He taketh the wise in their owne craftinesse They meet with darknesse in the day-time and grope in the noone-day as in the night Prov. 21.30 There is no wisedome nor understanding nor counsell against the Lord. And whatsoever is without God is against him No Associations can do good without him See Isaiah 8.9 10. Walls and Fortifications are to no purpose Isaiah 22.8 9 10 c. The sounds of Rams hornes shall be as good as the Batteries of the greatest Rams or the shot of the greatest Cannon against Hiericho if the Lords strength be not the cement of the stones thereof Iosh 6.20 There is no nourishing vertue in the creatures without him Matth. 4.4 Man shall not live by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God There is no Security no Prosperity no successe in any Action any Operation or Enterprize without the blessing of the Lord. Except the Lord build the House they labour in vaine that build it Except the Lord keepe the City the Watch-man waketh but in vain c. Psalme 127. What seemes to be attributed unto Chance Eccles 9.11 being spoken as is thought in the person of a carnall man perhaps to convince such an one from his owne principles is without doubt the prerogative of God who is equally the great Master both of contingent and regular events for there is nothing contingent in regard of the first cause The race is not to the swift nor the battell to the strong nor yet bread to the wise c. Eccl. 9.11 There is no peace nor indeed any good to bee had but from him Isaiah 45.7 I forme the light and create darknesse I make peace and create evill I the Lord doe all these things The Scripture flowes with this kind of instruction And the voyce of Reason and Scripture is subscribed by Experience The experiments are innumerable that History affords to this purpose We need goe no farther than to those evidences which have been given us in our late miscarriages Wee see our Wisedome hath forsaken us and the contrivances of our great Counsellors have proved plots of destruction our policies have served but to improve our miseries to cheate us farther and farther into the power of Mischiefe and Desolation On the one side our gracious King the glory of our strength under God is imprisoned and he that should helpe us is not able to helpe himselfe God hath suffered so good a King to fall into such a condition perhaps to teach us this lesson that I am now pressing upon you I pray God we may learne it quickly for his sake Our Armies though they were strong and powerfull and had the great comfort and encouragement of a righteous Cause yet through miscarriage in the mannaging thereof and for want of engaging God with them in the work yea through their dis-ingaging of him by their wickednesse and horrid impieties they have beene defeated and brought to nothing I pray God this may be remembred hereafter On the other side the Armies in which so many have trusted and which they have beene at such cost to set up and maintaine instead of helping them have become their Oppressours the edge of their Swords hath been turned toward themselves and their own force threatneth them with ruine The Money and Wealth of the City and Kingdome hath purchased chased us no deliverance at all but hath rather served for the hire of our calamities All the Pillars on which we have leaned are broken as it were on all sides and we have no Foundation left us to rest our selves upon on earth Oh then now let us learne from all this that there is no helpe but in God If wee have our recovery we must have it from heaven and from his hand No Drug will helpe us but Manus Christi If wee ever have Peace we must have it from him Hee is the Prince of peace and the God of peace Though the whole World should conspire to doe us good and to relieve us yet if the Lord come not in to the worke it will be in vaine Let us therefore learne wisdome by our former follies and doe not now relapse into your old errours againe There is much gaping after helpe from this and from that from the Scots and from the Welch and from I know not whom and indeed these may be instrumentall helpes and it will be wonderfull in God to make them so But all these will deceive us unlesse God be brought in for us unlesse he be with us as good they were all against us They will neither prove faithfull unlesse God hold them nor helpfull unlesse God strengthen and prosper them Let us look upon them therefore as the returning glimpses of Gods mercy unto us as his proffers and invitations to make us seek unto him But let us take heed that we place not our hope in them nor in any creature It is the common Dilemma of humane folly and perversenesse that where no outward help appeareth it is apt to despaire of help from God and we will trust him no farther than we can see him in the meanes but they that are of this mind if they truely search into their condition will finde perhaps that they trust not in God but in the meanes And againe when outward help doth begin to shew it selfe we are presently too apt to forget our dependance upon God and to withdraw our expectations from him and to set up that meanes for an Idoll in his Throne by placing our hope and confidence therein I pray God deliver us from both these extreames and teach us in all the varieties and changes of humane things to keepe our selves unmoveably fixed upon this Rocke That our help commeth from the Lord which made heaven and earth Psal 21.2 But it is a great question that comes in the fourth place and would require more space than I have allowed mee to resolve it fully What course may be taken to engage God on our side and to obtaine help and relief from him First let mee entreat you all to bee firmly fixed upon this and to let it seize upon your affections as well as your judgements that if ever we be relieved it must be God that must relieve us And then take in this conclusion for your direction That there is no way to obtain help and deliverance from God but by Humiliation Repentance and faithfull Prayer unto him This onely will doe it and this will doe it I must divide and be briefe I shall premise only this premonition I deny not but God may grant outward deliverances outward blessings where they are not sought of him in this way for divers ends that are knowne unto his heavenly wisdome He doth sometimes take off judgements from the wicked that he may render them so much the more unexcusable and sometimes to give them the reward of some outward Services and sometimes for the sake of the righteous that live amongst them
