work you could not have amended your choise rebus sic stantibus Heraldry did not miscarrie that hath this word for your Chief in his Coat of Honour Fare Fac Say Doe I might adde your Cromwel with many others and know not how to forget our deare Pickering who had as much worth in him as such a parcell of clay could well contain and never left his work till he was called to his account But I forbear Men The LORD hath preserved the faithfull and plenteously rewarded the proud doer And now it will be seasonable to improve what we have said These things are your Honour let not your Duty seem a burden O love the Lord ye his Saints and ye that feel mercy And so I passe in the last place to the first words of my text which will be the reverse or the other side of our present businesse As if the Lord should say Thus and thus I have done for you You have seen the glance of my eye you have seen the smiles of my face what could you desire more that I have not done for you You did but knock and it was opened you sought and found askt and had Go every stage of your latter pilgrimage and tell me if you may not set up a pillar and write upon it Thus far God hath helped us Are not the faithfull preserved and the proud doer rewarded have any of you lost your labour in trusting me and my providence have you not the fulfilling of many prophecies and might you not draw forth more had you more faith Is there any Nobleman here but hath been honorable by me or can he repent of his owning my truth 〈…〉 ath his faithfulnesse proved a burden to him Speak Parliament City Ministery have I not done well by You And me thinks I heare you ecchoing again Lord what would'st thou have from thy servants And I hope you stand as Samuel Lord speak thy servant beares or as Saul after Paul Lord what wouldest thou I should do Yea as he said Da quod jubes jube quid vis David lets you know Gods minde O love the Lord ye his Saints And truly it is one of the hardest skils in the world to use mercy well I remember the old spirit of the Jewes I wish we had never felt it In sad houres they would ever be making great promises and in prosperity they would soon make new gods Beloved I beseech you consider this short duty Love the Lord I will but use a few arguments and then open your duty in the duty and end all 1. I pray consider good Christians how the Lord hath loved you you could never hate him so much as he hath loved you He loved you enemies traitours He loved you unkind to him and cruell to your own soules nay so as he is willing to take the Devils leavingâ— when sin and satan had taken the use of your best strength and time yet he loves wooes and waits yea when you have been proud and scornfull when he had besieged and beleaguered you with love and were loth to hang out the white flag he offers propositions still O love the Lord 2. See if any God be like unto him of all the gods and can doe such wonders at he hath done You remember what Saul said to Davids men in his case If the son of Jesse can give you orchards and vineyards as I can do then follow him If all the Gods of the world can do for you what he hath done can pardon sinne by giving his Son can heale your soules and save them after all Follow them Joshua struck home in that last speech of his I have delivered the Ammonites Hitâ—ites c. into your hand I have sent a hornes before you which drave them out before you even the two Kings of the Ammoni 〈…〉 s c. I have given you a hand for which you did not lab 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Now therefore feare the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the Gods your fathers served on the other side the flood and serve ye the Lord And if it seem evill to serve the Lord then chuse whether you will serve the gods on the other side the flood or the Gods of the Ammonites but as for me and my house I will serve the Lord Apply it to your selves and give me leave again to say therefore O love the Lord ye that feel mercy 3. You may be assured without love neither what you are nor what you do shall please him nay this whole dayes work will prove but a mockage Love will carry all home to heaven and gain acceptance Heare what Christ sayes Thou hast ravished me my sister my spouse with one of thy eyes and that was the eye of love I have many times thought of that of the Apostle giving so much to love even putting all upon love Yea though I gave my body to be burnt and had not love c. yea preferring it in some cases to faith truly it is worth your noting the summe of all is Nothing will passe without Love it is your ticket to passe into Heaven by They cry Wepreacht in thy name But wher 's your Passe did you do it in love to me We cast out Divels but was it in love c. Ah my beloved and honoured in the Lord we have prayed wept fasted feasted fought counselled c. but were all these in love to the Lord Jesus I am bold to say to my learned brethren that they shall find it the distinguishing character in their soule-trade I have seen this yeare some of the Enemy before a Councel of war and some of our own Officers upon some offence I have known both pardoned but here lies the