he was punished for sinne This might further appeare from the goodnesse of God who can meditate no evill to his poore creatures made after his owne Image if not engaged thereto in justice God was all love and mercy till sinne kindled a flame of fury and wrath in him and yet that is a flame of love too for it is his very love unto goodnesse that incenseth him against sinne No cause in God without sinne no cause in the creature without sinne Affliction commeth not forth of the Dust neither doth trouble spring out of the Ground Job 5.6 2. From the nature and use of afflictions as they are either punishments or chastisements or trialls Were there no sinne there would bee no Punishments Were there no Diseases there needed no medicines Where there are no errours there need no corrections Where there are no falsifications ther eis no use of trialls If there were no corrupt money or base Metalls the Touchstone might bee throwne away 3. From the cleare expressions of the Scripture 1. Those that place the fountaine of our Destructions and our Calamities in our selves Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thine helpe 2. Those that more plainely lay the charge upon our sinnes Psalme 107.17 Fooles because of their transgressions and because of their sinnes are afflicted See Ier. 2.19 and a multitude of other places 3. Those wherein God threatens affliction all which threatnings are either explicitely or implicitely brought in by sins See Deut. 28 c. 4. Those wherein we find the people of God acknowledging sin as the root of their Calamities as Psalme 38.3 There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne Where we have the descent and pedigree as it were of afflictions and judgements set before us The first root is sinne that enkindleth Gods anger and that breakes forth into judgments c. God is the first cause of all good and blessing But the Devill and our corruptions are before him in the production of evill and the curse Hee is the Author indeed of these two and the first cause of all that is good and of being in them but as they are evill they are first from Satan and sinne For God sends afflictions not as an instituter of nature but rather as a revenging Iudge or as a healing Physician c. Therefore this is opus alienum the first spring of this motion is in some sense not in God that is to say in regard of the evill that is therein 5. Those wherein the spirit argues from calamities to repentance and reformation as a meanes of removall ubi negatio est causa negationis ibi affirmatio est causa affirmationis 6. Those places where wee finde Gods practice herein recorded It was for the sinne of Adam that he was cast out of Paradise made subject to the Curse to death and damnation and that the creature was cursed as his utensils and furniture Gen. 3. It was for the bloudy sinne of Caine that hee was cursed from the earth and made a fugitive and a vagahond a Rogue upon the face thereof Gen. 4. It was for the generall corruptions and depravations of the old World that it was destroyed by the wrath of God in the Deluge First the fountaines of the deepe were broken up in a floud of their hellish sinnes and impieties and then the windowes of heaven were opened to overwhelm them with a Deluge of Destruction and so Abyssus Abyssum invocat one deepe calleth another See Gen. 7.11 There was a Fire of horrid and unnaturall lusts blowne up and nourished by those fuellers of Lust Pride and fulnesse of Bread and abundance of idlenesse in Sodom c. before the fire from heaven came downe and consumed them unto ashes c. Gen. 19. Ezek. 16.49 And from such and many other places we may conclude That it is from our sins our great our horrid our crying our nationall sinnes our universall corruptions and desertions of God that these great Evills are befallen us in the Church and State Especially from our hay nous contempt of the Gospell and of the divine worship and ordinances and the prophanations of his House and Service And for the contempt of that Government which he hath set over us and the violating the Authority of Christ from whom it is derived A sin that is indeed the wombe of universall Corruption and Confusion and however it may be painted over with false colours and pretences invented by worldly and depraved mindes to deceive themselves and others withall yet it will appeare one day in its owne Colours when those that have brought forth and nursed this mouster will if they repent not bee afraid to looke upon it c. For these high despights done unto Gods holy and gracious ordinances and for those generall and nationall sinnes of Perjury Sacrilege Extortion Prophanation for those Adulteries and beastly pollutions that have over-flowed amongst us and an innumerable company of other sins are these sad and heavy messengers sent unto us For the Injustice Bribery Partiality Carelessenesse and Cowardise of the Magistrates For the Ambition Covetousnesse Idlenesse Luxury Contentiousness Vain glory Pusillanimity Temporizing Treachery Falsehearteâ—nesse and Scandalousnesse of too many of us of the Ministery For the betraying of Innocency and Justice in the Lawyers their Pleadings against the truth and selling the righteous for a paire of shooes For the loosenesse the Blasphemies and horrid execrations the open and professed drunkennes lust utter contempt of God and the duties of piety on the one side For the Pride the Faction the Hypocrisie the uncharitablenesse the bloudy crueity and oppression the Disobedience and Rebellion the disorderly walking the Perjuries