Nehe. 3.5 They are not like some in our times who care not to damne themselves that they may hurt the Church they rather resemble Iustinian they have no lesse care of the Church of God than they have of their owne soules They are Loyall not perfidious to our King Have they not vowed to defend his Majesties Royall person Crowne dignities and estate wherein have they dealt falsely in what particular can you lay treachery to their charge They love his soule they will not corrupt it by ill counsels they had rather fence it that sin may not breake in upon it by christian advice they know that sin is the soules poyson It appeares by their prayers for him they would not have soule-guilt laid to their charge they would have our King hereafter as a bright morning star to shine in the Kingdome of heaven They love his Majesties person it is his presence that they long for not his absence that they are content with Stangers both in Nation and religion doe daily inviron him they feare it may make for his ruine and his good peoples destruction they beseech his Majesty to withdraw himselfe from them they are confidently perswaded of his sweet and pliable disposition they strive therefore to remove evill Counsellors from him they so thirst ofter the enjoyment of him that they are willing to hazard their lives to get him His Majesties peaceable returne unto them will bee the rejoycing of their hearts they stand for his State wealth Honour and Reputation they are willing to settle if not to increase his Revenue and they have ingaged themselves to make him as glorious as any of his Predecessors that have gone before him Surely our King himselfe believes that such of the Pilots Royall of this Land as have made use of and relyed upon the auncient Lawes and long setled Customes of this Nation for their guard and compasse for the guiding of the Barke of this Common-wealth have most honourably and prosperously sayled through all the most dangerous and difficult passages and roughest billowes in the most boysterous stormes and at length have arrived at their desired Haven with infinite glory to themselves and to the Nation or else he would never have said unto them We doe engage unto you solemnely the word of a King that the security of all and every one of you from violence is and ever shall be as much our care as the preservation of Vs and our Children Thus you see his Majesty judgeth them faithful why should we then thinke then disloyall He assures them of his adhering to them and care of them saying Hee will be as carefull of his Parliament and of the Priviledges thereof as of his Life and Crowne And shall not wee encourage them by promising to assist them so long as they stand for us and for our Lawes with out estates and lives Seeing then they are thus zelots for God Fathers to the Country and not rebellious but loyall to his Majesty we need not feare to owne them not scruple to be advised by them not refuse to enter into a holy Covenant with them They are not degenerate they are truly generous dangers doe not dismay them difficulties doe not dishearten them they have met with many stormes but yet they doe not hide their heads they have had many discouragements but yet they hold up their spirits they have bin much tost with waves by reason of crosse winds but yet they are not hopelesse of getting to the harbour The Divell and the scarlet whore with all the Romish faction have combined together against them but yet they are not daunted they still contend for the Conquest they yet play the men for the people and for the Cities of their God Menaces from others doe but breath a new life into their spirits They know that vertues companion is not facility the way that shee treads must be rough and Thorny They remember that good things are hard to come by the Gospell and the Subjects liberty are the Treasures they search for they looke at these as worth their paines as worth their labour it is still for these that they adventure the losse of their precious lives They are content for the present to beare that which displeaseth them that in the end they may freely without interruption enjoy these rich jewels which if they get them will prove advantagious unto them and theirs They are not ignorant that quiet calmes are often subsequents to stormy tempests and that sowre accidents are sometimes seasoned with sweet events these and such like being the subject of their thoughts they breake not off their intended purposes they desert not their president resolutions they alter not their propounded courses with a fixed countenance they out-stare the threatning eye of danger they leave their vow as a witnesse of their valour they are determin'd to resist to bloud rather than forsake their God life is not deare it is the Lords statutes that they covenant to keepe close unto 2 Chro. 19 2. They that love God should be the object of our love it was Iehosaphats sin that he helped the ungodly and loved them that hated the Lord. They are a publike not a private or a cabinet counsell they are the