the words of God be fulfilled so that they shall thus fight with the Lambe yet the Lambe shall overcome them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are on his side are called faithfull and chosen And then even those same Kings the remainder of y◠ten hornes which have so long before and some of them do still fight against the Lambe some more furiously others less shall all in the time appointed hate the whore make her desolate and naked and eate her flesh and burne her with fire for that God will put into their hearts thus to fulfill his will And yet more also for our further assurance of this and to provoke our soules to loud and instant crying unto the Lord in this behalfe for the accomplishment hereof wee are to bring our hearts to a ioyfull Meditation and remembrance how our blessed God hath discovered that scarlet-coloured Whore to all the world and more now then ever heretofore both in all this bloody rage against him and against all his poore Churches and Children and their cruell intendments against all the rest even against every soule of us truly professing his name And also how he hath laide her forth to bee visibly beholden of all in all her filthy whoredomes and inticements to wit all those abhominable doctrines devices slanders and blasphemies against him and against his heavenly word and above all in the Powder-treason wherein Sathan shewed himselfe in his cheefest workes both of lying and murther in a speciall manner to all the world and above all former times wherein wee are to hope that Antichrist received his deadly wound which all the power of hell shall never cure againe and that in Gods due time hee will fall downe of a sodaine as a Deere or other like beast deadly smitten when he hath by his owne violence spent himselfe That our Lord Iesus Christ hath clearly foreshewed the destruction of that Whore of Babylon that childe of perdition than man of sin and of all his followers yea of every one that receives his marke on his forehead or in his right hand or that is any way on his side to fight against him That hee hath not onely made all the hoast of heaven even al his holy Angels and Saints both in heaven and earth to reioyce and sing Hallelujah for the condemning of the great Whore the victorie given unto the Saints but also hath made proclamation with a loud voyce by the Angell in the Sunne and this to all the Fowles that fly through the middest of heaven viz. to all the Kings and Princes Captaines and Souldiers that shall fight under his glorious Maiesty and for him That they should come eate the flesh of Kings and of great Captaines and of all mighty men and even of all those both great and small that followed the Beast that is to be enriched with their spoyles That he will destroy every one that hath not his name enrolled in his booke to bee on his side that is every one who is not of his called chosen and faithfull flocke yea every one that doth not so strive to prepare himselfe thus to fight for him and under him so as he may be sure to prevaile and overcome and remaine with him faithfully fighting unto the death untill hee have the crowne of life The ninth particular Meditation of the second generall how our Lord Iesus Christ is that everlasting Amen and comming quickly FInally we are never to rest untill wee have brought our hearts to a comfortable reioycing that our Lord Iesus Christ is that everlasting Amen that faithfull and true witness who will performe every word that hee hath spoken in his due time and in such sort as he hath revealed the same though the particular manner bee yet unknowne to us That hee is comming quickly to render to every one according to his workes That wee are not to give our hearts any rest untill we are able thus to cry in faithfulness with all the Saints and all the hoast of heaven Amen Amen Our Lord Iesus Christ onely reigneth for evermore Amen Amen The third generall Meditation Thirdly what manner of ones we must bee whom the Lord so calleth and whome hee will admit and accept to bee his helpers herein and whose prayers shall be available with him according to the same heavenly direction in Lords praier THus have wee done with these first points for our preparation by bringing our hearts to a right consideration of the course which the Lord is wont to take in saving his Church and a true feeling of the necessity of our prayers at this time Now whēby our due pondering of all these things and the like and never resting untill by our deepe Meditation of them we can have them as it were before our eyes continually so to see lively the urgent necessity of these our Prayers and that we can thereby heare the Lord crying loud unto us to helpe him and his Church herein we are in the next place as carefully to see that we be such as he calleth being qualified in all things accordingly if ever wee will get sound assurance to our owne soules to prevaile or to be accepted And this wee may learne likewise out of our Saviours direction in that heavenly patterne for prayer then which all the wisedome of the world can never give us a more sure and plaine rule To which end also as for all the other before mentioned we ought the more diligently to looke unto it and to Meditate of it and that in this manner The first particular Meditation of the third generall To make sure that wee bee the true children of our heavenly Father Here wee are to stirre up our selves to this dutie 1. That having the former view ever before our faces as much as we are able and this true feeling ever also in our hearts and withall this lively voyce of Christs loving call to helpe him and his Church stil sounding shrill in our eares wee labour day and night to make sure that we be the true Children of our heavenly Father full of Child-like and naturall affections to his heavenly Majesty That wee have thus put on the Image of our Lord Iesus Christ and are hereby as holy Peter speaketh partakers of the divine Nature not earthly but heavenly minded burning in the love of his Majesty of his word ordinances and Children full of faith in Christ Iesus and of all dutie and holy obedience that in all fulnesse of assurance through our Lord Iesus Christ wee can by the power and witnesse of his holy Spirit cry unto him Abba O Father and seeke to bee as instant for all our Bretheren as for our selves labouring ever to grow herein and in the acknowledgment of our owne vilenesse by nature and of our unworthynesse either to bee called his children
our Lord Iesus Christ to escape the â—…orment which they must otherwise indure with them for evermore OH Lord God most holy and most righteous thou hast said thou wilt bee sanctisied in all that draw neeâ—…e unto thee and therefore as thou arâ—… infinite in mercy towards all those who unfeignedly feare thy holy name and â—…mble at thy word and wâ—…t â—…eale thy secrets unto them and make them of thy priviâ—… counsell so thou art most dreadfull terrible unto all other who regard thee not in any such holy manner as to 〈◊〉 thee and to receive the loâ—… of thy most sacred truth Awaken we beseech tâ—…ee all those who are drunke with the wine of Popery and superstition that â—…t length they may behold in what â—… fearfull and desparate state they stand under the power of Sathan and Antichrist ready to bee â—…st into hell every moment of time Make them able to consider aright of the just 〈◊〉 which thou hast threatned to follow the contempt of thy Gospell chiefly in the dayes of Antichrist and whether for that very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have not deserved it to come upon them That therefore thou wilt send upon them strong delusions that they shall beleeve lyes and be damned because they would not receive the love of thy sacred truth so as to obey it that they might be saved Make them to bethinke themselves wisely seriously and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presence what iniquity they have found in thee 〈◊〉 in our way of life or â—…n 〈◊〉 â—…ow they â—…de in Baptisme that they have so 〈◊〉 renounced and abjured it and deparâ—…d from the boâ—… of their mother to caâ—…t her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with her â—…hine owne â—…jesty â—…o fearfully â—…o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—… 〈◊〉 of their 〈◊〉 blindnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through 〈◊〉 strong 〈◊〉 whereâ—…â—…o many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bene and are dayly so carried away to that Idolatrous religion Goâ—… Lord make them able to discerne how grosse palpablâ—… those lyes are wherby the â—…cers doe bewitch them as â—…amely that so lately divulged of the Twenty severall sorts of Bibles which within thâ—…se sâ—…w yeares past England hath brought forth Cause them by this one to discerne of all the rest of their delusions when they dare proclaiâ—… such notorious lyes before alâ—… the world as every poore simple body may understand see anâ—…â—…ust needs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them all tâ—…t 〈◊〉 â—…nto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceive in due time that this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all other their most deepâ—… and 〈◊〉 â—…entions whereby they seekâ—…â—…o raise a slandâ—…r upon thine owne Meâ—… 〈◊〉 truth and people to make their poore seduced Prosâ—…lites to abhorâ—… them and so to roote out both the remembrance of thy great nâ—…me of thy Religion and people from the face of the 〈◊〉 Make them to weigh well how they have do deceive and most shamefully abuse them all in perswading of them that they have moe devotion in their Church then we in ours and that therefore they are to joyne themselves to tâ—…em when as they have hardly the tenth part of the bookes of devotion and others tendiâ—…g thereunto viz to â—…orther Religion and godâ—… which the ignorant â—…ort can come by which wâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ours and much less of 〈◊〉 Sâ—…mons tending to the â—…ame Cause them to have a true sense of that delusion that they tell them that their devotions are more holy then ours when as ours are grounded directly upon thy most blessed and eternall word theire upon doctrinâ—… and traditions of men 〈◊〉 the doctrines of 〈…〉 of sinne 〈…〉 thy glory thâ—…t 〈…〉 may 〈…〉 thee their â—…o 〈…〉 thee of thine honour 〈◊〉 giving it to 〈…〉 tend onely to 〈…〉 Lord Iesus Christ 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 many other thing 〈…〉 place of him 〈…〉 which 〈…〉 wholy to 〈…〉 pride of mâ—…n theirs â—…o 〈◊〉 him up like Lucifer Make them to concelve aright how ours helpe us to understand and keepe our Baptisme vow Covenant with our God theirs to keepe them in ignorance of it all their dayes Ours teach us to sight â—…anfully under the banner of our Lord Iesus and for him oâ—…ely their 's to sight desparately against him and all his armies ours teaching and helping us to walke in the narrow path prescribed by â—…hee our blessed Lord and Saviour theirs to kill all who will not runne with them into by-paths and the broad way leading to hell How ours instruct and guide us to live onely the life of faith directed by thy heavenly word their 's the life of unbeleefe having nothing for the ground but the meere word of sinfull man how ours teach and direct us to live the life of faith by a particulâ—…â—…plying of Christ 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 so truly ingrafting â—…d in coâ—…porating us into Christ 〈◊〉 by his holy Spirit and thereby making us good trees 〈◊〉 wee may bring forth good fruite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beleeve in generall and as the Church beleeves without any such particular application which â—…aith of theirs can neuer bring forth the â—…ound fruites of â—…anctification and true righteonsnesse especially when they scorne and persecute this true and saying faith as fantasticall and vaine Good Father 〈◊〉 these poore soules to understand and know how ours directe us to live the life of true godlinesse guided by thy word and Spirit which alone 〈◊〉 all the promises for this and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life theirs teaching chiefly to live the life of superstition by bodily exerciâ—… themselves in such works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never required in any such manner Oâ—… perswade them all how ourâ—… bring to yâ— true practisers of them full assurance of thy 〈◊〉 and love and thereby â—…oy unspeakable glorious theirs bringing nothing but onely a â—…aggering hope so still doubting whether they be in thy favour or not which very doubting when the conscience shall bee thoroughly awaked will bring the very flashings of hell fire upon them How ours are heaven upon earth their 's hell upon earth ours the sweetest in the end when as each of them done in faith hath a reward promised thereunto their 's the bitterest in the end when instead of reward thou wilt demand concerning the best of them done without warrant of the word who hath required these things 〈◊〉 your hands Good Lord 〈…〉 hearts according 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 that our devotionâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Religion to 〈…〉 â—…oly and unâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the widdow and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 theirs to make them polluted with lying and all filthy 〈◊〉 as in their 〈◊〉 and other chiefe perswaâ—… to that Idolatry yea with the blood of Innocents to destroy the widdow and the fatherlesse out of the earth even all truly professing Christe name â—…o that their religion iâ—… the most polluted with lying and murder of â—…nnocents of all other Religions that ever 〈◊〉 in the world whereby their 〈…〉 Lord bring to their understandings and cause them to thinke of it and ponder it wel that all our devotions as our
