before we sleep concerning our thoughts and demeanour that day with some such questions as the Philosophers verse doth imply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where I have been What I have done What duties I should have done that day and have omitted And seeking pardon and grace for the future and strengthening our selves against our sins with holy resolutions And if every morning we would bethinke our selves what temptations we may fall into that day and if we can contrive prudently the avoydance of them if not to desire Gods helpe and the grace of his Spirit to arme us against them Sixthly It will behove us to bend our selves most against those sinnes unto which we are most enclined and against our master-sinnes Seventhly To be wary of our Society and as much as we may to avoid evill Company and to associate our selves with those that are good evill communication corrupts good manners Eighthly To meditate often of the presence of God who is with us every where seeing all our most secret thoughts hearing our most whispering words and observing all our most private actions See Psal 139. and meditate upon it To contemplate of the houre of death the frailty of life the vanity of the world the profitablenesse of righteousnesse having the promises of this life and that which is to come of the all-sufficiency of God and Christ of the day of Iudgement of the joyes of heaven and the paines of hell of eternity and above all of Gods love toward us in Christ Iesus of his Passion Resurrection Ascension of his Kingdome Priesthood and Glory and of the glorious patternes of his holy life Ninthly Be frequent and fervent in Suppplications to God for the King and his Family the Church the Kingdoms for the obtaining of a remedy to our miseries and desolations with submission to his Will and regard unto his glory And let all be offered up with a firme faith in Christ Jesus resting upon Gods mercy toward us in him For a helpe unto these Duties I do not undertake to prescribe any thing in this kind in particular but if I might without offence give my advice I would advise all good Christians that wish well to the King Church and Kingdom to give themselves to a private weekly Fast once a weeke at the least during these miseries to be employed in earnest Supplication to God for pardon of the sins and the removall of his judgements from the King and his people and these Nations and for the obtaining of grace and holinesse and in other holy duties agreeable thereunto Now for the Loyall Party in particular I have only thus much to say 1. To intreat them to get honest pious able Ministers amongst them that may instruct them and guide them in the waies of God and assist them with prayer and Supplication 2. That they make it their principall care to set up Religion in their Camps and to keep up a pious discipline amongst the Souldiers in case they shall have more to do in that way 3. That they take heed of violence and revengefull thoughts which may engage God against them and that they meditate not cruelty or retaliation But that their endeavours be fixed upon the honour of God and directed to the good of the King and the Church and Kingdome with a resolution to be regulated and guided by his Majestie as they ought and not to take upon them to be the carvers of their owne reparations nor seeking to returne evill for evill for the private injuries they have received but observing that golden rule of the Apostle Let your moderation be known unto all men that they may not by their fury and violence both displease God and overturne the businesse they shall have to mannage but that by their meeknesse and patience and Christian carriage they may stop the reviling mouths of their adversaries and shew themselves to be sincere Christians as well as Loyall Subjects The Lord of strength and wisdome and grace and mercy Arme us with his Strength direct us by his Wisdome sanctifie us with his Grace and Crowne us with his Mercy Through him who is the Lord of all Power and Wisdome and Grace and Mercy even Christ Iesus our Lord Amen A HELP FOR HVMILIATION O Lord the Great and dreadfull God keeping the Covenant mercy to them that love thee and to them that keep thy Commandements And a God of judgement and fury even a consuming fire unto thine enemies Bow down thine eares O Lord and heare open thine eyes O Lord and see the great afflictions and miseries of thy poore and wretched people who are assembled before thee this day to call upon thee for mercy Stir up our hearts we besseech thee that we may seek thy face and obtaine thy pittie compassion towards us O Lord 〈◊〉 God we doe not come before thee in any trust or confidence in our owne righteouâ—nesse but in the multitude 〈◊〉 thy mercies towards us 〈◊〉 Christ Jesus in whom the hast promised us a gracious accesse unto thee who is both â—â— Priest and our Sacrifice to make an attonement betwixt thee and us by whose hand we desire to offer up unto thee the sacrifices not of Bullockes and Goats but of troubled spirits and broken and contrite hearts which thou hast assured us thou wilt not despise Wee confesse O Lord that we have sinned and committed iniquitie and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy Precepts and from thy judgements neither have we harkened unto thy Servants which spake in thy name to our Kings our Princes and our Fathers and to all the people of the Land We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walke in thy Laws which thou hast set before us by thy Servants the Prophets neither the terrors of Sinai nor the comforts of Sion neither the threatnings of Moses nor the gracious Promises of Christ have wrought upon our stubborne soules to make us forsake our sins in the feare of the one nor to embrace righteousnesse in the hope of the other Thou hast assayed many times to draw us unto thee by the Cords of love in great mercies and blessings which thou hast showred downe upon us Thou hast given us the dew of heaven and the fatnesse of the earth Thou hast opened the Treasures of thy bounty unto us in the plenty and aboundance of the fruits of the ground glorified thy selfe in wonderfull deliverances of us from the violence and conspiracies of our adversaries Thou hast been a shadowunto us against the heat and a shelter against the storm Thou hast strengthened the barrs of our gates and made peace in all our borders and to these and many other mercies thou hast added that which is above all in setling the true Religion among us and making the light of the Gospell to shine upon us the splendour whereof made us unto the greatest part of the world beside as the dwellings of Israell unto the
