others tears of compassion It is a work worthy the Disciples of Christ as often to weep for themselves so with tears to water the barrenness of such hearts as know not the curse to which they are condemned and if God so please thereby to make them fruitful to repentance not to be repented of that sorrow which is the assured Page to felicity Amen REturn O Lord unto the many thousands of thine Israel thou and the Ark of thy strength return we pray thee and have mercy upon thy people Preserve the Head and members of this Realm even all the people of the land from the highest to the lowest and unite us in Christ Jesus Distractions have crept in among us so that by the pretensive honour of thy name thy worship is made even the reproach of the multitude It is time for thee O Lord to work for they have by the name of religion made void thy Law that high Injunction Fear God and honour the King Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph how long shall they utter hard things and the very workers of iniquity boast themselves Should not all who name thy name depart from iniquity yet there is a sort of men in whose mouth thou art near but far from their hearts O God the God of thy people and their portion for ever we pray that all who are called by thy name may have no aims but thy sole honour neither suffer thou thy religion to be in our mouths to cover the deceitfulness of our hearts running after iâ—â—trange God If any of us should be willing to believe if we should have any reason to think we had deserved more then ordinary yet let the greater truth overcome this reason assuring us that we can never do more then duty requireth for God our King and countrey But as we hope by thy especial grace preventing us we shall never do a good work to a bad end so not attempt to pull down thy Church by performing any part of our Allegiance But it was thou not man who didst set thine Anointed upon high for thy Churches establishment Rebuke therefore those tumultuous Zealots who being enemies to Christian felicity while they pretend to divine peace have no other method for it than by making war upon his and their own Souls Let not the rebellious Children exalt themselves neither their devices prosper for they have imagined evil against thee When they speak great swelling words of vanity fill their faces with shame and confusion and their mouths with the fruit of their own lips Yet rather if it be thy will let thy mercies overtake them then thy judgements that knowing the errours of their lives they may hereafter take pleasure in sincere obedience rejoycing in thy testimonies as in hid treasure Reduce all who have erred from thy commandement and put into their hearts a desire to follow the prescriptions of Religion Reason and Convenience which are the best Counsellours of both Prince and people And forasmuch as our help standeth in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth not to our selves be the praise of Restauration given but to thy glorious Name Do thou whose countenance doth uphold the upright rejoyce the hearts of such as have therein served thee disdaining the petty triumphs of vain glory and seeking of no recompence but thy favour which indeed exceedeth all that we can desire O that our ways were made so direct that we might keep thy lawes for thy sake and Love thee because by thy mercies in thy best Beloved thou leadest us to good actions stirring up in us a burning zeal to the immortal honour of thy most sublime and infinite Majesty Whom have we in Heaven but thee What can we desire on Earth without thee O how wonderfully blessed are they whose light and defence thou art first guiding them to good and afterwards fortifying them against the strong temptations of self-admiration We are then best when least ourselves then strongest when desparing of help in our selves we put all our confidence in thy wonder working arm and having our desires fulfilled do submissively and faithfully acknowledge thee the good Author of success Thine is the Kingdome the Power and the Glory To thee therefore alone we recommend the tuition of him whom thou hast given to be a Prince and a Ruler over us Remove from him as lying lips so the deceitfull tongue and also far out of his sight the sinner that goeth two wayes Let his right hand find out break in peices and scatter all those who hate him let his enemies lick the dust before him Give him knowledge to Crush out the malignant humors which in some are predominant to their ruin Let the humours be dispelled but the men preserved that all his people may be of one mind endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Adorn us who profess a Faith in thee outwardly with the fair fruits of good works and beautifie our Souls as meet for thine approbation and love with reality of pious intentions Then will our obedience please thee as the best of offerings then wilt thou be our glory and the lifter up of our Head for ever Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. CHAP. V. Of the different murmurings of all Parties IT is not so much to be admired that men ever looked upon as high mindded and insincere should by the ill breath of their own commendations blast and raise a scab upon the graceful countenance of a good deed as that amid such variety of Blessings as God hath by his Majesties happy return shoured down upon this whole nation the shrill voyces of complainers have and do drown the most acceptable acclamations of thankfulness Being full of the coelestial Manna we become wanton and will not want words to reproach the Giver Every condition is fairer and more contenting then the present so much do our thoughts run division and we abhor the touch of the same string twice together We desire yet frustrate our selves of the enjoyment of our desires obtained by giving nourishment to new desires We droop under one want which is scarce removed but we beg others and more intollerable When we roar for very disquietness of heart being born down by some weighty calamity it commonly happeneth that deliverance was never so acceptable that we were never so weary of the burthen as we quickly become weary of ease The man in the Gospel who had the Devil cast out and the possession of his own home wholly to himself could not in his heart enjoy a colitary blessing nor retain a profitable guest but after sweeping and garnishing his house readmitteth his plague and with him seven more worse than himself That which of a place of misery had begun to be a Paradise how soon doth he convert it into a real Hell what greater misery than to be still jerked with our restless fancy and tossed by our