who yet stand by thy mercy to labour to growe dayly in the love of thy truth and in a conscionable obedience to thee in all thy waies watching and praying continually that we may never bee given up with them to these strong delusions but that contrarily by our faith and obedience we may have boldnesse to draw neerer and neerer unto thy holinesse with that thy faithfull servant Abraham and may helpe by our prayers though not to save that filthy Sodom which thou wilt have burnt downe to hell yet to pull out all thy Lots before even all amongst them that belong to thy eternall election before the fire and brimstone rayne downe from heaven upon them to consume all the wicked scorners amongst them eternally Make us all likewise to thinke with our selves whether we can name a man that was first truly grounded in the principles of our Religion and after coutinued to make conscience of his wayes according to the same that ever the devill or the Iesuites have bene able to seduce but only such as either were never well grounded or never truly made conscience of their waies or such at least as having fallen by little and little from their first conscience and childlike feare and so from the love of thy truth having yeelded to bee overcome by uncleannesse or some notorious sinne and so given way to Sathan to bee deluded by him Cause all to understand how by this meanes they lye open to Sathan and are hereby made fit for a Preist to absolve them and make them as cleane as when they were first borne as they will beare them in hand and thus to be reconciled to the Church which hath this holy power and can thus pardonand acquit them whatsoever they doe or howsoever they live and that without any paine or trouble especially if it bee so that they have money enough to purchase their pardons and the like Grant us therefore this grace to use all meanes for our selves and all ours and even for all those whom wee would save from hell that we may all first be soundly instructed in the grounds of the Catechisme in every principle and part of thy sacred truth after learne to make such a conscience of all thy blessed wayes and Commandements that thou mayest never give us or them up to these delusions but wee may for ever remaine under thy safe protection untill thou shalt translate us into the heavens from all the danger of the Dragon And for these our seduced brethren and all others deluded dy Sathan through impenitency in any fearefull sin make us able first to consider wisely of their estate secondly of the meanes how to save them and to pull them from it and lastly never suffer us to rest till wee have shewed our uttermost love unto them to bring them to our Lord Iesus Christ. Oh open our eyes and helpe us that we may see how they are under the power of Sathan and thine enemies every moment of time ready to bee cut off in thy just vengeance and to bee cast into hell Make us able to have the like tender commiseration of each of them as of a Captive under the cruelleft tyrant and as of one in a dead sleepe in the middest of a dreadfull fire ready each minute to seize upon him or in a deepe water sinking downe or as of a poore Lambe in the mouth of a roaring Lyon ready to bee devoured each moment cōsidering that the case of never a one of these can possibly bee the thousand part so bad as of them that are ready each moment to bee cast into the lake of fire and there to bee tormented for evermore Inable us withall to thinke ever of their estate and to keepe in memory these things and the like which demonstrate to all the world how palpably they are deluded bewitched and so to use them and all other helpes wherby they may be rescued Assist us so with thy heavenly grace that wee may never rest till wee have awaked them out of that dead sleepe and convinced their consciences some way of their wofull case and estate and after used all holy meanes which thou hast or ever shall reveale unto us to pluck them out of the fire at least thus praying and crying unto thee our blessed and gracious God for them as the Christians did for Peter in prison Lord make them to know for certaine that if they bee thy Lambs thou wilt rescue and pull them out of the Lyons mouth if thou have ordained to save them thou wilt pluck them out of the fire and out of the water thou wilt make all the chaines fetters of the devill to fall off from them no doores shall keepe them no sorcery shall preuaile against them beyond the time that thou hast appointed Cause us all to know and fully to vnderstand that hee that saveth not destroyes so every one of us that doth not according to our places and callings seeke thus by all holy meanes to save them all and to preserve all thy Churches from the dangers threatned by thee are guilty of the neglect hereof and so of the blood of all before thy heauenly Majesty and so much more as wee are more neerly tyed by any more speciall bon◅ of place calling or otherwise Heare us Oh tender Father for them all and all so bewitched and deluded by Sathan and that heerein wee chiefly all our Pastors and watchmen according to their places may shew all love and holy obedience to thee and to all thy tender Lambs which belong to thy fould even all thy deere and precious ones committed to their trust never leaving thee till thou hast rescued and recovered them for the full assurance of all our owne soules heereby that wee are indeed truely thine filled with thy holy Spirit the Spirit of faith and love and thereby sealed against the day of our Redemption and that thou maiest shew thy selfe stronger then Sathan and that hee is but thy vassall and also that thou art more mercifull to save then he can be malicious to destroy for thy infinite pitty and endlesse compassion through our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Amen Amen XV. A humble thanksgiving for our dread Soveraigne our gracious Prince the Prince and Princesse Palatine and all their royall progeny and for all the great deliverances which our blessed God hath given unto them and to us all by them with an earnest praier that hee may make them each in their times and places the happiest heades of the most prosperous and blessed Nations and people that ever have bene in the world OH Lord our God infinite inithy mercy and endlesse in thy compassions who by thy wonderfull providence orderest all things in heaven and earth disposing all to the right ends which before the world thou hast ordayned to thine owne glory and the good of thine elect wee doe with all
to his father being a worthie Iudge of our Land and in love to his eldest brother who was a rare hope in his time even in his tender yeeres as the Commons house of Parliament could then have borne witnesse if our God had beene pleased to have prolonged his daies And this the more cheerefully also for that the Lord had formerly shewed mercie on that his hopefull brother vouchsafing me a poore and weake instrument to helpe to pull him from Satan to Christ out of deepe despaire whereunto he had fal◅e by reading some part of their devotions even of Parsons Resolution of the paines of hell and to bring him to much assurance and comfort in Iesus Christ by the right use of a little part of ours viz. of the practise of some directions in the first part of the True Watch. My trust is therefore that your Ladiships and all others will iudge my boldnesse to bee borne withall though I thus presume because I know assuredly that you will not onely ioyne your hands but your hearts to the reclaiming and saving of them both and of all other so deluded and even enchaunted with their sorceries and that they themselves will most praise the Lord for this service if ever hee shall thorowly open their eyes wheras otherwise without unfained turning and speedie preventing it they will undoubtedly fall into a farre more forlorne and irrecoverable despaire when it will bee too late And who knoweth how far this service may prevaile being both thus requested and also promised and now thus undertaken in all dutifull and loving affection and also in uprightnesse and singlenesse of heart towards them and towards all other as before our blessed God who hath ever beene wont not onely to worke by the weakest and unlikeliest meanes that himselfe alone may have all the glorie but also to doe the greatest good to his Church by the extremest rage yea by the deepest and most mischievous plots of the Adversaries against it Who knowes whether his goodnesse may not make it an instrument through your instant prayers with the prayers and teares of many of his people furthered by this occasion to pull not them two alone but with them likewise many thousands yea hundred thousands from hell and to bring them to heaven withall to keepe innumerable soules from ever declining from the Lord. Yea what knoweth any one whether he may not make it a meanes amongst others to helpe to save us all and with us all Christs true Churches from that common calamitie and destruction which Satan and his Agents doe fully assure themselves in time to bring upon them all and upon all the people of the Lord. Our bloudie enemies having so resolved never to rest untill under the name of Heretiques they have utterly rooted us all out from off the face of the earth My trust is therefore Right Honourable that all who unfainedly love Christs Gospell and the soules of these our deluded brethren and sisters and desire the saving of the Church of God will thinke it an acceptable service to set before the eyes of all the world the palpablenesse of this most notorious delusion and to take away that forged imputation and shame from the true Church of Christ and from all the Israel of God viz. That our Adversaries of Rome have moe holy devotions than we and also doe spend more time therein than we in ours Accept then I beseech your Honours this poore service here now in this entrance into this fourth part of this Watch thus undertaken chiefly upō the occasion of that most Christian desire of those great Ladies to whom yet I durst not presume to dedicate it being unknowne unto them albeit I have heard much good concerning them heartily pray that all heavenly graces may be ten times more resplendent in them to their everlasting praise happines Accept it as one speciall use and application of all the three former parts of it to the helping of the poorest and weakest Christians in all the land that everie one herein may have the benefit of all the former that all in praying may learne to watch and everie one in watching may learne to pray each in watching and praying may not onely helpe to save themselves but also their owne native Countrey with all the true Churches of our Lord Iesus Christ and to pull all Gods Elect out of the mouth of the roaring Lion All may see so farre as I am able to coniecture that to bee true which was mentioned That the battle of the great day is come That Satan hath openly and even visibly entred the field with his armies to fight against the Lords most glorious Maiestie and his Armies even against all his poore Church at once for that this spirituall warre is set on by his principall Commanders the Pope and his Cardinals with their chiefe Agents the Iesuites and other Seminarie Priests and managed and foughten by his most deadly weapons lying and murder Wee are therefore ever to keepe in memorie that wee are not now so much to labor to fight against flesh bloud as against principalities and powers the Princes of the darknesse of this world and to that end to be armed with all the complete armour of God both defensive and offensive To this end like as I have long travelled to helpe all our poore Countrey Schooles and all of the inferiour sort that the meanest of them who will suffer themselves to bee directed might not need to feare the insulting of any or of all the proudest Iesuites in regard of laying a sure foundation of all good learning in our Grammar Schooles with all sweet delight both to Master and Schollars neither doth it repent me but I blesse the God of heaven that gave me a heart so to abase my selfe so have I here for all the poore people of the land laboured to prepare and fit them weapons against this great day Which day all my labours will witnesse for me that I have long feared seeing the malice and rage of the Adversarie daily growing more and more with the increase of our iniquities to provoke the Lord to send it upon us like as upon all the other Churches to the end to make us all to seeke him by unfained repentance that euerie one of u◅ may turne from our evill way unto his Covenant That thus seeking him unfainedly he may take our cause into his owne hand fight his owne battles and save us from these our mercilesse enemies The better instructed sort of Christians who are able to pray better of themselves need them not I have therefore endevoured to fit them chiefly for all the younger and weaker sort who would as faine learne to pray to save themselves and the land with all the Churches and long as much to be helpers in this worke as any of those who are best instructed Wherefore deare Ladies as you have so much reioyced in the former parts of this
the Nobilitie Gentrie and principall professours in France And likewise to omit that intendment 88. in a like treaty and all other their stratagems of the same nature by which they have so much promoted the Catholike cause as they call it and still doe to this very day and so farre surprized the Church of Christ and prevailed against us all all of them being of the same nature and from the same Author To passe over all these and to leave them all as rightly due to Popery for that lying and murder the two chiefe workes of the Deuill are now well knowne to all the world even to all that will not wittingly put out their owne eyes to be the tâ—…o principall pillars which have alwaies supported and promoted Popery and the kingdome of Antichrist and must now specially if ever heretofore stand him in stead And to come briefly to shew the palpablenesse of this first delusion and that it is of the very same nature with all the former mentioned namely when they say That they have moe holy devotions that is moe bookes and helps for devotions viz. moe holy directions for a true Christian life for the right practise of Christianitie and piety moe helps for holy meditations and contemplations for examining our hearts and lives soundly according to the word of the Lord so for true humiliation repentance for holy praiers thanksgivings and the like than we have I refer all who are willing to know the truth to that catalogue of our devotions even of those which are extant in Print and may be had by all who will use or see them as it is set downe in the end of this booke as it is gathered out of Master Maunsels catalogue dedicated to Q. Elizabeth printed anno 1595. and of those which have beene since Which Catalogue alone to compare it with all the English devotions of the like kindes that they have in the world much more of these which their common sort can come by and make vse of will I hope quite smite off this first head of this killing serpent And especially when the works of some one of our men there mentioned alone being well applied and practised may afford sufficient matter in that kinde to any poore Christian for his whole life to make him a blessed man yea much more blessed than all the devotions of Popery can as will appeare after and what may we thinke then of all the rest of them together And thus much briefly may suffice for the cutting off this first head of this Hydra But the second head of this subtle serpent may seeme more dangerous as it is indeed and more full of deadly poyson to wit that their devotions viz. those commended most unto you by your Church and Iesuites are more holy and better than ours To cut off this therefore likewise as it is a thing more necessarie so it may seeme more difficult But that this may be as easily and surely effected we are wisely to consider wherein the holinesse and goodnesse of all true devotions doe consist This we may doe specially by considering the matter ends and fruits of true devotions For the generall matter those must needs be the holiest and best which are most directly grounded upon the sacred Scriptures that sure foundation of the Prophets and Apostles whereof Iesus Christ is the chiefe corner stone upon which as all the true Church is built so all her devotions against which foundation the gates of hell shall never prevaile more than against Christ himselfe they being holy as his owne Maiestie and heaven and earth may passe but not one jot or tittle in them till all things in them be fulfilled for that such devotions in regard of their matter are the Lords so far forth as they are siâ—…mely grounded upon that sacred word For the more particular matter likewise those must needs be the best which tend most to advance the glory of our God and the scepter and kingdome of our Lord Iesus Christ which most magnifie him giving all our salvation to the rich mercy of our heavenly Father in and through our Lord Iesus Christ alone and so which are most powerfull and effectuall to pull downe all the pride of sinfull man and to make us to renounce all but Christ Iesus alone to account all but losse and dung in regard of any reioycing in our selves of any iustification or merit but onely in Iesus Christ and to be found in him alone not having our owne righteousnesse but the righteousnesse of God in him So those which most serve to cause us wholly to deny our selves thereby to be made fit to come unto and follow him as his true subiects and disciples and which make most to the saving of all his Church and chosen flocke by him alone and to leave all who will not so receive and follow him and heare his voice onely as his enemies more without excuse And as these so those in like manner which give most full assurance of Gods favour and love and of true pardon of sinne and eternall life by Iesus Christ alone and which thus give most strong and most abundant consolation onely in him Those likewise which are most powerfull and effectuall to increase our faith in him and therewithall our love and all the rest of the graces of God even all parts of true sanctification and repentance which are nothing else but the fruits of our holy faith in him wrought in us by his blessed Spiriâ—… when that we truly beleeve in Christ. Or to speake all more shortly those devotions must needs be best which most frame all to the lively image of our Lord and Saviour and so doe most forme Christ in us to wit which most fashion us to that absolute patterne of true holinesse which is commanded in his blessed word and not to superstition contrary to it and condemned in it And also those whereby we may be best assured to receive most power to prevaile with the Lord and to obtaine all good things from him alone Or yet more for the understanding of all Those must needs be best which doe best direct and help us to performe all our vowes promises made to him and so to walke with him all our daies doing onely that which he requires in all things that so we may be assured of all his promises both for this and the better life to be fully performed to us for the saving our selves and all the people of the Lord. Or most briefly according to our Saviours direction which stands sure for ever in the three first petitions Those which most tend to advance his glory and kingdome with the accomplishment of all his heavenly will alone and not the will of sinfull man must needs be the best of all The reason is for that these three first being obeyed and sought first aright will certainly bring the three latter petitions and
