THE Doctrine of Divine Providence, though it is never unseasonable, yet it is never so seasonable as when there are such loud speaking Instances, not only of the truth of the Being of it, but al­so of the Beauty and Glory of it exhibited to common view.

None of all the Prophets have set out the Providence of God in his Wisdom, Power, [Page 2] Soveraignty and Super-intendency, more than this Prophet Ezekiel nor by more E­legant Emblems. Though it must be said of this Prophecy (as was said of Paul's Epistles) that there are [...] some things in them hard to be understood, full of obscurity and difficulty; which made Jerom say, there is Proem, in 1 lib. Comment. in Ezek. Tom. 5. in this Book a Sea of Scripture, it is so deep; and a Labyrinth of the Mysteries of God, it is so difficult; and therefore as the reading of the beginning of Genesis, and the Book of Canticles, was forbidden to the Jews (as the same Author says) ante aetatem Sacerdotalem, till they were thirty years of Age; so was the beginning and ending of this Prophecy.

There are in it dark Visions, hard to be unfolded; uncertain Chronologies, difficult to be found out; Mystical Parables, hard to be opened; and many Aenigmatical Hiero­glyphicks, not easily understood; such as the pourtrayed Tile, chap. 4. the removing the houshold stuff, chap. 12. the useless Vine­branch, chap. 15. the two Eagles and a Vine, chap. 17. the boiling Pot, chap. 24. the dry Bones, chap. 37. and the like.

But among all of them, none hath more darkness and difficulty attends it than this of the Wheels and Cherubims; you have them mentioned in the first chapter, and again in this. They are two different Vi­sions, as appears from chap. 1. 3. compared with chap. 8. 3. but much to the same pur­pose; and therefore I shall have recourse to both, so far as may serve my design; which is to open to you somewhat of this Vision of the Wheels.

Solomon says, Prov. 25. 11. A word spoken upon its Wheels, (so the Hebrew [...]) is Gnal ophniu. like Apples of Gold in pictures of Silver; the meaning is; A word rightly timed, is very grateful and pleasant: so it is explained in chap. 15. 23. A word spoken in due season, how good is it?

I am now to speak of the Wheels; the Lord make it a word upon its wheels; that as it is suitable to the Providence that put me upon it, so it may be sweet to the palate of every one that tasts it.

In the whole verse you have four parts.

• 1. The Cryer.
• 2. The Cry.
• 3. The Object of the Cry.
• 4. The Witness of all.

1. The Cryer. Which though not ex­pressed, yet is necessarily to be understood. It was cryed; by whom? By him that sate upon the Throne, verse 1. that is, the Lord.

2. You have the cry it self. O wheel!

3. The Object of the Cry. To whom it was made; it was to the Wheels. As for the wheels, it was cryed to them.

4. Here is the Witness in whose presence the Cry was uttered, and that was the Pro­phet. It was cryed in my hearing, [...] in my Beoznai. ears. As for the wheels, it was cryed to them in my ears, O wheel.

In speaking of these Wheels, it will be necessary to look into the whole Vision, so far at least as may give light to the thing in hand.

In which Vision you may see an excellent Subordination of causes one to another, and all to the Supream cause, in the carrying on [Page 5] the Government in the providential King­dom of Christ.

1. You have the Supream cause set out by the appearance of a man upon a Throne above the Firmament, chap. 1. 26. Above the Firmament was the likeness of a Throne, and upon the Throne was the likeness of a man above upon it. The likeness of a man,] Who is this, but the Lord Christ in the Person of the Mediator?

Quest. But Christ was not as yet come in the Flesh, Why then is he here represented in the likeness of a man?

Ans. 1. It was to pre-figure his Incarna­tion; his Divine Nature being in the ful­ness of time to assume our Flesh into the Unity of his Person.

2. It was to shew that the Government of the World was put into his hand as Me­diator, and that he possessed the Throne of the World not as God only, but according to his humane Nature. The Government of the World was put into the hand of Christ from the time of the Fall; Sin had broken the Axle-tree of the whole Creation, had not Heb. 1. 3. [Page 6] Christ interposed to uphold it; therefore it is said, By him all things consist, Col. 1. 17. And hence it is that God the Father calls him, My King, Psal. 2. 6. He hath set him up to rule, and given him an universal Domi­nion; so that he that is above upon the Throne in the likeness of a man rules all.

2. Tho' Christ rules absolutely, yet he doth not rule immediately; he governs the World by the Agency of the Eternal Spirit. As Christ rules for God; so the Spirit rules for Christ. He is the great Administrator of the Government throughout the Media­tory Kingdom. He sets all a going, there­fore you read in Ezek. 1. 12. Whither the Spirit was to go, they went; and again, v. 20. Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went; thither was their Spirit to go.

By the Spirit here, no other can be meant but the Holy Ghost, who is Co-essential, and Co-equal with the Father, and the Son. All the Angels of God are under the com­mand and conduct of the Spirit What great things have Angels done? defending, comforting, guarding the people of God; [Page 7] destroying their Enemies; An Angel of the 2 Kings 19. 35. Lord smote an hundred and eighty five thousand of the Assyrians in one night. If Angels con­tend against Princes, overturn Kingdoms, it is all done by the conduct of the Spirit, he hath the great hand in all.

And therefore you read in Zech. 6. 6. Of black horses that go forth into the North Coun­trey, that is, for the destruction of Babylon; and the white go forth after them; that is, for the redeeming the people of God out of Ba­bylon, and both one sort and the other are acted therein by the Spirit; he sends them forth, therefore in v. 8. they are said to quiet the Spirit in this work. Behold, these that go toward the North Countrey, have quieted my Spirit in the North Countrey.

And so it is with the Wheels, they all move as the Spirit of God moves them. What great things did the Judges in Israel of old? Why all was by the Spirit of God. So it is said of Othniel, The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went out to War, and the Lord delivered his Enemies into his hand, Judg. 3. 10. So it is said, Judg. 11. 29. [Page 8] The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, Judges 11. 29. and he fought against the Children of Ammon; V. 32. and the Lord delivered them into his hands. So it is said of Samson, The Spirit of the Lord moved him, Judg. 13. 25. This is thus distinctly recorded in Scripture, that we may know to whom to ascribe the Successes of great Attempts; not to the Courage and Conduct of Men, but to the Agency of the Spirit of God. Princes, Armies, Navies, are all nothing without the Spirit of God Act them.

If God dispirits, The men of might can't find Psal. 76. 5. their hands. The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, Levit. 26. 36. And if God Spi­rits men, One shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, Deut. 32. 30. So that it is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord, Zech. 4. 6.

The Wheels go which way soever the Spirit goes. If you see the Wheel go over King­doms, and break down Thrones and Scep­ters, marvel not at the matter, for the Spi­rit of God is in the Wheels; and that is the second thing.

[Page 9] 3. Here is another Subordination of causes; and that is the living Creatures. In chap. 1. 5. you read of four living Creatures, every one of which had four Faces, verse 6. He doth not say, who, or what these liv­ing Creatures are in that Vision; but in this tenth Chapter he doth. He tells you they are the Angels, verse 20. The living Crea­tures that I saw, under the God of Israel,—I knew that they were the Cherubims; every one had four faces apiece, verse 21. The former Vision was at Chebar, this was in the Tem­ple. God discovers himself more in the Temple than at Chebar; Visions in Babylon are not so clear as Visions in Sion. In his Temple every one speaks of his Glory, Psal. 29. 9.

And if you look into chap. 1. 10. there is a description of their Faces. As for the like­ness of their faces, they four had the face of a Man, and the face of a Lion, and the face of an Ox, and the face of an Eagle. The very same Faces with the four Beasts mentioned, Rev. 4. 7. And why are these four Faces ascribed to each Angel? but that by look­ing [Page 10] in their Faces we might see how they were fitted for their Services. These four Faces shew forth four excellent, and suitable indowments.

Wisdom and Prudence, Typed out by the face of a Man.

Courage and Boldness, by the face of a Lion.

Diligence and Industry, by the face of an Ox.

Expedition and Dispatch, by the face of an Eagle.

These were the likeness of the four Faces of each Cherubim, all which is to instruct us in the prudent care, and wise fore-cast by which the Providence of God doth dispose of all these lower events that come to pass in the World.

The Angels are the great Ministers of Christ in the Government of the World cal­led four here (chap. 1. 5.) four living Crea­tures; not because Christ uses that number, and no more, but the number relates to the Object, viz. the World, which is constant­ly divided into four parts, East, West, North, [Page 11] and South; and these are called the four quarters of the Earth, Rev. 20. 8. And the four quarters of Heaven, Jer. 49. 36.

As there are four parts of the World; so the Angels are said to be four, to shew that they have a care of the whole Earth. So Rev. 7. 1. I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the Earth, holding the four winds of the Earth.

But otherwise God doth not use only four Angels in the conducting the Affairs of the World, but many, yea multitudes. 2 King. 6. 17. The Mountain was full of Horses, and Chariots of Fire. This was nothing else but a Guard of Angels. So ye read of a multi­tude of the heavenly Host, Luke 2. 13. Nay all the Angels in Heaven do Minister in the Government of the World under Christ. Heb. 2. 14. Are they not all ministring Spirits, sent forth to minister?

Christ hath his Angels in all quarters; as the Devil and his Angels compass the whole World for evil, so Christ hath his Angels who compass it for good.

They are in every Corner and Company; [Page 12] especially in every Church and Assembly. The inward part of the Temple was to be adorned with Cherubims, to note the spe­cial attendance of the Angels in the Assem­blies of the Saints. It is one great argument for a holy behaviour, and a decency of dressing in our Meetings for Worship. You are in the presence of the holy Angels. So the Apostle uses it, 1 Cor. 11. 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head, because of the Angels. Power on her head that is, a covering (as in verse 5.) which the woman is to wear as a sign she is under the power of her Husband.

The Angels of God influence all the great Affairs of the World, and it is with a pecu­liar respect to the Church of God. If Satan and fallen Angels have a power to influence the Affairs of the World for evil, then sure­ly good Angels have as much power as they to influence them for good, otherwise De­vils should gain by their fall, more than ever they had by their standing. The Scripture tells us what great Services the Angels are imployed in between Christ and his People. [Page 13] For this is the meaning of Jacob's Ladder, Gen. 28. 12. and the Angels ascending and descending upon it; and so it is expounded by our Lord himself, John 1. 51. Hereafter ye shall see Heaven opened, and the Angels of God as­cending and descending upon the Son of Man. Angels inform us of the will and mind of God, (and are Intelligences in this sense.) Who revealed to Abraham and Lot the design Gen. 18. 20. Gen. 19. 13. 2 King. 1. 3. of God upon Sodom? who taught Elijah what to say to the King of Samaria his Mes­sengers? who was it that gave Daniel skill Dan. 9. 22. and understanding in the Vision of the Times? The Angels are sent to testifie the things of Christ to the Churches, Rev. 22. 16. Again, they are the Ministers of Gods judgments upon the wicked. Who smote the Sodo­mites Gen. 19. 11. with blindness at Lot's door? who slew all the First-born in Egypt? It was an Angel of God, who is therefore called Hammasche­hith [...] (Exod. 12. 23.) the Destroyer. The Psalmist with respect to this Judgment of God, says, Psal. 78. 49. He sent evil Angels among them; not Angels evil by Nature, but Messengers of evil: And so the Hebrew [Page 14] Malachei ragnim may be read; and so some [...] of your Margents have it, Angels of evil

Who did that mighty Execution upon the Assyrian Host? an hundred and eighty five Isa. 37. 35. thousand in one night. (That is more than over running a Nation in a Month.) The Angel of the Lord went forth and smote them. And therefore when David would have judg­ment done effectually upon his Enemies, he prays for Angels to do it, Psal. 35. 5, 6. Let the Angel of the Lord chase them, and let the Angel of the Lord persecute them. Again, they intermeddle with the Governments of the World, and the Affairs of Kingdoms, Dan. 10. 20. Knowest thou wherefore I am come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the Prince of Persia; and when I am gone forth, lo, the Prince of Graecia shall come. Who is this that speaks to Daniel? it is the Angel Ga­briel? the meaning of the place is this, Cam­byses the Persian King did by his cruel Edicts vex the Jews, and laboured to oppress them worse than his Predecessors had done. Now this Angel opposed him, and kept the E­dicts from Execution; and this he calls fight­ing [Page 15] against him. And when I am gone, lo, the Prince of Graecia shall come. That is, I will go into Greece, I will stir up Alexander, and he shall over-run the Kingdom; and he did so; with an Army of thirty thousand men he Invades their Land, and Conquers all the Persian Army that was ten times as Darius his Army was 600000. many, and ten to that, and drove the King out of his Kingdom, and this was done by the Ministry of the Angel Gabriel.

Great is the power and influence of An­gels in the Governments of the World; there­fore the Wheels are said to follow the moti­ons of the Cherubims, Ezek. 10. 16. And no wonder the power of Angels is so great, and their influence so full of virtue and suc­cess, when the Spirit of Christ acts them in all, chap. 1. 20. Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went, thither was their Spirit to go. The Angels, in all their Ministrations in the Affairs of the World, are acted by the Spi­rit; that is the third.

4. Here is a further Subordination; and that is, of the Affairs of the World to the An­gels. Christ, who rules all, sends his Spirit, [Page 16] the Spirit acts the Angels, the Angels rule the World, and therefore you have in the next place a Vision of Wheels. By these Wheels the World is resembled, and all the Affairs of it. All Kingdoms and Nations, all Countries and Cities, all Places and People, all Actions and Affairs are intended and re­presented by these VVheels; now these VVheels are wholly under the conduct and guidance of the living Creatures; they acted the VVheels, therefore it is said, chap. 1. 19. When the living Creatures went, the wheels went by them; and when the living Creatures were lift up from the Earth, the wheels were lifted up. And verse 2. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood. Now they which are called here the living Creatures, are in chap. 10. 16. called the Cherubims. When the Cherubims went, the wheels went by them; when they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also; and the reason of all is in the next words, for the Spirit of the living (reature is in them, i. e. in the VVheels, as it is twice men­tioned, chap. 1. 20, 21. So that here you have [Page 17] a short view of the whole Subordination of causes one to another, and of all to the Supream cause, in ordering all the Affairs of this lower VVorld. God the Father puts the Government of all into the hand of Christ. Christ substitutes the Spirit to be his Prorex, and sends him into the VVorld to manage all things. The Spirit acts the Angels, and they all Minister to him. The Angels act the VVheels, and they all are governed by them.

I must crave leave (the nature of the thing requiring it) to open this part of the Vision a little more distinctly concerning the VVheels; and that but in two things.

1. As to the nature of them.

2. As to what is ascribed to them. And by that time these are opened, we shall have cause to take up the words of the Text, and cry as it is cryed there, O wheel!

1. As for the nature of these VVheels, they are Visional, and presented by way of Emblem. The Prophet tells you, chap. 1. 1. The Heavens were opened, and I saw Visions of God. These VVheels were a part of those Visions, and there­fore not material VVheels, but yet as really re­presented to the Eye of the Prophet in Simili­tude, [Page 18] and as strongly impressed upon his mind in the image of them, as if they had been material. Now these Wheels being Visional Wheels, there­fore that which we are to look at is, what is repre­sented, and to be understood by them. And the representation is easily known by considering the nature of the thing in Vision. viz. Wheels.

