an execution by fire not from heaven but from hell not by Apostles but by Apostats not upon Hereticks but upon sound Professors of his Truth not by Iames and John whom he dearly loved but upon Samaritans whom all Gods people had cause to hate but by Samaritans Priests and Jesuites Traitors and Rebells abhorred of God and man upon Iames Iohn very Pillars of the Church upon the Lords Annointed upon the Assembly of all the Estates of the Kingdom Sober Modern Papists theÌ„selves are ashamed of this in behalf of those furious Ones of their own Party who cannot blush Nay I appeal from Garnet to Garnet from Garnet sleeping to Garnet waking from his sleeping Conscience consulted to approve it to his Conscience awakened when he was upon the Scaffold to be executed for it When the Question was first put to him by Catesby Whether it were lawfull in some Case to destroy the innocent with the guilty This Good a Widdrington ubi supra Father so soone as he apprehended the Conspirator to be in earnest peremptorily resolved that no doubt it was if the good comming by it might make compensation for the losse of their lives So that with him b Rom. 3.8 Let us doe evill that good may come thereof was good Doctrine though S. Paul disclaim'd it But when he came to die Conscience compelled him to change his note Then he confessed to a Noble c E. of Manch to whom Garnet confessed Mâ—rtis sententiam justissimè in cum fuissè pronunciatam c. Lord yet living that for concealing this Treason the sentence of death was just upon him And being led to the side of the scaffold to satisfie the people hee as * Me in Regem peccasse confiteor quod mihi est deâ—ori quoad mali conscius fui scil in reticendo Et hoc nomine veniam a Regia Majestate supplex peâ—o Machinatio contra Regem regnum sanguinolenta erat quamque si peâ—acta fuisset ego ipse in imis sensibus toto animo deâ—estaâ—uâ—â—s erum Doleâ— sane maxime peracerbe feâ—o Catholicos tam atrox immanc facinus suscepisse Ibid. Widdrington reports him freely said I confesse I have offended against the King which is now my griefe in that I was guilty of this Treason in concealing of it for which I humbly crave pardon of his Majestie The Conspiracie against the King and Kingdome was bloody and had it been executed I my selfe should have abhorr'd it from the secrets of my heart and with all my soule And verily it is my greatest griefe and with much bitternesse I feele it that Catholikes undertooke such a cruell and outragious Villany And upon th Gallowes * Eosque adhorto ne ejusmodi proditionibus rebellionibus contra RegeÌ„ se â—mmesceant ibid. infâ—a hee exhorted all Catholikes that they would never more have hand in such Treasons and Rebellions against their Soveraigne Thus farre our first Vse the next is this Learne hence what to expect as from all wicked men in general so from all the brood that be Agents and Factors for Rome in particular whether Lay or Ecclesiastique r Never expect better from them Regular or Secular to the end of the world Surely no better than from the rageing Sea when it cannot rest Nothing but rage and wrath Conspiracie and crueltie Treason and Rebellion so often as power and opportunitie meet Whether q Prov. 29.9 they rage or laugh there is no rest s Mic. 7.2.3 c. They all lie in wait for blood they hunt every man his brother with a net that they may doe evill with both hands earnestly the Prince * Witnesseth Pope and other his Adherents asketh and the Iudge judgeth for reward and the Great man uttereth his mischievous desires so they wrap it up The best of them is a briar the most upright is sharper than a thorny hedge c. Therefore trust yee not in a friend put ye no confidence in a guid keep the doores of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosome if this way addicted What then should you listen to any of their Syrens songs for abrogation or mitigation of the Lawes made against them for toleration of their Religion or for trusting of them as some would perswade They are no Changelings Can the Ethiopian change his skinne or the Leopard his spots t Jer. 13.23 then may they also doe good that are accustomed to doe evill I urge this the rather at this time not only because the very Deliverance which wee this day celebrate rings loud in your cares neither to trust nor tolerate them any longer and strongly moves for a Ne admittas against them but because also even during this very Parliament you find the old spirit of rage and trechery walking too openly and boldly among them and too often pressing too neere upon you Let it not move you that now they are in a Petitioning veine and seem to Petition for some indulgence professing all Loyalty For just so they gave out while they were preparing their materialls for the Gun-powder Treason then they would Petition for a Toleration of Religion Comming they are to manage their Cause and means they have more than ordinary to advance their Party the more reason you should have a more vigilant eye and a more active hand over them to secure the King and the Royall Seed Religion your selves and the Kingdomes against all their machinations The better to quicken this Care in you I shall humbly leave with you these Foure Remembrancers First That they have never been quiet but continually contriving of Treasons ever since the Reformation of Religion Secondly That this practice is not from the Lawes made against them * See Discourse of the Powder-Treason in K. Iames his Works but their very Religion it selfe leades them unto it Thirdly That their Priests are bound to infuse these principles of their Religion into them and to presse