all the threatnings in Gods booke for adding to his word and detracting from it in matter of his worship and service and for rejecting his Commandements setting up mans in stead thereof and so placing sinfull man in the roome of our most holy blessed and glorious God the creature above the Creator yea in truth Satan above God like as in all their devillish and lying doctrines 11. Ours teaching working by the practise of them full assurance of Gods favour and love in Iesus Christ which onely brings with it joy unspeakable and glorious theirs teaching and bringing but onely hope without any ground of true faith and therefore teaching doubting continually which when the conscience is awaked brings the very flashing of hell fire with it So that ours in the right use of them are heaven upon earth theirs when their consciences shall be awaked or when they but see what they have done in them all a very hell upon earth 12. Our devotions are in the end the sweetest in the remembrance of them and of all the time before that ever we have spent in them since we beleeved in Christ so as every one of our devotions made in faith as our Religion directeth and every moment of time so spent in them hath a certaine reward their 's being done without warrant of the word yea contrary to the word and therefore superstitiously and sinfully not onely wanting all such expectation of reward for who required the best of those things at their hands but also having an expectation of vengeance when the conscience beginneth to be a little awaked So that experience teacheth that then they are faine to renounce all but Iesus Christ and so all confidence in these things and to wish then with Balaam to die the death of the righteous toward which death of the righteous we are alway going forward and which life we striving to live shall be sure to die the death thereof and our last end to be like to our life 13. Our devotions in so many of us as practise them aright are as our Religion viz. that pure Religion and undefiled before God even the Father which Iames speaketh of directing and helping to visit the fatherlesse and the widow in their adversitie and namely those of them who are of the houshold of faith and the members of our Lord Iesus Christ and to keepe our selves unspotted of the world So as we practising rightly out devotions there cannot be a lying tongue found in our mouthes nor a hand or heart defiled with bloud but we shall seeke by all meanes to save both soules and bodies of all sorts even of our wickedest enemies and the most bloudily-minded against us Their Devotions contrarily are in truth as their Religion to devoure widowes houses under a pretence of long prayer and to destroy all the innocent the fatherlesse widow even al who are of the houshold of faith the members of Christ which are indeed the Innocents that save all the rest And by these they make themselves notorious and infamous to all the world to be the most polluted with execrable lying and the murder of innocents of all other religions that ever were in the world before as will further appeare after whereby all their chiefe professours and namely their bloudy Iesuits have made themselves odious even to all Nations 14. Yea and to passe by many other our Devotions are as our Religion to make us faithfull and loyall subjects and not to be so bold as to have an evill thought in our hearts against him whom the Lord sets over us but to be as David whose heart smit him for touching but the lap of Sauls garment and so with that holy servant of God and with the children of the Captivity and with Daniel yea with all the holy Martyrs to be content to endure whatsoever from them and from all in holy and lawfull authoritie under them that in our patient sufferings Kings Princes and Rulers may see the truth and what is pleasing to the Lord and also what they ought to maintaine and doe for their owne salvation and of their Royall Progenie and Dominions their 's in all these things to make all to be contrarily affected viz. to arme and flesh all to rebellion and the murdering of Kings and Princes when they can do it cōveniently After that those their ghostly fathers have made them to drinke deepe enough of this cup and to be truly devout in the manner of their devotions though I hope better things of you to whom I write yet it cannot hurt you to be warned 15. Moreover for the māner forme of our devotions All our devotions which are agreeable to our doctrine are sent forth from understanding hearts and so with a holy zeale inflamed by the spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning mixt with the sweet perfume of Christs merit and so offered up to our heavenly Father as they may be most pleasing comming to him as out of the hand of our Saviour yea offered also in order without any vaine babling or idle repetition Theirs contrarily are for most part and usually without any understanding at all like as all the devotions of their ignorant sort are especially those which are in an unknowne tongue and so without all holy affection For all holy affections must of necessitie be grounded upon knowledge without which the heart cannot be good neither can there be any faith in such nor any thing but sinne for whatsoever is not of faith is sinne And not onely so but also theirs are full of vaine and idle repetitions in that blinde manner a matter directly condemned by our Saviour as hypocriticall and heathenish when men thinke to be heard for their much babling Finally for that theirs are usually sent forth in a proud opinion of their owne merit and worthinesse to be heard or as they come out of the hand of some Saint or Angell to whom therein they give this honour and prerogative which solely belongs to our Lord and Saviour viz. of presenting our praiers and supplications unto his Father alone I might prosecute these comparisons in many other instances as namely that our devotions make us still better the more they are practised by us and more like to Christ Iesus theirs as they are their 's properly as those which I named make them still and ever worse and worse and more like to Satan as he is transformed into an Angell of light as namely in all their Iesuits their chiefe professed holy men being indeed deuils in carnate and so accounted to all States and specially for those chiefe works of their lying and murder which are manifest to all to be their principall studie Ours to repeat it againe that it may leave the deeper impression in every soule tending to save all both soules and bodies theirs to destroy all not onely us whom they terme Heretiques but themselves eternally
8 A prayer that we may be able to lift up our eyes to our heavenly Father looking beyond all earthly meanes in all the troubles and perils of the Church without which we cannot pray as we ought 9 A thankes giving for the deliverie of the Churches from Egypt and Babylon with an earnest prayer for the full accomplishment thereof and that we may never looke backe to them againe to provoke the Lord against us by the same 10 A prayer that in token of our thankfulnesse for our deliverance wee may all seeke to give him his glory in our unfeigned repentance and walking conscionably in all his holy Commandements 11 A prayer that we may all give God the glory of his inward worship according to the first Commandement to helpe to pacify his Majesty toward the Churches 11 A prayer to bee able to discerne the sin of the Churches whereby he is diâ—…onored provoked even by the transgression of the first Commandement 12 A humble confession of the sinnes of the Churches and an acknowledgement of Gods righteous proceeding agaynst them for our unthankfulnesse and transgression of his laweâ—… and for that though we have heard of the miseries of our Brethren we have not beene humbled nor made our supplications for them as vvee ought according to Nehemiah 13 A humble confession of the sinne of our Land so polluted by all the Popish sort rejecting the Lord and setting up the Pope of Rome with his idolatry superstition in place of him and his pure worship to provoke his Majesty against us 14 A prayer for all the simple-hearted seduced by the Iesuites and other Seminary Priests that they may see how they have bin deluded to helpe thereby to plucke them from sathan and bring them to our Lord Iesus Christ. 15 A humble Thankesgiving for our dread Soveraigne with our gracious Prince and Princesse and all the Royall Progeny and for all our deliverances and preservations by them with an earnesâ—… Prayer that our sinnes being forgiven they may bee each in their times and places the happiest heads of the most blessed people that ever haue beene in the world before 16 A humble Thankesgiving that God hath thus farre heard our prayers with an earnest supplication that he may goe on to perfect his worke and that as we have made entrance into this service so we may all proceede vntill we shall see the ful deliverance of all his Churches the new Ierusaâ—…em and the eternall glory of his Sion The other Prayers and that which God willing is to succeede see in the end of all after the Table of the particular Contents Rules to be observed in the use of all the Meditations and Prayers REmember throughout to expect not excellencie of words but the power of God Remember Daâ—… Sling and Iâ—…suahs Trumpets of Rammes horne Thine eye being on thy Booke let the eye of thy soule be at thy Christ making intercession at his Fathers right hand labouring to feele all in thy heart and especially to have a right sense of the necessities of all for whom thou prayest and so praying in Faith thou shalt prevayle Rules to helpe to keepe us from ever declining from the Lord and from all delusions cheefely by Popery 1 LAbour to walke with thy God as Enech making conscience of all thy wayes specially of thy particular calling and every holy dutie in the due time fearing all occasions of evill watching and taking forthwith all occasions of good 2 Pray as he hath directed thee respecting ever his glory and kingdome and the generall state of his Church before thine owne particular 3 Strive to live under the best meanes and vvith the best company which GOD shall vouchsafe thee 4 Remember ever those strong delusions of Poperie sent in Gods iustice for contempt of the Gospell in not receyving the love of his trueth mentioned in the Epistle to the poore seduced people and withall keepe ever in minde those principall supporters and pillars of Popery viz lying and â—…irther the cheefe workes of Sathan which shew that that Religâ—…on is of him likewise 5 Consider well how Popery overthrowes many of the cheefe Principles of the Catechisme For this See a Pill to purge out Poperie 6 Be affraid of conferring with the Serpent viz. inticers to Popery or any evill of reasoning with temptations 7 In all such doubts first conserre with God by holy Meditation and Prayer as Dâ—…niel his compaaions after with thy faithfull Minister or some of the worthiest servants of God so farre as God offers thee any opportunity 8 Strive to reioyce in the Lord alway and in thy happy estate through Christ Pray continually by lifting up thy heart through him In all things give thankes whatsoever come to passe So thou shalt see the event happy and thy selfe ever to prevayâ—…e vvith God and more then a Conqueror ¶ Places of Scripture to be ever in our hearts to quicken us and stirre up in us the power of prayer THe eyes of the Lord are upon the Righteous and his eares are open unto their cry Thou wilt prepare their hart thou wilt cause thine eare to heare To iudge of the fatherlesse and oppressed that â—…the man of the earth may no more oppresse Yea before they call I will answer And whiles they speake I will heare But let him aske in Faith nothing wavering The effectuall servent prayer of a righteous man avayleth much Elias was a man subiect to the like passions as we are and hee prayed earnestly that it might not raine and it rained not on the earth by the space of three yeares and six moneths And he prayed again and the heaven gave raine and the earth brought forth her fruite Concerning him when he was rapt up into heauen thus cryed Elisha after him My father my father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof And for Elisha the king of Israel comming downe to visit him in his last sicknes wept over his face with the same words O my father my father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof Of him that makes and keepes peace with God thus saieth the Spirit Thou shalt make thy Prayer unto him and he shall heare thee and thoâ—… shalt pay thy Vowes c. The innocent shall deliver the Iland and it is delivered by the purenesse of thy hands But as for the wicked thus he speaketh which he would have all men take notice of ponder well having set a double note upon it The Lord is knowne by the iudgement which he executeth the wicked is snared in the workes of his owne hands What hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behinde thee Errata Amend these slippes following with what is defective in this first draught through want of meete leysure and our God will I hope bring it forth againe with all the
