the Sword is not put up and in Ireland poor wretched Ireland the warre is more terrible where if we labour not to end it by sending our brethren timely succours the bloody enemy is like to come to make a new war upon us ere it be long And in the times of warre What have the heads of our Tribes to do Certainly all people in a time of warre should make it a time of mourning Ezekiel saith The Sword is furbished and drawne and made bright for slaughter should wee then make mirth Should this bee a time of jollitie and all should labour to finde out the Causes of the warre what the Sword-procuring sins are and every one to repent and turne from them But you that are our Heads are to look to these 2 Things principally First That while the warre doth last and must last that our Campes and Armies may bee in such a condition that God may not abhorre our Armies When the Host goes forth to the battail keepe thee from every evill thing And Secondly In the times of Warre you should alwayes labour after an honourable safe and just Peace peace is the end of warre Pax una triumphis One peace is worth 100 Victories and therefore you must principally addresse your selves to God who alone can give us Peace Kings and States may begin a warre but God onely must end it we may daube up a peace and get counterfeits of peace but all will bee arena sine calce Sand without lime a mortar which will not hold but as a swelling in a high wall whose breach comes suddenly Therefore remember againe and againe your work lies with the God of Peace pacifie him and hee will create peace for you Fifthly Our Times are times of Divisions such Divisions as I thinke were hardly ever knowne in the Christian World Divisions every where divisions in Parliament divisions in the Assembly divisions in the Citie divisions in State affaires but woe and alasse most of all and worst of all divisions among Gods people the Servants of God who heretofore prayed together fasted together could have been banished together now as if the curse of Simeon and Levi were fallen upon them they are divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel Manasseh is aagainst Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and every one eates the flesh of his owne arme and through the wrath of the Lord the Land is darkened and infatuated by the miserable divisions of Gods owne people and these divisions are fomented encouraged and back'd by a Third il-affected party who desires that these Two like wilde beasts may teare one another and weaken one another that they may devoure them both and all this goes on thorough our sinne And truly wee are in my poore thoughts as if God had left us to bee as Moab and Ammon and Mount Seir where two stood up against one to destroy it and then the other two to destroy one another as the foolish Woman wee are pulling downe our house with our owne hands And now Honorable and Beloved in such sad uncomfortable times as these are what have the Heads of our Israel to doe what doth the Lord looke for at your hands Certainly you with others and you above all others should labour to bee our Physitians our Aesculapiusses to joine our dissever'd limbes and if it bee possible to make us one againe Noble Senators is there no way that your Wisdome can contrive to make Pacification Accommodation and Reconciliation but must wee goe on thus to ruine one another Any ordinary head may serve to embroyle things but here would bee the Master-piece of your Wisdome if you could find out a way how the envie of Ephraim and the ill will of Manasseh might cease and that Gods people might yet bee reconciled and united of one minde as farre as is possible and made of one heart in those lower things wherein they cannot bee of one minde Would God put this in your hearts that you might speedily and earnestly set about it that if there should be found any Animosities amongst your selves you would lay them down first all agree to study the Publike good and then see what you can doe to reconcile others in the Ministery in the City in the Countrey o that you could doe as Constantine did who burnt all the Libells that were presented to him from one Bishop against another and never left till hee had made peace among them O that God would both inable you and provoke you to set speedily upon this worke God and his people have their eyes upon you and expect you should imploy all your Wisdome Piety Parts and Authority to extinguish those flames which threaten speedy ruine to us all Our times are times of Reformation As they are times of sinne and errour and wrath and warre and divisions which all five are very sad so the other two are excellent our times are times of Reformation I mean they are times not onely of much Gospell light but they are times of growing and increasing light wherein the light of the Gospell spreads more and the Lord as in other parts of the world so especially amongst us seemes to bee laying out the platforme of his Temple and to set out a new edition of his Church fairer and more beautifull then ever and what have the Heads of our Tribes to doe at such a time without all question very much of it will lie upon your hands under God you have contended stifly and couragiously for our liberties and properties and to recover us from bondage and slavery and God hath been with you in it and although the kingdome doth not yet feele it and so it may bee doth not greatly thank you because in desperate diseases the cure is commonly more costly and more tedious then the disease is but I doubt when God vouchsafes a settling they will finde the fruit of what you have done for them and blesse God for you that are their healers But know I beseech you that our Religion is our most Orient Pearle and that whereupon our heart is most set and if there should bee any miscariage in it all will perish with it wee should call every thing else Ichabod if Religion miscarry all is gone and therefore to provoke you to helpe us in this thing let mee leave these two Conclusions in your bosomes First A Reformation begun and not carried on alwayes brings more wrath from God you have begun the Reformation you are engaged in it by oath and Covenant and some happy proceeding and progresse you have made in it God grant you slack not in it For youâ—l finde in the Scriptures a reformation begun and laid aside is a peoples undoing In Elijahs dayes there was a Reformation begun it fell downe and the Kingdome perished with it In Josiah's time a Reformation was begun and quickly laid aside with the death of that good King and the Kingdome was ruined presently
