SOLOMON'S PRESCRIPTION For the Removal of the PESTILENCE OR The Discovery of the PLAGUE of our Hearts in order to the Healing of that in our Flesh By M. M. LAMENT 3. 39 40 41. Wherefore doth a living man complain A man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our wayes and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens PSAL. 106. 29 30. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions and the Plague brake in upon them Then stood up Phinehas and executed Judgment and so the Plague was stayed LONDON Printed in the Year M. DC LXV The Preface to the Reader Reader I Had more Objections in my own thoughts to the sending forth this Paper and can fore-think more faults like to be found with it when sent forth then I shall now stand to tell thee of or make any answer for But because amongst all those Objections I met not with this That it was impossible it should do anie good I thought the rest answerable and because amongst all its faults thou canst not trulie find this That it was not intended for anie good I perswade my self all the rest are pardonable What the design of it is if thou art in haste the Title will tell thee if thou art at leasure and think'st it worth thy while thou may'st find it in the Book it self so either way I might be excused from saying ought of it here But somewhat for thy satisfaction know when I considered the sore Judgment wherewith we have been visited which so evidentlie declares Wrath to be gone forth from the Lord against us I thought it might be an Essay verie acceptablè to God and profitable to our selves to do the best I could to make the voyce of the Rod Articulate that in the print of its lashes not onlie Gods Wrath but the sin he scourgeth us for and the duty he would drive us to might be found in legible Characters that even he that runs may read them When I lookt on Affliction as a Medicine for a distempered Nation I thought it was exceeding necessarie in order to its kindlie working with us to tell the nature import and use of it and to give directions how it ought to be received And though I acknowledge my self the meanest of Ten thousand for so great a Work yet when I saw or heard of nothing so particular and distinct as I thought the matter required humblie depending upon and imploring Divine assistance I made this attempt wherein whil'st I have guided my self by the Physitians own Rules and an impartial consideration of the nature of the Patient I hope I have made no material I am sure no wilful mistakes This then was my great desire and hope to be by this undertaking a worker together with Gods Providence for some good to the Nation And surely no man hath cause to be angry with this intention or with any thing that flows sincerelie from it Had anie man though the meanest among the People in the time when Nineveh was threatned with destruction given in a Catalogue of those sins they were guiltie of the removal of which could onlie prevent their Ruine I am perswaded his endeavours would have been grateful to the Prince his Nobles and the People though he had spoke to them all with more plainness and boldness than I have done And I dare confidentlie expect the same if our Fasting and Prayers be not onlie for fashion-sake but in as good earnest as theirs Two great miscarriages moreover I was prone to fear the most would be guiltie of which I have especiallie consulted against The first of being swallowed up so much with a sense of their Suffering as to be indispose for all profitable Reflections and therefore fain would I turn mens eyes and thoughts from off this to the sin that brought it and have them onlie to consider the former so much as to inform themselves more clearlie of the evil of the latter Oh what Out-cryes we may hear up and down what doleful times these are So manie Thousands dead this Week so manie another The Plague got to this Town and then to that All Trading as well as Persons dead and gone But were People formerly thus affected whilst we were bringing this upon our selves Did they cry out then Oh how manie Thousand Oaths are sworn in a Week And how manie Lyes told How manie Thousands Drunk and how manie commit Lewdness Had we had Weeklie Bills of such Sins brought in they would far have exceeded the largest Sums that ever yet the Mortalitie made But alas these with the most were light matters Not half so manie groans and tears for these nor anie such complaints of them nor did the consideration of them make anie sensible alteration amongst us Now this I would fain obtain to have those dayes thought as much worse than these and those actions as much worse than these sufferings as the Disease is worse than Physick and a Childs disobedience to his Parents worse than his being Whip't And he that should weep out of pitie to the Child when he sees it lash't and yet could be content to hear him revile and abuse his father I should think to be a person of more Fondness than Discretion and for him to be more concerned for the Childs Smart than the Parents Honor argues him to have no true love for either And here by the way let me give a Caution viz. That no man bewray so much follie as to argue That because in mercie God may abate and remove his heavy Judgments before manie or perhaps any of these sins I have mentioned are put away from amongst us and because we may have our former health and plentie restor'd whilst there is no such Reformation of disorders as I have exhorted to that therefore our Sufferings were not intended to chastise us for those sins nor to bring us to this Reformation If thou be an Atheist or Infidel that makest this Argument who believest not there is a God or that he concerns not himself with our Affairs but that all things come by Nature or Chance or I know not what I shall then leave thee to receive satisfaction if nothing sooner will give it there where all such as thou by the feeling of Divine Vengeance are at once convinc't what the sin is which hath deserved it and that there is a God who inflicts it but if thou be a Christian then I would wish thee well to examine the nature of the thing that I mean which thou thinkest God hath not punish't us for because it is yet continued and upon the issue of that examination pass thy judgment It 's much to be feared thou wilt see Drunkards and hear Swearers after the Plague may be ceas't and wilt thou think therefore that these and the like Wickednesses did not provoke God to afflict us But rather stay if thou art in doubt till the
