their own accord This was the reason why St. Paul was so zealous about the conversion of Sergius Paulus who was Deputy of the Country and a prudent man that when Elymas the Sorcerer offered to withstand him he burst out into such speeches with such eagernesse as he never did at any time before for ought we can reade Oh thou child of the Devill thou enemy of all righteousnesse c. And some are of opinion that Paul had his name changed from Saul to Paul because he converted Sergius Paulus For indeed it is a matter of great consequence to convert one Sergius Paulus one Eunuch To take one such great fish is more then to take many little ones though the least of all is not to be despised There is one argument yet behind the last but not the least and that is from the holy and solemn Covenant you lately have taken to amend your lives The excellency of a Christian is not so much in taking a Covenant as in keeping of it when taken And therefore we reade of Iosiah 2 Chro. 34. 31 32. that he did not onely make a Covenant to walke after the Lord and to keepe his Commandements with all his heart c. but he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it For if that man shall never goe to Heaven that will not keepe his promises though made to his hurt how much more shall they be barr'd from Heaven that break those promises that they have made tending to their eternall good To breake Covenant is not only a brand of a Reprobate as you have heard but it is also a sinne that God hath a quarrell against and a sinne for which he will be avenged according to that Text Levit. 26. 25. And I will bring a Sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrell of my Covenant And this is one great reason why the Sword is now drawne in England and hath sucked so much bloud even to avenge the great breach of Oaths and Covenants which this Nation is deepely guilty of Let me make bold further to remind you that in this Covenant you have also vowed in order to the preservation of them to assist the forces raised by the Parliament according to your power and vocation and not to assist the forces raised by the King neither directly nor indirectly And I doubt not but you will make conscience to satisfie these two clauses and herein you shall expresse the reality of your thanks for this great deliverance this day celebrated Now because the speedy faithfull and couragious appearance in this great Cause of defensive Armes is one of the highest expressions that you can yeeld to the world of your love to God and his Gospell and to his service Give me leave to speake something about it not only by way of Exhortation but first by way of Commendation then Exhortation then by way of Incouragement and then I shall conclude First By way of Commendation Suffer me to speake that which is due to you and not in mine own words but to speake the sense of all the well-affected in the Kingdome We blesse God that though there are many fallen Starres many Lords that have deserted the Parliament that yet you Right Honourable stand firme like fixed Starres in your Orbes and have taken unwearied paines for the good of the Church and State and have ventured all for your Religion and Liberties and many of you lost a great part of your revenewes for the present and have passed many Ordinances very advantageous to the Kingdome The Lord be blessed for all the good you have done The Lord recompence it to you and yours The Lord grant you may find mercy from the Lord at that great day It is not the designe of the well-affected party to take away Temporall Lordships or the distinction between Lords and Commons and to bring all to a popular equality This is an Anabaptisticall fury I protest against it in the Name of all the Well-affected Ministers Indeed we would be glad to be rid of Spirituall Lords over our consciences But as for Temporall Lords we pray with David The Lord give you good successe Ride on and prosper Thus much for commendation Now for Exhortation Let me exhort you not only to choose to serve God and to serve his Church and his Cause in this most just defensive Warre but to doe it with those rare and remarkeable circumstances formerly mentioned in Ioshuas choise First Let me perswade you to appeare more and more publikely in this Cause There are many that thinke it fit onely for poore men that have nothing to loose to appeare openly in a good Cause but as for those that have great Estates it becomes them to be wary and circumspect and to seeke rather to save their Estates then to hazard all Such a one was Nicodemus that came to Christ by night though afterwards he repented and amended as you may reade Iohn 7. 50 Such were those chiefe Rulers Ioh. 12. 