of the comforts of his Queene and Children left him destitute of the solace of his friends abridged him of the attendance of his Servants disappointed him of the advice of his Counsell deprived him of the benefit of thine Ordinances shut him up from thy House and the Assemblies of thy People blasphemed him with vile and false reproaches spoiled him of his just power and greatnes and profaned his Crown down unto the ground and attempted by hellish conspiracies to take away his life These things have they done O Lord to the great dishonour of thy Name and to the great discomfort and destruction of thy people And in so doing they have rebelled against thee our God trampled upon thy Lawes violated thine Ordinance broken their Oaths and Protestations and that very Covenant which themselves contrived and imposed upon others of the people of the Land This thou hast seen O Lord and yet thou holdest thy peace whilst they triumph in their wickednesse against thee And because thou keepest silence they have though wickedly that thou wert even such a one as themselves and have strengthened themselves in their prosperous impieties But Lord how long wilt thou looke upon this Sirre up thy selfe O God against those that magnifie themselves in so many and so great impieties against thee Be thou glorious in the vindication of thine owne Ordinance cloath thy selfe with thy might and thy strength for the reliefe and deliverance of thine Annointed Pleade thou with them that strive with him and fight thou against them that fight against him lay hold upon the sheild and buckler and stand up to help him bring forth the Speare and stop the way against them that persecute him and say unto his soule that thou art his Salvation Pardon his sinnes and the trangressions of his people and let not the sins of his Fore-fathers come into thy remembrance but dispell them all from before thy presence as a cloud by the beames of thy heavenly goodnesse drowne them in the bottomlesse pit of thy mercy that they may no longer hinder thy favour from thy Servant but make thou the light of thy countenance to shine upon him Remember his patience his meekenesse his humility his mercy his love that he beareth unto thy House to thy Ministry to thy Worship and Ordinances his zeale to thy glory his devotion to thee his God And let all those holy Sacrifices that he hath offered up unto thee through thy Son be accepted in thy sight for Christ Jesus his sake Remember all those Prayers and Supplications that have been dayly made to thee in his behalfe and let them not returne empty from thy Throne Oh let it be thy pleasure to command mercies for him Be thou unto him a Pillar to support him in all his trialls a Shield to defend him in all his dangers a Treasure to supply him in all his necessities a Comforter to relieve him in all his distresses a Counsellour to advise him in all his perplexities And let thy extraordinary mercies and the heavenly influences and breathings of thy divine Spirit supply unto him the want of the outward meanes of thy Word thy Sacraments and thy publique Worship Oh let not his precious soul suffer through the wickednesse of those that oppresse him but feed thou him from thine own hand and by the ministration of thy heavenly Ministers in those straights and solitude that he is in even with the choice delicates of thy heavenly Table Be thou with him in trouble to keepe him from miscarrying and compasse him about with songs of deliverance as thou hast furnished him hitherto with thine excellent gifts of Patience and Wisdome and Christian fortitude and hast made him in spight of all his Adversaries and even to the shame and confusion of his malicious persecuters a glorious example of Christian constancy unto his people so Lord establish unto him every good gift which thou hast wrought in him and increase all thy spirituall graces in his foule that the splendour thereof may breake forth more and more through the clouds of his calamities to the amazement and astonishment of his rebellious enemies Arme him more and more with an unchangeable love unto thy Truth and to thy Service to thy Church and to thy people that neither the subtle and deceiptfull insinuations of any false Iudases nor the terrours or menaces of any insolent Rabshakahs may shake him from those pious and Christian resolutions which thou hast been pleased to put into his heart Set a guard of thy heavenly host continually about his Sacred Person that no wicked assasinates may dare to approach unto him and that the Son of violence may not hurt him Discover and defeat all hellish plots and devillish conspiracies that may be against him and blast them all with the breath of thy displeasure O prepare thy loving mercy and thy faithfulnesse that they may preserve him Breake thou his bonds asunder by thy strength make thou the doores of his Prison to flye open Soften the hard and flinty hearts of those that are the Authors and instruments of his restraint and miserie that they may relent towards him if it be thy blessed will or else