How notoriously infamous is our Nation grown for filthiness and lewdness It cannot now be charged on the Pope alone That Publick Stews are erected within his Jurisdiction only yet here 's this difference Those are if History and Common Report speak Truth Licenc't Ours are not demolish't Nor yet perhaps are ours so publick or certainly known but yet too publick they are to the disgrace of our Nation and Holy Profession Insomuch that one would think Venice was lost from its foundation and floated into England It is not the loathsomnesse of that disease which in a just judgment attends it that will deter men from this more loathsom sin Yea so common is it grown that by many 't is look'd upon as a very light matter no way so hainous as God and his Preachers would make it And they are ready to censure his Laws as severe for not allowing them the priviledges of Bruits so strangely doth frequency in sin wear out the sense of it And a sensual life doth even blind the understanding and bribe the Conscience till at length with much ado men almost perswade themselves that they may do what they have often done and are resolved still to persist in Whoredom Wine and new Wine take away the heart Hos 4. 10 11. Even in a Literal sense the Spirit of Whoredoms cause men to erre And can it seem strange if at length God make use of Arguments which such brutish creatures themselves are capable of to prove to them That their filthiness is highly provoking to his glorious Majesty who is of purer eyes than to endure to behold the least iniquity His Word condemned this before as plainly as it could speak but vile Wretches whose Senses are their Masters would not understand it they acknowledged not his Commands they either believed not or would not consider his threatnings his promises of an everlasting glory were too thin and spiritual for them to relish or be allured by What tell ye them of Rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand They must have their dirt to tumble and wallow in Take those who will for them they must have their Chambering and Wantonnesse and lustful dalliances Nothing must go for reason with them which contradicted their sensual desires and is it not just they should then be dealt with sutable to their Natures That since nothing else would do it Sense and feeling may at length assure them their sweet and pleasant sins are a displeasure to God and most pernicious to themselves And if neither seeing the beginning of Gods wrath upon others nor feeling it themselves will prevail with them God hath judgments in store that shall extort from them will they or will they not most passionate and hearty acknowledgments that whilest they were satisfying their Lusts they were most studiously contriving their own ruine and treasuring up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath If neither Poverty nor Shame Pox nor Plague can bring them to such a confession Hell shall bring them to this and much more But as if we were not content with those ordinary sins of Adultery and Fornication 't is reported that we have amongst us beside the effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind also This in Italy had been no such monstrous thing but can it be accounted lesse in England Both Heathen and Popish Rome indeed hath still been infamous for this amongst other abominations and thence 't is most probable we have derived Sodomy as well as Popery And 't is well if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all other projects for the promotion of Holy Church this be 〈…〉 to debauch our Gentry the better to dispose them for the embracing of tâ—at Religion which can afford them Indulgences at so cheap a Rate Now let any man but seriously consider the Holinesse of God his Infinite purity and justice and withall reflect upon his Omnipresence his All-searching eye that is upon the most secret actions think but how he hath been a Witnesse of all that Lewdnesse that hath been committed in all places in the greatest privacies and retirements not bars and bolts could keep him out not drawn curtains nor the darkest night could hide impure sinners from his view consider we but these things and shall we wonder if for these wickednesses the Lord be wroth with us and pour out the Vyals of his fury upon us How justly might God take up the complaint against us which he did against Israel Jer. 5. 2 8. When I had fed them to the full they then committed Adultery and assembled themselves by Troops in the Harlots houses They were as Jed Horses in the morning every one Neighed after his Neighbours wife And what follows ver 9. Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this And oh now that all those whose Consciences condemn them for these things would presently arise and take shame to themselves and do no more so wickedly lest worse things yet befall them And the good Lord awaken those that are in Authority to greater vigilance and industry for the future in searching after punishing and suppressing this Impiety wherewith we are so polluted that the Visitation now upon us which hath so much the same cause with that laid on the Israelites Num. 25. may also have the same speedy and effectual cure which we may read Psal 106. 