the use of them upon all occasions Fourthly That to induce their Disciples to swallow those Principles and accordingly to act them when occasion serveth they propound great rewards and glory to such as shall attempt them and defend and magnifie those who have formerly miscarried in them Each of these I shall now make good unto you in order with some enlargement I. They have never rested from plotting of Treason since the Reformation 1. They have never been quiet but alwayes hammering and contriving or solliciting and driving on desperate Plotts and conspiracies to destroy their Sovereigne to abolish Religion to subvert the Lawes and to expose the Kingdoms to a prey of any forreigne Enemie that would lend them either aide or countenance ever since the happy Reformation of Religion in the glorious Reigne of Queen Elizabeth unto this very day It is not my purpose nor will it suit with the short limits of a Sermon to make a relation of the Treasons themselves
but only to give a short Catalogue of the Chiefe Actors in them leaving the rest to Historians who have reported them to the World I know it goes for current that the Papists of England were quiet enough for the first 11. yeeres of Queen Elizabeth before any Lawes were made against them And indeed in comparison of after times this may be in part admitted to be true Howbeit in those first yeeres many of them went over Sea and there laid the foundation of future mischiefes here There were others at home that held strict intelligence with those abroad doing that more secretly which afterwards was more openly pursued and avowed It is true that while Paul the Fourth and Pius the Fourth sate Popes their unwillingnesse to make disturbance here held our Papists in more quiet Yet when Pius 4. dispatched a Nuncio to Queene Elizabeth Paul 4. was Pope when Q. Elâ—z came to the Crown Pius 4. succeeded next and sate tâ—ll the Seventh of her Reigne Continuat of Martins history at the yeere 1561. out of Cambden their friend with a kinde message as he took it his Nuncio could not be admitted to enter England because so many bred up to the Popish Religion laboured to make troubles both at home and abroad And this happened about the Fourth of her Reigne And if you doe but remember from Whom the Guises then procured the French King to claime the English Diademe and sollicited the Pope to excommunicate the Queen as did the Count of Foria at Rome in behalf of his Master the Catholike King about the same time and that divers English Papists had applied themselves to those Princes to assist in reducing the Romish Religion here You will finde they had no great cause to boast of their loyaltie Especially if you consider that Arthur Pole and his Brethren had no small party among the Papists here at home to assist in that horrible Treason against his Sovereigne for which hee and others were after arraigned and condemned But when Pius the Fifth the next Pope mounted the Chaire our Romanists began to be more active and bold For when once his turbulent disposition was knowne the Popish Party by the helpe of Cardinal Alan first obtained a Colledge for English Seminary Priests at Doway Anno. 1568. which indeed proved the seminary of all the Treasons and Rebellions which after followed That Colledge was after multiplied into two one at Rhemes set up by the Guises the other at Rome erected by Gregory 13. Anno 1580. after Requesenius Governour of the Low Countries under the King of Spaine had thrust them out of their first Nest at Doway And from these places were they upon all occasions sent hither to poyson the Subjects with Principles of Treason which every yeere produced much trouble and danger No sooner were they warme in their first Cells at Doway but Pius 5. Excommunicated Q. Elizab. at Rome absolving all her subjects and cursing all that should longer obey her An 1569. After which exploit he sent over his Bull Declaratory thereof by Morton an English fugitive who bringing it to Ridolf a Florentine divers Copies of it were first secretly scattered among our Papists and then the Breve it selfe fixed on the Gate of London-House By which time the Priests and other active Factors for Babylon had wrought farre upon sundry Nobles and Gentlemen of great place whom they either found or could make discontented with the present Religion Government or State of things or whom they discerned to bee ambitiously affected or most apt for intelligence with forraign Princes that either maligned our Religion envied our Prosperitie or cunningly endeavored to possesse themselves of this Crowne which have been the destruction of many a Noble Spirit and the ruine of many Ancient Families of this Kingdome Among the many Examples of this kind may be reckoned up the Rebellion of the unhappy Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland and sundry other their Complices as the first poysoned fruit of the Popes Bull in the same yeere wherein it was heer scattered among the Papists And from the said cursed fountaine issued all those bitter streames of Treasons of Stukely in Ireland at the same time of the Stanlies in Darbyshire of Iohn Trogmorton and Brooke of Sanders and Bristow of the Nortons Barne and Mather of Doctor Story the persecuting Civilian of Shirwin Parsons Campian and Kirby and many other Priests and Jesuites to the number of above 120. of Somervile and his adherents of Mayne Nelson Tompson and the rest of that Crue of Payne and his 50. Resolutes hired by the Pope to murder the Queen of Francis Throgmorton Paget and Englefeild of bloody Parry of some inveigled Nobles of Babbington Tichborne