able memories to recollect the surreptions and losses sustained in the late barbarous broiles and because these breaches are not made up to charge our hearts with repinings intermixed with joy what do we but make use of our strongest faculties to cheat our selves We are to look forward to what is to come nay to consider what advantages we have in the happy Restauration of King and Church Many it is true are the insiduous baits laid for us every where and way but while God is our chief desire prosperity helpeth nor faileth us Therefore to those who constantly behold Gods will as their most desireable pleasure the good wrought in such varieties maketh wonderfully for the heightening of their Joy None but a distempered palate thinketh bitter sweet and sweet bitter for a sound body hath a distinguishing gust So sincerity of Religion giveth sound judgement for the election of the most savory delights the Sum whereof is God the particulars whatsoever perseverance in Love promoteth to the understanding NOW that prosperity at all proveth obnoxious to future â—â—â—contents by too too indulgent supplies of luxurious appetites is no fault of the times but of the persons who cannot learn to behold the beauteous blessings of God with chast and temperate eyes Neither is the subservient and ready good an excusive plea for immoderate either lust or use nor given otherwise then for a punishment to such unrestrained wills It is true that there is more danger in an exalted state of life then in a depressed because more privy temptations more publick ones but then care is the more commendable and likewisere sistance is the more glorious when the assault is feircest They then who were frighted nearer God and farther off a self-lâ—ve by the Sword Persecution Nakedness and distress have made adversity beneficâ—al to their Souls if their care now become not like a watch not wound up slack in time of greatest urgency Temptation is no necessity nâ—ither store hurtful unless misapplied The â—â—u use of prosperity is to be led amongsâ— and through the dilicacies and charms of pleasure and leave them conquered and as often as we are so led to recede with maiden appetites reserved for God alone Thus onely do we use these benefits aright and thus using them shall we duely remember the greatness of the succour afforded by them when time would wipe away the tract and obliterate the legend Thus using them do we enlarge our Joy in them because our Joy in the Author is thereby perpetuated The greatest and sincerest of pleasures as directly in reference to things of this life is to bear and forbear Temporal things coming suddenly to their height do suddenly decrease and the benefits of this life too greedily taken and used cease to be benefits after one full enjoyment of them onely moderation with reference to God lengtheneth them and preserveth the joy of them entire They are so made to reach from earth to heaven and the joy of our span-long life is spun out into a glorious thred of immortallity SEE now how farr our confidence hath carried us The prayers of Faith have wrestled and prevailed with God for this return of peace to his Church and this Realme A pious boldness in asking any thing of God and resolution in denying any thing to our selves for his sake will procure a more prosperous advancement for us than this even an exaltation above temporal to eternal rest and peace Amen O Lord thou hast been favourable to this thy Land in Redeeming thy people from captivity thou hast forgiven our iniquities and covered our past sins thou hast fallen away thy wrath and turned thy self from the fierceness of thine anger Therefore our meditation of thee shall be sweet because thy salvation is nigh them that hope in thee that glory may dwell in our land Thou hast remembred thy mercy and truth towards thine Israel and the ends of the World have seen thy salvation O righteous God Truely thou art good to such as are of a clean heart but we had well nigh committed folly against thee in being envious at the prosperity of the wicked when we saw the Tabernacles of Robbers prosper and that they were encompassed with Worldly happiness round about But at last when we drew neer to the refuge of thy word and considered the Wisdome of thy disposals we were taught not to condemn our own lot neither envy theirs For we understood destruction to be nigh their habitations and ready to receive them But thy Servants are alway with these thou upholdest them with thy Right Hand Thou shalt guide us with thy counsell and afterwards receive its to Glory Thou shalt encrease our greatness and comfort us on every side so that our lips shall greatly rejoyce when we sing unto thee and our souls also which thou hast wonderfully redeemed Let this be written in our hearts and likewise engraven in the rock for ever for posterities sake that the generations to come may know it and the people which shall be created may praise thy name who lookedst down from the height of thy Sanctuary to hear the groaning of the prisoners and preserve the multitudes of the afflicted Surely the upright shall rejoyce for they have seen the vengeance and shall boastingly say Verily there is a reward for the righteous Thou hast proved us and tried us as silver is tried Thou caused'st men to ride over our heads we went through fire and water But thou hast brought us out into a wealthy place We long sat by the way side mourning for the Ark of God catching at all tidings which might nourish Hope At last we understood and now confess thy power who hast brought it out of the house of Dagon It is well for us that we have been afflicted Yet assuredly if thou hadst not been on our side when malitious men rose up in fury against us they had even swallowed us up quick But praised be thy name our favour and Defence our foot is escaped out of the snare of the fowler the snare is broken and we are delivered What are we that thou hast thus magnified us and heard our prayers continually importuning these to arise and to have mercy upon Sion How great are thy loving Kindnesses and Mercies who considered'st that the time to favour her even the set time was come And now thou hast set thy Tabernacle in Salem that Righteousness and Peace might kiss each other Therefore unto thee do we give thanks O Lord unto thee do we give thanks for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare Let our mouth be filled with thy praise and honour continually and be thou exalted O God above the Heavens let thy glory be above all the earth And now O Lord I beseech thee remember me thine unworthy Servant with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people and visit me with thy Salvation that I may see the good of thy Chosen all my days and rejoyce in
administration of Church and State were for if they have called the Master Belzebub how much more than those of his houshold his servants and adherents slandered as noxious to the King and bringing unspeakable detriment to Gods honour which these calumniatours would pretend zealously to promote although they expressed their care thereof after the manner that Pagans contend for Christianity by cruelty and endeavours of extirpation Against evil Counsellors and self seeking perswasions were their general exclamations having learned that policy to conceal the intention and derive the envy of their own actions upon the most vigilant and grand opposers of them Miserable Artificers in the Devils Sciences who think no more of a day of account for these things nor the wages which their ever diligent Master never faileth to pay to his faithful faithless adherents That they have done these things audaciously what ought they not to fear But still to run on in contempt of God and his eternal vengeance with fire in one hand the sword in the other and their very inwards burning with a lust to mischief of it self able to procure a Kingdom-ruining conflagration savoureth I almost think of wickedness more than the infernal store Yet these actions usher in their religious resolves of building a most glorious Church But could we imagine that they who entred into a solemn League and Covenant with vows to establish the Church in the best and most primitive order would most impiously turn her as we say topsy turvy not leaving her one stone upon another unthrown down Could we think that they who professed they knew it their duty to wash their hands in innocency and so compass the Altar of God would with hands imbrewed in innocent blood take hold of their humbled Mother and tare from her shoulders her robes and the Crown from her head