seems most mischievous shall be to our Security P. 120 121. And as that great Soul suffered as Socrates with his eyes open so may our Age see when they begin to feel where they are going Of that man's head I say as Sir Thomas Moor said of his beard the Kingdom has no more such but it lets us see our need of Prayer now so I leave that Objection Now for matter of Prayer in this we may from the word thus take direction partly for Supplication partly Deprecation and Imprecation 1. For Supplication as first that God's mighty Presence may be ever with and among his People with this the Glory or Defence doth come or go and going O the Miseries that enter at that Door for God's Throne to stand under the foot of an insulting Intruder to trample on it is and cught to be for a Lamentation One of Darius's Courtiers seeing that rich Table of his Master put as a footstool to Alexander being a little man to lift him on the Throne wept and being ask't the Cause answered He could not but weep that being the Table his Master had sate in Counsel at So Alexander caused to remove it If it affect us to see Man in pride tread on the Throne of the Lord how soon may God restore his Ark to its Glory And 2dly If he stands on tiptoe at the Door pray his Stay how oft is this urged says jeremiah Jer. 14. 9. leave us not and with this Subject Mr. T. Hooker of N. E. took leave of old at Chelmsford If God go away goes the Gospel with him Prayer if it be right is a taking hold of God to stay and has held him 3. If gone cry after him is it not time to cry if they take away our God as he said Judg. 18. 24. when they askt What ayles thee One God is our all and more than a hundred else he is seldom far from his People but a Cry may reach his ears stir his heart and it may be cause his bowels to yern and move him to a return 4thly Pray for Christ's Kingdom Gospel Grace and Power say as that Martyr Yet a little longer Lord Yet if the Gospel fall Westward and Prayer doth not as Joshua's did Josh 10. 12. cause its stay as we lose our Conquest so a dark Night and stormy follows that few of us will see day after and which is sadder to Posterity that want the Light we have for they may fully lose it and curse us for our Forfeitures Under the Type of Solomon it is said Prayer shall be made for him and dayly he shall be praised Psal 72. 15. And to that Prophesie add Christ's Precept to Prayer Thy Kingdom come Mat. 6. 10. Now hence is all our Protection this is the defence of the Truth of the Gospel and all the Professors thereof and also of pure Worship and the practisers of it On that Nail hangs our Civil and Religious All 's Truth and Right stand or fall at once if we hang our All on a man it will be a lye to us as Charles 9. was to Coligni ere that fatal Massacre All Popery gets rise by Perfidy and Treachery nulla fides is a Maxim as close follow'd as true the Kingdom of Christ still takes rise with and by the Gospel If Christ were not a King that could protect his own men and matters our Prayers would be vain Thou art my King of old said David Psal 74. 12. what for working Salvation in the midst of the Land He is a King that can do it will he but resolve against all our Unworthiness and and his foes Vnwillingness to be our King as erst he did Hos 13. 10. though Prayer be mock't now his coming to possess it will confute both our fears and our Enemies Blasphemies that Kingdom will tend to a 2 fold advantage both unto Religion and Right 1. To Religion great Peace and Unicn accrues by Christ's Kingdom Two Prophets agree in this Isai 11. 6. 8. The Wolf Lyen Leopard dwell with the meek Lambs Kids and Sucklings of Christ i. e. men as fierce voracious venom'd in nature shall put off and change their ferial immane bad Natures to Christ's Followers not be chained only a Change shall obtain on them and a little after it is expresly open'd so for the Envy of Ephraim shall depart vers 13. c. They shall not envy and vex each other So doth Zachary foretel ch 14. 8. When the Lord shall be King in all the Earth then one Lord and his Name one Name notes Worship and it shows that all fatal Differences shall center and terminate in one Object one Dominator and Saints only strive which knows and does the Lord's Will best And so all Names of Dissent and Contest shall relinquish their lifeless Forms wherein the Enmity both breeds and feeds and contentedly be butyed in Oblivion That his Name Power and Worship may be one from the East to the West Mal. 1. 11. 2. For Right it shall not be run down by Might the Poor shall have as true and as much Justice for God's sake as the Prince So is Scripture pregnant the two great Maladies that Bars and Courts groan with of Denyals and Delays of Right shall by this have suited Cures the one by seeking out a wronged Cause the other by hasting Righteousness Isai 16. 