better for you Did you then thus know the times did you then walke as wise men redeeming the times did you know what God expected from you in your places and have you done it O blessed yee if you have But I beseech you will it not rather appeare upon a true search that many of you in those dayes walked in the wayes of riot in uncleannesse in drunkennesse possibly in swearing in prophaning Gods holy time in opposing and scorning Religion was it not thus it behoves you to search did you not make your owne Families the Townes and Lordships where you lived the worse for you as so many Jeroboams causing Israel to sinne did not you thereby helpe to pull downe those judgements that have beene like to devoure and destroy this whole Land and if so have you beene humbled under these things have you since repented of them or do they still stand upon your score before that God that keeps an exact accompt of all the Talents that ever hee hath put into your hands I beseech you enquire into it but let me goe further and enquire whether since the time that God hath separated you from your brethren and by a notable providence called you out to be the heads of all our Tribes have you since that time knowne the times in reference to your duties It is now above six yeers since many of you have beene called to this worke one of the greatest workes that mortall men have beene imployed in these many hundreds of yeers a work wherein you have beene assisted not onely with the prayers and teares of those that feare God throughout the Christian world but with the states and blood of many and God himselfe hath carried you in his bosome and made you the most remarkable handfull of men that I thinke this day breath upon the earth in regard of the mercies that hee hath shewed you and in this time certaine I am hath put into your hands as many golden opportunities not onely required as many duties but put as many golden opportunities into your hands to establish our wretched kingdome and to rescue a decayed lukewarme Apostatized Church as ever were put into the hands of a Parliament Now beloved have you known your times and taken your opportunities I know it well that you have wrestled with huge difficulties infinite oppositions and I know that oft-times the perversnesse of a Patient poysoning his owne disease or wounds may frustrate the care of the best Physitians and God forbid that that which is onely your misery should ever bee imputed to you as your sinne but suppose upon a diligent search any of you that are called to bee our wise men to know the times for us that at your doore it should lie in great part that our miseries are not yet healed how sad would that bee To this end I most humbly pray you inquire if upon a diligent search there should bee found among you any who at this day live in the same sinfull riotous ungodly wicked conversation that they led before God called them to this publique service that after your solemne oath with your hand lifted up to the most high God for the reformation of your wayes that you should bee found still with Zimri and Cozbi to live in those sinnes for which God is judging this Nation Were this to know the times and what Israel hath to doe Suppose further there should bee found amongst you any such as should ordinarily neglect the publique service and turne your backs upon it to attend your own private affaires after that the Kingdome hath put into your hands whatsoever under God is pretious and deare unto them were this to know the times and what Israel hath to doe Suppose there should bee found amongst you any that should seeke advantage to themselves out of publique calamities or should sinfully helpe to undoe those for whom they are called to bee Saviours were this to know the times Suppose that any of you should bee found unjust in judgement and favour an unrighteous man in his cause either for corrupt gaines or out of opposition to them you like not and so prostrate the untainted honour of the Parliament to the reproach of the adversaries the scandall of the Nation the teares and griefe of them who love you were this to know the times and what Israel hath to doe Suppose it should bee found that there should bee any that in matters of Religion should side with a partie for corrupt and sinfull ends and make Religion but an Engine to carry on some other sinfull designe were this to know the times and what Israel had to doe Suppose yet further that upon a diligent search there should be found among you any that doe retard matters of the greatest moment that the setling of Religion should bee obstructed by you that many people abroad are remisse in it because they judge you have no heart to it were this to know the time and what Israel hath to doe Suppose that the cries and teares of the oppressed I meane not the fatherlesse and widowes whom I am confident the Houses of Parliament would helpe this very day if it lay in their power but the cries of some oppressed by Committees or others in the Countrey should come up to you and seeke for succour and it should bee found that some of you should patronize the wrong-doers and keepe them off from comming to a hearing and thereby from redresse were this to know the times and what Israel had to doe Honorable and Worthy doe not mistake mee I am farre from saying it is so I onely suggest these things to your owne search and if in naming the particulars I mistake any of them God knowes it is with the same singlenesse of heart wherewith Job sanctifyed his Children sacrificed for them saying Peradventure my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts sure I am it concernes you all to search and try for if it should be so wee are all like to smart for it for as he said of the Roman Senate Ita nati est is ut bona malaque vestra ad rempub. pertineant Your condition is such that your good and your evill is the good and evill of the Commonwealth it belongs to us all and should the great God find any of you walking thus unworthy of the great trust hee hath committed to you when hee hath put as it were the fates of his Church and Kingdome in your hands under him to dispose of them hâ—s wrath would bee kindled against you these things would lie very heavy upon your score and wee and you should dearely rue it Sure I am there is not a man of us but for some or other of these things hath just cause to lay his hand upon his heart with sorrow and to put his mouth in the dust and this day to bee very deepely humbled and abased before God And this is the first Use a Use of