to consider even of that and if it be not altogether against the rules of Logick to ghesse at the premises by the conclusions we shall find too much evidence from the Products to beleeve that so wretched a building if a matter of so cleare ruine may be called so had none of the best models in your first and earliest thoughts and addresses to this affaire But we have good reason to be yet so charitable toward you as to allow you some share in the truth of that old saying that Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus and to beleeve that you have been so far deceived by your selves and one more whom I lust not to name as that you have both deserted and forgotten your first Intentions as you have your first Declarations and Expressions and that the Platformes that you laid in 〈…〉 beginning however perhaps they were faulty enough yet were not halfe so confused as the edifice you have raised but however innocent that may be thought to have been you must looke to answer for the structure of every part of that Babell that you have set up If you can thinke to carry on your businesse so safely as to fordoe all possibility of a reckoning to any upon earth yet I can assure you there is One in heaven that maugre all the shufflings and riglings the Muses and refuges that you can use or contrive will be sure to have an account from you It will therefore be very seasonable for you to take some pause a little from your pursuit and before you do proceed any further to looke back a while upon the progresse that you have made and to take the survey of the worke that you have done and I am fully assured that unlesse you looke with some other light upon your Fabriques than that wherewith God lookt upon his you cannot see what you have done to be very good but will rather find it to be desperately evill for such is the contrariety between Gods worke and yours that it can hardly otherwise be determined but that if his were very good yours must needs be evill His worke was a worke of Creation your hath been a worke of Destruction and if Creation be good Destrustion is evill There is indeed a destruction which is good but that is the destruction of evill but yours hath been the destruction of good of Government of Law of Peace of Religion of the lives of Peaceable and Innocent men and if the destruction of evill be good the destruction of good must be evill His was a worke of light yours hath been a worke of darknesse and if light be good then darkenesse is evill His was a worke of Order yours hath been a worke of Confusion and if Order bee good Confusion is evill And yet it may be some good to you in time to know and acknowledge it to be evill that the timely sense of the evill of your workes may bring you to the timely good of Repentance for this purpose I here take the boldnesse and I doubt you will thinke it so to offer you a view of this scheme that I have drawne of the sad result of your Seven yeares Counsels and Actions in the dismall and wretched Condition whereinto you have brought this poore Church and Kingdome A spectacle wheron I dare to tell you that none among you can looke without remorse unlesse they be men of a neronian spirit we read indeed of that monster that he procured Rome to be set on fire and when he had satisfied the lust of his Diabolicall cruelty in beholding the flame of that his owne stately City to take off the odium of so inhumane an Act from himselfe he charged it upon the poore innocent Christians who were marked out as the Malignants of those times as if they had been the only men that were the publique enemies of humane kind and the chiefe causes and Authors of those calamities and disasters which either by the just judgement of God upon the wickednesse of those heathens or by their owne malicious and pernicious practises befell the people amongst whom they lived as Tertullian excellently expresseth it in that admirable Apology that he made for the Christians afterwards Si Tiberis ascendit in maenia si Nilus non ascendit in arva si Coelum stetit si terra movit si fames si lues statim Christianos ad leonem If the floud of Tyber ascended up into the wals if Nilus did not overflow the fields if the heaven stood or the earth moved if there were Famine or Pestilence presently the cry was That the Christians must to the Lyon Let it not be forgotten in the examination of your consciences whether you have not used this Neronian Art against some poore suffering Christians in these dayes whether you have not as he did set this poore Kingdome on fire and when you have done laid the charge upon them whom you have branded with the names of Malignants and Delinquents as if they were the only enemies unto peace and the causes of all the publique disturbances If you shall be pleased to cast a serious eye upon this sad Spectacle which is laid before you you will find much cause to embrace your part in that advice unto Humiliation and Repentance which is offered with it And it is now high time for you to returne Doe not thinke it too soone because you have yet some delusions left of outward prosperity to deceive your selves withall but remember that saying in Boetius Si miserum est voluisse prava potuisse miserius If it be an unhappinesse to desire an evill it is a double misery to have the power to execute it and if this be true it will easily appeare that yours is but prosperity mistaken and that your successes may be reckoned amongst your greatest disasters affoord work rather for Humiliations than Thanksgivings since the matter sublect of them is in actions of that nature that have the Laws both of God and man against them For my part saith Philosophy in the same Boet. Si vehementer â—â—â—â—dum punire desiderarem hominem improbuÌ„ nec flammas nec rotas nec tormenta ei instituerem verùm honoribus auro argento divitiis rumperem cumque plenus usque ad os ipsum foret aulaeâ retractâ virtutem paradisum ei ostenderem cujus alteram prodidisset alteram perdidisset If I had a desire saith he to punish a wicked man to the purpose I would not allot unto him either the scorching of flames or the anguish of the Wheeles or any other torments but I would rather burst him with honours and with riches untill he were full up unto the very mouth and then would I draw the Curtaine and give him a sight of the beauty of vertue and the joyes of paradice the one whereof he had betrayed and lost the other Beware in time I heartily beseech you of this Art that Sathan hath so long time made use of to
supportance as their Priesthood Is it not Gods own Ordinance that they that preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell now as well as heretofore that they that served at the Altar should live by the Altar Or must the Oxe only be muzzled that treadeth out this Corne Or is not faith to be kept with God now thinke wee as well as then It hath been heretofore held injustice to violate a Promise especially an Oath made unto man though to our owne hinderance or to temerate a deed of gift or Testament whereby Interests are conveyed from one earthly Creature unto another and shall we think it any thing lesse than an high impiety to violate those Vowes those donations those dedications and consecrations whereby things are devovoted unto the Service and Worship of the Almighty to the supportance of his Ministry and the keeping up of the worke of his honour among us Stop thy mouth for ever then thou covetous bag-bearer thou Iudas-Traitor-Temple-theefe and cry no more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To what purpose is this waste When thou seest this oyntment powâ—ed upon the head or feet of thy Master Christ Iesus upon his head in the maintanance of Piety or upon his feet in the workes of Charity Say not it might have been sold for much and given to thine owne Pride or Luxury or to the maintenance of the sedition or cruelty of others do not buy nor fell in the Market of Sacrilege least when thou sellest Gods right his peculiar right his devoted right upon earth thou sellest withall that right which thou hopest for in God heaven and least whilst thou buyest the Sacred Portion of the Lord thou have a Curse a propagating spreading Leprous Curse made over by God Tibi Tuis To thee and thine to have and to hold for terme of life in this world and