and secret corruptions of another side For the Atheisme and irreligion that is on all sides For the Falshood and injustice of the Trades-men and others in their dealings and contracts their false lights false waights and measures and other deceipts whereby they make a trade of injustice For the murmurings and unthankfulnes face-grindings Tithe-stealings of the Husband men Corne-masters and others For the Pride and impudent shamelessenesse and wantonnesse and vanity of the Women of our age and nation openly professed and written before the eyes of all men as it were in the scandalous and unseemly nakednesse of their Bodies and in those Witchcrafts of Sathan those hellish Characters and Charmes wherewith their faces are bepatched and bespotted those Diagrams of the Devill upon which hee reads infernall Iectures of Lust unto the libidinous and luxurious youth and other people For the dissolution of all order and rules and relations amongst us For the harshnesse and untendernesse of some Husbands to their wives and the foolish and indiscreet fondnesse of others For the stubbornnesse and disobedience unreverence and uncompliancy of Wives unto their Husbands And for the unfaith fulnesse of both one toward another
for him and in an houre that they are not ware of and shall cut them asunder and divide them their portion with the hipocrites There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth It was a sad account that one gives of the miscarriages of this kind in his time Invitus dico tamen dicere coger Ecclesiarum cat hedras hodiè multis in locis pro rabularuÌ„ causidicorumque hujus generis demagogoruÌ„ rostris haberi ex quibus ij quibus statio haec concredita est Satyrus suas in imaginatos adversarios declamitant I am loath to speake it but I am compelled to speake it That the Chaires of the Churches are in many places at this day esteemed for the Pulpits of Raylers Cause-drivers and such like side-maken amongst the people out of which they unto whom this station is committed declaime their Satyrs against those whom they imagine their adversaries To which we may adde what he complaines of afterwards Pro salubri alimento quod familia Christi apponere debebant auditorum plausum favâ—reâ— captant fictaeque compâ—sitâ— orationis lenocinio Petrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diceret fluctuantis populi motum pruritum ad suaslibidines torquent circum agitant Hoc igitur boni deplorare corrigere autem preter Deum nemo poterit Instead of that wholesom nourishment which they should administer unto the houshold of Christ they hunt after the applause and favour of their Auditors and with the alluring dresses of their sophisticated language or as St Peter hath it with fained or plaistred words faire in shew but durty and filthy in substance they turne and â—osse the itching and moveable people at their owne lusts this good men may and ought to deplore but God only can correct and amend which God grant of his great mercy That the houses of God may be no more turned into brothels by committing adultery with the soules of the people That they that have the manage of holy workes in those places may remember whose cause it is that they have in hand that they are not to woe for themselves but for the Bridegroom which is Christ Jesus whose servants they are to make ready and adorne his Spouse which is his Church against the wedding That they may not seeke to gaine the applauses of the people unto themselves which are too often made the hire of vanity and corrupt Doctrine but to gain the soules of the people unto Christ To conclude that they may not preach themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves the Churches servants for Jesus sake And it were much to be wished that the nursery of this evill affection in some Ministers were removed by changing those theatricall applauses of the people which if rightly valued are rather the accusations and reproaches of the Ministry and too suspitious a symptome that that worke is not performed with that gravity and severity that it ought to be especially in such times as these into sighs and teares and sobs of Godly sorrow for their sinnes and into the cheerfull concurrency of the votes of the people to the petitions and praises that are offered up unto God But it is a signe of no healthfull constitution in the Congregations of the people when their periodicall hummes of the Minister are lowder then the Amens of their Prayers and Thankesgivings unto God This and not that is the thuâ—der of the Church wherein sâ—e strucke and battered in pieceâ— the adversaries of the Truthâ— That would throw downe thâ— Towers of Sathan and his iâ—struments Those Babels of confusion that are setting up amongst us That being accompanied with the lightening 〈◊〉 a fervent devotion would break the cloud of the displeasure of the Almighty and make the fruitfull showers of his mercies flow downe upon us Blessed is the people that know this joyfull sound And yet the faults we have spoken of might be the better borne with were they not accompanied with more and those of no mean depravation in the Ministry of the Word Such is the too much unworthy and effeminate pusillanimity and extreame lukewarmenesse that is found in too many in this age who dare not reprove prosperous sins that have betrayed the Cause of God his Church and his Annointed for feare of the frownes of men Such whose discretion hath devoured their devotion that cry out it is no time now to preach against such sinnes because they are wickednesses in high