difference the enemy pardoned is gone his pardon was all he lookt for but the other mourning what will this pardon do me good if I should leave this Army from which I know not how to live cheerfully It matters not for my lands saies poor Mephibosheth but I shall live in Davids presence and see his face Love makes way to the bosome of Christ incontinently and layes the soule in a bed of roses It is in all the world like Benjamin to Joseph if you bring Benjamin come and welcome I else look upon you but as Spies If this day all your graces were met to make a glorious flame that might reach heaven you shall find Love must doe two things it must put beauty upon all and perfume all Therefore O love the Lord ye his Saints 4. Let this prevaile that mountains of gold and silver are not desired nor fat bullocks and rams but only an affection Love the Lord If he had desired some greater thing of you as Naamans servants said would you not have done it Indeed you cannot bestow it better nor is there any object you call good can so justly claim it bestow this where you will else you shall find the
for their and your patience towards my selfe in hearing what I now present for which I humbly crave favour of them and you for some inlargements being then pent into much narrownesse in regard of the time and the rather because I strove to sute your expressions of respect and love to them who deserve so much from your selves and the Christian World How I have been represented unto you and others by printings or otherwise shall not fill up this paper I must reserve to some other way which shortly I shall doe God willing but in the mean time and ever doe professe my constant respect to and esteem of this Citie from your first compliance to the great Counsel of this Kingdome that I have left remembrances of you in forren parts and without flattery do think this City one of the best peeces of ground in the World I am sorry I caus'd any unexpected smiles in my zeal for your further conjunction with the Head and Heart of this Nation If I commended you as a good portion he did not well that thought it ridiculous nor do I think you too good a portion for those I wooed you unto You know me and your wisdoms know how to make allowance to my zeal They have a strong appetite to quarrel that are offended at expedients presented against future quarrelling My sighs to God for you are these That you may still move with faithfulnesse in your own Orbe That you remember you and yours live in a Parliament That you are made wealthy for others not your selves alone That you would not make Opinions your Interest which are changeable but Godlinesse and Faithfulnesse That you would rather punish known sins shew mercy to the poor a known duty maintain Civil peace look to your City-priviledges rather then lose your selves in doubtful questions I must remember you that I have heard many of you wish for such a Parliament and such an Army Own your own desires and be assured your constant concurrence with our great Counsel will not onely be your present safety but strength to posterity Beleeve it a now suspected party in the Kingdom have no further designe then your and the Liberty of the Nation from Bondage who deserve your love not your displeasure The God of all grace be with your spirits and help you to love him who hath kept you in the midst of your relations and comforts whilest so many thousands have fallen on the one hand and the other of you May your souls prosper under the abundance of rich means you enjoy May your examples for wisdom piety faithfulnesse love to the Lord Jesus and his Saints provoke the next Generation to glorious things These are the desires and heartie breathings of My Lord and Gentlemen Yours in any service for Christ Hu. PETER To my truly Honorable and Faithful General Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX SIR ONe of the greatest comforts I have bad in this world next to the grace of God in Christ to my poor soul hath been to be a Member of your Army and a Spectator of his presence with you and it What others doe I know not but it is my duty to return to my work and to meet you again which I am bold to doe with this simple present I know your minde who must not will not be flatter'd nor am I skilful in that mystery I have seen you upon Earth and doubt not but to meet you triumphing in Heaven I onely must crave leave to speak your own words That your great experiences of Gods power and mercy have made strong obligation upon you to love him and the Saints which I have seen you doe impartially you have made it your interest and now finde you are not deceived The God of all your unparallel'd mercy dwell in that thriving soul of yours strengthen you throughout to the compleating of this great Work yea Serus in coelum redeas diuque Laetus intersis populo Britanno For my self if it be worth your acceptance I am resolved to live and die in your and the Kingdoms service and as you have obliged three Kingdomes to you and many thousands of Saints so none of them more to honour you then SIR Your ever faithful servant in Christ HUGH PETERS A Sermon preached before the Honourable Houses of PARLIAMENT the LORD MAIOR and ALDERMEN of the City of London and the Assembly for the glorious Successe it pleased God to give our Army in dissolving 5000 of the Kings Horse and reducing Cornwal and neer all the West PSAL. 31. 