to, and di&s;creetly ordered, when they break, do more hurt to tho&s;e that ca&s;t them, then to the enemy: no man can be ignorant of the ill effects of an indi&s;creet and ill go|verned zeale, which like unto a fire, when it burnes out of com|pa&s;&s;e, &s;ets all the hou&s;e and towne in a combu&s;tion: It may per|haps,
<PB N="62" REF="34">
ju&s;tly be doubted, whether a too &s;lack moderation, or an over-violent zeale,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Fervor di&s;cretio|nem erigat, &amp; di&s;cretio fervo|rem regat. <HI>Ber.</HI> Ser. in Cant.</NOTE> be wor&s;e; &s;eeing the one does no good, and the other does much hurt; di&s;cretion, without zeale, is &s;low paced; and zeale without di&s;cretion, heady; take therefore St. <HI>Bernards</HI> coun&s;ell, let zeale &s;pur on di&s;cretion, and di&s;cretion reine zeale, joyne them both together, and the conjunction will be lovely.</P>
<P><NOTE PLACE="marg">3 V&s;e of Ex|hortation.</NOTE>I would not willingly drop one word to quench one &s;parke of any true Heaven-bred zeale, my errand is as our Saviours was, ra|ther to kindle this <HI>fire, Luke</HI> 12.49. <HI>which every Sacrifice mu&s;t be &s;alted with, Marke</HI> 9.4. Let us all labour to blow up and to keepe alive this Sacred fire, upon the Altar of our hearts, that it may in|flame our devotion towards God, kindle our love towards men, and burne out all our owne corruptions; let it never coole with age, nor abate with oppo&s;ition, nor be quenched with any floods of per&s;ecution what&s;oever.</P>
<P N="1"><NOTE PLACE="marg">1. Its nece&s;&s;a|ry.</NOTE>1. As the Apo&s;tle &s;aid of patience, &s;o may I of zeale, we have all neede of it, e&s;pecially Reformers. 1. Becau&s;e of the glory of God, which we ought to have a tender re&s;entment of, more then of our owne lives, or what&s;oever is deare or precious unto us in this world. Our Saviour re&s;ented the injuries and reproaches offered unto God, as done unto him&s;elfe, <HI>Rom.</HI> 15.2 Becau&s;e of the ho|nour and happine&s;&s;e of the Church, which we ought to prefer be|fore all our owne Intere&s;ts, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 137.6. I have read of <HI>Ambro&s;e,</HI> that he was &s;o zealous for the Church, that he wi&s;hed any &s;torme might light upon him&s;elfe, rather then the State of it &s;hould be en|dangered:<NOTE PLACE="marg">Ne decem qui|dem maria tran|&s;currere pigeret. <HI>Cal. ad Prot. Ang.</HI></NOTE> Reverend <HI>Calvin</HI> would be content, to &s;aile over ten Seas for an uniforme draught of Religion, among&s;t the Evangelicall Churches. <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and <HI>Paul</HI> were &s;o tran&s;cendent in this kinde of zeale, that they would have redeemed the Churches lo&s;&s;es with their owne damnation. 3 Becau&s;e of the great difficulties and ob&s;tru|ctions which we mu&s;t make account to encounter with. If you &s;et your faces towards <HI>Sion,</HI> the <HI>Jebu&s;ites</HI> hold it, which you mu&s;t remove, with an Ho&s;t of Idolls to boote, even <HI>the blind and the lame, the abhorring of Davids &s;oule, or el&s;e you &s;hall never take the Fort,</HI> 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 5, 6, 7. If you will endeavour with <HI>Elias</HI> to put down the Prie&s;ts of <HI>Baal, Jezabel</HI> will &s;end you a me&s;&s;age of defiance, threat|ning to make the Land too hot for us: There are many Lyons that lye in our way; its onely a zealous violence that can <HI>Samp&s;on</HI>-like get victory over them, and honey out of them. If we declare our
<PB N="63" REF="34">
for heaven, all the faction and power of hell will be up in Armes again&s;t us. Therefore we have neede of much <HI>violence.</HI></P>