I will not trouble you with the variety of the conjectures of others about them. By the Wheels we are to understand this visible VVorld, because of the turnings and changes of all things in it. It is usual with the Spirit of God to resemble the World to things that are in their nature most mutable. Sometimes it is resembled to the Moon, which is never found long in the same figure; sometimes increasing, sometimes full, then decreasing, and then increasing again; such is this World, and there­fore fitly resembled to the Moon; as in Rev. 12. 1. I saw a woman clothed with the Sun, and the Moon un­der her feet. By the Woman here is meant the True Church of Christ, fitly stiled a Woman, which is the weaker Sex; to shew the weak and low con­dition of the Church in her present State. A Wo­man, because she is the Spouse of Christ. A Wo­man, in opposition to the Apostate Church of Rome, called the great Whore, and Mother of Harlots. Rev. 17. 1, 5.

This Woman is described by two Characters.

1. She is said to be clothed with the Sun, that is, Jesus Christ, who is called the Sun of righteousness. Mal. 4. 2. Believers (of whom the Church consists) are said to have put on Christ. She is found in Christ, and Gal. 3. 27. is covered with the Robe of his righteousness, and so is clothed with the Sun.

2. She is said to have the Moon under her feet, be­cause where the power of Grace takes effectual hold of the Heart, it works up the affections to Heavenly and Eternal Objects, and by this means all the things of this World (the [...]) Col. 3. 2. are dis-esteemed and set light by, and this is having the Moon under her feet.

Sometimes the World is resembled to the Sea; Dan. 7. 2. I saw in my Vision by night, and behold the four winds of Heaven strove upon the great Sea. The Sea here is to be taken Allegorically, for the inha­bited World; for as the Sea is made up of a col­lection of Waters, so is the World of a multitude of People and Nations; and so the Holy Ghost interprets it. In Rev. 13. 1. John says he saw a Beast rise up out of the Sea. Now says the Holy Ghost, Rev. 17. 15. The Waters which thou sawest,—are Peoples, and Multitudes, and Nations, and Tongues; and thus this Jamma rabba, this great Sea [...] [Page 20] here is to be understood. The World is this Sea, so called from the unstableness of it, ever unquiet and full of commotions; in a perpetual Flux, it is always ebbing and flowing; there is an unquiet principle in its self, never at a stay, therefore com­pared to the Sea. Here in the Text it is resem­bled by Wheels, and very fitly; for,

1. The Wheel is a thing fitted for motion, it is instrumentum volubile. From its figure it is apt to turn and move any way; that Spoke that is now lowermost, is anon highest, and that which is got to the top, soon comes to the bottom again; just Greenhil on Ezek. 1. 16. Carter on Ezek. 10. 13. such is the condition of this World, it runs conti­nually upon Wheels; here is no such matter as a fixed, permanent state of things. Ask the Spheres above, and they'l tell you the same, and the Pla­nets, and they will instruct you; they wheel about day by day. If the Sun comes forth in the Morn­ing like a Giant to run his race, yet he goes to Bed a­gain at night. If the Moon be new at present, in a few days she grows old, and ever changing. But what need we go to the Heavens to learn this, when there is nothing below but shews it? The Earth, if it doth not run round it self, (which some affirm) yet every thing upon the Stage of it doth. What are the Kingdoms and Empires of the World, [Page 21] but so many Wheels turning up and down? Those four great Monarchies, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman, where are they? What is become of them? how did they wheel from one to another, and at last wheeled out of being. So it is with Cities, what is become of Sodom, and the Cities of the Plain? Nay, what is become of Je­rusalem? She that was once the beauty of the whole Earth, and yet now laid waste, and not one Stone left upon another. How many of you have seen this City in its beauty, and in its ashes all in less than one Week, I pray God you may never see such another sight; but I will tell you this, who­ever are run away, the burners of your City are behind still, so long as your Lusts remain unre­pented of, and unmortified. Nay the Church, which hath a firmer Foundation than Heaven and Earth, yet she is a Wheel too: Volvitur, revolvitur, wheeled to and again; hurryed here and there, never long in any condition; sometimes prospe­rous, sometimes persecuted; God hath set the one a­gainst Eccl. 7. 14. the other. Now she enjoys rest and peace; anon, O thou afflicted, and tost with tempest! One Isa. 54. 11. while she is in Egypt, another while in the Wil­derness; sometimes in Canaan, and sometimes in Babylon. Thus it was with the old Church; and [Page 22] the Lot of the Church under the Gospel is the same. Under the Ten bloudy Persecutions she had no rest; under Constantine she injoyed Halcyon days, but they were but few. At the opening of the seventh Seal there was silence in Heaven, (i. e. peace in the Church) but it was but about the space of half an hour; and Rev. 8. 1. then the Arrian Heresie brake out, and all her peace was buryed in that Grave. Then arises the Beast with seven Heads, and ten Horns, and power was given Rev. 13. 1. v. 5. him to continue forty two months, all which time it was given him to make war with the Saints, I, and to over­come them too. So that all that time the Church is v. 7. in the Wilderness, and the Witnesses Prophesie in Rev. 12. 6. Rev. 11. 3. Sackcloth; nor is there an end of their Sufferings but after this they are killed; and lye dead three v. 7. v. 9. v. 11. days and an half, and then the Spirit of Life enters, and they rise again. This Ark must be tost up­on the waters, without any hope of finding a safe harbour till Christ comes, and the Kingdoms of this World become the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ. It is the same with particular Rev. 11. 15. Persons and Families; how doth the Wheel turn there? Solomon tells you, one Generation passes away, and another comes, but he tells you of none that stays. Eccl. 1. 4. And speaking of time, he tells you, There is a time to be born, and a time to die; he tells you of no time Eccl. 3. 2. [Page 23] to live, as if that were not worth the naming. Mans exit is so near to his entrance, that what comes be­tween is inconsiderable. He fleeth as a shadow, and Job 14. 2. continues not. His Birth is a change, his Death is a change, and so is his whole Life; there are changes in his Health, well to day, sick to morrow. Changes in his Heighth and Honour; now on the top of the Wheel, anon at the bottom. You have an in­stance of this in Haman; how high is he advanced? to be the second Man at Court, as if he were Lord Chancellor, and anon carried from the Court to the Gibbet. How high was Adonibezek when he had Seventy Kings eating scraps like Dogs under his Table? but the Wheel turns, and he is in the like condition; for says he, As I have done, so Judg. 1. 7. 7. God hath requited me. It is so with Estates; what an instance have we in Job? rich beyond reckoning to day, and to morrow poor to a Proverb. Fa­mous is the Story of Belisarius, that great General, who after great Victories, and extraordinary Ser­vices for his Country, had at last his Eyes put out, all his Estate taken away, and he forced to beg his Bread at the Gates of Rome, with, Da obulum Belisa­rio, quem extulit virtus, caecavit invidia; Give one half-penny to Belisarius, whom his own Virtue once advanced, and others Envy hath now blinded. O [Page 24] how mutable and unstable is this World! why then should the strong man glory in his strength, which the next Disease may dry up like a potsherd? Psal. 22. 15. And why should the rich man glory in his riches, which take themselves wings, and flee a­way as an Eagle towards Heaven? And why should the great ones of the Earth glory in their Honour? when as man in honour abides not, he is like the Beasts that perish, Psal. 49. 12.

2. VVheels make a great noise, their motion is obstreperous; so the Prophet describes them, Nah. 3. 2. The noise of the ratling of the wheels, and of the Joel 2. 5. 2 King. 7. 6. jumping Chariots. So it is in the motions and com­motions of the World, they are not without great noise. Great Wars make a great noise; therefore you read of the noise of the Trumpet, and the noise of War, Exod. 32. 17. Every Battel of the Warriour is with confused noise, Isa. 9. 5. Great sorrows and great rejoicings make a great noise. In Ezra 3. 13. you read of the noise of joy, and the noise of weeping. Great changes in Government make a great noise. Jer. 49. 21. The Earth is moved at the noise of their fall. When God is about to pull down his Ene­mies, and redeem his People, it is with great noise. Ezek. 37. 7. As I prophesied there was a noise, and be­hold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his [Page 25] bone. So in Rev. 6. 1, 2. when the first Seal was opened, and Christ rides upon his red Horse, Con­quering, and to Conquer, it is said, There was a noise as of thunder; and when the Lord Christ shall Judge the great VVhore, and avenge the Blood of his Saints, and bring in the new Heavens and the new Earth, it will make a great noise; a great noise 2 Pet. 3. 10. of mourning among her Abettors. The Kings of the Earth who committed Fornication with her, and the Merchants of the Earth (the Ecclesiastical Traders with Rome for Pardons, Indulgences, Dispensati­ons, &c.) they shall bewail her, and lament for her, saying, Alas, alas, that great City Babylon, Rev. 18. 9, 10, 11. And the noise of joy shall be as great on the other side; therefore it is said, Rev. 19. 1. I heard a great voice of much people in Heaven, saying, Allelujah, Salvation and Glory, and Honour, and Power to the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his Judg­ments, v. 2. for he hath Judged the great Whore. And v. 6. I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thun­derings, saying, Allelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent Reigns. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to him, for the Marriage of the Lamb is come. Here is the noise of the VVheels.

3. The VVheel is an Instrument of great varie­ty [Page 26] of services; it is many ways useful. The Cha­riot Greenhil on Ezek. 1. 15. p. 133. is drawn upon wheels; great burdens are car­ried upon the wheel; the Earth is plowed by the use of the wheel; the Corn of old was threshed and ground by the help of the wheels. Justice is Isa. 28. 28. executed by the service of the wheel. So says the wise man, Prov. 20. 26. A wise King scatters the wicked, and brings the wheel over them: it notes the punishing of evil doers.

Now from these things it will not be difficult for you to apprehend what is meant by the wheels in this Vision; viz. all created Beings in this lower world; and all instruments which God makes use of in the government of it; all the Elements, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air; they are so many wheels. but we are to understand them chiefly of Rational Agents; Kings and Princes, Magistrates and Mini­sters, Armies and Navies, Rich and Poor, Learned and Unlearned: Whoever God makes use of to serve the designs of his wise and holy Providence, is a wheel intended in the Text. Thus much for the nature of the wheels, which is the first thing to be opened.

2. As to what is ascribed to them; this will need opening as much as the former. Now con­cerning these Wheels there are several things a­scribed [Page 27] to them that are of very great moment. As,

1. It is said the VVheels are full of Eyes, chap. 10. 12. The wheels were full of Eyes round about. This implieth,

1. The Omniscience of Christ, and his exact notice of all matters in the VVorld; though ma­ny things may be hid from us, yet there is nothing hid from him. Men may dig deep to hide their counsels from the Lord, and say, Who seeth us? but there is no Isa. 29. 19. darkness, nor shadow of death where the workers of iniqui­ty may hide themselves; for his Eyes are upon the ways of Job 34. 21, 22. man, and he sees all his goings. If we could suppose any thing done by man, that is unknown to God, why then, in that particular thing the knowledge of man would be superior to God; he would know something more than God knows, which is impossible; for the Eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, Prov. 15. 3. There is 2 Chron. 16. 9. not the closest corner, nor the darkest deep; not the most covered contrivances, nor the most hidden project, nor the most secret wickedness, but it is open to the Eye of God, for all things are naked and open to the Eyes of him, with whom we have to do. There Heb. 4. 13. are areana imperii, secrets of Government, secrets of State, secrets of the Heart, secret contrivances, secret aims and intentions; but none of them are [Page 28] secrets to God. As nothing can be hard to an Omnipotent Arm, so nothing can be hid from an Omniscient Eye. God cannot but know all the Essences, Qualities, Inclinations and Activities of the Creature, since all those several Principles and Qualities were wrought in them by him. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Acts 15. 18. Thus the VVheels are full of Eyes.

2. This sets out the care of Christ; the things of the VVorld are not carryed on caeco impetu, by a blind force; all Events are wisely disposed of by the governing care of Providence, which hath a special influence in the managing of all. Things may seem to us to run upon VVheels, (as men speak) to go at random, or to fall out by chance, but there is no such thing as chance to that God that fore-sees, and orders all Events. If things were done by chance, there could be no predicti­ons of future Events, which the Scriptures infalli­bly fore-tell, and many of which we have seen fulfilled accordingly. All things are carried on by Counsel. He worketh all things according to the counsel Eph. 1. 11. of his own will. Those motions and commotions in the VVorld that to us seem most irregular and confused, are all ordered by God. VVhen the rich are made poor, and the honourable brought [Page 29] into contempt; when Servants ride on Horse­back, and Princes go on foot; when one is pul­led down, and another set up: All things are di­rected by an infinite wisdom, the wheels are full of Eyes round about.

2. These VVheels are said to go upon their four sides, v. 11. of this 10. chap. I told you before that the four Wheels answer to the four parts of the World, Ezek. 1. 17. and when it is said they went on the four sides, the meaning is, that look what quarter of the VVorld was appointed to them, thither they went, and there they moved. And then it shews their motion was constant and setled, answering to the immutable purpose of him with whom there is no shadow of change. God is not as man, who is Jam. 1. 17. fickle and inconstant, and doth not know his own mind, turning from one side to another; now for this, anon for that; to day for pulling down, what yesterday he set up; such mutable things we are, actions change, affections change, and principles change too, but it is not so with God, there is no altering the course of Providence; no art, no power, no policy, can turn him out of the way, his Providence is setled in its motion. The VVheels go upon their four sides. And therefore to confirm this, it is said,

[Page 30] 3. There is no going back; so in verse 11. They turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it, they turned not as they went. The Expression is doubled (like Pharaoh's Dream) for the greater confirmation of the truth, that we may be sure there are no retrograde motions in the course of Providence. How can there, seeing the wheels are full of Eyes round about? He to whom all future Events are in present view, can see no cause to repent. VVe say (in decretis sapientum nulla li­tura) there are no rasures in a wise mans purposes, because they are the results of wisdom and fore­thought. There can be no blots in the Copy of Providence, because it is written by the straight line of his unerring Counsel. Men may say this and that, and then eat their words; write, and blot out again; do, and repent of doing before it is done; undertake a march, and end it in a shame­ful retreat; thus with man back again is the better way. His purposes are not established, but the purposes of God are; therefore you read of the four Chariots (the same to which these VVheels belong) coming out from between the Mountains of Brass, Zech. 6. 1. To shew that all the Occurrences of Providence, are the Result of his immutable De­crees. And therefore when the VVheels go, there [Page 31] can be no returning, God is not as man, that he should repent. If Pharaoh will vex the people of God, and will be so fool-hardy as to follow them into the Sea, let him never look to return again, till the Sea gives up her dead. The VVheels returned not when they went to fulfil the will of God. There is no yea and nay with God; as his Promises are all yea and Amen in Christ, so are his Providences. If God go forth against a Person, or against a Nati­on, or People, none can stand in his way to turn him back; Isa. 43. 13. I will work, and who shall let it? the Hebrew is, Umi jeshibenah, Who shall turn it back? [...] If God will pull down, who can support? If God will take away, (be it Honours, or Crowns, or Kingdoms, or Life it self) who can hinder him? If he will take away the Candlesticks, and Un­church a people, who can turn him back? Can power? No; let the Instruments God uses be ne­ver so weak, yet no strength can resist them. Wound­ed men shall rise up, and take the City. He chooses the Jer. 37. 10. weak things of the world, to confound the things that are 1 Cor. 1. 27. mighty. Can policy turn him back? No; Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought, Isa. 8. 10. The Syrian and Ephraim, may conspire against Ju­dah, and resolve to set up the Son of Tabeal over Isa. 7. 6, 7. them, but it shall not stand. As no Counsel a­gainst [Page 32] us shall stand, if God be for us; so no Coun­sel for us can prosper if God be against us. Can Prayer turn him back? No; though this is of mighty power with God; it hath done, and can do great things; yet when God hath purposed, and is in the execution of his purposes, when he is resolved to take away, be it Prince or People, be it the peace of a Nation, or a Church, Prayer it self can't hinder him. That is an awakening word in Jer. 14. 1. Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of my sight. Such as are for death to death, and such Jer. 14. 1, 2. as are for the Sword to the Sword, and such as are for Captivity to Captivity. Therefore as Solomon says, Con­sider the work of God; for who can make that straight, which Eccl. 7. 13. he hath made crooked? Who can correct Gods works? Who can alter his measures? Who can save, if he will destroy? Therefore how vain is it for men to disquiet and fret themselves with the turns of times, and the changes that are in the World; it is not only sinful, but fruitless; for the wise God ma­nages all things. If they be good, he effects them; if they be bad, he permits them; but whether they are good or bad, he orders and over-rules them, so that the Wheels go right on; They turned not as they went.