29 30. Thus they provok't him to anger with their inventions and the Plague brake in upon them Then stood up Phinehas and executed iudgment and so the Plague was stayed The two next Sins I shall mention may passe for Appendices to this first as having been too apparent promoters of it which yet if they were not may upon other Accounts be deservedly reckoned amongst the provoking sins of the Land 2. The former is the Licentiousnesse of the Stage where wickednesse and amongst other sorts wantonnesse is more effectually taught than it is decryed in the Pulpit Let their Favourers talk what they will of their advancing Virtue and shaming Vice I should put it amongst one of the wonders of the Times to hear of any man Reform'd by a Play If to hear others be the way to make men leave them if to hear the Sacred Name of God profaned his Word jested with Religion it self derided be the way to make men Devout if to hear Lascivious Discourse and see Impudent Persons and Actions be the way to get Modesty then let us all flock to the Play-house And next from the same Reason let Youth be brought up in a Brothel-house to learn Chastity at a Tavern to avoid Drunkennesse at a Gaming-house to keep them from Cursing and Swearing I have heard but few count it any great wisdom in that Nation where they were wont to make their Servants drunk to shew their Children the odiousnesse of it and surely there was lesse charity in it to make some commit wickednesse that they might prevent it in others But when Vice
pierce the deeper and to wound more sensibly Now as a distemper which ariseth from a Surfet is to be look't at only as an effect of Intemperance and is not to be quarrell'd at but the cause of it to be blam'd and as the Chyrurgions searching into the festered place is not a wound but a discovery of the depth of the sore in order to its cure so are the judgments which God sends on a People only to be regarded as the Symptomes of and means to cure that disorder and distemperedness within our selves which doth as it were naturally produce such sufferings It is not the breaking forth of some inward distemper which is our sicknesse it self but 't is rather the effect of it The spots discernable upon the infected are not the Plague but the Tokens Thus are we to account the most grievous things that light upon us but as the manifestations and fruits of something worse within us Now look when men by outward signes find out those ill humours that lodge within them they labour not so much to represse the out-side sore as to correct and remove the inward cause He that when the Pox comes out upon a child would drive them in shall but make sure and hasten his death but rather will the wise Physitian prescribe means for their kindly coming forth and ripening that by them the corrupt humours may be vented and vanish He that is troubled with heats and flushings arising from his Liver would but play the fool to lay plaisters to himself but will rather take Physick that may inwardly purge him Even thus also suffering having its birth and nourishment from sin the way for the redress of that is the removal of this And by no other means can a kindly cure be effected Indeed sometimes an affliction may be taken off in greater wrath than it was laid on when people so revolt that God will strike them no more but because they are joyned to their Idols will let them alone but this is but the making way for sorer judgments to follow And thus will it be wheresoever we are taken from under the Rod before we are brought under the yoke If outward sufferings turn to hardnesse of heart desperate is the case of such a people or person however they may applaud themselves in their deliverance this is but like a venome which may seem to leave a finger or hand but strikes up to the heart this is but a skinning over the sore which will wrankle beyond the possi billty of a cure It is but a kind of lightning before death the surest forerunner and saddest presage that all our happiness is giving up the ghost and departing from us Now we must needs acknowledge it infinite mercy and goodnesse in our God when we have reduc't our selves to such a dangerous estate by sin any way to discover it to us though by sharp and smarting means so that these prevent our final ruine Oh that I could inculcate this into my own and the Readers soul that before we felt any pain we lodg'd within us a greater evil and that what we now feel proceeds from the hand of love if we are wise to improve it Poor man thou criest out of poverty losse of Relations sicknesse and pain but didst thou not know it Thou carriedst these yea and worse than all these about thee before when yet thou could'st go up and down quietly enough and never complain Couldst thou not swear be drunk commit lewdnesse over-reach defraud and oppress thy brother profane the Lords day neglect the worship of God both in publick and private make a jest of Scripture and mock at holinesse and corn and deride hate and persecute the most serious Christians These these oh senslesse sinner were thy sicknesse and misery these conceived and bore about in their bowels all that sorrow which since they have brought forth Sin goes big with all the most dreadful Evils in the world even Hell it self is its natural off-spring But alas thou feltst no hurt no smart in all this Thou couldst grieve the Spirit of God and trample under foot thy Redeemers Blood and run fresh Spears into his side and nails into his hands and feet and yet never once in any sober sadnesse reflect upon thy self and say What have I done Thy sin was thy pleasure thy