gracious promise and remember their iniquities no more when they shall cry unto him by a lively Faith as to their heavenly Father burning with the zeale of his glorie and kingdome and that all his divine wil may bee so accomplished That then he will open all our blind eyes to see our natural pollution and uncleanness yea to beholde all out filthy sinnes whereby we are defiled and loathsome in the eyes of our heavenly Father and will withall make us to behold the fountaine of his Sonnes blood open to all the house of Israel for sin and for uncleanness Then vvill he make all sorts that are his even all his elect as much to long after that Fountaine as ever any did after the poole of Bethesda and most gladlie to do whatsoeuer he hath apointed for the purging and clensing of themselves and of all his Church from all her iniquities And how to the end that our turning and repentance may be no longer formall as it hath beene for the most part heeretofore when wee have cryed unto the Lord in our troubles to be delivered from our distresse and afterward have returned to our iniquities againe but that it and every part of it may bee sound and unfeigned he will make every one of his owne cry with persecuting Saul Lord what wilt thou that I should doe Then hee will put his Law into our minds and write it in our hearts according to his most gracious and blessed promise when hee intendes to save his Church in such sort as wee have just cause to hope hee is about to doe Hee will cause us tenderly to forgive and pitty one another the Wolfe to dwell with the Lambe and to desire to make all our very enemies partakers of the same mercies and will keep us all that are his that we may no more depart from him The seuenth particular Meditation of the fift generall How wee shall see him delivering his flock from Sathan and dissolving all his cursed workes SEuenthly wee are moreover to Meditate in faith how then he will restraine the rage and power of the Tempter reseuing his poore Lambs out of the jawes of the roaring Lyon How he will then destroy and dissolve all the cursed workes of Sathan discover his depthes and all the wickednesse of his InchaÌ„ters Sorceâ—…ers Charmers Witches aud of all the rest of his crafty malicious and accursed instruments making their madnesse manifest to all and what practises they have used against all even against Christian Kings and Princes Nations and people to harden turne them from the faith as Iannes and Iambres did to harden Pharaoh and as Elimas against the Deputy and Simon Magus against Samaria How these and the Locusts comming out of the bottomlesse pit have caused them to give their power to the Beast and to fight against our Lord Iesus Christ. And furthermore how then hee will cause all their witchcrafts inchantmeÌ„ts to cease as they began so to cease at yâ— first comming of our Saviour in the flesh and chiefly at the comming downe of the holy Ghost and at that powerfull and effectuall spreading of the Gospell in every countrey wheresoever it so came Yea how then all such deceivers shall curse their Gods and gnaw their tougnes for sorrow being inforced with that wretched Balaans who loved the wages of iniquity to acknowledge that there is no sorcerie against Iacob nor any divination against Israel How then wee shall see him whose name is Wonderfull to shew himselfe wonderfull in the saving of his poore Church and Children from the power and fury of the great red Dragon and in delivering us all in an admirable manner from all these innumerable evils which he all his instruments have so long practised so maliciously dreadfully intended do still intend against his poor Church whereupon he so castethout of his mouth all this huge flood of waters after her to cause her to be carried away of the same at once and by which the proud enemies have so cast lots upon all that truly love and beleeve in his name and as certainly determined and set downe our day so soone as ever their opportunity shall serve as Haman had against the Iewes The eight particular Meditation of the fift generall How then hee will declare himselfe sole Monarke and to whom all glory belongs EIghtly we are yet further to Meditate according to this heavenly direction how then he will declare himselfe before all the earth to be the onely absolute Soveraigne Lord and King the sole and mighty Monarch of all the world that all power is his and to him alone belongs all glory and honour when hee shall thus shew himselfe so gloriously for his Church in such a wonderful deliverance in such unexpected and even incredible mercies to her I mean incredible to all humane reason and when hee shall so get himselfe glory uppon his proudest enemyes and make all the world to see that hee hath overturned all their wisdome power and furie making it to serve hereunto and finally that hee hath in all things so farre forth accomplished whatsoever hee hath spoken ever since the beginning And likewise wee are earnestly to meditate to comfort our selves heerein That then he will make it manifest that the greatest enemies of the Church have in all their â—…age not fought agaynst his Children poore wormes dust and ashes for then they had surely prevailed long agoe to have destroyed his whole Church out of the earth but that they have fought even against our Lord Iesus Christ this great King of kings and Lord of lords Thus will hee cause all both men and deuils to acknowledge and â—…say For thine is the kingdome power glory and all the Children of God to sing with all the holie Angels and all the hosst of Heauen Hallelujâ—…h Praise ye the Lord for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth yeâ—… to fall upon their faces before the Throne and to worship our God saying Amâ—…n Blessing glory wisedome thanksgiving honour power and might be unto our God for ever and ever The ninth particular Meditation of the fifâ—… generall How we are never to rest till wee can reioyce and triumph in the assurance of Faith crying â—…oyntly Amen AND to conclude this poynt wee are ever to meditate seriously hereof and never to give our hearts any rest untill we can through the 〈◊〉 of our Faith rejoyce and even triumph continually with the Holy Angels That how impossible soever these things may seeme to flesh and blood and how incredible in the eyes of the world yet he will certainly accomplish theÌ„ all in what time measure and manner shal seeme best to his wisedome accordingly as he hath foretold And that even then when so many of us as have or can but unfeignedly begin to set our selves
in all things to walke hvmbly with him shall likewise bee stirred up by his blessed Spirite thus joyntly to cry unto him for that hee having taught and commanded us thus to pray and having given us so many assurances that being such praying thus he wil heare us and finally hee enclining and setting our hearts as with one accord thus to importune him heerein we can make no doubt of gracious audience and a happy answere from his heavenly Majesty even when we can joyntly crie in Faith Amen Euen so come Lord Iesus come quickely Amen Amen The Sixt generall Meditation How all but those that are thus qualified are excluded from helping the Lord and doe rather pull downe his wrath upon his Church SIxtly we are to bring our hearts yet further to a serious Meditation hereof likewise That all other who are not so qualified at least in the earnest desire and constant resolution of their hearts and much more all who are contrarily affected in any of these things thus necessarily required in our preparation and so all that beleeue not the word of the Lord in such manner as to be fully perswaded of the truth of his promises and threatnings are excluded by the Lord himselfe from being any meete helpers in this worke The First Meditation hereof to be seriously pondered 1 THat all such as live securely in theyr owne wayes without any due regard of the Lord and of his poore Church are excluded hence even all such as who albeit the Lord shewe such manifest token◅ of his heavy displeasure agaynst his owne people and children for their sinnes and although they see his Glory Gospell People to bee so generally trampled under foot our lord Iesus Christ to be ready utterly to be thrust frō his throne and his members in such miserable distress or imminent perill yet they care for none of these things but only mind their owne courses and seeke to satisfy their owne wils and desires as all our worldlings and all the prophane sort in generall do Yea all such are shutte out as unmeete who are not now in a tender commiseration of the wofull estate of all the Lords people de◅irous to obey our Lord Iesus Christ comming to helpe him and them all in what thing soever he shall make knowne unto them that he stands in need of their helpe and so calls for it at their hands and who endeavour not unfeignedly to doe whatsoever he requireth tending thereunto And that this must needs be so for these reasons following which are therefore every one of them to be seriously meditated of and pondered until we know our selves to have passed the danger of them The first reason to be seriously meditated of 1 FOr that al such who regard him not in his poore and needy members must be separated from these whom our Saviour calles The blessed of his Father and must stand at his left hand among the Goats and must then hear the wofull doome at that last dreadfull day Go ye cursed into everlasting f◅re prepared for the Divell and his Angels when I was an hungrie you gave mee no meat when I was thirsty you gave me no drinke when I was s◅ke and in prison you visited me not when I was naked you cloathed me not when I was a stranger and harbourlesse you tooke me not in c. And therefore if it shall be so with these at that day then certainely they must needs bee rejected by him as utterly unmeet for this service who now that he calles for these duties at theyr hands and that so lowd as all the world doth ring thereof yet are deafe in all in regard of any commiseration For what King General or Commander will ever willinglie have any admitted into pay to fight under them but onely such as they know to be loyally and faithfully affected towards them and which doe lay to heart their honours causes and quarrels as if they were their owne much lesse then can we thinke that the Lord of heaven earth who needes none of our helpe but can get himselfe the victorie over his enimies by the breath of his nostrils when it pleaseth him will admit of any other to be with him and to helpe him in this great work wherein he will so highly honour them but onely so many as shall bee loyally and heartily affected towardes his Majesty his causes and children The second reason to be seriouslie thought of SEcondly we are seriouslie to lay to heart and to bethinke our selves in time if we would be helpers herein That all such who live in any one gross sinne impenitently and much more in any one of those notorious abhominations which broght that dreadfull Captivity upon Iudah which the Lord hath caused to be set so lively before the face of all by y◠holy Prophets themselves together with the vengeance denounced for them are also utterly excluded especially if they live therein scandalously to the slander of the Gospell or the offence of others to harden them in their courses for that all such are both blinde and deafe and make others so Such cannot see the wrath and vengeance of GOD certainly rushing upon thēselves for their owne sinnes wherein they lye much less can they see that which is rushing upon all the Churches for theyr security and abuse of the gospell and least of all can they discerne of any wrath conceived agaynst our selves for that they consider onely that we yet live in peace but perceyve not at all the multitude and heynousness of our most odious and lowd-crying sins agaynst which the Prophets so thunder out the vengeance of the Lord and for which all who are wise-hearted indeed and whose eyes GOD hath rightly opened doe feare and tremble They can neyther see any tokens of the Lords displeasure nor yet discerne the enemies raging so furiously agaynst all the Churches abroad as by their most deepe and bloody practises threats and intendments they daylie manifest to all the world no not those enemies which bee in our very bosomes such as all those are who beare evill will against Sion They perceiue not the multitude of Locusts with such stinges in their tails sent out of the bottomelesse pit to all the Kings of the earth to draw them all if it were possible certainly every one of them so farre as ever the Lord shall permit them to take up arms against our Lord Iesus Christ and his poore Church They are deafe and cannot heare the cry of their poore brethren though sounding daily in their eares so as to take any true pitty of them how then should they heare the cry of the Lord calling to themselves and all other to repent so to prevent and pacifie his wrath Concerning these so continuing the holy Ghost oft declareth the heavy wrath of God that is upon them That he hath blinded their eies and made their eares
this great imployment and of the contrary the miserable and wofull condition of all who any way exclude themselves yea of all who do not seeke to helpe herein And withall how notwithstanding all these things the Lord excludes none save only those who as was saide exclude themselves but that he cals to all and would have all to addresse themselves and to be meete and ready to assist joyne with him herein and that therefore all those who will not doe their uttermost indeavour to prepare and fit themselves are justly damned even for this for refusing to come to helpe him and his poore people in their distresse when hee so cals on them to come and for joyning with Sathan and Antichrist his sworne enemie even against his heavenly Majesty To make it plaine to every soule that he cals every one hereunto â—…ach is to consider well these reasons following That hee cals all to every one of these dutyes mentioned in all these Meditations before and especially to these which now follow 1. That he cals all to bee on his part in the earth that ever will bee with him in glory 2. That hee cals all to regard him in his poore members to the end of the world as when he is hungry to feede him c. To shew mercie if ever they will find mercy 3. Hee cals all to repentance every one to turne from his evill way in every kinde and much more from all those notorious abhominations which brought the wrath of God uppon Iudah and upon other impenitent sinners in former Ages and for which hee denounceth his vengeance and likewise hee calleth all to awake forth of all their security wherein they sleepe if ever they hope to scape his heavy indignation so to meete him with intreaty of peace yâ— they may be fit to helpe to stand in the breach That he cals to this end even Publicans Harlots Scorners of all sorts hee stretcheth out his hands to gaine-sayers and rebels yea to the most notorious sinners that live upon the earth thus protesting to every particular soule As I live I delight not in the death of a sinnor but rather that hee repent and live 4. Hee cals all to walke humbly in his Covenant that he may performe all hts promises unto them and turne away all his heavy denuntiations Of which Covenant these are the very principall parts to love him above all and our neighbour as 〈◊〉 selfe 3. Hee cals every one so to pray as hee hath directed and commanded and that for all his owne causes chiefly as namely the causes which concerne his glory kingdome and people and therefore every one should labour to be such a one as can so pray whereby hee makes it manifest to all that hee 〈◊〉 none at all but would have all learne so to pray and to bee fitted thereunto 6. That every generall promise of mercy in all the booke of God cals us hereto as the promises of forgetting our sinnes and not remembring our