and the rest of that pack of the same Babington Charnock and Savage in a second Devilish Designe of Lopez of Stanly of Cullen of York and Williams of Creswell who in his Philopater and of Parsons that in his Doleman fomented that Treason of Stanly and the rest of Squire of Garnet Winter See Stat of 3 Jac. 2. Caresby Tresham and others who in the last yeere of Queen Elizabeth travailed with the King of Spaine to joyne with the Papists in England to depose the Queen and to extirpate Religion beside many moe that never came to light Nor did their rage die with that Lady but so soone as King James came among us Watson and Clerk found a way to instill Treason into sundry Nobles and Gentlemen against the King and Prince before the Coronation And for a Coronis of all the Salt-Peter men in the Gunpowder Treason of which I have spoken before can not be forgotten I spare to speake of their continuall Treasons and Rebellions in Ireland or of that memorable Designe in 88. which however it was attempted by Spaine yet all men know the fast tie betweene our Papists and the Spaniard their continuall correspondencies and combinations with him and the thundering Bull of Pope Sixtus Quintus then sent abroad for confirmation of the severall Bulls made by his Predecessors Pius 5. and Gregory * He held consultation with Spaine to invade England and Ireland both together An. 1576. His aime was to make his base Son James Boncampagno Marques of Vineola King of Ireland Excellent zeal in a Pope not to gain soules to Christ but a Kingdome for his owne Bastard 13. against Queene Elizabeth to the end our Papists might more cheerfully assist in that bloody Enterprise and none dare to adhere to her against a forreign Enemie Nay let me adde that even now while this very Parliament is sitting and Papists Petitioning * See their printed Petit. in the Dial. betvveen a Parliament man and a Catholike for indulgence and libertie and for taking away the Lawes made against them neither England Scotland nor Ireland have been free from desperate Conspiracies and Treasons wherein sundry of their Party have been principall Actors What should I tell you of the Designes upon the
ANOTHER SERMON Preached to the Honorable House of Commons now assembled in PARLIAMENT November the fifth 1641. By CORNELIUS BURGES D. D. Wherein among other things are shewed A List of some of the Popish Traytors in England That their Treasons were not occasioned by our Laws but from Principles of their owne Religion That their Priests are bound to infuse sucâ— Principles into them The courses taken by their Preists and Iesuites to animate them unto Treasons An Experimentall Prognostication Published by Order of the House of Commons LONDON Printed by R. B. for P. Stephens and C. Meridith at the Gilded Lion and at the Craine in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1641. To the Honourable House of Commons now assembled in PARLIAMENT WHen first I understood that You had designed only my selfe to preach unto You at that Great and happy Solemnity upon the Fifth of November last I inlarged my Provision because there was no other to second me in that Service But when I came to set before You what the Lord had brought to my hand The Tumults in Ireland I found You so over laid with businesse of such high importance as would hardly permit You to hear any sermon at all This constrained me to contract the two first Parts of my Sermon and wholly to suppresse the third except the last branch of the last Vse which I found meanes to affix to my second Point It was far from my thoughts and above my hopes that such a mangled Peice should gaine such Acceptance with You as to be held worthy of Your Thankes or of Publique View But seeing Your pleasure is to Order the Publishing it I obey Only I have now added the remainder of that Provision with which I could not at first present You by reason of those Indispensable Occasions then pressing on You. The Lord of Heaven direct all Your ways make them plaine before You prosper You in them and hold all Your hearts firme to Himselfe and in Vnity among Your selves set You more effectually upon and carry You more strongly through that most necessary and of all other most Important Work even the Perfecting of the Reformation of this Church by the assistance of a free Nationall Synod if Your wisdomes should so thinke meet for the further securing of our Religion from Corruption in Doctrine from Pollution in Worship from superstition in Ceremonies from Exorbitancy and Tyranny in Ecclesiasticall Government and Discipline and from Anarchy and Confusion under a false guise of Christian Liberty which is farre worse than Tyranny Hee also make You all more zealous to settle a Ministery worthy of the Glorious Gospell of Christ in every Congregation and a sufficient maintainance for all faithfull Labourers therein He raise You higher and higher in honour with God and Man and carry You stil in his Bosome till hee hath brought You to Glory All of which is and shall be the incessant prayer of Your most humble servant C. BURGES PSAL. 76.10 Surely the rage of man shall praise thee the rest of the rage shalt thou restraine THis Text and this day doe well agree Introduction shewing I. The fitnesse Never did day more exactly demonstrate the truth of this Text. Never did Text more fully set forth the Workes of this Day whether we regard the rage of man or the Power of God in over-ruling thereof to his own Praise and our preservation This is that day wherein the most prodigious rage of man that ever the Sun beheld or that Hell it selfe boyled up to an height justly