them what the true meaning of them is more then any other Man Who perhaps hath better eyes and a quicker Judgment then they They must think well that we are not Fools altogether and that they must produce better Principles of their Art then they have yet done before they can convince learned Searching men of the Truth of their bold Assertions What shall we think of that great and wonderfull Change and Revolution of State after Twenty years Destruction in which time hapned that most horrid Parricide of King Charles the First that ever hapned in the World by the Restauration of Charles the Second in peace and honour Was this so much as dream'd of by all the privy Counsellors to the Stars Is not this enough to prove the Divines mad that could perceive nothing at all in all the Heavenly Indications of this great matter And how many more Instances might be given to the same purposes of secrets kept in the brest of God that neither Angels nor Devils nor Stars not Meteors had the least knowledge of them beforehand Who then should we look unto but to God in these and all other causes SECT VI. The Spanish Armada Christn'd Invincible was broke in pieces notwithstanding all the Popes blessings Consecrated Swords Banners Daggers Pistols Agnus Dei's Cruzado's are meer Toys and Trifles They fly to their Saints and Angels as Heathens did to their Idol God's but we seek to the true God They come unto us with Sword and Spear but we come unto them in the Name of the Lord and he will save us for his great Name sake They trust as the Jews did in an Arm of Flesh but we trust in God alone God is our present help in time of trouble God is the hope of all the ends of the Earth and of them that remain in the broad Sea others pur their trust in Horses and in Chariots but we in the Name of the Lord our God The Lord's Arm is not shortned that he cannot save neither is his strength abated We live by Faith and not by sense We live above the World looking from all help and comfort in God Put not your trust in Princes nor in any Child of Man for they are utterly deceitful We have been delivered from many extremities but this is the most Universal that ever came upon this Church and Kingdom If the Lord had not been on our side may Israel now say if the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us they had utterly swallowed us up before now they were so wrathfully displeased at us Never more numerous powerful and implacable Enemies then now In perils at home in perils abroad in perils by Land in perils by Water in peril amongst false Brethren We can never trust them that profess never to keep faith with us but continually ly in wait to deceive by Mental Reservations and AEquivocations of all sorts that the wit of Man can invent O let us fall into the hands of God for with him there is mercy but not into the hands of men that know no mercy but their very tender mercies are cruel O Lord put a Hook into the noses and a Bridle into the lips of such men and curb their barbarous and monstrous malice that it may enlarge it self no further Discover the depths of Satan and bring to light the hidden works of darkness that are contrived secretly in the bosom of Hell it self against thy holy Child Jesus and against the Annointed of the Lord and this Church and Kingdom that they may come forth into the light of the open Sun who is ready to hide his face from seeing them We are as the Apple of God's Eye and as the Bracelets upon his Right Arm. Tender and dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints Touch not mine Annointed and do my Prophets no harm If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have accepted of our Sacrifices neither would he have discovered unto us all these Mysteries of Iniquities nor as at this time have told us such secret Plots of Murders and Assasinations as these are Still we cry out Lord save us or else we perish And still our ship lives and bears up against those roaring Surges and stands off from these fearful Rocks and Quick-sands that wait for her Witches Comets Polices Lyes of all sorts even unto death shall not plague us into dispair God hath raised up the Spirits of the best of the Nation as one Man to stand up and defend the Truth with might and main This is the Gift of God and its marvelous in our Eyes and we have cause to thank God for it A Gospel Faith a Gospel Love is a security above all Let the Earth be removed if it will and the Mountains fall into the midst of the Sea Tho the Plowers plow upon our backs and make long furrows tho we put our mouths into the very dust tho we are gon down to bottoms of Mountains into the belly of Hell and the Earth with her bates about us for ever and the Weeds of dispair are wrapped about our heads yet will wee look once more to the Holy Temple of the Lord. We will believe above hope and contrary unto hope and the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail against us For we know on whom we do believe and he will never fail us Did any that trusted in him ever fail Tho he hide his face 't is but for a time tho he be angry he will not keep it in everlasting displeasure he will come he will not tarry with healing in his wings We shall one day say doubtless there is a God that Judgeth the Earth Stand still and see the salvation of God Let the Nations of the Earth gather themselves together they shall be broken in pieces No Weapon formed against God shall ever prosper It is in vain to fight against God it is in vain to kick against the Pricks O tarry the Lords leasure his time is the best time Stay and see what the Lord will do with us and what he will do for us When the Lord in the year 1660 brought again our Captivity out of Babylon then were we like unto them that dream We should utterly have fainted unless we had believed verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living the living the shall praise thee as we do this day O let us live and we shall praise thee O tast and see how good the Lord is all ye that put your trust in him He will never leave us nor forsake us SECT VII 1. We know by woful experience that our unthankfulness and unfruitfulness for former mercies have brought these new extremities upon us We are at a loss as to humane Policy and strength What will all our Rebellion profit us It will be bitterness in the latter end And what shall we do in the end thereof