42 That beleeved in Christ but durst not confesse him so feare of the Pharisees least they should be put out of the Synagogue And many such there are in our dayes But a true Christian is so far from being hindred by his riches and greatnesse from appearing for God that he is glad that he hath riches and Honours to loose for God he receives joyfully the spoiling of his goods He willingly parts with all for Christs Cause And if you aske him why he doth so he will answer with Paulinus Nolanus Vt levius ascenderet scalam Iacobi That he might goe the lighter to Heaven He saith as that famous Noble-man Hormisdas did who when he was deposed from all his Honours because he would not forsake his Religion and afterwards restored to his Honours again and then commanded by the King of Persia to renounce his profession Answered Si propter ista me denegaturum Christum put as i st a denuo acoipe If you thinke I will deny Christ for to keepe my Honours take them all back againe S. Austin in his Confessions relates an excellent Story of one Victorinus a great man at Rome that had many great friends that were Heathen but it pleased God to convert him to the Christian Religion and he comes to one Simplicianus and tells him secretly that he was a Christian Simplicianus answers Non credam nec deputabo te inter Christianos nisi in Ecclesiâ Christi te videro I will not beleeve thee to be a Christian till I see you openly professe it in the Church At first Victorinus derided his answer and said Ergone parietes faciunt Christianum Doe the walls make a Christian But afterwards remembring and often pondering that Text of our Saviour He that is ashamed of me before men I will be ashamed of him before my Father c. he returnes to Simplicianus and professeth himselfe openly in the Church to
THE NOBLE-MANS PATTERNE Of true and reall Thankfulnesse PRESENTED In a SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable House of LORDS At their late solemne day of thanksgiving Iune 15. 1643. For the discovery of a dangerous desperate and bloody designe tending to the utter subversion of the PARLIAMENT and of the famous City of LONDON By EDMUND CALAMY B.D. Pastor of Aldermanbury in LONDON Published by Order of that House LUK. 1. 74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life LONDON Printed by G. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.XLIII TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE House of LORDS Assembled in PARLIAMENT IF all Noble-men were as good and religious as they are presented to the World in the Epistles prefixed to the Books that are dedicated to them we should not have so much cause to complaine of great mens Iniquities or of poore mens flatteries S. Augustine in his Booke of Retractations Retracts it as a great fault that when he dedicated a Booke to Mallius Theodorus he praised him more then he deserved though he confesseth that he was doctus vir Christianus a Learned and Christian man It is none of the least miseries of great men that they want faithfull friends to tell them their vices as well as their vertues King Ahab had 400. flattering Prophets who were the cause of his ruine Hence is that old Proverbe that there are onely two things that never flatter great men Death and Horses For Death seizeth upon great as well as small And a Horse will cast downe a great man as well as any other if he rides not well This Sermon speakes plaine language and this is the only Reason for ought I know that it received such kind acceptance for otherwise it wants that neatnesse of phrase and eloquence of speech which such Noble Auditors are accustomed unto I have often heard of Great men that complained upon their Death beds that none would tell them of their faults but never of any that complained hee was told too much Theodosius the great Emperour confesseth of S. Ambrose notwithstanding his severe carriage towards him Solum novi Ambrosium dignum Episcopi nomine That he knew none worthy of a Bishoprick but Ambrose It is a custome to send Sermons out unto publike view under the Patronage of some Noble-man or other This Sermon hath this preheminence That it comes forth under the Patronage and by the commands not only of one Lord but of a House of Lords The Lord make it to obtaine that end for which it was preached That you my Lords may make Joshua's choise your choise The subject matter of the Sermon is very common and ordinary But herein I follow the example of Chrysostome who when he was made Patriarch of Constantinople the first Sermon that he preached before the Emperour Arcadius and the great Courtiers was a Sermon of Repentance This is the message that I have received saith Chrysostome from my Master Christ to deliver unto you Repent for the Kingdome of God is at hand Haec autem non dubitabo vobis assiduè revocare in memoriam Haec neminem reverentes neque potentes aut divites timentes ad vos loquemur The Lord bestow this great grace of Repentance upon you and inable you to serve God with all the ingredients mentioned in the following Sermon Two things I would desire your Lordships alwayes to remember 1. That the best way of thankfulnesse for mercies received is to serve the God of those mercies and to serve him with the mercies we receive from him 2. That the best way for the House of Lords to prosper is to indeavour earnestly and faithfully to reforme the Lords House your own houses and first your selves Some things I have added which were not preached which relate to all men in generall as well as great men which I then omitted for brevity sake but have here interserted I hope without offence that so this Sermon which is printed for a generall good might have somethings in it tending to the good of all men as well as great men The Great God make the House of Lords as the House of the Lord wherein service may be done to God and for Gods cause So prayeth Your Honours much obliged Spirituall servant Edmund Calamy A THANKS-GIVING SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable the House of Lords Iosh. 24. 15. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord WE are here met this day to keepe a day of Thanks-giving to keepe a Heaven upon Earth to doe that for a day which is the worke of Angels and arch-Angels to all eternity We have had many dayes of Hosannah's and now we are to keepe one day of Hallelujah's It hath pleased God of his great goodnesse to discover a dangerous and desperate Plot tending to the utter subversion of the Parliament of the famous City of London of the Army of the whole Kingdome and which is above all to the utter ruine of the true reformed Protestant Religion We are here assembled to give God the praise of this Deliverance Now that this duty may be performed after a pious and Christian manner to the praise of that God whom we come to praise I have chosen this Text For I am clearely of this opinion that as there is no duty more excellent then this of Thanks-giving For it is the duty of Heaven and not only so but the preferment of Heaven It is a duty that honoureth God and it is the highest honour that God can put upon us to give us leave to performe this duty It is a duty that Adam should have performed though he had never fallen It is a duty that shall last for ever and ever It is a comely duty It is a pleasant duty It is the highest expression of our love to God It is the surest evidence of our election For that man that loves the worke of Heaven upon earth shall certainely goe to Heaven when he leaves the earth Now the worke of Heaven is to praise God It is the only rent penny which God requires for all the blessings hee bestowes upon us And yet notwithstanding all this I conceive there is no one duty wherein God is more dishonoured or his name more prophaned then in this duty The world is full of Thanking of God blessed be God praised be God But I beseech yetell me Are we not formall in this duty Doe we not content our selves with the bare Carkasse and outside of praises Doe we not take Gods name in vaine while we are blessing his name Doe we not content our selves with a drop of praises for a sea of mercies Do we not praise him with our lips while we dispraise him with our lives Are we not like unto Actors upon a stage that now play one part and by and
be a Christian Let this Text of Christ alwayes sound in our eares He that is ashamed of me c. And that Text Revel. 21. 8. where the fearefull are put in the fore-front of those that shall goe to Hell before murderers whoremongers and Idolaters c. And remember also the publikenesse of Ioshuas choice Secondly Let me exhort you to goe on more and more resolutely in this great Cause Therefore my beloved bretheren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord It is not enough to doe the worke of the Lord and to abound in it but we must doe it stedfastly and unmoveably stedfastly as a Tree fastned in the ground that is not removed though the winds blow never so much unmoveable as a Rock in the Sea that stands fast though the Sea rageth and roareth round about it For there are so many and so mighty Anakims and Zanzummims that are your enemies so many temptations both of the right hand and of the left both flattering and frowning fiery tryalls and golden Apples So many mountaines of opposition lying in your way that unlesse you be indued with this excellent grace of spirituall resolution you will never be able to doe God any service in thesetimes But this admirable grace of divine fortitude and Christian resolution will make you like a wall of brasse to beate backe all the arrowes of strong perswasion that are shot against you This is Armour of proofe against all kind of temptations This is as the ballast of a Ship to keepe you steddy in this great Cause without which you will be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} men of double-minds unsetled and unstable in all your wayes This is like the Angel that rouled away the stone from before the doore of the Sepulcher this will inable you either to remove the great mountaines that lye in your way or to stride over them Excellent is the Story of S. Basill The Emperour sent to him to subscribe to the Arrian Heresie The Messenger at first gave him good language and promised him great preferment if he would turne Arrian To which Basill answered Alas these speeches are fit to catch little children withall that looke after such things but we that are nourished and taught by the holy Scriptures are readier to suffer a 1000. deaths then to suffer one syllable or title of the Scripture to be altered The Messenger offended with his boldnesse told him he was mad He answered Opto me in aeternum sic delirare I wish I were for ever thus mad Here was a stout Cedar Such another was Luther Vnus homo solus totius orbis impetum sustinuit Luther alone opposed all the world Such another was Nehemiah who met with so much opposition that had he not bin steeled by a strong and obstinate resolution he could never have rebuilded the Temple but would have sunke in the midst of it Such a one was David that would not be hindered from fighting with Goliah though he met with many discouragements The Lord make you such It is resolution that will make you valiant for the truth that will make Martyrdome as pleasing as a bed of Roses that will make you like men of fire and all that oppose you as stubble that will make you say with that good Martyr Though we had as many lives as haires on our head we would loose them all rather then loose our Religion The Lord fill your hearts with this grace Thirdly I am to beseech you that you would indeavour to approve your selves more and more faithfull to this Cause It is with us as it was with Nehemiah when he undertooke the great worke of rebuilding the Temple he was opposed by great men especially The Nobles of Tekoah refused to put their necks to the yoake of the Lord This is an eternall brand upon them Nehem. 