<P N="2">2. This will &s;tand us in much &s;tead.<NOTE PLACE="marg">2. Its V&s;efull.</NOTE> 1. It will make us bold and daring, it will put us upon the uttermo&s;t adventures.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Amorem erube|&s;citad nomen dif|ficultatis.</NOTE> Love and zeale will, if neede be, run upon the Cannons mouth, dare through deaths gauntlet, <HI>Cant.</HI> 8.7. <HI>E&s;ther knew not whether &s;he &s;hould pre|vaile, yet &s;he would venture, though to the apparent hazarding of her Crowne and life, E&s;t.</HI> 4.16. Zeale and love blu&s;h at the Name of difficulty. 2. It will quicken you up to mighty endeavours;<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Clem. <GAP DESC="foreign">.</NOTE> a bow full bent will violently deliver the Arrow, and carry it home to the marke with full &s;trength; a peece full charged will go off with great force. A zealous Chri&s;tian is like a &s;hip, &s;aith <HI>Clemens,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Stella cadem non e<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t &s;tella co|meta fuit.</NOTE> carried on with full &s;ayles towards heaven. 3. It will make you con&s;tant and &s;teady; That's no heaven-borne violence, which tract of time or oppo&s;ition weares out. True zeal is like the Philo&s;ophers <GAP DESC="foreign">, a &s;parkling firy &s;tone, no floods can quench it. 4. It will make us prevalent and &s;ucce&s;&s;efull in our endeavours, if any thing in the world can. Love is a plea&s;ing Tyrant, &s;aith <HI>Chry&s;o|&s;tome,</HI> the power of it is above all power,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Chry&s;.</NOTE> it raignes over all impe|diments in heaven and earth, prevailing both with God and man as <HI>Jacob</HI> did.</P>
<P>This zeale then being &s;o nece&s;&s;ary and u&s;efull, labour we to get our hearts &s;tored with it, and &s;ee that it be of the right &s;tampe, &s;in|cere and upright, ayming onely at the right end, Gods glory and the Churches good. Let there be no &s;onnes of <HI>Zebedee</HI> among us, to project for them&s;elves places of honour <HI>at the right hand or the left,</HI> when Chri&s;t comes into his Kingdome; away with all pri|vate de&s;ignes, pre&s;erve we our intentions &s;ingle and &s;incere, and we &s;hall pro&s;per the better. 2. Let our zeale flame out upon all occa|&s;ions, let nothing &s;mother the operation of it: <HI>Ari&s;totle</HI> writes of the bathes in the <HI>Pythecu&s;ian</HI> I&s;lands, that they are fiery hot,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Balnea in Py|thacu&s;iis In&s;ulis ferrent &s;upra mo|d<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">um calore &amp; ui ignea, nec ta|men flammas emittunt. <HI>Ari&s;t. de mirab. o&s;cu.</HI></NOTE> yet &s;end out no flame; I cannot commend &s;uch a zeale, which is &s;mothered and pent up in the heart, and gets no vent, hath no externall opera|tion; a trea&s;ure concealed, and an hidden vertue are both alike. When that prophane King had burnt the Roll, <HI>the Prophet wrote it over againe with an addition of many other like words, Jer.</HI> 36.32. The more Gods Wor&s;hip, Ordinances, Servants, are oppo&s;ed, the more will true-hearted Zealots appeare for them, to a&s;&s;i&s;t and vindicate them. They write of a fi&s;h that hath a &s;word, but no heart,
<PB N="64" REF="35">
<HI>but I hope better things of you.</HI> 3. Let your zeale be guided by the right Rule,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 span"></NOTE> which is the Word of God. In al your con&s;ultations and re&s;olutions, let the Law and the Te&s;timony be your Oracle. Its a Kingdome of heaven that you are bound for, and therefore your cour&s;e mu&s;t be like that of the Mariners, guided by the heavens. If you &s;teere your cour&s;e by any other line, &s;ure you will never a|rive where you would be, at the faire havens. The Heathens them|&s;elves never undertooke any great worke about the affaires of &s;tate,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Priu&s;quam de caelo &s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">r<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">atum e&s;&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t. <HI>Cic. de Ara&s;p. Re&s;p.</HI></NOTE> till they had con&s;ulted the face of the Heavens: what they did out of blind &s;uper&s;tition, do you from a principle of true Religion. 4. When you have taken your aimes right, and made choyce of fit meanes to compa&s;&s;e them,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Dummodo cla|vum rectum te|neam.</NOTE> let God alone with the &s;ucce&s;&s;e, he will make good the i&s;&s;ue, and turne all to the be&s;t. As <HI>Quintillian</HI> &s;aid of a Pilot,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Sapientis e&s;t nil prae&s;tare praeter culpam.</NOTE> &s;o may I of you, whiles you hold the &s;tearne and guide the compa&s;&s;e right, you cannot be blamed, although the great ve&s;|&s;ell of the State &s;hould be ca&s;t away, and wracked in the &s;torme, which yet I hope it never will be.</P>