sport thy trade so sweet so profitable that thou thoughtest it as dear to thee as thy life it self and couldst never believe thou wa'st doing thy self so much mischief while thou was 't pleasing thy flesh or filling thy purse How hard a task had he undertook that would have gone about then to have convinc't thee that thy most delightful gainful sins were indeed thy wounds thy losses and would be thy undoing And yet thus it was He that is swallowing down poison because its sweet or wrapt up in gilded pills is then poisoning himself even whilst the sweetnesse is in his mouth and his palate is pleased with the relish though perhaps he may then laugh at him that cries out it is poison and bids him therefore as he loves his life spit it out What shall you perswade him that can be hurtful whose taste is so pleasant But even he himself when he feels it burn his heart and gripe his bowels and torture his inward parts will then cry out he is poisoned and roar out in the anguish and bitter torment which he feels but all this his pain is but the working of that poison which then became mortal whilst it went down so pleasantly You may hear people when in sufferings make sad complaints and lamentations that would even melt ones heart to hear them Then they can cry out oh my my wife or husband or child is dead What shall I do How can I bear it Oh what course shall I take to get bread for my self and Family cry the poor what must we starve for want of relief Oh how doleful is our case And they that are under sicknesse and strook with the visible hand of God how do their hearts sink within them like a stone How pale and ghastly do their looks of a sudden become Now they are even at their wits end oh any thing any thing for help What piteous moans now they can make oh their head their heart their back Now with what astonishments and horrors do they every moment expect to breath out their last with what amazing fears what dark and dismal apprehensions of the state they are entering upon are they now seiz'd what passionate out-cries may you hear from them what must they dye Is there no remedy no hope Must they then leave the world they have lov'd so much and liv'd in so long And bid farewel to their freinds and companions their houses and lands their sports and merriments and gainful trading and all for ever Oh that ever they should be born to see such a day That their dwellings should be within the reach of the Contagion
man is fit to have the plaister taken off his sore on whom it hath had a kindly influence answerable to the end whereunto God sent it namely to shew his Sin humble him for and turn him from it Two things on the By only I shall hint from these words 1. That we may very well turn this Prayer of Solomon's into a Promise and conclude that what he beg'd of God and that with a particular Reference to the Children of Israel shall be granted to every man in any place performing the Conditions here described 2. Note that under the work Know is compriz'd the whole performance of all that is required in other places of Scripture in order to the obtaining of the pardon of Sin and the removal of those Judgments which it had procured There is nothing more common in holy Writ than the making words of Knowledge inclusive of the affections and practice also To know God frequently comprehends our whole duty to him for our knowledge of him being the beginning and ground-work of all other Duties and producing them where it is in clearnesse and power may very well be put for all According to this is our English Phrase I 'le make you know your Superiours that is perform your duty to them So here to know the Plague of our own heart by which is meant Sin the disease of the Soul is as much as to be convinc't of it to see its Odiousnesse to be lively humbled for and sincerely resolved to forsake it That it must be a working practical Knowledge not resting in meer conviction is evident from the foregoing words which mention the Prayer proceeding from those who know the Plague of their own Hearts the same also follows and spread forth their hands to this House that is make their addresses to God with some kind of particular Reference to the Temple where he did in a more special manner reside and manifest himself and thus Daniel in captivity opened his window toward Jerusalem Dan. 6. 10. Now he that should thus come to God what is it for Not only for deliverance but also to confesse sin the cause of his misery and if so then must he be truly grieved for his provocations of the most holy God and this could not be without promises and purposes of a Reformation Now I need not stand to prove what I before mentioned that whoever is thus affected shall if not be freed from the temporal Affliction he lies under yet be secured from the hurt of it and have greater blessings bestowed this I say I need not stand to prove the Scripture being everywhere so full of Examples and Promises that demonstrate it And indeed it is fully evidenc't in the very tenour of the Covenant of Grace which assures Pardon and Salvation and all things truly good for us upon the Condition of our coming to and receiving Christ which none can do but they who are sensible of their need of him who have seen the evil of sin both as to its nature and effects and are desirous to be delivered from the guilt and pollution and this sense of sin and aversion from it in heart and life is true Repentance and upon condition of this it was that Soloman pray'd for and God frequehtly Promiseth Mercy and particularly see his answer to this very Prayer and the Promise he made to grant it 2 Chron. 7. 