same Sufferings or whither we be comforted it is for the same Consolation and Salvation And our Hope is stedfast knowing that as we are partakers of the Sufferings so shall we be also of the Consolation For we were pressed out of measure above strength so that we despaired even of Life But we had the sentence of Death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the Dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us You also helping together by Prayer for us that for the Gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf For our reioycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to youward We have access by faith into this grace wherein to we stand and rejoyce in the Hope of the Glory of God And not only so but we glory in Tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us We count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations knowing this that the trying of our Faith worketh patience But let patience have her perfect work that we may be perfect and entire wanting nothing SECT X Thus when we have tried all we shall find God is all in all When the Iniquities of our heels compass us round about and take fast hold upon us we do but weary our selves in very vanity and labour in the very Fire In the mean while when all our bones are out of joynt and we lye upon the Rack of Extremity the World stares upon us and mocks us and with the Flesh and the Devil leaves us in the lurch and therefore we have no reason to trust them Still we retain our Inteprity till we dye not curse God nor speak unadvisedly with our Lips nor charge God foolishly Though he kill us yet will we put our trust in him We are content to receive Evil at the hands of God as well as Good When all Helps fail God will never fail us nor forsake us When my Father and my Mother forsook me the Lord took me up Can a Woman forget her Child Yes she may yet will not I forget thee The Plague walketh in darkness and the Pestilence destroyeth at noon day yet shall it not come nigh thee The Lord shall cover thy Head in the day of Battel This is marvellous in our eyes The Lord giveth sight to the Blind and openeth the Prison-Doors to them that are fast bound in Misery and Iron even when the Iron enters into their Souls He giveth Food to the Hungry He plucketh our Foot out of the Snare the Snare is broken and we are delivered He quencheth all the fiery Darts of the Devil and bruiseth Satan under every one of our Feet and through Christ we shall be more than Conquerors God works Miracles when he pleases He bringeth Souls out of Temptation and together with the Temptation giveth strength to bear it and opens a Door of Hope that we may escape in due time Our Extremity is an opportunity for him to shew Mercy Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thy Holy Ones to see everlasting Corruption The patient abiding of the Meek shall not perish for ever We do not know what the Lord will do with us nor what he will do for us but this we know that the Lord will lay no more upon us than what he will enable us for to bear and that his Grace shall be sufficient for us and that he remembers that we are but dust and therefore he will not always be chiding lest the Spirits of men fail before him and the Souls dye and perish which he hath created and in his Wrath he remembers Mercy and all things shall work together in the end for Gods Glory and for our good and this light Affliction which is but for a moment shall work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory He is a Father to the Fatherless and a Husband to the Widow he careth for the stranger and him that hath none to help him Man liveth not by Bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the Mouth of God doth man live No Sparrow shall fall to the ground without his Providence and we cannot make one Hair black or white And now tell me should you trust in God or Man Why should we fear always O we of little Faith Methinks I see an Earned of Gods Favour So many given us The Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof of whom the rest of the World is not worthy These stand in the Gap and our dead bones shall live 'T is time to Unite A man would have thought that the Presbyterians of all men would long ere now have come in unto us to the help of the Lord against the Mighty and Malicious Enemies that press so sore upon us to change our Religion Presbyterians and bring in Superstition and Idolatry and a change of Government both of Church and State A man would think in this Juncture of Time they should have sought to save themselves and us from common Destruction now or never yet still they will not look upon us but we will look upon God and he will save us without them Nor will we cry after them Curse ye Meroz c. Why should they stand so long upon a pitiful Surpliss or Cross or Ring c. What care we for these and such things