<P><NOTE PLACE="marg">Signanter dici. tu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> in oratione Dominica adue|niat Regnum tu|um <HI>i. e.</HI> ad nos veniat quia vir|tute no&s;tra ad ip&s;um pervenire non po&s;&s;umus, <HI>Ger&s;on.</HI></NOTE>Furthermore it concernes us all in common, but you more e&s;pecially, mo&s;t worthy Patriots; not onely to labour for our owne particulars, to take hold on this Kingdom with all violence, but al&s;o to prepare way for others, that they may come up to it, or rather indeede that it may come downe to them. As <HI>David</HI> therefore in a violent ravi&s;hment of de&s;ire, that the Temple might be built, cryed, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 24.9 10. <HI>Lift up your heads oh ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everla&s;ting doores, and the King of glory &s;hall come in;</HI> So let me addre&s;&s;e the like de&s;ire to you, that are the Heads of our Tribes, and have the keyes of the Kingdome of Great <HI>Brittaine,</HI> hanging at the doores of your Honourable Se|nate Hou&s;e. Oh, let all the gates and doores of the Kingdome, and of all the Counties; Cities, Pari&s;hes in it, be &s;et wide open, <HI>That the King of Glory may come in.</HI> The eyes of many thou&s;ands in the Land, and a great part of Chri&s;tendome too, are now upon you; you are in the hearts of all the Saints in all the Churches, e&s;pe|cially tho&s;e at home, who are ready to live and dye with you, and what is their expectation and de&s;ire other then this, That Chri&s;t may raigne as an All-Commanding King, over his owne hou&s;e; That Doctrin, Wor&s;hip, Government, may be all exact, according to the Patterne in the Mount. Helpe on this much-de&s;ired Work.</P>
<P N="1">1: By &s;etting a faithful, pious, and learned Mini&s;tery. Be not
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offended that I touch upon this &s;tring once more. How meane ap|prehen&s;ions &s;oever any may have of this great Ordinance of God, Preaching of the Go&s;pell, yet it is no other thing then the Scepter of Chri&s;ts Kingdome, the Royall Mace that is lifted up and born before him, his triumphing chariot, in which he <HI>rides conquering and to conquer, Revel.</HI> 6.2. God is wont to hang the greate&s;t weights upon the &s;malle&s;t wires,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Maxima ex mi|nimis &s;u&s;pendit.</NOTE> <HI>The Salvation of the world depends upon this fooli&s;hne&s;&s;e of preaching,</HI> 1 Cor. 1.21. Ble&s;&s;ed be God, he hath given us his Word, and if we could but adde what is next in the <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 68.11. <HI>Great is the multitude of them that publi&s;h it, Sathan would &s;oone fall downe like lightning,</HI> and we &s;hould have an heaven upon earth. We are zealous again&s;t <HI>Babylon,</HI> and its well that we are &s;o: I will &s;hew you a way how to &s;torme downe the proud walls and battlements of it without any Petards or Cannon &s;hot or Engines of warre, not &s;o much need of the&s;e; <HI>The &s;ound of Rammes hornes will &s;erve the turne. Revel.</HI> 14.6. When <HI>the Angell flyes in the mid&s;t of heaven, with an everla&s;ting Go&s;pell to Preach:</HI> the next Newes is, <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 8. <HI>Babylon is fallen.</HI> This preaching, it will be the ruine of the man of &s;in: it will &s;pring a Myne under his Thron, and beat down all his power and glory into the du&s;t.</P>