13 14. Wherever then the Judgments of God are more Eminently Inflicted on a People it is a sign there are some hainous transgressions which have deserved them If the Plague or any such Calamity seize a Nation it speaks this much that there is a Plague in the hearts of that People some such wickednesse which provok'd God to pour out his Wrath upon them Sin is as the body suffering usually as the shadow that attends it the one is as fire the other as smoak that proceeds from it Wherefore by the putting away of sin only can we escape the threatned wrath or rescue our selves out of that we feel This is very plain if the knowledge and removal of the Plague of our hearts conduce to our Recovery then our being seiz'd with it was our misery and therefore the Cause being removed the Effect will follow If the entertainment of Sheba into Abel bring Joab and an Army against it then to deliver him to them is the only way to procure their departure 2 Sam. 20. These several Truths then are plain and the words we have taken notice of naturally afford them 1. That God is the Supream efficient cause of all the Sufferings we lie under Is there Evil in a City of Affliction that is and hath not he done it 2. It is for the Sin of a People that God lays these sufferings upon them 3. It is a most proper seasonable Duty in times of such Calamity to make enquiry into our wayes that we may discover what is most likely to be the Cause What is that Achan that trouble us This is the great thing whereof we are call'd in the day of adversity to consider and accordingly the most of my business in my following Discourse shall be the practice of this Direction for I shall not particularly handle any of these Observations 4. If we finding out oursin bewail and abhor it put it far from us and betake our selves to God for mercy and pardon then will he hear in heaven and forgive remove from us our Miseries and restore his Loving-kindness I shall only answer one Objection by the way and so pass on to what I chiefly design Some may say they have been sensible of and in some measure humbled for sin and yet notwithstanding have been held under as sharp and as long sufferings as others Here we must distinguish 1 betwixt National and Personal Judgments 2 betwixt the Ends and Reasons why they are inflicted 3 betwixt the Cross and the Curse of it And so I answer 1. If the Judgment be National as Sword Famine Captivity some great Mortality and this sent for a National common Sin it cannot here be expected that the Humiliation of some few particular Persons should always serve for the averting such Calamities Nay the Righteous themselves may be involved in them as we find there were many good Men carried captive with the rest into Babylon amongst which were Daniel and the three Children Indeed sometimes we read of one or more standing in the gap and preventing a deluge of wrath as Moses oft did but there was then also some kind of general Humiliation for of the people it s said When God slew then they sought him Psal 78. 34. And though Moses prevailed thus far that they might not utterly be destroyed yet very sore Judgments were frequently laid upon them Noah deliver'd himself and Family only not the old World Lot himself and Children but not Sodom and Gomorrah though then God graciously condescended to have spared them all for the sake of Ten righteous Persons could
they have been found amongst them But at another time so great and general were the Sins of the Jews That God tells this Prophet Though Noah Samuel and Daniel were there they should only deliver their own souls Ezek. 14. 14. Ordinarily 't is an Humiliation in some competent measure proportion'd to the sin which must appease the wrath of God broke out upon a people When all Nineveh had sinned and was threatned it must be a general Repentance that could prevent the Execution of those Threatnings 2. Though particular Persons may not by their Reformation procure mercy to a whole Land nor yet free themselves from the outward stroak which lights upon the Body of the Nation yet shall not their labour be lost but God will have a special eye to them in the common Ruin and what is in wrath to others shall be in love to them They shall have either such preservation from or deliverance out of the temporal Calamity or such support in and advantage by it that they shall have abundant reason to acknowledge that their Repentance and Supplications were not in vain Fear not poor Christian if thou be but a mourner in Zion one whose heart bleeds for thine own and others transgressions though thy Dwelling be in the midst of profane rebellious Sinners yet thou shalt not be lost in a croud It is not the Oaths and Blasphemies and Crying Sins of those about thee that shall drown thy Prayers but God will hear and one way or other graciously answer them If thy Soul thy everlasting Life be given thee for a prey as a temporal Life was promised to Ebedmelech Jer. 39. 19. and to Baruch Jer. 45. 5 thou hast sure no reason to complain What though the same Disease and Death seize thee as doth them It comes not for the same Reason nor shall it have the same effect What though thou wast carried in the same Ship with Traitors into another Countrey where they are to be executed and thou advanc'd to the highest Dignity was this any hurt to thee If Death take thee from the pressures of all sorts under which thou maist now groan and from the Evil to come and translate thee into the glorious Presence and full Fruition of the Ever-blessed God this is sure a different thing from being snatch't away from thy happiness into the society and torments of the Devil and his Angels Wherefore thou hast good reason to acknowledge Gods distinguishing mercy in those his dealings with thee which to sense may be the same with what others meet with I might add also the spiritual advantages which accrue to the Godly by Afflictions sanctified but the other contains