places that could talk much and earnestly against Rebellion in an Assembly of Loyall men in those Cities and places whilst there were any where Rebellion dwelt not or in those Times when sedition was in a lower condition But in these times and in those places when and where those sinnes are in their power and glory they cry it is wisdome and thinke it no impiety to hold their peace as if a Physitian should say he is discharged from the necessity of giving Physick because the patient is very sicke and standeth in great need of it forgetting that the workes of the Ministry are to be gaged not by the interests of our safety but of Gods glory and our duty to him and his people and that however we may please our selves with some present ease that we find upon our shoulders yet that security will prove deare bought in the end that we have purchased by suffering and conniving at the spoile of Truth and Righteousnesse and although this may go for prudence amongst men yet it will be found Treachery Treason in the account of God Oh how have we forgotten those severe and peremptory rules of the Almighty so earnestly exacting the discharge of our consciences in this duty See Ezek. 33.8 If thou dost not speak to warne the wicked from his way that wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his bloud will I require at thine hand How have we forgotten those woes of the holy Scripture which are threatned against fearefull hearts and faint hands See Revel 21.8 See it and tremble Do we feare the menaces of men and do we not feare the menaces of God Home minatâ—r mortem metuis contramiscis Deus gehennam minatur contemnis Man that shall die himselfe and perhaps before he hath done threatning menaceth death if thou speakest and thou fearest and shakest God threatneth thee with hell if thou beest silent and thou contemnest it and yet God can defend thee from the threatning of man but man cannot defend thee from the threatning of God If God be with us who can be against us But if God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers must stoope under him Oh I beseech you consider this in time you whom God hath honoured so highly as to be made the Advocates of his truth you that are the sollicitours and the Atournies of the King of Kings Impeach these Trayterous Iniquities boldly and faithfully and do not become Traytours your selves in becoming accessary to those horrid impieties whereby your Lord and
of curing hath multiplyed our Maladies Punishments are inflicted without mercy not onely for no offences but for acts of righteousnesse Transgressions are made without any Laws forbidding them more than the corrupted rules of some mens unsanctified Consciences The method of Iustice and Government is confounded and instead of the lawfull Officers and Instruments of Government they being removed Changelings are thrust into their places without any legall or authenticall delegation from the fountaine of Iustice and Authority whose want of Commission poisons their administrations and whilst they execute one murderer they commit another therein A stone and a stone and an Ephah and an Epha are become too perpetuall an abomination to the Lord in this notion and in this ruine and devastation of Government All the Duties both to God and man both of the first and the second Table of piety towards him and justice and charity to our Neighbours of chastity temperance and Christian sobriety in our selves how are they fallen and trampled under foot and indeed how should it be otherwise when the hedge of the vineyard is broken down what beast of the field or wilde Boar of the Forrest can wâ—nt an admittance to forrage waste it When the foundations of the Earth are out of course what hope is there of any soundnesse or integrity to bee left The Sunne is scarce more necessary to the world than a lawfull and setled government is to a people And if the Sunne be Eclipsed it is held to bee the forerunner of sad Eclipses of our inferiour Comforts and so wee have found the Eclipse of our Politick Sunne in the State And lastly for our Honour and reputation Alas How should that stay when all these are gone It is a blessing which if it bee true is but the splendour of other perfections and therefore when they are vanished it must likely runne after them Or if it stay behinde it is but a shaddow in shead of light What Credit is to rich men or Riches such is Honour or Reputation to other Excellencies And wee may here remember the old Verse Quantum quisque suâ nuÌ„morum servat in ared Tantum habet fidei When wealth and riches take their journey credit useth not to remaine at home And since Peace Liberty and the nurse of both and of all other blessings Government have left us our reputation is become but a fading flower We were once the Glory who are now the shame the scorne and reproach of other nations Our brightnesse is clouded our splendour is obscured Wee whose name heretofore for comlinesse and beauty in Religion made Rome to blush as it were in all her pride to see Truth in this Church like a Diamond richly set in the gold of excellent Order and decency to out-shine all that sophisticall lustre of their gawdy and glaring superstition We whose fame for Valour and Prowesse hath heretofore put such Agues into the greatest of our bordering Kingdomes whose renowne for learning and knowledge in the Liberall Sciences and in the Lawes Divine and Humane made us so much the Athens and Academy of the World We Ah! what a Wee are wee now become How are wee made the mocking-stock of our Adversaries