execrable to all the world was ready to break forth out of the nethermost Pit against our Late King Queene the Royall Seed the Parliament Church Kingdome this Place our selves and all ours all at once And this is that day wherein our God came riding to us in his Chariot of Triumph and made himselfe fearfull in prayses by doing wonders and leaving us no more to doe but to praise his Name and lengthening out our happinesse joyfully to celebrate this Publike Anniversarie of that stupendious Deliverance So that II. The occasion while Interpreters contend and sweat about the speciall occasion of this Gratulatory Song whether penned as a Lasting Trophee of the many Victories atchieved by David over the Philistines Moabites Syrians and others 2 Sam. 8. or of the discomfiture of that formidable Army of the Ethiopians in the dayes of Asa 2 Chr. 20. Or of the selfe-destroying of that huge Host of the children of Ammon Moab and mount Seir in the reign of Jehoshaphat 2 Ch. 20. Or rather which is more probable as a Pillar of Gratitude in the time of Hezekiah for the wonderfull defeat of those numberlesse Forces of blasphemous Sennacherib nigh to Ierusalem where an Angel went forth and in one night and slew 185000. men in the campe of the Assyrians King 19. Sure we are Introduction that none of all those Great Acts of the Lord ever administred greater occasion to advance a Publike Thanksgiving beyond the faint and dull straine of Prose to the spritefull courage of a Verse by the gratefull violence of a Poetick Rapture truly divine than that admirable and even ineffable over powering of the matchlesse fury of those Romish Pioneers imployed in that Master-peece of Hellish Invention the Gun-powder Treason affords unto us and all Posterity of greatest exilience and of utmost industry to make His Praise glorious who justly inhabiteth the praises of Israel and is in himselfe exalted above all blessing and Praise For on this Day if ever and even here also if any where brake He the arrows of the bow the shield the sword and battell whereby he is become more glorious and excellent than the mountaines of prey Here the stout-hearted are spoiled they have stept their sleep and none of the men of might * In that great slaughter in the host of Sennacherib the Leaders Captaines and mighty men of Valour were all cut off 2 Chron. 32.21 have found their hands At thy rebuke O God of Jacob both the Chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep Thou didst cause judgement to be heard from heaven the earth feared and was still when God arose to judgement to save all the meek of the earth Therefore wee even wee also will for ever say and sing to thy Name as thy people of old Surely the rage of man shall praise thee the rest of the rage shalt thou restraine III. The Summe Which words Janus like have a double Aspect For they looke not only backwards as a Thankfull Remembrance of what God hath already done but also forwards as a Prophetick Resolution and well grounded Conclusion of Faith touching the constant ordering and curbing the rage of all his and our enemies so as to get himselfe glory out of all to the end of the world IV. The Parts of the Text. If we make a Distribution of the Text there will be found in it an Asseveration and an Assertion 1.
and writings and that not onely by word but also by Bookes published to the world witnesse Widdringtons Apologie for the Oath of Alleigance his Defence of his Apologie his Supplication to Pope Paul the Fifth his Appendix to that Supplication c. Witnesse also Watsons Quodlilets the Jesuites Catechisme and many more and lastly witnesse their Petition to the present Parliament and their Protestation annexed wherein they professe all ready and cheerfull obedience to the King in all Civill and Temporall affaires to take the Oath of Alleigance So they be not bound to sweare opinions to disclaime all forreigne Power Papall or Princely that should pretend authoritie to assoile them of that Oath c. I must briefly answere that albeit they have in words professed a dislike of Jesuitical Practices yet still they hold of the Pope for the whole frame of their Religion and vow obedience to all his publike Definitions and what these be you have before heard in part Next it is true that Widdrington hath written modestly yet was he faine to purge for it to the Pope and after all to goe off with disgrace And who knows not that shortly after some Seminaries had admired and extolled to the heavens the Bull of Pius 5. against Queen Elizabeth and blasphemously perswaded the world that it was indited by the Holy Ghost they set out a Booke on purpose to lull the Queen and the State asleep to admonish the Papists of England not to practise any mischiefe upon the Queen for that Catholikes might use no other Arms but teares prayers watchings and fastings against their Adversaries Yet who is ignorant of the daily conspiracies that the Papists in those times and during all the rest of Queene Elizabeths reigne did desperately involve themselves into to their owne destruction And what though Watson and other Secular Priests rather out of emulation and envie than true Loyaltie wrote some volumes against the Iesuites when they began to over-beare the Secular Priests here in England yet this was not so great an argument of their fidelity as of their spite and subtiltie for we know that even that very Watson and Clerk another of his Confederates was afterwards the desperate propounder and ring-leader of that foule Treason against King Iames and Prince Henry for which hee and Clerk deservedly suffered the reward of Traytors in