ver 16. taken all the chiefe passages of knowledge so that whatsoever man or paper book or Minister had not pronounced their Shibboleth aright he should have bin crushed or suppressed in the birth 4. Yea higher yet because some Puritanicall Ministers I speake in their Dialect had an art of preaching and pestring in their very prayers before and after Sermon therefore a course is taken that they must confine themselves in the Pulpit before Sermon to a certaine Canonicall Sceleton that is layd downe in one of their illegall Canons in which me thinkes the Minister doth profer and promise the people fairly concerning prayer but is hardly so good as his word to the end and after Sermon they concluded with certain Collects at the Communion Table 5. Nay once more to shew you the Superlative depth and blacknes of this darknes some have bin forbidden and checkt if not punished for using of conceived prayer in their Families and because they did not there bind themselvs to the Common prayer book only Judge ye Brethren whether we were not about to be shut up under darknes as bad as Aegyptian Did I say as bad nay ours was worse in a double respect 1. First Aegypts darknes was Corporall and Outward but Englands was Spirituall and Mentall which is an immediate and certain fore-runner of darknes eternall Isa 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therfore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no pitty 2. Aegypts was not Vniversall for all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings Ob. So we had some Goshen too among us may some say in the worst of those times some Dioces Ex 10.23 some Church-men were not so bad as the rest An. Brethren there is a kind of method even in the setting of the Sun it is dark at Norwich and London and there awayes before it is night at Sarum Exon and Launceston because those former Counties are more Esterly but the same blacke cloud was comming apace over all the rest though they were not wholy and actually over-whelmed The month nay the very day was set for a generall Ecclipse yea for an extirpation of all those lights in the Land which should have stucke at that horrid Oath November the second last yeare one thousand six hundred and fourty then then was the time when the great Curefue-bell should have bin rung out for covering of fires and putting out of Candles in every County City Towne and Parish throughout the Kingdome Thus was our plague of Darknes the worst indeed of all the nine And yet the Removall or Remedy of this also do our eyes behold for there is an Order now come from the House of Commons both for setting up of Weekly Lectures by the Parishoners and for after-noon preaching where there is none so that if we will light may now shine out of darknes and that so brightly that the darknes may not be able to comprehend it The 10th and last was that Death of their First-born And it came to passe that at mid-night the Lordsmote all the First-borne in the Land of Aegypt Exod. 12.29 from the First-borne of Pharaoh that sate on his throne ver 30. unto the first-borne of the Captive that was in the Dungeon and all the first-borne of Cattell This I must Paralell with our late troubles in the North with that warre against our Brethren of Scotland True there is a difference in this that in Aegypt there was not an house in which there was not one dead by that plague in England and Scotland not many have dyed by this warre But for that difference blessed be the over-ruling hand of our good God no thanke to those Incendiaries for could they have obtained their purpose 't is more then probable that the death of one of every house in this Island would not have served the turn but rather that there would scarcely have bin one of an house left alive in many Families of the two Kingdoms Therefore that 's no great difference But the Paralell doth hold in divers respects as 1. Exod. 12. v. 29. First that Aegypts plague was at midnight so this warr was so contrived as to come upon us in the depth of our palpable Aegyptian darknesse of which before First the eye of knowledge should have bin put out amongst us and then Sampson-like we had bin fit to grind in their Mill or rather as he to have pulled downe the house upon our owne heads 2. In Aegypt that plague was the last of the tenne yea it was an immediate cause and fore-runner of Israels freedome and Deliverance from their intollerable taske masters He smote also all the first-borne in the land Ps 105.36 37. the chiefe of all their strength And then immediately he brought them forth with silver and gold and there was not one feeble person among their tribes 3. So it is our hope Bretheren for Removall that the good God will make that Northerne warre the conclusion of all these our plagues yea and an occasion or cause of our greater strengthning and enrichment Judg. 14.14 We see that there is some meate come out of the eater and out of the strong there is come