ROME laughs at us to see our grave and comely Matron for such was our Church spoiled of her decent and seemely ornaments and cloathed in the garments of madnesse and in the ragges of Confusion and desolation To behold that precious Gemme of holy truth which we embraced rent out of the Gold and cast under foot into the Dung-hill To see our field that bore such fruitfull Crops and our Valleyes that stood so thicke with Corne that they did even laugh and sing even with the good Corne of wholsome and sound Doctrines to bee overgrowne now with the Thornes and Briars of Hereticall opinions and mad Factions and Divisions There there say they so would we have it whilst the Calamities of our Church are their game and pastime and as once it was said of Tire in her ruine Is 23.7 so wee may conceive them crying out scornfully against us Is this your Ioyous City and is this the temple of truth and holinesse Is this the Fortresse of the divine Oracles the great Castle and Champion of the reformed Religion See now what is become of their Reformation where now is that excellent building which they had set up Oh how bravely it burnes and consumes in the flamer of those fires which themselves have kindled in it Oh what sport it is to see it How it warmes us how it revives us Thus they delight themselves with our phrensies and strengthen themselves by our confusions and desolations But Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph How long shall they utter and speake hard things and the workers of iniquity hoast themselves Lord looke upon our reproach and ignominy and restore us for thy mercies sake Let not them that are our enemies wrongfully rejoyce over us neither let them winke with their eyes that hate us without a cause They have opened their mouth wide against us and have said Aha Aha our eye hath seene it This thou hast seene O Lord keepe not silence O Lord be not farre from us Stirre up thy selfe and awake to our judgment even to our cause our God and our Lord. Our bordering Nations that heretofore feared us and honoured us how doe they now dispise or pitty us whilst our samed Valour and Prowesse is degenerated into treachery and basenesse and the glorious noon of our Learning and Knowledge is overspread with a cloud of stupidity and ignorance And all these losses are accompanied with many other with decay in trade of husbandry and what not But I have done with this long and sad contemplation of our miseries although I doubt not but your daily observations and the perpetuall sense of that variety of pressures that are upon us may informe you that I have left many sores untouched But thus farre I have endeavoured to shew you the streames of our evills and now I come to discover the fountain of them I have hitherto set before you some symptomes of our maladies it remaines now that I should lay open the root of them that so we may proceed unto the cures and remedies And here I have a world of matter before me But I have been too prodigall of my paper already and therefore dare not lanch out into these deeps Besides that necessity is urgent upon mee in divers respects for a conclusion Take therefore for that which is behinde these severall Theses The first is this That the generall fountaine of all these our miseries and caldmities are the generall Corruptions Backeslidings and Pollutions that are amongst us in this Nation The Assertion is evident 1. Because sinne is the causa sine qua non The cause without which there is no affliction There was never any but one that was punished without sin and that was Christ and even
all our sins have kindled these flames let your penitent teares and earnest and faithfull Prayers endeavour to quench them The anger of the Lord incensed by our iniquities is the root of all these miseries let us seeke to appease his anger by the incense of our fervent devotions God is a powerfull God and is able to helpe us He is a mercifull God and willing to relieve and succour all those that turne unto him with penitent hearts The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him yea unto all such as call upon him faithfully Methinkes we may heare him clucking us unto him as A Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings that he may hide us there oh let us runne unto him Me thinks we may see him spreading out his armes and stretching out his hands unto us as he did once unto Israel that he may reach us unto himselfe and embrace us in our returne oh let us not stand out against his mercy to our owne ruine When the Prodigall child in the Parable returned how ready was the good father to go forth and meete him how did he fall upon his necke and kissed him Oh let us then feed no longer upon the Huskes with the Swine upon the empty shells of created helpes by relying upon them but let us go to our Father our heavenly Father our mercifull Father and say unto him in the bitternesse of our soules and the compunction of our spirits Father we have sinned against heaven and against thee and are no more worthy to be called thy Children Let us now at length lay aside our strifes our divisions our wicked and foolish and frantick and worldly contentions about shadows and trifles and impertinences And let us all joyne together to quench the fires that are kindled in our houses about our eares Consider how long God hath waited for this He hath been seven yeares now upon the matter preaching this Lecture unto us It hath lost many thousands of lives to teach it us Oh let us now learn it then and practice it lest we answer for all that