<P N="2">2. If you would have a learned con&s;ciencious mini&s;try, do as <HI>Hezekiah, Command the people to give the Prie&s;ts and Levites their portion, that they may be incouraged in the Law of the Lord,</HI> 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 31.4. Let there be due provi&s;ion of oyle, for all the Lamps of the Sanctuary, and let there be worthy incouragements for all the &s;e|verall profe&s;&s;ions of learning, e&s;pecially the &s;acred. If learning &s;hould decay, as &s;ome (I hope without ground) feare it will, what can we looke for but an Inundation of Popery, Athei&s;me, pro|phanene&s;&s;e, &s;ects, here&s;ies, with all manner of Barbarity. In the memory of our Fathers, when it plea&s;ed the Lord to rai&s;e up <HI>Lu|ther, Melancton, Calvin,</HI> and many other choyce &s;pirits; it was unto the Churches, even like unto a <HI>re&s;urrection from the dead:</HI> the Re&s;urrection of learning brought with it a re&s;urrection of Religi|on, and a fre&s;h &s;pring of the Go&s;pell, which, ble&s;&s;ed be God, con|tinues &s;till, and flouri&s;hes to this day.</P>
<P N="3">3 But now that I have made mention of learning, I may not without piacular neglect pa&s;&s;e over the two Seminaries and &s;eed-plots of it, without a word or two. It was a &s;ad complaint of <HI>Luther,</HI> again&s;t mo&s;t of the Univer&s;ities of <HI>Europe,</HI> that they were
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become chaires of Pe&s;tilence, and the very &s;tewes and brothels of Antichri&s;t.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Pleraeque omnes Chri&s;tiani orbis academia &s;unt cathedrae pe&s;tilen|tiae &amp; lupanaria Antichri&s;ti, <HI>Luth.</HI></NOTE> God forbid that any &s;hould harbour any &s;uch appre|hen&s;ion of ours. Ble&s;&s;ed be God they have beene worthy Nur|&s;eries and &s;chooles of the Prophets, both of them; and I hope they will continue &s;o &s;till: How&s;oever, it were good to ca&s;t a little more &s;alt into the&s;e Springs, that the waters of life i&s;&s;uing from them may be more &s;weete and whole&s;ome, and that there may be no death nor barrenne&s;&s;e, nor any thing cau&s;ing mi&s;carriage in them, 2 <HI>King.</HI> 29.10. The common complaint is, That the two brea&s;ts, though they be not quite dryed up, yet they yeeld neither &s;o much milke, nor &s;o whole&s;ome now of late, as in former times; that it is now adulterated, and brewed with mixtures, its ea&s;ie to know whence; The way to heale all, were to plant more whole|&s;ome, heavenly, and powerfull preaching there: St. <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> tells, That when men were de&s;irous, in his dayes, to &s;tore them&s;elves with Doves in their hou&s;es, they tooke &s;ome of a milke white colour, and perfumed them with odours and &s;weete oyntments, and they flying abroad, allured home, with their &s;ent, all they met withall: oh that we had a brood of &s;uch Doves richly perfum'd with Myrrhe, Aloes, and Ca&s;&s;ia, men anoynted, I meane with the &s;pirit and graces of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, which are more &s;weet and odoriferous then all the unctions el&s;e in the world. If there were &s;ome of the&s;e &s;ent abroad into Country, City, Court, and Univer&s;ity, how would multitudes flocke after them, <HI>like Doves into their windowes? E&s;ay</HI> 60.8.</P>
<P N="4">4. If you would have Chri&s;t raigne fully, freely, univer&s;ally, all the Kingdome over, let the Reformation then which is intended, advance freely and fully, and let it be, fir&s;t, thorow and exact; that no <HI>Rome</HI> be left for a throne of Sathan in any corner: we would be loath that God &s;hould put us off with halfe a deliverance, why &s;hould we put him off with halfe a reformation. 2. Let it be &s;wift and &s;peedy, let it not alwaies thus &s;ticke in the birth, but give it quicke expedition and di&s;patch; our Saviours rule is, <HI>primum quaerite,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Minus &s;oluit qui tardius &s;oluit, <HI>Elem. Juri&s;p.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Mat.</HI> 6.33. <HI>Seeke fir&s;t the Kingdome of God,</HI> before and a|bove, <HI>all other things;</HI> God takes it ill, and &s;hewes him&s;elfe angry with the Jewes, and chides them &s;ore for neglect of this, <HI>Hag.</HI> 1.4. <HI>Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled hou&s;es, whiles this hou&s;e lyes wa&s;te?</HI> God gives us as, he did them, leave to have a due regard of our owne hou&s;es, but his worke &s;hould alwayes in order preceede