affright them with the terrors of their evill consciences and strike them with trembling and feare that they may not be able to pursue their cruelties O Lord preserve his Fame and Honour from the scourge of those malicious and traiterous Tongues whose sport it is to speake evill of Dignities and to blaspheme the footsteps of thine Annointed Make thou his righteousnesse as cleare as the light and his upright dealing as the noon day O Lord restore him to the bosome of his Queene to the comfort of his Children of his Friends of his Servants of his Revenue Restore him to the joyfull Assemblies of thy People to the Comforts of thy house and of thy holy ordinances Preserve his Life enlarge his straits repaire his honour re-establish his Throne in peace in truth in holinesse and righteousnesse amongst us Bring him forth now at length like Gold out of the fire of his long afflictions precious and glorious in the eyes of God and men But thou O Lord deale with us according to thy name for great is thy mercy O Lord arise for the deliverance of thine Annointed for the Lord Iesus his sake Amen A Prayer for Peace in the Church und State O Lord thou God of Peace and Authour of Unity Looke downe we beseech thee in thy tender pitty upon the miserable distractions and bloudy divisions of this our Church and Kingdome of England who by our sinfull separation of our selves from thee our God are fallen in pieces from one another Thou O God art the center of Unity and we are like unto so many crooked lines that are fallen from thee our Center by our sinfull and corrupt affections straiten us againe we beseech thee by thy grace that being reconciled unto thee we may be joyned together in thee and reconciled
Suspiria Ecclesiae Reipublicae Anglicanae The sighs of the Church and Common-wealth of ENGLAND OR An Exhortation to Humiliation with a help thereunto Setting forth the great corruptions and mseries of this present Church and State with the remedies that are to be applyed thereunto By THOMAS WARMSTRY D. D. Isa 59.1 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his care heavy that it cannot heare But your iniquiries have separated between you and your God and your sinnes have hid his face from you LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1648. To the High and Mighty Prince CHARLES Prince of Wales and Heire Apparent of the Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland Increase of Grace Honour and Happinesse Great Sir I Here present you with the sad portraiture of the wasted and distressed Church and Kingdome of England which as it is both the subject and partner of your Fathers sorrowes so it is now become the object and matter for your Honourable Actions Many great and glorious spirits have lost their splendour for want of worke and many others have failed of true excellency by misemployment whilst the greatnesse of their achievements and victories have been blemished with injustice and impiety and for want of a right ground of their enterprises their conquests over the rights of other men have been but splendida peccata magna latrocinia God hath provided better worke for you to do Iustice and Honour lye equally before you and offer you a large sphaere for so bright a Planet to move in Since your businesse is not to oppresse but to deliver your oppressed Father and his people not to invade other mens rights but to recover your owne That you may be the Inheritour at once of the valour of your Grandfather the Great Henry of France and of the Iustice and Piety of your Father the Great Charles of England Of which two whether was more glorious the former in the prowesse of his doings or the latter in the constancy and patience of his sufferings may be the great controversie of Ages to come Both these together are a paire of golden Spurres presented unto your Highnesse to set you forward unto high undertakings that you may give the Crowne unto the Stories of your Ancestours let the foundation of your enterprises be Religion and then you may expect that the great God will finish them with a golden roofe of successe which is the hearty prayer of him Who is a most humble and faithfull Subject of your Fathers and honorour of your Highnesse Thomas Warmstry An Errata of the most remarkable Faults PAge 11 line 5. for cause read case p 15. l. 17. for limed r. livid p. 46. l. 9. for an r. and p. 53. l. 6. r. it not p. 89 l 18 r. moneths p. 94. l. 3. for one r. on p. 97. l. 19. for l. wguid r. languid p. 123. l. 10. for teares r. tares p. 146. l 2. r. Satyraâ— p. 147. l. 6. r. praeter p. 148 l. 11. r. wooe p. 170 l 9 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—b l. 10. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 191. l. â—5 r. in these p. 219. l. 13. r. Sacerdotalis p. 245. l. 17. r. of the Ministry â—b l. 18 dele will p. 247. l. 19 r. nostrarum p. 279 l. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. l. 13. for argued r. agreed p 334 l. 16. for tyranny r. titâ—â—â—g ib. l 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 384. l. 5. r. unhappines ib. l. 20. for in tâ—rrâ— r. interea l. ult for viz r. sâ—nctis p. 385. l. 6. r. prodessent omnia p. 389. l. 7. 