hell and damnation into the bargaine in the world to come Be not like unto the foolish Eagle in the Apologue that tooke the flesh from the Altar to feed her young with least the inseperable Coale of the Divine Indignation set both thy nest and thy young on fire and thou perish together with them in the flame Be not so foolish as to imagine that all things that were ordained in the Church of the Jewes were abolished by the comming of Christ some things were of order some things for unity some things there were for helpes unto mens affections as Musick some things for the excitement of their memories as the writing of the Law in such manner as might make it obvious unto them some things for the necessary and comfortable supportance of Gods Worship the Officers and Instruments thereof other things were properly ceremoniall and of a typicall use some were of a mixt nature be not carried away with prejudices against the truth take not the hire of Sathan in the proposall of advantages as too many have done to betray thy judgement and thy conscience unto thy filthy and insatiable avarice Bee not thine owne Iudas that thou maiest fill the Bagg of that theefe corruption within thee that would cheate thee to the deare purchase of Thine owne ruine but take these rules rather to satisfie all doubts and to answer the pleas of Sathan for this evill First Things properly ceremoniall that were meere types and figures of Christ are abolished by the comming of him who is the Substance and what was the effect of this abolition Even the same and none other than that which is the effect of the abolition of every Law to leave the things enjoyned or forbidden in the very same state and condition that they were in before the Law and should have continued in if the Law had never bin made The ceremonial Law made many things indifferent before to become either necessary or unlawfull it made them that had before no such use at all in them to become types and figures of Christ and of things to come What does then the Abolition of this Law do Why clearely it removes all that that the Law added or put upon them that is to say the necessity of things enjoyned the unlawfulnes of things forbidden the legall or typicall use of both and leaves the things themselves in the same naturall freedome that they were in before This is the voice of reason and reason will receive it would thereby end some quarrels if it might be heard and discover the mistake of those that thinke that the abolition of the ceremoniall Law made the matter of the Ceremonies unlawfull It left them indifferent if they were so before but makes it unlawfull to use them as types or as things of necessity Brevity is obscure and that I must now labour for but understanding and peaceable men may make good use of this I intend by Gods grace to say something more fully hereof hereafter Secondly Things of order of helpes of affections of memories and the like as the generall reasons remaine so they may be usefull the use of such things is not forbidden for such purposes they were only shadowes that the comming of the Substance chased away Thirdly Ordinances of supportance as they have the same reason still so they are no way abolished by the abolition of the Law of Ceremonies but may be continued without any offence for the like purposes in the time of the Gospell for which they were instituted in the time of the Law viz. for the supportance and furniture and ornament of the Worship of God and the instruments thereof yea it is not only lawfull but necessary that the same or as liberall a proportion as that and that certaine should be allowed for the maintenance of Gospell-Worship as was allowed for the Ministry of the Law for if the ministration of the Gospell be more glorious it is against all reason that it should be allowed lesse honour or a lesse comfortable supportance It is the Apostles argument 1 Cor. 9.13 14. Doe yee nos know saith he that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple c. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell for if it be a good rule that sicut se habent simplicia ad simplicia sic se habent comparata ad comparata As things in their simple and absolute consideration heare themselves to one another so the like proportion holdeth in their comparisons with one another Then I know not how it can be reasonably denied but if it will follow from the allowance that was ordain'd for the Ministry of the Law that there ought to be an alowance for the Ministry of the Gospell because this as well as that is the worship of God the means of Salvation unto the people which cannot be performed without the paines labour of the Officers thereof c. It will follow that because the ministration of the Gospell is a more holy and more excellent kind of Worship of God
out of a Church-complainant in Queene Elizabeths Dayes taxing the like fault in some Reformers of that time Pamphagum quendam Helluonem spurcissimum cum ad convivia invitatus esset in delicatiores cibos sordes conjecisse ferunt Vt solus quibus vellet vesceretur certè quâ olim aviditate gurges ille atque helluo ad cibos accersit eadem reformatores nostri ad devorandas Ecclesiae opes accersisse mihi vidētur cclesia enim opes arripiunt cū condemnant omnium malorum semina alimenta esse dicunt in privates quaestus nequissimè transferunt It is said of one Pamphagus or Eate-all a most filthy Glutton that when hee was invited to a Feast hee went and cast some filth or durt into the most delicate dishes that he might enjoy them wholly to himselfe Iust so saith he doe our Reformers seeme to us to have addressed themselves to the devouring of the riches of the Church They cast durt upon the Churches Revenues and condemne them as the fountaines and causes of much mischiefe but it is that they may gaine them to themselves And truely that is but an unmannerly tricke to spit in the Pottage to deprive others of it and then to eate it all themselves But give me leave to propound unto them some few interrogatories out of the same Author Si divitiis virtutem enervari statuant quid divitiis circumfluere tam vehementèr contendunt Si opum abundantiâ Ecclesiae puritatem concidisse existiment quid tanti mali causam non sibi quoque perniciosam futurum putant Si affluentior rerum copia sine scelere possideri non possit quid illis sceleratius qui cupiditati violentiam avaritiae rapinas adjungunt If riches bee so hurtfull why doe they keepe such adoe to become rich and if wealth cannot bee possessed without unrighteousnesse what is more unrighteous than they that have undone a King a Church and almost two whole Kingdomes to enrich themselves or are they so armed against the temptations of Mammon that none of his Witchcrafts can hurt them or if they may be so happy why may not others as well as they And if some of the Ministery have abused their riches are there not others to bee found that have done much good with them But have you never heard of some Clergy-Reformers that heretofore cryed down Pluralities whilst they could not get them themselves for my part I confesse I approve them not and yet not upon those termes it is well knowne unto some I think But when there was by this happy Reformation a scatter of Benefices made amongst them by the persecution of the Orthodox and Loyall Ministery how easily was their old Doctrine forgotten and what scrambling there was amongst them for Pluralities