23. Love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer THe little time left for this Work must be improved to the best advantage and therefore though we must be beholden to the Neighbourhood of the words before and after the Text yet we shall forbear to speak any thing at all of the whole Book of Psalms and no more then neds of this It is easily agreed that this Psalm is 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1. His Prayer you have to the twentieth Verse and therein 1. His desires for his own safety to the 18. 2. His request tending to the ruine of his enemies in the two following Verses 2. His Praises in the 21 and 22 Verses which are 1. Either {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for all 2. Or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for himself in special 3. A hortatory Conclusion in the two last Versea O love the Lord all yee his Saints c. In the Text briefly thâ—se two things fall under consideration 1. The Duty Love the Lord and that set out divers wayes By intensivenesse in the Exclamation By the Object and by the universality of those engaged c. But time checks me these with others I can hardly name 2. The Arguments carrying on the Duty 1. Because be preserveth the faithful 2. Because be plenteously rewardeth the proud doer Thus much onely of the Logick of the Text something of the Grammar of it and then shortly to the Divinity and those profitable and seasonable Truths it will afford Some few words are to be attended in the clearing the sense Saints here in the text is or may be read Ye that feel mercies Faithful the word is sometimes taken for persons sometimes things and so the Lord is said to preserve True men and Truths Faithfull men and Faithfulnesses He plenteously rewardeth the proud doer or the Lord rewardeth plenteously The Lord who doth wonderful things Plenteously is either in cumulum abundè or in nepotes as some would have it But I would rather commend then goe about to amend Translations though I could wish some of my learned Brethrens quarrelling hours were rather spent upon clearing the Originals and so conveying 〈◊〉 pure Scripture to posterity then in scratching others with their sharpned
object mortall short-breathed and short-lived alas what waking dreames are honour beauty friends c Nay you shall find it non-satisfactory all the excellencies under the sun leave the soule to complaints of vanity and vexing and lastly you shall find it but partially not universally good Why will you lay out your money for that which is not bread all these things will but prove gravel under your teeth When David had reckoned mercies not a few he sayes upon the totall I will love thee dearly O Lord my strength I beseech you bethink your selves this day what lesse can you do then kisse the hand that hath preserved you Love climbes after more union with the object would you not be neerer to him who hath made such approaches and addresses to you that who so beholds not with wonder and joy is either stupid or envious Therefore O love the Lord yee his Saints 5. Love is an obliging affection and drawes forth much of God continually to the creature when the Lord by his servant Moses charged that people to love the Lord their God with all their heart and all their might he will fill up all the rest with heaps of promises of what he would doe for them enemies of all sorts should be subdued mercies of all kinds should be brought in deliverances preservations protections illuminations and what not Hosea seemes to delight to particularize the joyncture Gods people shall have in this case And it shall come to passe that I will heare saith the Lord I will heare the heavens and they shall beare the earth and the earth shall heare the corn and the wine and the oyle and they shall beare Jezreel and I will sow her unto me on the earth and I will have mercy on them that had not obtained mercy and I will say unto them which were not my people Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God And if that bee too little I will be as the dew unto Israel hee shall grow as the Lilly and cast forth his root as Lebanon his branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon they that dwell under his shadow shall return c. Nothing can greaten a Nation as this nothing can maintaine what you have gotten but this and you will find Non minor est virtus quam querere parta tueri Therefore O love the Lord ye that feel mercy 6. You shall find that this is a strong and powerfull I was about to say omnipotent affection Much water cannot quench love it is strong as the grave If Paul would give an account of some undertakings he will tell you love carries constraint with it it lessens difficulties answers hard questions removes impediments over-powers feares cares doubts dangers makes wash-way of all Upon this the Apostle throwes the gantlet of famine want persecution