to the Murderers Awaken therefore O. Protestants and English Men out of your deep and dangerous Security and stand upon your feet like Men Ye dead men live again and I will humbly and faithfully advise you as I am able out of very love in a few things 1. My First Advice is that you believe none of their pretended fairness and kindness to you seeing their hearts are wholly against you and their hatred to you is immortal even the hatred of the Devil in the Hearts of Men which is a certain fire of Hell which goes not out by Day or by Night But know for certain when they promise fair they are not to perform any thing but the quite contrary when they seem to kiss you they intend to kill you when they suffer you to be quite 't is that they may bring the greater Trouble upon you when they retreat from the exercise of their fierceness 't is that they return upon you with the greater Fury when you shall less think af it for their whole Trade is Deceit and Violence Though Satan transform himself into an Angel of Light yet still is he is the Prince of Darkness and these his Followers are exactly like him both to deceive and to destroy they will change their Colours like Proteus to deceive you but they will never change their cruel Minds but they that will be deceived let them be deceived 2. My Second Advice is that none either Plot or Attempt any thing against the present Power but that all stand still in their Place and Calling like Wisemen with their Eies in their Head quietly waiting for the Salvation of God For no Mans Hands can help him in this Matter but our strength is to sit still We can no more change Kingdoms and Governments in the World than we can alter the Course of the Sun or Moon in the Heavens but it is the Great God that must do these great things It is the most High God that reigns in the Kingdom of Men and gives them to whomsoever he will And when his time is come the set and full time and the most High shall utter his Voice his instruments shall be at his foot ready to do his work even to execute the Vengeance written and all his mighty Providences shall concur to bring about the Council of his Will Wherefore remember that Mans rashness carrys ruin in it but Patience perfects both Gods Works and Mans. In Patience possess your Souls Wherefore all that we would do if we might be heard by those that are instructed to help at this needful Time is only to desire for the Glory of God and the Nations good and their own these three things 1. That the dear and precious Gospel of our Lord and Saviour may be permitted publiquely to be Preached again in the Purity and Power of it and that the faithful Teachers may be restored to their Ministry throughout the whole Nation For when Jesus Christ who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given into his hands hath commanded his Ministers to go and teach in all Nations How can you Worldly Powers who have but a little Power in this Nation answer it to him when you forbid that to be done which he hath so solemnly commanded He that hath all Power in Heaven and Earth hath commanded his Ministers to teach his Gospel and dare you who have but a little power on Earth and none at all in Heaven forbid them If you do not repent of and amend this our Evils it had been better for you that you had never been born 2. Our second desire is That all Popish Commanders may be Disbanded and put out of all Office and Trust in a Protestant Nation and that all Papists through England may be disarmed seeing they are not armed for us but against us 3. That all French and Outlandish Men may be banished for they are but Moths in our English Garment to fret it by degrees all to pieces as they have fretted a great deal of it already And what English-man or Protestant is there that will not join with us in these necessary Desires which if they be not granted farewel all Good Days from England for our time And now to conclude all I shall only leave two or three Sovereign Antidotes with my dear Country-Men to preserve them from the noysome Contagion and Plague of Popery 1. Consider with Trembling that none are given up to this Damnable Delusion but those whose Names are not Written in the Lambs Books of Life as the Spirit of God affirms Rev. 13.8 saying And all that dwell upon Earth shall worship him i.e. the Beast or Antichrist of Rome whose Names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World And what Person would carry such a Worm in his Conscience continually for the whole World and all the Kingdoms and Glory of it as to know and certainly to understand that his Name is not written in the Book of Life nor can ever be put in for all the Writings in that Book are from Eternity and no new thing can be inserted in it And therefore let Men say what they will they are none of Gods Elect who close in with this False and Heretical Religion after the Gospel hath been Preached