God's Iudgments UPON REGICIDES A SERMON Preached in the Fleet-Prison on the 30th Day of January 1682 3. Proving that the Bloud of that Pious Monarch and Glorious Martyr King Charles the First is not yet Expiated By J. Butler B. D. Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Ormond LONDON Printed by T. Moore and J. Ashburne for Awnsham Churchill at the Black-Swan in Ave-Mary-Lane 1683. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY To the most Noble and Thrice Excellent Prince James Duke Marquess and Earl of Ormond c. My very good Lord and Patron Health Happiness and length of Days be ever wished My Lord THough it pleases God to distinguish me from your other Chaplains by that Eminent Mark the Sign of the Cross Yet neither do I nor am I to esteem my self any thing the more thereby acquitted or in any thing the less whit discharged of that Diligence in Service which in Duty I owe unto your Grace In a great Mans House there ought to be Vessals of all sorts God has made others much more Weighty in the Purse and more Graceful upon the Back as well as in the Head and as so the apter Ornaments in your Parlour and Chappel and at your great Table But God has confined me to a private Closet and thereby as it were given me in special charge to be the more instant at my private Devotions and most serious Studies and therein lies my Service while they attend your greater affairs Afflictions especially when they come in crowds and thronging one upon anothers Neck as with me for some time of late they have done do usually threaten with much of blame as well as pain and I am content to bear the blame and do acknowledg a guilt upon me equal to the Burthen that my God hath laid upon my Back though the sin wherewith I am charged is such as in the Book of God is no where forbidden in that sense as it lies at my door and was never proved against me by any Circumstance or light of Evidence more then by one onely Boy whose Education had never arrived to the understanding of an Oaths weight and I have endured a Twelve-Months Imprisonment upon that one Boys Evidence and yet do still find my Crime so unpardonable as no submission nor satisfaction can expiate it We know that where God loves best many times he mostly chastizeth and yet that knowledg though we have for it a Divine warranty is very apt to be out of mind when we look upon a Man in Calamity But your Grace is a Person of more Candour whose own Experience of the good Hand of God in the day of adversity has taught you to look upon a perplexed Sufferer with such an equal Eye as can distinguish his Sorrows from his Shame This Sermon my Lord was Preached in the Prison such another place as was that where St. Paul sung his Psalms 'T is a Prophetical Discourse and toucheth nearly upon our own Countrey and upon our own Times and almost upon this very Instant The Inspiration is none of mine I pretend not to it in the least what is thereof is our Saviours and of other Sacred Persons from whose Writings and Sayings I took it up and my Authors I have quoted The Reading the Application and something of Interpretation I own and your Grace will find them all back't with Reason and good Warranty Our present Age God have Mercy on us is not without very great stain and shame of crying sins sins exceeding hainous if not unparallel'd excepting those against the Bloud of our Blessed Saviour and therefore such as have for a long time cried for Vengeance And besides old sins of above Forty Years standing Alas here is a loud cry of many fresh sins which smoak with very large thick black dreadful and nausceous Vapours Schisms Heresies Hypocrisies and wicked Envy on one Hand and Atheism Sensuality and unreasonable Prophaness on the other and excess of Pride and Covetousness on all Hands do Reign beside the Sacriledg Simony Flattery Bribery and Cheats which are to be found predominant in some one sort of particular Persons and the Rapines Oppressions and Extortions in some other sort And now that the menacing Signs of Heaven do appear day by day and year by year and yet the Persons mostly therein concerned do least regard them But undoubtedly there are some wise Men among us which its to be hoped will expose themselves to stand in the Gap in this time of Eminent danger We have my Lord among others one eminent Prophesie of a most eminent Father in God whom your Grace did well know who being a Person of Famous Authority and that as well for Wisdom and Sanctity as for Place and Dignity has left so much the more weight upon his words which says That bloudy dangers do await us but withal promises that in the midst of that danger the truly Religious and best sort of Christians shall be safe And surely this is a great encouragement to all wise Men to be diligently and seriously striving who shall most excel in Piety Truth and Righteousness And for this Reason and to this