Publick Sorrovv A Remedy for ENGLANDS MALADY Being an Explanation of the fourteenth verse of the first Chapter of the Prophet Joel By Ellis Weycoe M. A. Weep for your selves Luke 23.28 Be Afflicted and Mourne and Weepe let your Laughter be turned into Mourning and your Joy into Heavinesse James 4.9 Blessed are they that Mourne for they shall be Comforted Matth. 5.4 GATESHEAD Printed by Stephen Bulkley 1657. To his very much beloved Friends and Neighbours the Inhabitants of the Towne of Bridlington and the Key and to all the Parishioners thereunto belonging Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father c. Christian and endeared Friends VPon that Edict of the first of January 1655. prohibiting Sequestred and Ejected Ministers from Pulpit and all other imployments though I verily beleeve that his Highnesse and Councill chiefly aymed at the muzling of the Mouthes of such turbulent Spirits and Martiall Ministers as are no sooner claspt in their Pulpits but presently Proclaym War in stead of Preaching Peace Sedition in stead of Obedience and Confusion in stead of Order without the least intent of prejudice to such as were quiet and peaceable in Israel and not hearing as yet of any limitation being amongst many others by force thereof not onely disused from officiating in Publick but likewise debarred of all wayes and means through which by my costly Education I might have procured some reasonable competency for my selfe and the many depending wholly upon me I have had leisure enough to bewayle both mine own and others miseries And after not a few melancholy Cogitations finding my selfe an Achan a great troubler of this poor Church and People and seeing mine as much if not far more then others sins to be the onely cause of all our woes I set my selfe to find out some Remedy for distressed Englands Malady Hereupon I sometimes Mournfully yet willingly sate downe by the Banks of Babylon there making Sorrow my Soules Solace finding indeed no greater joy in my heavinesse then in Sorrow for sin Sometimes I walked abroad into the pleasant Meadows greene Fields and fresh Pastures of holy Scriptures there to seek and sinde some soure Hearbes and of the tartest relish and some Flowers of the darkest hew and strongest scent that their sad complexion might best please the weeping Eyes of a pensive Heart and their bitter smell might best affect the distasted Pallat of a sin sick-sorrowfull Soule Of both which sorts I found the Psalmes Ezekiel Hosea Joel Nehomiah and the Lamentaions of Jeremy well stored and thick Planted and gathering some of them such as I thought for my purpose I then took a turne into the delightsome Gardens of holy Writ to seek out some sweet flowers of comfort and finding plenty I cropt some few to mix with the other that the ones sweetnesse might something alay the others tartnesse And though thus full furnisht yet distrusting my own Skill and Judgement in so great a Cure of such a dangerous and deadly Disease I went to View the Receipts of far more Able Wise and Learned spirituall Physitians and from them extracted the best directions which together with my own weake Meditations I mixt with all the other Ingredients and having first washed them well in the waters of Marah have of all these severals or simples made up such a Compound as I hope will be a good Preservative against the Infectious poyson of sin and a good Salve for Englands present Sore And upon some thoughts that if this Medicine were good for my selfe it might by Gods blessing be comfortable to others also Considering also that a Book perhaps may speake when an Author may not not harbouring the least thoughts of Vain-glory or Popular Applause I resolved with my selfe to make my Meditations Publick like our Sorrows And not knowing how to doe it any other way I took this occasion of manifesting my dearest affections and best wishes to you amongst whom I had my first Breathing and have lived so long as that none better then your selves are able to give evidence both of my former conversation and present condition It may be meane and plain as it is it may conduce to the benefit of many but my principall intent in it was the zeale I have to your Soules the salvation of which I shall ever most heartily pray for Accept therefore I beseech you of these my poor Endeavours and make use of this Physick I have prepared for you But give me leave to give you some Directions in the taking of it You must Chew it Swallow it and Digest it not throwing it up so soon as you have received it for then it will doe you no good but if you can keep it in the Stomack of your Souls you will find it to be such a Violent Purge and working Vomit as will force you to Cast or Spue up all the Poyson of Sin If you think it be