bloud that hath been shed Take heed you weary not out the patience of the Almighty but let his long suffering leade you to repentance lest his despised mercy be turned into the greater fury and you be made to pay a heavy interest for all his for bearance in eternall destruction Oh delay not the time lest the Decree of utter subversion come forth against us and there be no remedy We must seek to him if ever we be relieved let us do it quickly that we may be speedily relieved let us do it quickly lest it be too late away with procrastinations Illud modò modò non habet modum There is no end of our anons too morrowes if we yeeld unto our Tempter and our corrupt hearts Seeke the Lord whilst he may be found call upon him whilst he is neere Plough up your fallow ground for it is time to seeke the Lord. Oh make haste for the day declineth the shadows of the Evening are stretched out the Morning commeth and also the Night if you will returne returne come But especially let me bespeake you my beloved Brethren and fellow sufferers unto whom I desire to empty out my soule in this Exhortation You that are the Loyall people of the Land whom God hath so long disciplined under the yoke of the oppression of your enemies Let not all that pruning and digging about you prove in vaine lest he breake out at length against you in a farre greater judgement Oh despise not the correction of the Lord nor cast his reproofes behind your back deceive not your selves with vaine hopes Trust not to the righteousnesse of your cause Alas have we forgotten so soone how our wickednesse hath betrayed it once already And Sin is as great a Traitour still as ever Ioshua and Israel had a good cause and a good Commission even from God himselfe and had received great pledges of the Almighties favour The Sea divides asunder to give them passage and what was a Wall unto them was a Sepulchre unto their enemies The Mountaines skipped like Ramms and the little Hills like young Sheepe as it were before them The Walls of Iericho fall down at the noise of them and instead of being a fence for their Adversaries become a pavement unto them These and a thousand more favours God had done for them and yet though their cause was never so good and their Commission never so authenticall and though all these priviledges were bestowed upon them yet we know what one Achan did amongst them See the Story Ioshuah 7. Alas my Brethren how many Achans are there amongst us we may even tremble to thinke on it I love you too well to flatter you in this Israel was Gods people and Midian was his Enemy and yet when the Children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven yeares Let your owne sad experience make you wise you see whither your Sins have brought you and your Cause and your gracious King Take heed you runne not againe into the same errour for which you have already suffered so much and do actually suffer God hath put you to the Triall once againe whether you will receive mercy or no by making new offers of deliverance unto you let not your sins now stand in the way to divert his mercies from you Do not run away from God by your iniquities when he is comming toward you in his goodnesse Oh I beseech you be humbled be reformed let us have no more of your Oaths and Blasphemies and horrid Execrations Your Dammees and your Sinke-mees I feare there are some of your number now cursing banning in Hell for it for all their Loyalty and their righteous Cause and how shall they escape thinke we that love damnation so well as to pray for it It is the monster and prodigy of Corruption that the Devill should so besot any soule Let us have no more of your swinish Drunkennes nor your riotous revellings nor your brutish Lusts No more of your contemning of God and his Truth and his Worship of his Ministers and his Ordinances You see God will not be contemned I pray you consider it hereafter lest if you miscarry againe you miscarry without recovery and your King and the Church and these whole Nations fall with you Oh endeavour I beseech you to make amends for former miscarriages Do not thinke you can do any thing without God leave him out of he businesse no more Trust not to the Scots Trust not to the Welch though I hope they will prove faithfull Trust not to your strength your forces your friends Trust not to the people All these will come to nought without God Trust in God take him along with you in all your waies Consult with him in his Word let him be President of your Councels of Warre and
thee thy gracious Promises in Christ and the Merits of thy Sonne whereby thou hast engaged thy selfe that what we aske in his Name we shall receive Thou hast opened unto us a gate of mercy in him he hath purchased a Pardon for us with his owne Bloud He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and thou hast opened in him a fountaine of Grace to sanctifie our natures and reforme our sins That the clouds may be removed and thy light and grace may shine upon us We desire therefore to relinquish our selves to disclaime our selves and to come unto thee in and by Christ Jesus beseeching thee for his sake to save our poore sinfull Nations O deale not with us after our iniquities but according to the greatnesse of thy mercy thinke thou upon us O Lord for thy goodnes O Lord forgive our great and horrid offences that have provoked thy wrath against us O cleanse our filthy and polluted soules rinse us in those Rivers that flowed from thy Son in the Garden and upon the Crosse Perfume us with thy holinesse Adorne us and sanctifie us