How were they ready to choak themselves with Greedinesse swallowing down three or four Livings at one time But to the pure all things are pure I confesse it and yet there is a vast difference between Purity and Hypocrisie Sure these things are of no good report The God of heaven grant the spirit of sincerity amongst us In the meane time let them and those others that are like them remember that as he speaks vitiosos reprehendere sed probare vitia condemnare nocentes sed Crimina absolvere to reprehend other men as vitious and approve the same vices in themselves to condemne them as nocent and to forgive themselves for the same crimes is no good signe of an upright Conscience And then they that rob the Church out of zeale to sanctity put a velvet Maske upon a foul and an ugly strumpet and goe about to arme the devill against himselfe Indeed Sacrilege is one great bane wherewith Sathan hath used to poison Reformations and Rebellion another Heare how Master Calvin chid some heretofore for this miscarriage in their worke First in an Epistle to Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he notes this as a blemish of the English Reformation Certè nunquam integra florebit Religio donec Ecclesiis melius prospectum fuerit ut idoneos habeant pastores qui docendi munus serio obeant Id quo minus fiat occultis quidem artibus obsistit Sathan Vnum tamen apertum obstaculum esse intelligo quod praedae expositi sint Ecclesiae reditus malum sane intollerabile Certainly saith he Religion will never flourish entirely till there be better care taken for the Churches that they may have competent Pastours that may seriously and diligently exercise the function of Teaching This indeed Sathan strives to hinder by secret stratagems But there is one manifest impediment as I understand That the Revenues of the Church are exposed to the spoyle which is intruth an unsufferable evill And againe in an Epistle to Viretus Acriter aurem illis velli cavi de administratione bonorum Ecclesiasticorum in tempore cogitandumillis esse qualiter Deo hominibus rationem reddituri forent Papam fuisse furem Sacrilegum Videndum ne simus successores I urged them sharply about the administration of Church-Goods That they ought to thinke upon it in time how they should be able to render an account to God and men I told them that the Pope had beene a thiefe and a Church Robber and wee were to looke to it that wee doe not prove his successors And agreeable to these speeces of Master Calvin is that complaint of Zuickius in a Letter of his to Caivin Huc ventum videtur quod non sine gemitu dixerim Vt magna nostrorum pars credat sese tum demum verè regnum Antichristi evasisse si cum bonis Ecclesiaeludant pro libito Nec ulli disciplinae subsint O egregium Christianismum It is come to this passe saith he which I may speak not without lamentation That a great part of our people thinke they have then at length truely escaped the Kingdome of Antichrist if the Church goods bee exposed to be the game of all men at pleasure and that they be subject to no discipline O egregious Christianity Iust such a Reformation is this of our dayes I am even wearied with this sad contemplation and almost confounded with that floud heap of Mischiefes and Corruptions that wilde Forrest and Desart of thornes and briers that have over-spread the face of this poore Church of ours I am gotten into the middest of them but can scarce tell how to get out my medirations are even out of breath I am entangled in this brake of our Calamities neither can I see to the end of them Wheresoever I looke I see too much matter for lamentation When I looke upon the houses of God and see them demolished and neglected When I goe into them and behold how they are profaned and abused When I consider the waste that is made in the peaceable and orderly assemblies of the people which are devoured and consumed by Factions and Sectious Conventicles When I looke upon the unreverent and unseemly behaviour of those
a Preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent Faith is the Ladder of Iacob or rather Christ is the Ladder and Faith is the hands and feet whereby the Angels of our Prayers get up unto God and procure the Angels of his blessings to descend down again upon us As Saint Iames speaketh of Wisdome so we may say of every blessing of peace of deliverance of all If any man lacke them let him aske of God who giveth unto all men liberally and upbraydeth not and they shall be given him to wit as farre as it is a gift as farre as it is fit and convenient for Gods glory for the good of the Church and for his owne good But then marke Let him aske in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the Sea driven with the wind and tossed As the wave is lifted up toward heaven but falleth down again presently without attaining unto it so is the motion of a man towards God in Prayer without faith Let not that man thinke that he shall receive anything of the Lord that is to say he can promise himselfe nothing by such a Prayer Note every thinking to obtain by Prayer is not Faith there is a confidence which is an impudent presumption that is not it That we mistake not note the Acts of Faith and its Object and its ground First we must beleeve that God is an Atheist cannot pray Secondly we must beleeve that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seeke him an Epicure cannot pray To this latter it is necessary first to beleeve Gods wisdome that he knows our wants Secondly His power that he is able to relieve us But many there be that are wise enough and able enough that have no good will Therefore we must in the third place beleeve that God hath a good will towards us to do it But how can we beleeve that when we are all in our selves sinners and his enemies have nothing in us to engage his love or his good will but are full of provocations to his wrath It is necessary therefore in the fourth place that Faith lay hold upon the reconciliation betweene God and us in Christ Iesus we must therefore beleeve that Christ hath satisfied for our sins and justified us by his obedience And that God hath opened unto us his Exchequer his Office of mercy in Christ that he hath given Christ to dye for us and doth accept us in Christ and for Christs death and righteousnesse sake and that we being accepted and reconciled by Christ our Services our Offerings our Prayers our Prayses and all are accepted in and for him as God accepted Abell and his Offering The ground of all this is Gods truth in his promise in the Scriptures we must beleeve this to be Gods Word and that offers it selfe unto our faith in a multitude of Arguments In the Prophecies fulfilled In the spirituality and purity of the doctrin In the perfection thereof for all persons and callings and cases In the weakenesse and the simplicity of the Instruments whereby the work is declared not to be of them but of God For as is the man so is his strength no Agent can work above its faculty simple men could not possibly of their owne store produce such wonderfull wisdome they could not have that wisdome from Sathan the wisdome is too pure and they were too holy and too honest therefore either from good Angels or from God If from good Angels they must needs have it from God otherwise they were false in presenting it as his then they should not be Angels but Devils if must therefore be from God and then it will follow that