1. amoroas p. 417. l. 3. r. are as p. 494 l. 5. r. Chap. 5. p. 519. for to r. too p. 523. l. 2. dele our p. 530 l. 19. r. of the. In the Help for Humiliation Page 9. l. 2. dele stood p. 28. l. 6. dele and l. 7. r. and turned To the two Houses at Westminster IT is storyed of the most high God in the most ancient Records of the holy Writ that in the severall periods of his great worke of the world he ever and anon took the survey of the results of his operations and as it is said of every particular prospect that hee made of them That God saw that it was good so it is the sentence given of the full summe in the conclusion of them all That God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good It is not imaginable why the divine Architect should stoupe so farre unto the resemblance of a humane Method but that it was his holy pleasure so farre to limit his own power and wisdome in his performances that his operations might be at once both the matter of our admiration and the Patterne for our imitation otherwise as his omnipotent power could have made all things in a moment so his omniscient wisdome was too fully satisfied of the unblemishable clearenesse of all those streames that were to flow from the immaculate and abounding fountaine of his perfection to stand in need for himselfe of any after-game of wisdome to be plaid in the survay of that opifice which was made by that hand that could do nothing amisse It was then without doubt not for his need but for our instruction To teach us this lesson That as it concernes us to be well advised beforehand of the uprightnesse and conveniency of those things that we undertake so by reason of the manifold infirmities and the great liablenesse to failings and miscariages that are in us in the mannage of our best intentions and most upright designes we should adde unto our care of the predisposing of our actions in that we have to do a frequent survay of the severall events and effects of our performances in the examination of that which we have done And both these as they are very convenient and challenged by humane weakenesse of us in all sorts of our undertakings so are they indispensably necessary in those workes that are of most weighty and momentaneous concernment This rule then that is commended unto all by that most speaking and emphaticall example of the Almighty is much more than ordinarily urgent upon you who have had those works in your hands than which it is hard to find any of greater weight and hazzard within the Spheare of humane actions That is to say the rectifying or marring which indeed hath been your businesse of those two great bodies of humane society The state of a Church and of a Common-wealth whereupon the whole entire good or evill of mankind both temporall and eternall under God do depend whether you have in so great an exigent used that sincere and Christian forecast for the right and just platforming of your designes and undertakings as was requisite is a question too late now to be asked for the maine purpose of that inquiry Deliberatio non cadit in praeterita but yet it may be to some purpose for you
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
are restlesse in their motions and nothing we see can stop them from the fatall businesse they have in hand but they are still hastening on the sad period of this once flourishing Nation as if they had no price left them to purchase their owne safety but by procuring the ruine of us all The case is with us as it is said to have been in France in some part of the Reigne of the Great Henry of that Kingdome It is impiety to speake of Peace and Treason to seeke it All the gracious tenders of a pious King offering the most precious jewels of his owne Crowne to buy the safety and preservation of his people and to divest himselfe of his honour to save the lives and the bloud of his poore subjects are scornfully despised and thought unworthy of an answer The great Masters of our calamities are become like the spleene in the body which groweth bigg by the consumption of the rest of the parts Ephraim is against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim but both together against Iudah Pilat is against Herod and Herod against Pilat but both agree together against Christ and against his Church The publike misery is the common marke that they both shoot at from their opposite stations The showers of bloud that have fallen amongst us have not at all abated the lowring of the skies but The clouds have returned after the raine Eccles 12.2 They are still gathering more and more thicke and gloomy about us and threaten us againe with a more violent tempest The sharp physick that we have taken hath indeed weakened our body but hath not at all cured us of our diseases The evill humours are still predominant and ready to cast us into a relapse and to renew the paroxismes of our furious maladie Doe you not perceive that after all those dreames of happinesse That some have so boasted of to themselves and others in the sad successes of their prosperous impieties who promised you grapes from those thornes which they planted and fostered The Serpents root is yet still alive The root of division discord and sedition and that it is ready to bring forth a Cockatrice and the fruit thereof to be a fiery flying Serpent a Serpent for the poysonousnesse fiery for the fiercenesse rage and flying for the swiftnesse of that devastation wherewith it menaceth us What though wee have tasted deepe of the Cup of that Red Wine of the divine wrath and indignation which was filled and mixed for us in the hand of the Almighty Be not secure The dreggs of that Cup it may be justly feared are still behind and if we will not seeke to prevent it by repentance this ungodly Nation must drinke them and wring them our But Lord if it be thy will let this Cup passe from us Iudgment hath begun at the house of God in those persecutions and miseries that have befallen the Church and the faithfull people it was Gods pleasure that they should begin the round but the rest must looke to pleadge them at the last without a timely reconciliation unto God and woe be unto them whose lot it shall be to drinke the bottome of the heavenly fury I feare we have ye◠seen but the beginnings of sorrowes and that yet we may 〈◊〉 that saying fulfilled Anglorum miseria ultima pessima My deare fellow-Country men whose preservation I heartily and earnestly long after I that speake unto you am a man full of infirmities and sins yet I hope I may say truly with that good