to them and they have been instructed in it For to depart from the known Truth to known Error is not a Sin of Ignorance but of Malice and this is the Sin unto Death for which there is no Remission Wherefore let every one that would attain to any comfortable Assurance that his Name is Written in the Book of Life flee from Popery 2. They that Apostatise to this False Religion are as surely to be Damn'd as if they were in Hell already This is a hard saying but a True One as it is evident in that of Paul 2. Thess 2. where speaking of Antichrist that Wicked One whose coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and Lying Wonders and with all deceiveableness of Unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved He adds And for this cause God shall send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye that they All may be Damn'd that believe not the Truth but have pleasure in Unrighteousness This sort of People God gives them up to believe a Lye the Grand Lye of Popery for this whole Religion is nothing else but one continued Lye from the beginning to the end of it to the intent that they should all Perish and be Damn'd This is the Word of God against all wilful Papists and it cannot be made void John also testifies Rev. 14.9 that an Angel Proclaimed with a loud voice saying If any Man Worship the Beast and his Image and receive his Mark in his Forehead or in his hand the same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is
Comfort in Affliction OR ADVICE TO PROTESTANT DISSENTERS IN Times of Persecution TOGETHER WITH Remarks on the just Judgments of God upon this City and Land since the Prohibition of the Gospel by Mulcts and Penalties By J. O. LONDON Printed for R. Jones 1682. COMFORT in AFFLICTION OR ADVICE TO PROTESTANT DISSENTERS c. THE Suppressing the Glorious Light of the Gospel and Banishing it out of Publique View the silencing the Grace of Christs own Lips and causing the Joyful Sound that Proclaims the Acceptable Year of the Lord to cease out of our Borders is the Evil of Evils and the Misery of Miseries which brings all other Evils and Miseries along with it yea this shuts up the Kingdom of Heaven from the World and sets Hell wide open for all men to run headlong into it as we see it done this day This excludes the Love Mercy and Goodness of God from the World as much as possibly it can and brings in his Wrath and heavy Displeasure to wast and consume it of which we have had the sad and most exquisite Experience now alas for several years together For since the Gospel under several Mulcts and Penalties hath been forbidden to be Preach'd how many Manifestations of Gods Just Anger have we seen in many strange and unusual Prodigies in the Heavens in the Waters c. Being loud Warnings of the Wrath to come What a griveous and desolating Plague the Scourge of the Almighty hath destroyed Thousands and Ten Thousands in that late great City and in many other parts of the Nation the like whereunto hath not been heretofore What a dreadful Conflagration hath devoured that Famous and Incomparable City the Head and Glory of these Nations and laid it in Ashes and Ruines like Sodom and Gomorah which Cities were set on Fire from Heaven but this from Hell by the Locusts of the Bottomless Pit the Emissaries of the Pope and his Clergy which Vermin have swarmed in this Nation since the removal of the Gospel And this provoking Sin is not so much the Sin of the people as of Evil Counsellors at the Helm who as it were have openly renounced Christ and desired Barabbas to be given to them in his stead they have rejected the sweet and Meek Gospel of Christ and have desired to be given to them the Cruel and Murderous Religion of Antichrist And this one thing carrys weight in it that they who tolerate Popery to take its ease among us and to lengthen its Cords and to strengthen its Stakes though it be directly against Christ and they who tolerate the open exercise of the Jewish Religion which denies and blasphemes Christ will by no means suffer nor endure the true and sincere Gospel of Christs Kingdom to be published but under great Penalties From hence follows the greatest and deepest ignorance of God and Christ that can be and of all their unsearchable Riches which the Gospel hath discovered to the World The greatest ignorance of the Law and of Gospel of Sin and of Righteousnes of Salvation and Damnation of Heaven and Hell in a word the grossest ignorance of all the Revealed Truths of God which concern us either to obtain Eternal Life or to avoid Endless Death Never was there such a Deluge of Sin seen upon Earth as now covers the Face of the Nation this is even become the covering of all Flesh All sorts of People of High and Low Degree whether Secular or Ecclesiastical are all drencht and dyed in it in such sort that Men live in this World in the manifest likeness of the Devil and if Satan