3. 5. Many of the Nobles of Iudah did seeme to helpe Nehemiah but they kept secret correspondency with Tobiah and tarried with Nehemiah only to give private intelligence to the enemy and to weaken his hands from going on in the worke Neh. 6. 17. Thus it was in Nehemiah's dayes And this is one of the miseries of Civill Warre above all other kinds of Warre For there are alwayes some false brethren some Iudasses in civill Warre But I beleeve better things of you The Lord make you more and more faithfull to his Cause Remember what became of Iudas for his treachery Fourthly Suffer me to put you in mind of the speedinesse of Joshuas choice Ioshua had not his Religion to choose and therefore he did not demurre upon his choice Me thinks I heare the whole Kingdome beseeching you greatly and saying as the Ruler did to Christ in another case The Kingdome lieth at the point of death make haste oh make haste to heale us The whole Kingdome is on fire make haste to quench the flames that our sinnes have kindled Nothing will destroy England more then delay Fifthly Let me perswade you to doe some extraordinary service for the Kingdome that is now in extraordinary danger Ioshuas choice was extraordinary Though all Israel forsooke God Ioshua was resolved to serve God alone God hath done extraordinary things for you he hath advanced you above thousands in outward mercies hee hath done extraordinary things for this Cause which you stand up for he hath given us an extraordinary deliverance this day and therefore he expects extraordinary service from you He lookes you should say and doe as Esther If I perish I perish And let that Text I beseech you lye neare your hearts and reade it againe and againe Thinke not with your selves that you shall escape in the Kings house more then all the Jewes for if you altogether hold your peace enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jewes from another place but you and your fathers houses shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether you are come to the Kingdome for such a time as this He lookes you should venture your selves as Ioseph of Arimathea did of whom it is related that he was a rich man and yet was not afraid to owne the cause of Christ when Christ was dead upon the Crosse He went to Pilate and begged the body of Iesus He expects you should be like Ebedmelech that hazarded his life to helpe Ieremiah out of prison like to Noah who walked with God when all the world walked with iniquity and was like a sparke of fire in a Sea of water and yet continued his heate Like to David who when Michal mocked him for dancing before the Arke answered It is before the Lord and I will yet be more vile then thus c. When you are derided for hazarding lives and estates in this cause you must reply It is for God and his Religion I will yet be more vile then thus Oh that
to the greatmen to see if the way of the Lord as expecting more goodnesse from them then others Of which when he failed he threatens greater judgements against them then others Secondly As great men have greater reason then others So they have greater abilities and opportunities to serve God then others Now every ability and opportunity is a talent with which we are betrusted and for which we must be accountable The Wise-man tells us Ecclesiast 7. 11. That wisdome is good with an Inheritance Wisdome is good without an inheritance But it cannot doe so much good when it is seated in a poore man as when it is joyned with an inheritance When divine wisdome and honours meet together they are like apples of Gold in pictures of silver Riches and greatnesse have made many good men bad but never any bad man good and yet they put a price in a good mans hand to doe much good As a good musicall Instrument doth not make a skillfull Musitian but a skilfull Musitian can play better upon a good instrument then upon a bad one If the man be gracious and religious that is great and rich he will make sweeter harmony and melody in Gods eares then if he were poore and in a low estate It is not to be expressed what attractive power there is in the good examples of great men to make others good Great men are like unto looking-glasses according to which all the Country dresse themselves and if they be good looking-glasses they doe a world of good When Crispus the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved many of the Corinthians hearing of it beleeved also Act. 18. 8. When Shechem and Hamor were circumcised they quickly perswaded their people to be circumcised also Ioshuah's example in my Text made all Israel enter into Covenant to serve God And if the great-men and the rich-men of the Kingdome would appeare in more number and more couragiously and resolutely in the great cause of the warre now undertaken by the Parliament how quickly would the whole Land arise as one man to take part with them What mighty loadstones were Nehemiah Ezra and Zerubbabell to draw thousands of people to goe with them from Babylon to Ierusalem to rebuild the Temple So much for the Explicatory part Now for the Use and the Application And here I will apply my selfe First To all men in generall not excluding great-men And secondly To great-men in particular and yet not excluding other men First To all in generall This Text speakes a word of Reproofe to all those that make a quite contrary choise to Ioshuah's choice that choose to serve other Masters and not the Lord And of these there are 4 sorts 1. Such as choose to serve men and not the Lord The Apostle faith 1 Cor. 7. 