the first yeere of King James And albeit there be lately cast among you a Pamphlet or Dialogue between a Parliament man and a Roman Catholike what credit can be given to that which no man avows no man ever presented to you It is I confesse a cunning piece but shamefully blending what cannot be answered And it is cunningly published perhaps for a dangerous end If the Parliament thrive and carry on their businesse as is desired then this Book shall be vouched as a faire profer of the Catholikes rejected without consideration If any disaster happen and that Romanists doe chance to get a Day then if this Petition and Protestation be pressed upon them they will boldly aske you What Catholike did ever avow or owne it It is but a Pasquill they will not be tyed by it And againe Suppose they take the Oath and Protestation mentioned in that Pamphlet what are we the neerer to safetie when they still must hold that the Pope can dispence with any Oath and therefore with this even when they have taken it For doe we not see them take libertie to doe so with the Popes owne Bulls Did not Parsons and Campian in the yeere 1580. notwithstanding their strict Oath to obey the Pope in all things procure a Dispensation to free all Catholikes from obeying the Popes owne Declaratory Bull of Excommunication against Queen Elizabeth till a better opportunitie when as yet in the meane time all others should be under the Curse of it who did not presently obey it Quo teneam nodo what Oath or Protestation then will hold a Romish Catholike in obedience to a Prince by them accounted hereticall when no Decree of the Pope himself shall hold them if they finde it not seasonable When there is no remedy they will yeeld to any thing but when they see their time they will doe any thing Bishop Andrews on Nov. 5. 1616. on â—sâ—y 37.3 I shall therefore close up this with a passage or two out of two Grave Authors one a great Bishop in a Sermon to King James Where speaking of the prodigious Doctrine of Bellarmine in reference to the Primitive Christians and our moderne Papists and of the reason the Cardinall gives why the Christians of old did not rise up against persecuting Emperors Id fuit quia deerant vires the Bishop makes this collection As much as to say if they now in these daies be so as they were carry themselves quietly it is quia non sunt vires and to hold no longer than Donec erunt and then you are like to heare of them to have them goe againe with such another birth You shall have them as mild as Gregory the First when they have no strength but as fierce as Gregory the Seventh when they have And afterwards thus See ye not next under God whereto to ascribe our safety Even to non erant vires there is a point hangs on that For while that lasts while ye keep them there yee shall have the Primitive Church of them have them lie as quiet as still as ever did the barrells in the vault till vires like fire come to them and then off goe they then nothing but depose Kings dispose of Kingdomes assoile Subjects arme them against their Soveraignes then doe they care not what But if the Powder take not fire thou shall you straight have Bookes tending to mitigation then all quiet againe Certainly thus standing it were best to hold them in defectu virium to provide ut ne sint to keepe them at non sunt vires till time they be better minded in this point and wee have good assurance of it For minded as they are they want no will no virus they tell us what the matter is strength they want they write it they print it and si adessent vires they would act it in earnest Thus Hee The other of my Authors having reckoned up a Catalogue of the damnable Doctrines of Popery Dr. Prideaux on Nov. 5 on Psal 9 19. Num. 8. professeth to have done it to make it appeare to those that would willingly be better perswaded of their Doctrine that the Doctrine it selfe directly warranteth Treason let the Traitors be what they will and that none can be an absolute Papist but if hee throughly understand himselfe and live under a Christian Prince 3 Remembrancer Popish Priests are bound by them Oath to inculcate those Principles of Treason that hath renounced the Popes Authoritie must needs being put unto it be an absolute Traitor And so I have done with my second Remembrancer Thirdly My Third is this that you would
holding on any Rebellious course when opportunitie serveth that they are ready to defend and justifie the vilest attempts that have mis-carried lest any of their faction should be discouraged by the terrible executions done upon Traitors who have perished in and for their Catholique Treasons Hence it is that so many great Pens have been imployed to justifie the Gun Powder Treason and so much honour conferred upon the Arch-Traitor Garnet after his execution and so much grace done at Rome to Tesmond and Gerrard that escaped the hand of Justice here As for Garnet Vbi supra even Widdrington complains to Pope Paul the fifth that to the great scandall of Religion His Holinesse had permitted Garnet to be put in the Catalogue of Martyrs his picture to be worn in Medals his image to be set upon the very Altars in Churches and his bones worshipped as holy Reliques c. and much ado made about a supposed stramineous Miracle of Garnets face found in a straw which Widdrington confutes and derides And well he might when Garnets own Confession at the Gallows proclaimed him to be far wide of a Martyr as before hath been shewed He likewise complaineth that Gerrard another bird of that Nest had been seen taking of Confessions publiquely in St. Peters Church in Rome under the Popes Nose and that