this in it and much more 3. Thy Afflictions may perhaps be more for Trial than Punishment and so may be continued notwistanding thy endeavour to find out and forsake sin but when they have wrought that particular End for which God sent them they shall be removed Or they may befall thee for the Cause of God and a Testimony of a good Conscience and then thou hast more cause to rejoyce in them than impatiently to seek their removal Whatever they be see thou make this use of them to be more deeply humbled for and set against sin which is remotely at least the cause of all Suffering and to demean thy self patiently and submissively under the mighty hand of God and in his due time he will exalt thee It being then evident That the knowledge of Sin is so necessary to the removing the heavy hand of an offended God from off an afflicted Nation Surely the great Work we are all call'd to in this day of our sore Visitation is to give all diligence to know why it is that God contendeth with us and wherein we have incenst him thus to pour out his wrath upon us that so we turning from our particular sins he may turn away his anger and comfort us And in order to this it is the duty of every one who is an Inhabitant of the Land in the first place to call himself to a strict account and impartially to look into his heart and review his life and see what he hath done towards the hastening these Judgments upon us and accordingly apply himself to God to do his utmost for their removal Every man hath brought a faggot to the kindling of the Common flame wherefore every man should bring his bucket to quench it And here let me warn every soul to beware of a most dangerous temptation wherewith its like they 'l be assaulted to wit to think but very meanly and sleightly of their own particular sins as if they had little or no influence to the bringing on us such grievous Calamities and that partly out of self-love which makes us very tender how we accuse our selves and ready to extenuate all our own faults partly because we may yet be free from the smart and therefore take but a cold superficial view of our selves and partly because when we look upon the evils in grosse under which the Nation lies we can discern no proportion betwixt them and our personal offences and this comes much from our ignorance of the hainous nature of the least sin Now reflect on thy self Reader and tell me Hast thou not been very ready in the general to cry out That 't is for the sins of the Nation we are now afflicted and to flie out very bitterly against this party or that this abuse and the other corruption in Church or State but in the mean time hast been very backward to charge and accuse thy self as thou oughtest as if thou wast not a member of this sinful and suffering Nation Let thy Conscience answer whether this hath not been thy way and judge whether this be a just performance of thy duty If every person thus shift it from himself where will Repentance be found and what 's like to become of us If there were an Army to go forth against the Enemy and one person should draw back and say what can he do He cannot be mist in such a Multitude nor can he do much against such a numerous force and therefore desires he may stay at home and another come and use the same excuse and so a third and at length all that have the same reason which indeed every man may pretend to what 's like to become of the War And yet alas how doth this senselesse Objection generally prevail in the World in a case somewhat different from this viz hindring that couragious Zeal and Industry for the promoting of Religion and for the destruction of the Devils Kingdom which beseems every Member of Christ hat is listed into his service by the Baptismal Covenant wherein he was engaged to fight under the Banner of Christ and that without putting in this Condition that he should have good store of Company to joyn with and back him for without this he may come off a Conquerour But yet now cries one What can I do
Sister Mary was in those times accounted singular Piety even by those Bishops who came to request it 'T is somewhat strange methinks to see even the poor Quakers themselves drag d to Prisons and banish'd the Land whil'st Conventicles more expresly contrary to the Law of God and equally I think to the Law of the Land are at least overlook't Yea let me add this freedom they enjoy whil'st half a dozen of private Christians in all things so far as concerns Laymen conformable to the Church of England cannot have Liberty to meet together for the private Service of God though it were but to join their prayers on the behalf of our Land that it would please God to remove from off us the heavy Judgments we now lie under Could there be no provision made against Seditious Meetings without such Restraints as these Nay and if they take this Liberty by stealth how much more secure are twice as many Drunkards in a Tavern met at one of their Conventicles of Good-fellowship So that the more Politick have found a Tavern the safest place for a Meeting And doth not this abundantly evince how much the humors and private inclinations of men oversway and prevail in their administrations by the same Laws If therefore the spirit of the times and the inclination of inferiour Magistrates lay as much against Prophaneness as what they call Phanaticism that would have no more immunity than this Let none be offended at my Liberty of speech since doubtless these are things that need a Reformation I hope 't is allowable to say so yea and necessary too And as for Popery though I involve not the Magistrate in the guilt of all that Liberty they assume to themselves yet I hope we may have free leave to lay guilt upon It and to charge a most intolerable impudence upon the Professors