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ours, as it doth in worth and dignity. Other cau&s;es may, and mu&s;t waite, till that which is of greate&s;t Importance be di&s;patched:<NOTE PLACE="marg"><P>Si praeterlit tem|pus, praeteriit &s;a|cri&s;icium. <HI>Dru&s;.</HI> in prov.</P><P>Non litat qui &s;u<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> tempore non &s;ae|crificat.</P></NOTE> it was a worthy re&s;olution that of <HI>Nehemiah,</HI> when the enemies &s;ent a Trumpeter, as it were to beate for a parlee; <HI>I am,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>about a great worke, &s;o that I cannot come down, why &s;hould the worke cea&s;e whiles I leave it, and come downe to you? Nehem.</HI> 6.3. A word to the wi&s;e is enough, I pre&s;&s;e it no further.</P>
<P N="5">5. Remove all the lets, Impediments, and &s;tumbling blockes which hinder the propagation and &s;preading of Chri&s;ts Kingdom among us, whether things or per&s;ons, what&s;oever cannot &s;hew its pedegree from heaven, out with it, what &s;hould it do among&s;t us; That which never came from heaven, can never be a meanes to carry us thither: the Temple of God may not be built with the materialls of <HI>Babylon,</HI> we &s;hould not take <HI>a &s;tone from thence for a corner, nor for a foundation, Jer.</HI> 51.16. And tho&s;e per&s;ons too that pretend &s;o high for their divine originall, and cannot yet &s;hew the Genealogy of it from the Scriptures, <HI>They &s;hould be as polluted, put from the Priesthood, Neh.</HI> 6.64. But above all the other Impedi|ments, that which gives &s;our&s;e and life unto them, and is it &s;elfe the greate&s;t, the faction I meane of <HI>Rome,</HI> and Antichri&s;t, let that be removed. If you be on the Lords &s;ide, ca&s;t down <HI>Jezebel</HI> out at the windows; when that mother of whoredome and all her mer|chants, factors, and retainers, with all their <HI>Babiloni&s;h</HI> tra&s;h and trumpery, the wares which they traffique in, is &s;ent packing away, and ca&s;t like a mil-&s;tone into the bottome of the Sea; then, and not before, begins that victorious and triumphant Song of the Elders, <HI>Revel.</HI> 19.6. <HI>Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.</HI></P>
<P>This is your worke, oh ye worthies, and to quicken you to it, con&s;ider, 1. How nece&s;&s;ary it is, if we let &s;lip this opportunity, in which the Kingdome of heaven &s;eemes to come neere unto us, and to knock at our doores for admi&s;&s;ion, we are an undone people, the Lord, if not admitted now, is like never to make us &s;uch ano|ther offer, he will take his Kingdome from us, <HI>and give it to &s;ome o|ther Nation, that will bring forth the fruits thereof, Math.</HI> 21.43.</P>
<P>The uncleane &s;pirit, which is in a good mea&s;ure ca&s;t out, will returne againe, and bring along &s;even other wor&s;e ones with it, to take po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of the whole Kingdome, and &s;o our condition will be wor&s;e then ever it was.</P>
<P N="2">2. Its a glorious prize that we are called to be violent for, It is a
<PB N="68" REF="37">
Kingdome, and who would not &s;traine hard for &s;uch a booty, which once obtained, will more then countervaile all our care and co&s;t,<NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">u<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ip.</NOTE> our zeale and violence for it. The heathen man thought it great rea&s;on to offer violence even to Ju&s;tice and Con&s;cience, if it were for a Kingdome. In other things he would have re&s;pect to ju&s;t and right, but if a kingdome lay at the &s;take, and might be won, he held it no di&s;cretion to be over con&s;cientious, I commend not his re&s;olution in this, our Rule is, <HI>Fiat Ju&s;titia &amp; ruat caelum,</HI> let Ju&s;tice be done, though the heavens fall; we mu&s;t be violent to keepe faith and a good con&s;cience, not to put them from us, and this is the way to make <HI>us all Kings and Prie&s;ts unto our God;</HI> they are of the family of heaven, and of the blood Royall, that are thus affected, <HI>Revel.