Yet these things have our hopeful Reformers done whose religion at the first composure consisted of these ingredients Hypocrisie Contumelies direful Revenge Ambition Contempt of God and his power a Delight in the destruction and misery of the guiltless Thirst after blood Sacriledge and exorbitant lust after other mens fortunes As to the two last I mentioned it did smoothly pass with the vulgar and was currently believed that they intended nothing more than a reparation of all things so much did their impudence bear before it the shew of sincerity with which and the name of Devotion they for a season guilded all their crimes But when their beguiled helpers had given them the Crown and Church-lands and the prey was between their teeth restitution was found to come much slower than the promises They found the revenues too weighty having turned them over to themselves to return them to God or the King Neither was it probable had they been able to descry it that the vulgar's blind hopes should ever have a clear issue or that they who had made an ill beginning to the whole Nation should ever make a good end to God But the peoples eyes were at length opened when after the ereption of some particular Delinquents as they called them whole Estates and other mens compositions near of kin to those total ereptions the same hand at last stretcht over all in general began to gripe hard as well its Allies as foes its Defenders and Offenders So was the mist removed from their darkned eye when the candle it self began to be touched when the pretended reformation was known to be the bastard of unsatiable lust O it is a religious thing to receive And their Idol-god Profit must be appeased with Prayers of lyes and humane Sacrifices that so a propitious income might make amends for their labour and industry and cause their hopes to abound But if their monthly and annual Harvests were not store enough to fill their garner they had alway ready some religious rogues of their crew zealous defenders of their God's priviledges who could craftily search Desks and Closets yea and hearts too to find make and swear out either old Delinquents escaped their clutches or new ones so rendred by their consenting to plots which they never heard of or making plots of which they never thought And then Justice which with God is made to come bearing up Mercy 's train even when incorrigible iniquity deserveth punishment hath her sacred name and authority injured which she is feigned to be present and active in the condemnation of the innocent I am forced to cry out Sinner that I am where shall I fly for mercy if this were justice yet besides all this God the Rewarder of just actions only and the Avenger of the unjust must be thanked for these things as a well-willer and approver of them How do I here even doubt to affirm what I know that such as invocated the name of God and spake of the sincerity due to him in religious addresses should so far provoke him as to commit sin boldly and with affection to it But that they should withal glory in it and to his face make him the author of it would seem utterly incredible where it had not been so notoriously known Having said this I need not tell you that the wisdom of our Forefathers and of God in them directing and disposing their counsels to his glory in constituting good and wholsom Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil for the reward of virtue and punishment of vice must of necessity be trampled under foot where unruly and hellish passions exercise their liberty without bit or bridle cast into their jaws Vice getting the upper hand of its lash knoweth no restraint no more than doth the Author of it when his chains are broken and his fetters loosed for where licentiousness beareth sway Rule is an unknown good By the same power of pretended justice as others was the Hope of the Kingdoms welfare sunk the Sun of our day darkned the Defender of our lives and liberties Spiritual and Civil who was worth ten thousands of us in an unhappy hour taken away When then the Lawgiver was taken out of Israel and our Crown fallen to the ground how could we expect moderation there being none to hold the reins what discipline among the vile Patrons of confusion or what Church government where there was left no visible face of a Church But such as they were we had governours many although not good store for according to Moses his forespoken curse assuredly to follow disobedience The stranger to the Commonwealth of our Israel was made the head and we the tail they were made governours true governours Subjects They who were to go in and out before the people whose lips should utter the messages of peace did breath nothing but flames of fire and they who should deliver the words of judgment and understanding were such as Jerohoam's priests the off-scowring and abjects of the People Out of the Goal or Bridewell from the Stall Kitchen or Buttery indeed the whole tribe of them from this or that contemptible course
hand Pride walketh along with a supercilious gravity and with an overweening disdain beholdeth other men and their actions but consulting with Ignorance at her right hand now to tread each step with a graceful deportment and following her advice those altitudes of speech and gesture become not admired according to expectation but instead of admiration cometh first neglect afterward scorn and laughter He who maketh outward shews of grandure must have correspondent inward sufficiency to bear up the outward frame Understanding men will not be cheated by the transparent abuses of Pride Had some complaints in hatching before our intestine commotions proceeded no farther it had been more to the credit of the pretensively virtuous Rebel in two respects First in regard of the punishment to come looked upon as due unto him Secondly in regard his pretences and deeds being so different his face would not have appeared so ugly to the common view For thousands who at first heard only their complaints but saw not their intentions have extolled the complainants for religious and well meaning buâ— have since found them highly abusive to what they seemed to aim at and perceiving this have had just cause to glorifie God for their own timely deliverance But they who were alway resolved where they had began to end were then enlivened one way although sadly dejected another way Although they wept at the sight of their natural Mothers countenance transfigured with inundations of tears and blood and their spiritual Mothers choicest jewels prostituted to contempt yet were they revived with the remembrance that when they had lost all they notwithstanding held fast their faith and had so well merchandized as to exchange their reputations and estates for the crown of patience to barter earth for an heavenly inheritance THERE was nothing in all this but what might give advantage to the Christian Combatant and as to himself improve his joy the Conquest being foreseen and the Reward foreknown For although without were fightings within fears of pretenders and undermining Informers yet what could they do more who had left nothing undone They might lay a greedy hand upon our bodies and all thereto apperteining but upon the riches of our souls as the delight in rack-contemning Obedience and undaunted Loyalty their violence wrought no command Although they encouraged themselves in our spoils and losses yet they miserably tormented themselves with the remembrance of our undisturbed resolutions There could no age be more fruitful in miseries than that yet none more miserable in their own and most mens esteem