as these no more than in Reverence to the Supream Power which hath commanded them and when the same Power pleases may countermand them for Order and Peace sake as they did before and we hold it our Duty to stand ready to perform Obedience to all Decency and Order Let them know that we are ready to part with them and with greater things than those upon Command if any thing would do and give them satisfaction if we might be assured of a Reconciliation at the last O when will it once be Will they play the same Game over again The Cheat is too much discovered for to do it in the same Age I hope not God forbid They say they hate Popery and so do we and that with as perfect a hatred as they can possibly do and perhaps much more And yet they teach their poor ignorant People to say our Divine Service is Popish and we are Popishly affected and fly from our Devotion as from the Mass or from the Alcoran or the Plague its self The Papists hate our Common Prayer most of all How then can it be Popish Father forgâ—ve them for some know not what they say
this World Why Because I know and feel That 1. God is mine by his own Act and Deed not only of Creation as he is to all but of Redemption as he would be to all if they would take it and is to all that do embrace it to whom he therefore giveth power that they should be called the Sons of God And then God's Work is done 2. I am God's by my own Act and Deed not only by owning my self to be the Work of his Hands but covenanting with him to do and suffer his Will in and upon me and to trust to him that he will be my exceeding great Reward And so I may call God Father And then my work is done While a Soul is abstracted with mutual Enjoyments Studies and Raptures with God no worldly Grievances can affect such sublime Spirits as they do those that grovel upon the ground in the concerns chiefly of the Flesh and of the World 'T was said of Archimedes that his Mind being intent upon Demonstrations when the City was besieged and the Enemy broke in upon him he perceived not the Danger of his Death till it seized upon his Contemplations Death it self is not fear'd nor felt so much in the Flesh to a man that is mortified to the Flesh before-hand from the Corruptions and Lusts thereof waiting all the days of our appointed time till his change do come looking for after this earthly house of his Tabernacle is dissolved to have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens but groaning earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with his house which is from Heaven that being clothed he shall not be found naked not for that he would be unclothed but clothed upon so that mortality might be swallowed up of life desiring not in the Flesh but in the Spirit to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Other thoughts and cares are eating fretting and consuming but these are healing comforting and reviving caring for God how we may please him that cares for us By these the Soul is upheld from sinking into despair when the Flesh the World and the Devil are alltogether about our ears Thus we bear up against the Waves because our Stern is good or Keel is sound and our Pilot steers a right Course Do not therefore break my heart with worldly fears I have a mind to hope as well as fear I have crowded my Head already among the Stars I may be vex'd in my Body but that also being ioyn'd to the Head will follow after it by degrees and Christ which is my Head will draw my whole Body Soul and Spirit after him with whom I am already in Faith in Heavenly places My Tribulation worketh in me patience and patience experience and experience hope and I shall never be ashamed So I encourage all Sufferers Durate rebus vosmet servate secundis Dabit Deus his quoque finem Virg. Upbraid me not but pity me for I am resolved and therefore tempt me no more it is enough that I suffer I murmure not let me alone Oro miserere laborum tantorum miserere animi non digna ferentis They that sow in tears shall reap in joy and bring their Sheaves with them after a few days I shall find the comfort of it An humble Soul aims high God and my Right but all in Christ God be merciful to me a Sinner for his free Grace in Christ Jesus only Amen If in this Life only we have hope we are of all men the most miserable It is so short and miserable that in our Extremities we look one upon another and know not what to do What shall we do in Death That puts an end to all worldly Extremities eases the poor Captive in the Dungeon from his Bonds and the oppressed from all Tyranny and is too often wished for in the error of our Life but is a beginning of endless Extremities to them that have no hope We that could not tell what to do in Life what shall we do in Death When the naked Soul sits trembling upon the pale lip to be plunged into the bottomless Abyss of Eternity But if in this Life our hope be full of a Glorious and Blessed Immortality we know what to do there is hope in Death When the Body goes to the Dust the Soul returns to God that gave it to the God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob who is not the God of the Dead but of the Living for they are all alive in the Spirit with God and shall live with him in the Body when the times of Refreshment shall come from the Lord. My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy Soul for Temptation set thy Heart aright and constantly endure and make not hast in time of trouble Cleave unto him and depart not away that thou mayst be encreased in thy last end Whatsoever is brought unto thee take chearfully and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate For Gold is tried in the Fire and acceptable men in the Furnace of Adversity Believe in him and he will help thee order thy way aright and trust in him Ye that fear the Lord wait for his Mercy and go not aside lest ye fall Ye that fear the Lord believe him and your reward shall not fail Ye that fear the Lord hope for good and for everlasting Joy and Mercy Look at the Generations of old and see Did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded Or did any abide in his Fear and was forsaken Or whom did he ever despise that called upon him For the Lord is full of Compassion and Mercy long suffering and very pitisul and forgiveth sins and saveth in time of Affliction Wo be to fearful hearts and faint hands and the Sinner that goeth two ways Wo to him that is faint-hearted for he believeth not therefore shall he not be deseded Wo unto you that have lost patience and what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you They that fear the Lord will not disobey his Word and they that love him will keep his ways They that fear the Lord will seek that which is well-pleasing unto him and they that love him shall be filled with the Law They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts and humble their Souls in his Sight saying we will fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of Men for as his Majesty is so is his Mercy Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of Comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God For as the Sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation also aboundeth by Christ and whither we be afflicted it is for our Consolation and Salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the
than it should do Rejoyce not against me O my Enemy for though I fall yet shall I rise again The Bush burneth but is not consumed The Lord knoweth how to uphold and comfort and deliver No body knows the Comforts and the mighty Assistances that flow from the Divine Spirit upon the Spirits of afflicted Servants and Children of God making ample satisfaction for all the Sufferings of this life superadding the Assurance of everlasting Salvation into which through many Afflictions we must enter The Righteous suffer justly from God but wrongfully from the Sons of Men they have deserved it from God but not from Men. They are basely betrayed and abused even for Well-doing Christ was numbred among this Transgressors but he was innocent and had done nothing amiss The two Thieves had their deserts He was betrayed with a Kiss of his Servant that did what he listed with the Purse and eat of his Masters Bread and dipt his Morsel in his Dish Joab took Abner aside to speak with him quietly he thinking no harm and smote him under the fifth Rib that he died not as a Fool died bound hand and feet that he could not help himself but unawares as a man falleth before a Treacherous Enemy Such usage the best of Men find of whom the World is not worthy Let us oppress say they the poor Righteous man and not spare the Widow nor reverence the ancient Gray-hairs Let our strength be the Law of our Justice for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth Let us lay wait for the Righteous because he is not for our turn and he is clean contrary to our doings he was made to reprove our thoughts He is grievous unto us even to behold for his life is not like other men his ways are of another fashion If the Just man be the Son of God he will help him and deliver him out of the hand of his Enemies Let us examine him with despitefulness and torment that we may know his Meekness and prove his Patience But the Souls of the Righteous are still in the hand of God whatever becomes of their Bodies and there shall no torment touch them Though they be punished in the sight of God yet their hope is full of a glorious and blessed Immortality And having been a little chastised they shall be greatly rewarded for God proved them and found them worthy for himself They that put their trust in the Lord shall understand the Truth and such as be faithful in Love shall abide with him for Grace and Mercy is to his Saints and he taketh care for his Elect. These are the Sufferings and this is the perfecting of the Patience and Faith of the Saints even unto the death of the Body and after death the Patience of their Souls continueth waiting and crying from under the Altar Lord how long how long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth While they lived the eyes of their Faith were upon God an Evidence of their deliverance not seen and the Substance thereof hoped for If they fail in the Flesh they never fail in the Spirit if they fail in the false Honours and Riches they never fail in the true Honours and Riches For them to live is Christ and to die is gain and whether they live or die they are the Lords Whatever their Beginning be their End is Peace A bed of Thorns is to them a bed of Roses The Wicked kiss a painted Jezabel ravish a Cloud tantalize Chimera's desperate trying all their Wits using all means but the true which is Repentance from dead works to serve the living God instead of which they die in their sins cursing God and blaspheming cursing the Stars and the Fates and what not so they go to their place Such shame have all God's Enemies and such honour have all his Saints SECTION III. I might here make a Metaphysical Discourse of Spiritual Desertions and Streights that they say Spiritual Desertions God puts his People into and leaves them in for a time and times hiding his face and again looking upon them casting them down and lifting them up Like Parents leaving their Children to cry