Tesmond another of the Conspirators was made Publique Penitentiary at Rome and Confessor to the Pope himself and all this after this barbarous Treason was discovered and eccho'd over all the world Now what I say can the meaning of all this be but still by impudent bolstring up of such unnaturall Traytors to animate and encourage all Assasinates and bloody Conspirators to hold on in this Devillish Trade of Treason when so ever any good sons of his Holinesse shall be called upon to do him any further Service in the like kind Nor is it at all to be heeded that the Papists here do condemne it for openly they dare do no other for fear of their necks but that in secret they cannot abhorre it is manifest by this that the Pope hath given not onely countenance to it but laid the foundation of it by those Buls of Clement the eighth last mentioned They must not condemne that which their Infallible supreme Pastor hath pronounced not as a private fact but even ex Cathedra out of his judiciary Tribunall to be warrantable and necessarie namely to keep any man out of the Throne be his Title what it will till he take an Oath to advance their pretended Catholique Faith For thence Catesby as you have heard concluded a Warrant for that detestable Treason And from thence all Papists in the Kingdome who attribute any validitie to the Popes Buls may draw the like encouragement for any Conspiracie * So did Saunders make use of the Bull of Pivs 5. to justifie a Treason of Stanly and York in the Low Countries in delivering up of Daventry a strong Town pertaining to the Vnited States to the king of Spain because he kept it in the name of Q. Eliz. who had it now as a Cautionary town from the States and she as he pretended was deprived by the Pope of all Soveraigntie and Dominions and therefore Stanly did well and others might do the like with any of the rest and Rebellion in any time to come against any Successour of Queen Elizabeth that doth or shall renounce the Pope and Popery if the Conspirators finde themselves strong enough or subtle enough by stabbing poysoning blowing up or any thing to dis-throne their Soveraigne and to destroy all that take part with him and endeavour to support him And so I have done with my Remembrancers which I desired to leave with you And all that hath been hitherto spoken in the large prosecution of this second Vse is but to arme you with Resolution never to give way to any Toleration of Popery or trusting of Papists But this is not all for I must briefly adde A Third Vse to exhort you all not onely not to tolerate Popery or to trust the pertinacious imbracers of it 3. Vse but also to improve all your wisedome and power to destroy Popery and to reduce if possible those many thousands of poore seduced souls that having not known the depths of Satan are miserably hood-winkt by Antichrist to withstand the light and their own salvation For till then they will never be at an end of their Rage against us And whosoever withstands their Idolatrie if they have power they will be sure to ruine him because Popery like Pharaohs leane kine seeks to devoure all true Religion that doth oppose it and all that imbrace the the true Religion opposite unto it They may dissemble but can never put off their wrath and enmitie against those whom they behold as Heretikes and as men appointed to make fewell for hell as by their malicious Idolatrous Traiterous Priests and blinde Guides they are taught to judge of us It becomes not me to prescribe You the way how to proceed herein as You are a civill Body now trusted by the King and Kingdome with all we have but our souls and our God I know there be many excellent Lawes for this purpose alreadie made and oh that your Wisedoms could finde out a way to their effectuall execution But if any thing may be added for the taking away of their children and training them up at the parents cost if they have wherewithall in the nurture and fear of the Lord that so there may not still be new generations of Papists I presume it would be a Noble and Pious Service for which the souls of many thousands would for ever blesse you by whose means they should be delivered out of the power of that Aegyptian darknes and translated into the kingdome of Jesus Christ But for our selves as we are Christians let me exhort you still to look upon all wicked men as having great wrath and rage within them conceived against us and that we look upon our selves as not free from their malice and fury for the future how often soever they have attempted against us and been disappointed by God in all their wicked attempts And not onely so but that we carefully exercise our selves in these particulars 1. Be prudently vigilant over our enemies watching over them a Mat. 10.17 with all circumspection and prudence but no way diffident of our b Isa 7.4 9. God 2. Pray that either c Psal 7.9 the wickednesse of the wicked may come to an end or that God would d Psal 10.15 breake the arme of the wicked and the evill man and that he would e Psal 58.6 breake their teeth in their mouth And if this will not do then that he would destroy them and make them still to fall by their own counsels 3. But above all labour to make our peace with God and to walk humbly with him For if the wicked be still out with us have