</HI> 19.26. <HI>Chri&s;t at his la&s;t comming to de&s;troy Anti|chri&s;t,</HI> is &s;aid, <HI>to have his Name written, not onely upon his ve&s;ture, but upon his thigh too, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords:</HI> Whats this <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 word"> a name Written upon his thigh: &s;omewhat an unproper &s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ituation; what &s;hould a man do with a name written upon his thigh? But tis the place of generation; <HI>Jacobs</HI> 70. &s;oules are &s;aid to come out of his thigh, and tho&s;e choyce violent &s;pirits, that fol|low Chri&s;t,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Vid. Riberam. Je&s;uitam in Com. ad hunc to|cum.</NOTE> in his warres again&s;t Antichri&s;t, as tho&s;e <HI>Armies of hea|ven did,</HI> &s;poken of before <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 14. They all came out of his thigh, were di&s;cended and propagated from him, by a divine worke of Regeneration, the Spirit of Je&s;us Chri&s;t refines the blood of the meane&s;t per&s;ons, and creates them a Regall pedegree.</P>
<P N="3"><NOTE PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Ari&s;t.</NOTE>3 Its an honourable thing to be violent for the honour of our God and the good of a whole Kingdome; to do good to one is honourable, &s;aid the Philo&s;opher, but to do good to a City or Na|tion, this is heroicall, how much more, when the honour of God and the happine&s;&s;e of three Kingdomes, that I may not &s;ay of Chri|&s;tendom too, is infolded in one another.</P>
<P>Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aies, <HI>Its good to be alwayes zealou&s;ly affected in a good thing, Gal.</HI> 4.16. Alwayes good, It was intended no doubt as a marke of honour, that Name which our Saviour for this cau&s;e im|po&s;ed upon one of the Apo&s;tles, when he called him <HI>Simon Zelotes, Luke</HI> 6.15.<NOTE PLACE="marg">Het. do<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">um pro|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ume <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">eo um quireg<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">abunt etem. Chri&s;to, <HI>Aug.</HI></NOTE> The more zeale we have, the more honourable we are at all times, but to be zealous for God, as <HI>Elias</HI> was in evill times, to owne his cau&s;e <HI>in an adulterous and &s;infull generation,</HI> this is honou|rable indeed; yea, and I had almo&s;t &s;aid meritorious, but how&s;e|ver tis thank-worthy to be &s;ure, in an eminent degree, <HI>Luk.</HI> 22.28, 29
<PB N="69" REF="37">
<HI>Ye are they that have continued with me, in my temptations,</HI> and what then, <HI>I appoint unto you a Kingdom that ye may eate and drinke at my Table, and &s;it on thrones; &amp;c.</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Martyres &s;unt Clariores &amp; ho|noratiores in Ec|cle&s;ia cives. <HI>Aug. de Civ. Dei. lib. 10.</HI></NOTE> You &s;ee how well our Saviour takes it, when his &s;ervants cleave clo&s;e to him, and will &s;tand for him in his temptations. If the right hand place in his Kingdome be re&s;er|ved for any more then others, it &s;hall be kept for &s;uch.</P>
<P N="5">5 The contrary di&s;po&s;ition is of it &s;elfe ba&s;e and unworthy, yea and of all other the mo&s;t loath&s;ome and abominable, <HI>Revel.</HI> 3.15, 16. <HI>Better key cold then onely lukewarme,</HI> Its an argument we nei|ther value God nor his Kingdome, when we are &s;o dull and heart|le&s;&s;e in our de&s;ires and endeavours, as if the purcha&s;e we are about would not quit the co&s;t, nor be worth the paines that is required for it. When <HI>Callidius</HI> a <HI>Roman</HI> Orator, pleaded a cau&s;e very faintly,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Tu M. Callidi|ni&s;i fingeres &s;ic ageres, <HI>Cic.