woman of Abel of Beth-maachah 2 Sam. 20.19 That I am one of them that are peaceable and faithfull in this Israel And though I confesse I should not be unwilling with her to throw a Traitors head over the wall where it is necessary to prevent the swallowing up of the Inheritance of the Lord yet I call God to witnesse who knoweth that I lye not that if I know my owne heart there is not that man living upon the earth maugre all the hard dealing that I have met with from some in these times whose safety and happinesse I would not willingly promote and I heartily wish that the sufferings of my selfe and others that have been my fellow patients in that Phisicke which God hath administred unto us and our Brethren in tribulation may if God please excuse all others of this Nation of what side soever they have been from those draughts of miseries which are yet behind but then I must beseech you to be sensible of your miseries That you will seriously lay your present condition unto your hearts and those yet greater calamities that are impendent over us That we may be all induced to joyne for the procurement of a release There is none more dangerously sicke than he that is well in his sickenesse that is unsensible of his disease and takes his malady for health And then secondly I would faine put you in mind of those fountaines and rootes from which our calamities flow and upon which they grow and prosper and will do still if we prevent not to our utter undoing And then thirdly I would willingly perswade you unto this truth not that you may know it for I doubt not but you do unlesse you be ignorant of the very naturall principles of Piety But I would faine presse it upon your affections that it may bee operative in your hearts and lives That there is no possibility of obtaining a release from our distresses a deliverance from those judgements which are befalne us but from God and that without him no outward meanes agents or indeavours can procure it us And than fourthly That there is no way to obtaine this from God but by repentance humiliation and faithfull prayer unto him that we may be stirred up all of us to set about these businesses unto which I shal labor to incite you by some powerfull motives thereunto And then I would entreate you to accept my poore indeavours for your direction and guidance in the reght performance of these workes of farre greater moment than all Humane Counsels or Armies and without which they will be all in vaine and pernicious unto us And after all I shall offer my poore mites into your treasury for your help and assistance in the exercise of these duties The Lord of heaven help me in the performance of these severall taskes and give his blessing unto them for the good of this poore Nation and to the eternall honour of his glorious mercy to which I desire to be a poore servant though most unworthy in this enterprise And the first thing that I have here to doe is to perswade you that you are miserable That we may be sensible at length of the sad and wretched state of this Nation both in regard of those evills that are already come upon us and also those that seeme to stand at our doores ready to devoure us As long as we are not touched with a sense of our evills we are
they are sworne to acknowledge as their onely supream Governour Rom. 13. The Law of God teacheth us that we must not resist the higher powers and shews us that they that do so shall receive to themselves damnation They set up resistance and Rebellion for a vertue and slander that holy Law with the opprobrious title of Malignancy wherewith this brand those that submit thereunto Mat. 26.52 The Law of Christ is that whosoever takes the Sword against the power of the Magistrate shall perish by the Sword But they teach men and practice it themselves to take the Sword and ravish it from the supreame power and to use it not only without him but against him to maintaine their wicked Doctrines their Schismaticall designes and unjust oppressions and to beate down both truth and righteousnesse The Law of God tels us in the judgement of David that men ought to fighâ—â—â— defence of the Kings Person insomuch that David in 1 Sam. 26.16 tells Abner and binds it with an oath That he was worthy to dye because he had not kept the Lords annointed though so wicked Tyrant as was Saul And our blessed Saviour the Sonne of David tells Pylate Iohn 18.36 That if his Kingdome had been of this world then his Servants would have fought that he should not have beene delivered to the Iewes But they teach men not only to hold the contrary but bind them by wicked oathes never to interest themselves nor to assist any in the defence of the King and punish those that have followed this rule of the Scripture with imprisonment death and confiscation of goods The Word of God teacheth us to performe our oaths and to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the oath of God and designed a heavy judgment unto Zedekiah for breaking the oath wherewith he had sworne unto Nebuchadnezzar But they teach and practice not only the breaking of the sacred oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance but doe also compell men to sweare down those oaths and to vow perjury unto Sathan by the name of the great and holy God making it the instrument of wickednesse and using it for a seale to confirm their obligations unto the Prince of disobedience The Word of God teacheth people to study to be quiet and to do their owne businesse They teach them to forsake the businesse to raise tumults and disturbances in the Church and State The Law of God commands the Ministers of the Gospell to preach the Gospell They forbid men to preach the Gospell unlesse they will countenance their seditious practices The Word of God teacheth that men should be allowed and approved and ordained by imposition of hands that are to