principalities powers above beneath nay it will wait and serve in heats and colds as Jacob for Rachel I must professe Excellent Senators I know not how you will continue your wearying toyling incessant travels but by this cordiall it is this onely can oyle your wheeles and cheere your hearts pay you your wages after all expences of time estates spirits If a stranger should look upon your travels the bread of carefulnesse you eat your early risings long sittings late goings to bed can you give account of any thing but That you love Truly I know nothing so heavie but love can lift nothing so high but it can reach nothing so deep but it can fathom Love to this Cause I would rather say to this God hath quieted your Army often drawn out the deepest bloud of many emptied the purses of the rich drawn forth the teares of the poor and their sighes to heaven when they could doe no more Union with God the end of this love is the issue of all our labours Therefore O love the Lord yee that feel mercy But you may ask wherein it consists or how would I desire this affection should be manifested I answer 1. There is a love in imitation and indeed those we love most we make our copies to write after Then he pleased to mind the Text again He preserveth the faithful and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer there is your pattern imitation calls upon you to preserve the faithful to reward the proud doer And these two look like the main interests of this State the former a revereÌ„d brother under that name hath commended unto you worthily I am bold to adde the latter to it For if you hear Polititians abroad what they say even Roan to Richlien they tell us of this double interest which some think expired with Queen 〈◊〉 viz. that Wee should have continued the patrons of the Protestant cause as the King of Spain of the Catholique and so have preserved the faithfull which Germany and Rochel would have thanked us for And secondly We should have rewarded the proud i. e. kept our war at a distance even where shee left us ingaged and by this time it may be we might have dried up Eâ—â—phraâ—es I mean possest the whole West-Indies which with little time and help from these parts may bâ— accomplished The words that follow in that Treatise are That England is a great Animal and cannot be destroyed but by it selfe which injury we are still as likely to put upon our selves as any people in the world One Chapter in Amos hath bred me some sad thoughts of heart where he 〈◊〉 you of two Visions the one of G 〈…〉 ppers that devoured every greene thing which made the Prophet cry out By whom shall Jacob arise for he is small and those Caterpillers were swept away The other Vision was a contention by fire for which he useth the same prayer By whom shall Jacob arise for he is small It seems contentions yea fiery contentions may lay a State as low as Caterpillers the Lord sprinkle the bloud of his Son upon this fire and quench it 〈◊〉 Doubtlesse much love of imitation will be shewed to God in recovering these two Interests abroad and if I might not be thought a designer I wish it at home Why should not the faithfull be preserved For the love of God doe it I speake not for my selfe for with Simeon I could even desire to depart in peace now mine eyes have seen so much of the Salvation of God Nor do I bring any Petition from your Army they never have nor ever will be burden some to you by Petitions but since you have trusted them with your own lives and estates they are contented willingly to trust you again with their libertiâ—â— It brings to minde that issue of a Combate whereof Livie is the reporter when the three H 〈…〉 i and the three 〈◊〉 had by the sword decided the quarrell betwixt the 〈◊〉 and their enemies and only one Hâ—â—arius survived 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ning met his sister the wise of one
house of God if he might speed well in his journey What if you Noble Lords should write upon your door The Lord will honour them that honour him If you Worthies of the other house upon your door Salus populi suprema lex And you the Governours of this Citie Jerusalem is a Citie compact c. Your union amongst your selves will turn much to Gods praise And I wish this were written upon the doores of the Assembly If any man list to be contentions we have no such custome among us nor the Churches of Christ I leave these but as intimations or suggestions to your wisdomes lest the day and work we are about do evaporate and come to nothing I wish your children and so ages to come may be taught his praises since you so abound in matter I pray convey it to after ages that they may love the God of their Fathers Tell your little ones this night the story of 45. the towns taken the fields fought tell them of neer 30000 prisoners taken this last year 500 pieces of Ordnance tell them of the little losse on our side be sure to let them know it was for the liberty of the English subjects you fought charge them to preserve the liberties that cost you so dear but especially the liberties purchased by the blood of Christ and above all let them know that the God of heaven is