some sweetnesse already Perfect thou ô Lord the thing which thou hast begunne amongst us So much touching Removall The third branch of Deliverance which we gather by looking upon our evills felt or feared it was called Prevention It is a great mercy to a sick man to have the paine and perill of his disease stopped it is a greater to have his malady quite Removed but for a person to be kept and preserved safe from all touch of a disease that was neere him to be blessed with a Prevention of the plague that was next doore this is a mercy above many And therefore this third branch is both higher and greater then both the former and yet it is lesse valued generally then either of those For those plagues which are Stopped or Removed from a Nation they were present and actuall but that mischiefe which is prevented and kept off is at most in respect of our apprehension but a possible and future evill and therefore we are lesse sensible of this though greater evill In short that bitternesse which we have felt we know by sence to be bitter whereas much more being escaped by us because escaped may seeme lesse Hence it is that the Lord doth loose much prayse and glory for this sort of mercy Nabal we know did returne but little thanks and lesse requitall to David for the safe guarding of his Shepheards in Carmel 1 Sam. 25.10 the reason was because the good done to him by David was a Prevention he did preserve the men and flocks from danger so that the chutle felt no evill and therefore did value the curtisie as nothing So is it twixt us and God we give him little prayse for great mercy
were certainly going But to remove that deceit of heart consider these particulars 1. First that some were utterly and actually already gone and driven out and this both East and West can too truly testifie Looke Eastward into Holland and how many of our choyce and extraordinary Teachers were driven thither and durst not shew their heads here untill this Parliament for fear of Prisons and Pursevants and all for scrupling at a few Ceremonies confessed by the Innovators themselves to be indifferent Look but upon the books of those Ministers which they have sent over since their banishment Looke upon their Sermons and services done for us besides the damnage to cloathing occasioned by their departure and then you cannot but acknowledge that many of our choise Ministers were driven away actually into the East to our great damnage But the West can tell us of a farre greater number now wandring in the Deserts of America One man of God is a precious Jewell in a Kingdome and may doe much for the publick safety and Reformation of a whole Land in time of need as we see in Elijah and Elisha 2 Kin. 2.12 what a losse is it then to one poore Island to have scores of such Chariots and Horse-men driven away at a clap 2. Others if not quite gone yet were going apace How many honest Kenites were packing up their Fardels 1 Sam. 15. v. 6. how many powerfull Pastours in England were just now upon the hiding point Some for Ceremonies others for faithfullnesse in their Ministry were fain to fly from chamber to chamber to hide themselves These beginnings of Ministers banishment may ensure and convince us sufficiently that the Continuance of those that remain is a mercy yea a favour Superlative Secondly and as of Ministers so for the continuance of all other Spirituall and Nationall good things which I say again stood a tiptoe and were as it were upon the wing they are all new given unto us We may say of them all as the father of his returning Prodigall Lu. 15. v. 24. They were dying and are alive againe they were losing and are found Hast thou an estate of Lands or houses goe home and new date thy leases let them all run from the yeare 1640. I say againe One thousand Six hundred and fourty for then was thy tearme renewed I mean that very yeare might thy lands have been Aceldama the stage of warres and thine houses fewell for wilde-fire In a word hast thou but a wife children yea a life of thine owne to lose I tell thee man all these are new given thee too in the same yeare 1640. And therefore as the Lord by Moses said to Israel concerning the Moneth Abib Exod. 12. v. â— This moneth shall be unto you the beginning of moneths it shall be the first moneth of the yeare to you So may I say of this very yeare unto us all and especially to Ministers of the moneth November in this particular that this deserves to be accounted the beginning of our yeares and moneths In a word in them we received our second first being Consider therefore to close this point how all our old good things are now become new 5. Head of this Deliverance we called Addition or Increase The present great worke of Mercy is so full of rich particulars that 't is like a speciall messe of meat which we may turne againe and againe and still find in it another choise or delicate morsell and therefore though we have heard of Stoppage Removall