all time to come And this being so I shall in the Vse observe my former method beginning with a Parallell of this Truth and these Times no truth being sweeter than that whereof we have largest taste and experience nor Vse more seasonable 1. Use of the last Point than that which comes most home to our present condition That great Deliverance we now celebrate was not as a dead bush to stop a present Gap onely 1. Behold the experience of this upon our selves nor a mercy expiring with that houre and occasion but intended for a living lasting breeding Mercie that hath been very fertile ever since It was an in-let to further favours and an earnest of many moe blessings for which I appeal to Your own Experience who have duely observed Gods dealing with you Many of You who have now the honour to sit Members of the High Court of Parliament were unborn when the Powder Treason should have been acted Yet you cannot say you were born out of due time for that very Deliverance hath since that set down many a rich mercie at all your doores This very Parliament speaks out this truth to all the world The very Calling of it and the sitting of it speaks it The many Conspiracies that have been detected the many Popish Designes that have been defeated the many snares that have been broken the many Mountains that have been levell'd the mighty Nimrods that have been pluckt down the unsupportable yokes of which our necks have been freed those whips of Scorpions the back-breaking heart-sinking Courts which are now broken and dissolved the devouring sword of war brandished in the heart of this Kingdome that is now put up those Rights and Liberties which had been led away captive past hope of rescue that are now restored that Religious necessarie noble Vow and Covenant for conservation of Religion and Protestation against Popery and Superstition into which both Houses have worthily entred that frequencie of Parliaments for preventing future inundations of miserie and bondage that is now happily setled this blessed opportunitie of sitting in Parliament at this time for the more effectuall and timely quelling of that unhappie Rebellion of some Papists in Ireland and the providing for the continuance of this present Assembly till all our grievances be heard and relieved till those that are complained of as instruments of our destruction be brought forth to triall 2. Use of the last Point till the Church be purged Reformation perfected and our Laws estates Liberties and Religion be all setled and secured These I say and many moe do all speak and proclaim the manifold wonderfull and invaluable mercies that have flowed in upon this unworthy and unthankfull Nation from that admirable defeat of the Gun-powder Treason Wherefore a Psal 107 2. let the redeemed of the Lord whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemie say that his mercie endureth for ever Yea let all that fear him say b Psal 68.19 Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with his benefits even the God of our salvation and let them put a Selah to it c Psal 102.18 for the generation to come that the people which are yet unborn may praise the Lord. Vse 2 2. But what terror and torment speaks this to all wicked men whether Papists or Atheists that speak Terror to the wicked and do so exceeding proudly from day to day as if all were theirs and that nothing could hinder the satisfying of their lust upon the Gospel What stone have they left unturned what plot unattempted And yet what Treason of the many which they have contrived hath taken effect Will they not see that in all their rage and conspiracies they do d Psal 2.1 imagine but a vain thing that they are sure of a hard bargain of it like that of a naked bodie e Act. 9. to kick against the pricks that it is a desperate service they daily go upon Have they not miscarried and gone by the worse all along and may they not out of their miscarriages past as out of an Experimentall Prognostication read their destiny for all time to come Do they not know that God hath engaged himself to his people that f Isa 54.17 no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper Even Hamans wife though a heathen could tell her husband enraged against Mordecai g Esth 6.13 If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him I know God sometimes in anger gives his people into the hands of their enemies to chastise and humble them But mark the issue the tail of the storme ever lights upon the rods of his anger For the Lord hath said it h Isa 10.25 Yet a little while and the indignation against the godly shall cease and mine anger in their destruction that is of those whom he imployed to correct them Yea which is a deeper cut to a malicious heart God doth at last usually bring his enemies to confusion even by those poore despised oppressed out-casts of Israel whom the wicked in their rage had resolved to devoure i Zach. 12.2.3 Behold saith the Lord I will make Ierusalem a cup of trembling or of poyson unto all people round about when they shall be in the siege both against Iudah and Ierusalem And in that day will I make Ierusalâ—m a burdensome stone for all people all that burden themselves with it that is labour to take it up and throw it out shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it O that wicked men would yet desist from their conspiracies against the godly before the Lords wrath be kindled and they perish for ever But if they will not be instructed I must leave with them that which the Lord denounced to the uncureable enemies of his Church heretofore k Isa 8.9 10 Gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces yea gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsell together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Vse 3 3. But O the fathomlesse consolation and steeling encouragement that this Truth administreth to all the godly Comfort to the godly but more especially to You who are now imployed by God and the King in the great service of the Kingdome Is it so that your souls be among Lions and that you lie among those that are set on fire to plot Treasons against You continually and boldly to breathe out bloody threatnings so that when you go forth in the morning you can scarce hope to return in the evening in peace Do but cast up your accounts and experiments of Gods former Mercies in protecting directing preserving and delivering of You hitherto and you need no other Prognostication to foretell what will befall you