iniquities any more and this without limitation of time but at what time soeuer it be that a sinner converts or without any exceptiof any sinne save only of that vnpardonable sinne the malicious oppugning persecuting of all the knowne truth of God and without exception of any person and bids all but harken and their soule shall live if they can but see the brazen Serpent beleeve in our Saviour hunger thirst and cry after him 7. So doth every example of Gods mercy in receiving repentant sinners as of Manasses Saul Mary Magdalen the repentant Thiefe upon the Crosse the joy that is in heaven for the conversion of a poore sinner the high favour that upon their unfeigned repentance such poore wretches may know themselves to bee in with God That where sinne hath abounded there grace abounds much more and never any so comming rejected Three more speciall Meditations to this end That the wise consideration of them may never go forth of our hearts untill we be of this number ABove all the former the Lord would have every poore soule to meditate most seriously and in their most secret thoughts of these three things following that the wise consideration of them may never bee from before their eies nor the sound of them out of their eares untill they be of this number The first Meditation to this end to be seriously pondered That our Lord Iesus stands continually at the heart of every impenitent sinner to enter in 1 HOw our Lord Iesus Christ hath stood at the doore of their hearts all the daies of their life calling them to repentance to know feare love obey beleeve in him and that by the loud voyce both of every one of his Creatures of his mercies and iudgments And more specially at the hearts of all in his Church by his heavenly word which he hath sent unto them by all the admonitions exhortations reproofes threatnings promises the like that ever he hath vouchsafed unto them by the ministry of his Servants grounded upon the same word and also by the holy Sacraments as namely by their Baptisme by which hee hath beene still teaching and calling upon them even from their cradles to beleeve in him and to serve him only according to his blessed Commandement to fight under his banner for that they are such as hee hath Redeemed with a great price and are not their owne and also by the holy Communion of his body and blood wherein as our Saviour gives or at least offers himselfe wholly to them so they give againe themselves wholly unto him And not onely so but by the good motions of his blessed Spirit and that so oft as they have felt in themselves holy purposes of amendment and turning unto the Lord. How now at this very time he still stands knocks louder and louder then ever heretofore by all the tokens of his heavy displeasure against the severall Churches all the rage and malice which is against the whole true Church of Christ yea against every soule professing his name sincerely as they ought And so by every of those speciall favours which wee injoy or which wee hereafter looke for from him and even by this very helpe and all others which he offers unto us for our right and unfeigned meeting him before his wrath bee wholly powerd out upon us and for our true humiliation under his hand and stooping to him in all things More particularly THat hee stands at thy heart whosoever thou art that readest or hearest this or the like admonition crying unto thee that thou wouldest now repent unfeignedly of each thy fearefull sinnes namely of thy hardnesse of heart and impenitency in them whereby thou hast so long kept out thy Lord and Saviour and onely made thy heart an
may yet put some more life into all these Meditations and quicken us in our crying to him according to all the prayers following hee calls upon us all to have this specially ever in our hearts and his voyce in it sounding incessâ—…tly in our eares which was in part touched before That as the Spirit and the Bride doe call to our blessed Saviour to come so first all the distressed Churches yea all the members of Christ and all the elect of God which are under the power of Sathan or of any cruell Tyrants or under other miseries doe call and cry to every one of us as the man of Macedonia did to Paul come helpe us Come helpe us by your prayers helpe us by your teares And secondly as the Angell of the Lord said Curse ye Meroz because he came not to helpe the Lord so now hee saith Curse ye all and every one of them who come not to helpe our Lord Iesus Christ who come not to helpe him in his poore members And tell every one who wil not set himselfe at least in the full purpose of his heart to come that hee hath no part in that heavenly prayer of our blessed Saviour nor of the glorious priviledges and promises conteyned in it that hee hath no part or portion in the Brother-hood Inheritance Glory Kingdome Rewardes Promises of this and the better life Remission of sinnes Deliverance from Sathan from the evils which hee seeks to bring on all that hee can have no comfort in that everlasting everliving Amen to whom all Kingdome Power and Glory do onely appertaine but that he is contrarily stripped of each of these and that our Lord Iesus is comming quickly in all Majesty and Glory to give to every one according to his workes to all that come the happinesse of all these blessings to all now refusing to come when he calls the misery of all contrary curses Wherefore hee saith to all Come Come every one thou though be in thy filth loathsome ragges all Leprous worthy to be thrust out of yâ— campe of Israel excluded for evermore yet come strip off those rags by repenâ—…ance wash in the fountaine of my blood which is opened to all the house of Israel and be thou cleane Put on the garment of the righteousnesse of thy Saviour and be glorious put on all the compleat Arm our of my Spirit in the full resolution of thy soule be valiant come helpe me Though thou have no strength but meere desires yet come and thou shalt bee accepted I will not quench the smoaking flax therefore come Though thy desires be never so weake yet come my power shall bee manifested and perfected in thy weaknes Therefore come yea though thou have no grace at all yet come hee tels thee from heaven his Grace is and shall be sufficient for thee And finally though thou have no faith to apprehend this Grace of his but art full of unbeleefe yet ever remember him that said I beleeve Lord Lord helpe my unbeleefe and how he sped and then thou wilt come Yea though thou get others to carry thee thou wilt certainly doe it if thou canst but set before thy face the Palsy-man thou wilt bee glad thâ—…s to come Finally be thinke thy selfe if ever thou canst name but one who thus desired to come to our Saviour in the uprightnesse of his heart neglecting no meanes thereunto who was rejected of him but contrarily how every one so comming hath beene graciously accepted and imbraced of him as the Prodigall Son was of his Father and then try whether his blessed Spirit will not give thee Davids Eccho to answer to him in thy soule Lord I come I come I come to doe thy will Thy will is within my heart Accept the worke of thine ownegrace Amen enen so Lord Iesus I come I come Prayers according to our Sauiours direction chiefly for maintaining and advancing of his glory and kingdome against the râ—…ge of Sathan and Antichrist and for helping his poore distressed Churches with all the members of Iesus Christ scattered over the face of the whole earth and that the whole number of Gods elect may be speedily gathered forth I. A prayer for our preparation that wee may bee made meete to bee admitted and may bee accepted as helpers in this so great a worke AH Lord our most gracious and tender Father in Christ Iesus wee thy unworthy children heere prostrate beholding how thy heavenly Majesty is foughten against thy honour trampled under foote thy kingdome people sought to bee destroyed out of the earth and that by Sathan Antichrist other thy cruell enemies who carrying a mortall hate against thee and against thy Sonne Iesus Christ and so against thy Gospell and people for thy cause alone do seeke that they alone may raigne over us and over all the world in thy place seeing also how thou hast suffered them fearfully to prevaile and still to proceed because of our sins and the sinnes of all other that professe thy name and hearing withall how thou now callest us all who are thine and in any favour with thy Maiesty to helpe thee and the rest of our Brethren and Sisters thy poore children in these their extreame miseries by our prayers and teares doe humbly intreat thee so to prepare and fit us that through our Lord and Saviour wee may be accounted meete to bee admitted to this so great a service Lord open our blind eies that we may have a right view of all these things open likewise our dease eares that we may heare thee calling us unto this duty and touch our dead hearts that they may be truly affected herewith inable us that thus seeing hearing and seeling we may cry unto thee uncessantly untill thou shalt shew thy selfe from heaven to come downe maintaine and defend thine owne causes and children to rescue all thine every where both from that bodily and spirituall tyranny and from all other dreadfull miseries under which they groane and so to judge betweene them betweene thine and their enemies and to get thy selfe a gloryous name and victory in thy due time to thine owne everlasting prayse and glory Oh deere Father perswade our hearts effectually how now at this very day in these fearfull times and extremities of thy poore Church as thou hast beene wont in all former Ages thou seekest out a man that may stand in the breach and how thou lookest for some that may specially bee singled out hereunto to helpe thee and thy poore people Vouchsafe good Lord that every one of us may strive to bee if not that one man yet as some one of Gedeons three hundreth And to this end that all these holy Meditations following and the like may be in our hearts continually That we may never rest untill hereby wee may know assuredly that
thou hast called us hereunto that thou acceptest us and our service and that wee may never give thee over untill wee see the deliverance and felicity of thy Sion Grant that so many of us as unfeignedly desire to bee with thy Majesty may never give any rest unto thee nor unto our owne soules untill wee finde our selves so qualified in all things as thou requirest of all such in taking to heart the dishonours done unto thy heavenly Majesty the oppositions against thy most glorious Gospell and also in feeling the necessities of thy Church people more specially in considering aright and sensibly feeling the miserable estate of all them that are under the spirituall bondage Captivitie of Sathan worse ten thousand times then the Captivitie and slavery of the Turke or under the cruellest Tyrants in all the earth Grant likewise that wee may be such in all holy faith and obedience and so frame our prayers that heerein wee may thus farre prevaile with thy holinesse that thou maiest raise up for thy poore Church and Children in every part of the world some Iosephs or some that may be as Daniel Ezra Nehemiah or Hester which may obtaine favour with the Kings and Princes of the earth and by whom thou maiest prepare and incline the hearts of all Monarks Kings and Princes that they may all become Nursing-Fathers and Nursing-Mothers to thy religion and people and that all those of them who in thy mercy are such already by the power of thy heavenly Spirit may bee wholly delivered from all the power and delusions of Sathan and Antichrist and daily more and more inflamed with all holy zeale for thy glory and kingdome and all tender affection towards thy children and chosen flocke as the rage and malice of the Dragon is greater against them knowing he hath but a short time Vouchsafe Oh grecious Father that these all considering aright how thou hast set them up and given them all their dominions authority and power chiefly to this end and the great and dreadfull account they must all certainly make for the same they know not how soone may forthwith seâ—… themselves as thy faithfull Servants Moses Iosuah David Iehosaphat Hezekiah and holy Iosiah for thy glorious Majesty Gospell and people onely according to thy heavenly word and will Grant good Lord that thus thy great name may bee magnified by the powerfull comming of thy kingdome in all the world and by the full accomplishing of all thy heavenly will and good pleasure which in thine eternall counsell thou hast decreed for the speedy gathering forth of all thine elect and finishing of these daies of sin and so for preparing the way to thy glorious comming Good Lord perswade my poore heart and the hearts of every one of thine owne faithfull people of the present necessity of this worke because of the danger of the sodaine approching of thy vengeance ready each houre to rush upon uâ—… like as it hath done upon others which have so professed thy name as weâ—… doe for all our fearfull sinnes and above all for our haiâ—…ous contempt of thy heauenly Gospell and that notwithstanding all thy Fatherly warnings and mercies wee have beene worse and worse unto this day And therefore vouchsafe me this grace that I may not deferre it one day nor houre but now presently whilst thou my Lord and Saviour dost so graciously call me and offer me this mercy I may seeke to bee every way prepared and fitted for it like as thou hast so plainly â—…aught me so lively seâ—… it before my face in yâ— heavenly prayer of thine so as the simplest may read and understand Oh Lord Iesus perswade my heart that refusing or deferring now to come to helpe thee I cannot escape the curse of Meroz howsoever I may escape the present and temporall vengeance at the instant cryes of all other of thy deerest servants and children yet I can never escape the spirituall and eternall wrath Open mine eies that I may see yâ— I am not heerein to wrastle against flesh blood but against principalities and powers and the Princes of darkness of this world which have wrought all these evils chiefly and doe seeke the utter destruction of all thy people and that I am not now to enter the lists with Sathan for my selfe alone but for all the Church that so I may put on all thy compleat Armour to quit my selfe valiantly as one of thy worthyes and ever be carefull to looke to my watch and stand fast expecting Sathans extreamest rage and fury against me especially if hee get never so little advantage Grant unto mee to know undoubtedly that being thus armed and setting my selfe with all speed and cheerfulnesse unto this worke to bee rightly fitted to helpe thee in this greatest service I shall have this high honour to bee of their number of whom thou hast spoken to whom thou hast promised That the innocent shall deliver the land or at least that thou wilt bee to mee a Sanctuary whatsoever come to passe and though I should neither save Sonne nor Daughter yet I shall bee sure to save my owne soule Heare me therefore Oh gracious Father all thy poore children in this our humble suite and in all other things needfull for us or for any member of thy whole Church for the Lord Iesus Christ whom thou hast given for our grand Captaine our onely Mediator and Advocate Amen II. A prayer for increase of our love to all the Children of the Lord and for keeping a continuall fresh remembrance and feeling of their estate Our HVmble us Oh gracious Father that whereas thou hast long taught us this as one of our first lessons in our prayers to cry Oh our Father to keep therby a continuall and ever-fresh remembrance feeling of the estate and necessities of all thy children our Brethren and Sisters wheresoever dispersed and distressed in all the world and so to binde our hearts togither in the bond of love to rejoyce with them that rejoyce mourne with them that mourne and in all things to seeke the same good unto them which wee do vnto our selves yet so many of us notwithstanding do never or very seldome thinke of them or of their miseries and the best of us have so little true feeling and commiseration of their estate how wofull soever it bee to cry unto thee for them as wee ought so long as wee our selves are at ease and in prosperity Good Lord perswade our hearts that if wee truly love thee our heavenly Father we must needs love thy children for thy cause being as deere and precious unto thee as ourselves are even all those that appertaine to thy eternal election wheresoever they be in all the earth Lord Iesus make us know that if wee unfeignedly love thee wee must of necessity likewise love thy members even every one of
