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the glorious relations of justification and adoption in the glorious habits of holiness, peace, and blessedness. In glorious privileges, of Christian liberty, communion of saints, boldness in prayer, victory over temptations and afflictions, with many other the like. I shall add but a short word of application, and suddenly have done.

d

1. We learn hence, what a folly, as well as wickedness, it is for Samaritans to oppose the building of Jerusalem, or the temple; for any enemies to set themselves against the church of God;-as great a madness as for briers to contend with flames; for stubble to wage war with fire; for a sheaf (as the prophet makes the instance, Zech. xii. 6) to enter into battle with a flaming torch. (Isa. xxvii. 4, 5) The whale may swallow Jonah, but it shall not digest him; the grave may devour Christ, but he will kill death in its own dominion, as Benaiah did the lion in his own pit. A man may drink down a cup of poison, but it will suddenly be revenged on him. It is madness to provoke the Lord, being weaker than he. (1 Cor. x. 12) "Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker." (Isa. xlv. 9) 2. We need not make use of carnal wisdom, and sinful means for protection against danger; for God can be alone a wall of fire unto his people. Use not oppression or violence to help yourselves; for power and mercy belong unto God. (Psalm lxii. 10, 12) David was advised by those about him, once and again, to kill Saul when he was in his power, and so to secure himself; but he answered, God forbid that I should touch the Lord's anointed' he trusted in God, and would not use carnal wisdom for his own safety. (1 Sam. xxiv. 47, and xxvi. 8, 11) This wall of fire can better protect us, than all the broad or high walls of Jericho of Babylon. It is good keeping in Jerusalem: in God's presence, in his way, so long we are within a wall of fire.'

3. This is great comfort unto holy men, that the very terrors of God are their protection. The terrors of God at Sinai and in the wilderness, were for the salvation of God's people. (Hab. iii. 13) As the mercy of God will not save those that despise it; so the fury of God will be a defence

• Acts ii. 24. 1 Cor. xv. 57. xii. 2.

d 2 Sam. xxiii. 20.

• Zech.

unto those, that tremble at it. No attribute of God, but faith, can suck comfort from it.

and

4. Envy not the glory of the world, nor the pomps pleasures thereof, to those whose portion is in this life; but rest abundantly satisfied with the glory of God's presence shining in the face of Christ, and those unsearchable riches wherewith he endoweth his church; in comparison whereof, all the glories of the world are but dross and dung. If God would have the honour of his church to stand in outward things, 'The silver is his, and the gold is his;' (Hag. ii. 8) the cattle on a thousand mountains his.' (Psal. 1. 10) But as Abraham gave portions to his other children, but the inheritance to Isaac, even all that he had; (Gen. xxv. 5) as princes, at their coronation, give wine and money to the multitude, but honour to their favourites; so the Lord giveth earthly things many times more liberally to the men of the world, but bestoweth himself for a portion and exceeding great reward unto his own people :-and they esteem him precious, (1 Pet. ii. 7) and his promises precious, (2 Pet. i. 4) and his redemption precious, (Psal. xlix. 8) and the very afflictions which they suffer for his sake, precious. (1 Pet. i. 7)

5. Above all things, hold fast God and his presence. A city is never without walls or gates, without glory and splendor, till they are without God. Your glory departs, when his ordinances are removed. You may confidently promise yourself his protection, while you make his habitation in the midst of you your greatest glory. And therefore, as he hath a long time been a wall of fire' about you; in all the confusions of a bloody war, no alarm hath startled or stormed you, though there were angry men, who shook their arm against London, as the Assyrian against Jerusalem. (Isa. 32) That said "It would never be well with England, till London were in a flame ;" yet you have had no flame about you, but a wall of fire, and chariots of fire, as the prophet had. (2 Kings vi. 17) As therefore the Lord hath protected you, and been the glory in the midst of London; (for I am persuaded it is a sober truth, that no city in the Christian world hath had a more glorious presence of God by the light of his word, and the purity of his worship and ordinances, than London hath had,) so make it your business, in an an

swerable proportion, to bring glory to God, by zeal for the truth, by love to the ordinances, by comforting the ministers, and encouraging them in the work of the Lord, by executing justice and judgement, reforming all abuses, setting up the name of God in your families; preserving those that belong unto you, from the contagion of dangerous and dividing doctrines. God will be with you, while you are with him; he never breaks with a people first; do you give glory to him, and he will be glory to you.