and want and then satisfying their wants I am not certain that these are the usual waies and methods of God's dealing with Souls God's waies are in the Deep and his paths are in the great Waters and his footsteps are not known I find it was the way of God's proceeding under the Old Testament in Legal dispensations of Judgments and Mercies but I do not find it is so now I find the Spirit is called the Spirit of comfort and when in seems to depart fear not for it is not departed as to the comforts of the Body much more of the Soul And that God delighteth not in grieving the Sons of Men nor doth he fright-Mortals into Regeneration for though there be fear in the Flesh which is weak yet there is joy in the Spirit which is willing all along under various Dispensations and Measures creating hope above hope and contrary unto Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul The Messenger of Satan hath been miraculously sent to buffet some great Saints in the Body here to try their Faith that the Soul might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus St. Paul was in a great strait but it was of Love between two that is betwixt his own and his Disciples happiness whether it were best for him to live or die he had a desire to both but did not well know which to choose though the one were better for him than the other To depart and to be with Christ was far better for him but to stay among his Disciples was better for thein A great contest and striving of Love as in another place he saith He could wish himself accursed for his Brethren his Companions sake the Jews rather than they should be cast away The like Spirit we find in Moses in a Rapture of Love wishing to be blotted out of the Book of Life rather than the People should perish David was brought into a great strait which to choose for one he must of the three Judgments of Pestilence Famine or the Sword but he chose the last and least because it was better to fall into the hands of God than of men for with God there was mercy but with men there was none Job complained in the errour of his life cursing the day of his birth and wishing for death Elijah in distress prayed that he might die Jonah was angry even unto death for a small matter of the shadow of a Gourd and because his Prophecy came not to pass Thus for want of Faith in Extremities of Sufferings many fools in all hast would go down to the Grave to secure themselves there and many of them died indeed by their own hands in a mad mood and wished themselves alive again when it
was too late But none of these was Jehoshaphats case nor will the letter of the Text bear it nor the Spiritual sense Nor is this the true Case of a Christian nor will I hook it into the Text by violent wresting thereof Sin may bring into Temporal streights and does but Grace and Love casteth out these legal fears The Spirit of Adoption speaks Liberty and the Blood of Christ speaks better things than the Blood of Abel and the Gospel than the Law God bids us to speak comfortably to his People And Christ saith Let not your hearts be troubled and leaves his Peace ever with his Church I will not therefore fright poor tender Consciences into despair I understand better things Listen not therefore to the sad complaints and outcries of the Flesh in passions and furies against all reason but give ear to the sweet melody of the Spirit in Religious fellowship with God above all carnal grievances whatsoever Say not only in the flesh We know not what to do for if you look no further you will not know what to do indeed But say in the Spirit Our eyes are upon God and then you will know what to do indeed for the Spirit will teach you what you should do and lead you into all Truth and Peace with joy unspeakable and full of glory In and in order to the work of Regeneration Men cry out to their Companions Men and Brethren what shall we do as being pricked in their hearts and being willing to do any things for God's glory and their own good desire to know what they should do that they might be saved and to God Lord what wouldst thou have me to do And the Answer is ready from God Repent and be baptized and wait till the times of refreshment shall come from the Lord. Forget those things that are behind and look to those things that are before pressing on to the mark and to the Price of the high Calling which is laid up for us in Christ Jesus There was a time of Legal fears it is now the time of the Gospel we are not to fear after that fashion but are bidden to rejoyce alway in the Lord and again to rejoyce to mortifie all Earthly fears and joys and to exult because our Names are written in the Book of life The Jews had Faith only for Temporal Deliverances but Christians have Faith for both We have not that Spirit of Bondage to fear as they did but we have received the Spirit of Adoption to hope as they did not Children in Minority as Women are fearful but the Adult quit themselves like men When I was a Child I thought as a Child spake as a Child I did as a Child but when I became a man I put away Childish things The Gospel is Tidings of great joy which shall be unto all People Therefore for Christians to be alwaies sighing and groaning and crying whipping and tearing themselves going in Pilgrimage bare-foot and bare-legd lying on boards in Sackcloth and Ashes I think savours not of a right Spirit So to fast this great Day is not to disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast or to hang down their heads like a Bull-rush for a day but to undo the heavy Burthens and to let the oppressed go free to do Righteousness and love Mercy and walk