God's Eye from Heaven
GODS
ΕΥΕ
FROM
HEAVEN.
EDINBURGH,
Printed by ANDREW ANDERSON,
Anno 1671.
GODS EYE
FROM
Heaven.
BEloved Countreymen, I have once more presumed to present unto your view, this small Book intituled, Gods Eye from Heaven; and I would desire all you that do acknowledge there is a God, whose all-seeing eye is over all the sons and daughters of men, to give attentive ear unto this book, for it concerns the highest as well as the lowest, to consider what you do here upon earth, for the Lord sees all your actions, be they done never so private he wil one day bring them to light; he hath not only an eye into your ⟨secret⟩ (illegible text)ets, and closest rooms, but (illegible text) views your close and dark (illegible text) that are committed in your secret hearts. But I need not presse this belief to any that professe the Name of Christians, but let me tell the Atheists of these times, that there is a God that sees, thou sufferest their heresies and blasphemies: The fool hath said in his heart (saith David) there is no God, and so do they. How many be there of such opinions now in these latter times that will seek to maintain such blasphemy by discourse, and are counted by such of their own wicked hellish opinions, not fools, as David cals them but wise; But all wisdom that cometh not from above, is foolishnesse: Solomon saith. A companion of fools shall be destroyed. Therefore it behoves all Christians, that desire the knowledge and wisdom of God, to have a special care how they company themselves with such enemies of God, for fear the Lord should leave you to your selves; and so be drawn away by their wicked devices, to the utter destruction of your souls and bodies. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that would understand and seek God: All are gone out of the way, they are all corrupt, there is none that doth good, no not none, Psal. 14. A sad expression delivered by the Spirit of God, by the mouth of his Prophet David, in his time: and do you not think that if the Lord look down from heaven now upon the children of this age, his spirit may not send forth the like voice amongst us all: I am afraid, if not all yet the most of us are gone out of his way that he prescribes us to follow, and are too much addicted to follow our own wayes, and think in our own eyes they are good wayes, when there is none among us that doth good, no not one. St. Paul tells us the same, Rom. 3. 10. There is none righteous no not one. Now ⟨St.⟩ Paul speaketh this of all men naturally, but David meaneth of the reprobate & faithful, which none can discern and see the difference between, but the Lord, for it lyeth hidden in our hearts: See what the Lord saith by the mouth of his prophet, Jer. 17. 9, 10. The heart is deceitfull and wicked above all things, who can know it! I the Lord search the heart and try the reins, even to give to every man according to his wayes, and according to the fruit of his works. This may serve for a reproof to those that separate themselves; and think none so righteous as themselves; that be such as the Lord speaks of by the Prophet, Isai. 65. Which say to their brethren, Stand apart, come not near me, I am holier than thou: those are a smoak in my wrath, and a fire that burneth all the day, saith the Lord May not the Lord brand such as those with Hypocrisie? yes, for the Apostle saith, Jam. 2. 18. Shew me thy Faith by thy works: So I would have these men shew their Religion by their fruits, for you must be such as the Apostle speaks of, I Pet. 2. You must lay aside all maliciousnesse, and all guile, and dissimulation, and envy, and all evill speaking: pray read all that Book over, & you shal quickly find whether you are such as you make show for, else pray read the 2. of Peter, 2. and see whether you are not such as the Apostle mentions there? else St. Paul to the Galatians the 5. which if you read, you shall see the Apostle tell the Galatians the fruits of the Spirit, and the fruits of the flesh I desire you, and all those that hear on read this Book, to read those places of Scripture, that are here mentioned, which are too long to be written in this small Volum, there shall you find in your selves, whether you have the Spirit of God, or the spirit of divisions for if ye will not look into your own wayes, Gods Eye, which clearly sees what you are, will fhew to his people what difference there is between true zeal, and outward hypocrisie, for if any man seem to himself that he is somewhat when he is nothing, he decieveth himself in his own imagination, Gal 6. He that professeth himself to be Religious professeth he loves you to your face. but hang you behind your back; go to hear Sermons on purpose to pick a hole in the Ministers coat; in stead of relieving the poor, eat up the poor; ye hate drunkennesse, but love covetousnesse; that will not hear an oath, because you will be counted holy, yet wil not stick to tell a lye in your dealing, for your own benefit; that will give fair words in your buying & selling, when your thoughts pretend cousening and cheating, and so use Religion as many a man doth a fair sute to hide a foul skin. Our saviour descrbes the hypocrites by the Scribes and Pharisees; for just such were in his time: pray read the 23. of Mat. and you shal see, how near they come to the Pharisees of our times: too many such here in