himself were Incarnate you could not easily discern one from the other They set their Faces against Heaven and call out upon God to Damn them Soul and Body So Divelish they are that they would fain be tormented before their time and do often provoke Hell to swallow them up for because they can be no liker to the Devil in this World they would hasten to Hell that there they may be fully like him Oh Monsters of Mankind Oh the true Seed of the Serpent the right Generation of Vipers Ye have been fore-warn'd by God to flee from the Wrath to come but who hath warn'd you to flee unto it Who among the remote Nations would believe the report of all your Villanies The very rehearsal of them would put them into Pangs and the bare hearing of them into Tremblings their Sayings and Doings are such as are not fit to be mentioned or recited among Men but onely in the midst of Devils For who without horrible fear could either repeat or hear their desperate Blasphemies against God himself glorious in Holiness and against our Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath made his First-Born Higher than the Kings of the Earth and when he brought him into the World he said Let all the Angels Worship Him and against the Holy Spirit against whom whoever speaks a word it shall never be forgiven him against the blessed Gospel the great and onely Power of God to Salvation against the Kingdom of God on Earth and against them that dwell in Heaven Therefore O Lord forgive them not For their Vine is as the Vine of Sodom and of the Fields of Gomorrah their Grapes are Grapes of Gall their Clusters are bitter their Wine is the Poyson of Dragons and the cruel Venome of Asps The shew of their Countenance doth witness against them and they declare their Sin more than Sodom they hide it not they boast of it and every Man is famous as he can do most wickedly Wo unto their Souls for they have rewarded evil against themselves For therefore Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her Mouth without measure and their Glory and their Multitude and their Pomp and he that rejoiceth shall soon descend into it This their Day approacheth it comes it makes hast when they shall perish for ever like their own Dung and they that have seen them shall say where are they And therefore howl ye Profane Ones for the Day of the Lord is at hand it shall come as a Destruction from the Almighty then shall your Wicked Hands fall down and your Proud Hearts melt and you shall be sorely afraid Pangs and Sorrow shall take hold on you even Pangs as of a Woman in Travel and when ye shall look to one another ye shall be amazed at one another and your faces shall alter and change colour as Flames For behold the Day of the Lord cometh cruel both with Wrath and fierce Anger to lay the Land desolate for your sakes and he shall destroy the Sinners thereof out of it And he will punish the World for their evil and the Wicked for their wickedness he will make the Arrogancy of the Proud Ones to câ—ase and will lay low the Haughtiness of the Terrible Ones In that day Sodom and Gomorrah shall rise up in Judgment against you and it shall be more tolerable for them than for you O Ye Profane Ones
of England These Spiritual Evils press us sore As for our Outward Evils they are well known and felt by All of all sorts and though I should be silent in the rehearsing them they speak forth themselves They are a sore not to be touched yet if no hand should touch them how should they be healed Wherefore I will in the Name and Fear of God make mention of one of them and of such an one as briefly comprehends all the rest And this is The strange and dismal Withering Wasting Languishing and Dying Condition of Poor England whose common Welfare no Man now looks after or regards Oh England where are now thy Wise Men where are thy Pilots where are thy Physicians where are thy Counselors where are thy Helpers where are they that pity thee and say Alas Alas Poor England thy Husband hath rejected thee as a Wife of Whoredoms and thou art become a Widow of Sorrows thou art left as a Cottage in a Vineyard as a Lodge in a Garden of Cucumbers as a Besieged City Thy bruise is incureable and thy wound is grievous There is none left to plead thy Cause that thou mightest be bound up thou hast no healing Medicines left thee Fear and a Snare and the Pit are upon thee and to whom wilt thou stretch forth thy hands to whom wilt thou lift up thy Voice for help Thou wast lately a Rich and Flourishing Kingdom and for thy Plenty Wealth and Glory wast both the Wonder and Envy of the World Whilst thou didst enjoy the Presence of God through his Word and Ordinances whilst Iniquity was banish'd out of Publique View whilst Holiness and Righteousness Justice and Judgment Truth and Equity had their chief place in thee Thou wast a People saved by the Lord Honoured by the Lord Exalted Magnified Protected by the