humbly with their God See God in all these The last Remedy is best Our Eyes are upon God because God's Eyes are upon us God's Care is upon us because our Trust is upon God So men look one upon another and cannot help one another So men look upon God and he helps them all As two Friends look one upon another to pity and help one another if they can And one Friend may be able to help himself and his Friend and all his Friends and the other Friend and Friends are helpless altogether either of themselves or their Friends One Friend may have no need of help but the other hath But all have need of help at one time of other from each other and at all times have need of help from God God is able and willing so are not Men not all Men nor at all times One Deep calleth upon another The depth of Sin and Misery on our part calleth upon the depth of Grace and Mercy on God's part SECT IV. This Doctrine easily falls into use and practice Application as followeth at large 1. Against sinful Hopes from the World the Flesh and the Devil they do us harm 2. Against sinful Fears from the World the Flesh and the Devil they do us harm as of Damnation here or hereafter The most Wicked are the most fearful fearing where no fear is at every shadow at every noise even to the shaking of a leaf because there is guilt within The most Righteous are most hopeful where most despair is for substance and Clamours over their heads 3. But Faith is above Hope and contrary to Hope and Faith is above Fear and contrary to Fear And Love advanceth Hope and casteth out Fear and Patience overcometh Fear keeping Love and Hope 4. In Sins who should we look unto but to God alone for who can forgive Sins but God alone 5. Miseries who should we look unto but to God alone for who can save from Miseries but God alone 6. Humiliation therefore is necessary under Sins and Humiliation is necessary under Miseries And this kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting SECT V. It will be no unreasonable Prodigies nor unseasonable Excursion I hope if I decry all sinful Fears or Hopes arising from Prodigies which do minister hugely to the Spirit of Bondage in Gospel Times To seal men with the Mark of Cain who feared that every Man that met him would kill him and that his Sins were greater than could be forgiven him Or with the Mark of a Hypocrite whose hope shall certainly perish and his expectation shall be utterly cut off as the Spider's Web before God perish and come to a fearful end The old Prophets by their Learning Holiness and Gifts did create Reverence to their Persons and Messages under the Law And doth Heaven now make use of Monsters Spectrums Comets or other Meteors as of Blazing-Stars c. or of Unclean Spirits as his Publick Heralds under the Gospel Signs Moral Signa Moralia I grant As the gradual lessening of the glory of the Jewish Polity and Paedagogy by the ceasing of Prophets the absence of Heavenly Fire unextinguished upon the Altar the want of the Ark of the Covenant the Schechinah the Vrim and Thummim The lapsing of Government from Kings to Dukes from Dukes to the Sanedrim from the Sanedrim to the Roman Yoke No Kings were Types of Christ after David and Solomon except Hezekiah may come in The splendour of Moses's Worship waxing dim might be a sign of the Sun of Righteouss's arising in a state of more Spiritual and Inward glory The Jews used Signs much
his Majesties Most Honourable Privy-Councel together with all the True-hearted Nobility Gentry and Commons of the Land that they may be Obedient to thee their God Loyal and Faithful to their Prince truly loving and honest one to another Remember this whole Kingdom and save us from the noisome Pestilence from the hurtful Sword from the devouring Fire from the overflowing Waters from Storms and Tempests and all fatal Changes and Chances good Lord deliver us that we may lead a healthful and a quiet and a peaceable life before thee in all Godliness and Honesty that there may be no more decay no more leading into Captivity nor no more complaining in our Streets Happy O happy are the People that are in such a case yea blessed are the People which have the Lord for their God O do thou deliver us and be merciful unto our crying sins for thy Great Names sake that though heaviness have endured upon us for a long and dark and dismal night yet Joy may come unto us in the Morning that we may see the Salvation of our God in the Land of the living the living the living they shall praise thee as we do this day O let us live that we may praise thee Bless all those that wait at the Altars of Religion and Justice by what names or titles soever they be dignified or distinguished the most Reverend the Archbishops the right Reverend the Bishops and all the inferiour Clergy together with the Reverend Judges and Magistrates of the Land And that there may never want a continual supply of able Men fit to do thee true and faithful service both in the Church and State Bless all Schools and Nurseries of Religion and Learning especially the two famous and flourishing Vniversities of this Land Cambridge and Oxford that from those two Fountains may be derived such pure streams as may make glad and refresh the City of our God that we may never want a faithful Prophet nor a Religious Seer nor a Learned Guide to go before us such as may be able to divide the word of God aright like workmen that need not to be ashamed shewing both in their Doctrine and in their lives uncorruptness gravity and sincerity and Men of Wisdom and Courage to execute true Justice and Judgment that Justice may run down like Water and Judgment like a mighty Stream