Lastly; If God be thus your glory, let your glorying be in him alone. Glory not in your strength, or wisdom, or wealth, or splendor, in your ships or trade, or in the harvest of the river. Glory only in your wall of fire,' and in this, -That the Lord hath been hitherto so nigh unto you. And truly you have great reason to bless the Lord, and to make your boast of him all the day long, as for remoter mercies which you must not forget, though I cannot now recount them, so for those signal mercies, for the celebration whereof you are met together at this time.

What a deluge of confusion these poor nations were running into how deep the discontents of the people! how ready the tinder of unsatisfied spirits, in all parts of the nation, to take fire and break out into a flame! in what danger the function of a learned and orthodox ministry, and the maintenance thereof, was to be devoured! how desperately the ordinances were despised, the truths of religion rejected! what dangerous divulsions daily more and more made from the unity of the church of God amongst us! how near we were brought unto the brow of the precipice! It is now our comfort that we can, with thankfulness, recount, as surviving, so great dangers, as well as with sorrow bewail our exposedness unto them.

How should our hearts be enlarged, and our mouths filled, and our lives acted, with the praises of the Lord! what memorials, and monuments, and Ebenezers should we everywhere erect of those wonders, and terrible things which we looked not for; which the Lord hath wrought for us in a kind of parallel and proportion to those, which he wrought for Israel at the Red Sea !

That then, when force after force, and breach after breach, had been made upon the solemn conventions of the nations,

and the ancient honour of the English parliaments had been ravished and prostituted to the will and passions of their own servants; when the licentiousness of the times made way for men of corrupt principles and daring confidence, 'tantùm non' to spit in the face of magistracy and ministry, and all sobriety of judgement amongst us; then for the Lord to stir up the spirits of all the people of the land as one man, solemnly to own their native liberties, and with united affections to implore the vindication of them; then for the Lord to awaken an honourable instrument to assert the privileges and dignities of conculcated parliaments, and to restore the many grave and eminent members thereof to their longinterrupted right, and to the administration of their trust again; to stand by this famous city, who had cheerfully, with their treasures, their swords, their lives, their counsels, aided and asserted the public engagements;-that then, when your hearts were ready to sink at the demolishing of your city gates, immediately they should be revived with the opening of your parliament gates, that those worthy patriots, lovers of truth and righteousness, might enter in ;as we ought with great love and honour to respect the instruments, so ought we to ascribe the whole glory unto God alone, who only doth wondrous things; at whose presence the mountains have flowed down and become a plain": who, if we follow on to know the Lord", if we provoke him not by murmuring against instruments, or by deifying of them, but second their endeavours with our prayers, and God's mercies with our praises,-will perfect what he hath begun. And as he hath laid the foundation, will so consummate the whole structure of our settlement, that we shall at last bring forth the head-stone thereof, with shouting and acclamations, crying, "Grace, grace unto it!" i

f Psalm lxxii. 18.

g Isai. lxiv. 1.

h Hos. vi. 3.

i Zech. iv. 7.

THE

AUTHOR AND SUBJECT OF

HEALING IN THE CHURCH:

Set forth in a SERMON preached before the Right Honourable the Parliament of England, at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster, on Wednes day, April 25, 1660, being the first day of their Assembly.

MAL. iv. 2, 3.

But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall: and ye shall tread down the wicked.

OUR prophet was the last of all the prophets of the Old Testament; after which they were not to look for any other, till Elias the forerunner of the Angel of the Covenant (who was the great prophet of all) should come unto them. The church appears in his time to have been wofully corrupted, by those sharp reprehensions of priests and people, for corruption of worship, for violation of covenant, for contumacy against God, for reproaching his ways, and passing a hard and false charge against his services, as if they were vain and fruitless. In the midst of this hypocritical people, the Lord had a holy remnant who feared his name, and spake often to one another. Both these seemed to call for the coming of Christ, and seemed to delight in the promise of the Angel of the Covenant, Chap. ii. 17, and iii. 1. And accordingly here is a promise of his coming speedily. But though desired by both, he should come with great difference to the one and the other; to the one after a terrible manner, with refining fire, and fuller's soap; with fan and

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