Lord. Thou wast the Head and not the Tail even the Glory of Kingdoms and Nations Our Land then was blessed with the precious things of Heaven with the dew and the deep that coutcheth beneath with the precious fruits brought forth by the Sun and with the precious things put forth by the Moon with the precious things of the Earth and the Fulness thereof We had plenty of Gold and of Jewels of fine Gold and our Houses were stored with Silver our Barns and Store-houses were replenished and we were plenteous in Goods in the fruit of our Cattel and in the fruit of our Ground Our Sons were as Plants grown up in their Youth our Daughters as polisht Pillars our Oxen were strong to labour and our Sheep brought forth Thousands we did eat our Bread with joy and drank our Wine with a merry heart because God accepted our Works Yea then the First-Born of the Poor did feed and the Needy did ly down in Safety for there was no breaking in nor going out nor complaining in our Streets We were a happy People that were in such a case yea much more happy because God was our Lord. And thou O London for my heart is towards thee and I am distressed for thee O London and pained at the very heart Thou wast a Joyous City whose Antiquity was of Ancient Days thou wast the Crowning City whose Merchants were Princes whose Traffiquers were the Honourable of the Earth by thy great Wisdom and by thy Traffique thou didst get thee Riches and thou didst get Gold and Silver into thy Treasuries The Harvest of the River was thy Revenue and thou wast the Mart of Nations All Nations emptied their Delicacies into thy Bosom and poured forth their pleasant things into thy Lap. And when thy Wares went forth out of thy Seas thou filledst many People thou didst enrich the Kings of the Earth with the multitude of thy Riches and of thy Merchandise Thou wast also the Mountain of God thou hadst in the midst of thee the stones of Fire Thou wast the chief High-Place the Ministers of Jesus were dear to thee and thy Arms were always open to embrace them thou didst frequent the Solemn Assemblies of the Saints with the Multitude of them that kept right Holy-Day The Out-casts of Christ were wont to dwell with thee and thou wast a Covert to them from the face of the Spoiler Many Fatherless Children had harbour and succour in thee and thou wast a Husband to the Widows It was thy Meat and Drink to feed the hungry and to cloath the naked and to visit the Prisoners of Jesus Christ Thou wast as the Vine-tree amongst the Trees of the Forest Verily a Noble Vine But why hast thou so suddenly turned into the Degenerate Plant of a Strange Vine Why of a right Seed did you so easily become strange Children whose Mouth talketh Vanity and your Right Hand is a Right Hand of Falshood Why didst thou join thy self with the Wicked and help the Ungodly Why didst thou love them that hate the Lord and didst turn thy heart and hand against them that love the Lord Thou didst reject his Ministers thou didst persecute his People thou didst hunt the steps of the Righteous that they could not go in thy Streets thou didst hawll to Prison the Assemblies of the Saints and didst make havock of the Church of Christ till there was no remedy For when the Lord saw this he was angry for he looked for Grapes from you and you brought forth wild Grapes he looked for Judgment from you but behold Oppression for Righteousness but behold a Cry Wherefore he bent his Bow against thee like an Enemy He stood with his Right Hand like an Adversary He sent a Fire into the midst of thee that could not be quenched and it hath devoured thee and brought thee to Ashes on the Earth in the sight of all them that beheld thee He hath swallowed up thy Habitations he hath thrown down in his Wrath your pleasant Dwellings your stately and beautiful Buildings He sent into thee treacherous Dealers to deal treacherously with thee and Spoilers to spoil thee whilst thou wast become a silly Dove without heart He hath brought upon thee the days that have not come on thee since thou wast a City He hath stained the Pride of thy Glory and brought into contempt all thy Honourable Persons they that did feed delicately were left desolate in the Streets they that were brought up in Silks and Scarlet embraced Dunghils they that dwelt in well built Houses were glad to shelter themselves in Booths and to crowd their heads in desolate places they are come down from their Glory to sit in Dust For thy filthiness was found in thy Skirts therefore thou wast brought down wonderfully How are thy Merchandise of Gold and Silver and Precious Stones and of Pearl and of fine Linnen and Purple and Silk thy broidered Works thy Chests of rich Apparel thy Spices and Odors thy Vessels of precious Wood of Brass and Iron and Marble thy Wine and Oil thy stately Buildings and beautiful Structures of many Generations how in three or four days are they all brought to