[Page 33] 4. The VVheels are said to be lifted up from the Earth, and to be high and dreadful, chap. 1. 18, 19. This is to teach us, that Gods VVisdom is infinite and unsearchable, and his Providences full of My­stery. Sometimes they move in an ordinary way, then the VVheels move upon the Earth. Sometimes God goes out of the usual Road, and acts in ex­traordinary ways, and in unaccountable methods that Reason can't reach, nor the short Line of hu­mane VVisdom fathom; then the VVheels are said to be high, and lifted up from the Earth. Who can trace God in his motions, whose ways are far a­bove out of our sight? Clouds and darkness are round Psal. 97. 2. about him. As Christ is said to come in the Clouds at his appearance at last, so he doth in his Provi­dences at present. The Clouds are the dust of his feet, Nah. 1. 3. and this dust many times flies in our Eyes, and then we discern him least, when yet he is nearest. How little could Joseph see what God was doing when he was in the Pit at Dothan, less in the Dungeon in Egypt, when he is laid in Chains for a reward of his Chastity? He little thought this was a likely way, and yet it was, to fulfil his Dream, in bringing the Sun and Moon, and seven Stars to make obeisance to him. Little did Jonah think, when he ran away from God, that the Bell [...] [Page 34] the Whale should put him in his right way again. O how high are the Wheels above the Earth! nay sometimes they are so high that they are dreadful, v. 18. They were so to Jeremy, chap. 12. 1. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? They were so to Job, chap. 19. 7. Behold I cry out of wrong, but am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. He hath kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me as one of his Enemies, v. 11. They were so to Heman, Psal. 88. 14, 15. Lord, why dost thou cast off my Soul? why dost thou hide thy face from me? I am afflicted, and ready to die from my youth up; while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. The Wheels were so high that they were dreadful, they could not take the height of them with all their skill and reasonings. When God shall give Esau Mount Seir to possess it, but send Josh. 24. 4. Jacob and his Children down into Egypt. When you see the Crown upon the Head of Babylon, and at the same time the My [...]tle-trees in the bottom. When Zech. 1. 8. the Church is in trouble, and all the Earth sits still, v. 11. and is at rest. When you see Christian Kingdoms broken with Wars and Tumults, and Heathen Na­tions in peace and quiet. When you see the Lord making the Mountains to tremble, cutting off the Spirit of Princes, pulling up Kingdoms by the [Page 35] Roots, sure then the height of the Wheels must needs make them dreadful. O how dark are the Dispensations of God, or how dark are we in the Mystery of them! If Solomon knew not the way of an Eagle in the Air, nor of a Serpent upon a Rock, nor of Prov. 30. 19. a Ship in the Sea, nor of a Man with a Maid, how can we know the motions of the Wheels, when they are so high, and lifted up from the Earth? His Providences are ever righteous, but sometimes ve­ry mysterious. His ways are always right, but often above our reason. Very Just, but very Se­cret. For we know but in part. In Isa. 6. 1. we 1 Cor. 13. 9. read of the Lord sitting upon a Throne, and it is said, he was high and lifted up, and his Train filled the Temple. Here is nothing in sight but his Train or Skirts, the lowest part of the Covering, nothing of the upper Ornaments; and what doth this import, but that our views of God are after a poor, low and im­perfect manner, in comparison of what he is?

5. There is a Wheel in the midst of a Wheel, chap. 1. 16. and v. 10. of this chap. Their appear­ance, and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. This implies a transverse motion, like the Circles in a Globe, that cut and cross each o­ther. It is to shew us how cross and contrary the motions of Providence are to our apprehensions [Page 36] and designs. He brings about his purposes by con­trary means. We set the Wheel a going to bring about such a design, and the VVheel in the midst of the Wheel that brings about another.

Haman lays a Plot against the Jews, to cut off all the people of God in one day; and the King himself was in the Plot too; Letters were written, the thing agreed on, the day fixed, the Letters Sealed with the Kings Seal, Posts hasten'd into all the Provinces; and what were the Instructions given? (see Esther 3. 13.) To kill and destroy all the Jews, both young and old, little Children and Women, in one day, even the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. But do but read, chap. 9. 1. Now in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the Kings commandment drew near to be put in Execution. The Wheel seems to run very smoothly; but mark the next words, it was turned to the contrary; and in the day that the Enemy thought to have power over the Jews, that the Jews had power over them that hated them. Here's a Wheel in the midst of a Wheel. So it was with Haman himself; he prepares a Gallows Fifty Cu­bits Esth. 5. 14. high for Mordecai, and the same hour that Ha­man comes to Court to have a Warrant Signed for chap. 6. 4. his Execution, Mordecai is advanced into the Kings [Page 37] Favour in the place of Haman, and Haman is sent to the Gallows instead of Mordecai. How indu­strious chap. 7. 10. is Saul to settle the Succession to the Crown upon his own Son, and that very means doth God make use of to settle it upon David, 1 Chron. 12. 23. These were the number of the bands that were ready armed for the War, and they came to David to He­bron, to turn the Kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the Lord. So it was with Adonijah, 1 King. 2. 13. Thou knowest that the Kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign; howbeit the Kingdom is turned about, and is become my Brothers, (it was the Wheel within the Wheel that turned it, so say the next words,) for it was from the Lord. Who can understand the intricacies of Providence? He doth great things past finding out, Job 9. 10. Man cannot find out the work of God from the beginning to the end, Eccles. 3. 11. Gods matters are many times very obscure. There are treasures of wisdom, Col. 2. 3. and they are called so, not only for their preciousness, but for their private­ness too; secrets of wisdom, which are double to that which is, Job 11. 6. You see the hand without, but you see not the Spring that is within. The living Creatures had hands under their wings, Ezek. 1. 8. they work effectually, they have hand; but [Page 38] very secretly, their hands are under their wings. What a strange wheeling about was that, when Ten Tribes at once deserted Rehoboam their Lawful Prince, and fell to Jeroboam? was not this Rebel­lion, and Treason? it would appear so while the Eye is upon the Wheel without; but pray mind the Wheel that is within the Wheel. 1 King. 11. 31. I will rend the Kingdom out of Solomon's hand, and I will give Ten Tribes to thee. The work­ing of this inward Wheel is seen many ways. VVhen God shall make such impressions upon the Spirits of Men, as shall have their Effect in their utter ruin; is not this from the Wheel within? One of the Midianites Souldiers dream'd a Dream, that a Barley-cake tumbled, and smote one of their Tents and beat it down, Judg. 7. 13. His Fel­low Judg. 7. 13. interprets this Dream to be the Sword of Gi­deon prevailing over Midian, v. 14. And what a strange impression doth this make? in the terror of which the whole Host ran and cry'd, and fled; and v. 21. every man's Sword was against his Fellow. Again, v. 22. when the Spirits of the same Persons shall be turn­ed contrary ways in one and the same design, that they shall be like the Tide, now running in, and anon running out again as fast; is not this from the Wheel within? At one time the men of She­chem [Page 39] make Abimelech King. Well, and don't they Judg. 9. 6. stick to him now? especially being their bone and v. 2. their flesh. No, for he had not reigned above three v. 23. years, but the same hands that Crowned him, sought to Depose him. It should seem he was a cruel v. 23. man, and had a hand in his Brethrens Blood, to v. 5. make his own way to the Throne; and therefore the righteous God would not suffer him to injoy it long; that the wickedness of his Brothers Blood v. 56. might be rendered to him. Here is a Wheel with­in, guiding the Wheel without; God carries on his designs by intricate motions.

6. The Wheels are sometimes at a stop, they stand still. So you read, v. 18. of this 10. chap. When the Cherubims stood, the Wheels stood. This sometimes is really so. God suspends the ordina­ry operation of the Creatures. The Lions mouths are shut so long as Daniel is in the Den. The Fire Dan. 6. 22. hath no power upon the three Martyrs. God can Dan. 3. 25. stop the motions of all second causes as he pleases. The Sun stands still upon Gibeon, and the Moon in Josh. 10, 12, 13. the Valley of Ajalon, if God will have it so. The Sea divides, and the Waters stand as a Wall to Fence out a passage for Israel. God can put a stand to the greatest Wheels. When Rehoboam had lost the Ten Tribes, he raises a great Army of an hundred [Page 40] and eighty thousand picked men, to fetch back the 1 King. 12. 21. Kingdom to him again from Jeroboam; for you must know that the people being grievously op­pressed and inslaved, and their Rights and Privi­ledges taken from them, they send for Jeroboam out of a Forreign Country to come and help them to recover their Rights from their new Kings Usur­pation; and he having stuck faithfully to them, Ten Tribes of Twelve chuse him for their King, and this great Army is raised to fetch back the Kingdom again. Now see what a stand God puts to that Army, v. 24. Thus saith the Lord, ye v. 24. shall not fight against your Brethren, return every man to his habitation. Thus God puts a stop to that Wheel; and have our Eyes seen nothing of this? How have the Priests and Jesuits been of late con­triving to root out the Religion and Worship of Christ in this Nation, one while by secret Plots, another while by an insnaring Liberty, and what a merciful stop hath God put to them? And as the Wheels do sometimes really stand, so some­times though they do not stand, yet to us they seem as if they did, and this is from a Sentence of death that God usually puts upon a Mercy, before it is accomplished. Abraham begs a Son, God promises he shall have his desire; but Abraham [Page 41] waits and hopes, and yet no Son, till his Body was now dead, and Sarah past Child-bearing; for it ceased to be with her after the manner of women. How Gen. 18. 11 do the Wheels seem to be at a stand? Israel in E­gypt cries for deliverance, God promises the thing, and sends Moses to effect it; but instead of being delivered, their Bondage is increased, and their Exod. 8. Task doubled. The Wheels seem to stand. So when in Babylon, the Church cries for a redempti­on, God promises to redeem them, but first they must be as dead and dry Bones, and past hope. Behold they say, Our bones are dryed, our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts, Ezek. 37. 11. O what a stand is here! Can these dry bones live? Ezek. 37. 3.

7. The Wheels are said to have all one likeness, chap. 1. 16. and chap. 10. 10. They four had one like­ness. Likeness in colour and appearance. Their appearance was like the colour of a Beryl, chap. 1. 16. Likeness in scituation, none higher than other: Likeness in dimension, none greater or lesser than other. There was no manner of difference, the four had one likeness. This teacheth us that there are the same dispensations of Providence in all times, and all places, alike Changes and Vicissi­tudes every where. All things come alike to all, Eccles. 9. 2. The thing that hath been, is that which [Page 42] shall be, and that which is done, is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the Sun, Eccles. 1. 9. All times have their turns, and all places their changes, as well one as another. Are men of low degree vanity, and men of high degree a lie? so they Psal. 62. 9. were always. Are there wicked Rulers, wicked Magistrates and Judges? it was the same in Ages past. I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the Holy, Eccles. 8. 10. i. e. the Seat of Judgment, called the place of the Holy, because God is in a special manner present there. He judges among the Gods, Psal. 82. 1. Do ye see the violent perverting of Justice and Judgment? it was so of old, Eccles. 5. 8. and it is so in all places. That which befalls one Nation befalls another; in all parts of the World the Wheels are the same, they four had one likeness; alike in design, all move to accomplish the purposes of God; alike in end, all move to promote the glory of God.

8. The VVheels are upon the Earth, Ezek. 1. 15. As I beheld the living Creatures, behold one wheel upon the Earth by the living Creatures. He mentions but one VVheel, because he that saw one saw all, by reason of their likeness, for they were all as one. But how could the VVheel be seen on the Earth, when the Prophet saw the Vision in Heaven?

[Page 43] 1. As the VVheels were not Material Wheels, but Visional; so this Earth was not the Material Earth, but Earth in a Vision; and so it was not the Earth beneath, but an Earth above. The wheel was upon the Earth, but that Earth was in Heaven. So that this Earth was in representation only, as it is in Land-skips, where you have things in repre­sentation, but not in reality. There are Rivers, and Earth, and Trees in view, but not in verity.

2. The Wheels are said to be seen on the Earth, and not in Heaven, to intimate to us the difference between this State and that. This is a State of changes, but that State is unchangeable; the Wheels are on Earth, there are none in Heaven. As there are no changes in God, I am the Lord, I change not, Mal. 3. 6. So there are no changes in the glory that results from his presence. All things in that State are durable and permanent. The things of the other world admit of no change, neither in Hell, nor in Heaven. This is the place of changes; which is one difference our Lord Christ puts be­tween treasures on Earth, and treasures in Heaven; those are subject to the moth, the rust, and the thief, but these are not, Mat. 6. 19, 20. And therefore he counselleth us not to lay up treasure on Earth, but lay it up in Heaven, because there are no changes in [Page 44] Heaven; on Earth there are, for the Wheel is seen upon the Earth. In Heaven where all graces are perfect, there all our comforts are constant. But here, where all our duties are mixed with infirmi­ties, no wonder if all our comforts have their al­lays. Our best Wine tasts of the Lees, and yet our Cup is often empty of that too. Our Lord Christ once turned water into wine, but he often turns wine into water in the experience of every Christian. In Heaven our Mercies are both sweet and constant, but here though they are sweet, they are not constant. In Heaven the Sun of righte­ousness shall shine and never be clouded; when it once rises it never sets again, and therefore there is no night there; but here the Sun arises, and makes Rev. 21. 25. day in our Soul; and anon sets in a Cloud, and leaves us in darkness. In Abraham's Vision, there was a smoaking Furnace, as well as a burning Lamp, Gen. 15. 17. In the smoaking Furnace there is a prediction of sore Sufferings, in the burning Lamp there is a prospect of certain Redemption. The darkness of the Smoak pre-figures the captived State of the Church; the Light of the Lamp shews that God would be a Light to them in that darkness, and deliver them out of it. The Furnace is no trou­ble unless it smoak; the Lamp is no comfort unless [Page 45] it be lighted; so that a smoaking Furnace notes great affliction, and a burning Lamp, a great Redemption. It is the wisdom of God to proportion our out­ward condition to our inward disposition, which is mixed and checquer'd. There are two Armies in the Shulamite. The Believer is not all Spirit, there Cant. 6. 13. is some Flesh remaining, some sin to exercise and humble him, some grace to support and comfort him. In Heaven, where there is no sin, there is no trouble; in Hell, where there is no grace, there is no comfort; but here on Earth, where the State of the Saints is a mixture of grace and sin, here their condition is a mixture of comfort and sor­row. The wheels are seen upon the Earth.