undertake the Ministery in the Church But now alas the Priests of Ieroboam of the meanest of the people intrude into the exercise of the Sacred Function in the Church without any allowance from just authority or competent furniture of solid knowledge And what is all this and much more of the like but to say of Christ Nolumus hunc regnare super nos we will not have this man raigne over us The symplicity of the Gospell is of too low a pitch to sort with the deep plots wise contrivements of our politicke braines it is much too plaine to serve the turne of those great designs which we have in hand Good God vindicate the Glory and Authority of thy truth But I must hasten The Judgement of God me thinkes is riding so post upon us that I am afraid it will prevent my admonition it will scarce give me leave to pursue my purposed intention My meditations are even overwhelmed with the flouds and deluges of those various calamities that have broken forth upon us in this wretched Nation we may justly crie out of them in the voice of the Psalmist The flouds are risen O Lord the flouds are risen the flouds have lift up their voice the waves of the Sea are mighty and rage horribly all our comfort is that the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier and as the same Psalmist telleth us in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 29.10 The Lord sitteth upon the floud or deluge to rule and moderate it for the good of his people and his owne glory and the Lord remaineth a King for ever were it not for this we could have no hope to escape the swallow of those devouring surges that do assault us Do but open your eyes and looke about you and you may see your selves encompassed with deepe and threatning waters on every side miscarriages in the manner and mannage of the work of instruction whilst the people and the Ministers both joyne together to seduce one another The one kindling the wasting flames of seditious Factions corrupt Doctrines clawing the itch of scabbed and putrified eares and the other blowing those fires and encouraging those evill performances in their Teachers by their applauses and bribing the poisonous tongues of those that love the reward of unrighteousnesse keeping up the market and commerce of destruction betwixt them The one buying and the other selling wicked deceits and spirituall impostures and the mutuall ruine of one another and the Truth So that as Learned Graser speaketh Neque facile dici potest utra pars alteram fortius ducat aut ducatur It is hard to determine whether the people be more guilty of corrupting the Ministers by their acclamations and bribery or the Ministers of the deceiving of the peole by their pernitious and sophisticated Doctrines And of those that are not for this evill Traffique yet there are too many as the evill effect thereof seemes to demonstrate that for want of the right gage of Christian prudence to steere and regulate their unguided zeale which they have indeed toward God but not according to knowledge runne from one errour into another and sometimes perhaps leape out of the pan into the fire that I say not out of Gods blessing into the warme sun that like the foolish horse that hath no understanding blench into the pit to flie from the fluttering of a bird in the hedge who may well be compared with Dionysius Alexandrinus unto an unskilfull Gardiner or dresser of an Orchard who when he findes a crooked plant instead of straitening it bends it as much cleane on the other side or unto some unexperienced Physitians who to cure the patient of an Ague or some cold disease by over-strong Physick begetteth a feaver in the stead of it and doth not somuch remedy as change the malady They are very much for Reformation and it is not to be denyed but they light upon some things that are fit for animadversions but whilst they pull up the teares they plucke up the wheate with them They abhominate superstition and therein they do well but in the overmuch abandoning that they fall into the opposite mischiefe and run into profanesse They are much they say for the clearing of the Truth for the purity of Worship for the
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
of curing hath multiplyed our Maladies Punishments are inflicted without mercy not onely for no offences but for acts of righteousnesse Transgressions are made without any Laws forbidding them more than the corrupted rules of some mens unsanctified Consciences The method of Iustice and Government is confounded and instead of the lawfull Officers and Instruments of Government they being removed Changelings are thrust into their places without any legall or authenticall delegation from the fountaine of Iustice and Authority whose want of Commission poisons their administrations and whilst they execute one murderer they commit another therein A stone and a stone and an Ephah and an Epha are become too perpetuall an abomination to the Lord in this notion and in this ruine and devastation of Government All the Duties both to God and man both of the first and the second Table of piety towards him and justice and charity to our Neighbours of chastity temperance and Christian sobriety in our selves how are they fallen and trampled under foot and indeed how should it be otherwise when the hedge of the vineyard is broken down what beast of the field or wilde Boar of the Forrest can wâ—nt an admittance to forrage waste it When the foundations of the Earth are out of course what hope is there of any soundnesse or integrity to bee left The Sunne is scarce more necessary to the world than a lawfull and setled government is to a people And if the Sunne be Eclipsed it is held to bee the forerunner of sad Eclipses of our inferiour Comforts and so wee have found the Eclipse of our Politick Sunne in the State And lastly for our Honour and reputation Alas How