than the misery-inflicting adversaries If all the inventions that the malice of Devils and men worse than Devils could suggest might entitle us to misery there wanted nothing which might make it compleat and this world an hell And yet even then did we triumph over calamities having indeed sighs and tears to spend for the authors thereof whom we had learned to pity because by fools only esteemed happy We did as we ought rejoyce not according to the Epicures vain prescriptions who advise men to fortifie themselves against the occurrent miseries of life by the still entertainment of surfeiting pleasures for these pleasures were not then to be reached But in us as Christians did this joy take up its proper place For notwithstanding that almost all places and men were corrupted against a Loyallists peace yet spiritual security and joy was purposely entertained as the enemy of calamity and fear They ignorantly accomplish the good mans happiness who most obstinately oppose it So do they labour for nought not purchasing more for themselves than a sad accumulation of bitterness having most assuredly hell within them Those devillish potions extended for our bane and to root us out of the land of the living became to us seeing God's will and pleasure precious conservatives and life giving sweets Were it not that the fiery trials of our faith were of excellent benefit what meant the Royal Prophet speaking to God in a thanksgiving confidence saying Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee In fine then What shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Why saith one holy Man In all these things we are more than conquerors Therefore we take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake And another biddeth us Rejoyce in these things inasmuch as ye are made partakers of Christ's sufferings And surely Virtue doth outshine the Sun its glory being incapable of Eclipse it is not only such as cannot be obscured by mists and clouds buâ— appeareth thorow them with the more admired splendour and this because it hatâ— more especial strengthening from heaven where its conversation is Thence our joy hath its beginning and encrease and withere find a blessed consummation whicâ— as it can have no being so neither impeachment from the things of the world Aâ— immortal tranquillity and joy we have theâ— attained to when we are by faith made insensible of humane injuries and have lefâ— earth while upon it If we unfeignedly believe in him we may be assured thaâ— he will protect us with blessings and bring us safely through this to eternity of glory Amen O My God who upholdest my life witâ— thy comforts and settest me always iâ— safety how apt am I to mistake thy lovinâ— kindness and in my heart to conceive frâ—wardness towards thee Give me therefore faith to see thee my Redeemer as well in the cloud of the evening 〈◊〉 the sunshine of the morning for I desire 〈◊〉 fix my hope in thee I said in my hast I am cast out of thâ— sight but even then was I made to see miâ—â— own infirmity and thy strength was made perfect in weakness Therefore I now say that although innumerable troubles should compass me about yet thou shalt encompass me with songs of deliverance Although I am tossed with the waves of adversity I find that thy left hand is under my head and that thy right hand embraceth me Let me O my God be alway able to rest confident in thee that although I sow in tears I may reap in Joy When affliction lay upon me I saw it to be thy good pleasure I bare it and was silent wherefore indeed should I repine at mercies Because in thy light I am sure to see light I shall walk on comfortably yea although I walk through the valley and shadow of death I will fear none evil for thou art with me always Whenever it is thy good will and friendly pleasure to try me let patience have her perfect work in me that I may through thy grace be perfect and entire wanting nothing If thou do it by words against my self little can be said which I wretch have not deserved Peradventure thou hast said to this or that Benjamite Curse him Yet be thou pleased to give me serious repentance to look mine affliction and requite mâ—
with good at my latter end Let me never return with fury to them who backbite me but with humility to theâ— who dost correct me so shalt thou be please with the sin-offerings and oblations of mâ— lips If I am tryed by words or actions againâ—â— thee O Lord I am unable to bear or restraiâ— them Arise and maintain thine own causâ— remember how the foolish man reproacheâ— thee daily If I have seen O Lord I have seen 〈◊〉 that the enemy hath done wickedly in tâ— Sanctuary A man was famous according as he liftâ—â— up axes upon the thick tree but they braâ—â— down all with axes and hammers and thoâ—â— otherwise hindred from the execution of mâ— chief they yet speak swelling words and theâ— talking is against the most High Thou knowest O God that many have fâ—â—lowed their own pernicious ways by whom 〈◊〉 way of truth hath been evil spoken of We were and indeed are yet made a striâ—â— to our neighbours our enemies laughed amoâ—â— themselves All this hath come upon thy people yet haâ—â— they not forgotten thee nor stretched out their hands to a strange God They would not turn away from thee to fall down before sacrilegious Vsurpers neither give that honour to them which was due to thy sacred Vicegerent only I beseech thee establish the just but with mine eyes let me behold and see the reward of the wicked and let not any wilful transgressor prosper in his way Let me never desire to eat of their dainties mischievously gotten but hide me from both the infection and danger of their counsel and all thine from further insurrections of the workers of iniquity Let thy truth be alway my shield and buckler and do thou both defend and guide me with thy free Spirit If it be thy friendly pleasure to try me it may be also thy fatherly will to chastise me but Oh correct me in mercy not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing I have sinned What shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men I will patiently bear thy rod and the chastisement of my peace Thou art just O Lord and correctedst me for mine iniquities I have sinned and done foolishly for which although thou hast plagued me yet thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I say surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life Truely my soul waiteth upon thee from whom cometh my salvation yea under the shadow of thy wings will I take my refuge until the calamities of this be over-past Surely thou art my Rock and my Salvation I shall not be greatly moved Amen Sweet Jesu Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. CHAP. II. Reflections on the Mercies of Restauration NOW is our revenge throughly wrought we desired not evil and behold good came We were innocently as we only ought avenged of our adversaries by deprecating their souls vengeance by pitying them whose self-created miseries were the bitterest of our afflictions And we assuredly find that love is a pregnant passion having conceptions and productions beyond supposition While God considered the silent rhetorick of our hearts freely disposed to forgive and heard those louder cryes of our sighs and tears for their amendment he answered them with such success as suited with our desires because with his glory but hath moreover added such benefits as transcended both our desires and hopes Our desires if they did fly high yet could not soar so high as God can reach nor could they dive so deep as the descents of his humble bounty He maketh the out-going