9. The Wheels are acted by the living Crea­tures, Ezek. 1. 19. When the living Creatures went, the Wheels went by them, and when the living Creatures were lift up from the Earth, the Wheels were lift up. Verse 21. When they went these went, and when they stood these stood, and when they were lifted up from the Earth, the Wheels were lifted up over against them. And you have it again, chap. 10. 16, 17. When the Cherubims went, the Wheels went by them; and when the Cherubims lifted up their wings, to mount up from the Earth, the Wheels turned not from beside them. When they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves [Page 46] also. The living Creatures in the first Chapter, are the Cherubims in this, and they are the Angels that are intended by both. And that which is the de­sign of the Holy Ghost in these expressions, again and again repeated, is to confirm this truth, that all inferior causes are acted and governed by causes superior. No Creature moves below, without a guide above. When the Cherubims went, the Wheels went. The Angels have a great hand in the Go­vernment of the World; they stand next to the Spirit of God in the Administration of all things here below. There is nothing falls out in the World but the Angels have a hand in it. The Wheels do in all things follow the motions of the Angels. And therefore if we will have any more distinct account of the motions of the Wheels, we must then observe the motions of the Angels. And concerning them, here are three things to be re­marked.

• 1. Their going.
• 2. Their being lifted up.
• 3. Their returning.

1. Their going. It is said they went; and this going of theirs hath two circumstances not to be passed by.

• [Page 47]1. They went straight forward.
• 2. They ran.

1. They went straight forward. Here is go­ing, and going forward, and going straight forward.

They went,] there was no cessation. They went forward,] there was no interruption. They went straight forward,] without diversion. Had they looked back, that had denoted unwillingness. Had they turned aside, that had spoke out frowardness. Had they given over before they had compleated their course, that had argued weariness; therefore they went straight forward. And this carriage of the Angels is instructive in three duties.

1. To be close and diligent in the Lords work. It is the rule God gives us, Eccles. 9. 10. Whatso­ever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. If we would serve the Lord, we must not be slothful in business, but fervent in Spirit. As Elias was, He pray­ed Rom. 12. 11. earnestly; he prayed in Prayer, so the Greek, Jam. 5. 17. [...]. It implies a fervent and ear­nest wrestling of Spirit, which should be in Prayer, and so explains that [...] in the former verse. And it may carry in it two things, either the Symphony of the Heart and Lip, or the ear­nestness of Faith and Hope.

1. It may note the agreement between the [Page 48] Tongue and the Heart; the Heart prayed, and the Tongue-prayed; and that is right praying in Prayer. Or,

2. It may note the earnestness of Faith; and so we render it, He prayed earnestly. Nothing passes for duty with God, if it be not done with intense­ness of mind. If we draw nigh to God with our Lips, and not with our Hearts, we set our selves so much the farther from him, by our drawing Mat. 15. 8. nigh to him. Duty must be done with earnest­ness. You have motives to this both from with­out and within; both from below and from above.

1. From without. How industrious are wick­ed men in the service of sin, making provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof. And shall they take more pains to damn their Souls, than we do to save ours? and make more haste to the place of ven­geance, than we to a Crown of righteousness? It is bad to take pattern by the Sinners wickedness, but it is good to follow the example of his dili­gence. So Aristotle did the early industry of the Smith in his Forge, to rouze him up to the Study of Phy­losophy.

2. You have motives from within. How active is in-dwelling Sin in the Heart? what vigorous Efforts doth it make to set up its Dominion within, [Page 49] to gratifie every Lust, to spoil every Duty, to root out the habits of Grace, to quench all the motions of the Spirit. One while it works by fraud and subtilty, ano­ther while by force and power. Now it is deceiving, a­nother while warring, but it is always lusting. The flesh Gal. 5. [...] lusteth against the spirit; [...]: It is not said, it hath lusted, or it will lust, but it doth lust. It is spoken in the present Tense, to denote the continuedness of its acting. Nothing acts so continually against us as cor­rupt Nature. Satan is not always tempting, the world is not always insnaring, but the Flesh is always resisting the Spirit. And shall the lusts of the Flesh do more to betray us, than the graces of the Spirit shall to preserve us? Shall the Flesh lust against the Spirit, to interrupt the reign of Grace? and shall not the Spirit lust against the Flesh, to destroy the power of Sin?

3. You have motives from beneath. How restless are the Infernal Spirits against your Souls? and should not this awaken us out of our sinful slumbers, and quicken us to Duty? the Apostle proposes it for that end, 1 Pet. 5. 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adver­sary the Devil goes about as a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour. Shall we sleep, when our Enemy never sleeps? Is the Soul worth the Devils industry to de­stroy it? and is it not worth our diligence to secure it? O give diligence to make your calling and election sure. 2 Pet. 1. 1 [...]

4. You have motives from above. The good An­gels [Page 50] of God, O how active are they in all their Mini­strations; therefore called flames of fire, Psal. 104. 4. because of their agility and fervency in fulfilling the commands of God. And Seraphims, because of their burning Zeal in the doing his will; and in this 1st of Ezek. v. 14. it is said, The appearance of the living Creatures was like burning coals of fire, full of Zeal for God. Now we ought to make them our pattern. For when the Che­rubims went, the wheels went by them; and when the Cheru­bims lifted up their wings to mount up from the Earth, the wheels turned not from beside them. Every Christian should be acted with Zeal for God, especially Magistrates [...]l. 4. 18. and men in Authority. The Sword of Justice will not do right Execution, if Zeal be not the edge of it. It was Saul's Sin that he spared Agag, and Samuel's Glory that he hewed him in pieces in his Zeal for God. It is mentioned as Asa his Honour that he removed his Mo­ther from being Queen, because she was an Idolater, and not only abdicated her from the Government, but he brake her Idol in pieces, and burnt it, 2 Chron. 15. 16.

2. Another Duty this carriage of the Angels teaches us, is to mind our way, and have oculum ad metam, our Eye to the mark. They turned not when they went. They looked not this way or that, but straight forward, to accomplish that which was their appointed work. As the Apostle lead, Phil. 3. 14. I press toward the mark. [Page 51] Of all things be sure to mind this, to have an Eye to special Duty, this is going straight forward.

3. This carriage of the Angels instructs us to per­severe in the ways of God, without being weary. The Cherubims went straight forward, and turned not when they chap. 1. went; and shall not the Wheels do so too? Shall we begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh? It is an Egyptian Gal. 3. [...] temper, though found in an Israelite, that is for mak­ing Numb. [...] 4. a Captain, and returning back. No man having put his hand to the Plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom Luke 9. [...] of God. Ye did run Well, who hindred you? Gal. 5. 7. To flag and faint in Gods work is very unangelical, and ought not to be, for the wheels turned not from beside the Cherubims; and their motion was straight forward.

2. There is another circumstance in their motion, and that is the speed of it; they ran, chap. 1. 14. The living Creatures ran—as the appearance of a flash of light­ning, which notes their great speed and swiftness in doing the will of God; and therefore they are described with Wings, Ezek. 1. 6. Every one had four wings. Which are ascribed to them to express the agility of their na­tures, and the swiftness of their motion in the Execu­tion of their Office. In Dan. 9. 21. it is said, Gabriel came flying to him swiftly. No Creature swifter than an Angel. Job makes mention of three things that are ve­ry swift; a Post riding, a Ship sailing, and an Eagle Job 9. 26. hasting to the prey, each swifter than other. But [Page 52] yet there are swifter motions than these; a Bullet shot from a Gun, is much swifter; it flies at the rate of an hundred and eighty miles in an hour; but yet the mo­tion of the Sun is much swifter than that, which moves above a Million of Miles every hour, as some tell us. The Stars move far swifter than the Sun; but the motion of an Angel is swifter than all. O how speedy are the Angels to execute the will of God! The living Creatures ran. And this shews us what our Duty is, viz. To labour that the will of God may be done on Earth by us, as it is done in Heaven by Angels. The wheels must not turn from beside the Cherubims. O how expedite and speedy in the service of God ought we to be! So was David, Psal. 119. 60. I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy Commandments. Hasty purposes are usually clog­ed with slow performances, but it is not so with Da­vid, he is as speedy in his dispatches, as he is hasty in his purposes. Many stand reasoning with God, instead of running, debate the case, when they should obey the call. Not like Zacheus, who no sooner hears the call of Christ, Make haste, and come down; but he made haste, and [...]ke 19. 5, came down, and received him joyfully. So the Apostle Paul, Immediately I conferred not with Flesh and Blood. A ready [...]. 1. 16. obedience is a good proof of the power and virtue of Grace in the Heart, and renders the Duty highly ac­ceptable to God. Pharaoh let Israel go at length, but it was with much ado; he was forced to it in his own [Page 53] defence, and therefore no thanks to him though he did it. It argues a powerful influence of the quickening Spirit, when the Soul is in the ways of God like the Cha­riots Cant. 6. 12 of Amminadab, when its motions are swift and speedy then the wheels keep pace with the Angels, for the living Creatures ran. And that is the first thing notable in the Angels motion, viz. their going.

2. They are lifted up. The living Creatures were lifted up from the Earth, Ezek. 1. 19. and chap. 10. 17. The Expression may be taken either in an active, or a pas­sive Sense.

1. Take it actively, the living Creatures lift up themselves from the Earth, and the wheels lifted up themselves also, and then it imports their looking up to Heaven for direction and assistance. So do the An­gels, and so do the wheels, to teach us that there is no moving right in the work of God, without direction and assistance from God; therefore says David, To thee, O Lord, do I lift up my Soul, Psal. 25. 1. i. e. He looked to God for counsel and support. In all Affairs when our hands are lifted up to work, our Hearts must be lifted Lam. 3. 41. up to God, especially for three things; viz. direction, assistance, and success. Wisdom to guide the under­taking, help to perfect the performance, and success to crown the service.

2. If the Expression be taken in a passive sense; then this lifting up imports a divine power influen­cing [Page 54] the Creatures in a more than ordinary manner, to fit them for some Eminent Service. In Scripture phrase lifting up in work, notes a great power in working, a new strength for some signal Service. It is said of Je­hoshaphat, That his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord, 2 Chron. 17. 6. i. e. He was carried above all dis­couragements and difficulties; and made strong, and valiant for God, and his work. Sometimes the Angels are lifted up, by a greater measure of power from God than ordinary, and then other instruments are lift­ed up suitably, the wheels are lifted up too; for the same Spirit that acts the living Creatures, acts the wheels also. This teaches us that God doth sometimes Spirit second Causes in an unwonted manner, and elevates them a­bove themselves, that they are carried out to act be­yond their own strength and skill. So it was with Da­vid's Worthies; of one of whom it is said, He lifted up his Spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time, 2 Sam. 23. 8. And so it was with David himself; How came he to make such an easy Conquest first over the Lion, and the Bear, and then over that mighty Goli­ath of the Philistines? Why it was not done by his own 1 Sam. 17. 35; 36, 51. strength; no, for it seems he was but young for years, and a light-timber'd man for make, and therefore Saul calls him a stripling, 1 Sam. 17. 56. And what is the stripling to the Philistine? but it was done by him as lifted up of God. This David owns in 1 Sam. 17. 45. [Page 55] Thou comest to me with Sword and Spear, and Shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts. It was Sa­muel's anointing him, that Oiled the wheels for this ser­vice, and lifted him up to do great things, 1 Sam. 16. 13. Samuel took the Horn of Oyl, and anointed him, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day for­ward. Thus the wheels are lifted up.

There is a notable promise, referring to this, in Zech. 12. 8. He that is feeble among them shall be as Da­vid, and the House of David as the Angel of the Lord. The meaning of it is, that when the Lords time to save and deliver his Church comes, he will so raise and Spirit v. 7, 8. men for the work, that they who before were feeble in strength, and feeble in courage, should become like David; as stout of Heart, as expert in War, as ready to take the Lion by the Beard as he, and to look the 1 Sam. 17. 35. greatest Goliath in the Face. And when the feeble shall thus be as David, what shall the House of David be? Why the House of David shall be as the Angel of the Lord. That is, Persons of the Royal Line, who are to be Leaders and Commanders in this work of redeeming the Church, their Courage in Undertaking, and Pru­dence in Conduct, shall be rather like that of Angels, than of ordinary Men. Here is the Spirit of the living Ceeature in the wheels, and this lifts them up. And where­ever it is thus, the work is followed with a sure success, for the Lord doth nothing in vain. Let the Spirit of [Page 56] the Lord but lift up some Zerubbabel to set on foot Temple-work, and nothing shall hinder; what though there be (as there was) a Samaritan Faction at home, and that back'd with a Forreign Confederacy with the Persian Court? (just as if Jesuitical designs among us, had been strengthened with powerful Leagues a­broad, and all to hinder Temple-work, and root out Religion;) If God doth but lift up a wheel, that over­runneth all, and crushes down the very Mountains, though never so great, to the meanness of the Valleys. Who art thou, O great Mountain? Here's a challenge to all Zech. 4. 7. the powers of the Earth, to Sanballat and his Confede­rates then, to all Opposers now. Priests and Jesuits, Popes and Princes, Armies and Navies, Babylon and Sa­tan, what-ever stands in the way of Zerubbabel, (the Lords Servant, ingaged in his work) shall become a plain. If they are all put together, the wheels, when lift­ed up, will crush them. What mighty Victories did he that sate upon the white Horse obtain, without any o­ther weapon than his Bow in his hand? Rev. 6. 2. What great things did the Apostles do in the infancy of the Gospel? Lord even the Devils are subject to us through thy name, Luke 10. 17. Who would have thought that by Hus a Goose, and Luther a Swan, such strange things should be done in Bohemia and Germany? The wheels were lifted up.

3. There is the return of the living Creatures. So [Page] it is said, Ezek. 1. 14. The living creatures ran and return­ed; but this seems to contradict the 9th and 12th verses, for there it is said, They turned not when they went. But this receives an easie solution. They turned not from going and doing the work appointed them; but when that work was done, then they returned. They turned not from executing their Commission, but then they returned to receive new Instructions. They went not back from the work, till they had finished what was begun; and then they returned, both to give an account of their work, and to watch and wait for a new charge. And hence they are called Watchers, Dan. 4. 13. Behold a Watcher, and an holy one, and v. 17. This matter is by the decree of the Watchers. They watch for Gods Orders to execute them for the Churches good; and this teaches us two things.

