Magistrate or Prince as well as the private man is bound to keep the Law of God of Nature c. not onely in particular things for his own singular carriage but also in publike businesses for the good and society of men or of the people for God hath given his Law and Nature her Dictates to all to the observance of which all men are tyed Yea farther they are not onely bound in their severall Conditions and tyed to the performance thereof in their own persons but also are bound to further it with all their might and take away all things that may lett and stop this performance or deterre and withdraw men from it Read Levit. 19.17 where every man is commanded to rebuke his neighbour and stop him from sinning Read Deut. 17.19 20. where the King is commanded to have continually the Copie of the Law before him for his Rule and Guide What is in 1 Sam. 8.10 is what a King is likely to do and not what he ought or should do This is cleer for in the place now named in Deuteronomy the King is told what he ought to do but that he is said to do in Samuel is contrary to the Ordinance of God Confer the places and you will easily see this truth Next a Prince is said to be absolute that is not in any kinde subaltern to another and whose subjects acknowledge under God no other but him Hence you may see That the Popish Kings and Princes are not absolute for beside the great number of people within their Dominions who are immediate sworn vassalls to the Pope I mean the Shavelings The Prince himself takes Oath at his Reception To uphold the over-ruling Government of the Pope under the masked name of Spirituality and the simple abused Prince shall have for a reward to make up all a little holy Oyl to anoynt him and bear the Title of most Christian or Catholike Princes Farther I say That the Prince who although in some things hath cast off the yoke of this god upon earth for so is the Pope now and then called but keeps up a part of his tyranny in the Church of God over his people wants and loses so much of his absolutenesse for this tye upon him from a forreign Prince the Pope But here the Pope sheweth the height of his cunning for he seeing that Princes are told frequently That they are either absolute or ought to be such bethinks himself to keep up his super-eminency above Princes as his vassalls and yet make the Princes finde an absolutenesse which he acts by his Emissaries and their inferiour instruments for their own private ends whom he makes inculcate in the ears of Princes That their absolutenesse consisteth in doing with the Life Liberty and Fortunes of the People as seems good in their eyes without any regard to the good of humane Society which is the true End of all Government But with this Proviso That those who have relation to him immediately be exempted and these are not onely his shavelings who are openly obedient to his commands and orders c. but also those yea in Kingdoms where his name is in a kinde rejected who keep up his tyrannicall Laws and Ordinances as we have felt of late namely in these Dominions wherein we live to our wofull experience for they to uphold and encrease their power have cast both Prince and People into great troubles making the Prince believe That without them he hath no being But to shew thee that Princes may use the people committed to their Charge like beasts and yet neverthelesse are not absolute cast thy eyes in the neighbour Countreys onely upon the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Florence who although they be Sovereigns in a kinde over the people and deal most hardly with them taking their Lives and Fortunes away at their pleasure yet they are not acknowledged to be absolute Princes for they are vassalls of the Empire and their chief titles are to be Officers thereof So the Duke of Savoy is qualified Vicar of the Empire c. If you consider the Prince and people committed to his Charge as having relation one to another I say they are both bound one to another by Duty the Prince first bound to rule and govern according to the Law of God of Nature of Nations and Municipall Laws of the Countrey and the People is bound to obey him accordingly but if the Prince command any thing against these his commands are not to be obeyed God being onely he to whose commands Obedience is simply due and to be given but to men onely obedience with limitation and in externall things according to the Laws so oft above named at the least not against them or opposite to them The Chimaera or rather Solaecisme in reason of passive Obedience is not to be thought on among rationall men it being the invention of Court-parasites a meer nothing or non ens for Obedience consisteth in action as all other vertues do and not is suffering Farther whosoever for not obeying a wicked command of a Superiour suffereth if he can stop it or shun it is an enemy to his own being wherein he offends against nature for you see every naturall thing striveth to conserve it self against what annoyeth it then he sins against the Order of God who in vain hath ordained us so many lawfull Means for the preservation of our Being if we suffer it to be destroyed having power to help it But then it will be demanded What is there no absolutenesse in humane Authority I answer simple absolutenesse there is none under God For all humane Authority is limited by the Laws aforesaid and extends to farther then externall things yet comparatively humane Authority is said to be absolute when it is free from any Forreigne Superiour Power So when