Sermon 31 January 1644, Title page – Author to the reader
A SERMON PREACHED To the Honourable HOVSE OF COMMONS: At their late Solemne Fast, Wednesday, Jan. 31. 1644.
BY SAMUEL RUTHERFURD, Professor of Divinitie in the University of S. Andrews.
EXOD. 3. 2.
And hee looked, and behold, the Bush burned with fire, and the Bush was not consumed.
Published by Order of the House of Commons.
EDINBURGH, Printed by Evan Tyler, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie. 1644.
Die Mercurii 31. Ianuar. 1644.
IT is this day ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament, That Mr. Rous do from this House give thanks unto Mr. Rutherfurd, for the great paines he took in the Sermon he preached this day (at the intreaty of the said Commons) at S. Margarets Westminster, it being the day of publike Humiliation, and to desire him to print his Sermon. And it is ordered that none presume to print his Sermon without authority under the hand-writing of the said Mr. Rutherfurd.
H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com.
I appoint Richard Whittaker, and Andrew Crooke, to print my Sermon.
Samuel Rutherfurd.
To the Christian Reader.
WHether time or the fashion hath obtained of me (worthy Reader) that this Sermon should come under the providence of your favourable judgement and Candor, I can hardly determine: But you have it as it is, onelyonly I shall heartily desire, in reviewing of it, your serious thoughts in these insuing considerations.
1. What I speak here of God and his excellency, is but a shadow to the expressions of others; and what others can say, men or Angels, is but a short and rude shadow of that infinite All, the High Jehovah, Creator of Heaven and Earth: so my thoughts come forth as shadows of shadows, for there behoved to be much honey in the Inke, much of Heaven in the breast, much of God in the Pen of any who speaketh of such a transcendent subject; yet if these do affect you, it is possible I say more, if not, I shall desire not to spill the Lords highest praises with my low-creeping under-expressions. 2. Concerning Gods dispensation now in Brittaine, and his Churches condition; I shall be your debter, in all humble modesty, to beg these thoughts to go along with God. As 1. Let the Lord have a charitable sense and good construction of his most wise dispensation, and beleeve that he who hath his fire in Zion, Esa▪ 31. 9.and his furnace in Jerusalem, seeth good that Christs Crosse should be the Church of Christs birth-right, and that a life-rent of afflictions, is a surer way for Zion, then Summer-dayes. 2. You are not to stumble that God will not fit his times to mens apprehensions, when to raine, and when to shine fair, neither is clay to usurp the chair, and dispute the matter, to make the All-wise providence a School-Probleme,Jer. 9. 21. nor asks, Why is our Zion builded, with carcasses of men, in two kingdomes, fallen, as dung in the open field, and as the handfull after the harvest man? Why is the wall of the daughter of Zion sprinkled with blood? One thing▪ I know, It is better to beleeve, then to dispute; and to adore, then to plead with him who giveth not account of his matters. 3. Innocencie in these times, is better then court with princes, and the condition of the heirs of Heaven, yea, their tears, better then the joy of the hypocrite. 4. Christs Church can neither shift nor adjourne such a share of affliction, as is written in Gods book. It is a standing and a current court which hath decreed what graines of Gall and Wormewood England must drink; what a cup is prepared for Scotland; and the Ballance of wisedome hath weighed by ounce weights, how much wrath shall be mixed in the cup of wasted Ireland. 5. You know it is generally the condition of the Church, if she have any Summer, that it is but a good day betwixt two Feavers; Heaven, heaven is the home and the desired day of the Bride, the Lambs wife. 6. It is much better to be afflicted, then to be guilty; and that the Church may have pardon, and want peace. 7. That the faith which is more precious then gold, can bid the devil do his worst, and that the patience of the Saints can out-weary the malice of Babylon or Babel, on whose skirts is found the blood of the Saints. 8 That it is now and ever true, as when a hungry man dreameth, Esa. 29. 8.and behold he eateth, but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or, as when a thirsty man drinketh, but he awaketh, and behold he (is) faint, so shall the multitude of all nations be that fight against mount Zion. 9. Vengeance is gone out from the Lord against those who feast upon Zions teares,Ezech. 28. 9. and they must die the death of the uncircumcised, Ezech. 25 6.who clapped their hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoyced in heart with all their despight against the land of Israel. 10. They are in no better condition who refuse to help the Lord against the mighty, and whose heart is as a stone and a piece of dead flesh, at all the revolutions and tossings of Christs Kingdome, who daunce, eat, and laugh within their own orbe; and if their desires bee concentrick to the world and themselves, care not whether Joseph die in the stocks or not, or whether Zion sink or swim, because whatever they had of Religion, it was never their minde both to summer and winter Jesus Christ. 11. The rise of the Gospel-sun, is like the prodigious appearance of a new Comet, to the woman that sitteth on many waters, to that mother Rome-planted, as a Vine in blood, the Lionesse, whose Whelps, Papists and Prelates in Ireland and England, have learned to catch the prey, and this Comet prophesieth, Wo to the Pope, King of the bottemlesse pit, and his bloody Lady Babel, if Christ shall arise, and shine in the power of his Gospel. 12. God hath now as great a work on the wheels, as concerneth the race of the Chariots of Jesus Christ through the habitable world; pray, O let his Kingdome come, and farewell.
Yours in the Lord Jesus, S. R.