5. And Christ that Tree of Life in his days will spread the Earth over with Branches laden with all sorts of blessed Fruits How then should we pray for that King and Kingdom that alone will bring that Fruit Now when we seek this Kingdom and thirst for the Righteousness of it Mat. 5. 6. 6 33. When we pray the Word may run and be glorified 2 Thes 3 2. It is a good Argument of our being on Christ's side and this is the Defence David begg'd of God for his Life for fear of the Enemy Psal 64. 1. And often for the good Cause he ingag'd for And it being all the Service you can do had you not need say the old Prayers with a new Spirit that God may help yet once as Sampson prayed and then pulled at the very Pillars Judg. 16. 28. v. 30. And so dyed a Martyr for Israel and a Judge against the Philistims though himself sunk in that Adventure And truly the state of God's people is such some aged worn out and weak some poor low and discouraged many of the Rich timerous and of Nabal's temper the rest not yet pinch't with the Sorrows and Hardships of their own Flesh and all divided in their Notions about these Things that if by our Prayers we can serve Religion no better than by a Carnal Weapon we are like to suffer as sharp a Lash and as long as ever unless God by an Act of arbitrary Grace Works Wonders for us as here he did at Samuel's Prayers for Israel and thunder vengeance on the implacable in an extraordinary way and why not so now Since Promises do
what is commanded is both an Arrogancy equally insolent and derogatory to the Divine Honour to which we owe all our Homage There are two binding Commands on us that no Humane Law may relax or discharge from The first is the Law of the Sabbath the second is that of Assemblies or publick Gatherings to some one or other known Place for the visible Exercise of Devotion The one enjoined in the Law of the Sabbath or fourth Commandment Exod. 20. which is as binding on us as that of the Jewish Sabbath was on them and seal'd too not with an Humane Sanction only but witness'd by three Divine Paterns in the New Testament Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Apoc. 1. 10. and since by visible Judgments exhibited in all Ages by God's own hand on all sorts of Violations and Prophaners Dr. Bread Mr. Clark The other is expresly enjoin'd by the Apostle to the believing Hebrews Heb. 10. 25. Not forsaking your Assemblings or Synagogues as the manner of some is And that Sect of the Nicodemites held That a Man might retire from Observation of Persecutors very lawfully yet retain his Religion God-wards But a Dispensation allow'd once against the Divine Law is to break God's Hedg gratify fleshly Force or Fear and to make the rest of God's Laws as did the Pharisees with the fifth Command by their Corban all of none effect Now for the first O ye Nobles Knights c. hear my Plea for God's Sabboth Had I the Spirit of a Nehemiah to contend with Rulers I would say as he Nehem. 13. 15 17 19 21. What Evil is this ye do to prophane the Sabbath They did ill to tread Wine-Presses these worse that tread on the obedient Sanctifiers of that Day They ill in lading of Asses that ought to rest that Day you worse in loading Mens Estates with Fines Persons with Force and their Souls with Disturbances of armed Men on Women and Children feeding and resting on God's Promises They did ill in not defending the Sabbath from profaning by shutting the Gates we worse in opening the Flood-Gates of Force perverting that Weapon drawn first against Popery to the Service of it and its younger Sister viz. Slavery and Debauchery O London shall it be chronicled to thy Infamy in the Records of succeeding Ages that thou hast done thus Was it not a Glory to thee of old to own Religion to honour God on his Day and count it a delight and glorious so to do And went it not well with this City for the City of God's sake But now O now the Tide is turn'd and the Wind blows sharp and high North to the discouragement of such as pretend any trembling at the Word or Tenderness of Conscience Reverence to God's Day or witness against Roman or Pagan Feasts If a Man stand for Rites he 's Christian enough and good enough tho he drink and drab and walks out holy Time in Dr. Green's or Moorfields-Walks talk of What News or sit in Council and guide Secular Matters instead of Piety If Princes are unconcern'd says T. Shepherd Theses Sabbat p. 311. part 4. p. 313. in the first Table and give liberty to profane the Sabbath why doth Jeremy call on them to the contrary with promise of preserving to them their Crowns and Successions to the last in so doing from Fire and Blood and threatning Wrath and burning City and Kingdom if not God will surely revenge polluting of the Sabbath Trouble you him in his Rest and will he not surely perturb your Peace Some think says he God brought Noah's Flood on that Day first called Gen. 7. 