end no doubt it hath pleased God to load some Men with the heavier Irons upon their Heels in order to hold them out of that crowd which he intends to shoot at when the time shall come up to serve his purpose And Blessed are all they who by some lighter punishments shall be rendred so safe that when others shall be called to an account for their Pride and Wantonness and all other defilements of over-much prosperity They shall be excused Methinks my Lord I do contemplate in the Person of your Grace a sometimes eminent Patron of your Family Gislebert Earl of Brionij in Normandy who was Grandfather to Robert the Cup-bearer the first of your Line that assumed the Sirname of Le Boutellier in the days of King William the First of this Kingdom This Gislebert was Guardian to King VVilliam the Conquerour when Duke Robert his Father left him an Orphan at Eight Years of Age and by his Wisdom and Care carried him off thorow more then an Hundred dangers of his Minority See Stow upon Will the Con. at end of his Life and worthily gained the Name as he was called in those days Pater Patriae He lived in an ill time but with much Wisdom and Courage he stood in the Gap and withstood the insolencies of an unruly People and attained unto old Age and to see his Sons and Grandsons of perfect Age and lastly dyed in a Tumult wrestling with ill humoured People to serve his Countrey I do not propose this example my Lord as if I do any way conceive your Grace in any more then common danger to follow him in a violent Death but rather as such with whose Noble Acts hitherto you have had the Reputation to compare And as for a tumultuous Death every wise Man among us does know it threatens the most obscure as times go and
down the Steps like VVater in a time of â—ain Dio. On the Eighth of September being Saturdy or the Jewish Sabbath the Romans entred the higher City and took it At this Siege were slain what by Sword Plague and Famine 1100000 Mortals besides what were slain at other times and places and sold for Slaves Here ceased the dayly Sacrifice and the Abomination of Desolation was set up and continued standing so until the times of Trasanus Euseb Dio. and Hadrianus Emperors of Rome In time of Trajanus the Jews Rebelled in Egypt and Kyrene and Kypâ—us and Mesopotamia and endured vast Slaughters In time of Hadrianus they Rebelled in Judaea and were soon tamed Euseb Dio. But in the Year 128 Hadrianus converted Jerusalem into a Roman Colony and called it Aelia-Capitolina and erected the Temple of Jupiter by the side of the Jewish Temple whence occasioned the last and Fatal Rebellion of the Jews under Barchochebas their Leader who slew many Romans and Christians but in the Year 135 Euseb Dio. or one Hundred and Three Years after Christs Death with much difficulty they were utterly Broken and Ruined and by Wars at this time Perished 580000 Souls besides Infinite Numbers more who died of Fire Plague and Famine Then was a Swines Head Engraven over the Gates of the City with other Pagan Images and the Jews were utterly forbidden ever to come there more unless once by the Year to bewail the Abominations and away again and here now the Abomination of Desolation was at the highest Pitch at what time also a Temple to Jupiter was erected at Golgotha Paulin. Hieron and another to Venus at Bethlehem And hence forward the Jews utterly left off their several Ceremonies as well Christians as other Jews After these things 179 Years or in the Year of Christ 314 was Maximinus the last Pagon Tyrant routed and overcome by Licinius the Confederate of Constantine the Great and soon after Died Tormented of God at Thausus in Kilikia and Himself called in the Edict of Persecuting Christians before he Died. But he no sooner Dead but Idolatry was every where cast down and the Abomination of Desolation at Jerusalem was set aside and the Ancient Name of Jerusalem again recovered Euseb Eccl. Hist Churches were Built up and Idol-Temples pull'd down and thence forward ceased the Abomination And this was that first time of Tribulation the like whereof was never before known and it continued 244 Years during which space the Jews were utterly Destroyed or driven into Exile and the Christians were continually Persecuted with Fire and Faggot From this time forward saith our Saviour The Jews shall be led Captive into all Nations and Jerusalem for the most part is to continue trodden under foot of the Gentiles Luke 21.24 until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled That is as it shall seem The Gentiles shall enjoy the Holy City and the Holy Places and the Jews shall be utterly cast out from thence until such time as the Gentiles becoming abominably wicked in some measure like unto what the Jews once were by reason whereof that woful Tribulation did befal them and then shall be Signs in the Heavens foretokening a Second Repetition of the like