deserued this honor and hath this office to make us and our prayers to be accepted and therfore that we may in faith cry unto thee evermo◅e thorow him Amen Amen Good Lord helpe us and all thy people that by all these markes and the like wee may thoroughly try and examine our selves whether we be thy children or no and that wee may never give ouer crying unto thee untill we finde every one of these lively and sensibly in us Cause us rightly to understand and to bee fully perswaded heereof that in what measure we finde the former change wrought in us and every one of these marks in the same we may know our selves like wise to bee in thy favour and accepted of thee and that contrarily vvithout every one of these at least begun in us in some measure a sound resolution with an earnest desire and longing of our soules to increase and grow heerein vvee cannot assure our selves to bee any better then Hypocrites and that wee shall never finde sound comfort that thou wilt acknowledge us for thine untill we finde these evident markes upon us Grant unto us therefore Oh tender Father all the peculiar marks of thy Children and all other that hereby we and all thine may know our selves infallibly to bee thine owne deere Children for thy beloved Sonne our blessed Lord and Saviour Amen VI. A prayer for knowledge and right use of the meanes whereby wee may bee made Gods Children and grow up in the assurance thereof and so b◅ established in grace continually OH most gracious God and mercifull Father the onely fountaine of wisedome and grace forsomuch as every one who hath any sparke of grace or true wisedome desires to bee in the blessed estate of thy Children to have thy love and favour to grow up in the assurance thereof as the chiefest happinesse in this world perswade us and all thy people aright what are the ordinary meanes whereby thou begettest thy Children to a lively hope That thou dost it ordinarily and usually even by the same meanes whereby thou diddest first gather thy Church in the daies of our Saviour and after that so wonderfully and speedily spread it over the face of the earth even by the sincere preaching of thy heavenly word and namely of thy sacred Gospell That howsoever the world accounts that foolishnesse yet thou hast ordained it to be the immortall seede whereby thine are begotten anew and thus made thy Children by grace and to be thy mighty power unto salvation to make all thine to beleeve and in beleeving to make them partakers of thy favour and love and so to give them eternall life And that this saving kinde of preaching stands as the preaching of Paul did not in the intising speech of mans wisedome but in the plaine evidence of thy Spirit of power That so our faith may bee apparant to bee wrought not by the wisedome of men but onely by thy divine and mighty power alone Perswade all thy people moreover that as thou doest beget all thine a-newe by this thy heauenly voyce the sincere preaching of thy Gospell and in calling them makest them thy Children so thou feedest and nourishest them and all thy Graces in them by the same principally and next therunto by the right use of thy holie Sacraments the reuerent reading of the same blessed word and other holy bookes grounded thereupon with sacred Meditations conference with the godly practise of all holy duties carnest supplications and prayers for a right and sanctified use for thy blessing upon everie one of these meanes and the like to make them all effectuall heereunto Good Father perswade ◅ll who thus desire to bee thy Children and in thy favour and to have all others likewise partakers with them of the same mercy to seeke by all holy meanes the establishing and advancement of thy sacred Ministery that them selves and all others may depend upon the conscionable faithfull and sincere Ministers Pastors and Teachers whom thou hast ordayned in this respect to succeed in the place of holy Paul and the other Apostles for the gathering together of the Saints for the worke of the Ministry and for the edification of the body of Christ and bee wholly affraid of all Anaba ptisticall fancies or separations or of any way vvithdrawing themselves from under the meanes ordayned by thee for their salvation to lye open to Sathan and his delusions Oh gracious Father who so tenderest thy Children and chosen flocke as thou hast set Kings Princes in thy place for the care and comfort of them above all other of the earth perswade and move effectually the heartes of all those whom thou hast appointed to be thus as Fathers to thy children as namely all Governours and principally the cheefe whom thou hast specially ordayned to bee the prime foster-Fathers unto those thy deere Children in al the parts of the world That they by all the meanes power that thou shalt ever vouchsafe to put into their hands may looke to see thy people committed to their charge to be furnished with such conscionable sincere faithfull Pastors and teachers as by whom they may be first begotten and after nourished and fed so as they may grow up to the measure of the age of the fulness in Christ and be provided likewise for all other gracious meanes helps belonging hereunto Thus in like manner wee humbly intreate thee most mercifull God and tender father that by the mighty operation of thy heavenly Spirit thou wilt thorowly perswade and move all those whome thou hast in a peculiar manner separated unto this worke of winning of soules unto thee or who have or shall any way enter heereupon that they may wisely consider that principall part of their Vocation and Function namely to endeavour to make al their Congregations to bee thine owne Children carrying lively thy image and bearing upon them the markes of thy Children Cause them to seeke tenderly to nourish and comfort them as in thy place and presence and ever to preserve keepe them from Sathan and all his cursed agents and instruments as from all seducing Iesuites and Seminaryes who compasse sea and land to make all sorts the children of the divell worse then themselves and so from all other deceyvers and all the delusions of this evill world Grant that thus they may study to be able each according to their places at all times whensoever thou shalt call them to an account and chiefly at the great day to present them with all confident boldness and joy before thy heavenly Majesty saying vvith the Prophet Lord heere am I and the children thou hast given me by my Ministry or any way cōmitted to my charge Hearken unto us Oh gracious Father in these our humble supplications all other things which thou knowest to be
needfull for us or thy whole Church or any part thereof for Iesus Christ our Lord and onely Saviour VII A Prayer that all may understand how deere Gods Children are unto him that they may be so to us likewise OH Lord most merciful most wise and tender Father make all sorts to understand and know in time especially all those who so furiously rage agaynst thy Church and people at this day how deere and precious every one of thy Children is unto thy heavenly Majestie that they are unto thee as the apple of thine owne eye and that therefore their blood is precious in thy sight That they perishing for lacke of care to save and succor them much more being destroyed by them to whom thou hast committed them as to their nursing Fathers in thy place their blood will cry for vengeance like as the blood of Abel did and wil cause the murderers one day without unfeigned repentance to crie out when it is too late My sin is greater then I can beare Yea cause all to know that thou canst no more beare with wrongs done unto these thy Children and especially to those of them whom thou hast manifested by their child like obedience and by the glorious image of our Lord Iesus thy deere Sonne printed visibly upon them to bee so deere and precious unto thee then thou couldst beare with the wrongs done unto thy servants Abraham Moses David or any other of thine That if for Abrahams cause thou wast so severe agaynst Abimelech and his house though hee was but a Heathen King that which he did agaynst Abraham hee did ignorantly and with an upright heart as he sayth yea and thorow Abrahams weakness in saying of his wife she was his sister thou wilt then be much more severe agaynst all those who being convinced in their consciences of the innocency of thy poore children as all must needes be in a very great measure in this most glorious shining light of thy heavenly Gospell and yeâ—… doe so vexe and mollest them yea and seeke to destroy them out of the earth onely for thy names sake for cleaving fast unto thee and to thy sacred truth Lord perswade the hearts of all sorts that these while they are in any place are in some sort as Noah was to the old world and as Lot to Sodome for keeping off the vengeance from all the rest Yea good Lord make all sorts understand and know and especially set this ever before our eies and the eies of all thy people every where that thou madest poore Ioseph who was scorned and hated of his Brethren for his religion and pietie for seeking to reforme their evill behaviour to bee yet the preserver of his Brethren yea of all his Fathers house and of the whole Church and causedst his Brethren in their greatest extremity and in the very anguish of their soules to acknowledge how they had sinned against the Lad chiefly in their lack of commiseration and moreover to come and to stoope unto Ioseph and humbly to seeke unto him that he would not remember the wrongs and evils that they had done to him Cause us all to consider well how thou madest him to save them all even him whom for his dislike of their evill manners for his care for their good and for thy speciall favour manifested towards him they accounted the dreamer plotted against cast into the pit sold to the Ismalites thinking thereby they should never have bene troubled with him noâ—… have heard of him any more Grant good Lord seeing thy Children are so deere unto thee that for their causes and the wrongs done unto them thon callest for a dearth upon the lands where they are thou plaguest even Kings for their sakes that thou wilt not spare their owne Brethren or Sisters if they wrong them no not Miriam her selfe though she be beloved of thee a Prophetess and Sister of Moses but wilt make her feele her sinne and her shame if she dare but speake against thy servant Moses especially for doing as thou hast commanded him that they may be likewise as deere and precious unto all thy people Grant Oh tender Father that all sorts thus esteeming of them for thy cause as thine owne deere Children and so highly beloved of thee may all joyntly acknowldge their wrongs against them their haynous sinne against thy Majesty for them in all the rebukes scornes and taunts cast upon thee and thy sacred religion thorow the evils done unto them Vouchsafe that heereby all these may with faithfull Abraham Moses and Samuell pray for all thy people and so helpe to make the attonement for them by the blood of the Lord Iesus that all their sins may bee pardoned thy anger appeased thy people turned to thee againe thy hand may bee turned against thine obstinate and implacable enemies and the enemy may once againe bee given for the ransome of thy Children and people as thou diddest sometimes give Aegypt for thine Israel Lord perswade this principally to all thy Deputies and Vicegerents wheresoever in the earth that even for this cause alone for that these are so beleved of thee they likewise may in all tender affection set themselves as in thy place to rescue succour and protect them from the rage of all thine and their cruell enemies and that they may seeke withall the uniting of the hearts of all thy Children in that firme bond of brotherly love which is in Christ Iesus that those of them who most excell in vertue as they are most deâ—…re unto thy heavenly Majesty may bee so likewise unto them that they may respect and tender them their welfare and prosperity above all others That they may seeke to keepe all thine in this bond of holy love and wisely to prevent whatsoever may dissolve this brotherly knot or but breed any hatred envy grudgings heart-burnnings or unbrotherly censurings amongst them or whatsoever may hurt or annoy them any way That heereby all such thy Vicegerents may get this testimony and seale to their Consciences that they themselves are as thy first borne and amongest the deerest of thy Children and of all other of the earth most precious unto thee and that thou wilt shew thy selfe a Father and Protector unto them theirs for evermore when as thou wilt declare thy selfe full of vengeance against all of them who have any way wittinglie wronged or intended evill agaynst them Oh unite all the hearts of thine owne children unto them and theyrs in all loyall affection as to their foster-fathers and mothers whome thou hast in so much mercie to this end raised up for them and committed them unto as the hearts of all thine owne servants were united into thy faithfull seruant David whom for this cause they accounted better then ten thousand of themselves as the Candle of Israel and as they were