Henry the eighth having cast off the Romish yoak and putting down the vassallage of these his Dominions unto the Pope caused divers Books to be written of the absolute Empire or Authority of the Prince although after the freeing himself from the Pope he had not nor did not pretend to have any more absolute power over the people then he had before but albeit this Prince did much for the regaining the absolute Authority to the Crown again in chasing away the Romish Pontiff yet he did it not fully in so farre as he kept still the Romish Rites and the Hierarchy or Prelacy wherein the Romish Fox lurking hath kept himself in these Countreys unto this day and now having acted the Fox long enough he is acting the Woolf by dedestroying the people of God if the Successors of King Henry had not kept in the Romish Superstitious Rites and Hierarchy they and we all had had better times then we have all tasted of Although King Henry for his Vices be blame worthy to all posterity yet I must say in all humane appearance That if the Prelat-Bishops to whom he trusted the reforming of the abuses
trouve en lien trop suspect that is Because I was found in a place too much suspected At the place of Execution when he saw that there was no remedie but death he made a godly confession and granted that his declining from the truth of God and following of vanitie and impietie was justly repayed unto him But in the end he concluded looking unto the Heavens with these words O cruelle Dame What that complaint imported I leave it to conjecture and so received Chattelet the reward of his dancing for he lost his Head that his Tongue should not utter the secrets of our Queen deliver us O Lord from the rage of so inordinate a Court. The year of God 1563. there was a universall death in all Scotland but in the North where the Harvest before the Queene had been there was a great Famine of which may died in that Countrey the dearth was great over all but the Famine in the Wheat the Beare or Barley the Meale the Oates Beefe Mutton c were exceeding dear and scant yea all things appertaining to the sustentation of man in triple and more exceeded their accustomed prices And so did God according to the threatning of the Law punish the Idolatry of our wicked Rulers and our ingratitude that suffered them to defile the Land with that abomination again that God so potently had purged by the power of his Word for the riotous Feasting and excessive Banquetting used in City and Countrey wheresoever that the prophane Court repaired provoked God to strike the Staffe of Bread and to give his maledictions upon the fruits of the earth But alas who looked or yet looks to the true cause of our Calamitie Lethington was absent as before we have heard in the Queens affairs the Papists at that Pasch. Ann. 1563. in divers parts of the Realm had erected that Idoll the Masse amongst whom the Bish. of S. Andrews the Prior of Quihithorn with divers others of that faction would avow it Besides the first Proclamation there had Letters past in the contrary with certification of death to the contraveiner The Brethren universally offended and espying that the Queene by Proclamation did but delude them determined to put to their own hands and to punish for example of others and so some Priests in the West-Land were apprehended Intimation made unto others as to the Abbot of Cosragnell the Parson of Sangohar and such that they should neither complaine to the Queene nor Counsell but should execute the punishment that God has appointed to Idolaters in his Law by such means as they might where ever they should be apprehended The Queen stormed at such freedom of speaking but she could not amend it for the Spirit of God of boldnesse and of wisdome had not left the most part of such as God had made Instruments in the beginning they were of one minde to maintaine the truth and to suppresse Idolatry particularities had not divided them and therefore could not the Devill working in the Court and in Papists do then what they would and therefore the Court began to invent a new craft The Queen advised to send for Iohn Knox to come to her where she lay at Lochlevin She dealt with him earnestly two houres before supper that he would be the Instrument to perswade the people and principally the Gentlemen of the West not to put hand to punish any man for the using of themselves in their religions as pleased them The other perceiving her craft willed her Majestie to punish Malefactors according to the Laws and he durst promise quietnesse upon the parâ— of all them that professed the Lord Jesus within Scotland But if her Majestie thought to delude the Laws he said he feared some would let the Papists understand that without punishment they should no be suffered so manifestly to offend Gods Majestie Will ye quoth she allow that they shall take my Sword in their hand The Sword of Justice quoth he Madame is Gods and is given to Princes and Rulers for one end which if they transgresse sparing the wicked and oppressing the Innocents They that in the fear of God execute Judgement where God hath commanded offend not God although Kings do it not neither yet sin they that bridle Kings to strike innocent men in their rage The examples are evident for Samuel spared not to slay Agag the fat and delicate King of Amelek whom King Saul had saved Neither spared Elias Iezabels false Prophets and Baals Priests albeit that King Achab was present Phineas was no Magistrate and yet feared he not to strike Zimri and Cozbi in the very