this Land there be but Gods Eye from heaven doth all their actions see. I must tell you, and you shall find, that the Eye of God is upon all the actions of men on earth, from the King to the beggar; He hath an Eye in the Palace, and an Eye in the Cottage, in high Courts and counsels, He hath an Eye there too, and either guides their actions for their preservations, or else suffers their unjust dealings, till it bring them to their desolations; He hath a gracious eye over his people in their prosperity, and hath a merciful Eye over them in their greatest captivity; but we must be stedfast in our faith then and not let prosperity puffe us up with security, nor captivity make us despair of ever obtaining our liberty, for a true Christian hath awayes three enemies to deal withall, the world, the flesh and the Devill; and these three seek all opportunities to lay hold and conquer. But God sees the battel with his eye of providence from heaven, and so chears up the resolutions of his Souldiers, that though the battel be long and a continuall warfare here on earth, yet they shal not faint, but shall hold out to the end, and shall obtain their reward: Therefore let us not be dismaied, whatever befall us here, we be Christs Disciples, we must takeup his crosse and follow him: if we are not willing to partake of his sufferings here, we are not fit to partake of his benefites hereafter. The Church and people of God hath been always in trouble & persecution ever since Christ and his Apostles time, they sealed the Gospel with their blood, and many since the primitve time, sign to it with the same by persecutions; and likewise the Martyrs in Queen Maries time, and so must all if the Lord be pleased to call us to it; but the Lord be thanked, as yet we do enjoy the Gospel in peace, tho we have had many enemies which seek to blast it; but this Eye of Heaven saw their determinations, and quickly brought their counsel to nought: Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord will deliver them out of them all, Psal. 34 Through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdome of God, Acts 14. 22. Examples there are many, both in the old Testament and the new, but especially since they shall be rewarded hereafter: If we will preaching of the Gospel. Christ, the best Preacher that ever was, was derided by the Pharisees, when he told hem of their covetousnesse: St Paul the famousest preacher that ever was, next our Saviour, he was counted a babler, and a pestilent fellow: the Ministers in the Land now, are counted no other by some; nay, if Christ and his Apostles were on earth now, they should find the like now, and worse: but this was, is, and must be the condition of his Church upon earth, an afflicted condition. When God was making his Covenant with Abraham, Gen. 15:12. A deep sleep fell upon him, and lo, a horrour of great darkness was upon him, a smoaking furnace, and a burning Lamp passed between his sacrifice, and the Lord tells him of the bondage of his Seed in Egypt, for the encouragement of those that will part with any thing for Christ, even their persecution is annexed; Christ tells his Disciples, Mark 10. 26. 30. There is no man that hath left, house, or bre- thren or sisters, or father, or mother, wife, or children, or lands, for my sake the Gospels, but he shall receive an hundred fold; Note the words, with persecutions too, that comes in among all those great things that are there promised. Mr. Hooper, that holy Martyr had in his armes when he was made Bishop of Worcester, a Lamb in a flaming bush with rayes of the Sun from heaven shinning upon it: a Lamb for meeknesse in a bush, burning among wicked men, who are as brambles and thorns burning with malice, and yet the comfortable light of heaven shinnes upon it. Mr. Bradford writing to the town of Walden, to encourage them to suffer faith, that that Christian hath not learned his A, B, C. in Christianity, who hath not learned the Letters of the Crosse: and Luther calls a Christian a crosse-bearer They that will live Godly must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12. A reed that yeelds is not shattered with the wind: so those who will be time servers, whose conscience will bow and may, these shal suffer no great matter: beloved, saith the Apostle, think not strange concerning the fiery tryall, Pet. 4.12. Look over the whole book of God, both the Old and New Testament, and consider the lives of Gods people, and you shall find them usually in a poor afflicted condition. Noahs Ark upon the water, was a type of the condition of the Church in afflictions. What hard things did Abraham and the Patriarchs endure in their generations? How sore was the bondage of Israel in Egypt? The passage through the Red-sea, and the dismall wilderness of Canaan, that was a type of our afflicted condition in after ages. What hard usage did the Prophets of the Lord find? Elijah must flie for his life, while four hundred false prophets were at Jezebels Table: Isaiah was sawn assunder: Jeremy was stoned to death in Egypt: Ezekiel was slain in Babylon: Micah had his neck broken down a steep place: Amos had his brains knockt out. The persecutions of the Maccabees. The Apostle. Apostle tells you of, Heb. 11. How they were tortured, mocked, scourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn asunder, slay with the