woful Tribulation which is to befal the Gentiles whether Pagans Schismaticks or loose Christians Vers 27 28.29 c. who are to Perish by Sword Plague Fire and Famine in some measure as the Jews also did And in those Days the Jews and Israelites Are to lift up their Heads and to look up for that They are to be Redeemed and Delivered and these are perpetually to be cast out Thus are we forewarned by our Blessed Saviour But Daniel measures out the time thereof into parcels and points at the Years when things shall come to pass in order To this purpose having his Eye fixed upon the Redemption and Deliverance of the Jews and Israelites called his People with great care and Anxiety of Mind desiring to know when it should come to pass Loe the Holy Angels favouring his Desires enquire for him saying To the Man Cloathed in Linnen with a Girdle of Gold about his Loins whose Body was as Beryl Dan. 10.5 6. Ch. 12.5 6 7. and his Face like Lightening and his Eyes as it were Lamps of Fire How long shall it be to the end of these wonders unto which was answered by a solemn Oath from the Man in Linnen who seems to be the Christ That it shall be for a time Vers 7. and times and an half and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the Power of the Holy People all these things shall be finished Intimating that there shall be a Scattering of the Holy People as it was when Christ was taken saying I will smite the Shepherd Mat. 26.31 Zach. 13.7 8 9. and the Flock shall be scattered abroad This saying was first written by the Prophet Zachariah saying Awake O Sword against my Shepherd and against the Man who is my Fellow saith the Lord of Hosts Smite the Shepherd and the Sheep shall be scattered and I will turn mine Hand upon the little Ones And it shall come to pass that in all the Land saith the Lord Two parts therein shall be Cut off and Die but the Third shall be left therein And I will bring the Third part through the Fire and will Refine them as Silver is Refined and will Try them as Gold is Tried they shall call on my Name and I will hear them I will say It is my People and they shall say The Lord is my God Christ was smitten but not with the Sword the Awakement of the Sword therefore looks beyond Christ there is another scattering of the Holy People to be made besides that of the Apostles when Jesus was Murdered and yet is to be such as shall correspond therewith and be thereunto answerable And that He who is to do this is to be some Great Man among the Gentiles either Pagan or Schismatick and seems 2 Thes 2.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 c. as described by St. Paul to be that Man of Sin the Son of Perdition who is to be Revealed in his time who will Exalt himself above all that is called God or that is Worshiped so that He as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing Himself that He is God That Wicked One even He whose coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and Lying Wonders This is He who shall do by the Holy People as the Jews did by Christ when they Murdered Him under a pretext of Justice And this is to be done before the Conversion of the Jews but after this is done then matters will hasten apace unto their Deliverance even in those Days before that Generation shall pass away Luke 21.32 wherein these things shall be done all of it shall be fulfilled And this scattering is to be made at under the Time of a Time
so many knots that it cannot be undone They feeling themselves lock't up and fenced about with abundance of Dangers threatning and yet so puzled with Mischief upon Mischief as if the untying of one knot were the making of three 3. Is set forth the Form and Shape of the Distress as being like the hideous Waves of the Sea Roaring Raging and Threatning and Foming with Salt Froth as if they would Swallow and Devour all before them For as the Sea in rough Water is fearful to behold and dangerous to be trusted such are the dreadful approaching Calamities 4. Is shewed the Effects of this Distress 1. In Mens Hearts which shall fail for fear And 2ly In their Eyes which shall increase the fears of the Heart by seeing and beholding the Miseries as they approach nearer and nearer and the great Mischief which they do The Spirit of a Man saith Solomon will bear its Infirmities Pro 18.14 but a wounded Spirit who can bear The Heart is the support of a Mans Spirit and so long as the Heart holds up stout and confident it carries him off through many temptations but if a Mans Heart fail him then all his Spirits break and evaporate into meer Air and Emptiness And the Heart failing Man lifts up his Eyes as if they should help him and yet they by seeing and beholding the great Clouds of approaching Evils do rather increase and heighten the Sorrow while they have no tydings to tell but of grievous Mischief and Miseries continually threatning and yet can they