great and generall Counsell of the Kingdome feare not that they will ensnare you themselves and their owne estates are interest in all their decrees they bid you doe nothing but what they have done themselves their covenant will not endanger you unlesse it prove perillous to withstand Gods enemies and to stand close unto Gods Commands A community is seldome prejudiciall unto it selfe or hurtfull unto others They are our brethren So they stiled the Scots in the act of pacification and surely they will not deny us to be their brethren who are of their owne Kingdome and of their owne Religion like brethren in all their actions they desire our welfare they have bin studious to contrive and they are resolute to performe and this present covenant they have set forth for the publike good like elder brethren they command with love Let us not hang backe but joy in our obedience our Nobles like the Primitive Christians are well read in Saint Iohns Doctrine they have begun to soare to the highest pitch of affection they are willing to lay downe their lives for the brethren some already in the common Cause are gone to Heaven in a bloudy Chariot others now are in continuall perills not knowing how soone death may cut in sunder the thred of their lives they may well take up the symbole of Alphonsus Neopolitanus viz the Pelican drawing the bloud out of her breasts for the feeding of her young and considering for what it is that they adventure themselves they may annex unto it this inscription Pro lege pro grege Shall they thus freely for our Kingdomes Lawes and for our safety give up their selves as it were in sacrifice and shall we forsake them O no
A Pious PRESIDENT To both KINGDOMES For a Sacred COVENANT Being an Abstractive Exposition by way of Paraphrase upon the tenth Chapter of Nehemiah the 28 and 29. Verses By DANIELL SVVIFT Minister of the Gospell of Iesus Christ Quidni dulce eruam ac salutare epulum Spiritus de sterili et insipida litera tanquam granum de palea de testa nucleum de osse medullam Bernard in Cant. sermo 73. Omnis panis nutrimentum assert ad salutem aegris autem saepe inutilis sic et omnis scriptura munda mundis Basil ad Chyl de solitaria vita Seene and allowed LONDON Printed by Mary Okes dwelling in little St. Bartholomewes 1643. To the Right Honourable Right worthy and religious Patriots of their Countrie Robert Earle of Essex Robert Earle of Warwick and Ferdinando Lord Fairfax renowned Instruments for disappointing and discouraging of the Romish and bloudy adversaries of Gods sacred Truth Right Honourable I Know you expect not flattering Titles for besides the dint of Divine displeasure this were but to despite you with seeming Honours I desire not with airy ambages to tickle your eares I am sure downe right truths make the deepest impression upon honest hearts neither doe I sound the trumpet of applause Heroicke actions are glorious encomiums Faithfulnesse to God the King and Country are the onely diademe of true Nobility I may lay my hand upon my mouth your owne workes shall praise you in the gates There be many Right Honourable in these times who care not to adventure their necks to advance themselves and matter not to hazard their soules to ruine the Church but as your Honours have publique spirits for the common good so I am perswaded Gods glory is your highest aimes and to approve your selves before him in all your understandings the chiefe endeavour of your soules Let them looke at worldly acclamations as pleasing cordialls It is your Crowne and will be the rejoycing of your hearts that you keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards his Saints they are deceived who so highly estimate a little Laud for hee onely whom God commendeth is approved without or against whom whosoever desires to be applauded shall not be defended when God judgeth him nor delivered when God condemneth him It is more then probable that nefarious wretches and prophane creatures by reproachfull speeches cast fire-brands in your Honours faces But what though Physitians make the best Triacle of venomous Serpents Jasons impostume was opened and so healed by his enemies sword in the warrs You are Wise Men I hope you will make better use of your foes then fooles of their friends their aspersions may prove doctrinall teaching you to keepe closer in a holy dependency unto your God I confesse you might be free from these durst you but abnegate or desert the Truth their revilings shall be your blessings they are nocent you innocent they are deceived they take you for such as you are not they have with the bellowes of Malignancy blowne up the coales of contention they have enforced you seeking by violence to depresse the power of godlinesse to take up armes in the defence of Christ and his indeered servants surely it is a double injury to beate men causelesly till they cry and then to beate them for crying by injury and oppression to kindle strife and then to cry out against it as Athaliah cryed out of treason offences will come but there is no woe denounced