act of filthy Fornication And so Madame your Majesty may see that others then chief Magistrates may lawfully punish and have punished the vice and crimes that God commands to be punished For Power by Act of Parliament is given to all Judges within their own bounds to search the Masse-mongers or hearers of the same and to punish them according to the Law And therefore it shall be profitable to your Majesty to consider what is the thing your Majesties subjects look to receive of your Majesty and what it is you ought to do unto them by mutuall Contract They are bound to obey you and that not but in God ye are bound to keep Laws unto them Ye crave of them service They crave of you Protection and Defence against wicked doers Now Madame if ye shall deny your Duty unto them who especially crave that ye punish Malefactors Think ye to receive full Obedience of them I fear Madame ye shall not Herewith she being somewhat offended past to her Supper The said Iohn left her and informed the Earle of Murray of the whole reasoning and so departed of finall purpose to have returned to Edinburgh without any further communication with the Queen But before the Sun rising on the morne were two directed Wat Melvill was the one to him commanding him not to depart whilst he had spoken with the Queens Majesty which he did and met her at the Hawking by West Kinros Whether it was the nights sleepe or a deep dissimulation locked in her brest that made her to forget the former anger wise men may doubt But thereof she never moved word but began divers other purposes such as the offering of a Ring to her by the Lord Ruthuen whom said she I cannot love for I know him to use Enchantment and yet he is one of my Privy Councell Whom blameth your Majesty said the other thereof Lethington said she was the whole cause That man is absent for this present said he Madame and therefore I will speak nothing in that behalfe I understand said the Queen That ye are appointed to go to Dumfreis for the Election of a Superintendent to be established in those Countreyes Yes said he those Quarters have great need and some of the Gentlemen so require But I heare said she That the Bishop of Caithnes would be Superintendent He is one
have done against the children of Reuben Gad and Manasses for their suspected Apostasie and defection from God And the whole Tribes did in very deed execute that sharp judgement against the Tribe of Benjamin for a lesse offence then for Idolatry And the same ought to be one wheresoever Christ Jesus and his Evangell is so received in any Realm Province or Citie that the Magistrates and people have solemnly avowed and promised to defend the same as under King Edward of late dayes was done in England In such places it is not onely lawfull to punish to the death such as labour to subvert the true Religion but the Magistrates and people are bound so to unlesse they will provoke the wrath of God against themselves And therefore I fear not to affirm That it had been the duty of the Nobilitie Judges Rulers and people of England to have resisted and gain-standed Mary their Queen with all the sort of her Idolatrous Priests together with all such as should have assisted her when that she and they openly began to suppresse Christs Evangell to shed the blood of the Saints of God and to erect that most devillish Idolatry the Papisticall abominations and his usurped tyranny which once most justly by common Oath was banished from that Realm But because I cannot at this present discusse this argument as it appertaineth I am compelled to omit it to better opportunity and so returning to your Honours I say That if ye confesse your selves baptized in the Lord Jesus as of necessity ye must confesse That the care of Religion doth appertain to your charge And if ye know that in your hands God hath put the sword for the causes above expressed then can ye not deny but that the punishment of obstinate and malapert Idolaters such as all your Bishops be doth appertain to your Office if after admonition they continue obstinate I am not ignorant what be the vain defences of your proud Prelats they claim first A prerogative and priviledge That they are exempted and that by consent of Councells and Emperouts from all Jurisdiction of the Temporalty And secondly when they are convinced of manifest impiety abuses and enormities as well in their manners as in Religion neither fear nor shame they to affirm That things so long established cannot suddenly be reformed although they be corrupted but with processe of time they promise to take order But in few words I answer That no priviledge granted against the Ordinance and Statutes of God is to be observed although all Councells and men on the earth have appointed the same But against Gods Ordinance it is That Idolaters murtherers false Teachers and Blasphemers shall be exempted from punishment as before is declared and therefore in vain it is that they claim for priviledge when God saith The murtherer shalt thou drive from my Altar that he may die the death And as to the Order and Reformation which they promise that is to be looked or hoped for when Satan whose children and slaves they are can change his nature This answer I doubt not shall suffice the sober and godly reader But yet to the end that they may further see their own confusion and that your Honours may the better understand what ye ought to do in so manifest a corruption and defection from God I ask of them What assurance they have of this their immunity exemption or