23. Ye are bought with a price bee not ye the servants of men which words doe not forbid the civill relation and subjection of a servant to his Master but they reproove two sorts of men 1. Such as subject their Consciences to the superstitious inventions of men in Gods worship that build their Religion upon mans bare authority Such servants are all the Papists that build their Religion upon the Popes infallibility these are servants of men 2. Such as are servants to the lusts of wicked men that serve men when they runne in a crosse line to Gods will Such were the Subjects of Nebuchadnezzar that at the command of the King worshipped the golden Image and served the King and not the Lord Such was Pilate that for feare of displeasing Caesar delivered up Christ to be crucified though he knew him to be innocent And would to God we had not many amongst us that sell their Consciences their Religion and their Salvation to be panders to the lustfull covetous and ambitious desires of great men Such were the Nobles of Cambyses Cambyses had a lust to marry his owne sister he sends for all his councell and asketh If they had any Law in Persia to allow him to marry his sister They answered That there was no such Law But yet there was another Law That the Kings of Persia might doe what they list These Nobles were slaves to the lust of Cambyses And if we had not such Nobles and Gentlemen amongst us these unhappy warrs would quickly be at an end Alexander had two friends * Hephaestion and Craterus One loved him as a man the other as a King He that loved him as a man laboured to satisfie the Kings lusts and to please him as a man in all his desires whether lawfull or unlawfull He that loved him as a King desired to please him in such things which were just and which tended to the Kings honour and the peoples safety Now I demand which of these two were Alexanders best friend Our Soveraigne King hath two such kind of friends Two such kind of friends had Rehoboam and by hearkning to his Young-men and refusing the councell of his old and grave Councellours he ruinated himself and his posterity which God forbid our King should do Secondly I am to reprove such as chose to serve the times and not the Lord that change their Religion with the times That will be superstitious if the times be superstitious and devout or Atheisticall according to the times whose Religion is like a peece of waxe to be moulded into any frame according as the timesalter and change Such were the Samaritans that when the Jewes were in prosperity would professe themselves to be of the Jewish Religion but when the Jewes were in adversity they would disclaime them and their Religion Many such Samaritans amongst us that in King Edward the sixt's dayes turned Protestants in Queene Maries turned Papists and in Queen Elizabeths dayes turned Protestants againe There are thousands in this age that are Time-servers and not God-servers Many such Ministers and many such Magistrates many such people I have much thought of two wicked speeches too too much practised in these our dayes The one is of a deepe Polititian That it was good to follow the truth but not too neare at the heeles least it dash out our braines There are many such that would be glad to seeme to be religious and to owne the cause of Religion which is now asserted by the Parliament but they are afraid to owne it too publikely or too zealously for feare it should hinder their preferment and dash out the braines of their promotions Another speech is that of the King of Navarre to Beza That he would launch no farther into the Sea of Religion then he might be sure to returne safe into the Haven This is the true picture of a Time-server to dive no farther into the deepes of Religion to appeare no farther in this great cause of Religion then he can be sure to save his estate and to save his carcasse I read of the men of Issacar That they were wise to understand the
the Lord would give you a heart to study to doe some singular thing for him Sixthly You must doe all this not onely in your own persons but you and your houses you and your Tenants you and all that depend upon you For every Master of a family stands accountable to God for his family as well as for himselfe For these publike relations and subordinations of Master and servant Father and child c. are from Gods appointment and are parts of our Stewardship for which we must give a severe account And it is a certaine rule That man is not a good man that is not good in all his relations For there are duties required of us by God in every relation as Masters as Fathers as Magistrates as Parliament-men c. The same God that requires us to serve him as private persons requires us to serve him in our relations and though thou beest never so carefull of thy duty as a private person yet thou mayest goe to Hell for neglecting thy duty as a Master as a Magistrate as a Parliament-man And although thou shouldest be good in one relation yet if thou doest not indeavour to be good in every relation thou shalt never goe to Heaven For the same God that commands thee to serve him as a Master commands thee to serve him as a Parliament-man c. And he that keepes the whole Law and offends in one point is guilty of all Here is a Sea of matter offers it selfe and matter of great concernement for the regulating of Noble-mens families which are in many places rather Beth-avens then Bethels houses of iniquity rather then houses of God But I must not launch into this Ocean Onely remember that in the New Testament when the Master of the Family was converted all the family was baptized and what God saith of Abraham Gen. 18. 