against the persons offended but against those by whom they come Ride on Noble Lords keepe your swords still girt about your thighs let nothing discourage you out-face the proud lookes of approaching adversaries their owne sparkes shall further their owne burning Gods wrath shall not end in your but in their destruction Your honours zeale for Religion love to your Countrey courage in the publique cause and mutuall agreement in an holy Covenant have hitherto spoke your sincerity declar'd your piety and made you exemplary to them that shall succeed you O now afresh pluck up your spirits quit your selves like Worthies in Israel Christ like a man of warre leades out your forces if our sins interrupt not our mercies the bloud of your enemies shall spring up to the horse bridles and a glorious victory shall be yours Pardon my boldnesse in speaking to your Honours accept of my Mite though it be small I hope when you try it you shall not finde it reprobate silver but currant coyne You have entred into an Oath it is for God the Gospell our Soveraigne the Kingdome and your selves I doubt not but you will set the Lord Jehovah in the prosecution of this sacred Covenant continually before your eyes and by your zeale provoke many adding fuell to the fire and oyle unto the flame of their endeavours The Lord prosper you in your great affaires cover your heads in the day of battell and goe forth before you in all your enterprizes against the Romish and Anti-christian Faction So praies he who remaines ever Your Honors humbly devoted D. S. October 16. 1643. To all that wish well to the Cause of God and the Gospell of Christ in the two famous Kingdomes of England and Scotland and in particular to his native Country-men in the County of Leceister D. S. wisheth a firme Union in a sacred Covenant with a godly peace as the glorious effect thereof in this life and eternall and everlasting peace in the life to come EXpect not Complements I am no Courtier they are not for Christians looke not that I should wind into your affection by Rhetoricall expressions or smooth Supparisi ations in the Preface my intention is otherwise viz to present unto you matter directory in the Treatise Brethren my prayer to God and hearts desire for you is that you may be sanctified in this life and saved in the life to come I beseech you cast your eyes upon Israels Oath and see zeale against impiety reflect upon her Nobles and behold forwardnesse to promote Gods glory looke upon her Clergy with her whole Commons and learne submission to a publique yet a pious injunction Let her Covenant be your President and her obedience your incouragement Your Worthies intend nothing but Loyalty to his Majesty and the continuall preservation of your safety helpe them with your prayers adhere to them in their sacred Vow let not your estates and lives be deare unto you for their sakes and see that you start not from them but stick to them lest you be found fighters against the Lord Defend his Majesties Royall person in authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes to the last drop of bloud in your veines that the world with your consciences may beare witnesse of your Loyalties and that you are no Traytors Maintaine the truth of God with the priviledges of Parliament though with the hazard of your lives And for the underminers of Church and State prosecute them untill
base and hellish brood They are not apsaled and affrighted like some formidable and pufillanimous spirits or as Salomons sluggard with the Lyons in the way they are determined to hazzard their lives to maintaine Christs cause and to uphold the practicall profession of Christianity O beloved had they bin timorous they had bin unfit for this military course but it seemes they have spirit for what doe they know but that this Covenant may set all the Heathens in battell array against them their familiar acquaintance may be as Iudas and their late Idolatrous wives may be as Dalilah to betray them yet for all this they will not be dismayed they pluck up a good heart passe through the Pikes adventure upon difficulties and rather then they will not covenant with God put themselves upon the perill of their lives O that we like these had magnanimous and undaunted spirits as we should be content to resist to bloud so we should answer our cruell and bloudy opposers as that renowned Cassibelane the Brittaine answered Caesar I have not yet learned to live in servitude but with weapons in hand to defend the liberty of my Country wee are not yet contented to live in Romish or infernall slavery we have learned to maintaine the rights and liberties of our Celestiall Country we feare not brandished swords menacing speeches no not the utmost that adverse powers can doe unto us we feare not perills rather then Gods Cause shall lye bleeding upon the ground we will adueuture the pouring out the warmest bloud that runs in our veines These expostulate not the case with carnall reason as many doe in our daies they doe not say This Covenant tends to the utter subversion of