priviledge Who is the author of it And what fruit it hath produced And first I say That of God they have no assurance neither yet can he be proved to be author of any such priviledge But the contrary is easie to be seen for God in establishing his Orders in Israel did so subject Aaron in his Priesthood being the figure of Christ to Moses that he feared not to call him in judgement and to constrain him to give accounts of his wicked deed in consenting to Idolatry as the History doth plainly witnesse for thus it is written Then Moses took the Calfe which they had made and burned it with fire and did grinde it to powder and scattering it in the water gave it to drink to the children of Israel declaring thereby the vanity of their Idol and the abomination of the same And thereafter Moses said to Aaron What hath this people done to thee that thou shouldest bring upon it so a great sin Thus I say doth Moses call Aaron and accuse him of the destruction of the whole people and yet he perfectly understood that God had appointed him to be the high Priest That he should bear upon his shoulders and upon his brest the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel for whom he was appointed to make sacrifice prayers and supplications He knew his dignitie was so great that onely he might enter within the most holy place but neither could his Office nor dignitie exempt him from judgement when he had offended If any object Aaron at that time was not anointed and therefore was he subject to Moses I have answered That Moses being taught by the mouth of God did perfectly understand to what dignitie Aaron was appointed and yet he feared not to call him in judgement and to compell him to make answer for his wicked fact But if this answer doth not suffice yet shall the Holy Ghost witnesse further in the matter Salomon removed from honour Abiathar being the High Priest and commanded him to cease from all function and to live as a private man Now if the Unction did exempt the Priest from Jurisdiction of the Civill Magistrate Solomon did offend and injured Abiathar for he was Anointed and had carried the Arke before David But God doth not reprove the fact of Solomon neither yet doth Abiathar claime any prerogative by the reason of his Office but rather doth the Holy Ghost approve the fact of Solomon saying Solomon ejected forth Abiathar that he should not be the Priest of the Lord that the word of the Lord might be performed which he spake upon the house of Eli. And Abiathar did thinke that hee obtained great favour in that hee did escape the present death which by his Conspiracie he had deserved If any yet reason That Abiathar was no otherwise subject to the judgement of the King but as he was appointed to be the executor of that sentence which GOD before had pronounced as I will not greatly denie that reason so require I that every man consider That the same God who pronounced sentence against Eli and his house hath pronounced also That Idolaters Whore-mongers Murtherers and Blasphemers shall neither have portion in the Kingdom of God neither ought to be permitted to bear any Rule in his Church and Congregation Now if the Unction and Office saved not Abiathar because that Gods sentence must needs be performed Can any priviledge granted by man be a Buckler to malefactors that they shall not be subject to the punishments pronounced by God I think no man
rich and potent in Israel If this equality was commanded by God for maintenance of that transitory tabernacle which was but a shadow of a better to come is not the same required of us who now have the verity which is Christ Jesus who being clad with our nature is made Immanuel that is God with us Whose naturall body albeit it be received into the Heavens where he must abide till all be compleat that is forespoken by the Prophets yet hath he promised to be present with us to the end of the world And for that purpose and for the more assurance of his Promise he hath erected amongst us here in earth the Signes of his own presence with us his spirituall Tabernacle the true preaching of his Word and right administration of his Sacraments to the maintenance whereof is no lesse bound the subject then the Prince the poor then the rich For as the Price which was given for mans redemption is one so God requireth of all that shall be partakers of the benefits of the same a like duty which is a plain confession That by Christ Jesus alone we have received whatsoever was lost in Adam Of the Prince doth God require That he refuse himself and that he follow Christ Jesus of the Subject he requireth the same Of the Kings and Judges it is required That they kisse the Son that is give honour subjection and obedience to him and from such reverence doth not God exempt the Subject that shall be saved and this is That equality which is betwixt the kings and subjects the most rich or noble and betwixt the poorest and men of lowest state to wit That as the one is obliged to beleeve in heart and with mouth to confesse the Lord Jesus to be the onely Saviour of the world so also is the other Neither is there any of Gods children who hath attained to the yeers of discretion so poor but that he hath thus much to bestow upon the Ornaments and maintenance of their spirituall Tabernacle when necessity requireth neither yet is there any so rich of whose hands God requireth any more For albeit that David gathered great substance for the building of the Temple that Solomon with earnest diligence and incredible expences