knit to that holy and melting harted King Iosiah whose death they so lamented as for the taking away of theyr shelter and even the verie breath of their nostrils Heare us Oh tender Father and let the bowelles of thy fatherly compassion earn over thy deere children in thus inclining the hearts of all unto them to favour and succour them especially those of them who have alreadie suffered so much adversity bene so long humbled under thy hand for thy deere Son our Lord Iesus Christ his sake our onely Mediator and Aduocate Amen VIII A Prayer that we may all bee able to lift uppe our eyes and hearts unto our heavenly Father alone and to look beyond all earthly meanes in all the troubles and perilles of the Churches OH heavenly Father who over ruledst the counsels of Herod Pontius Pilate and all the people of the Iewes and madst them all to serve for bringing to passe thine owne eternall decree for thine owne everlasting praise and the comfort of thine own chosen flocke Lift vppe the eyes and hearts of all thy Children now in this extreme rage and fury which is against us and especially the eyes hearts of all those of us who have endevoured to be faithfull with thee in these sinfull times and to walke humbly before thee as Enocke Noah Abraham Moses and Daniel Grant that wee may looke up to thee onely who though thou art so gloriously exalted in the highest heavens yet lookest upon all the Sonnes of men and seest all the wronges that are done unto thy Children and hearest every of their sighes and groanes writest them in thy booke puttest their teares in thy bottle and in thy due time wilt make this knowne before all the world howsoever the wicked and ungodly thinke not so but have removed thee farre out of their sight Good Father pardon this sinne unto all thy Children that in the daies of our peace we and all thy Churches have amongst other sinnes made flesh our arme withdrawn our hearts from thee the living God we have so much looked at our earthly fathers of all sortes and to earthly meanes as that we have sayd as they did of Iosiah that under the shelter of those great trees we should be safe from all the violent stormes which could be raised vp by Sathan and from all scorching heate of persecution so that in regard of them we have thoght we should never be removed thou Lord hadst of thy goodness by them made vs to stand so strong Lord make us to see how justly for this sinne thou hast taken away these earthly Fathers from some of the Churches weakned them in others and mayest now most justly even for this verie sinne alone so infeeble the armes of all the rest as that they cannot helpe thy Children yea that thou mayest contrarily so turn their hearts agaynst thy deerest Children for it that insteed of helping them they may rather joyne hands against them until such time as we shall see our sinne even in this behalfe amongst all other our heinous transgressions and turne our eyes agayne onely to thee our heavenly Father and cheefe Protector Oh grant unto us that wee may never rest before that time that by our unfeigned repentance for this and all other our sinnes and by our Prayers and teares crying all about thy feete we have caused thee to relent towards us thy bowels of compassion to earne over us in hearing our sighes and cryes and in seeing so many of us so lef◅e unto the hands of all thine our bloody merciless enemies Lord make vs all able to looke up thus to thee and by faith to behold thee sitting in heaven laughing to scorne all the devises of thine enemies guiding there the great wheele and by it ordering turning and over-ruling all these inferiour less wheeles heere below that though they seeme to be carried violently in a contrary motion yet wee may see all of them serve and by thy infinite wisedome and power made to helpe to accomplish thine eternall decree in whatsoever thou hast appointed concern̄ing the gathering in of all the remainder of thine elect both Iewes and Gentiles the comming downe of the new Ierusalem the present and eternall glory of thy Sion with the vtter ruine downfall of Babel the endlesse condemnation and destruction of that Whore of Babylon and of all thine enemies for evermore Lord make us rightly to understand fully to know that as Herod and Ponti◅s Pilate and all the people of the Iewes did not nor could doe any other thing against our eldest Brother thy deere Sonne our onely Lord and Saviour then that which thine owne counsell had determined for his highest advancement at thy right hand for thine owne eternall praise the sending downe of thy holy Spirit in that wonderfull manner the publishing of thine heavenly Gospell the calling of the Gentiles the inlargement of the Church and spreading it over the whole earth so at this present time neither Sathan nor Antichrist Mahomet nor all the mighty and subtilest enemies of the world can doe any other thing against thy Church or Children then that which long before even from before the foundation of the world was laid thou hast ordained and that for the full accomplishment of whatsoever thou hast foretold concerning both thy Church and Children and also concerning thine enemies and for preparing the way to thy glorious appearing Lord helpe us in this that looking over all things heere below wee may not onely stand still to see what thou wilt doe but that we may rejoyce in faith beholding thee thus ordering and disposing all things to these blessed ends and that thou art making all Angels Principalities Powers yea Sathan and all his instruments with all their rage malice might and subtilty in the very extreamest butchering slaughtering of thy Saints to worke together for the effecting heereof that so wee may rejoyce even heerein with joy unspeakable glorious and in this our blessed estate Lord make us to glorifie thee in this confident assurance that though we should be killed all the day long as many of our Brethren thy deere Children lately have bene for thy name sake and as wee are indeed in the designes of thine and our enemies accounted as sheepe for the slaughter yet that in all wee shall ever bee more then Conquerors thorow that blessed one in whom thou hast loved us Yea deere Father make us to triumph in this that whatsoever wee shall or can suffer in the meane time for thy names sake as other our Brethren do at this day and Sathan threatneth us that yet neither tribulation anguish persecution famine nakednesse bonds imprisonment perill or sword can ever seperate us from thy love in Christ Iesus our Lord if once we have the full evidences in our soules that wee are thy
Children in him being so begotten by that lively word and having upon us all the evident markes of thy Children Grant us therefore Oh gracious Father now in these our daies of peace whilst thou vouchsafest us the meanes of thy heavenly Gospell to give all diligence to make it sure that we are thy Children thy deere Children yea thy Children to whom thy heavenly kingdome appertaineth having and bearing upon us all the lively markes and badges of thy Children Above all grant us this heavenly mindednesse that our chiefe thoughts may bee upon thee our heavenly Father our care may bee above all things how to please thee doing in the meane while only the things which thou requirest casting all our cares for those daies and for whatsoever the enemie can do upon thy Majesty alone and into thy bosome learning every day more and more to waine our affections from this world and the things of this world and to set them wholly above where thy Sonne sitteth at thy right hand Lord perswade our hearts and make us able to perswade one another that by all the power and liberty that thou hast permitted unto Sathan to all his instruments and by all the persecutions and afflictions that are upon all the Churches and also by whatsoever threatnings of thine against thy Children yea whatsoever mischievous designes are intended against thy poore Church or what danger soever it is in thorow that extreame fury of Sathan and Antichrist and all their instruments thou art yet still preparing all thy Children to meete thee in a sound humiliation with strong cries and teares for all our offending thee and for grieving thy holy Spirit by all our former security and neglect of thee and of the riches of thy favours vouchsafed unto us Grant us all this grace therefore as thine obedient and loving Children in all things to submit our selves under thy Fatherly hand to turne joyntly to thy Covenant and renew the same in all faithfulnesse to take away all the divisions that have bene amongst us which thorow our long peace and wantonnes Sathan hath wrought to the destroying of us all if it were possible Vouchsafe good Father that we may doe this so effectually that thou maist be as much pleased in reuniting us againe and in our Brotherly love and agreement as ever thou hast beene displeased in our divisions and dissentions and Sathan and his instruments in seeing our holy unity and agreement may bee as much dismaied and put out of heart for ever prevailing against us as by the contrary and by all their prosperous successe as they imagine they have bene animated and incouraged to our ruine and destruction That so wee may all sing with one heart and voice Behold how good and happy a thing it is Brethren to dwell together in unity Lord manifest thy glory even the glory of thy wisedome power mercy and truth heerein in making us joyntly to looke and cry to thee for all these things and whatsoever thou in thy infinite wisedome knowest necessary for us in this behalfe or for any member of thy whole Church for Iesus Christ his sake our only Lord and Saviour IX A Thanksgiving to God according to the first petition of the Lords prayer for causing his glorie to breake forth so wonderfully now in this last Age of the world in delivering his Churches thus farre out of Egypt and Babilon with a confession of our unworthinesse and an earnest prayer that wee may never dishonour him by locking thither againe nor provoke him by our sinnes to give us up to that heavie iudgement and likewise for the diliverie of all the rest of his Israel in his due time and that he may never leave us untill hee have brought us all into his heavenly Canaan OH Lord most holy and most glorious open our blinde eies touch our hard and stony hearts and the hearts of all thy true Churches and people in all the world whom thou hast called forth to bee thy people that wee may bee able to see and consider aright the exceeding honour and dignity which thou hast laid upon us and to shew forth our thankfulness to thy heavenly Majesty accordingly Make us able to consider show thou hast vouchsafed to take us so nere unto thy selfe as to make vs thine owne peculiar people of all the people of the earth to set and confirme the Covenant with us of life and glory and how to this end thou hast brought us out of that spirituall Aegypt and Babilon from that bondage and tyranny of Sathan and Antichrist Make us to consider and rightly to understand how by great deliverances and iudgements thou hast carried us thorow the sea and thorow the wildernesse and shewed thy selfe unto us in thy glorious ordinances leading us by thy statutes and commandements and by the workes of thy providence protection direction chastisement blessings as thou diddest thy people Israel by the pillar of the fire and the pillar of the cloud Give us hearts ever to remember how thou hast sought for us from heaven so as all the earth hath sâ—…ene and heard of thy glory and hast carried us as upon Eagles wings and now brought us to the very frontiers of thy heavenly Canaan and made us to see tast of the riches happinesse and glory of it in thy sacred Gospell Oh our blessed God most gracious and most dreadfull make us and all thy people to bee afraid of ever having any thought of turning backe so much as in our hearts or of ever having a looke towards Aegypt or Sodome againe towards any part of that Popery or Popish superstition and Idolatry that abhominable drudgery under Sathan and Antichrist from which thou hast so graciously delivered us Oh never suffer us to admit of any imagination or so much as one motion of comparing the Leekes Onions Garlicke of Aegypt with the hid Manna of thy sacred Law and heavenly Gospell Albeit we heare and see their â—…age and fury and the power of all their armies banding themselves against us either to swallow us up at once or els to persue us into the heart of the sea yet keepe us that wee never rebell against thee thinking to turne backe from thee to goe into Aegypt againe distrusting thy truth thy presence and power Cause us Oh gracious Father wisely to consider of and ever to have this as before our eies that of all dishonors done unto thy heavenly Majesty thou canst least indure this chiefly after so long triall and experience which thou hast given us of thy power goodnesse and mercy towards us That this sinne alone may justly make thee sweare in thy wrath that wee shall never enter into thy rest Make all them that have dishonoured thee in this high kinde sinning thus against thy glorious Majesty to know for certaine that without
and withall that as the Popish sort in every place have set up other Gods to anger thee as chiefly their holy Father the Pope whose word and ordinances they reverence above thine rejecting thy word utterly in regard of their Popes decrees and traditions and with him have set up all their Saints and Idols to whom by their invocation of them they give his glory so every one of us who albeit in words wee professe thee our God have yet in our hearts set up other things which wee preferre before thee and on which we spend moe of our thoughts more of our love and care to enjoy them then on thy Majesty even wee likewise have set up so many false Gods in our hearts to provoke thee to the uttermost And finally good Lord make us all able to see by this first commandement of thine how wonderfull few they are so farre as we are able to conceive who by the light of their good workes doe indeed and truth glorifie thee their heavenly Father by shewing forth before men and Angels that they have so set thee up in their 〈◊〉 as their God and those few that doe so indeed are the men principally maligned of all the people of the world even for this cause principally because they shew in their lives that they have thus in their hearts set thee up to bee their God although that they be the onely blessed people having thee their God all other being in a most miserable estate and that they are therefore the onely men in honour and favour with thee and by whom chiefly as by Abraham Noah and Moses thou savesâ—… and preservest all the rest of us Make us Lord to understand and conceive aright hereof and that for this very 〈◊〉 alone whereby we have so generally seâ—… our selves not onely to maligne and dishonour theâ—… but even to fight against thy heavenly Majesty wee may wonder how thou hast spared us of this nation hither to and not left us up as the other Churches untill we shall see and acknowledge what wee hâ—…e done against theâ—… our most gracious and out most blessed God in this behalfe Heare us Oh tender Father â—…nd suffer us never to â—…est untill wee have repented particularly of this our most heynous and crying sinne and that all of us that ever looke to have a strong assurance that we belong to thy eternall â—…lection have thus truly seâ—… theâ—… up in our hearts as our Lord and God That so by our unfeigned repentance thou maiest once againe manifest thy selfe in the deliuerance of all thy Churches and people in a more glorious manner to bee still our God graciously reconciled to vs againe in Iesus Chrst maiest so renew thy Covenant to remaine our God and the God of our posterity through him and for his sake alone for evermore Amen Amen XII A humble confession of the sinnes of the Churches and an acknowledgment of Gods righteous proceeding for our unthank fulnesse and transgression of his Lawes and for that though wee haue heard of all their miseries and knowne our owne dangers yet we haue not beene humbled nor made our supplications as we ought according to the 1. of Nehemiah OH Lord God of heauen and earth who art the great and terrible God proceeding most fearfully in thy dreadfull judgements even against thine owne deare people and children as thou diddest against thy people of Israel for their unthankfuluesse for their despising transgressing thy blessed Lawes and Commandements and yet art withall full of mercy and tender compassion to thy people repenting of their sinnes and truly humbled for their provocations thou who keepest Covenant and mercy for ever for all that truly love thee and who desire unfeignedly to observe all thy Commandements heare us and al thy poore Churches and people in all the earth at this day looking up to thee alone and crying loude unto thee We pray thee Oh tender Father that thine eyes may be open and thine eares may bee attent both to behold the miseries and dangers and to heare the prayers of thy poore servants which wee all joyntly poure out before thee day and night for our brethren thy servants and children which are in such great affliction and doe now uncessantly