toe much to swallowow all at once you may divide it at you please into severall Potions yet I think the whole will be but three easie Mornings Draughts for your Soules however leave it not in the halfe though you take longer time to Drink and Digest it all and then I doubt not but as it bath been to me so it may be to you that takes it somewhat usefull and helpfull And if any of you find ease or get help by this Publick Sorrow the onely Physick for a sin burthened Soule then Prayse God and Pray for The unworthy Servant of the Lord Ellis Weycoe To the Sin-sick Reader Mat. 9 12. THey that be whole saith our Saviour need not a Physitian but they that are sicke This Physick I have here prepared for thee is made up of bitter Potions and sowre Druggs which taken according to the Direction in the Epistle Dedicatory will Purge corrupt Humours scoure away the filthinesse of sin and bring health and happinesse to thy sin-sick soule The severall Ingredients at the first I intermixed and framed into this Compound onely for my own use and have had from them the Operation I desired namely they have made many irksome houres the lesse tedious to me and much heavinesse to sit a great deale the lighter upon me It was far from my thoughts ever to trouble the too much oppressed Presse I am so conscious of my owne weaknesse as I cannot but blush in secret that ever I was prevailed with to make my selfe thus open I know not how my scribled Papers chanced to come to the view of some Persons of Judgement by whom I have been not intreated onely but very much importuned also to make this Treatise like the title of it Publick They set upon me with some Arguments which I could not gain-say truth is they have overcome me and made me at last though most unwillingly willing to expose my selfe to the Interpretation of this Censorious Age. Good Reader my Publick Sorrow hath long layd hid by me in the wombe of obscurity but is now after nine
Moneths delivered to the Light if it prove fruitfull or usefull to thee or any other it will be an ample compensation to my poore Labours That great and good Physitian of our Soules Christ Jesus blesse it to thee is the humble request of his and in him Thy Servant Ellis Weycoe The Contents HOw the Church of England ever observed Fasts and Holy-dayes Fol. 3. The Prince or Governour may appoint a Fast Fol. 3. Princes or Governours are to be Obeyed in their Commands Fol. 3. Foure Cautions to be observed in keeping a Fast Fol. 4. How to keep every day holy-day Fol. 4. God is never angry but for sin Fol. 6. Sin is the cause of all misery Fol. 7. 8. 9. 10. Mourners marked and thereby preserved Fol. 12. Soules sorrow Fol. 16. Better to deale with God by Teares then Words Fol. 17. The Antiquity of Fasting Fol. 20. Foure Rules to be observed in Fasting Fol. 22. Who must give to the Poor how much in what manner and to whom they must give Fol. 28. Christs Schoole a Schoole for all sorts Fol. 31. The Kingdom of Christ admits of no distinction Fol. 36. The best place of Refuge to fly unto in time of warre or any Calamity Fol. 39. Five Rules to be observed in Gods publick worâ—â—iâ— and service Fol. 44. Three Rules that sit us for a right behaviour in Gods House Fol. 46. Three Rules to binde us to the good-behaviour before we come to Heare at the time of Hearing and after we have Heard the Word Fol. 47. Our Hearing of the Word must be accompanied with foure concurring Circumstances Fol. 54. Prayer the Art of Arts that adornes a Christian Fol. 56. Godly sorrow and affliction the best remedy in any sorrow and affliction Fol. 59. The greatest affliction which should touch our Hearts is the Churches affliction Fol. 66. We must never make an end of Mourning till God make an end of Afflicting Fol. 71. 72. No distresse whatsoever can hinder Gods people from praying Fol. 78. The Knowledge of Gods power and mercy is the onely cause of bringing Christians into his presence and of moving them to call upon him in their miseries Fol. 83. Men can never truely seek God by Prayer till they know understand and apply his Name Fol. 83. 84. We must not onely Pray but Cry Fol. 94. Good Suiters alwayes good Speeders Fol. 44. 95. Three Rules to be observed if we expect help from God in distresse Fol. 96. 