it must be immediately from God by inspiration and illumination of the Spirit at least in the greatest part of it though some were by the ministration of Angels Gal. 3.19 Heb. 2.2 Because it witnesseth so of it selfe 1 Tim. 3.16 This is confirmed by the wonderfull unity agreement of so various and severall Authors in severall times and places and by the very seeming differences which will shew it to be no packt contrived unity By the impartiality of Scripture the different waies thereof from the impostures of humane policy setting down the grosse slips and fals of the eminentest instruments and professors of that truth which humane policy would never have done by the very height and mysteriousnes of the Doctrine Tertull de Carn Christ Credibile est quia ineptum est certū est qui a impossibile est By these and many other Arguments faith is engaged to beleeve it to be Gods word and then the promises to be his promises we must then necessarily believe them to be true for truth is a perfection which the perfectest being which is God cannot want So then Faith must beleeve the Promises The summe of all is in Christ for all the Promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Iesus Faith layes hold first upon the Promises of Christ that we are reconciled unto God by Christ and so have accesse to him that his eare is at our command be it spoken with reverence in Christ and that though we are Sinners yet he is our Advocate and the Propitiation for our sins Faith first must lay hold upon Christ fly to Christ seize upon Christ by adherence and rolling our selves upon him for our peace with God and Salvation embracing him and his merits and righteousnesse as the only and the sure meanes thereof And then we may and must beleeve that God is ready to do all things for us that we shall aske of him in the name and by the Mediation of Christ building upon that Promise of Christ Ioh. 16.23 And that of the Apostle Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his owne Son but gave him up to dye for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things This we must beleeve God is willing to do for Christs sake for us seeking it of him in Christ in his good time and in such measure and manner as shall be best pleasing to him and most for his glory the true good of the whole Body of the Church and the true good of that member that asketh of him Not that we are bound to beleeve that we shall receive every particular thing that wee aske of God for God doth sometimes deny out of mercy Though we should keep our selves as close as we can unto the Promise in our Prayers and then we may be sure to speed well But That God doth lend a gracious eare to our Petitions we comming to him in Christ and by Christ wee must looke to that And that he will give such returnes unto them as he shall know to be best Much more might be said and profitably said too in this Subject But if it please God I may have another occasion to enlarge upon these This is sufficient I hope here to shew the necessity of Faith
all our sins have kindled these flames let your penitent teares and earnest and faithfull Prayers endeavour to quench them The anger of the Lord incensed by our iniquities is the root of all these miseries let us seeke to appease his anger by the incense of our fervent devotions God is a powerfull God and is able to helpe us He is a mercifull God and willing to relieve and succour all those that turne unto him with penitent hearts The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him yea unto all such as call upon him faithfully Methinkes we may heare him clucking us unto him as A Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings that he may hide us there oh let us runne unto him Me thinks we may see him spreading out his armes and stretching out his hands unto us as he did once unto Israel that he may reach us unto himselfe and embrace us in our returne oh let us not stand out against his mercy to our owne ruine When the Prodigall child in the Parable returned how ready was the good father to go forth and meete him how did he fall upon his necke and kissed him Oh let us then feed no longer upon the Huskes with the Swine upon the empty shells of created helpes by relying upon them but let us go to our Father our heavenly Father our mercifull Father and say unto him in the bitternesse of our soules and the compunction of our spirits Father we have sinned against heaven and against thee and are no more worthy to be called thy Children Let us now at length lay aside our strifes our divisions our wicked and foolish and frantick and worldly contentions about shadows and trifles and impertinences And let us all joyne together to quench the fires that are kindled in our houses about our eares Consider how long God hath waited for this He hath been seven yeares now upon the matter preaching this Lecture unto us It hath lost many thousands of lives to teach it us Oh let us now learn it then and practice it lest we answer for all that bloud that hath been shed Take heed you weary not out the patience of the Almighty but let his long suffering leade you to repentance lest his despised mercy be turned into the greater fury and you be made to pay a heavy interest for all his for bearance in eternall destruction Oh delay not the time lest the Decree of utter subversion come forth against us and there be no remedy We must seek to him if ever we be relieved let us do it quickly that we may be speedily relieved let us do it quickly lest it be too late away with procrastinations Illud modò modò non habet modum There is no end of our anons too morrowes if we yeeld unto our Tempter and our corrupt hearts Seeke the Lord whilst he may be found call upon him whilst he is neere Plough up your fallow ground for it is time to seeke the Lord. Oh make haste for the day declineth the shadows of the Evening are stretched out the Morning commeth and also the Night if you will returne returne come But especially let me bespeake you my beloved Brethren and fellow sufferers unto whom I desire to empty out my soule in this Exhortation You that are the Loyall people of the Land whom God hath so long disciplined under the yoke of the oppression of your enemies Let not all that pruning and digging about you prove in vaine lest he breake out at length against you in a farre greater judgement Oh despise not the correction of the Lord nor cast his reproofes behind your back deceive not your selves with vaine hopes Trust not to the righteousnesse of your cause Alas have we forgotten so soone how our wickednesse hath betrayed it once already And Sin is as great a Traitour still as ever Ioshua and Israel had a good cause and a good Commission even from God himselfe and had received great pledges of the Almighties favour The Sea divides asunder to give them passage and what was a Wall unto them was a Sepulchre unto their enemies The Mountaines skipped like Ramms and the little Hills like young Sheepe as it were before them The Walls of Iericho fall down at the noise of them and instead of being a fence for their Adversaries become a pavement unto them These and a thousand more favours God had done for them and yet though their cause was never so good and their Commission never so authenticall and though all these priviledges were bestowed upon them yet we know what one Achan did amongst them See the Story Ioshuah 7. Alas my