of the evening and morning to rejoyce and bringeth joy unto us farther than the eyes of our mind can discern Whether in our Sun-setting or rising he is the same light still and his day hath no end And although the shadow as it were of an approaching night mindeth us of our natures declination somewhat darkening our understandings yet where God is the light of joy is still permanent however it be for an additional delight changeably represented The substance is still the same notwithstanding its various dress as I may say doth beguil the natural vision and multiplieth one into different pluralities That invincible peace of mind which although still worried is unalterable after a long conflict with the treacherous world becometh at last augmented having sooner wearied all than it self it is rendred greater by its conquest and more joyous through a continual disdain of slavish sorrow And God who loveth patience loveth also to have an end of it and to give it the same end and beginning alacrity and the diffused bliss of a calm security Which end when Patience hath had her perfect work he wisely setteth at his meetest time sometimes making delays where he will give more than an ordinary joy to the former stock treasured up in an extraordinary trial Otherwhiles he dispenseth with time himself in a sort thinking his love absent when it is not burthened with speedy dispatches of cessation and rest So he did by his good friend Job whom he held not out the lingring expectation of another life but gave a rest and recompence on earth as the short emblem of a recompence eternal Patience after such a degree of service is emerita and the soul having been long enough exercised therewith she is exempted from farther labour and resigneth her place to some other Virtue Neither because a true joy may and ought to be retained in the fiery trials of temptations is it always necessary that we push those pikes God will give unto his servants more than a bare single cause of rejoycing he loveth to multiply them that so they may be known to be his gift who giveth not by peice-meal neither is scantingly liberal The influences of his bounty are proportionable to his unlimited love descending as for divers causes so in divers manners By variety and multiplicity of gifts his bounty is not diminished but is amplified and enriched by liberality and by giving rendred as it were more able to give Now after we have a while patiently endured his will his benefits by course so run that we no longer suffer but receive Either in heaven or both earth and heaven there is for us assurance of having the former benefits of suffering compleated by an immunity from suffering and even this immunity crowned with all accessory joys befitting a triumph Come we now to look back upon scoffs reproaches ignominies contempts and whatsoever injuries they could not harm us because not lasting and the very foresight of their speedy end must needs excite our joy A most divine expression is that of his who introduceth that incomparable Pattern of patience in these words Jesus Christ the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame even for the joy which was the evident support of his souls so weighty burthen and unto which he was
King for a King rather that he should be good then great but withal hoping that God had designed him to be both that is King and defender of the truly ancient and Apostollick faith That God hath made him the one is to the performance of the other and that he will alway prove both he giveth us to hope and believe Which Title if some according as their several humors transport them will not acknowledg due for their sakes do we chiefly rejoyce to apply it The want of their concession maketh no diminution of his honor That he Laboureth by example power to restrain the madness of distempered brains in a general good even theirs over whom the power is exercised would delusion suffer them to see it But that we have one to say to the fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked lift not up the horn is an especial felicity which God hath given to them who are desirous to serve him in truth and uprightness Whose prayer it constantly is That God would ever give him to the Church such a nursing Father under whom her Children may thrive and prosper and devotion be cherished and magnified that glory may dwell in our land and the beauty of our God might rest upon us Great men by their good examples do exceedingly propagate piety which is by so much rendred the more illustrious by how much it is admired and practised by illustrious persons who are to the people in their religious growth as heaven it self to the tender plant GOD in his love to us through our most blessed Saviour hath in a great measure provided for our souls and bodies He hath given his Church beauty and ornament and we hope that he will add strength too by a King who cannot but know how to rule his people for whom and with whom he hath been throughly tried he hath learned to cherish them being himself alway cherished in the bosome of the Almighty to be returned to us a sure pledge of Gods love he knoweth how to rule them who hath manifested his moderation and power over himself in scorning revenge and in silence passing over so expiatiating those numerous injuries indignities which might otherwise have injured the Nation with the brand of perpetual infamy And as we found in him a noble acknowledgment that his Subjects have not been all guilty but many of them partakers with him of his miseries so we reverently adore that admirable temper of Majesty mixed with meekness hands bountiously open to reward the constant and armes expansed to embrace the penitent whereas sowre aspests and revengful hands had been less then the merit of those to whom his favour hath been beyond measure extended Herein he hath truely manifested to the world how fitly the Scepter burtheneth his shoulders how hopeful a Governour he may justly seem in his Subjects eyes who could so easily sway his own passions Where Reason as Soveraigne is enthorned in the heart governing all mentual suggestions that mans actions are drawn by the true line of virtue and keep within the just lines of mediocrity So did his most gratious Majesty moderate his course being princely and undejected in his lowest condition humble and full of clemency in his exalted No offers or temptations could deduce him from his love zeal to that Religion and Church wherein he had been so carefully educated We may thence hope that he will in gratitute to God Omnipotent who hath restored him to that and that to him labour to continnue a Trofphee or fame a Mirour of perfection and pray That God will to use the words of his Father of ever blessed memory still dispose him to all princely endowments and employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God hath placed him and think it his greatest title to be called and cheif glory to be the defender of the Church both in its true faith and just fruitions Which that he may be the more signally God grant him a long and happy life among his subjects his subjects integrity of heart ardency of kind affections and perpetual loyalty and after all to both him and them that which surpasseth all Vnity in Eternity of Bliss Amen IT is of thy mercy O Lord that we are not consumed because thy compassions fail not In the height of our calamities thou makest a way for us to escape which we never imagined so wonderful art thou in thy doings towards the Children of men And now strengthen we pray thee that which thou hast wrought for us Let thine hand be upon the man