not chuse but look up still though they can behold no Comfort After this rate was the Church of Judah found when the Lord beheld the State thereof Jer. 30.5 6 7. as of People that hear nothing but Voices of trembling where is nothing but fear without hopes of Peace Wherefore saith the Lord do I see every Man with his hands on his Loyns as a Woman in Travail as if Man also should Travail with Child and all Faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it It is the time of Jacobs trouble This was when the Caldeans oppressed and over-ran the whole Kingdom of Judea but at that time they were delivered Even such are the Calamities that are now approaching upon the World and some Nations perhaps may escape with small harms and others may be safe enough But some where and on some certain Nations these great Tribulations the like whereof were never before knovvn are novv like to happen in a short space For now the Powers of Heaven are shaken as our Saviour saith in my Text For the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken And this is the third thing the Cause and Groundvvork both of the Signs and the Miserie 's forevvarned The Povvers of Heaven are either Efficiently or Instrumentally so Efficiently and Principally are God himself and after him his Holy Angels the Povvers of Heaven Instrumentally the Sun Moon and Stars and all the Hosts of Heaven are the Povvers and Strength of Heaven by vvhich according to Nature God Acts upon Earth Novv God and his Angels are too high to be shaken but their Instruments may be shaken and that either vvhen God shall shake them as a Man shakes his Weapon when he brandisheth his Sword to strike therewith And thus God shakes the Powers of Heaven when the Sun Moon and Stars seeming to dash one against another either by Body or Aspect do make even the Earth and all its Inhabitants to shake and tremble at their Motions And here also the Potentates on Earth in a sense called the Powers of Heaven because the God of Heavens Agents are also shaken by the greater Powers of Heaven above And thus the late gaeat Comet and the great Eclipses and the great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter now in being are the shaking of Heaven our Saviour speaks of And after these it s to be feared many Prodigies and Signs will still appear more and more both in Heaven and Earth until the forewarned Distress of Nations doth come upon them Now what these Comets Eclipses and Conjunctions do signifie belongs not to this place or time to be Treated on nor yet do I think my self concerned to say how near or how far off those threatened Calamities are unto the Nations Only supposing the worst give me leave by help of the context to describe them so far as Gods Word gives us warning and so I shall come to Application Now to this purpose we are to note that at this time of my Text our Saviour is upon Answer to three Questions As 1. When shall these things be meaning the Destruction of Jerusalem vvhich a little afore Christ had been Treating upon Mal. 24.3 2. What shall be the Sign of Christs coming that is by his Vicegerent to deliver the Jews out of Captivity And 3. What shall be the Signs of the end of the World Unto all vvhich our Saviour ansvvers comprehensively as if vvhat is the Sign of the one shall be the same of all three And look hovv it is like to be in that day vvhen the vvhole World of Heaven and Earth are to Perish by Fire and be Destroyed even so after the same rate shall it happen vvhen Jerusalem is to be Destroyed and when the Gentile Nations are many or most of them to be distressed For at each of all these three times shall be great Tribulation such as the like was never known before besides or since excepting the very Paralels Of these the Destruction of Jerusalem is past the Calamity of the Gentile Nations even now waits them And the end of the World shall come in its time But will some say in what particular manner shall these things be to which I answer in a three Fold respect 1. In respect of the Cause moving to bring on such Calamities upon the Nations Luke 21.22 with Gods Vengeance for Great and Crying Sins For Says our Saviour These be the Days of Vengeance that all things that are written may be fulfilled Before Jerusalems and the Jews fall Jesus the Christ was most wickedly murdered by his own People at whose hands he had most singularly and incomparably well deserved And for Vengeance because of that Death came up the Fatal Tribulation of those Days And now is expected that the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled That is till They or some of them shall prevail and accomplish to scatter the Power of the holy People v. 24. then shall their Vengeance come The Turks are at this time and for many Years have been Lords of the Holy Land and do Tread Jerusalem under Foot and do keep it away that the Jews the Right Owners cannot possess it at this Day they are a Barbarous sort of People that have neither Law nor Gospel nor any thing of good Education to help their Government and therefore it Pleases God to bear with their Rude Manners so much the more But yet having