erected and finished the same That Hezekiah and Iosiah purged the Religion which before was corrupted yet to them was God no further debter in that respect then he was to the most simple of the faithfull posterity of faithfull Abraham for their diligence zeal and works gave rather testimony and confession before men what honour they did bear to God what love to his Word what reverence to his Religion then that any work proceeding from them did either establish or yet encrease Gods favour towards them who freely did love them in Christ his Son before the foundation of the world was laid So that these forenamed by their notable works gave testimony of their unfained faith and the same doth the poorest that unfainedly and openly professeth Christ Jesus and doth embrace his glad tydings offered That doth abhor Superstition and flie from Idolatry The poorest I say and most simple that this day on earth in the dayes of this cruell persecution firmly believeth in Christ and boldly doth confesse him before this wicked generation is no lesse acceptable before God neither is judged in his presence to have done any lesse in promoting Christ his Cause then is the King that by his sword and power which he hath received of God rooteth out Idolatry and so advanceth Christs glory But to return to our former purpose It is no lesse required I say of the subject to believe in Christ and to professe his true Religion then of the Prince and King And therefore I affirm That in Gods presence it shall not excuse you to alleadge That yee were no chief Rulers and therefore that the care and reformation of Religion did not appertain unto you Yee dear brethren as before is said are the creatures of God created to his own Image and similitude to whom it is commanded To hear the voice of your heavenly Father To embrace his Son Christ Jesus To flie from all doctrine and Religion which he hath not approved by his own Will revealed to us in his most blessed Word To which Precepts and Charges if yee be found inobedient ye shall perish in your iniquity as rebells and stubborn servants that have no pleasure to obey the good Will of their Soveraign Lord who most lovingly doth call for your obedience And therefore brethren in this behalf it is your part to be carefull and diligent For the question is not of things temporall which although they be endangered yet by diligence and processe of time may after be redressed but it is of the damnation of your bodies and souls and of the losse of life everlasting which once lost can never be recovered And therefore I say That it behoveth you to be carefull and diligent in this so weighty a matter lest that ye contemning this occasion which God now offereth finde not the like although that after with groaning and sobs ye languish for the same And that ye be not ignorant of what occasion I mean in few words I shall expresse it Not onely I but with me also divers other godly and learned men do offer unto you our labours faithfully to instruct you in the wayes of the eternall our God and in the sincerity of Christs Evangell which this day by the pestilent Generation of Antichrist I mean by the Pope and by his most ungodly Clergy are almost hid from the eyes of men We offer to jeopard our lives for the salvation of your souls and by manifest Scriptures to prove that Religion that amongst you is maintained by fire and sword to be false vain and diabolicall We require nothing of you but that patiently ye will hear our Doctrine which is not ours but the Doctrine of salvation revealed to the world by the onely Son of God And that ye will examine our reasons by the which we offer to prove the Papisticall Religion to be abominable before God And last we require That by your power the tyranny of those cruell beasts I mean of Priests and Fryers may be bridled till we have uttered our mindes in all matters this day debatable in Religion If these things in the fear of God ye grant to me and unto others that unfainedly for your salvation and for Gods glory require the same I am assured That of God ye shall be blessed whatsoever Satan shall devise against you But and if ye contemn or refuse God who thus lovingly offereth unto you salvation and life ye shall neither escape plagues Temporall which shortly shall apprehend you neither yet the torment prepared for the devill and for his angels except by your speedy repentance ye return to the Lord whom now ye refuse if that ye refuse the Messengers of his
who so mercifully ruled in the midst of them The temptation no doubt of the Israelites was great in those dayes They were carried captives from the Land of Canaan which was to them the gage and pledge of Gods favour towards them for it was the inheritance that God promised to Abraham and to his seed for ever The League and Covenant of Gods Protection appeared to have been broken They lamentably complain That they saw not their accustomed signes of Gods mercifull presence The true Prophets were few and the abominations used in Babylon were exceeding many And so it might have appeared to them That in vain it was that they were called the Posterity of Abraham or that ever they had received the Law or Forme of right Religion from God That we may the better feel it in our selves the temptation I say was even such as if God should utterly destroy all Order and Policie that this day is within his Church that the true preaching of the Word should be suppressed The right use of Sacraments abolished Idolatry and Papisticall abomination erected