of thy right hand to conduct him out of dangers to the mansions of safeguard Let him flourish among us by a long and joyful life let him win and receive the Congregations and judge uprightly among the sons of Men that his name may indure to all generations Let divine peace flourish in his time with plenty and prosperity in his dayes Make us truely to understand that thy Providence alone was wonderful in returning him the head to us his viduated members and not to make sinful and scornful recourses to the dotagss of humane wisdome or worldly â—hance However if malignant Envy will needs break out into detestable repinings rather let them grieve who acknowledge them not then we who now give thee thanks for thy blessings But because we know that the foolish shall not stand in thy sight we will come into thine house in the multitudes of thy mercies and in thy fear will we worship towards thy holy Temple We will praise thee who givest deliverance unto Kings and shewest mercy to thine Anointed And now O God give the people peaceable and loyal hearts to behold consider and repent of their past folly neither let the curse of Jotham or Hothams end light upon any of us as the reward of revolting giddiness Behold we beseech thee O God our sheild and look upon the face of thine Anointed Deliver him from the counsel of the wicked from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity Let not the enemy exact upon him nor the wicked approach to hurt him but scatter them as the dust before the wind consume them as the stubble by the fire who shall offer to send forth injurious words or stretch forth an offensive arme to disturb his peace and discompose our joy As for all such as have formerly turned aside to their crooked wayes let them be covered with their own confusion as with a mantle till they be ashamed of their actions and repent of them that thou mayest forgive and receive them Hear thou our prayers for him and thy name O God of Jacob defend him Send him help from thy Sanctuary and pour down blessings upon him from heaven granting his desires and fulfilling his counsel Thou hast prevented him with the blessing of Goodness and set a crown of pure gold upon his head let him therefore evermore trust in thee that through the mercy of
himself into brags of his boldest perpetrations Indeed Christianity were then come to the fatal period of its time and all manner of Law and Moral equity must in mourning attend it to the grave looking for their own suddain over-throw and next turn of sepulture But reward proposed for breach of Loyalty is a devilish temptation to the charms whereof no true Christian Subject will lend an ear but contrariwise he sticketh to his Prince with closer constancy and greater resolution the more pressingly this insinuating and painted snare offereth it self As not the most promising hope so not the most crabbed terrour can work any thing where the weight of an Oath and the acceptable suggestions of conscience mind the Disciple of Christ of his duty and an answerable recompence The Heathen could say Phalaris licet imperet ut sis Falsus admoto dictet perjuria Tauro Summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori Et Propter vitam vivendi perdere causas In English with the Readers favor thus Let Phalaris command the falsity And dictate perjuries with 's Bull fast by Think what a prize life 's saved with honour stain'd And do not lose lifes comfort for life gain'd BUT a Christian hath respect to more than his present honour as knowing the dues of unfeigned Obedience to be immortal When his Prince is his grand thought and care for God's sake and love he assureth himself of no less recompence then God himself The King is under God Religions great Guardian in whose face how do we read lines of care for us Let astonished and Watchful thoughts accompanied with prayers which use to procure Angel Guards be ever employed for his concerns that he may receive the fruit of his labours our pious and assistant cares returned for his perplexities We by our Christian sedulity mitigate the harshness of his cares who is most perplexed for those who neither regard God's glory nor their own good who will not be obedient lest they should be too too happy We should all amend that he may be eased And truely if we be careful to our selves we shall not be wanting to him we shall lighten both his cares and our own If we account his enemies ours the care is divided he beareth but a part and we but part although each one beareth all out of a noble affection to his and the general welfare and at last the success is good and certain there being in all a religious unanimity This care proceeding from love becometh earnest in its labours speedy in its services constant in its resolutions and valiant in its executions It will not permit us to secure our selves first and serve the King afterwards nor to break off our services in the midst by abrupt counsels but with a deliberate judgement to serve him in season that we reap the harvest of his approbation and joy in his smiles There is an absolute marriage between the King and his Subjects whereby there are interchangeably given assurance of Faithful adherence to each other in adversity as well as prosperity he cannot at all leave they cannot unless lewdly and impiously sorsake him Let our endeavours therefore be strong and serious accompanied with prayer to God that he would cherish him his bosome that according to his promise to the King through the mercy of the most high he may not miscarry that he may have in all abundance of sincere Love although little cause to put it to trial and this through the merits of Holy Jesus our most blessed Saviour WEE cannot but see our selves strictly obliged by God's Lawes and common gratitude to see the Kings welfare both by us and from us Now I come to consider whether a Subject be any way capable of being accounted meritorious according to the common vaunt when he hath done the utmost he can for the heightning his Majesties prosperity Obedience to his call and command is a duty towards God more than man This obedience is doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord according to the Scripture phrase and not in the sight of man alone It hath God for the prime motive and ultimate Hope If therefore there be any who vaunt of a meritorious service in any employment of this high nature they befool themselves out of the reward and commendations of Obedience for as much as they manifest that they have not yet learned to be obedient And some there are who speak loudly of their being instrumental to the reducement of our Soveraign whom themselves had formerly forced to wander as a bird from her nest And these are a sort of men seemingly very religious but we may judge of them whom the Psalmist had long before described from their making a dogged noise about the City and grudging that they are not satisfied These are abortive Children of the Church having the form of godliness but not the power These with a mercenary obedience expect a reward for their service and this the fairest and best jewel in their Masters Cabinet If they had come with that Benjaminite who had cursed the King to meet him upon his return with re-cognitions of sorrow if they had put the halter about their necks confessing their former merit they had done something like Subjects much like like converts and penitents meet to be forgiven and embraced but then onely when unlawful practises could not bring about their foul designs to come and meet him the instruments of whose long calamnities had been forged by them and hammered upon