</HI></NOTE> and made no &s;hew of affection, <HI>Tully</HI> told him that &s;ure he was not in earne&s;t, otherwi&s;e the tide of pa&s;&s;ion would have beene up: In like manner when men are &s;o lazie and langui&s;hing, &s;o cold and &s;lack in dealing for a Kingdome, Its a &s;hrew'd argument again&s;t them, that &s;ure they are not in earne&s;t, they do but play with Reli|gion; the precious trea&s;ures of heaven are &s;et before them, and they re&s;ent them not at all, or but a very little, make no great ha&s;te, are not a whit &s;ollicitous, take no paines about the matter, as if the things were of no great importance; they are very moderate and delicate in making towards them, neither that high hand that holds th for t h, nor that blood that bought them, nor that worth that is in them, workes much; but all is &s;lighted: God comes wai|ting upon them with calls, and calls, and with gracious offers, and is not regarded; hence no doubt is this black cloud ri&s;en, which darkens the heavens over us. The glory of God and the Salvation of our &s;oules, we do nothing many of us but je&s;t and dally with them. I have read of <HI>Ana&s;tatius</HI> the Emperor, that he was,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Magdeburg. Cent. <HI>5.</HI></NOTE> by the hand of God, &s;hot to death with a hot thunder-bolt, becau&s;e he was luke-warme in the Catholique cau&s;e, and not zealous again&s;t the <HI>Arrian</HI> faction.</P>
<P N="6">6. In other things where the lea&s;t overture of gaine, honour, plea&s;ure, appeares, how eager are we panting after the du&s;t of the earth, as the Prophet &s;peakes, and ready to run our &s;elves out of breath for it: if a rich purcha&s;e may be made, a profitable bargaine driven, an honourable and wealthy match gotten, or any &s;uch o|ther &s;ecular Commodity which we are affected with; oh then we
<PB N="70" REF="38">
are all upon the &s;pur, upon the wing, no ha&s;te, no alacrity, no la|bour, or diligence is thought too much, or but enough; now there is violence upon violence, all oares and &s;ailes, mu&s;t now be ply|ed, and &s;hall we be thus earne&s;t, for frivolous, unconcerning, low things, which we may have, and be never the better; want, and be never the wor&s;e; and yet carry our &s;elves in matters of eternity, as if we were all <HI>Stoicks,</HI> and had no pa&s;&s;ions about us? <HI>Ferventi&s;&s;imi in terrenis, frigidi&s;&s;imi in caele&s;tibus,</HI> &s;hall we be red hot as fire for earth, and key cold as any Ice for heaven?</P>
<P N="7">7. If all this will not move, looke upon wicked men, how vio|lent a bent have they to &s;inne, <HI>Their hearts are fully &s;et to doe mi&s;|chiefe, Eccle&s;.</HI> 9.3. <HI>They inflame them&s;elves, with Idols, E&s;ay</HI> 57.5. <HI>They are as &s;wift Dromedaries traver&s;ing their waies, Jer.</HI> 2.23. <HI>Their whole force is evill,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg">Ad <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">ggillatio|nem no&s;tram haec dicta &s;int, &s;e non prae&s;tet fides quod prae&s;titit iafidelitas, <HI>Hier.</HI></NOTE> <HI>and their cour&s;e not right, Jer.</HI> 23.10. How vio|lent were the <HI>I&s;raelites</HI> for their Idolatry, <HI>when they offered their &s;onnes and daughters unto Devills, Deut.</HI> 32.17. Had they &s;o much devotion for Idols, and have we &s;o little for the true God? what care did they not take? what co&s;t did they not ca&s;t away, when they <HI>made ha&s;te,</HI> as <HI>David</HI> hath it, <HI>to poure out meate and drink of|ferings, to another God? P&s;al.</HI> 16.4. and &s;hall we e&s;teeme our true God and Religion at &s;uch a low under-hand rate, as if gold and &s;il|ver were too deare and precious then to be offered up upon the &s;acrifice and &s;ervice of them? as if hell and lyes were pearles never over-bought, but truth and heaven meere tra&s;h and nothing worth; &s;ince they would doe any thing, for the one, and we nothing for the other.</P>
<P N="8">8. Looke upon your enemies, how more then Hyperbolically violent they are, in carrying on their de&s;igne of <HI>Rome</HI> and Hell; how furious is their march? how re&s;olute are their &s;pirits? how quick their endeavours? how do they compa&s;&s;e &s;ea and land, to <HI>Spaine, France, Holland, Denmarke,</HI> whither do they not di&s;patch their Emi&s;&s;arie? what va&s;te trea&s;ures do they not lay out, what expence of blood do they &s;tick at, what &s;tones do they not roll? what conclu&s;ions do they not try? what project have they not hammered? what corner of the earth have they not &s;earched, even till hell from beneath was moved to meete them; and all to drive their de&s;perate and pernicious de&s;igne, to ca&s;t downe, if it were po&s;&s;ible, Je&s;us Chri&s;t out of his Throne, and to &s;et up <HI>Belze|bub</HI> in his roome; hedging, fencing, planting, watering, what