97. Joel 1. Chap. 14. Verse Sanctifie a Fast call a solemne Assembly gather the Elders and all the Inhabitants of the Land into the House of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord. THe wisest Preacher of a mortall Man and of immortall memory that ever was or shall be inspired with the spirit of God saith That there is a time to Weep as well as to Laugh a time to Mourn as well as to Dance And surely seeing every Man and Woman under their own Vines and Figtrees have a long time satiated themselves with Laughing and Dancing or making merry with their Friends doubtlesse now these sad and cloudy times are the times that call for Weeping and Mourning for Baldnesse and girding with sackcloth For hath not God shot divers of his Arrows and have not some Bullers fallen from his Warning peeces which Arrows and Bullets poysoned with the Pestilence have not many years agoe hit and slain some People not onely in and about out Mother Cities but else-where in the spatious Countries Who perceiveth not how the destroying Angell hath of late unsheathed his Sword and brandished it over us of this Nation of England Who knows not how in respect of those unhappy differences amongst us Warr thundred in our trembling Countries lap the Sword devoured the Grace of England and became drunk with the Bloud of Natives Rovel 6.4 The red Horse with him that sate thereon to whom was given power to take Peace from the Earth and a great Sword still prancing and trampling in our streets both at Noon-day and at Midnight Now though the sinfull Sons and Daughters of men have and still doe lye neverthelesse sleeping in their sensualities yet the vigilant Watchmen of our English Israel our late Royall Kings in their severall Reignes and Governments observing Gods begun Jadgements and further threatned Punishments usually Proclaimed Easts in the times of common calamity And his Highnesse under whose protection and government we now live hath set a part many dayes of Humiliation appointing us a place of refuge or sacred Sanctuary to fly unto Prov. 18.10 that strong Tower that right Arke or little Zoar unto which the righteous run and are preserved even unto the House of the Lord our God carried thither with the feet of Prayer there with all fervency to Pray for the preventing and diverting of Gods further furious hand against us crying unto the Lord to spare this Land to spare this People to spare us from the Sword to spare us from the Famine and from all his sore Judgements which our sins most justly have deserved for which purpose the Trumpet hath been often blown in this our Sion the Fast Proclaimed and the Assembly gathered according to this of Joel Sanctifie a Fast call a solemne Assembly gather the Elders and all the Inhabitants of the Land into the House of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord. This Fountain might divide it selfe into severall Streames but waving unnecessary Fractions I shall confine my Discourse to these two Heads 1. A duty enjoyned Sactifie a Fast 2. A method or order prescribed for the solemne performance of it Call a solemne Assembly gather the Elders c. Duty enjoyned 1. The duty enjoyned A duty no lesse necessary then seasonable For as St. Augustine observes Before the fall there needed but one glorifying of God that was by giving of thanks But now since the fall by reason of our many backslidings there must be also Sacrificium tribulati cordis the Sacrifice of a troubled Spirit for the mortifying of this flesh of ours which by being too much pamperd by us hath been so rebellious against God I shall passe by the first the duty enjoyned or Fast proclaimed my meditations intending to fix upon nothing but that which shall afford sit matter for mourning though the Proclamation it self being alwayes occasioned either upon begun Judgements or threatned Punishments might give just cause to hoise up saile in a Sea of sorrows but delighting onely in that heart-breaking and yet wel pleasing pensivenesse and therefore hastening to that Ocean oâ— sorrow in the exit or end of the verse sighing sobbing crying I will but salute the Fast enjoyned and stay but a while to bewayle these miserable times into which we are fallen which being the last must needs be the worst wherein so many are carried away with the severall blasts of vain Doctrine from Gods true Religion to these follies and fancies whereby they doe not onely wound Christs mystieall
Body but also dismember it in the Common-weale making so many Factions as there are Functions in the Church so many fancies as men and as many opinions as fancies and to that height of impiety some are arrived as that being Christs Free-men they ought not to be subject to any but are set free by Christ from the observation of Fasts or Feasts appointed by the Prince or Governour and not submitting to the Government under which they live will hold fast their liberty purchased by Christ though the appointment of them by the Governour be onely for the assembly of Gods people and that upon speciall occasions for the exercises of the Word and Prayer without placing the worship of God or any force of Religion in the observation of them or without any opinion of holinesse in those dayes more then other dayes And thus the Church of England