Brethren how many Achans are there amongst us we may even tremble to thinke on it I love you too well to flatter you in this Israel was Gods people and Midian was his Enemy and yet when the Children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven yeares Let your owne sad experience make you wise you see whither your Sins have brought you and your Cause and your gracious King Take heed you runne not againe into the same errour for which you have already suffered so much and do actually suffer God hath put you to the Triall once againe whether you will receive mercy or no by making new offers of deliverance unto you let not your sins now stand in the way to divert his mercies from you Do not run away from God by your iniquities when he is comming toward you in his goodnesse Oh I beseech you be humbled be reformed let us have no more of your Oaths and Blasphemies and horrid Execrations Your Dammees and your Sinke-mees I feare there are some of your number now cursing banning in Hell for it for all their Loyalty and their righteous Cause and how shall they escape thinke we that love damnation so well as to pray for it It is the monster and prodigy of Corruption that the Devill should so besot any soule Let us have no more of your swinish Drunkennes nor your riotous revellings nor your brutish Lusts No more of your contemning of God and his Truth and his Worship of his Ministers and his Ordinances You see God will not be contemned I pray you consider it hereafter lest if you miscarry againe you miscarry without recovery and your King and the Church and these whole Nations fall with you Oh endeavour I beseech you to make amends for former miscarriages Do not thinke you can do any thing without God leave him out of he businesse no more Trust not to the Scots Trust not to the Welch though I hope they will prove faithfull Trust not to your strength your forces your friends Trust not to the people All these will come to nought without God Trust in God take him along with you in all your waies Consult with him in his Word let him be President of your Councels of Warre and
rest of the Land of Aegypt where light was given by the priviledge of thy goodnesse when all the rest of the Land was overspread with a blacke night of palpable darknesse And for all these thy mercies we have returned unto thee no other recompence but rebellion disobedience most scornfully and unthankefully most impiously and insolently have wee throwne thy blessings in thy face and fought against thee with thine owne mercies by abusing them to the dishonour of thy great and glorious name Our prosperity hath made us fat with Iesurun and wee have kicked against thee our God In the strength that we have received continually from thy bounty we have continually rebelled against thee Thy liberality unto us in the rich supply of thy Creatures hath been made by us the furniture of gluttony and drunkennes the incentives of lust and uncleannesse the wardrope of pride and vanity whilst we have neglected to bestow them upon those holy purposes for which thou gavest them in relieving of thy poore members and in the maintenance promotion and ornament of thy holy service we have filled our selves with costly and intemperate dyet to the robbing of thee our God the destruction of our bodies the disabling of our soules for the performance of holy duties unto thee yea even to the debasing of our very natures as it were turning our selves into brutish and unreasonable Creatures to the damage not only of our Piety Christianity but even of our very being and humanity it selfe whilst thy Sonne Christ Jesus hath stood hungry and thirsty at our doores in his poore distressed and afflicted Members left destitute not only of our succour or reliefe but even of our pitty and compassion We have cloathed our selves like the rich man in the Gospell with fine Linnen with rich and sumptuous attire without any due regard unto our estates or callings whilest thy Son Christ Jesus in his poore Members hath stood stood quivering and quaking with cold and nakednesse being left by us a prey both to torment and disgrace We our selves have dwelt in seiled houses to the splendor and ornament whereof we have engaged the riches both of Art and Nature whilst we have suffered thy house the place wherein thine honour dwelleth to lye waste and shared it betwixt sordidnesse deformity and ruine to the reproach of thy service and scandall of Religion yea O Lord we have not so much as taken care for the maintenance of their bodies that feed our souls we have muzzled the Oxe that treadeth out the Corne and robbed thee our God in tythes and offerings the meagrenesse and poverty of many thy poore Ministers that spend themselves in labour for the salvation of our soules do in too too many places of this Land testifie against us Those glorious deliverances which thou hast given us from our enemies have but rendred us so much the more potent and active enemies unto thee as if thy preservation of us had been no blessing but rather an offence and injurie unto us Our long and lasting peace hath beene made by us but a long and lasting opportunity of sin and in our freedome from enemies upon earth we have most impiously fought against heaven and thee our God And that we might fill up the measure of our unthankefulnesse and make it equall unto the measure of thy goodnes if it were possible by the contempt and abuse of all sorts of thy mercies we have scorned and trampled upon all thy spirituall blessings Wee have turned the very grace of God into wantonnes we have made thy very Gospell the savour of death unto death unto our selves by resisting and refusing the gracious offers of salvation which thou hast made unto us in Christ Jesus whilst thy promises of Grace have been used by us as incitements and encouragements to sinne and upon the very ground and foundation of thy most incomprehensible goodnesse towards us we have built up the Babell of confusion the cursed building of disobedience and impiety against thee yea O Lord there are too too many of us that have trodden under foot the Son of God have counted the bloud of the Covenant wherewith we have been sanctified an unholy thing and have done despite unto the Spirit of grace whilest they have made a mock of Religion and Piety to the great disheartning of the work of thy service the horrible dishonour of thy Majestie to the deplorable scandall of our Christian profession and to the almost O Lord that it might be no more inevitable ruine and damnation of their owne soules Thus thus O Lord our God have we requited thee for all thy goodnesse and mercy towards us and the more gracious thou hast shewed thy self unto us the more wicked and sinfull have wee beene against thee Thou hast made us a pleasant and fruitfull Land even as the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah which was as the Garden of God And we have it may be feared outdone the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah their sins were pride and idlenesse and fulnesse of bread together with horrid and unnaturall lusts and which of these sins have not beene committed in our Land Yea many more sinnes not inferiour unto these have sent up their cry unto heaven against us and it is the wonder of thy mercy and forbearance that thou hast not long ere this sent down fire from heaven upon us to have consumed our whole Nation into ashes we have