their anvil giveth them an evident mark of notorious insolence I am ready to judge with the wisest of Kings that the the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination but how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked heart They who had sometime torn in peices those robes were at length set out in Loyalty's dress that what they had failed of by disloyalty by the fucus of Loyalty they might at last obtain HOWEVER these men would be taken for Religious they have highly abused and worne bare their plea so that through it pride and hypocrisie break forth and become apparent For there is neither humility in subjects giving laws to their King nor religion in perswadeing him contrary to his well grounded judgment and the received Principles of truth Herein they also indiscreetly thwart themselves who while they would not have violence offered to their consciences are violent even without arguments and against reason in obtruding a religion upon him Their perswasions would be other and they more submissively meek if they truly considered what calamities their contentions for Religion involved both King and Kingdome in neither can any understanding head give it self the hopes of any better fruits from any Religion which subjecteth the King to the Churches censures Certainly true Religion commandeth us all subjection and in the most exact manner to Honour the King to depress our selves and our best actions to cover with silence whereby they are
speak for him who hath adventured far hazarded his life made a voluntary and free expence of his blood suffered ruin of estate bear reproaches imprisonments sequestration of the remainder if any thing were left of a broken fortune hunger nakedness and even utmost of calamities that could willingly have lain in the grave bitten and gnawed by those foul and insatible vermins which surrounded him so long as these miseries were common and now onely desireth to be revived by his Lords resurrection But necessity is no excuse for no man is necessitated to evil Let not I say their words pierce his sacred heart whom he loveth as his life nor let the Heroick excellencies of past dayes be summed up and disparaged by this final of that good subjects who have suffered with him and for him should any way endeavour releif rather than desire that he should now suffer for them For so many are the dayly and unexpected exigences of state that the great boone they expected if his Majesty were resolved upon it would no sooner be beneficial to some but it will would prove destructive to all Some make this answer We desire not neither have at all desired the exhausting of his majesties treasures for our satisfaction but still to have served his Majesty to serve him in peace and war now as well as formerly in war to manifest our continued fidelity by the honest discharge of some offices wherein are men imployed who have been of the cheif conspiratours and merciless spectatours of our long urgent disâ—â—â—â—es Granting all this for reasons where◠〈…〉 not perplex our selves nor 〈…〉 mysteries of State yet here 〈…〉 â—plain Time may recruit 〈…〉 â—t not spiritual Impa◠〈…〉 â—arm then an armed e◠〈…〉 â—continuance in it fre◠〈…〉 losses irreparable A 〈…〉 â—ged and commanded 〈…〉 â—at earnestly and still exhibit tokens of present as well as past desert Let prayers be offered up dayly that the King may be able and we may be assured of his willingness to do his servants good Let him provide for himself first that he may be the more royally liberal at last If there be any who think they have cause to complain let them more wisely bethink themselves that complaint is no satisfaction although it may be cause of delay The patient man soon ripeneth his hopes when the cold air of impatient speeches keepeth back the comfortable seasons Seeing they know their Lord to be of an incomparably sweet disposition but know not his reasons for what he doth nor most probably he their either desert or need let them not through their own bodies wound him for whose sake they once thought their blood vile and 〈◊〉 selves regardless Let their 〈…〉 beg but let not their 〈…〉 grieve him who hath irrit 〈…〉 nities thrown upon h 〈…〉 insupportable were r 〈…〉 assistant Let not I sa 〈…〉 his sacred heart who 〈…〉 nor let the Heroick ex◠〈…〉 be summed up and 〈…〉 of a causeless disgust We may consider our own condition and so judge of his Although some men have scarce so much as a will to do what they can for those who have well deserved of them yet on the other side others are intangled with infirmity and cannot stretch out their hands so far as their good will reacheth And Kings are but men who have the wings of their power many times so clipt that it cannot soare so high nor extend it self so far as it desireth The vastest and most unlimited power on earth meeting with a magnanimous goodness is too little and scant for the good which it would do As we cannot but be satisfied of the immensity of the goodness have we but patience until things grow as neer as may be proportionable to it we shall marvellously applaud the kindness and peradventure for nothing more then its delays by which it will become most magnificent and perfect There was a time when the cruellest of Tyrants made these persons of desert and fame in a sort subservient to a beggarly race of men of the vilest birth and condition Those dayes through Gods infinite mercies have an end which is more then any could by the rules of humane reasons have expected He who hath begun this good work will also finish it in his time Wherefore as a long expectation hath found a large recompence let the one be continued and the other will be compleated It is a great mercy to have ingenuous persons no longer cloystered nor miserable upon every wicked wretches lashes of conscience and merited fears to have alienated patrimonies return to the true proprietors to have many damages repaid with the bountiful favours of a most compassionate Prince But all things cannot presently nor as we will be effected God giveth to man to will and to do and maketh the will preparative to the act When he is pleased to give way other things which are wanting shall have their accomplishment whereas yet perhaps though the will be pregnant there is not strength to bring forth 2. LEVITY is the bane of prosperity although prosperity is the cause of Levity In adversity we can peradventure see aright but too much prosperity following so dazleth us that we are seldome able to look directly forward upon that which is most excellent and had formerly the signaâ— distinction of our Sounder approbation But quite otherwise what we oblickly glance upon we hotly contend for and maintain although ordinary reason consulted with affirmeth it to be the present dotage of our weakned apprehension Here as prosperity perverteth the judgement and introduceth Levity so Levity soon putteth us out of those joyous postures we are set in In the times of bitterness and hardship when an arbitrary power made us sensible of the misery of our deprivation of regal mildness when the just indignation of a remediless tyranny stirred up and cleared our intellectuals nothing was more desireable then the moderation of Princely demands which the juster they are be the more compassionate and sparing Then we hard the lamentable groanings of an oppressed people who notwithstanding professed that their sorrow was greater for that their contributions added nothing to the greaness of true Majesty then that they exchanged fulness and plenty for the pinches of poverty It was more grief that he received not who ought to impose then was any imposition a grievance Those complaints might deservedly have been commended as the brave commotions of noble dispositions but that those spirits are evaporated and quite lost What before seemed a gallant temper appeareth to be but a peevish invective proceeding from a disrellish of the griping carriage of the usurping Potentato whose title it seemeth did not so much displease as the way of maintaining it Blessed is he who condemneth not himself in that which he approveth The same persons now cry out What a King and yet taxes We hoped to have been delivered from such pressures and burthens What difference between this or that Government if the subjects purses must still