did ever observe Holy-dayes Fasts or Feasts and no otherwise and yet did not fore goe their liberty purchased by Christ I might give way to my Discourse in this and enlarge it to a Volume but I had rather mourn for this kind of people the onely troublers of our English Israel then meddle with them But to you that are peaceable in Israel willingly submitting your selves to the Government under which God hath placed you and that for Conscience sake know you that it is lawfull for the Dominator or Governour to appoint a Fast or day of Hamillation and you are bound to obey For the lawfulnesse of their Edicts I need not stand at all upon it it hath ever been used by Princes of all Ages for which I might produce clouds of witnesses but search you the Scriptures and trace all the Kings For our obedience to their commands know that we are bound to obey them in their absolute commands so far forth as they are warranted by the Word of God And for this let that praecept of St. Paul serve for all Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13.14 Let every soule be subject to the higher Powers and if every soule then no man is free And again Submit your selves to all manner of Ordinance of man for the Lord sake whother it be unto the King as unto the Superiour or unto Governors as unto them that are sent of him So that people that obey not the wholesom Laws of the Magistrate sin greatly and if any refuse to be ordered by them Rom. 13.2 they resist the Ordinance of God and are specially threatned that they shall receive to themselves damnation And thus have I showed you That Princes or Governours may in the time of War or other Judgement enjoyne us a Fast and Proclaime a solemne assembly to the end we may testifie our Humiliation and better attend on the exercises of the Word and Prayer and that we are to obey them but withall in keeping of a Fast let these cautions be observed 1. That our Fasting be voyd of superstition and that we place no worship of God in it but hold it onely as an help to further us in the duties of Religion 2. That we have no opinion of merit by it that thereby we merit forgivenesse of sins increase of grace or the like 3. That we hold it not of absolute necessity 4. Lastly That it be without breach of the rule of charity either hurting our selves or making us thereby unfit for good duties or giving offence to others such as are weak in knowledge causing them to call our Christian liberty into question rather Informing them that the Magistrate hath power to enjoyn and we are bound to obey who by his Authority doth not take away the use of the things we abstain from but onely orders and moderates the same The like may be said for Feasts dayes of Thanksgiving or holy dayes but I passe them onely I could wish That every one of you would keep every day a Christian Feast even every day holy day which you may doe by purposing every day to avoyd all and every sin and by setting your selves every houre of the day in the sight of God and walking as before him carefully and conscionably in all good duties and so doing you shall keep a good Conscience and that the wife man tels us Prev 15 15. is a continuall feast even every day holy day And now being fully resolved That the King or Governour may Lawfully enjoyn us a Publick Fast in the time of extremity or any common calamity whereby we may testifie our Humiliation with out the least opinion of meriting forgivenesse of our sins the causes of all our miseries and that he may Proclaim a solemn assembly and that we are to obey not with any opinion of holinesse in the time but that the appointed day is for the assembly and holy convocation of Gods people for the exercise of the Word and Prayer Let us all then as at all times so especially upon these dayes of Humiliation set a part turne unto the Lord our God with fasting weeping and mourning and cry unto the Lord to spare this Nation and command his destroying Angel to sheath his Sword and cease from punishing that there may be no more complaining no more leading into captivity Let us implore Gods gracious power to withdraw his angry moved hand against us and let us beg of the God of mercy to stay his further dreadfull vengeance and threatned punishments from any further displaying horrour throughout all our Nation And for that purpose Let us run to our place of refuge the House of the Lord upon the feet of Prayer and there cry unto the Lord to spare this Land to spare this People to spare us from the Sword c. The occaâ—ion or cause of the fast The next is the occasion or cause of this Fast and that if you please to look into the verses foregoing the Text you will find to be a great Plague of Famine for the space of no lesse thou foure years Ver. 20.11.12.13 Their field