God or Man to put them both to Death and that to as it shall seem not at all for any Crime done but meerly because the one was a King and the other an Arch-Bishop they having nothing else against either the one or the other with any Colour of blame as could amount to touch either their Lives or their Estates And thus alas it lyes upon us also to call to mind Luke 21 24. Dan. 12.7 that the Time of the Gentiles is fulfilled here too and that with us also has been He who hath accomplished to scatter the Power of the Holy People and that I Fear me in the most Notorious manner that ever vvas knovvn beyond all that they have done in any other Kingdoms or Countrys And vvhat is yet vvorse the Turks are a Barbarous and illiterate sort of Brutes but our Country Men are such Luke 12.47 as knew the will of God and yet prepared not themselves nor did they according to Gods Will but rather quite contrarily and therefore are in so much the more danger to be Beaten with many Stripes Ob. But will some say perhaps whatever that Sin was 't is pardoned by the Act of Oblivion and more have suffered by reason thereof then the Kings Majesty desired And where no Man complains how can any Man say where is the wrong Ans True it is I Answer Some have died to expiat this Bloud-shed and of those some by the immediat hand of God both before and after it was shed such as Brooke Pym Hambden Stroud and Hoyl Rouse and divers others and some by the mediat hand of Justice such as Harrison Cary Jos of the wars Lu. 19.41 42 43. Ch. 23.34 Cook Peters and the rest and so too it was in the Case of Christs Bloud Herod and Pilat died of Gods hand and others came dropping after and Thousands and Ten Thousands Perished here and there for the same Reasons Jesus Christ seemed more then satisfied with these and less then these things who Prayed and wept in Prayer and was earnestly intent with God that his Murderers might be Pardoned as also it was done by our good King who suffered But yet Gods Vengeance would not be so satisfied For though it slept long yet Wrath and Vengeance too came at last and when it did come with a Vengeance it came indeed For after Christs Bloud almost forgotten and all things seem'd with them so very safe that the very chief Murderers made a pish at it when the Apostles talk'd of bringing this Mans Bloud as they contemptuously call'd it upon them and most of the great ones were dead in their Beds And yet at 37 Years end after Christs Death Inquisition came at last after Christs Bloud And then as our Saviour had forewarn'd was such a time of Tribulation Mat. 24.21 as from the Worlds beginning unto that time the like had never been before For look by how much it had been the longer ere Vengeance came when it fell at last it fell so much the heavier and more foul even unto utter Desolation and Extirpation of those on whom it fell and so is it to be feared it may be here There was a King and a great King that was a most Innocent and Holy Man that has been slain and there was a most Reverend and Innocent Church-Man even one who stood to Minister before the Lord our God was put to Death in cold Blood and many Thousands and Ten Thousands that were truly Loyal Subjects and Innocent and Holy Men were slaughtered in the Wars and under colour of Law which made the matter so much the worse great Robberies were committed by Taxing and Sequestration and Decimation and such like Courses and all this was done Ps 165.15 not only without dread of Gods Majesty who says touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm but also Entitling Gods Cause to their Murders Rapines and Rebellions as if the most High had been also such an one as themselves But now what says Holy Writ to these things Gen. 9.6 Num. 35.21 But that He who sheds Mans Bloud by Man shall his Bloud be shed And that Bloud defiles a Land so as by no means it can be cleansed but by the Bloud of him whose Guilt lies at Stake Yea so it is that if a Man be a Murderer or a Robber be it but of a privat Man yet most an end though it be 20 or 30 Years after first yet at last usually Gods Vengeance meets with him by one chance or another yea though he have the Kings Pardon to help him out it will not save him from Gods displeasure when he makes Inquisition for Bloud Ps 9.12 and forgets not the cry of the Humble And is it so with single and private Persons How much worse then may we justly expect it will befal such impudent wretches who shamed not in open sight of the Sun and in cold Bloud to justifie the worst of Murders and to Entitle the Name of the Lord thereunto Lord who shall stand the Vengeance when the Bloud