should that stay when all these are gone It is a blessing which if it bee true is but the splendour of other perfections and therefore when they are vanished it must likely runne after them Or if it stay behinde it is but a shaddow in shead of light What Credit is to rich men or Riches such is Honour or Reputation to other Excellencies And wee may here remember the old Verse Quantum quisque suâ nuÌ„morum servat in ared Tantum habet fidei When wealth and riches take their journey credit useth not to remaine at home And since Peace Liberty and the nurse of both and of all other blessings Government have left us our reputation is become but a fading flower We were once the Glory who are now the shame the scorne and reproach of other nations Our brightnesse is clouded our splendour is obscured Wee whose name heretofore for comlinesse and beauty in Religion made Rome to blush as it were in all her pride to see Truth in this Church like a Diamond richly set in the gold of excellent Order and decency to out-shine all that sophisticall lustre of their gawdy and glaring superstition We whose fame for Valour and Prowesse hath heretofore put such Agues into the greatest of our bordering Kingdomes whose renowne for learning and knowledge in the Liberall Sciences and in the Lawes Divine and Humane made us so much the Athens and Academy of the World We Ah! what a Wee are wee now become How are wee made the mocking-stock of our Adversaries ROME laughs at us to see our grave and comely Matron for such was our Church spoiled of her decent and seemely ornaments and cloathed in the garments of madnesse and in the ragges of Confusion and desolation To behold that precious Gemme of holy truth which we embraced rent out of the Gold and cast under foot into the Dung-hill To see our field that bore such fruitfull Crops and our Valleyes that stood so thicke with Corne that they did even laugh and sing even with the good Corne of wholsome and sound Doctrines to bee overgrowne now with the Thornes and Briars of Hereticall opinions and mad Factions and Divisions There there say they so would we have it whilst the Calamities of our Church are their game and pastime and as once it was said of Tire in her ruine Is 23.7 so wee may conceive them crying out scornfully against us Is this your Ioyous City and is this the temple of truth and holinesse Is this the Fortresse of the divine Oracles the great Castle and Champion of the reformed Religion See now what is become of their Reformation where now is that excellent building which they had set up Oh how bravely it burnes and consumes in the flamer of those fires which themselves have kindled in it Oh what sport it is to see it How it warmes us how it revives us Thus they delight themselves with our phrensies and strengthen themselves by our confusions and desolations But Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph How long shall they utter and speake hard things and the workers of iniquity hoast themselves Lord looke upon our reproach and ignominy and restore us for thy mercies sake Let not them that are our enemies wrongfully rejoyce over us neither let them winke with their eyes that hate us without a cause They have opened their mouth wide against us and have said Aha Aha our eye hath seene it This thou hast seene O Lord keepe not silence O Lord be not farre from us Stirre up thy selfe and awake to our judgment even to our cause our God and our Lord. Our bordering Nations that heretofore feared us and honoured us how doe they now dispise or pitty us whilst our samed Valour and Prowesse is degenerated into treachery and basenesse and the glorious noon of our Learning and Knowledge is overspread with a cloud of stupidity and ignorance And all these losses are accompanied with many other with decay in trade of husbandry and what not But I have done with this long and sad contemplation of our miseries although I doubt not but your daily observations and the perpetuall sense of that variety of pressures that are upon us may informe you that I have left many sores untouched But thus farre I have endeavoured to shew you the streames of our evills and now I come to discover the fountain of them I have hitherto set before you some symptomes of our maladies it remaines now that I should lay open the root of them that so we may proceed unto the cures and remedies And here I have a world of matter before me But I have been too prodigall of my paper already and therefore dare not lanch out into these deeps Besides that necessity is urgent upon mee in divers respects for a conclusion Take therefore for that which is behinde these severall Theses The first is this That the generall fountaine of all these our miseries and caldmities are the generall Corruptions Backeslidings and Pollutions that are amongst us in this Nation The Assertion is evident 1. Because sinne is the causa sine qua non The cause without which there is no affliction There was never any but one that was punished without sin and that was Christ and even