10. the seventh Day for the profaning of it and that Day Prague was taken So he Dr. Bâ—â—rd p. 150. observes of an English Town Feverton in Devonshire it was twice burnt Anno 1598 and 1612 for that Market on the second Day that occasioned its profaning And O London is the 2d of September that Sabbath-Day so soon forgot when Popish Flames made the whole City die a Martry If all be forgot see how one concludes a Book on the Sabbath in a Protestant Nation Let this be for a sore Lamentation Mr. Wells on the Sabbath P. ult 2dly For Assemblies I excuse not Rudeness nor the Carcase of Formality which as Mr. Shepherd of New-England very smartly foretells may justly cause God to send Crows and Vultures or Roman Eagles to pick our Carcases barer yet may I plead for reverend learned and pious Brethren as to this My Plea for our Meetings shall be comprehensive of all that in Conscience and Simplicity dissent Corrupt Latitudes on the one hand may be and morose narrow Spirits on the other with different Persuasions in some Points of Doctrine and Order but extra-fundamental and some lie open to more Offence than others Yet I plead all their Cause and Rights as to Assemblies Presbyterian Independents Baptists and Quakers so distinguish'd by common Note right or not For the first of them Presbyterians I ask any that can give a sober Reason for that Prejudice took in against them others I deem not worth the while to expostulate with that only say without reason they rather will chuse Popery than Presbytery to submit to till their Eyes are rubb'd open in Smithfield But to the rest I say Ye've small cause to seclude your Presbyterian Friends from Lenity and Charity the one calls to the Justices the other to the Clergy for those of that way concurr'd and contributed to the King's Restoration as freely as any and consulted it too before in a time when it cost them no small Hazard and some Death Most of them are Men of Parts Education Degrees in Universities pious and charitable very Loyal and have a Latitude many of them to own your Church-Worship and Ministry and also would return to you again would you draw them by the Lenity of a Comprehension not drive them by a Lash of Compulsion So you do owe them some Moderation making Conscience of that Covenant the keeping whereof the late King himself recommended in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Independents they are a small distinct associated People willing only as that Doctor said in the Peace-Offering to pass the King's High-way in Peace with the small Flocks that attend their Pastors giving most of them all that Assurance that the sacred Oaths can afford And being all laborious some opulent others poor and neither offensive to their Vicinity nor yet mutinous or numerous what harm can your â—enity do your selves if you labour first to win them by Reason or if that cannot be to wait till God shall reveal his Mind to them in what they differ from you Phil. 3. 15. For the Anabaptisâ—s in point of Faith and Order they say the same Things with the two former little differing from you save those of the Free-will-Point of which Faith also are some of your own only in Paedobaptism they vary finding no Law in the New-Testament for Infant-Baptism and there being also
by fear of Ruine plead the Cause of God's Worshippers as did Pharaoh's Courtiers the Land being almost destroyed Exodus 10. 7. Sometimes Fits or Pangs of Conviction perswade to some Urbanity as King James of Scotland long ere he came for England put on that Moderation and Vrbanity to that People that a Coyn of Crown Pieces was made with a Sword and on the Point of it a Crown the Motto Pro me si merer in me The Sword is for me if I deserve against it He bravely own'd that he ow'd his Kingdoms to Christ deriv'd from him in the following Sonet to his Son I wish also it may extend to Grand-Sons Basilicon Doron God gives not Kings the stile of Gods in vain For on his Throne they do his Scepter Sway And as their Subjects ought them to obey So Kings should fear and serve their God again If then you would enjoy a happy Reign Observe the Statutes of your Heavenly King And from his Law make all your Laws to Spring Since his Lieutenant here you should remain Reward the Just be stedfast true and plain Repress the Proud maintaining aye the Right Walk always so as ever in his Sight Who guards the Godly plaguing the Prophane And so you shall in Princely Vertues shine Resembling right your mighty King divine These I find rescribed at the end of one Mr. W. Symond's Pisgah Evang. pag. ult A. D. 1605. upon the Revela And would all Princes take out that Copy and follow it the Lord would both lengthen their Days and reward their Love to the Godly here with a Crown of Glory Eternal Now the Verses of a King having given this royal pleasant and not impertinent digression