of such as Charles the First of England of blessed memory and the Sacred Arch-Bishop Laud the Earls of Strafford Darby and Montross the Lord Capel and the Reverend Huet and multitudes of such Noble and Holy Martyrs lying under the Altar shall cry out with a loud Voice saying How long Lord Rev. 6.10 Holy and True dost thou not Judge and Avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth This seems in truth to be the cry of the Martyrs in Queen Marys days Rev. 6.11 unto whom it was answered They should rest yet for a little Season until their fellow Servants also and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled and white Robes were given unto every one of them to rest in in the mean time And the Fellows and Brethren tarried for are those Martyrs of our late times That those Martyrs of Queen Marys days were an Holy People their Trial in Fire did plainly testifie and that the Faith and Worship which they practised was truly Religious and Holy is witnessed by the Martyrdoms they indured therefore And were they an Holy People and was their Worship Holy and Allowable so then must needs be the Faith and Worship of all such who trod exactly in the same steps and endured the same Tests And does the Bloud of such Sacred and great Saints lie at Stake calling for Vengeance and that accompanied with Brethrens Bloud of so great weight as was that of our Predecessours Then let the Jews look up for they are risen up who have equalled their iniquities and the Redemption of the Jews therefore draweth nigh But as for us we have great Reason God knows to look down and let all wise Men consider it The Irish Rebels in 1641 who Murdered so many Thousand Protestants have in some measure tasted Divine Vengeance for the same And the Scotish Rebels who were at bottom
7.3 4. before just Lot was safely secured and conveyed away and who would not hurt either Sea or Land or suffer his Angels so to do until all good Men had marks in their Foreheads to be a note of their preservation And so said the most Reverend Bishop Usher though there shall follow a most terrible severe Massacre yet the true Saints shall mostly escape it and the formal hypocritical and false Protestants only shall perish The Papists who are to do this mischief one would think are but thin among us so far as can be discerned but what store of them lurk in disguise or what Forreign Prince may be let in or may break in upon us God knows Some way or other it s to be feared they will prevail for a time I remember the French renowned Prophet Michael Nostradame has a Prophesie of a City Built with Brick that is to be burnt down and to be Built again with Marble If it be Londons fate to prove that Building of Brick there is little to be doubted but afterwards it will be seen again cloathed in Marble But methinks I dread more the Bloud of the People then the Flame of the Houses And should the French be the Instruments of this Bloudy Woe there is as great likelihood their own Metropolis will pay for our Repairs within a few Years after even Fire for Fire and Bloud for Bloud For 't is but a Factious and Seditious Crew of them who as it were marked for Vengeance are so haunted by an evil Conscience and diabolick Furies that they cannot rest till they pull down Judgments upon their own heads and ruin upon their Families But so soon as Gods Work shall be done on these there is a Virtuous Breed of Loyal Hearts who never yet bowed knee to Baal who shall at once rise up and destroy the Destroyers and burn the chastizing Rods. And thus have I mingled hopes and fears among my humble Conjectures and Prayers and all to this end that be it possible evil Men may be drawn in to see and repent their grievous Sins and good Men may be prepared to glorifie God and to give him the praise of all his glorious Works And so much for this second form of Tribulation The 3d. is described in respect of the Wrath and Bitterness and the Torments that are to attend it Wo be to them saith our Saviour who shall be with Child shall give Suck in those days Lu. 24.23 Intimating that the Bitterness of the Distress and Wrath shall be so great that People shall not know which way to turn them or what to do in hopes to have help When Wars shall come thick and Barbarous Souldiers shall range about like roaring Devils seeking whom they may devour Robbing VVounding and Killing all they meet then Old and Young will be forc't to Fly as they can and leaving their Goods to save their Lives in those days what shall the poor VVoman do with a small Child at her Breast or a smaller in her Body Loath she is to hazard the Fruit of her VVomb to save her own Life and therefore She Flies with the Babe in her Arms till tyred with the Burthen in her Bosom when 't is too late with an heavy heart she leaves it to the Mercies of the Merciless and becomes her self at the next step an Object of the same