put it in practice beseeching thee that thou wilt take pitty upon them and that thou wilt be pleased now at length to sosten their hearts and to open their eyes That they pursue no further their workes of violence and rebellion but that having a true sense of their great iniquities and being truly humbled before thee for their sinnes they may lay hold upon thy gracious offers of mercy toward them in Christ Jesus and leaving all their evill and seditious courses may returne unto thee their God their obedience unto their Soveraigne and to the affections of justice and charity toward their Brethren That upon their unfaigned repentance thou mayest receive them into thy favour and that their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Lord we know thou art a God thou art able to doe all things Thou stillest the raging of the Sea the noise of the wayes and the madnesse of the people Thou canst tame the fiercensse of the most savage Lyons and make the Woolfe to dwell with the Lambe and the Leopard to lye downe with the Kid Thou canst cause the fire to forget its fury and rage and thou refrainest the wrath of man Thou by the power and might of thy grace didst meet Saul in the midst of the very heate and violence of his persecuting zeale and didst turne him into a Paul a meeke and faithfull servant unto thee and madest him of an enemy to become not only a member of thy Church but also a glorious fellow-sufferer with thy people Lord shew the like power of thy mercy and grace unto these our persecutors smite them to the ground with an apprehension of their great cruelties and bloudy oppressions that they have exercised against thy poore Church and people and raise them up againe in the apprehensions of thy tender love and goodnesse in Christ Jesus Thou who hast pardon for the greatest sinners that come unto thee with penitent hearts and a firme beliefe in thy Son Christ Jesus as thou pardonedst Paul so Lord pardon them As thou convertedst Paul so Lord convert them c. and let them not pursue the destruction of their owne soules If it be thy blessed will O Lord bring them home unto thy fold Let not their successes beguil them any more nor any evill engagements detaine them in their sinnes Suffer them no more to set up their carnall policies against thy spirituall and heavenly wisedome but bring down every high thought in them unto obedience to thy heavenly Word make them to know that there is no shame but to be wicked and that their greatest honour will be to forsake their sinnes and to returne speedily and entirely unto thee their God O Lord breake in sunder those chaines of corruption whereby they are held from thee and deliver them out of the snares of the Devill O quench the fire of that malice and rage which is enkindled in them against us thy poore people and inflame them with Christian affections towards us againe As for us O Lord make us patiently to endure what thy fatherly hand shall be pleased to inflict upon us whether by them or by any other meanes and give us alwayes a readinesse of heart to forgive all those injuries that they have done unto us and to embrace an hearty reconciliation with them whensoever they shall be moved by thy grace to give over their unjust cruelties against us and Lord lay not those sins unto their charge Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake Amen * ⎠* A Summe of divers principall things contained in this Booke 1. AN Introduction consisting of various incitements unto Humiliation and seeking of God 2. A discovery of the sad condition of the present estate of the Church and Commonwealth of England First In a paralell thereof with the miserable condition of the Jewes set forth in the Lamentations of Ieremy pag. 57 Secondly In a more peculiar and expresse delineation of the cerruptions depravations and devastations thereof illustrated by the consideration of our former happy condition in matter of Religion of Peace of Liberty of Government of honour and reputation First in point of Religion and things conducing thereunto pag. 91 1. Of Corruptions on the rule of Religion pag. 99 2. In the mannage of the worke of Instruction pag. 110 1. By seaucing Doctrines Ibid 2. By running from one extreame to another pag. 124 3. By uncharitable censures of moderatâ— spirits pag. 124 4. By the spirit of contradiction and tyrannising over the consciences of men pag. 127 5. By partiality and prejudice c. The evill fruits whereof are described p. 128 6. Pulpits and Presses made marts of division p. 141 7. Hunting after applause p. 148 8. Pusillanimity and lukewarmenesse in the Ministry where an exhortation to Christian con-age p. 155 9. Neglect of Catechisme p. 159 2. Of corruptions about the Sacraments 1. Of Baptisme p. 190 2. Of the Lords Supper Ibid 3. In abolition of Excommunication p. 194 4. In rejecting the grave and learned Ministry and putting up youths and raw novices to be the guides of the people p. 196 And Lay men without any lawfull calling p. 29 A discussion of that point at large of popular Elections c. p. â—52 Of the ordination of Ministers the Apostolic call way p. 278 5. In the sacrilegious taking away of the revenues of the Church as Tythes c. where the Question about Tythes and of things devated to Gods Service is discussed p. 293 6. In Conventicles and unreverent carriage in the Church abolition of formes of Prayer and the evill effects thereof p. 361 7. In matter of Church government the sad causes and sountaines thereof p. 373 A discovery of the miseries and Corruptions of the civill State 1. In matter of Peace p. 388 2. In matter of Libertie p. 399 3. In matter of civill Government p. 415 4. In matter of Honour and Reputation p. 429 Of the sonntaine of these calamities which is the great wickednesse of this Nation p. 437 God the only Physitian p. 454 No way to obtaine deliverance from God but by Humiliation for sin p. 484 Conversion from sin p. 490 Prayer p. 497 Faith in Christ Iesus p. 501 The conclusion with exhortation to the Kingdome in generall p. 514 To the suffering Party p. 527 Directions concerning the exercise of the said daties p. 535 An help to Humiliation 1. A Confession and Supplication laying open the sinnes and miseries of this Nation and imploring Gods mercy p. 1 2. Certaine Psalmes for that purpose The first p. 41 The second p. 44 The third p. 46 3. Another Prayer for these Kingdomes p. 59 4. A short Prayer to be used upon the undertaking of any just designe or enterprize for peace p. 72 5. A Prayer for the restoring of a happy and setted Government in this Nation p. 74. 6. A Prayer for the King p. 86 7. A Prayer for Peace in the Church and State p 99 8. A Prayer for the two Houses p. 109 FINIS