1. That God will have an account of all the work he hath given us to do. As the Angels return, so do the wheels. Every one of us must give an account of himself to God, Rom. 14. 12. There are none of us but have some­what or other to account to God for. Some have more, some less; some have five Talents, some two, some Mat. 2 [...] but one; but there is some trust committed to all; and no man must think to run, and never to return. The Luke motion of every wheel must be accounted for to God, though they are the greatest wheels on the Earth: Kings and Princes as well as others. Some say they are [Page] not accountable to any on Earth, I am sure they are to the God of Heaven. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the Books were opened,—and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books, ac­cording to their works, Rev. 20. 12. they ran, and returned.

2. We are taught hereby never to be weary of the work God sets us to do: one duty should fit us for another: Let us not be weary of well doing, Gal. 6. 9.

Thus by the Wheels being acted by the Cheru­bims, we learn what a perfect harmony there is a­mong all second Causes in their dependance upon, and subjection to the wise and holy God.

10. Here is another thing ascribed to these Wheels, and that is, the influencing virtue of the same spirit which acted the living creatures, Ezek. 1. v. 20. The spirit of the living creature was in the Wheels.

The Question is, What Spirit is this?

I shall not trouble you with any other sense than that which I take to be the sense of the Holy Ghost; and that is, that by the Spirit here, is meant the Di­vine Spirit, the Eternal Spirit of God: the same Spirit that acts the living creatures, acts the Wheels also; which in chap. 10. 17. is called the Spirit of Life; [...] and this is that Spirit which guided all their motions; therefore it is said, Ezek. 1. 12. Whither the Spirit was to go, they went. There is not an Angel in Heaven, nor a Wheel upon Earth, but are all acted and governed by the same Spirit.

As the Spirit was concerned in the framing of the Wheels; so he is in the motions of them: as he was in the creating of all things; so he is in all their ope­rations: therefore when the black Horses go forth into the North Country, and the white go after them, they are said to have quieted the Spirit, Zech. 6. 6, 8. that is, in having executed his pleasure.

By the North Country, Babylon is intended, which lay Northward from Judea; the black Horses are Mi­nisters of Gods vengeance, sent to execute his wrath upon Babylon; the white Horses are the Ministers of his pity and compassion to his oppressed people, in bring­ing them out of Babylon; and till this is accomplished, the Spirit is not at rest. In Rev. 5. 6. it is said, There stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the Earth. It is the Spirit of Christ which is thus described by seven, (a number of perfection) to set out the variety and perfection of his operations. The se­ven Spirits are said to be sent forth into all the Earth; that is, to manage the affairs of the world with a peculiar respect to the Church. His being sent forth, notes a great trust reposed in him, and a great work commit­ted to him by Christ, with respect to his People in the world; and it is in pursuance of this trust that he acts all the Wheels, and manages matters for the destru­ction of the Enemies of the Church, and their redemp­tion: [Page] therefore it is said, When the Enemy shall come in like a floud, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him, Isa. 59. 19. How should the consideration of this truth stay and quiet our minds under all Turns and Changes! We are apt to fret and murmure at the motions of the Wheels, when they cross our hopes and interests; but if the Spirit of God be in the Wheels, and acts them according to his own pleasure, then all our impatience is groundless and sinful.

Lastly; These Wheels are under the direction of a voice: as there are eyes round about them to guide them in their way, so there is a voice above them to command their motions. As for the Wheels, it was cryed to them, O Wheel! This cry is the voice of him that sits upon the Throne, v. 1. And tho' it be particularly directed to Jerusalem, yet in a more general sense it is intended to the whole World, to all Kingdoms, Cities, Churches, to all People. And that appears from the word the Holy Ghost uses here for the Wheel, different from the word used in other parts of the Vision. For in the first Chapter you have mention of the Wheels ten times, and there it is Ophannim; and you have the fame word used twelve times in this Chapter; but here in the Text it is Haggalgal, this world; and so God [...] [...]rbis. would have the Prophet to understand it; and there­fore it is said, It was cryed to the wheels in my hearing, O World! As if he should say, Would you know [Page 61] what these Wheels are? why they are this World.

Quest. But why is the cry made to one Wheel, when here is mention of more? It was cryed to the Wheels, O Wheel!

Ans. It is to shew us that all inferiour causes, and instruments, are but as one in the hand of the Lord. The Wheels are said to be four (as I hinted before) in answer to the four quarters of the world; four quar­ters, but one World: so four Wheels, and yet all but one Wheel. As for the Wheels, it was cryed in my hearing, O Wheel!

Obj. But if by Wheels, all this world is meant, and all the Instruments in it which God makes use of to serve his ends, then how can these be said to hear when God crys to them?

Sol. Nothing is more frequent in Scripture than to ascribe sense to things without sense, Deut. 32. 1. Give ear, O ye Heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O Earth, the Isa. 34. 1. Hos. 2. 21, 22. Jer. 47. 6, 7. words of my mouth. Isa. 1. 2. Hear, O Heavens, give ear, Earth, for the Lord hath spoken. Mich. 6. 1, 2. Hear ye, Mountains, and Foundations of the Earth. Thus saith the Lord Hos. 10. 8. to the Mountains and to the Hills, to the Rivers, and to the Luk. 23. 30. Valleys, Ezek. 6. 2. Now this speaking of God to the inanimate creatures, and calling them to hear, is very emphatical.

1. It is to set out the great importance and weight of the thing spoken; and the general concernment it is of to be heard and attended to.

2. This way of attributing sense to dumb creatures, [Page 62] is very usual in Scripture, thereby to convince men of their stupidity and insensibleness; and that Stocks and Stones, Hills & Mountains would as soon hear as they.

3. This speaking and crying to dumb creatures and inanimate beings, is to shew how absolutely they are acted by God. When God manages and acts these creatures so as to make them serve his purposes, then he crys to them, O Wheel! do this, do that; move this way, turn that way; and when they do in a way of instrumentality fulfil the will of God, then they are said to move right on, and answer the cry. This cry is the acting them to execute the Law of their Creation: as Infinite Power gave them their being, so Infinite Wisdom ordained their uses and ends; and that is the posture they stand in to this day, Psal. 119. 91. They continue this day according to thine Ordinances, for all are thy Servants. God's Laws are fixed for the government of all creatures; and the cry to the Wheels is only the power of Providence acting them to the execution of the Laws of their Creation. Providence is a Servant to God's Eternal Counsel and Purpose; he works no­thing but what he first decreed, and he brings all his decrees to pass by his works. But tho' all creatures are included in these Wheels, yet rational agents are principally intended, and therefore chiefly to be un­derstood by them; and if so, then to you is this word cryed; and perhaps it is therefore made in the singular [Page 63] number, that every one may look on it as his duty to hearken to the voice of God in the cry. As in giving out the Decalogue, it is so directed that every one may think himself concerned. Every command runs in the second Person, and in the singular number; Thou shalt not do this, and Thou shalt not do that. It is Thou, and Thou, that every one that hears it, may apply it to him­self. So is this cry in the Text, O wheel! It is singularly expressed, that it may be particularly observed by eve­ry one according to the nature of the cry. The expres­sion is broken and imperfect, as such pathetick strains are wont to be, and therefore it concerns us to in­quire the more diligently into it, that we may under­stand what is intended by it. O Wheel! This O! is an Interjection which is of much use among the Affecti­ons; and serves to give vent to the Passions of the Mind. It is a way of expressing what cannot otherwise be expressed. Thus it is sometimes the voice of wish­ing, 2 Sam. 23. 15. Psal. 14. 7. Gen. 17. 18. Deut. 5. 29. Job 6. 8. O that I might have my request! Psal. 119. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes! Some­times it is the voice of joy, Deut. 33. 29. Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord? Sometimes it is the voice of grief, Jer. 9. 1. O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears! 2 Sam. 18. 33. O my Son Absolom, my Son—would God I had dyed for thee, O Absolom, my Son, my Son! Sometimes it is the voice of Love, Psal. 119. 97. O how I love thy [Page 64] Law! Great desires, great joys, great grief, and great love are frequently thus expressed; and so this O! is a servant to the Affections. But here we are to con­sider who it is that speaks; it is the voice of him that sits upon the Throne, the Lord Christ, and we are to attend to it accordingly.

1. It is an O of discipline, by which we are instruct­ed to admire and adore the wonders of Providence. Vox docen­tis. The voice is from the Throne, but it is to direct us at the Foot-stool; therefore it is said, It was cryed in my hear­ing, O wheel! That when Christ says so, we should say so. It is like that in Rev. 22. 17. When the Spirit says, Come, then let him that hears, say, Come. So when Christ says, O wheel! then all that hear must say, O wheel! That is, get and maintain admiring Thoughts of God; a­dore him in his Providences, and cry out with the A­postle, Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judg­ments, and his ways past finding out.

2. It is an O of rebuke; and it is to every particu­lar Wheel, of what degree soever. Are Magistrates Vox repre­bendentis. Wheels? this O Wheel, is cryed to them. Why do ye stand still? Why are ye not in motion? Why have you act­ed no more for God? ye are heirs of restraint, Judg. 18. 7. Why have ye not suppressed wickedness, and brought the Wheel over the Swearer, the Sabbath-breaker, the Drunkard, and the Unclean? &c. Ye are the Shields [Page 65] of the Earth, Psal. 47. 9. Why have ye not defended the poor and fatherless, and rid them out of the hand of the wicked? Psal. 82. 3, Why have ye eat up my people as bread? and suffered the Psal. 14. wicked to devour the man that is more righteous than Hab. 1. 1 he? Why have ye delivered up my people to be killed Psal. 44. 2 all the day long for my sake, and have not redeemed them from ravage and spoil, from the malice and violence of the cruel? By whom do ye rule? are ye not under Christ? is not he King over all the Earth? are ye not Jer. 10. [...] to be governed by him? to govern for him? and to give an account to him? O that the Rulers of the world would consider by whose power they are what they are! Had Pharaoh considered this, he had never belched out such blaspemous language in that haughty Huff, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice, and let Israel go? Exod. 5. 3. Had the Princes of the Earth considered this, they would not have touched his anoint­ed Psal. 105. 15. ones, nor harmed his Prophets, as they have done. They had never made their Subjects their Slaves, nor sacrificed so many lives to feed the flame of their lusts, They had never been guilty of Rebellion against 1 Sam. 1 [...] 25. Heaven, a sin which Princes are as often guilty of a­gainst God, as their Subjects are against them. Did ever Christ (by whom Kings reign) set up any Go­vernment Prov. 8. 15 that should pull down his? Did they ever derive a right from him to invade his rights? or to make Laws to extinguish his? Why should not Kings [Page 66] and Magistrates be wise, and kiss the Son, when as they [...]al. 2. 10, [...], 12. are more bound to be subject to Christ, than their Subjects are to them? For as much as their Authority over men is limited, but God's Authority over them is absolute? Had these things been duly attended to, the flames of Cities had not been so bright, nor the streams of blood so deep, nor the cries of the innocent so loud.

O Wheel! thou hast been irregular and disorderly; surely the spirit of the living creature is not in such Wheels.

Are Ministers Wheels? the cry from the Throne is to You. O Wheel! why do you not take heed to your [...]ol. 4. 17. Ministry to fulfil it? Why do ye not move with more Zeal for God, like the living creatures, that ran as the ap­pearance [...]ech. 1. 14. of a flash of lightning? Why do ye not cry aloud [...]a. 58. 1. against the sins of the times? Why do you not set your selves to promote a right Reformation, beginning first with your own hearts and lives, and then with your houses, and then with the Church of God? ought [...]ant. 1. 6. not the Keepers of the Vineyard to keep their own Vine­yard? [...]om. 2. 21. Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thy self? That watch-man goes about to bad purpose, that se­cures his neighbours door while his own is left open. O that that of the Apostle were written upon all our study doors; Lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I my self should be a cast-away, 1 Cor. 9. 27. If the [...]sa. 22. 1. burden of the Valley of Vision be so great, what will the burden of the Men of Vision be? It is an Amazing word, [Page 67] Isa. 42. 19. Who is blind as he that is perfect, blind as the Lords Servant? Wo to that Land, that Church, whose Seers see not; and we cannot see aright, unless, with the Cherubims in the most holy place, our faces are in­ward. 2 Chron. 13. No man can deal skilfully with anothers heart, who knows nothing of his own. Why do ye take up with Doctrines of Moral Virtue, in opposition to Faith in Christ, and the New Birth, as if these were but re­ligious whimsies? Moral Virtue is of great use in its place, but it cannot make a man a new creature; it whites the Sepulchre, and gives it an outward beauty, Mat. 23. 2 [...] but it doth not remove the death and filth that is with­in; Faith in Christ only can do that. He that hath the Son, hath life, 1 Joh. 5. 12. Fabritius may find a cooler Hell than Catiline, but he that believes not shall be damned, Mark 16. 16. Would God have been at such cost to establish a Law of Faith in the Blood of his Son, if Morality could have conducted us to Heaven? If Righ­teness come by the Law, Christ is dead in vain, Gal. 2. 21. Why do ye not shew men their condition by nature, their lost estate, and the indispensable necessity of a Remedy? that so ye may prepare a people for the Lord, Luke 1. 1 [...] and thereby commend your selves to every mans Conscience in 2 Cor. 4. 2 [...] the sight of God? Why do ye not separate the precious Jer. 15. 19 [...] from the vile? Where is your Testimony for the pure worship of Christ, against the sinful devisings of proud Mat. 15. 9 man? Surely these wheels are heavy, and move dully, [Page 68] or are at a stop; they want oyling, that is, the Spirit of Christ, to direct and quicken their motion.