wasted theâ—◠〈◊〉 mourning their corne destroyed their vines dryed up their oyle 〈◊〉 their harvest perished all the trees of the field withered and joy withered away from the Sons of Men So that just cause had they to lament and howle and lye in sackcâ—oâ—h and ashes nay in dust and ashes But should I prosecute my weak apprehensions in this I should but draw the Treatise beyond a just extent Let it suffice That their Land was russeted with a bloodlesse Famine a dreary punishment Heavens curse and the engine of destruction which doth bring terrour to mortals death to all things and therefore good cause had they to call a solemne assembly to sanctifie a Fast to gather the Elders and all the Inhabitants of the Land into the house of the Lord their God and there cry unto the Lord. And as theirs was Famine so the cause of our solemne assemblies or dayes of Humiliation for some years by-past hath been Warre and the worst of Wars a civill
crying for the abominations weeping and mourning for the wickednesse that is committed there you shall find a publick Notary sent to take the list of mourners their sorrow is their safety their lamentation the cause of their preservation for for our comforts mercy hath her lodgings taken up in every Town in every City in every Country be Gods judgements never so great mercy cannot mercy will not be excluded the Saints are alwayes priviledged men they have speciall in munities an Arke a Goshen a Zoar a City of Refuge shall be ever prepared Mat. 5. to the 12. The meek the mercifull the Peace-maker the persecuted the poor in spirit the pure in heart and those that hunger annd thirst for righteousnesse all these shall be blessed and not onely these but mourners shall have a part Psal 125.5 The godly may sow in tears but shall reape in joy thousands shall fall before them and ten thousands at their right hand but the plague shall not come nigh them Our English Sion while those unhappy differences and wofull divisions continued amongst us was like Ierusalem the very map of misery the Sword devoured the people perished our sons butcherd our young men slain our Goods plunderd our Lands sequestred and our bodies Catived our plagues then grew mighty because our sins were waxen many the most committing them few mourning for them and it is still to be feared though we have thus sinned and have thus been punished that there was never more sinning nor never lesse remorse for sin and if againe the Lord should still be incensed and up in arms against us what strength were there in us who are but stubble to stand before such a consuming Fire And therefore to prevent Gods further revenge and threatned punishments since you have seen in Ezekiel that tears are the preservatives of the living for not a sigh is sent out but is heard in Heaven not a teare but is kept nor a groane but it coms before God let us sigh and cry for all the abominations of the times let us weep for the sins of the Nation let us lament for out sins the cause of all our sufferings and wee let sorrow now cloath us and mourning cloud us let our Foreheads be marked with a down-right solemne mourning the Assembly called must be solemne Call a solemne Assembly The word solemne which is as much as serious sad and heavy me thinks may well contain furniture for the times of mourning and having never more cause I wish I might robe you with the garment of heavinesse The Text Proclaims a solemne assembly and wills you to mourn for the sins of the Land the word solemn me thinks wills us all to lay aside our wanton superfluous and supercilious sales of Pride and put on sables mourning habiliments I mean heavy sad and solemn countenances outwardly to testifie our sorrow inwardly because the Lord hath turn'd his favours into frowns He that formerly cloathed us with Beauty did again cloath us with Leprosie He that formerly cloathed us with Health and Happinesse did again in stead of a Garment give us a Rent and plagued us with the Sword and other deadly poysonous and Infectious Diseases Will you look a little into the rifling of a Wardrobe in Isaiah the Inventory you will find taken in the third chapter from the 18. ver to the end of the 23. The bravery of their ornaments and chains and bracelets and mufflers and bonnets and tablets and eare-rings and rings and ornaments of the legs and changeable sults of apparell and mantles and wimples and crisping pins and glasses and boods c. But the destruction of all this Foeminine Furniture you shall find in the next verses from the 24. to the end It shall come to passe that in stead of a sweet smell there shall be a stinke in stead of a girdle a rent in stead of well set haire baldnesse and in stead of a stomacher a girding with sackcloth and burning in stead of beauty