and numerous Abettors of it How many both openly and closely are hard at work for the propagation of that which is much more hurtful though not so spreading as the Contagion now amongst us And that it is not so spreading we owe not so much to their want of will or pains but to the Goodness of God the Illness of their Cause and the better temper of our Clime fortified with the Truth But surely it would well deserve the care of those in power to do somewhat more to keep the Healthful from the Sick and to order that there might not be so much License given for people to frequent those places where 't is not impossible but some may be Infected even such whose Sense chooseth their Religion who would have their Devotion like their Recreations and a Chappel like a Play-house And I wish too many of our Gallants be not of this disposition but as for others I would have them go to a Mass to be confirmed against Popery It is very notorious what freedom they take for their meetings in many places in the Countrey as well as City besides those that may be priviledged And certainly England is not like to fare the better for being the Stage whereon so much Pious Pageantry and Historical Worship is acted Had Dagon been carried about amongst the Israelites with as much Reverence as the Ark was amongst the Philistines with Rudeness 't is likely That had been attended with as great Plagues as was This. He that considers what Idolatry often brought upon the Jews and shall well contemplate the Popish Devotions and our present miseries may not more clearly discern our punishment like to theirs than a like probable cause of it and look upon us little more beholden to Rome than they were to Baal Peor If these meek Innocents who with much ado bring themselves to talk a little humbly when instead of Fire and Faggot they are forc't to argue with words should Retort that we deal as unjustly with them as the Heathens did with the Primitive Christians who imputed to them whatever mischiefs befell the Empire I shall be brought to think so too if they can as easily evade the charge of worshipping Angels Saints Bread Altars Crucifixes and Images as those first Christians could free themselves from the palpably false Objections made against them but in the mean time I cannot be perswaded but that God is highly provok't with all those mockeries of Worship which they have devised and in the midst of us solemnized And even for these Inventions may the Plague be broke in upon us 12. We may well account amongst our provoking Sins the sad and lamentable Divisions that have been and still are on foot amongst us And whoever have raised and kep't up these have had not the least influence to procure wrath upon us Well may that People be divided from God separated from his love who are so divided one amongst another When one part of the Nation hath suffered then still the other hath rejoyc'd in their Brethrens Miseries as contributing to the advancement of their Cause And successively what the Sufferers call Tyranny Cruelty and Persecution those that inflict it call it a just punishment for their malignity or obstinacy Oh how just is it then That a general Punishment should at length work us into a more general Compassion That at least we may pity each other when we are all in the same Misery that appears to have nothing of a Party in it but strikes down on all sides those that stand before it Many and great Factions in the Western Church did immediately precede its being over-run by the Gothes and Vandals and not only in this but all other Corruptions are we like to them as may be learn'd from the Writers of those days God of his infinite mercy avert the further Judgments which such Disorders presage Such is and long hath been our Case That the loudest and most earnest intreaties for Peace have been drowned with the contrary noise and clamour of the Contentious What comes from the weaker and oppressed Party is still rejected as murmuring and complaining And those that are in Prosperity reject the offers which after they would gladly condescend to Still the Side that rules when they find they can secure their Interests without any compliance partly out of a jealousie of being undermined partly out of a love to to have the preheminence and partly out of a desire of revenge are far from hearkning to the most reasonable motions for Unity and Peace And he that mentions or laments our Divisions with never so Catholick and impartial a spirit and design if he charge not all the blame upon one Party shall scarce receive any thanks from either If he cries out of nothing but Antichristianism Idolatry Superstition and Tyranny then he shall be hugg'd by some And if he inveigh bitterly against Schism Sedition Faction Hypocrisie and charge this upon all that are not just of the humour of the times they live in then he shall please others But if he say some are too imperious and imposing and others too