tasted deeper of the Cup of thy mercies then Israel and yet the measure of our sins as we may justly feare hath been no way lesse then the sins of unthankfull Israel yea we have justified both Ierusalem and Samaria by our iniquities and therefore it were most just in thee to give us up to desolation as thou hast done them But O Lord our God thou hast not so left us off when thy mercies would not worke upon us thou hast assayed us with thy bitter chastisements and corrections that thou mightest thereby have whipped us from our sins when Cordials and pleasant medicines would not heale us thou hast used the bitter pills and irkesome purgatives of calamities and afflictions thou hast applied the launce unto our swelling sores by suffering thy wrath to grow hot against us in great and many miseries that thou hast sent upon us Thou hast pruned us and dressed us by the sharpe instruments of thy chastisements that we might be reclaimed from our wildnesse and barrennesse and yeild forth the fruites of obedience unto thee Sometimes thou hast sent thy destroying Angell amongst us with his sword drawne against us in the Plague and Pestilence whereby many thousands of us have been hurried into the pit of destruction that the plague of our bodies might have cured us of the Plague of our hearts otherwhiles the heavens have become brasse unto us and the earth yron The Creatures have refused to yeild their fruit to the sustenance of such unthankefull wretches that thou mightest have cured the diseases
we soone forgot thy workes and waited not for thy counsell Ver. 21. We forgat God our Saviour which had done so great things for us 22. Wondrous things in the Land of our habitation and fearfull things upon the great Sea Psal 78.32 For all this we sinned still and beleeved not for his wondrous workes Ver. 41. We turned backe and tempted God and limited the holy One of Israel Wee turned backe and dealt unfaithfully we turned aside like a deceitfull bow Psal 78.5 c. Thou establishedst thy Testimony in our Jacob and appointedst thy Gospell in our Israell which thou commandest our Fathers that they should make them knowne to us their children That the Generations to come might know them even the children that should bee borne who should arise and declare them to their children That they might set their hope in God and not forget the workes of God but keep his Commandements And might not bee as their Fathers a stubborne and rebellious generation a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God But we have not regarded the mighty works that thou hast done nor the wonders that thou hast wronght for us For all this we have sinned yet more against thee and have lightly esteemed the rocke of our Salvation Psal 80.8 Thou broughtest us as a Vine out of the Aegypt of Popery and plantedst it in a very fruitfull hill Thou preparedst roome before it and didst cause it to take deep root and it filled the Land The hils were covered with the shadow of it and the boughs thereof were like the goodly Cedars Thou wateredst it with showers from above and enrichedst it with the River of thy goodnesse and blessedst the springing of it Thou causedst the beames of thy heavenly light to shine upon it That it might grow and prosper and beare fruit abundantly and that thou mightest blesse the increase thereof Isa 5.2 Thou fencedst it with the wall of thy divine protection and providence and didst set the hedge of an happy government about it Thou gathered stout the stones thereof by removing the offences that they might not hinder the growth thereof Thou prunedst it diggedst about it and dungedst the root thereof with the fat soyle of thine earthly blessings Isa 5.4 And what could have been done more unto thy Vinyard that thou hast not done in it But we quickly turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine unto thee and when thou lookedst for grapes we brought forth wild Grapes Therefore thou hast now taken away the hedge thereof and it is eaten up thou hast broken downe the wall thereof and it is troden downe It is laid waste and blasted with the burning wind of thy displeasure It is become a place of Briers and Thornes A Land of darkenesse and of the shadow of death Isa 34.11 The Cormorant and the Bitterne possesse it the Owle and the Raven dwell in it and thou hast stretched out upon it the Line of Confusion and the stones of emptinesse Psal 80.14 But returne we beseech thee O God of Hosts looke downe from heaven behold and visit this Vine And the Vineyard which thine owne right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madest strong for thy selfe It is burnt with fire it is cut downe and we perish at the rebuke of thy countenance Let thine hand be upon the man of thy right hand upon the Sonne of man whom thou madest strong for thy selfe So will not we go backe from thee quicken us and we will call upon thy name Turne us again O Lord God of Hosts shew the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole Another Prayer for these Kingdomes O Most glorious and gracious Lord God who rulest and governest all things Thine are all the Kingdomes of the world and all the Nations of the earth are in thy power and at thy disposing Thou buildest them that they may stand and thou plantest them that they may grow and whilst thou waterest them they flourish and at the blast of the breath of thy displeasure they fade away and come to nothing whilst thou blessest them they are blessed when thou cursest them they are weake and consumed Looke down I beseech thee upon these poore Nations that lye weltring before thee in their bloud in their sins that are entangled in the net and perplexed in the Labyrinth of their great transgressions and miseries and cannot tell how to get out O Lord our God I beseech thee take pity upon us and grant us a release Thou hast the soveraigne medicines with thee that can heale both our sins and miseries we are unworthy of thy mercy but thou art a God that delightest in mercy and the more undeserved it is the greater is thy glory nothing is too hard for thee no malady so desperate no sicknesse so incurable as to outbid either thy wisdome or goodnesse they are both glorified but neither can be puzzled or hindered by the extremities of our conditions It is thy property and thy divine peculiar worke to helpe when there is no help to be found wo have been struggling and striving O Lord a long time to get out of the toyle of our afflictions but all in vain The more we strive the farther still we are engaged in the mischief wheresoever we run thine arrows stick fast in us the poyson therof drinketh up our spirits thy terrors set themselves in array against us all our hopes in the Creatures have deceived us They have proved unto us but false conceptions they have brought forth nothing but wind we have waited for help but we have found none And therefore now O Lord we come to thee beseeching thee our God to have mercy upon us that what all the strength in the world cannot worke for us nor all the wisdome in the world contrive for us we may yet obtaine from thee our God But alas how should we obtaine any thing at thy hands when there are such loud cries and clamours of our great and horrid sinnes and iniquities against us How shouldst thou draw neere unto us that do continually run away from thee and flye from thy mercy by our impenitency and wickednesse even whilst we aske mercy at thy hands How shouldest thou but abhorre and abominate us that by our filthy and noy some iniquities have made our whole Land even to stinke in thy nostrills O Lord our God we confesse there is nothing in us that can challenge thy favour or bespeake any reliefe from thee If it be thy pleasure to destroy us to consume us with all thy plagues and damne us all even our whole Nation to the bottomlesse pit of hell we have nothing to reply or object against thee it is no more than our iniquities call for But we beseech thee O Lord to be gracious unto us all that we can do is to beg it at thy hands to beseech thy pardon to implore thy compassion to plead unto