sword, wandred up and down in sheeps-skins, and goats-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandering in deserts, mountains, dens, and caves in the earth. And after, for the Christian church, we know that Christ himself, the great Leader of his people suffered contempts, miseries, scorns, scourges, cursed, cruel shameful death. When Stephen the first Christian Martyr was stoned, Dorotheus witnesseth that two thousand of those that believed in Christ, were put to death the same day. All the twelve Apostles after many sore and grievous afflictions endured, suffered many violent deaths John only excepted: yet some historians make mention, he was thrown into a tun of scalding Lead; yet delivered by a miracle; The ten fearfull persecutions in the Primitive time for three hundred years together, the name of a Christian was death: Brightman speaking of the stories of those times, saith, that every page and leafe, is as it were all red coloured with blood; the Covenant of Grace is a bloody covenant, both in regard of the blood of Christ, first sealing of it, and the blood of the Martyrs, adding likewise their seals in confirming its I John 5.8. Three bear witness on earth, the Spirit, Water and Blood. The third is applyed to the blood of the Martyrs in those times. Instead of one Sanctus, on whom such intolerable Tortures were inflicted, that they thought to have heard some blashemy proceed from him, yet they could get nothing but this Sum Christianus, I am a Christian, at which his persecuters being mad, they clapt on plates of Brass red hot to the most tender parts of his body, which shrunk his body, yet his spirit continued constant: they let him upon an iron chair red hot and being a whole day made a spectacle to the people, they could get nothing but his first confession, I am a Christian. And many more suffered: as one ⟨Romanus⟩ who was of noble birth, yet more noble in his Martyrdom; for he desired his persecuters not to spare him for his nobility: it is not the blood of my progenitors, saith he, but Christian profession makes me noble: then they lanced him with knives, until the bone appeared white, his eye lids torn with their nails, his hair pulled from his face, the Captain being astonished at his constancy, commanded them to cease from tortures: then was he brought out and scourged upon his old sores, his tongue plucked out by the roots: the captain being more amazed to see him remain constant still, commanded him to be brought into prison, and there to be strangled. Take one example of a woman Martyr, of which there are many which were very strong in the Christian faith: but one Julitta by name, who being to be put into the fire, spake unto other women that stood by, in this maner. Cerse, quoth she, to accuse the fragility of the feminine sex; are not we made after the image of God as well as men? God did not use flesh to make women of in token of infirmity, we are one of his bone, in token we must be wrong in the living God: what bloody persecution was there in Queen Maries daies; And what a savage Massacre was there in France, in 1572. near the prison in Lyons? the blood run reeking through the street into the river: in thirty dayes space there was a hundred thousand poor Orphans, Widows and succourlesse creatures, wandring about without any relief. And having shewed you the cruel persecution of Gods people here on earth, now see the reasons why God suffers those things to fall on his people, Psal. 97.1. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoyce. It is well for his people that he reigneth; or else they could never stand, one or two wolves are able to devour a flock of sheep; what then would many wolves do amongst sheep, if there were not an over-ruling hand? God orders and suffers this, so that he may turn all to His praise.Saul made havock of the church Acts 8.3, 4. Therefore they that were scattered, went every where Preaching the Word, according to the Prophet Daniel, Many shal run to and fro, and knowledge shal be increased. There appears as great a power in God in preserving his Church in the midst of so much opposition, as there did appear in the preservation of the three Children in the fiery furnace; the more we are cut down the more still we are, saith Tertullian, the blood of Martyrs was the feed of the church: Pliny reports, that the Lilly is increased by the jucie that drop from it: so the Church, which is the lilly that growes amongst thorns, the very blood that fals from them multiplies them; the sufferings of one begets many to the truth. It is a report of one Cecilia a Virgin, that by her constancy and exhortation, before and at her Martyrdome, was the means to convert 400. people. By blood and Prayer, the Church converts the whole world saith Luther. Besides, God tries his People in afflictions, and then they are like the starres that shine brighstte in the darkest night. Q. Elizabeth, when she was lockt up in close prison, at first she was daunted, but afterward She brake forth into this speech, The skill of a Pilot, is unknown but in a tempest; the valour of a Captain is unseen but in a battel, and the worth of a Christian doth not appear but in time of tryal and temptation. We read, Deut. 8.2. God led his people through the wilderness to humble them, and to prove them. God knew before, but he would make themselves and others