19. and what David saith Psal. 181. 2 3 6 7. and what is said Exod. 20. 11. Thou and thy servant Thus much for the Exhortations Now for Incouragement And there is great need to incourage Noble-men that set their faces to looke after Christ and to serve him after a strict and holy manner and that venture all in this Cause to goe on maugre all opposition For we live in times wherein we may take up that complaint of Salvian Si quis ex nobilitate converti ceperit ad Deum statim honorem Nobilitatis amittit Oh quantus est in populo Christiano honor Christi ubi Religio ignobilem facit mali coguntur esse nobiles ne viles habeantur If any of the Nobility begin to be converted to God presently they begin to loose in the eye of the wicked all the honour of their Nobility How little is the Name of Christ esteemed amongst those Christians where Religion makes a man ignoble and men are compelled to be wicked that they may be accounted Noble A true picture of our wicked times Suffer me therefore to offer unto you these following incouragements as helpes against all the discouragements you meet withall in the zealous and resolute prosecution of this great cause now in hand 1. The cause you manage is an incouraging cause It is the cause of God And let me say to you as Luther to Melancthon If the cause be not Gods why doe ye not wholly desert it but if it be Gods cause why doe you not goe through with it This is a Dilemma that cannot be evaded The glory of God is imbarked in the same Ship in which this cause is in And you may lawfully plead with God as Ioshua doth Iosh. 7. 9. and as Moses doth Numb. 14. 15 16. 2. You have an incouraging God me thinkes I heare God say to you as he doth to Ioshuah 1. 6. Be strong and of a good courage c. and verse 7. Onely be thou strong and very couragious c. And verse 9. Have not I commanded thee Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismaied for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest And as Ioshuah said to the people of Israel Numb. 14. 7. So doth God to you Feare not the people of the Land for they are bread for us their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us feare them not And as Moses said Exo. 14. 13 14. So saith God though your enemies be as tall as the Anakims though the red Sea be before you and the Egyptians behind you feare them not for the Lord fights for you The God whose cause you manage is infinite in power wisdom and goodnesse he hath brought us into deeps not to drowne us but to wash away our spirituall filthinesse not to destroy us but to manifest his power in our deliverance he will deliver us by weake meanes and by contrary meanes and he will make use of the treachery of your enemies to be a meanes to deliver you as he hath done this day He will kill Goliah with his owne Sword and hang Haman upon his owne gallows He will strike strait stroakes with crooked sticks as he made the treachery of Iosephs brethren to be a meanes to advance Ioseph and the falsenesse of Judas to be a way to save all his elect children 3. You have incouraging Promises Exod. 23. 22 23. Levit. 26. 6 7 8. Deut. 28. 7. 1 Sam. 25. 28. Isa. 41. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. Isa. 54. 17. A Text common to all Gods people because it is said to be the heritage of the servants of the Lord Here are six Texts like six pillars to undershore our spirits from falling into discouragements Cast your selves into the bosome of these Promises 4. You have incouraging examples For we cannot be in a lower condition then Ionah was when he was in the Whales belly tanquam vivus in sepulchro and yet God commanded the Whale to deliver him safe upon the shoare We cannot be in a worser estate then Ieremy was when he was in the dungeon and sanke in the mire so deepe as that 30. men could hardly lift him up or then Peter was when he was ready to sinke or then Moses when put in an Arke of bull-rushes c. Or then the children of Israel were in Babylon who were like dry bones in the grave insomuch as Ezekiell himselfe could not tell whether they could live or as Peter when put in prison by Herod And yet notwithstanding God sent a blackmore to deliver Ieremy Iesus Christ reached out his hand to keepe Peter from sinking God sent Pharaohs daughter to preserve Moses And Cyrus to deliver Israel out of Babylon And he sent his Angell to deliver Peter out of prison Indeed Peter himselfe did not believe it no more did the Church that was praying for him God sent them a returne of prayers while they were praying but they beleeved it not And thus God hath often done for us Comfort one another with these examples and carry this home for your everlasting