had it we did not prize it nor esteeme it as we ought to have done neither did we walke worthy in any measure of so great a favour from thee our God But under the covert and shadow of this thine holy Ordinance we have conspired against thee and have committed great impieties to the dishonour of thy Name And by these our sins we have most wickedly forfeited our title and interest in such thy goodnesse which forfeiture of our sins thou hast most justly taken by letting loose the spirits of sedition and Rebellion of division and faction like tempestuous whirlewinds upon the face of these Nations which have overturned the frame of rule and order amongst us and have battered downe the Throne of thine Annointed and changed our happy Monarchy into Anarchie and confusion and in the ruines of this thine excellent Ordinance the wastes and decaies of all other blessings are befallen us the purity the order and beauty of Religion the equall and upright administration of justice Innocency of life and honesty of conversation All the obligations of naturall civill and Christian endearements the offices of love neighbourhood and charity and together with these our outward peace our safety our security our plenty our Trade and Traffique our liberty and what not have received their great and deplorable impairements by that great eclipse of Soveraignty in these Kingdoms and now we are become as the fishes of the sea as the creeping things that have no ruler over them spoyling and devouring and destroying one another raging and madding and suming against one another thrusting one another out of their rights and possessions reproaching and defaming and worrying one another with such monstrous and mercilesse cruelty as is not to be found amongst the most savage and wildest Creatures in the world much lesse is answerable in any degree either to the meeknesse of Christians or the sobriety and equanimity of reasonable men and Christians This O Lord is the sad and wretched condition that we are in And unlesse there be some timely remedy our house that is thus divided must needs fall and our Kingdome that is thus set against it selfe must needs be brought unto utter desolation But Lord who is it that can cure us of this our great and manifold malady Who is it that can water the dying root of this our Tree That can repaire the mouldered foundation of this our Building It is thou only O Lord our God that canst do it unlesse thou help us nothing can helpe us unlesse thou be mercifull unto us we shall have no mercy upon our selves Lord we are falling into the precipice of destruction if thou catch us not with the Armes of thy mercy we shall be broken and dashed in peeces we are overwbelmed in the floud of our fins and miseries if thou hold us not by thy heavenly hand we must needs be drowned and choaked in the deluge send downe thine hand from above and deliver us out of the deep waters Thou canst whensoever it shall please thee put a stop unto our raging calamities and snatch us out of the jawes of that ruine which hath seized us Let it be thy heavenly pleasure we beseech thee to looke downe in thy tender pitty upon the great confusions and desolations of this Kingdome and to command some deliverances for us we are here before thee O Lord God as a company of poore weatherbeaten sheepe scattered upon the mountaines without a Sheepheard ready to become the prey unto every wilde and savage beast Oh thou great Shepheard of the sheep seek thy flock and gather them unto thy selfe we are before thee like a poore tossed and tottered Vessell without a Pilot ready to dash in peeces upon every wave and to split upon every Rocke to be made the mockery the game and the pastime of these violent and contrary winds that are risen amongst us Lord save us or else we perish O restore our Shepheard unto us and enfold us againe within the defence of that happy Monarchy which thou hadst placed over us Yea Lord be thou both our Shepheard and our fold to keep us safe under the guarde of thy providence that the evening Wolves and the ranging Bears may no more ravish and devoure the poore people raise up againe the Throne re-embellish the Crowne and cement and strengthen the broken Scepter of this Kingdome that Piety and Justice may be revived and Peace and Prosperity with all other blessings may be restored unto this Nation re-enforce we beseech thee those wholsome Laws and constitutions which have been heretofore the Conduits of so much security and happinesse unto this Land A bolish we beseech thee all unlawfull and usurped power and cancell all Arbitrary unjust and Tyrannicall Ordinances and set up that true and legitimate Government againe in this Nation which hath heretofore been so fruitfull in blessings unto our Land Give wisdome and fortitude and the spirit of Government unto thine Annointed and all those that shall be sent of him that they may be able to weild this thy great Ordinance and to mannage it to thy glory and the good of thy people to the punishment of evill doers and to the praise of them that do well And put the spirit of subjection and obedience into the hearts of the people of this Land that they may yeeld a willing a conscionable and cheerefull submission thereunto as unto the Lord and not unto men looking upon the Authority of the Magistrate as upon a sacred streame flowing unto them from the heavenly fountain of thy divine power that they may reverence it and as an instrument of thy mercy and great goodnesse unto them that they may embrace it that no unquiet or distempered motions may hereafter be raised amongst us in this Nation from private and wicked interests or from ambitious turbulent spirits to disturbe the happy peace and tranquility of thy people through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the King O Lord thou righteous Judge of heaven and earth who hast committed all power unto thy Son Christ Jesus both in heaven and earth and hast revived the rayes of his supreame Authority and Majestie unto Kings and Princes whom thou hast ordained to be the Rulers and Governours of thy people to the end that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty We beseech thee looke downe in mercy upon the Person of thine Annointed our gracious King the light of our eyes and the breath of our nostrils who suffereth at this time for the sins of us and these Nations under the cruelty and oppression of seditious and wicked men Consider his Enemies how many they are and what a tyrannous hatred they beare against him Consider O Lord how low they have brought him what great bondage and affliction they have laid upon him how they have imprisoned his Person robbed him of his revenue killed and massacred his Loyall and faithfull People bereaved him