to know. Now having showed you the many calamities and afflictions that have followed, and have been laid upon his Church and People, and how Gods hand of providence and mercie hath led them through all their troubles, and you see how patiently they took all their sufferings, and did as it were glory in the Crosse of Christ, and not like many in these times, that if any loss or calamities fall upon them, it may be in their estates or imprisonment, are ready to cry out with the Psalmist, Will the Lord cast us off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Psal. 77. No the Lord is in his holy Temple: the Lords Throne is in Heaven, His eyes behold, his eye-lids cry to the Children of men; the Lord trieth the Righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, the Lord hateth Psal. 11. Let me tell you, God knows your sufferings, and what you suffer for; if it be for his sake, you are happy, they are means to wean you from this world, and as chains to draw you the nearer to heaven, calamity is a good companion for a patient soul, he will help you; cast up your accounts before God, how you have spent your time here on earth, and what close sins have lain hidden in your hearts, which may be the cause of your afflictions, which it may be prosperity would never have put you in mind of: have a care, be not puft up in prosperity, nor be not cast down with calamity. learn St. Pauls lesson, I have learned (saith he) to be content in what state so ever I am in, Phillip. 4. 11. Gods time is the best time for his people, to bring them out of all their troubles; He is not like a cowardly Captain to lead you on open dangers, and there to leave you; no, when you think there is no hopes of relief, then God brings on his reserve, and leads you off with honour Therefore let us learn now, in this time of breathings of his Church, to strive by al means that lies in us by the assistance of his spirit to make good use of this time while we have it, and let us not by this peace we have now, lull our selves in security, running on with the greatest throng in all manner of sin and wickednesse, in back-sliding and apostacy & hypocrisie O I am fraid that sin reigns much in this nation, and have a care of those that sow pillowes under your elbowes, and make you believe you shal be Saints if you follow them, and God will see no evil in you: have a care, Gods Eye sees that his hand will punish in this Nation without repentance. Can you account yourselves the children of God that delight in pride? No, his children are cloathed with humility. It was the example of our Saviour and his Apostles, if you will follow him you must be humble & meek. Can you delight in covetousnesse, and be his Disciples?. Remember Judas; who sold his Master for thirty pieces. How many Judases have there been and are now that will do the like? The young man in the Gospel was content to follow Christ till he bid him sel all that he had and follow him: I, but he had rather part from Christ, then part from his estate: So there are many since these times began, that have gotten such great estates, that they had rather get more then sell those they have to follow him, though they venture soul and body for them; but if a man gain an estate, a kingdome, nay the whole world, and lose his soul, his lose is greater then his gain, and little pleasure for everlasting sorrow. But to conclude, Gods Eye from heaven sees all our doings upon earth, he sees the cruelty of his enemies and the sufferings of his people. Therefore let me desire you once more, to remember in whose presence you are, and whose eye is upon you, be not Christians outwardly but Christians inwardly, fly hypocrisie, hate idolatrie, and beware of heresie & desire God to keep you in the good old way, which Christ, his Apostles, and likewise the blessed Martyrs, have left the same way behind them by the rules and Doctrine for us to follow, being armed with the whole armour of God, that we may be able to resist, in the evil day, our loins girt about with verity, having on the brest plate of righteousnesse, and our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, having the sheild of Faith with the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God; and then let us defend our selves against all our enemies, which are, the world, the flesh the Devil and let us not faint, nor be afraid, for Gods eye is upon us, and will strengthen us, and though we have poverty here, we have riches hereafter; for sorrow here, is joy hereafter. Keep me O Lord (saith David) from those that have their portions in this life, Psal. 17.14. Do with us what thou wilt here, so thou wilt but receive us hereafter. Give us a crown of thorns here, that we may have a crown of glory hereafter. And all for thy Sonne Christ Jesus sake, who shed his precious blood for all those that will lay hold of him by a true and lively Faith concluding with the Prophet David's advice, Psal 97 10 ⟨Ye that⟩ love the Lord, ⟨hate⟩ evil, for he preserveth the ⟨souls⟩ of his ⟨saints⟩: he will deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Light ⟨is⟩ sown for the righteous, and joy for ⟨the upright⟩ in heart. Therefore rejoyce ye righteous in the Lord and give thanks for his holy rememberance.
FINIS.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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