up again And therewith That our bodies should be taken prisoners by Turks or other manifest enemies of God and of all godlinesse Such I say was their temptation How notable then is this their confession that in bondage they make to wit That they will remember God onely albeit he hath appeared to turn his face from them They will remember his name and will call to minde the deliverance promised Hereof have we to consider what is our duty If God bring us as for our offences and unthankfulnesse justly he may to the like extremity This confession is not the fair flattering words of hypocrites lying and bathing in their pleasures but it is the mighty operation of the Spirit of God who leaveth not his own destitute of some comfort in their most desperate calamities This is then our duty not onely to confesse our God in time of peace and quietnesse but he chiefly craveth that we avow him in the midst of his and our enemies And this is not in us to do but it behoveth That the Spirit of God work in us above all power of nature And thus we ought earnestly to meditate before the battell rise more vehement which appeareth not to be far off But now must we enter in somewhat more deeply to consider these judgements of God This people dealt with all as we have heard was the onely people upon the face of the Earth to whom God was rightly known among them onely were his Laws Statutes Ordinances and Sacrifices used and put in practise They onely invocated his Name and to them alone had he promised his protection and assistance What then should be the cause that he should give them over into this great reproach and bring them into such extremity as his own name in them should be blasphemed The Prophet Ezekiel that saw this horrible destruction forespoken by Isaiah put in just execution giveth an answer in these words I gave unto them Laws that were good in the which Whosoever should walk should live in them But they would not walk in my wayes but rebelled against me And therefore I have given unto them Laws that are not good and Iudgements in the which they shall not live The Writers of the Books of Kings and Chronicles declare this in more plain words saying The Lord sent unto them his Prophets rising early desiring of them to return unto the Lord and to amend their wicked wayes for he would have spared his people and his Tabernacle but they mocked his servants and would not return unto the Lord their God to walk in his wayes Yea Iudah it self kept not the precepts of the Lord God but walked in the Manners and Ordinances of Israel That is Of such as then had declined to Idolatry from the dayes of Ieroboam And therefore the Lord God abhorred the whole seed of Israel that is The whole body of the people he promised them and gave them into the hands of those that spoiled them and so he cast them out from his presence Hereof it is evident That their disobedience unto God and unto the voices of his Prophets was the cause of their destruction Now have we to take heed how we should use the good Laws of God that is his Will revealed unto us in his Word and that Order of Justice that by him for the comfort of man is established amongst men It is no doubt but that obedience is the most acceptable sacrifice unto God and that which above all things he requireth That when he manifesteth himselfe by his word that men follow according to their vocation and commandment Now so it is that God by that great Pastor our Lord Jesus now manifestly in his word calleth us from all impiety as well of body as of mind to holinesse of life and to his spirituall service And for this purpose he hath erected the throne of his mercy among us the true preaching of his word together with the right administration of his Sacraments But what is our obedience let every man examine his own conscience and consider what statutes and lawes we would have to be given unto us Wouldst thou O Scotland have a King to raign over thee in justice equity and mercy subject thou thy selfe to the Lord thy God obey his commandments and magnifie thou that word that calleth unto thee This is the way walke into it and if thou wilt not flatter not thy self the same justice remaineth this day in God to punish thee Scotland and thee Edinburgh in especiall that before punished the land of Iuda and the City of Ierusalem Every Realm or Nation saith the Prophet Ieremy that likewise offendeth shall be likewise punished But if thou shalt see impiety placed in the seat of justice above thee so that in the Throne of God as Salomon doth complain raigneth nothing but fraud violence accuse thy own ingratitude and rebellion against God for that is the only cause why God taketh away as the same Prophet in another place doth speak the strong man and the man of war the Judge and the Prophet the prudent and the aged the Captain and the honourable the Counsellor and the cunning Artificer And I will appoint saith the Lord children to be their Princes and babes shall rule over them Children are extortioners of my people and women have rule over them If these calamities I say apprehend us so that we see nothing but the oppression of good men and of all godlinesse and wicked men without God to reigne above us Let us accuse and condemn our selves as the onely cause of our own miseries For if we had heard the voyce of the Lord our God given upright obedience unto the same God should have multiplyed our peace should have rewarded our obedience before the eyes of the world But now let us hear what the Prophet saith further