confesse all our sins and the sinnes of all thy people which we have sinned against thee Both we and our Fathers all of us have grievously provoked thee now this threescore yeares and aboue even since thou first tooke us by the hand to bring us forth of Egypt Babilon and diddst also carry us out as uppon Eagles wings by thy mig hty hand and oâ—…t-stretched arme Oh Lord wee have heard long do dayly heare more and more of the innumerable miseries which thou broughtest uppon our brethren and sisters in the Palatinate it being a principall member even of our owne selves Aud so in Bohemia and the Countries adioyning to it though further remote from vs yet our deare brethren and sisters in Christ Iesus and so likewise in the Churches of France hard at our doores in all the direfull slaughters and butcherly cruelties which thine our merciles enemies haue executed upon them in their bloody rage without any pitty We have also heard and do still daily heare ringing in our eares the miserable state and condition of the residue of them that have escaped the bloody sword some of them induring all kind of violence and calamities of all sorts living in all reproach the wall of their Ierusalem being broken downe the gates there of being burnt with fire all the rest of them living in continuall feare because of the deadly fury and hellish plots against them to destroy them all And yet though wee have long heard do dayly heave of these things and of the rage of thine and our enemies still increased against them all and against our selves have wee not with thy holy servant Nehemiah sit downe wept and mourned for them muchlesse fasted and prayed before thee the God of heaven in their behalfe in any such manner as we ought Oh thou our most holy God and pittyfull Father we humbly confesse and acknowledge that wee have all grievously sinned against thee wee have not kept thy great goodnesse in remembrance which thou shewedst unto us in delivering our fathers and us so wonderfully from Aegypt Babilon by so mighty a hand nor the many great preservations and deliverances which since that time our eares have heard and our eies have seene how thou hast rescued us from their jawes nor yet have we kept in memory how thou tookest us to bee thine owne peculiar people of all the people of the earth made thy Covenant with us to bee our God and that wee should be thy people so that wee would but walke in this thy Covenant But this our Covenant with thy Majesty though all of vs who professe thy Gospell have solemnly
thankfulnesse of heart humbly acknowledge before thy sacred Majesty how wee especially in this sinfull Nation with us many other and namely all thy chosen flocke among us are bound unto thy sacred Majesty for the admirable setting up and the wonderfull preservation of thine Annoynted servant our dread Soveraigne of all his Royall progeny with every of thy deliverances and mercyes which thou hast heeretofore vouchsafed by them or as yet dost through them most graciously offer unto us all upon our unfeigned repentance and true turning to thee Lord make us ever to bee wisely pondering of thy divine and Fatherly providence even in every one of these which hath bene so sensible that our very enemies have taken notice of it and so give thee glory acknowledging thy hand in them Diddst thou not Oh good Lord at the very naming of thy Royall Servant to be our Lord and King deliver us all from the hand of our Brother Esau even from all those who had long vowed our death and thirsted after our blood Diddest thou not thereby cast such a terror upon all thine and all thy Churches enemies as that the feare of him and of thy people fell upon them all that not so much as adogge wag'd his tongue against any of thy servants though our sinnes had long before cryed for such a vengeance as they had threatned And afterward when wee had so provoked thee againe by our impenitency and by al our unthankfullnesse manifested in the breach of our renewed vowes and Covenants as that wee were indangered to bee consumed at once by that fiery furnace made like Nebuchadnezzars large and wide or much more terrible by thine and our most mercilesse enemies stirr'd up against us in thy wrath yet diddst not thou againe deliver us and pluck us forth even as the three children of the Captivity and cast in sundry of our enemies for us Diddest thou not also principally worke this as by the hand of thine Annoynted not suffering him to rest untill all our deliverance was wrought And hast thou not both before and since that time given unto him many great deliverances and in all his preservations still preserved us all especially us of this Nation together with all our blessings of so much peace and prosperity as wee still injoy in the middest of the calamities of the other Churches And above all hast thou not thus continued thy heavenly Gospell the life of our lives which hath bene so removed from other Countries together with their outward blessings so as thou hast made him to this day the very breath of our nosethrils and that through him wee injoy all these our mercies as under our vine and figtree and by him givest us new and most blessed hope that wee shall injoy them perpetually Lord these are mercies and favours never to bee forgotten of us Good Lord set them ever before our eyes And for our gracious Prince besides all his and our former deliverances hopes in and by him hast thou not made him to bee to us as Ioseph and disposed of all his journey and of his dangers in it to the greatest discovery of the devices of our adversaries and overturning the hopes of all our wicked enemies Never suffer us to forgett how thou revivedst the hatts of us all making us to breake out into joyfull Triumphes praises when thou hadst caused us to see his face againe delivering him from so many perils as our sins had brought him and â—…s into and those dangers of all sorts both by sea and land yea both bodily and spirituall Lord make us able to give thee thy due glory heerein that thou sitting at the sterne hast disposed of all that journey and all those adventures to the admired improvement of all thy rich guifts and graces in thy Royall servant caused him to see the vilenesse of that most odious superstition and Idolatry which thy soule so much abhorreth and which hee otherwise had never so well understood That thou hast taught us all to know by most happy experience what the power of the prayers of thy people is when they are sent up with an united force that they are able to open the Iron doores and to breake in sunder the gates of brasse to make way for thy children and chosen clocke to passe through the middest of all thine and their mortall enemies Lord make us to lay it wisely to heart how thou hast made him so much more hereby the future expectation and rejoycing of Israel under thine Annoynted servant And likewise for that perelesse Princesse Lord make us all able wisely to consider what another crowne of glory thou hast set upon her head even in her lowest abasement which thou hast brought her unto for the sins of thy people that she should thus excell in al true renowne and fame of all Christian and truely Heroike vertues above all the Princes of the earth that thou hast made her a Mirrour to all of her sex at this day in all the world Oh suffer us never to forget that wonderfull preservation of her when thou deliveredst herâ—… at the Powder Treason from those cruell Nimrods the bloody hunters the reedifiers of Babell who had in their account made a prey of her in a speciall manner by her to have accomplished all their hellish ends and most mercilesse designes against our whole Nation and against all thy poore Churches and people Let it never slip out of our minde that howsoever thou hast suffered her againe to be chased and pursued as a Doe before the hunters yet thou preservedst her in a miraculous manner with that illustrious Prince and all their Royall seed and hast made them most fruitfull in the midst of all their trials and temptations to the terrour and astonishment of all thine and thy Churches enemies and the greater securing and comfort of thy people to cause all thine to lift up their heades in an expectation of a more glorious Age time yet to come in all the world then ever heretofore And above all let this ever be before our faces how thou hast thus wonderfully kept them all alive against all the plots and layings in waite of Sathan and all his instruments by all their stratagems devises and bloody pursuites and hast preserved those thrice happy pawnes pledges of our peace and safety though out of their owne Countryes and people and in forraigne parts And finally how thou hast begunne this wished and happy union amongst thy Churches and servants the cutting off the long wished hopes of the enemies of thy Church under their pretended leagues of peace and amity whereby they had so much undermined us and expected our surprizall of a sodaine whilest we remained yet most secure Not unto us Oh Father not unto us but to thy great name wee give all the glory humbly consessing that by all our impenitency and breach of
14 15. Matt. 6. 7. Our devotions what in generall Their devotions of what sort a See their bookes of their chiefe devotions as they are called by Master Gâ—…E who was best acquainted with them b See their Letanies to our Lady in that booke and namely that sung at the intended â—…panish invasion Their more profound meditations and devotions 2 Thess. 2. 4. 2 Thess. 2. 4. Apoc. 13. 11. c. 14 15 16 17. Scope of all their dâ—…votions Esa. 1. 13. Comparing of them together Particular comparing of them for more evidence 1 Tim. 4 8. Col. 2. 23. Deut. 4. 2. 22. 32. Prov. 30. 6. Apoc. 22. 18. 1 Tim. 4. 1. Iam. 1. 17. Iob 22. Esa. 4. 4. Apoc. 8. 3. Matth. 6. Prov. 19. 2. Rom. 4. end Matth. 6. 7. Rom. 8. 34. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Apoc. â—… 3. Conclusion of this second point 2 Thess. 2. 11 12. The third part of the delusion that they spend more time in their devotions than we in ours Rhâ—…m on Rom. 3. vers 22. sect 7. Mat. 12. 33. Esa. 1. 15. 1 Ioh. 3. 15. Esa. 1. 12. Psal. 50. 16. Iam. 16. 7. Iust complaint against the greatest part of those who prosesse the Gospell Conclusion The further manifestation of that assumption which fully demonstrated all must renounce Popery or be professedly of Sathans Religion Seâ—… Watch Part 3. pag. 340. The Syllogisme grounded upon our Saviours owne words How the Lord manifested the truth of this Assumption that this is their doctrine * Now L. â—… of Licâ—…field Part 3. c. 11. p. 340 341. The Lord himselfe also daily more and more manifesting the truth of it to leave all the obstinate more without excuse Seâ—… the book intituled An admirable discoverie of an horrible attempt standerously â—…hered upon them of Rochell See Foot out of the Snare pag. 25. All their Doctrines lies in hypocrisic 2 Tim. 4. 2. Appeale for the truth of the Assumption Appeale for the evidence of sundrie Consectaries Luk. 11. 23. Ezek. 33. 7 8. * I could wish them all other of the simpler sort to read such little treatises as shew how Popery is against the main grouÌ„ds of Religion and first principles of the Catechisme as namely a little booke called a pill to purge out Popery with the shifts of the Iesuits by Master MVLLâ—…N and the like Request to all opponents Acts 9 5. See Peters enlargement concerning the power of faithfull praier 2 Thess. 1. 7 8 9 10. Psal. 34. 15. Psal. 10 17. 18. Esay 65 24. Iames 1 6. Iames 5 16. 17. 1â—… 2 Kings 2 12. 2 King 13 14. Iob 22 21 22. 3â—… Psal. 9 16. Psal. 50 16 17 To meditate Esay â—…9 26 c. 63. 3 4 5 How our Saviour hath bene wont to look for some to helpe his Church in all her extremities His usual maner then to find out some to stand in the breach and by whom he migat shew himself gloriously for it As Ioseph Some to bee helpers by their prayers and teares Iob 22. â—…0 These henow lookes for Euery one must needes desire to bee of this little number Iude 5 23. Iudg. 7 7. Yet everyone is not fitted for this service Our Saviour hath taught whom they â—…ust be To mediâ—…ate in the second place of the necessitie of seruent prayer at this time aboue all former 3. What a one hee must be 4. How his prayers must be framed 5. The power of such prayers 6. All other unmeet 7. How yet every one must endevour to be an helper To see the necessitie of this dutie by considering 1. The estate of the Churches 2. How the Lord cals for our helpes in teaching us to cry Our Father Our Father which art c. 1. To lay to heart the calamities aud perils of all the churches and people of God at this instant 2. Pet. 1. 4. 2 To seeke to prevent or mitigate the displeasure of our heavenly father To consider how God hath ordained Kings Queenes for nurses to his church Esay 49 23. And the praiers of his people so to incline their hearts 2 Tim. 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. Hallowed be thy name As the Lord hath been wont to glorifie his name by Kings and Princes saving his Church so we may now expect If we can give Christ glory in our repentance And the ra ther for that the enemie seeketh to trample his glory under feete Thy kingdome come How the enemies set themselves against Christ. How they have prevailed Resolued to proceed That Antichrist may fit again as God in his Temple That as they thus seeke to lead Christ his armies captives That he hath ordained Kings to hold up his Scepter Apo. 17. 16 17 And to make the whore desolate 4. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen How Sathan Antichrist seeke onely to be obeyed To destroy out of the earth all who obey the lord Nothing but the power of our Lord Iesus Christ of his Vicegerents to hinder it How difficult for us to lay these things to heart And for them who are vnder the triall to submit themselues That we may more commiserate them Giue us this day our daily bread To bring our hearts to a feeling of their miseries Both bodily To thinke how neere the like may be to us How we have deserved to drinke more deeply then any other How we hale on these How the Lord hath hitherto preserved us by Kings and Princes Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us To bring our hearts to a sense of the sinns so provoking the Lord. Chiefly carnal gospeling That the Lord hath is stil so fearfully proceeding for these sins according to the denunciation in his blessed Law Leuit. 26. Deut. 28. Our sinne in not submitting our selvs and seeking to pacific the Lords wrath who hath so 〈◊〉 and so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 that hee might spare us By his Messengers By mercies iudgements Wonderfull preservation deliverances That our sins are so overspred committed with so high a hand Wee worse notwithstanding so many tokens of Gods displeasure No warning serving us To take their miseries oâ—… our owne perils to heart To labor for a feeling That wee are the men prin cipally devoted to destruction Most enâ—…yed by the enemies of the Church Our sinne of carnall Gospelling greater then of other Churches not onely shewing forth But so much denying all power of godlinesse Ashamed to be noted for more carefull profession Causing gods enemies to blaspheme Our sinne increased to the uttermost by our turning against Christ Iesus as against our greatest enemy Though hee haue so uiâ—…ibly protected us This 〈◊〉 apparent that we so many of us seeme deadly to hate all power of godlinesse Manifest in all the odious names wherewith it is branded Not to rest till we have brought our hearts to a seeling of our sins and hovv they are encreased That nothâ—…g keepes bâ—…ck his vengeance but his inâ—…init