the God of England and hath done all but his name and his Sons name who can tell us I wish we knew God better that we might love him more Oh love the Lord in his praises and praise him for his love In amore divino hic solus inest moduâ— ut siâ— siâ—e modo I dare not adde more time is so exceedingly exceeded You are I understand by the City invited to a feast which I confesse is one piece of this solemnity But what feast shall we call it Shall it be a feast of Tabernacles truly we might have lived in Tents and Booths or by some hedges sides all our dayes had Tyranny and Popery gained the travell of their souls and desire of their hearts you might have been sitting by some rocks sides in the Wildernesse looking sadly back upon poor England or by the river Ahava in the Captivity with Ezra If you like not to call it a feast of Tabernacles will you let it goe under the name of a Marriage-feast it seems to look like that I remember the Espousals of the Parliament and this Citie when yee wore your Protestations upon your Pikes resolving to live and die with the Parliament I hope you will be as good as your words you are upon the close of your work and now you have many causes of further union who have mourned together and now are rejoycing together upon unparallel'd grounds Call it then a feast of love my Text calls for nothing but love and I wish that may be the issue and product of the work and truly for that end I would willingly come from the place where I stand to beg it upon the bare knee and when I speak of love betwixt Parliament and City I do not exclude my Reverend Brethren onely I am afraid of a third State because we have paid already very dear for Clergicall interests And now I think of this further union betwixt you I remember when the Lord closeth with his people in Hosea He will take away the names of Loammi and Lorumah There are two names in this Kingdom I wish they were taken away also or whatever might hinder your nearnesse You worthies of the City look well upon the Parliament and tell me if they be not lovely how could you have been preserved from Anarchy without them where would you have centered had this Basis of the Kingdome been destroyed If the foundations be pluckt up what shall the righteous doe The best now in England could not have lived without a Parliament and the worst but a little time I must professe an Anti-Parliamentary spirit especially in this conjuncture to be the designer of his own ruine and posterity to be the introducer of certain misery to the present age I look upon it as the fruits of much malice or much ignorance and the brat of those mens brains that never lived beyond the view of the smoke of their own Chimnies that measure States and Kingdomes with their interests by their private shop-wands and if they be prest or priested into it by any of my coat which is Satans old method it will argue the more feeblenesse and prove more dangerous Remember friends to beat Religion with Religion is a subtlety as old as Jesuitisme and older Remember the dead and the living You have had their Hambdens Pims Stroudes who if now living would have called this day the Suburbs of their happinesse and you had the blood of some Nobles too that Zealous Brooke and others and these are here this day to joy with you that have mourned with you who have been your watch day and night You know how vain it will be to war abroad nisi sit consilium domi you are now reaping the most glorious fruits of their labours and paines if you have any thing justly to object against them all you can say is they are men yet such men as may not be called to a slight account for their actions but in many cases the wayes of State may run so deep that we can help onely with this Levius fit patientia Quicquid corrigere est nefas To be weary of a Parliament now were to conquer our selves into a new slavery it were to proclaim to the world we are mercy-sick victory-sick and liberty-fick the Lord prevent that portentous mischiefe Yet Goa is good to Israel Let me hope he will not be worse then he hath been Nobles and Gentlemen look upon the Citie these are they that strengthened you with the finews of your war you have not come unto them for any thing and returned empty You may remember the 100000. li the 50000. li the greater the lesser fu 〈…〉 nes for England Scotland and Ireland and I may not forget that 80000. li that oyled the wheeles of this last Army in their first going out The Lord of Hosts requite it to them that offered so willingly I adde you have not only had these helps but their servants yea their children out of their bosomes who now are found the Officers generally in this Army But I might call in much of this again and say the Parliament have had their labour for thâ—mselves and the Citie for themselves and one for the other and all for the Lord and this and other Nations Only I call for love this day I would desire strength in your union The Spirit says two are better then one and gives reasons from cold or fals but addes a threefold cord is not easily broken of which I conceive thus If two be well agreed Jesus Christ will make a third and then