Are Parents and Masters Wheels? then I hear a cry to you; why do ye not mind the duty of your places? why move ye not more exemplarily in your Families? why is reading the Scriptures, and praying, and sing­ing [...]hn 5. 39. [...]er. 10. 25. [...]ol. 3. 16. the praises of God, no more in use under your roofs? why are not your Children and Servants more [...]rov. 22. 6. [...]en. 18. 19. frequently catechised, and better instructed in the Principles of Religion? why do ye not check and re­strain their shameful Pride, and sinful Excesses? O Wheel! no wonder if things go not right, when the Master-wheel stands still. Every Professor is a Wheel, and the cry is to them; O Wheel! why do you not run above ground? why sink ye so deep into the Earth? why do ye conform to this world, against the express [...]om. 12. 2. Command of Christ? If he is not to be obeyed, why do ye own him? if he is, why do ye dishonour him? Why call ye me Lord, Lord, yet do not the things which I say? Luke 6. 46. Profess to know me, and yet in works deny me, being abomi­nable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate? If Tit. 1. 16. my Commands are not holy, just and good, why do ye Rom. 7. 12. not openly disclaim them? if they are, why do ye not make more conscience to keep them? why are ye so hardened in your Pride, and Lusts, and sinful Excesses, as to hate him that reproves in the Gate? why do ye not relieve and do good to the poor and [Page 69] indigent Servants of Christ, with that which you la­vish upon these filthy Lusts? Why is there so much of the form of godliness, and such a woful denying the 2 Tim. 3. [...] power thereof? Alas! the wheels go not right on; they turn as they go; they are unprofitable, and good for nothing; like Salt that hath lost its savour. Woe to care­less Mat. 5. 1 [...] Professors and carnal Gospellers, for God will not be put off with leaves when he comes looking for Mark 11. 13. Rev. 2. 2 [...] fruit. He will make all the Churches to know, that he search­eth the heart; and therefore, As for these wheels, it is cryed in my hearing, O Wheel! The Lord looks upon thee with abhorrency: The Children of the Kingdom shall be cast into utter darkness, Mat. 8. 12. Of late years the Atheism and Ungodliness of sinners, and the Malice and Rage of Persecutors have been undoing us; but now our danger and hazard is greater from the pro­voking sins of Professors; Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God? 2 Chron. 28. 10. And no sins so provoking to God, as the sins of a pro­fessing People. He abhorred them, because of the provoking of his Sons and Daughters, Deut. 32. 19. No sins bring greater Judgments than these, nor sooner. The fire that must be scattered over the City, must come from between the Cherubims, in the house of the Lord, Ezek. 10. 2. by which we are taught that the sins which do so highly provoke God, are the sins of his own People, corrupt Worship, Lords day Profane­ness, [Page 70] Humane Inventions, Looseness, Pride, Luxury, Uncleanness, and Worldliness; these sound under a profession of Religion, will kindle the fire of God's wrath, and who shall quench it?

Finally; Every man is a Wheel that is to be in con­stant motion for God, according to the place where­in God hath set him; and therefore the cry from the Throne is to all of all sorts, rich and poor, young and old, high and low, male and female; to all, without exception of any. O Wheel! why move ye not? why seek ye not after God? know ye not whence ye are fallen? that ye are by nature in a state of Apostacy from God, and therefore in a miserable, forlorn, and destitute condition, having no hope, and without God in the [...]ph. 2. 12. world? who can express the sadness and misery of such an estate? how wretched, how poor, how blind, how naked, how undone must such a one be?

1. The guilt of all the sins that ever thou didst, are bound upon thy Soul; and what burden so heavy? Solomon says, a Stone is heavy, and Sand is weighty; but how [...]ov. 27. 3. much heavier is the burden of sin than both? Ask the damned in Hell; go to the rich man, and he will tell thee; ask a convinced sinner, and he will tell thee: Go to the Cross of Christ, and that will tell thee what the guilt of sin is. VVho can think of that word with­out trembling, Ye shall die in your sins? Better it were [...]hn 8. 24. to die in a ditch, a jakes, a dungeon, than to die [Page 71] in sin; for it will sink thee into Hell for ever.

2. Satan hath the full dominion of thy Soul; thou art led captive by him at his will. He rules in the heart; 2 Tim. 2. 26. for where sin reigns, Satan reigns; he that obeys his lusts, obeys the Devil; for as Christ reigns by grace, so he reigns by lust; therefore called his lusts, Joh. 8. v. 44. Every man who serves sin, doth really obey, and serve the Devil, tho' he thinks not so. VVhen those Sabaean Robbers plundered from Job his Oxen and Asses, and Judas sold his Master for thirty pieces of Sil­ver, Job 1. 12. 15, 17. Joh. 13. 27. doubtless the design was to feed their own lust, and yet therein they served Satan, and it was he that actuated them in their wickedness. O what a condi­tion hath sin brought thee into! to be subject to the Devil, to be under his guidance and government; to John 8. 4. 2 Cor. 4. [...] have him for a Master, a Father, a God! VVhat a pro­vocation must this be to that God who gave thee thy being at first, and who can in an instant dismiss thee out of being, crush thee to nothing, send thee to Hell in a moment? O what a cursed wretch art thou be­come by sin! what a Sepulchre of corruption! what a receptacle of rottenness is thy Soul! what servants to uncleanness are all thy inward powers! and what in­struments of unrighteousness are all the outward Rom. 6. 1 [...] Members! O VVheel! whither wilt thou run? thou art in the high way to Hell, the broad road to Eternal Mat. 7. 1 destruction; why dost thou not stop and consider? [Page 72] doth not the Word of that God, who cannot lye, tell thee, that the end of these things is death? Rom. 6. 2 [...]. and canst thou endure to perish for ever? art thou hardened for Hell, and become flame-proof? canst thou abide the indignation of that God, whose wrath makes the Earth tremble? Jer. 10. 10. If not, why do ye not bethink your selves, and repent of your wicked­ness, saying, What have I done? why do ye not reflect Jer. 6. 8. seriously upon your lost and undone condition, and cry to God for converting Grace? Do ye not believe the truth of that word which our Lord hath so solemn­ly attested, Verily, verily, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God? John 3. 3. How dare ye then abide in an unconverted state one day lon­ger?

3. It is an O of threatning. And this follows the for­mer Vox minan­tis. where no Repentance intervene's to prevent it. Counsel goes first, but if that be slighted, reproof comes; and if that makes no impression, threatning takes place, then it is O wheel! O Church! O City! O Kingdom! Judgment is near at hand, wrath is coming upon thee. And this seems to be the Sense of it here. Jerusalem had highly provoked the Lord, not only in setting at nought his counsels, but also in de­spising Prov. 1. 25. his reproofs, insomuch that God is wearied with v. 30. her iniquities, and therefore resolves to cast her off, Isa. 43. 24. and depart from her; and accordingly you read, [Page] v. 4. of this 10th chapter, That the glory of the Lord went up from the Cherub, and stood over the threshold of the House; and in this departing posture cries out, O Wheel! q. d. I am now going, and misery is coming; I am at the threshold ready to depart, and Judg­ment is at the door ready to enter.

It is a word of threatning, like that of God to the Prophet, 1 Kings 21. 17. The word of the Lord came to Elijah, and what word it was, the 19th verse shews you. Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? in the place where Dogs licked the Blood of Na­both, shall Dogs lick thy Blood, even thine. It is a word of threatning put into the Prophets mouth against A­hab that Bloody King.

4. It is an O of Lamentation, a Language full of Vox lug [...] sorrow and compassion, and so shews the pity of Christ to a self undoing world and people. O Wheel! What hath Sin brought upon thee? O People, O Na­tion, how deplorable is your case become! how mi­serable are you made by your own Lusts and Wicked­ness! how have you despised the offers of Grace, and the reproofs of the Word to your own undoing. It is like that of Christ to Jerusalem when he wept over it, Luke 19. 41, 42. If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace. The words carry in them an Optative form, [...] for [...], utinam, O that thou hadst known! It is a com­passionate [Page] stile, whereby the Lord Christ pityeth them that have no pity for themselves. He wept over it. Surely their case must be very lamentable that could fetch tears from those blessed Eyes; as the com­passionate Judge bewails the doleful state of a Male­factor, even while he is in justice bound to Sentence and Condemn him.

5. It is an O of Calling, and carries a command in [...]imperan­ [...] it, which is to be understood, though not expressed. O Wheel! repent and turn your selves from your Idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations, Ezek. 14. 6. It is like that of the Lord in Jer. 6. 8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my Soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. This is the sense of the cry of him that sits upon the Throne, and governs the Wheels.

I shall proceed no farther in the opening of this Vision, for that I have already prevented my self in what I did design; which was to have applied it more largely than now I am able; and therefore I shall ap­ply it by pressing such Duties only as the present Sea­son calls for.

And the first is, Admiration and Wonder. O how [...]y 1st. [...] full of Riddle and Mystery are the Providences of God! how few of the designs of his dispensations are fathomable by the longest Line of humane Under­standing; therefore Job cries out, Lo these are parts of [...] [Page] his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him? Job. 26. v. 14. And that of [...]s [...]ph is to the same purpose, Psal. 77. 19. Thy way is in the Sea, thy path in the great waters; thy footsteps are not known. It is as easie to trace a Ship in the waters, as God in his works; and therefore Solomon says, A man cannot find out the work that is done under the Sun.—Yea further, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it, Eccles. 8. 17. When God changes the times and the seasons; when he removes Kings, and sets up Kings, Dan. 2. 21. takes the Crown from one, and sets it upon another, who can give a reason of his doings? If the Clouds are his Chariot, his ways must needs be in the dark: And if he walks upon the wings of the wind, they must needs be se­cret. Psal. 40. Who can see through a Cloud? or trace out the motion of the wind, when he knows no more whence it comes, than he doth whither it goes? Joh. c. 3. v. 8. And therefore where we cannot trace him, let us adore him. When our Line is too short to reach the bottom of his designs, then it becomes us to cry out, O the depth! When his ways are Rom. 33. such as cannot be understood, then the wisdom of them ought to be admired.

Are the Wheels full of Eyes? do they go upon their four sides? and turn not as they go? are they [Page] high and dreadful? is there a VVheel in the middle of a VVheel? do they go straight forward? and move as the Cherubims move? is the Spirit of Life in them? and are they under the guidance of a Voice from the Throne of Glory? what reason then have we to cry out, O VVheel!

How loud hath the Lord at this time cryed, O VVheel! in our hearing, and ought we not to eccho it back again, and cry, O Wheel in his hearing? when he says, O Wheel! by way of Guidance and Or­der, this lays it as a duty upon us to say, O Wheel! by way of wonder; especially when the motion of the Wheels hath been so stupendious, and amazing in our view, when they are lifted up so high above the Earth.

What admirable motions of the Wheels have we seen of late! By what amazing Providences hath God appeared among us, and for us! How strange­ly hath his Omnipotent Arm wheeled things about! You have read of a Nation born at once, Isa. 66. 8. Here is a Nation redeemed at once; so that accord­ing to this time it shall be said of England, What hath mb. 23. God wrought? i. e. it shall be matter of wonder to After-ages; It shall be written for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created, shall praise the Lord, Psal. 102. 18. And therefore, though the bruitish man [Page 77] knoweth not, nor doth a fool understand this, Psal. 92. 6. yet let us say with the Psalmist in the foregoing verse, O Lord, how great are thy works! And this duty will appear highly reasonable,

1. If we do but consider the thing that is done, or the Deliverance it self; the Throne emptyed of Popery; the Nation delivered from Slavery; the People of God in possession of their Liberty; and ought we not to cry, O Wheel!

2. Consider the seasonableness of it; when we were at our Wits end; nay, almost at our Faiths end; when we feared a sudden Invasion upon us, as the Effect of a Treacherous League made against us; and the Establishing an Italian Religion by a new French fashion of Dragooning. When Priests and Jesuits directed the whole Counsels of the Nation; and like that Plague of Frogs, not only came up, and Exod. 8. 6. v. 3. covered the Land, but crept into Pharaoh's Bed-chamber; when they wrote Letters abroad filled with boasts of their Successes at home, and so confidently con­cluded the Day their own, that nothing could pre­vent it; then did God arise and scatter them, by bringing the Wheel over them; therefore we have cause to cry, O Wheel!

3. Consider how this work was done; not by greatness of number, lest it should have been said, [Page 78] Mans Arm had done it, and we should have glorye [...] in flesh. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spi­rit, Zech. 4. 6. Not by any strength opposing, so much as by themselves dividing. The Iron would not mingle with the Clay, the Protestant with the Pa­pist, and so they divided; and their division was our preservation; and shall we not cry, O Wheel!

4. Consider what the mercy cost; the cheapness of the Deliverance, was not the least circumstance of the mercy: Such a Redemption of the Nation, of the Church, of Religion, of the Laws of the Land; what was it worth if a price had been to be put? why the undertaking speaks mens Judgments of the value. It is worth the Lives of Men, the Blood of the Gentry, the Blood of Nobles, yea the Blood of Princes: Nay, if the thing were not worth more, why did they offer so much, which was their All? This was the price that was freely bid; but the mer­ciful God would not take it; not that he refused the tender, but his condescending goodness put it upon lower terms than they bid for it; and why!

1. To put glory upon preventing mercy, which is sometimes so big with it self, that it cannot tarry till things are got ready. Before they call, I will answer, Isa. 65. 24.

2. Where there is a will to the Work, God doth [Page 79] often accept the will for the work, and crowns the will as if it were the work; for he sees all actions as they lie in their Principles. David's heart was to build God an House, and this God takes as kindly, and rewards it as amply, as if it had been done, and God builds his, because he had a heart to build the Lords. It is so in this case; when men freely offer 2 Sam. 7. 11. their Lives and Estates, (as David did his Treasure) for the purchase of a mercy, God accepts the offer, but gives the mercy, and abates the price.

3. Tho' the Deliverance was worth more, yet they, from whose Tyranny we were to be Redeem­ed, were not worth so much: And God will some­times rather abate of the price of a mercy, than put an honour upon an Enemy; as if God should say, I accept the tender of your Blood in my Cause, but the Enemy is not worth it, and therefore I will not take it in kind.

4. God sometimes, in such a case as this, observes the custom of buying and selling: when men buy cheap, they sell cheap. What did it cost the buyer to get possession and power over us? it cost very little: Sin had provoked God, and he gave his people into the hand of their Enemies; and they that hated them, ruled over them, Psal. 106. 41, 42. He gave them, he did not sell them; or if they were sold, it was for nought; there [Page 80] was no price paid. As Christ and Grace are always sold without money, and without price, Isa. 55. 1. so some­times are Christians too. God, to magnifie his love to sinners, always sells Christ without a price; and to manifest his wrath to his people, he sometimes sells them without a price: Their Rock sold them, Deut. 32. 30. And what did the buyer give? little or no­thing. As in the merciful dispensations of God, the greater the love, the freer the mercy; so it is in his wrathful Providences, the greater the anger, the cheaper the purchase. He sells them for nought. It is not thirty years since this was your own case: God was wroth with you, and he set very light by you; sold you for nought. The buyer took possession, and it cost him nothing; not a battel, not a blow, not a drop of blood. And doth not God regard this, think you? you see he doth; for what cost your Delive­rance? not a battel, not one bloody field; no, not so much as a looking one another in the face: cheap sold in much wrath, and as cheap bought when the time of Redemption came; and thus is that word made good, Isa. 52. 3. Ye have been sold for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without price. O Wheel!

5. Consider the subjects of the mercy; a people not fit to be delivered, and yet in danger of being undone and ruined; utterly unworthy of Redemption, [Page 81] and yet upon the very brink of destruction.

1. As to our fitness for such a mercy, never was a people more unfit, nor more unworthy; but it is the way of Divine Goodness to act by Prerogative, and that is the reason of mercy, when no other rea­son can be given. I do not this for your sakes, but for my holy Names sake, Ezek. 36. 22. When God hath a purpose to shew mercy, he never wants a reason in himself, tho' there can be none found in us why he should. The Deliverances he works for his People, are upon the account of the Covenant; and New-Covenant mercy is preventing mercy; it is as a Dew from the Lord, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for Mic. 5. 7. the sons of men.

The greatest Deliverances that we read of in Scrip­ture, have been wrought for the Church when under the greatest unfitness. Never was a People more unmeet to be delivered, than Israel in Egypt was, when God spirited, and sent Moses upon that Errand; no way bettered by the Bondage; the Furnace had not purged away their dross. There need no other at­testation of this, than what God says in Ezek. 16. 4, 5, 6. where you have the forlorn estate of this People in Egyptian Bondage, described by the loathsom and mi­serable condition of a new-born Infant, exposed and cast out in its blood and filthiness; and then it is that [Page 82] God comes in to their succour. When I saw thee polluted in thy own blood, I said unto thee, Live.