wrath VVithin the walls She is rather worse than without where preserving Life a few weeks the longer the Famine bites worse there then the Sword did in the Fields Here the Mother has not Food to satisfie her own Hunger and yet is fain to feed her tender Infant from her Heart-Bloud until violent Hunger constraining necessity of Nature draws her in to slay and eat the Fruit of her VVomb to allay the fierce Bitterness of incessant Hunger And such was the hardship in Jerusalem that one Miriam a rich Matron after many constraints having sodden the Flesh of her Child to quallifie her hungry Appetite was rob'd of it when ready to sit down and eat by the rude and Seditious Rabble led in by the smell to find the Prey and finally She dyed as Thousand others did the painful lingring death of Famine But our Saviour has not intailed the whole Flock of Woes on teeming Women alone but rather instanced in one case leaving us to judg of the rest and of the whole Body of Hercules by his Foot Hence therefore are we to conceive or saying to our selves woe also to the great Rich Men mighty and wealthy in Mony and Land whose Heart 's glued to the World as fast as the good Womans bowells to her sucking Infant when they shall see their Barns full of Corne all of a light Flame and their Feilds full of Cattel quite emptyed drove and cleared their Chests full of Mony Rifled their Daughters ravished their Sons Slain in the VVars themselves shut out of doors Languishing in some Ditch as full of Care and Grief as their Hearts can hold ignorant for Anguish of Spirit whether be best for them to Dye of Hunger Languishing in obscurity or to be Slain by the Sword or to expose themselves a Captive at the Enemies Mercy For when the Rich Man looseth his VVealth it is as if his Armes were tearing from his Shoulders or as his Soul driven out of his Body and Flying for refuge into the Arms of Devils But to go on we may conceive in that Day Woe also to the Voluptuous and loose Livers Adulterers Drunkards Gamesters and such like who know nothing to make discourse on but their fond Pleasures of Vanity and Folly These are they whose God is their Belly whose Glory is in their shame who mind Earthly things Philip. 3.1 Who can no more Live without Wine and VVomen Chambering and VVantonness then they can Swear and Swagger without an Head VVhen these therefore shall see the Days that they must be kik't and Spurnd like Dogs and may not Budg one Word of answer nor turn again that they must be Stript and Rifled both of Mony and Cloaths and all the Cringing Fawning and Flattery that ever they were bred up to cannot gain them one Meals Meat nor an half-peny to Buy one Corn of Tobacco or a lick of Brandy Woe therefore to those Quondam Blades who were wont to Huff and Hector all they met and who but they where-ever they came but then barefoot and barelegd with match-cord on their Arms crouching and beseeching like Beggars leading to the Stocks shall be fain to sneak and shrink before every Ragged Boy who drives them with a VVhip as a Pedlar does his Ass VVoe to them that do now call Evil Good and Good Evil for that in those Days they shall find the difference But yet again to go one Step further VVoe also to the Proud and Scornful ones who are us'd to take State upon them and were never yet made to stoop nor to bow the Knee for that in those Days the
miscarriages may befall our Bodies yet our Souls shall be Safe and Chearful and quit of all Dangers Patience is a Divine Vertue whereby a Man is enabled to bear his Cross with as much ease as if it were not the Essence and Strength of this Vertue consisteth in a Stock of Courage and the Power of Habit Facilitating endurance Job 39.20 21 22 23 24 25 c. Pro. 28.1 The Horse is a Beast of great Courage and crys A Ha at the sound of a Trumpet and rejoyceth at the Battel and the shouting of the Captains And when the Righteous are made by the Grace and Power of Gods Spirit bold as Lyons can not they Scorn at Fear think we as well as an Horse and endure the Wracking and tearing of Flesh as well as a Mastiff-Dog and if so then with how much the more ease shall they bear with the loss of Goods and Fond Pleasures And Habit consisteth in the Practice of use which makes endurance easie The Labouror by his use and habit of Labour can abide to dig all Day with as much ease as a Gentleman stands by and looks on The Philosophers and Pagan Men of old were enabled by meer acquired Habits to despise Wealth and Worldly Honours and to scorn Bribery and Flattery and could choose to be Poor rather then Dishonest how much more then shall Christians become Valiant in contempt of the World when Secret Influences of Grace shall inspire our Minds and Spirits with inward Courage and Resolutions Our Duty is therefore to consider the Vertue and Glory as well as the Necessity of the Work in setting our Affections on things above and