<PB N="71" REF="38">
could they have done more for that wilde vine, that fal&s;e Antichri|&s;tian Religion and Church, <HI>which is the vine of the earth,</HI> and not of heaven, it having no rooting, growth, nor ble&s;&s;ing thence? <HI>Rev.</HI> 14.11. If there be any to whom the <HI>Syrens</HI> voyce &s;ounds &s;weete: Heark what Father <HI>Campian</HI> profe&s;&s;eth of him&s;elfe and his fellow Je&s;uites, <HI>Quamdiu vel vnus qui&s;piam e nobis &s;upererit, qui Tiburno ve&s;tro fruatur, fruatur,</HI> that is his word, whiles there was any of them left to enjoy a Tyburn tippet, as old Bi&s;hop <HI>Latimer</HI> was wont to &s;peak, whiles any of them remained for the gallowes, torment, and impri&s;onment, they vowed never to de&s;i&s;t nor let fall their weather-beaten cau&s;e: and what &s;hall we be coole and mo|derate, when they are &s;o extreame violent? <HI>Acrius illi ad perniciem quam nos ad &s;alutem,</HI> Shall they be more zealous to procure their owne and others de&s;truction, temporall and eternall, then we for our owne and others Salvation?</P>
<P N="9">9 If we be re&s;olute, we &s;hall prevaile and carry away the prize which we are contending for: This &s;hould have been a doctrine en|tire of it felfe: I onely touch it, and but lightly too, as a motive to quicken us up. What will not men do upon uncertaine, and often, mo&s;t unlikely hopes, to advantage them&s;elves; but we have this hope as an Anchor, &s;ure and &s;tedfa&s;t, That if we be violent for it, this Kingdome is ours; none can hinder us of it, &s;uch as <HI>&s;ell all, &s;hall have the pearle, Mat.</HI> 13.44. Tho&s;e that &s;hrinke not from Chri&s;t in his <HI>temptations for feare of the Cro&s;&s;e,</HI> when he comes in <HI>his glory, they &s;hall &s;it upon thrones, and raigne with him, Luke</HI> 22.28. and for the publique cau&s;e, now depending, whiles we continue faithfull with, and &s;tout for God, feare not the i&s;&s;ue; let the oppo&s;itions be what they will, <HI>all tho&s;e great Mountaines before Zerubbabel, &s;hall be|come a plaine, Zach.</HI> 4.8. The Lord reignes, though the earth be ne|ver &s;o unquiet, he will bring about his de&s;igne, when men and de|vills have done their wor&s;t. What though the pillars of the Land tremble, and all the foundations of it &s;hake, as in an earth quake;<NOTE PLACE="marg">Videte nedum caelum de&s;tudi|mus, terram a|mittamus, <HI>Dem.</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">. ad Athan.</NOTE> what though we be in danger whiles we are &s;o violent for heaven, to lo&s;e all we have on earth, as the Orator &s;ometimes told the <HI>Athe|nians,</HI> yet we &s;hall not have an haires harme, <HI>If we &s;erve our God with reverence and godly feare, we &s;hall receive a Kingdome, that cannot be &s;haken, Heb.</HI> 12.28. Unto the which God of his infinite mercy bring us, through the Merits of Chri&s;t Je&s;us, who hath purcha&s;ed it for us, To whom, &amp;c.</P>
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<OPENER><DATELINE><DATE>Die Mercurii <HI>29.</HI> Maii. <HI>1644.</HI></DATE></DATELINE></OPENER>
<P>IT is this day Ordered by the Commons A&s;&s;embled in Parliament, That M^r <HI>Harman</HI> do from this Hou&s;e give thankes unto Ma&s;ter <HI>Hall,</HI> for the great paines he tooke in the Ser|mon he preached this day, at the intreaty of this Hou&s;e, at S^t <HI>Margarets</HI> We&s;tmin&s;ter, (it being the day of publique Humiliation) and to de&s;ire him to Print his Sermon. And it is Ordered that none &s;hall pre&s;ume to Print his Sermon, not being licenced under his hand writing.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>Hen. El&s;ynge, Cler. Parl. D. Com.</SIGNED><POSTSCRIPT>
<P>I appoint <HI>Samuel Gellibrand</HI> to Print my Sermon.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>HEN. HALL.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</POSTSCRIPT></CLOSER>
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