with the graces of thy spirit Give us cleane hearts and pure affections and holy and Christian lives and Conversations O Lord forgive us that thou mayest reforme us and reforme us that thou mayest heale us O grant us broken and contrite hearts humbled spirits and melting souls that we may mourne for our sins past Grant us those Spirituall groanes and sighs that may pierce even into thy Bowels by the Merits and Mediation of Christ Jesus that they may be moved in compassion toward us Grant us cleane soules and renewed consciences that we may speedily and heartily forsake all our wicked sinfull and abominable courses whereby we have enflamed thee our gracious God against our selves our King and People Rouze us up from our carnall security that we may seek speedily and earnestly unto thee our God who for our sins art justly displeased O be gracious be gracious unto us be favourable O Lord be favourable unto thy people and let us not be brought to confusion give us not up to destruction and desolation for the Lords sake Call back thy Judgements and Plagues that thou hast sent forth against us The Pestilence and the Dearth and the devouring Sword that hath so long drunke up the bloud of the people Call backe that spirit of corruption and confusion of division and distraction that hath beone sent forth into these Lands and make up a happy union and peace amongst us for the Lord Jesus his sake Call backe that spirit of rebellion and oppression of cruelty and rapin that hath seized upon the hearts of so many of this Nation and reduce them into the waies of obedience and righteousnesse Send forth the spirit of truth of peace of righteousnesse of mercy of loyalty and obedience into all our hearts that we may be restored to a happy and prosperous condition Lord restore the King and deliver him Lord preserve his Queene Children and Family Lord have pitty upon His distressed People upon the Prisoners and the outcasts and the poore persecuted Subjects of this Land and deliver them from the fury and the cruelty of their Adversaries Lord direct guide sanctifie and prosper all the Loyall Armies and those faithfull people that are engaged in the cause of thine Annointed and his people let not their sins nor our sins stand between thy mercy and them or us Lord be mercifull to our Enemies make their hearts to relent forgive them and convert them and preserve them if it be thy blessed will reconcile us all to thee that we may be reconciled to one another Or if they shall still continue in their wickednesse Lord suffer them not to prosper therein suffer them to prevaile no more against thy Substitute and thine Ordinance to oppresse no more to kill and murder thy poore People no more but bring them downe O Lord we beseech thee for thine infinite mercies sake O Lord heare us O Lord help us O Lord relieve and succour us O deliver us and be mercifull to our sinnes for thy Son Christ Jesus his sake to whom with thee and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen A short Prayer to be used upon the undertaking of any just designe or enterprize for peace O Lord I blesse thy holy name for that good motion which thou hast put into our hearts for the procurement of peace unto these Nations I confesse O Lord I am not worthy to be an instrument of so great a blessing neither is there any strength or wisdome in me thy poore Creature that I should be able to mannage so excellent a worke but thou art the God that pardonest sins And art pleased to make use of weake and worthlesse meanes that the glory may be so much the more thine I beseech thee be thou glorified in us thy Servants pardon our sins heale our infirmities supply us with wisdome and thy strength and assist us by thy spirit make us to set up thy glory before us and sincerely to seeke the good of thy Church and people Shew us the waies that are conducible thereunto and conduct us and speed us therein and give a happy issue thereunto to the glory of thy Name to the comfort of thine Annointed and all his People to the furtherance of thy Gospell and to the good of me and mine c. and of these whole Nations through Jesus Christ our Lord. A Prayer for the restoring of an happy and setled Government in this Nation O Lord God who rulest and governest all things by thy Son Christ Jesus and hast ordained Magistracy and the power of Government amongst men as a ray or branch of that supreme authority in Christ Jesus to be the guardian under thee of peace and righteousnesse among thy people The foundation of humane society The Pillar of the world The shield of thy people and of all the blessings that they enjoy And of all other Governments hast most approved in thy holy Word of that excellent forme of royall Monarchy as that which is the most lively Image of thy rule and the most fruitfull Channell of safety and peace and felicity unto a people Weblesse and magnifie thy holy Name for this thy great and holy Ordinance whereby thou hast so provided for the fecurity and preservation of thy poore Creatures And more particularly we blesse thy holy Name for that comfortable portion which thou hast given unto this Nation heretofore in this thy blessing and in the benefits thereof in setting over us Kings and Princes to take the charge of the Government of this Land whereby thou hast been pleased for so long a time to preserve this Nation of ours in peace and plenty and prosperity and happinesse We confesse O Lord that there never was any the least merit in us that could challenge the least part unto us of so great a blessing whilst we