so put our selves upon the means with all possible Diligence in the Practice and we shall soon find Experience enough of Divine helps giving Encouragement so as no Difficulty shall be able to dishearten 3. But then 3dly We must remember to have a care lest at any time our hearts be over charged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness Cares of this Life Lu. 21.34 35. and so the day of Danger come upon us unawares For as a Snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the Face of the whole Earth Drunkenness and Whordom and Covetuousness destroys more Countrys Citys Armies and Men then Plague and Famine and the most Cruel and Bloudy Wars For in all such cases Men have their Eyes in their Heads and as they see their Danger imminent so they exercise their Reason and Wits to prevent it and whether they Live or Die they make the best of their condition But in these cases wise Men do become and that by their own Act Sots and Fools and expose and lay open themselves to be baffled betrayed abased and killed and to become odious to God and Man a Prey to the Enemy and God shall not pity them nor revenge their wrongs Now the Righteous do also become a Prey unto the Enemy many times by Gods Permission for Tryal of Faith and Patience and other Reasons but then here is their comfort 1st That it is not through their own default nor for want of Eyes or looking about them but meerly for that they were abused and they Suffer for Conscience and Truth and Righteousness 2dly 1 Pet. 4.18 That God will before or after Death be sure to avenge their Cause But now if the Righteous scarcely be saved but have also their Hell even in this Life where shall the ungodly and the wicked appear Good Men have their Tryals of Affliction for a time and their Hell upon Earth for a while and Evil Men have their time to Glory in their Prosperity As our Saviour says the true Church Men shall Lament and Weep Joh. 16.20 and the World shall rejoyce in their Surfeiting and Wantonness they have Loved the Creature above the Creator and the Pleasures on Earth beyond the hopes of Heaven and yet these brute Breasts are allowed to be Merry and to have the World at Will and truly careful and good Men must Suffer Tribulation But there is a time when Tribulation shall come upon a Land with an Universal Scourge like as a Theif comes in the Night 1 Thes 5.2 3. And then when they cry Peace and Safety Lo then sudden Destruction will come on like a Woman in Travel But in that Day says Christ to all who are his their Sorrow shall be turned into joy For says he I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce Joh. 16.22 Rom. 14.17 so as no Man shall be able to take away Joy from you That is holy Men shall be comforted with secret cheerfulness from within in a quite different manner from all pleasures of the Flesh But Worldly Men whose God is their Belly and whose Glory is in their Shame shall be surprized like the five Foolish Virgins Mat. 25.1 c. who for want of Oyl in their Lamps were shut out when the day came of the Marriage Feast and shall be taken as it were in a Net like the Men of Sodom or of the old World at which times Lot and Noah were preserved alone Fleshly Lusts War against the Soul by besotting and bewitching it into a Fond security 1 Pet. 2.11 which tendeth to its Ruine To prevent therefore the emminent Danger of Publick Calamities we must shun Surfeiting Wantonness for they expose us into the very gulf of Miseries and prevent us of all means of escape But Lu. 21.36 4ly We must Watch and Pray always that we may be counted worthy to escape No Man can escape but by help of God Man cannot help in such a case 't is God only can do it And God helps none unless he have a worth in him and that worth must come by Christ there is nothing in our selves no not in the best of us Here lies the thing therefore we must be found in Christ that is as Men who have put off the ways of the World in Rioting and Drunkenness and Covetuosness and are experienced in the ways of Christ knowing the value of spiritual Joys hid Treasures whose worth the World knows nothing of And in order to compass these we must 1st Watch that is Exercise all possible Care and Diligence in taking heed to abstain from Sin and to increase in Vertue and Godliness take heed of Thoughts that are vain or Evil how they get ground of us of Evil Company lest it seduce us and above all of Evil Works lest they Gain an Habit upon us and to these purposes are we to Watch. And 2dly We must pray always that is use all possibly Godly means of Hearing Meditation Reading Godly Conference above all especially Prayer always in a continual course of Prayer and in frequent Act of Prayer and all to this end that we may be found in Christ and so when the Tribulations come and the Signs come and the Perplexity of all Nations shall come yet that we may be Safe Amen FINIS