Here are three things remarkable to our purpose.

1. Her great unfitness for Deliverance by reason of her sins which were very great, and therefore set out here by her being polluted in her own blood.

2. God takes a particular notice of this her un­fitness and unworthiness: I saw thee polluted in thy own blood.

3. Here is a Deliverance wrought amidst all her unworthiness discovered: I said unto thee, Live; yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live. O Wheel! what adorable mercy is this! a time of blood to be a time of love; a time of guilt to be a time of grace; a time of filthiness to be a time of deliverance; here is mercy, but no worthiness of mercy; redemption, but no fitness to be redeemed; and this makes it wonderful! How unfit were the Jews to be deli­vered, when God brought them out of Babylon? A People in sufferings, who neither repent of the sins that brought them in; nor have Faith in God to bring them out, are very unmeet for Deliverance. There must be Repentance and Faith to fit for this mercy.

1. Fitness for Deliverance supposes Repentance for the sins that procured the Judgment; but there was no Repentance: Sin had digged the graves, and [Page 83] buried them in Babylon, but there was no Repen­tance to help to roll away the Stone, & bail them out. God repented of the Judgment, before they repented of the sin, Ezek. 36. v. 21. and 31. compared.

2. Fitness for Deliverance supposes Faith in the Deliverer; and therefore it is that the Lord Christ did question his Patients about their Faith, before he exerted his miraculous Power in working a Cure. Be­lieve ye (says he to the two blind men begging for sight) that I am able to do this? And when he undertakes Mat. 9. 27 28. the work, he puts the success of it upon their Faith; according to your Faith be it to you: And where he finds v. 29. no Faith, he suspends his Power. Therefore it is said in Matth. 13. 58. (speaking of his own Country) He did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Therefore this can never be a qualification for mercy, for it weakens God's working hand, and so he be­comes as a mighty man that cannot save. And this was Jer. 14. 9 the great sin of this People; tho' God had promised to visit them after seventy years, and bring them out of Babylon, yet they had no Faith in the Promise, but conclude their case desperate. Behold they say, our bones are dried, our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts, Ezek. 37. 11. Here is a Deliverance without Repentance, and without Faith, and therefore a Deliverance with­out a fitness; and this makes it wonderful.

Thus it will be when the Lord comes to deliver his Church and People from their burdens and op­pressions. The Scriptures speak of a time of great sufferings to befal the followers of the Lamb in these last days, by the Beast, and such as shall give their power to the Beast, during the forty two months of his conti­nuance; but there shall be a sure Deliverance; the Lamb shall overcome, the Beast shall be destroyed, and the Church shall have a glorious Rest. But this Deliverance will be before the Church is fit to re­ceive it: This is intimated in that of our Lord, Luke 18. 8. When the Son of man cometh, shall he find Faith on the Earth? the Question carrys in it a strong Nega­tion; that he shall not. It is not spoken of Christ's coming to the Final Judgment, but of his coming to deliver his People from their oppressors; nor is the Faith here spoken of meant of a Faith of Eternal Sal­vation, but of a Faith of present Redemption. The suffer­ings and oppressions of God's People shall be such, and so great; and all means of Deliverance so out of view, that when Christ shall come to work it, there will be very few found in the Faith of it. So it was with Israel in Egypt, when the Lord sends Moses to tell them, He would free them from their burdens, and redeem them with a stretched out Arm, and with great Exod. 6. 6. [...]. 9. Judgments; yet they hearkened not to Moses for anguish of [Page 85] spirit, and for cruel bondage. And was not this our case? heavy burdens, great oppressions; but little Faith; and therefore little fitness for a Redemption. When would Deliverance have come, if God had tar­ried for our fitness? But it is the way of God, when he delivers in mercy, to give a fitness to receive it. Deliverance shall bring a fitness along with it; so is the Promise, (Obad. v. 17.) Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness. And it was so when God delivered his People out of Egypt; the Deliverance brought forgiveness, and life, and many Covenant mercies with it, and so fitted them to re­ceive it. I entred into a Covenant with thee, then washed I thee with water; yea I washed away thy bloods from thee, [...] Ezek. 16. 8, 9. and v. 6. I said unto thee in thy bloods, Live; i: is plural in the Hebrew, and why? to shew a twofold state of blood she was in; one by reason of sin, another by reason of bondage and suffering; and this saying, Live, is a remedy against both. When thou wast in bloody bondage, when there was a bloody Proclamation gone forth that all thy male Children should be destroyed, then I looked upon thee, and said, Live: I brought thee out of that death; and when thou wast in a bloody polluted condition, not only by nature, but by thy actual Idolatries in Egypt; I said, Live. I bestowed the grace of my Covenant upon thee, and brought thee out of that death. It was [Page 86] thus in the Babylonish Captivity: The Holy Ghost compares that bondage to death, and their long con­tinuance in it, to a rotting in the grave. Now when the Lord comes to deliver them, he fits them for the Deliverance, by giving them not only a civil, life, but a spiritual life too: Both which you have in Ezek. 37. plainly diversified one from another. In v. 7, 8. it is said, The bones came together, bone to his bone, but there was no breath in them. Here is the civil life intimated in the coming together of bone to bone: But where is the spiritual life, the breath in them? that you have, v. 14. I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live.

And so it shall be in that last and great Redemp­tion of the Jews (which is near at hand) they shall not only be gathered out of all the Countreys where now they are scattered, and brought into their own Land; zek. 36. 4. but to fit them to receive and improve this mercy: A Conversion shall attend this Restauration; there­fore ye read of their turning to the Lord, as well as re­turning Cor. 3. 16. to their own Land: And ye have them both wrapt up together in one Promise, in Rom. 11. 26. There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. There is Deliverance and Holiness. And thus it shall be when the Lord shall break the Power of Mystery, Babylon, at last, and work [...]ev. 17. 5. out a compleat Redemption for his Church and [Page 87] People. As it shall be a great Deliverance; so it shall be attended with great Holiness: Therefore it is said, Rev. 20. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection. And at the rising of the slain Witnesses (which is this first Resurrection) it is not said only, that they stood upon their feet, by the spirit of life Rev. 11. entring into them; which implies their being in statu quo prits, raised and restored to their former work and station; but it is said further, They ascended up to Hea­ven: v. 12. They arrived at a higher degree of Holiness, and at a more pure and reformed Church state.

You see then that it is the way of God, when ever he works any great Deliverance for his Church and People, to work in them also a fitness for it; and this is a sufficient reason for his delivering and redeeming us in the midst of all our unfitness and unworthiness; and highly magnifies his goodness and mercy; and therefore if ever any had cause, we have, to cry out, O Wheel! for such a Salvation as this. It is a Salvation full of wonders; not a plain work of common Providence, wherein ordinary Causes do produce their wonted Ef­fects; as when the Race is to the swift, and the Battel to the strong; but it is an extraordinary dispensation, a remark­able Master-piece of Divine Wisdom, made up altoge­ther of Mysteries and Wonders. Let me (that I may heighten your admiration, and affect you with thank­ful wonders) instance in a few of many.

[Page 88] 1. For God to save and deliver a people then, and not till then, when they are in the greatest extremity, at the lowest ebb, and seem forsaken of their own hope; this makes a Deliverance wonderful. It is no new thing for God to let things run to an extremity before he works, that his Power may be known in working, Mich. 4. 10. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travel; for now shalt thou go forth out of the City, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there shall the Lord redeem thee from the hand of thine Enemies. There never was any eminent Delive­rance of the Church of God, but it was ushered in by some sore distress: The biggest Children cause the greatest pangs. Before Israel can be setled in the Pro­mised Land, they must pass through the Brick-kills in Egypt, and a Red Sea, and a howling Wilderness, and a swelling Jordan. Isaac must be bound, and the knife at his throat, before the hand is staid, and the Ram in [...]en. 22. 9, [...], 13. the thicket made a Sacrifice in his stead: And hence it passed into a Proverb; In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. The three Children are not delivered till [...]an. 3. 26. they are in the Fiery Furnace. Christ's time to raise Lazarus, is not when he is sick, and dying, tho' then he is sent for; let him be dead and buried, and then [...]ohn 11. 3. Christ comes. He loves to let death pass upon our mercies, that he may be known to be a God that rai­ [...] [...] 11.

And so he hath been in the midst of us. For how desperate was our Case, not only with respect to Rights and Properties, but with respect to Religion and the Worship of God; all things being fitted to let in Popery upon us like a Flood? A Popish King so bigotted, as to resolve the hazarding three King­doms to establish it; Corrupt and Wicked Judges placed in every Court to make way for it; Popish Justices in every Country to countenance it; Priests and Je­suits sent out to disseminate their poisonous Prin­ciples throughout the Nation; and Mass-Houses erected not only in great Towns and Cities, but in the Metropolis of the Kingdom, and such put into them, as should decry the true Religion, for He­resie, and Burlesque and Blaspheme the Bible; and at the same time others must be Tongue-tyed, and not allowed to speak in the Cause, upon Peril of being look'd on as Opposers and Disturbers of the Government. I need not mention the little sort of Tools, sent abroad to hew and square the Cor­porations into a fitness to promote their purposes, by promising to send up such Members only for their Representatives as should take away the Test; that is, should come with Spades and Mattocks to dig down the only bank that was now left to keep Popery out, that so it might break in upon us like a Torrent. Thus subtilly was the Scene laid, and all things fitted to serve their Designs, which were [Page 98] now ready to be set on foot, with this Resolution, That what could not be effected by Policy and Fraud, should be done by Force and Power; and therefore a standing Army is kept up, and made more formidable every day; not only by augment­ing the Troops, but mingling them with Popists, and heading them with Popish Officers, that might be every way fitted for the Expedition. So that things were come to a great extremity with the Protestant interest; though it was not like Lazarus, dead and buried; yet it was like Isaac, laid upon the Altar, and bound with the Knife at the Throat. But God remembred us in our low Estate, for his Mercy indureth for ever; and therefore we have cause to [...]sal. 136. 3. cry, O Wheel!

2. When God so delivers a People, as that their Spiritual Mercies are secured as well as their Tem­poral, then it is a wonderful Deliverance. A De­liverance is not complete, if it be not Spiritual as well as Political. When God works a Deliverance indeed, then he Works both: So he did for Israel of Old; their Deliverance out of Egypt, was not only Political, as of a People in Bondage; but Ec­clesiastical too, as of a Church under Oppression; for you find that the contest between God and the King, was only about Spiritual Concerns, about his Worship. God would have his People serve him in his own way, and according to his own pre­scription; [Page 99] this Pharaoh is against; they shall Wor­ship God, but he will appoint them how and when. Exod. 7 16. God would have Israel to separate from the Egyptians, and Worship apart by themselves; Let my People go, Gen. 8. that they may serve me in the Wilderness. This is God's Law. No, says Pharaoh, go ye and sacrifice to your God in the Land. Here is the Kings Law set up a­gainst Gods, and he thinks he hath as good a right to command as God; so that the controversie is about Worship, who shall give Law to Conscience, and govern in matters of Religion, GOD or the King; and whenever this comes to be the case, then God interposes his Power; for he is in nothing so Jealous as about his Worship, and therefore who­ever opposes himself against God in this matter, is sure to fall in the Controversie: So did Pharaoh, he fell in the quarrel about Religion, he would not allow God's People liberty to Worship in God's way; and when this comes to be contested, God is concerned to vindicate his Right, and so he did upon Pharaoh, to the loss of his Crown and Life, and so it was a compleat Deliverance; Pharaoh and all his Hostdestroyed, Moses and all Israel redeemed, and that not only as a People, but as a Church of God; their Civil Liberty restored, and their Religion and Spi­ritual Liberty secured; and such a Deliverance hath God wrought for us at this Day; it is after the man­ner Isa. 10. of Egypt; Popish Designs deseated, the Nation [Page 100] redeemed, and the Protestant Religion preserved. O Wheel! A wonderful Deliverance.

3. When God raises the Spirits of Men for some particular Service, above themselves in other cases, this is wonderful. How did God raise the Spirit of Moses, for that Service of delivering Israel, above his own Skill and Courage? Who am I, that I should go unto Pharoah, and that I should bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt? Exod. 3. 11. and again, Chap. 4. 10. O my Lord, I am not eloquent. Moses was very sen­sible of, and greatly discouraged at his own unfit­ness; but how wonderfully God raised and spirited him for that Service, the whole story shews. If God calls forth any instrument, he can fit it for his purpose, and give special Assistance for special Ser­vice: So it was with Cyrus, if God single him out to be his Servant in redeeming his People out of Ba­bylon, he will fill him with a mighty Spirit of Cou­rage and Valour for the Work, that nothing shall stand against him. Thus saith the LORD to Cyrus, whose Right-hand I have holden, to subdue Nations before him; and I will loose the Loins of Kings to open before him the two leaved Gates, and the Gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places strait; I will break in pieces the Gates of Brass, and cut in sunder the bars of Iron: For Jacob my Servant's Sake, and Israel mine Elect, I have called thee by Name, Isa. 4 [...]▪ 1, 2, 4. And when the time came, that the House of the [Page 101] Lord was to be rebuilt, and his Worship to be re­stored; you read of God's raising up their Spirits, Ezra 1. 5. Whose Spirit GOD had raised to go up. And if you look into Haggai 1. 14. you shall find a three­fold stirring up of Spirits, which carried on that Work, The LORD stirred up the Spirit of Zerubbabel Governour of Judah, and the Spirit of Joshua the High Priest, and the Spirit of all the remnant of the People, and they came and did Work in the House of the Lord of Hosts, their God. What a mighty stirring up of Spirits is here, the Spirit of the Magistrate, the Spirit of the Minister, and the Spirit of all the People. And how did the Lord stir up their Hearts, by the Ministry of the Prophet, Hag. 1. 1. The powerful Preaching of the Word, is a mighty Engine in carrying on the Work of God. If Babylon's Walls fall, they must be Preached down; 2 Thess. 2. 8. Rev. 11. 5. Rev. 14. 6, 8.) and if ever the Temple of the Lord be built, the Walls must be Preached up. When the Prophets do conscientiously apply themselves to Preaching, then the Rulers and the People fall re­solutely to Building, Ezra 5. 1, 2.

But was it any particular Word that God used, to stir them up by? Yes, the Lord had bid the Pro­phet tell them he was with them; and that did it. Hag. 1. 13. Then spake Haggai in the Lord's Message, to the People, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord; and that Word (set home by the Spirit) stirred them up▪ [Page 102] and when the Spirit of a People are thus stirred up by God, the Work is sure to suceeed in their Hands, and neither Tatnai, nor Shethar-Bosnai, nor the rest of the Conspirators can cause it to cease. This stir­ring Ezra 5. 3. up inclines the Mind, fixes the Resolution, and inspires such a Courage and Zeal as none can resist. How parallel is our case with theirs? A Babylonish Bondage, and a better Man than Cyrus bringing Deliverance, in order (we hope) to the raising the Temple our of its ruines. It is a great Salvation our Eyes have seen. Now let me ask, hath Flesh or Spirit had the greatest hand in it? Hath Man or God been most visible in this Work? The question is easily answered. The Lord hath stirred up the Spirit of Prince and Prophets, and all the People, that all sorts might put to their helping Hand, in a cause wherein the Glory of God, and the common good are so much concerned; and therefore let us say, O Wheel!