all will-worship whatsoever no Idolatry no not the least must be countenanced if this take place wee are sure to lose many friends and to undergoe the threates of great mens frownes a great part of our Estates are likely to bee exhausted and our very lives may come to be endangered Will not those who are averse unto the Covenant who have sworne to uphold Babell to side with the scarlet Whore and to defend the Anti-christian cause grow very furious and become much more enraged against us will they not by open force and by all secret Stratagems seeke the spoyle and undoing of us they lasht us before with whips but it is to bee feared they will be turned to Scorpions we thought in times past that their hand was heavy but now they will lay more loade yea cause their little fingers to be farre more ponderous than their fathers loynes for ought we know this may cause our dis-affected wives privately in revenge to murder us our servants who by this are sure to be abridged of their former liberty to rise up against us but if these should be quiet yet Artaxerxes the King of Persia and other Princes about us whose religion we goe about to suppresse may probably take up armes and breake in violently upon us It is good to prevent these dangers it is safe sleeping in a whole skin the best course to remove these feares and to take away these doubts is not to accept but to reject this covenant O beloved such thoughts as these doe not trouble their heads these are not scar-crowes to keepe them from this holy league indeed they had cause at this time as much as any people under the cope of Heaven could have to cogitate thus with themselves but such is their zeale with their undaunted courage that they looke beyond perils come life come death with one consent they will take the covenant Their Wives WOmen are the weaker vessells Observat Women not priviledged from spirituall vowes but though weaker no more then men priviledged from spirituall vowes as they are subject to sin so their soules are exposed to danger as well as others therefore it is requisite that with others they should make use of all meanes for sinnes prevention Covenants are corrosives to eate out dead flesh and the prime Antidote to prevent future distempers These men love their wives they are loath they should dye of their vitious Ulcers like wise men men of knowledge they seeke out for remedy they have taken advice they are told ingagements to God will daunt the courage of corruption that selfe tyes for exact observance will make sinnes heart like Nabals and cause it to give up the ghost that selfe-searching selfe-mourning selfe-condemning and selfe-covenanting will eate out the core of iniquity heale the conscience and preserve the poore soule in safety they are glad of their directions they make haste to their houses they cannot be quiet in their spirits this counsell is as fire in their bones they must needs forth-with relate it to their wives But how is it taken with their consorts is it not too sharpe too biting too full of vexation No they are so taken up with thoughts of their healing that the tartnesse of the medicine doeth not discourage them From its application they accept it cheerefully they lay it on willingly and they keepe it on carefully for as since their disease is the same with their Husbands they with them apply the same plaister entring into a curse and an oath to serve the Lord. Observat 2. Christians should be p li. titians He that lookes not to all Ports is not likely to keepe out an enemy to fore-see evills and to prevent dangers is a point of policy Christians should be Polititians we must not onely abstaine from all appearance of evill but cut off all occasions whereby corruptions may be ushered into our soules These grave Seniors of Israell leave not their wives at liberty while they stand bound Nightingales sing sweetly they are affraid of seduction they doe not trust them that lye in their bosome Sicut mulier adjutrix ita saepe insiliatrix et sicut portus est conjugium ita et saepe naufragium parit Chrysost they bring them to the Covenant that so they may be as deepely engaged as themselves Who but Evah perswaded Adam to rebell against God He was deceived not by Sathan but by his second selfe not by the Serpent but by his Spouse not by the Divell but by a woman not by a stranger but by his wife Did not Iobs wife tempt him to evill Iob 2.9 Salomons wives turne his heart from God 1 King 11.4 and Ahabs wife enticed him to worke wickednesse before the Lord 1 King 21.25 Women are not alwaies helpers they are sometimes seducers they are not alwaies as a safe harbour to their Husbands there is sometimes shipwrack of faith in their embraces Mulieres pericula semper in auribus habent Chrysost Beloved doe not false feares like false fires often burne in many womens breasts they are very timorous suspitions make deepe impressions And what doe they doe when they are jealous of an approaching evill surely buzze their feares into their husbands heads using all allurements to draw them to