that the blind may no longer lead the blind lest they both fall into the Ditch Remember the Afflictions of Joseph for they are many Comfort the comfortless bind up the broken hearted confirm the weak hands and strengthen the feeble knees uphold all them that stand and lift up all such as are down Remember the Sons of Sorrows and the Daughters of Mourning and Lamentation those that feed upon the Bread of Anguish and drink the Water of Bitterness every day those that are fast bound in Misery and Iron into whose very Soul the Iron enters those that fly to the Clefts of the Rocks for safety and cling to the top of the ragged Rocks for want of a covering that hide themselves in Caves and Dungeons of the Earth and wander about in Deserts and Mountains Clothed in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being afflicted destitute and tormented that cry mightily unto God in the bitterness of their Souls and no man heareth them nor regardeth them of whom the World is not worthy Remember those that are forgotten by the Sons of men whose wants are never known and whose complaints are never heard those that mourn in secret and have not to comfort them Behold the Tears of them that are oppressed how they run down their Cheeks every day and there is none to comfort them Behold how on the side of those that do oppose them there is great might and exceeding Malice but as for thy Servants there is none to comfort them Arise O God defend the Poor maintain the cause of the helpless help all those to fight that suffer wrong and punish thou the wrong doer O Thou that knowest the wants of all men and understandest all their complaints and art only able to relieve and comfort them O thou that art rich in mercy and abundant in tender compassions and loving kindnesses towards the Sons of Men. Sprinkle thy favours we beseech thee upon the several objects of Misery that are abroad in the World according to the several necessities and extremities which they are in for the Lord's sake Give unto thy Servants the Spirit of Faith and Patience and Perseverance and Assistance and Assurance and of the fear of the Lord and when the great Lord pleases and how the great Lord pleases Open thou the Door of Hope and Comfort unto them if it be thy will in this life that they may see the salvation of the Lord in the Land of the living and praise thee in the great Congregation and declare what thou hast done for their poor Souls Because they are but Dust and the Breath is in their Nostrils and are but of Yesterday and to Morrow shall not be therefore be not always chiding lest the Spirits of Men should fail before thee and the Souls should dy and perish which thou hast Created Nevertheless not their Wills nor our Wills nor the Wills of Angels or of Men be done but thy Will be done even thine O Lord our God who dost all things according to the Course of thine own Will and wilt make every thing to work together for thine own great Glory and for the good of all those that fear thee and as for us we will be doing good and wait upon God and hold our peace for 't is good to wait upon God and they that wait upon God shall not be ashamed for the patient expectation of the meek shall not perish for ever and through the tender compassions of our God we even we shall never miscarry And for the Publick good and welfare of this Church and Kingdom O Lord discover the depths of Satan and bring to light the hidden work of Darkness that all the misterious contrivances of wickedness which are secretly formed in the bosom of Hell it self against Thee and thy Holy Child Jesus and the Annointed of the Lord and all the Reformed Protestants here and beyond the Seas may be brought forth into the light of the open Sun that the hopes of Hypocrites may perish and the expectation of Deceivers may be cut off as the Spiders Web before thee But that all those that fear thee in the honesty and simplicity of their Souls and desire to be obedient in the Land may be glad in thee and rejoyce in thy Salvation and may say evermore the Lord be praised O put a Hook into their Nose and a Bridle into their Lips and curb their Barbarous and monstrous malice that it may enlarge its self no further tho the Waters rage and swell and rore and threaten to swallow us up command them to be quiet and stop them in their full carere and say it is enough so we that be thy People and the Sheep of thy Pasture shall give thee thanks from day to day and will be shewing forth thy praise from Generation to Generation The living the living they shall praise thee as we do this day O let us live that we may praise thee Remember our Friends our Kindred and all our acquaintance all that are near and dear unto us whomsoever in our hearts we do remember or whomsoever we are bound to remember the Lord God in mercy remember them all for good and do them good abundantly above all that we are ever able to ask or think Lord be gracious to our Enemies and turn thou their hearts and deliver us and ours and all thine out of all the Snares and Cruelties and Treacheries of wicked and ungodly Men and send us Health Peace and Truth in our days and for ever through Jesus Christ our Blessed Lord and only Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen FINIS Advertisement THere is lately published by the Author a Book in Folio entituled the difference between the OLD and NEW Testament Concerning Things Commanded to be done and Concerning Things promised to be had in them Demonstrating the High Dispensation of the GOSPEL above the LAW In two Volumes To be sold by Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-yard 1681.