I return to our Matter The providential Preservations of God's Courtiers is a Theam worthy of the wit reading and Pen of Argels not only to observe the Shield of Defence held out for the Safety of the Pious personally in all Times of danger but in a more special way over the whole Body of the Elect in the most perillous Times that have or can come He that views the People of God in Ages by-past when the Church was seminally in one Abel Ecclesia est aliquando uno Abelo Enocho Vt Aug. Or in a Family as Jacobs or under the Brickes as in Aegypt 430 years in hot Flames of Persecution 110 years or about it In the Wilderness 40 years fed who can tell how and descend by the track of the well nigh 4000 years of the O. T. and come on to the N. T. Times some small lucid Intervals excepted See the Woman 1260 years in sad solitude destitute afflicted and tormented Or as Luther aptly resembles her to a poor sad forlorn Maid stript of all Raiment Sehlter or Defence so exposed among Lions Wolves and Foxes in Deserts Woods and Caves Non Pompâ externâ delituit in Cavernis non in primariis sedibus Vt Hylar cont Auxent Not visible in outward Pomp and Grandeur and so void of all Food and Friends lifting up her pure and milky hands not without furrow'd Cheeks if not tears of blood distilling at every Lip and Vein and her bleared Eyes still looking up with most ravishing Love and Longings to her Beloved and Crys for his second Return Such a prospect would cause any serious thinking Person with whom Religious Sentiments have in the least obtained to seek a Place or an Hole as Joseph to weep and wipe and then come out to joyn issue in her Crys Then on the other hand to see her clad and fed tended by Angels defended of her God adorn'd with a glorions Presence Acts 7. 38. Her Tears wip't off as Babila's Sweat by the hand of Angels her bloody Wounds quot vulnera tot ora as so many mouths all washt suppel'd and cured her Children restor'd increas't and united he must of all this take up a Wonder and turn aside to see a Bush so long in Flames unburnt a Bird of Paradice and yet on the Wing a Beauty so scortcht and yet in her Glory a Fort besieged and yet still inviron'd by a Wall of Fire on all sides May he not say and sing as the Psalmist The Lord preserves the Faithful Psal 31. 23. 37. 28. Yea and for ever and will at last again restore the Preserved of Israel Isai 49. 6. But since this comfortable Subject multiplies in the breaking I will shut it up with a Scripture and an Instauce or two The Scripture is that of the Women helped by the earth against all the Floods of Slander Heresy Idolatry and Persecution cast out by the Dragon against her and her Seed with cruel Edicts Laws Decrees Cannons and Ecclesiastical Curses and Excommunications Now comes in the help of the Earth VIZ. 1. By pleading the Womans Cause against all the false Calumnies of the Enemies cast on their Assemblies as Plinius 2. Reinerus the Inquisitor c. that helpt her 2. By casting a Bone among the Enemy as Paul 'twixt the Pharisees and Sadduces about the Resurection A. D. 1526. Dr. Taylor Apoc. 12. 16. Warr with the Dragon p. 810. Carl. 5. and Franc. 1. joyn Forces to root out Lutharisme and yet the Pope intending other ends breaks that League gives the Emperour in Italy such Work as diverts him from the Protestants that else had perisht So Anno 1530. Charl. 5. past a cruel Edict against the Professors of the Gospel that feared would swallow them all up at the Dyet of Ausperge but lo the Earth helpt the Woman for now the Turk as if he had been carryed by the hair of his head invades the Empire and Austria so now instead of Peace to ease them of that Edict hee 's glad of their Aid against the Turk a thing acting again now by the Turk but in what Fitness the Emperours 50000 is I see not to give battle to thrice that number Now the Turk has got occasion by the Forelock and the Hungarian Protestants so disoblieged that a Barbarian Infidel gives better truce and terms to Christians then they allow one another So rampant is the Spirit of Persecution now in Europe but I note it for Support to show that some sad Sights may bode to good Signs and Evils per se may prove good by accident for the Godly in the issue It seems an Allusion to the Ark of Noah God for a years time and some odd days was Pilot himself by his Providence till at last it rested on the Mount Ararat and the Earth by little and little drunk up that Flood so God doth by Earthly Men Means and Aims help his Holy Ark till at last some Dove returns with an Olive Leaf of Peace with good Tydings For Christ our Head being far above all the Floods hence it is his Body cannot be drown'd the Waters that drown'd God's Enemies yet sav'd his Israel Daniel's Lion and Jonah's Whale were Types of this That by which we look for Ruine is God's means to set us on dry Ground So