The gates shall lament and mourne The story sheweth what our state was God grant we have not cause again to say is for so we sinned so we were plagued and me thinks should be sufficient to stir up all the powers and passions of sorrow in every one of us this me thinks should be sufficient to set open those ciâ—terns of our souls that rivers of tears may flow from our heart-breaking yet well-pleasing pensivenesse for the nature of griefe doth utterly exile all objects of pleasure and when true sorrow sits her down in a stupid and a stupendious manner and calls for Heaven above to weep with her the Earth beneath to lament the Rocks to cleave the Mountains to Eccho forth groans and the Rivers to run with tears of griefe the Israelites did not more loath then such sorrow as this doth delight to sit down on the banks of Babylon her Musick is Lachrymae or Doloroso she is as Rachel in her hard labour she no sooner conceives but is delivered and no sooner delivered but conceives againe her throbs and throws almost divide her soule from her selfe but that her solace being in division that which killeth others keepeth her alive emptinesse in the bowels blacknesse on the back round about spectacles of misery all circumstances to make sorrow greater then her selfe Surely our cause was and is great sinne being the cause of our misery Let then our tears be many let us put on the garments of lamentation let mourning be the marke of our Foreheads let our hearts be heavy our bodies faint our looks sad and our countenance solemne and especially upon our Fast dayes or dayes of Humiliation let us all goe mourning to the House of the Lord our God with garments rent and with sackcloth cloathed Let the Bride goe forth of her chamber Let the Priests weep between the Porch and the Altar Nay howle ye poor Firr-trees and let the House of David mourne and let all the Inhabitants of the land mourne and weep and lament and let our lamentation be as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo And let the land bewayle every Family apart Let weeping be in all the ends of our Nation and complaining in the streess of every City Towne and Country crying in the chambers of every house Woe and alas Woe unto us that we have sinned Nay let all the Orders and Companies of every severall holy convocation throughout this Land of England from the Ruler to the Subject from the Priest to the People from the Honourable Councellour to him that draweth Water from the Men of gray years to the yong Child and Suckling all plentifully water their Cheeks with Tears Let sighs be their ordinary Language to our offended God and cry unto the Lord to spare us from the Sword c. Our occasion is just our cause is good for our sins are great and our God is incensed and therefore solemnity expects it Call a solemne Assembly Obj.
exceedingly for the comfort of those that are Mourners in Sion they are in favour with God and out of the reach of all danger so that nothing can befall them for hurt Blessed are they that mourne saith Christ for they shall be comforted Matth. 5.4 More happy is the poor man that weeps for his sinne then the greatest Potentate that rejoyceth in abundance And though we have cause enough of sorrow if we should flay to looke into the Calendar of these dayes and see and find the sinnes of this Land to be aspiring sinnes to see Drinking Cheating Whoring Swearing as common as Breathing which though they may be wincked at by the Eyes of Men yet are they crying in the Eares of God But to passe by these and likewise Covetousnesse Oppression whose Houses filled by cruelty and deceit Extortion of the Rich Wantonnesse of some and Prophanesse of all enough to sit every Pious soule in Mourning for the miseries of England And to look onely upon the woefull divisions amongst us touching matters of Religion not medling at all with that remnant of Baal I meane our Papists though me thinks its strange that after so long Preaching of the Gospel there should be still such as inundation of Popery nor with our hollow hearted bypoerites nor with the Atheists of our times who neither seek the Lord nor enquire after him Let us onely look upon our new Apostates and see what numberlesse numbers are carried away from true Religion to Fancies yet I reckon these Separists to be ours however they may be somewhat Sun-burnt Tand and Tackt with private Opinions though I hope the cloth is sound they yet hold fast the Foundation but runne through the Streets of every Towne and you shall scarce meet with two of one Opinion and yet all would be thought Religions and admired for Holinesse by which meanes the seamelesse Coat of Christ is miserably rent and torne and too many God grant they prove not irreparable divisions are in this poor