Emperours that then ruled over them others opposing and all thwarting one another and thriving in nothing afterwards God did on the sudden turne the streame knit them together k Neh. 9. in a Covenant with God and thereby * Neh. 10.28 29. unitd them also one to another so as not onely a new face but a new state of things presently appeared and God was as good as his word not onely in taking pleasure in his house but in those that built it For so himselfe tells them * Hag. 2.19 From this day will I blesse you This is a memorable Instance and I would to God You would president your selves by it which till You doe I shall never exspect good of any of your Labours or Lawes already made for your selves Nor shall You satisfie the expectations of those that sent You hither and put so great a Trust into your hands Even men who at other times care no more than Gallio for matters of Religion now that they see all mens spirits to be up for Religion they also are in their wayes zealous to have somewhat done in it and for it as well as others I beseech You therefore in the Name of that Great God whom You serve and who hath hitherto blest You and for the peace and prosperitie of this Church and Kingdome to resume and pursue your first thoughts of setting up God and his Ordinances as becomes You in a Regular way which I have ever taken to be by calling to your assistance a free Synode of Grave Ministers of this Nation Not that I take upon me to prescribe any thing but humbly to offer it to consideration onely that so among the severall wayes and meanes propounded Your Wisedomes may select and prosecute what You shall finde to be the surest and most honorable way to cure the Ulcers of the Time that daily fester more and more That our Church and the Government thereof may be no longer laid waste and exposed to Confusion under the plausible pretence of not forcing mens Consciences To put all men into a course of Order and Vniformity in Gods way is not to force the Conscience but to set up God in his due place and to bring all his people into the paths of righteousnesse and life You see how God hath unexpectedly put you into further necessity of more supplies from the people for suppressing the Rebellion in Ireland and all that foment or countenance such a prodigious Conspiracie And you cannot be ignorant of the generall discontent at this that there is yet no more done for Religion by reforming what is amisse and by setling what should be so reformed Would you therefore once go roundly to work in this Great Enterprise and make the people to see and be assured of what I know you intend namely the further Reformation of the many things out of order in our Church and Discipline and the perfecting of that which hath so many yeers lain unpolished You might soon command the hearts and purses and lives of all good Christians in the publique service of the King and kingdome without regreet or gain-saying and be able to do more in a short time than otherwise you shall ever effect while you live Look upon David When this was once seriously and sincerely setled in his heart to build God an House God took it so kindly that though he resolved to reserve that Work for Solomon 2. Sam. 7. yet he sent a message to David that he would build him an house and establish both his house and kingdome upon him And not onely so but when so ever David had need of extraordinarie help God never failed to go out with him whither soever he went And it is very remarkable that most of the Great Victories which David atchieved fell to him after his resolution of building the Temple For the Text saith it expresly that l 2 Sam. 8.1 After these things David smote the Philistines and after that the Moabites then Hadadazer and then the Syrians and others none being able to stand before him And thus would it be with you when in zeal for God you follow his steps What ever the difficulties and discouragements be when Zorobabel fals close to work what mountain so great and high that shall not become a plain No plots no power of hell should prevail against you Do you carry on Gods work he will be sure to carrie on yours and make you the honour and strength of the King and Kingdome in all the Kings Noble designes for the good of his Subjects Those unnaturall Rebels that now rage so desperately should be but bread for you and all your enemies should be compelled to lick the dust of your feet I shall therefore close all with that of the same David to Solomon his sonne touching the building of the Temple m 1 Chro. 22.16 Arise and be doing and the Lord be with you FINIS Faults escaped in some Copies correct thus The first number shews the page the second the line PAge 1. li. 20. dele and. li. 29. r. 2 Chro. 14. 2. 2. dele the second and. 4. 9. r. not 6. 2. r. of clay 7. 15. r. a little li. 18. r. Chamath and in marg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17. 17. r. our Cities 20. 2. r. Cunning. 21. 14. r. for 24. in marg r. Hassenmuller 34. 23. dele the 36. 19. dele not 49. 1. r. within and li. 6. r. which makes pag. 53. 8. r. them 55. 20. r. Godly