4. When God so orders things in his Wise Provi­dence, that the Earth shall help the Woman, this is wonderful. You read in Rev. 12. 15, 16. That the Serpent cast out of his Mouth, Waters as a Flood, after the Woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the Flood; and the Earth helped the Woman, and opened her Mouth, and swallowed up the Flood; this hath been the way of God, in all Ages of the Church. When Pharaoh is designing to destroy Israel, his Daughter [Page 103] nurseth up a Saviour to deliver them. When the Assyrian is inraged against them, Moab must be a covert to them. Let mine out-casts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them, from the Face of the Spoiler. Isa. 16. 4. Thus God makes the Earth help the Wo­man, and he doth it various ways. Sometimes he stirs up Nation against Nation, that his Church may be secured in the quarrel: Cyrus shall come against Babylon, and so the Earth shall help the Woman. Sometimes he suffers the Nimrods of the Earth, to overturn the Laws of a Nation, and invade the Properties and Ci­vil Rights of Men, which grows to a National quar­rel; and then in contesting Civil Rights, Religion hath a sharein the success. It is the great Wisdom & Goodness of God, that our National Rights and Religious Concerns, should be so interwoven one with the other, as that they cannot easily (if at all) be separated; otherwise probably we might have done like wanton Children, lick off the Honey, and then throw away the Bread; but being thus happily twisted together, the contest­ing of one, proves the vindication of both; and so the Earth helps the Woman▪ The Multitude are often in Scripture, called Floods of Water, and the Lord, who sits Psal. 29. 10. King upon the Flood, doth often divide these Waters, to make way for his ransom'd ones, to pass through.

5. When the Concerns of the People of God, lie at the bottom of all the Shakings and Commotions that are in the Nations, and all Civil Affairs are made [Page 104] to subserve the Churches interests; this is wonderful. Though these things are not visible to every Eye, yet whoso is Wise and will observe these things, they shall under­stand Psal. 107. 43. the loving kindness of the Lord. If God hath made Christ to be Head over all things, to the Church, then he Eph. 1. 22. will manage and conduct all the Affairs of the World, so as that they shall serve that interest. If he shakes the Nations, it is to accomplish the promise to his People, of bringing in him, who is the desire of Nations. If he overturns Babylon▪ it is for the sake of Sion. Isa, 43. Hag 2. 7. 14. Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel; for your sake I have sent to Babylon, and brought down all their Nobles, and the Chaldeans whose cry is in the Ships. And so it shall be with Mystical Babylon. It is said Rev. 17. 16. The Kings of the Earth shall hate the Whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her Flesh, and burn her with Fire; and if you would know the reason of this severity, the 6 v. gives it, Because she is drunk with the Blood of the Saints, and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus; so that it is the Day of the Lords Vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversie of Isa. 34. 8. Sion Isa. 34. 8. And this is the reason why our Lord incourages his Disciples, that when they hear of distress of Nations upon the Earth, and Mens Hearts failing them Luke 21. 25, 26, 27, 28. for fear, that then they should lift up their Heads; it is because their Redemption draws nigh.

All the overturnings in the World are subservient to the Churches interest; you read in 1 Sam. 15. 28. [Page 105] that Saul is laid aside, and David (a Man far more worthy) is advanced to the Throne, The Lord hath rent the Kingdom from thee this day, and hath given it to a Neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. Now that which God intended by this great change, was, the setling of Religion, and the good of his People, as you may see in 1 Chron. 13. 2, 3. And David said to all the Con­gregation of Israel, Let us bring again the Ark of our God to us, for we inquired not at it in the Days of Saul. Thus the Concerns of the Church lie at the bottom of all the Turns and Alterations that are in the Nations; the providential Kingdom is made to serve the Spiritual: And shall we not say, O Wheel! I might add,

When God turns evil Purposes to good Events, and makes Men accomplish his Ends, while they are pro­secuting their own Designs: This is wonderful. When Men are made to serve the Will of God's Pro­vidence, even then when they thwart the Will of his Precept: This is Wonderful. When God makes im­pressions upon the Minds of Men to their ruine, and the very means they fix upon for their safety, proves their destruction: This is wonderful. When Provi­dence out-wits the Churches Enemies, in their most politick and subtil Contrivances: This is wonderful. When God saves his People in the greatest unlikeliness of Salvation, as Israel at the Red-Sea; and destroys his Enemies in the greatest improbability of destruction, all things having a contrary Aspect, sufficient means [Page 106] at hand, multiplyed Forces, strong Combinations, twisted interests, like thorns folded together: This is won­derful. Neh. 1. 10. And by all these instances (and many more might be given) it appears that the Salvation which God hath now wrought for us, is full of wonders; there­fore let us admire the Works of the Lord, and cry, O Wheel! how High, how Mysterious, how Wonder­ful are the Motions of it. And let us say of the Church of God in this Nation, as Moses said of that in the Wilderness, Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O People saved by the Lord, the Shield of thy help, and who is the Sword of thy Excellency! And thine Enemies shall be Deut. 33. 29. found Lyers unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their High Places. I have insisted the longer upon this Duty, because it is so seasonable, it being the great Duty which this Day calls us together for. I will be breifer in what follows.

Duty 2. Doth he that sits in the Throne govern the Wheels? is it he that crys to them and commands them? then let us not fear the Churches Enemies, how ma­ny or how great soever they may be, we have seen how easily and how suddenly he that sits upon the Throne, can bring the Wheel over them; and there­fore who art thou that art afraid of a Man that shall die, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker? Isa. 51. 12, 13. To fear Man, is to forget God. If God be for us, who can be against us? Rom. 8. 31. One God is more than all Opposers.

[Page 107] 1. He is more in number, 2 Chron. 32. 7, 8. Be not afraid of the Assyrian, nor of all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with them. How doth that appear? See the next words, with him is an Arm of Flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to fight our battels.

2. He is more in power, For who hath an Arm like Job 40. 9. God? If he will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him, Job 9. 13. And therefore till God wants Wisdom to discover their Designs, skill to de­feat their Counsels, and an Arm to break their Power we have no cause to fear. All Nations before him are as nothing; yea, they are counted to him less than nothing, and Vanity, Isa. 40. 17.

Duty 3. If he who sits above upon the Throne, doth Command and Govern the Wheels, then our Duty is to commend them to his care. Therefore in all our Addresses to God, let us make Conscience of praying for the Wheels.

1. For the Great Wheels of the Nation. Pray for our Royal Soveraign, the King, whom God hath made to be the Father of our Country. Pray, that God who hath wonderfully moved this Wheel, and made him to be such a Glorious Instrument in his hand, who hath raised him up, as he did the righteous Man from the East; and hath given the Nations before him, making him to rule over Kings, and giving them as dust to Isa. 41. 2, 3. his Sword, and as driven stubble to his Bow; while he pur­sued [Page 108] them and passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his feet; would still graciously vouchsafe to guide and govern this Wheel, that it may go right on, and not turn as it goes, till the Kingdoms be setled in the full possession of their Religion, Rights and Li­berties, that so under him we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty. 1 Tim. 2. 2.

2 Pray for the two Houses, the great Council of the Nation, those upper, and lower Wheels; that they may be full of Eyes round about, to know the things which belong to our Peace. The highest Wheels will go wrong, if God hides understanding from them; and the Counsel of Job 17. 4. the wise Counsellors will become brutish; and so it will be with the lower Wheels too; even they that are the stay of Isa 19. 11. 13. the Tribes. Therefore pray that God would make them Men of understanding in their times, to know what the 1 Chron. 12. 32. Nation ought to do: Wise to know our Disease, for we are a distempered People; and skilful to find out, and apply right remedies, that it may no more be said to our reproach and sorrow, thou hast no healing Medi­cines. Jer. 30. 13. Pray that these Wheels may be well shod and nailed with Courage and Resolution, that so the Chariot of this Nation may be carryed upon these Wheels through thick and thin, through all its difficulties and dangers to a safe rest, as Israel was of old; whom, though for a time God caused Men to ride over their heads, and though they went through Fire and Water, yet he brought out Psal. 66. 12. into a Wealthy Place. Pray that these Wheels may be [Page 109] one Wheel in the hand of God. That there may be no Discord, no Divisions, no cross and contrary motions to obstruct our settlement; this is what our Popish Adversaries hope and wait for.

Pray that God would so unite them in their Coun­sels, as that it may appear the Spirit of the living Crea­ture Ezek. 1. 20. is in the Wheels. When the same Spirit which was in Moses, was put upon the Elders of the People, then they voted as he did, and judged as he did, and so did bear the burden of the People with him, and strength­ned Numb 11. 16, 17. the hands one of another. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Union.

3. Pray for the lesser VVheels, viz. inferiour Ma­gistrates, that they may all in their places move and act for God, suppress wickedness, incourage virtue, countenance Religion, and so move right on, and not bear the Sword in vain. Rom. 13 4.

4. Pray for the Spiritual VVheels, the Ministers of the Gospel, that they may be zealous for the truth, bold for God in a time when Sin is daring, true to his worship against all Humane devisings, witnesses for Christ, though they Prophesie in Sackcloth; yea, though Rev. 11. 3. 7. the Beast should make VVar with them and kill them; yet that they may bear their Testimony for Christ to the Death. Pray that they may be like the living Crea­tures, which had each one four faces; the face of a Man Ezek. 1. 6. 10. for prudence; the face of a Lion, for courage; the face [Page 108] [...] [Page 109] [...] [Page 110] of an Ox, for Diligence; and the face of an eagle, for Swift­ness; and for high Flight too, that they may be lifted up from the earth, not seeking their own, Lut the things which are [...]ilip. 2. Jesus Christ's.

And seeing that every Person, every individual is a Wheel in the Vision; therefore we ought to pray for all the Wheels; Tim 2. 1 that they may not stand still, but move right on, following the Guidance of him that sits above upon the Throne. And in Order to this, pray for their cleansing and oiling: Wheels can't go without these. They need cleansing, a great deal of Dirt sticks to the Wheels; Uncleanness, Pride, Covetousness, many hurtful Lusts: They can never move aright until they are cleansed from all Cor. 7. 1. Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit. Therefore pray that they may be made clean. And when they are made clean, they will want oil­ing: And therefore beg for a rich anointing of the Spirit of God.

This would make every Wheel move chearfully in the Way of God; for it is the oil of gladness. David was no sooner anointed with this Oil, but Obedience was a Plea­sure, and Duty a Delight. I delight to do thy will, O my God, Psal. 40. 8. Thy law is my delight, Psal. 119. 77.

This would make the Wheels move wisely, like the Wheels that are full of eyes. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Wis­dom, and Wisdom is profitable to direct. Eccles. 10. 10.

This would make them move right on, and not turn as they go. The righteous shall hold on his way, Job 17. 9.

Lastly, it would make them move swiftly, and be in the ways of God, like the Chariots of Aminadab. Their Motion Cant. 6. 12. would be like that of the living Creatures, who ran as they went. Nothing accelerates the Motion of the Soul, nor speeds it in a Course of Obedience and Holiness like this anointing. And God hath promised it to all that seek him, and wait on him for it, in that 40th. Chapter of Isaiah, v. 31. The Youths shall faint and be weary—But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their Strength, they shall mount up with [Page 111] Wings as Eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, they shall walk, and not faint.

Duty 4. Doth he that sits above upon the Throne govern the Wheels? Then let not us do any thing to hinder him in his Work. The Lord hath a glorious Work upon the Wheel at this Day: O let us take heed of doing any thing that may retard or obstruct it. Many a fair Child hath been stifled in the Birth. And many a work of God hath been marred upon the Wheel, by the unworthy Carriage of his People to him, while he hath been working for them.

Our Case is like that of Israel in their Passage; not in E­gypt, nor in Canaan. Brought out, but not brought in; won­derfully redeemed, but not yet setled; not in Possession, but going to possess. And it is sad to consider how their Sin and Unworthiness retarded this Work, and set it forty years back. Nay, they did by murmuring, by unbelief, by lusting, by an Egyptian Spirit in a redeemed Estate, so tempt and provoke God, that of the many Thousands that came out of Egypt, there were very few that went into the good Land: I sware Heb. 3. 11. in my Wrath, they shall not enter into my Rest. Their provo­king Sins spoiled the Work, marred it upon the Wheel. The Lord awaken us, to consider it: For what says the Apostle? These things were our Examples, to the intent we should not 1 Cor. 10. 6. v. 7. lust after evil things, as they lusted; nor go after our Idols, as some of them did; nor tempt Christ, as some of them tem­pted. If we are found in the same kind of Sins, we must look to share in the same kind of Judgments. We may be de­stroyed, after we have been redeemed: God may bring us out of Egypt, and yet cut us off in the Wilderness. The discontented Spirit of Israel is upon us at this Day; murmu­ring at Moses, though God hath made him a Saviour to us; lusting after the Garlick and Onions of Egypt, in contempt of Numb. 11. 5, 6. Numb. 14. 4. the Manna from Heaven; hankering after a Captain that may bring us back to our late Bondage and Slavery, rather than follow the Conduct of God, into a true Rest and Peace. Oh! [Page 112] take heed of this Spirit, lest it hinder the Work, and we perish in the way.

Duty 5. If he that sits above upon the Throne, guides the Wheels, then commit all into his Hands; subscribe to his Wis­dom and be resigned to his Will; for he doth all things well and wisely: He is wonderful in Counsel, and excellent in working. [...]sa. 28. 29. Many pretend to bow to his commanding Will, who yet can­not subscribe to his effecting Will. Suppose things do not go in the World as you would have them, yet they go as God or­ders them: The Wheels go right on, God doth not need to set his Sun by your Dial: and therefore the Duty is, to exer­cise an universal Trust, in all Times, in all Conditions, in all Affairs. Trust him with the Government of the World, for he is Head over all things to the Church. Trust him with Eph. 1. 22. the Care of the Church, for it is the only Interest he hath in the World. Trust him with the fulfilling of his Promises, for Isa. 52. 5. they are all Yea, and Amen, in Christ, 2 Cor. 1. 20. Trust him with the Accomplishment of all the Prophecies, for these Rev. 22. 6. are the true Sayings of God, Rev. 19. 9. Heaven and Earth shall pass, but not one jot or tittle of the Word shall pass, till all be fulfilled, Matth. 5. 18. Trust him with all your Con­cernments. The Work and Design God is in hand with in our Day, is such as calls for the highest Trust, and most raised Actings of Faith. And would you know what that Work is?

It is the shaking Heaven and Earth, for the removing made things.

The final Ruin of Babylon, and all her Helpers.

The compleat Redemption of his People.

The bringing in the new Heavens, and the new Earth, that the Kingdoms of this World may become the Kingdoms of our Rev. 11. 15 Lord, and of his Christ; that so he may reign for ever and ever.

Amen.