Reuben O how should thoughts of these things open the very sluces of sorrow and cause Teares to trickle downe all cheekes that the Children should take delight in the Mothers ruine and Rayes of the glorious Gospel should suffer such dismall Eclipses by the strange and unheard of interpositions of those that would be deemed the onely Professours and lovers of it For surely there can be no greater cause of lamentation then the miseries and calamities of Gods poor distressed Church and People Hence the Point shall be this That the greatest affliction that should touch the Hearts of Gods People should be the affliction of his Church and People this of all others goes neerest the Hearts of the Saints For this see Ieremies Lamentation for the judgements of God on his Church and on Ierusalem his owne City and for the misery and calamity that lay upon the whole State see them thus bewayling their heavy ease Lament 3.48 49. c. Mine Eye casteth out Rivers of Water for the destruction of the Daughter of my People Mine Eye droppeth without stay and ceaseth not Mine Eye breaketh my Heart because of all the Daughters of my City For when Gods Inheritance was spoyled some put to the Sword others led Captive the Temple of God rized and the exercises of Religion abolished this was it that wrought upon Ieremiah and made him to grieve and breake forth into these wishes O that my Head were full of Water and mine Eyes a Fountaine of Teares that I might weep Day and Night for the Slaine of the Daughter of my People Ierem. 9.1 as if he could not have his fill nor weep enough for the desolations of Zion and the miserable overthrow thereof which he fore-saw And this was it that went neer the Heart of good Nehemiah who being in great prosperity Nehe. 1 4. Cup-hearer to the mightiest Monarch in the World and in speciall favour with him yet for the affliction and reproach wherein the Church of God was he conceived such inward sorrow Nehem. 2.1.2 That be was sad in the Kings preserce which was a thing that he must and would have forborne if possibly he could Moses goes further He doth not onely Mourne but is content to lay downe his prosperity and to expose his Estate to a manifest overthrow so that he might help forward the deliverance of the afflicted Israelites and save them from the hands of their Oppressours Hâ—b 11.24.25 For he knew he could not be in favour with Pharaoh if he should joyne with them whom he so cruelly handled But he chose rather to suffer affliction with the People of God then to be called the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter Esther seems to goe somewhat beyond him for she resolves with her selfe for the cause of the Jewes who were all appointed to slaughter to adventure her life in going to the King in their behalfe I will goe saith she though it be contrary to the Law and if I perish I perish Esther 4.16 and God blessed her boldnesse with an happy successe she saw the deliverance of her People and the confusion of her Enemies But our Lord Jesus Christ goes beyond them all for when he was in supreame excellency he was so affected with the woefull case of his Elect into which they had brought themselves by their owne rebellions against him that he humbled himselfe Phil. 2.6.7 and tooks on him the forme of a Servant and submitted himselfe to many sorrowes disgraces and sufferings not onely while he lived but principally at his Death that so he might deliver his People from the wrath to come and from Eternall Death which they had deserved and must have otherwise endured But for proofe enough if you will have Reasons take these three First There is great Reason why the affliction of the Church and People of God should so affect us In regard of the Communion that is betwixt God and them For they are called the Lords Flocke his chiefe Treasure under Heaven his First-borne yea the very Apple of his Eye and therefore being so deare unto the Lord they should be deare unto us and we should have a tender care over them and mourne in our hearts for any evill that befalls them as Jeremy did That the Lords Flocke should goe into Captivity Secondly There is great Reason why the affection of the Church should so affect us In regard of the Communion that is betwixt them and us for we are their members and neerer then bodily members And surely we should have greater care of the whole Church then of our selves because it more concernes Gods glory and yet in caring for them we care for our selves too and in labouring to prevent their afflictions we prevent our owne and in weeping for others miseries we get Armour of proofe that will keep off misery from our selves And that there is no danger in thus doing for the servants of God may appeare in Exodus one would have thought that