Day that deserves to be wrote in Black Letters in England's Calendar Grant this Oh my God for thy Son Christ Jesus sake I beseech thee and let all that seek thy Glory and the Prosperity of thy Church say Amen If any upon the reading of this should argue me either of too great confidence in making such an attempt or want of judgment to conceive there was any probability of the success when much more likely endeavours have been uneffectual Let such know That when I had designed to do my utmost towards a discovery of those Sins which have provoked Gods anger against us I should have thought my self unfaithful to the Cause I undertook had any fear or pretence of Reason prevailed with me to pass silently over a miscarriage of such a nature as I have manifested this to be so fruitful of and complicate with many others And if any thing unequal to be framed by a Law I hope that alters not the nature of it so far as to make it above a Subject to call things by their own names Had an Act pass'd for the toleration of Drunkenness or any the like Sin I should have taken the boldness to represent the ill nature and consequences of it And though it is not impossible but prejudice may spy out very great faults yet I hope both as to the matter and manner of Discourse I have not transgress't the bounds of sobriety modesty nor that duty which I owe my Superiours Moreover I conceived That now God calls us all to search our hearts and review our ways they who themselves put us upon this work and exhort us to Repentance and Prayer will not be unwilling to reflect upon themselves and their own actions as remembring they are men subject to the same mistakes and frailties that the rest of the sons of lapst Adam are And if indeed it be made evident That amongst other Errands one voice of the Rod now upon us is Let my people go that they may serve me Let my faithful Ministers have liberty to advance my Gospel I hope those who are particularly called to from Heaven will not be disobedient Again I was willing so far as was consistent with my main Design to represent to the World if any yet be ignorant of it the nature of the difference betwixt us however to manifest thus much how willing yea how earnestly desirous some if not all of those suspended from their Ministerial Employments are to be re-admitted to the same and what reasonable terms they beg and readily offer a submission to if they might be heard that so they who are so forward to condemn them all as obstinate and perverse may be more wary of their censures and confine them to those only whom they know so guilty And I hop't I might do something to quicken all those whose hearts are affected with the Concernments of the Church to more earnestness in their Addresses to God That he in whose hands the heart of Kings and all men are would incline our Superious to hearken to the Requests and graciously to regard the Cause of so many of the Servants of Christ who when his Church so much needs their labours and they would so willingly spend themselves in the service of souls are to the sadning of their hearts in a great measure rendered unserviceable in their Generations And lastly Thus much however I shall attain viz the satisfaction of my Conscience in the discharge of my Duty that I can herein approve my self to God and my own soul that I have done what in me lies toward the procuring of my own and others Liberty that if it shall still be denied I may have nothing to charge my self with in this respect and may comfort my self in this that the improvement of such a Liberty shall no more be required of me by the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth than the improvement of a great Estate or a place of Honour or some such Talent with which I was never entrusted And if I obtain but thus much though I strongly hope for more I shall be far from repenting of my undertaken labour for I must confess that seems not to me a small thing which any way conduceth to my having of boldness before my Lord at the day of his appearing A word or two more I shall take Liberty to add upon this Head before I relinquish it If the removal of so many Labourers out of the Lords Harvest is so grievous a Sin both in its self and the sad consequences of it then all others and even they themselves so far as they have contributed to this their removal or have not since endeavoured to prevent those consequences have cause to be greatly humbled And first Even all the People who have sinned their Teachers into corners by their Pride Wantonness and Unfruitfulness under the Means of Grace But especially those private Persons who by their malice either did or at least endeavoured to contribute to their ejection or to the hastning of it What Volumns might be composed even another Book of Martyrs or Confessors rather of the Sufferings many of these Servants of Christ have met with from the Arbitrary violence of unreasonable men For I speak not of what the Law hath imposed on them How have some been toss't from place to place their Houses searched and they confined and all this either upon groundless suspition or false accusations for where was the man of them that hath yet been proved guilty of Treason or Sedition Oh the notorious gross Lyes and Perjuries that some of their People have been guilty of both before and since their ejection And yet how readily accepted by many And what 's the ground of all Why alas they had got many Hearers the Great-ones especially who were scandalized at the strictness of their Doctrines and Lives and angry that they might not go to Hell quietly who studied to be Revenged on them for the disturbance they had received from them in their Sins Thus I dare confidently say it hath been with many And though such may have thought they have been doing God good service whilest they have been persecuting his Ministers yet believe it they shall have small thanks from him that sent them upon that Errand the delivery whereof may have brought them so much trouble and that they shall find to their smart without true repentance if many of them have not already What could not men be content to reject the Embassy God sent them but they must injure and abuse his Embassadors too Shal not God proclaim war against that people that have thus violated the Law of Nations They would scarce have done thus to an Embassadour sent from the Turk to perswade us to exchange Christ for Mahomet and the Gospel for the Alcoran But Oh let let them alone they are safe enough 'T is the Factious Non-conformist not the Christian Minister they have medled with Not the Holy Jesus that came from