observed by one that the greatest disease of distrust Dalinâ—â— lib. 3. A◠〈…〉 and most incurable is in him who hath wronged his Prince whose guilty Conscience feedeth on fearful distrust 〈◊〉 just occasion be offered These un◠〈…〉 â—rits although they have promised 〈◊〉 sworn Allegiance yet sound Reason 〈◊〉 biddeth any too confidently to trust thâ—m whose refuge is Medea's Absolution Quae scelere pacta est scelere rumpetur fides What they perfidiously swear they will as deceitfully break Peace they love no longer than necessity compelleth them to it debarring them the opportunities of Commotions which they most artificially court and diligently solicite Rather than not commit their beloved sin they will tempt all occasions till they find a way to advance both it and its interest Therefore they violate truth obligations duty and conscience lest any of these should by the help of inquisitive fear make them see and pursue better things They who adore impiety making the successes thereof their Paradise must reer their conscience and do abominate scrupulous niceties onely using the name of good for the greater confusion of such as embrace the substance TO know whether their devises tend we must guess by the rules of contrariety their meanings having ever contradicted their professions They pretend to reformation but let such as have had the most aged experience of their performances speak plainly and acquit others of the dangers of fallacies We might well think the subversion of a Kingdome to be no good Physick for the Church therein neither that civil wars which do license misdeameanour can introduce good manners Their words had heretofore instead of more soundness infused madness into the people and too much action heightened the distempers of the Nation which convenient rest will qualifie Until they prescribe this they will never be good Physicians Give it this and each part of the body will thereupon be reduced to its order and duty When temperance guideth those who now trouble themselves and others we may have just cause to Hope for the so much discoursed Reformation But no encouragement is there for us to suppose that they can ever do others good who do themselves so much harm in being the professed factours of disobedience men who make it their sole employment to bring up an evil report upon God's inheritance and to stir up the peoples malignity against the King and Church They who taught the Israelites the scurrilous lessons of reproachful taunts against the Prince and the Arch-Bishop Moses and Aaron brought a plague upon themselves and the misadvised tribes yet did they pretend a remedy against some I know not what evils There can no plague prove so destructive as this spreading one brought in by sedition which to our great sorrow and shame hath been known to search and sweep each corner and part of these miserable Kingdomes and when after its long rage by discontinuance we hoped for respite by these poysonous blasts it threatneth anew its return and triumphs But God we trust will make these menaces to be but the regardless puffes of angry vanity For these Hopes we have ground from the rich authority of God's word which testifieth that He who hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth a slander is a fool And then we are sure that he answereth the fool according to his folly God can do what he pleaseth and is most gracious and merciful whom we ought earnestly to beseech that he would not use these men as the scourge of our transgressions neither make us a rebuke unto the foolish But certainly such as have seen the event of those former dishonorable reports raised and kept on flight by the complicies of rebellion cannot otherwise judge of the same things again practised but that the intents are the same and would produce the like effects did not God's mercy prevent and frustrate He who rebuked the winds and the Sea roaring against the Church both in Christ the Head and the Disciples the Members who with with a Peace be still quieted the loud voyce of the disobedient winds and laid the rude tumult of the rebellious waves can soon subdue these pestilent tongues and he who doth Let them from proceeding further in mischeif will we need not doubt still let until they be taken out of the way BUT to see of what a various and partly-coloured substance Hypocrisie is composed would make any one much to marvel how such antipathies could be combined in one body to make a publique cheat Nil mortalibus arduum est Caelum ipsum petimus stultitia Men alarm Heaven it self as if they would O wretched Age pull God's Children out of his bosome and all pretensively for his sake who abhorreth the cruelty as much as he disowneth the service The Church being reproached and the King the Head thereof aspersed with calumnies they say it is all for Religions sake and Gods glory of vain are some to shake hands as that glorious Martyr observed with their allegiance K. Char. I. and obedience under pretence to lay faster hold on their religion These filthy dreamers how regardless they are of so grant a crime as the despising Dominions and speaking evil of Dignities nay of fathering the same upon God as if he took not vengeance of villanies but countenanced and rewarded them They cast out the name of religion to beguile some silly souls pleading God's Ordinance and will for what they sacrilegiously attempt against his Anointed ones as if that spotless Purity and purely perfect Vnity were too liberally divided into contradictions of its own writ and patern But he is the same ever constant and good God who so far detesteth such wickedness that by the decree of his dreadful justice is ordained for such reprobates a place of endless bitterness and torment with the Divel and his Angels company and reward suitable to such galiish spirits which triumph intortured reputations and bloody delights into which the weight of their sins will most deeply repress and over-whelm them Sin is a weighty evil and sins against Authority are excessive but the largest term is too narrow for this which capaciously compriseth a design against the Powers coelestial and terrene Into the inferior parts of the bottomliless pit where the dregs of treasured fury must this soaring ambition unrepented of irrecoverably fall O let us humbly Sollicite Heaven begging for them the rescue of repentance and the expiatory blood of that Innocent Lamb whom they Religiously revile and persecute Let not their reproachful words sound louder than our importunate prayers God is gracious who knoweth but that he may turn and have mercy upon them although their provocations have never so impetuously resisted his Clemency BUT although many whom they injure doubtless forget not this holy Office this Divine Charge given by him who did vouchsafe to be a General Satisfaction and the Saviour of all yet these would if possible discourage all good and by their continuance or