Use 4. Consider, if there be so much^ sweetness in a tem- poral deliverance, oh, what excellency is there in that eternal redemption, which we have in the blood of Jesus ! If we re- joice for being delivered from them who could have killed the body, what unspeakable rejoicing is there in that mercy whereby we are freed from the wrath to come ! Let this pos- sess your thoughts, let this fill your souls, let this be your haven from all former storms. And here strike I sail, in this to abide with you, and all the saints of God for ever.
' Si tanli vitruin quaiiti INIargaritutn? Tertul.
SERMON III.*
RIGHTEOUS ZEAL ENCOURAGED
BY
DIVINE PROTECTION:
A DISCOURSE ABOUT TOLERATION, AND THE DUTY OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE ABOUT RELIGION, THEREUNTO ANNEXED.
• This sermon was preached before the honourable House of Commons, Jan. Si, 164.8. Being a day of solemn humiliation.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE
COMMONS OF ENGLAND,
ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT.
Sirs, It hath always suited the wisdom of God to do great things in difficult seasons. He sets up walls in trou- blous times; Dan. ix. 25. His builders must hold swords and spears, as well as instruments of labour ; Nehem. iv. 16. Yea, while sin continueth in its course here (which began in heaven, and having contempo- rized with the earth, shall live for ever in hell), great works for God will cause great troubles amongst men. The holy, harmless reconciler of heaven and earth bids us expect the sword, to attend his undertakings for, and way of making peace ; Matt. x. 34. All the waves in the world arise to their height and roaring, from the confronting of the breath of God's Spirit, and the va- pours of men's corruptions. Hence seasons receive their degrees of difficulty, according to the greatness and weight of the works which in them God will ac- complish. To their worth and excellency is man's opposition proportioned. This the instruments of his glory in this generation shall continually find true to their present trouble, and future comfort.
As the days approach for the delivery of the de- cree, to the shaking of heaven and earth,^ and all the powers of the world, to make way for the establishment
" Hcb. xii. '26, 27. Dan. vii. 27, Ego nisi tuni!iltu3 istos videreni, verbuni Dei in ijiuudu non esse diccrem. Luih.
THE EPISTLE DEDJCATORY. clix
of that kingdom, which shall not be given to another people (the great expectation of the saints of the M^st High before the consummation of all) ; so tumults, troubles, vexations, and disquietness, must certainly grow and increase among the sons of men.
A dead woman (says the proverb) will not be carried out of her house under four men. Much less will living men of wisdom and power be easily and quietly dispossessed of that share and interest in the things of Christ, which long'-continued usurpation hath deluded them into an imao-ination of beino- their own inheritance. This then being shortly to be effected, and the scale being ready to turn against the man of sin, notwithstanding his balancing it, in opposition to the witness of Jesus, with the weight and poise of earthly power ; no wonder if heaven, earth, sea, and dry land, be shaken, in their giving place to the things that cannot be moved. God Almighty having called you forth. Right Honourable, at his entrance to the roll- ing* up of the nation's heavens like a scroll, "" to serve him in your generation in the high places of Arma- geddon," you shall be sure not to want experience of that opposition, which is raised against the great work of the Lord, which generally swells most against the visible instruments thereof.
And would to God, you had only the devoted sons of Babel to contend withal, that the men of this shaking earth were your only antagonists ; that the malignity of the dragon s tail had had no influence on the stars of heaven, to prevail with them to fight in their courses against you."^ But 'jacta est alea,' the providence of God must be served, according to the discovery made of his own unchangeable will, and not the mutable in- terests and passions of the sons of men. For verily ' the Lord of hosts hath purposed to pollute the pride of all
^ Isa. xxxiv. 4, 5. ^ Rev. xvi, 16. ^ Rev. xii, 4.
elx IHE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth ;' Isa. xxiii. 9.
The contradictions of sinners against all that walk in the paths of righteousness and peace, with the sup- portment which their spirits may receive (as being pro- mised) who pursue those ways, notwithstanding those contradictions, are in part discovered in the ensuing sermon : the foundation of that whole transaction of things, which is therein held out, in reference to the present dispensations of providence (being nothing but an entrance into the unravellino; of the whole web of iniquity, interwoven of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny, in opposition to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus), I chose not to mention. Neither shall I at present add any thing thereabout, but only my desire that it may be eyed as the granted basis of the following discourse. Only by your very favourable acceptation of the making out those thoughts, which were the hasty conception, and like Jonah's gourd, the child of a night or two (which with prayer for a rooting in the hearts of them to whom they were delivered, had certainly withered in their own leaves, had they not received warmth and moisture from your commands in general, and the par- ticular desires of many of you, to give them a life of a few days longer), I am encouraged to the annexing of a few lines, as a free-v/ill offering to attend the following product of obedience.