after it In Haggai his dayes the Reformation was begun then laid aside God presently smote them with Blasting and Mildew and would have undone them if they had not taken it up againe God lookes you should carry this work on And I adde Without setling Religion you shall never settle the Common-wealth Hee that writes a Booke of the corrupt and troubled state of the Church will hardly ever write a Booke of the quiet and setled State of the Commonwealth Christ is King of Nations and Common-wealths as well as King of Saints Now the glory of Christ is so much concerned in the matter of Religion that they shall never finde him propitious to them for their good in humane affaires who neglect him in that that is dearest to him But what have our Heads and Rulers to doe in that I feare not to say confidently that they are mistaken who say you have nothing to doe with it All the good Kings that ever I read of in the booke of God thought not onely they had to doe with it but it was their first work a Jove principium they all began with it they ever accounted the Reformation preservation propogation of Religion to be their Crown but what have you to doe I answer you must with David set your whole hearts to the house of your God really and seriously with Solomon set as many on worke as you can possibly to prepare materialls for Gods house with Jehosaphat send abroad as many faithfull Preachers as you can to goe about and instruct the people from Towne to Towne and Citie to Citie till you can get Ministers to bee setled With Nehemiah labour to build the walls of Jerusalem though in a troublesome time with a Sword in one hand and a Trowell in the other set up discipline to bee a hedge and fence to the Churches With Hezekiah labour to provide honorable maintenance for Gods house and his Ministers that young men may not bee discouraged in their studies For when young Students can see Galen and Justinian the study of the Law or Physick can give them wealth and honour and the Ministry nothing but beggery it will bee a great snare to them though the worke of the Ministry bee honorable and hath an abundant reward with God yet for want of maintenance the house of God will bee forsaken Sint Maecenates non deerunt marones Men of parts must have incouragement and in your provision for them forget not the Schooles of the Prophets remember the Universities Indeavour to carry on the worke that the beautie and power of Religion may be promoted and the Lord direct you to it Seventhly and lastly Our times are times of Deliverances the greatest deliverances that I thinke the Lord hath wrought since hee brought Israel out of Egypt such deliverances as we our selves are like men in a dreame such deliverances that there hath beene but few footsteps of ordinary Providence in them deliverances that have beene the fruit of Prayer the fruit of Covenanting the fruit of Fasting and in all these the fruit of free grace wherein the Lord hath exceeded not onely our Faith but our Prayers and hath measured out to us all that hee hath done by the shekel of the Sanctuary his own shekel that is double of ours I know you forget not the wonderfull things the Lord hath done and what have our Heads to doe at such a Time Truly all others with you but you more then all at such a time must bee carefull of these foure things First God expects when hee workes deliverances that his people should consider his workes and stand amazed at it When the Lord turned the captivitie of Zion wee were like men in a dreame our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joy The Lord say they hath done great things for us Thus let us admire his works In times of deliverance you must bee very carefull to pay your vowes the vowes that you made in the time of your low condition the vowes you made when your Selves and Liberties and Religion and the Kingdom were all like to bee buried quicke together God expects in times of deliverance to have those vowes remembred and paid consider what they were Thirdly When the Lord workes such deliverances hee expects and it will very well become the Heads of our Tribes to keepe the same lowly and humble spirit that they had while God kept them under afflictions to have their eares as much opened to good counsell when God hath exalted them as when hee abased them this is a hard lesson to learne I finde the best of all Gods servants have much failed in this particular Good David himselfe in the day of his prosperity kept not alwayes that humble spirit which hee had in his low estate nor Asa nor Uzziah nor Hezekiah and wee know the story of that famous Queen whose motto in the time of her afflictions was Tanquam ovis as a sheepe for the slaughter yet afterwards it was thought needfull to intreate that it might not bee tanquam indomita juvenca as an untamed Heifer Men are infinitely prone to bee lifted up when God enlarges them but God infinitely detesteth it and will not put it up at the hands of any Therefore I most humbly beseech you Right Honorable and Honorable and beloved let David and Solomon his sonne and Uzziah and Hezekiah bee warnings to you and doe you labour to maintaine the same lowly spirit that you had when you could keepe dayes of mourning for the sinnes of the Kingdome for your personall sinnes and Parliament sinnes such a spirit would infinitely please God And lastly In the time of deliverance God expects of those that are the Heads and Rulers of a people that every deliverance should by them bee improved to the utmost for the end for which it is given every Rod hath a voyce and calls for some dutie and every mercy and deliverance hath a voyce and calls for a dutie every victory your Armies have got and every towne hath beene surrendred every plot that hath been discovered hath some dutie written upon it which God expects you should learne All these things without question lie upon you and God doth and will expect them at your hands and what heart would not tremble to thinke how much lies upon you my soule is deepely affected with your taske more then humane strength must carry you on or you will bee impares oneri never able to goe through your work VVhat gratious man who understands this would ever pray to God in his Chamber without remembring you and your work and for you your selves O what need is there that you should call in the Payers and supplications of all Gods people to helpe you and that every one of you lay aside any businesse of your owne all self-interest and count it to be but catching of Flyes in comparison of the worke you are called to and