Prevention and Continuance already yet there is a fifth list of Additions now to be spread before your eyes In setting them forth I may chance to touch upon some instances or particulars which have been named before but if I doe it shall be under another Notion and to a different end How common an objection is it especially amongst Atheists and Delinquents that they see no such great things already done for us by this present Parliament Object as some over-working heads doe seeme to intimate I answer first to the Persons Sol. perhaps those men doe look through the wrong end of the Perspectiveglasse and then great things may seem very little unto them Perhaps their Organ is vitiated their judgement is corrupted and then they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter But secondly to the point it self I answer he that hath the heart of a Protestant the mind of a good Subject or the eyes of a reasonable Creature and doth not wincke with those eyes that he might not see he must both see and say that the Lord hath done many great things for us already for which we have cause to rejoyce If any man ask me for an exact Enumeration of them I answer as he Oceani fluctus me numerare jubes In Scripture phrase they are more then J am able to expresse I must give them in by heaps We heard before of a Paralell to all the ten plagues of Aegypt but what if I should now shew a Catalogue of great works of this Parliament out-stripping yea doubling that number I will not over-lay your attentions before hand with a promise of prolixity but let us observe some famous particulars done already and those for the Glory of our God the perpetuall Honor of our dread Soveraigne and the lasting praise of this Parliament 1. The first observable Addition must be that Act for the Confirmation of the Treaty of Pacification I cannot but set it in the fore-front of my catalogue as the first lincke in this golden chaine and the basis of all the rest of our late mercies The whole Act is true 't is large but to me so much the sweeter let him that can for me reade it over with dry eyes I meane for joy for I thinke that Act is looked upon by diverse sorts of men as was the foundation of the second Temple among the Jewes 'T is said that Many wept with a loud voyce and many shouted aloud for joy Ezr. 3.11 12. So doubtlesse all that wish well to our Zion and Jerusalem to Church and State they cannot but rejoyce in reading thereof but as many as are contrary-minded like enough doe repine and howle in secret to see so blessed a close of so perilous a businesse Brethren let me commend the serious reading or hearing of that Act to every judicious and fit Protestant and Subject now present and also if they please to all those which have bin so loud fierce and active heretofore against our Bretheren of Scotland Oh let these latter reade blush repent and change their minds with shame and sorrow but the former let them be confirmed and lifted up in their holy loyall intentions and proceedings The substance of the whole Act or Statute may be reduced to these three heads First there are I doe not trifle away holy time about secular things the Commissions upon which that treaty at Rippon was grounded As oft as I reade them over and doe
holynesse for then the Lord himselfe doth take the matter into his owne hand and will be a principall in the cause and this ought to be our comfort See a ground for it in Scripture in the case of Hezekiahs distresse when Rabshakeh had rayled against the wayes of the Lord in him see how God doth take it to himselfe And Isaiah said unto them that is Isa 37. v. 6. to the servants of King Hezekiah thus shall ye say to your Master thus saith the Lord be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard wherewith the servants of the King of Syria have blasphemed me marke the last syllable me He goeth on ver 7. Behold I will send a blast upon him and he shall heare a rumour and returne to his owne land and J will cause him to fall by the sword in his owne land Yea the Lord doth put himselfe into the quarrell ver 23. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the holy one of Israel ver 24. By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord c. But J know thine abode and thy going out and thy comming in and thy rage against me ver 28. ver 29. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up it to mine eares therefore I will put my hooke in thy nose and my bridle in thy lipps and I will turne thee backe by the way by which thou camest Thus when the Lord is ingaged to a worke as an Auxiliary Luk 21. v. 28. or against the Enemies as a Principall then let the Adversaries looke to it but let the righteous lift up their head for in Probability their redemption draweth nigh But although there are all these severall grounds of Probabilities yet let me tell you to prevent confidence that there are also some Improbabilities of the prosperous successe of this worke there are Bitts as well as Spurres yea many a rough winde and tyde is against it and therefore we should doe well to follow that counsell of the Psalmist Psal 2. v. 11. Serve the Lord with feare and reioyce with trembling Rejoyce we may for the Probabilities but we must also tremble to consider what Improbabilities there are Would we heare some of them 1. Then first consider our generall Backwardnesse and unwillingnesse to be Reformed Remember againe that place of Ezekiel Ezek 24.13 Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinesse any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee What an universall unthankfullnesse is there now in England for mercies lately received The Scots are still rayled against by some whilst Straffords memory is favourably reported The day of Thankesgiving was generally sleighted and there are those which durst to grumble against the Parliaments zeale and diligence Besides those Declarations Orders and Edicts which tend to purging and punishing of wickednesse what neglect of them what disputes against them doe we heare of on all sides Brethren these things doe not a little set backe the ballance of mine hopes 2. Improbability may be the too much dullnesse selfe-love and selfe-seeking of too many Professors even in these times Base feare muddy covetousnesse and Reserving pride these doe benumme their tongues singers heads and hearts so that they doe not pleade spend contrive and pant for the publique good of Zion Here I may fitly take up those words of our Saviour though spoken in another sence For the day of vengeance is in mine heart Isa 63. v. 4. ver 5. and the yeere of my redeemed is come But how was it entertained And I looked and there was none to helpe and I wondred that there was none to uphold Upon such a ground as this was that exclamation of Ieremiah ô that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of wayfaring men Jer. 9. v. 2. that I might leave my people and goe from them Why For they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth ver 3. they proceed from evill to evill and they know not me saith the Lord. These are Improbabilities Seeing then that there is both hope Quest and hazard perill and possibility in the businesse oh what and how may we doe for our particulars to remove our feares and to attaine our hopes I answer againe Answ be Active be Active I have already shewed you wherein and I shall now adde only to shew you wherefore or why we must be thus Active My desire is to stirre us up by some motives to further the worke begun First consider the great Peril the manifold mischiefes Motive 1 and Inconveniences of an imperfect Reformation and Deliverance I say againe the manifold mischiefes for they are diverse As 1. In respect of the Lord himselfe who is hereby provoked and offended farre more then if nothing at all had bin done Halfe-service is as bad and sometimes worse to him then none and therefore such a remisse servant is accursed Cursed is every one that doth the worke of the Lord negligently Jer. 48. v. 10. Luk. 10. v. 27. God will have service as love with all the heart mind soule and strength We know what a brand and blemish there is set in Scripture upon the memories of those Kings which did Reforme in part but not thoroughly 2 King 14. v. 4. 2 King 15. v. 4. ver 25. because the high places were not taken away Thus we find a blot upon Amaziah upon Azariah upon Iotham c. Thus in respect of God 2. Such an halfe-stroake in Reformation doth breed an Inconvenience in respect of the worke it selfe for that is hereby made farre more difficult then if it had never bin attempted A foule cloth that hath bin slim'd as they say in washing so that the dirt is scalded into it will require farre more labour to clense it then if it had never bin touched A wild Colt that hath once cast his rider will put him doubly to it to sit him the next time 3. Yea in respect of other after-reformers too such an halfe doing will be no small disheartning and prejudice unto them in case they may set upon the same worke in time to come What will it be said will these men doe more then their wise predecessors could compasse Tush this attempt is an old fancy a stale project Thus in such and such a time of old there were some of your humour that made a great noyse of Alterations and Reformations they forsooth would needs doe strange businesses but what was the issue either nothing or a very small matter Thus the cure is made more difficult to those Physitians which shall come after and they by this meanes are discouraged from the undertaking 4. But especially such imperfect attempts and meere beginnings of a Reformation and Deliverance are most mischievous in regard of the Enemies of those workes
made knowne when their hypocrisie deceipts malice c. doe begin to be discovered then 't is very probable that they shall not proceed any further their market is marred And is it not so with our Enemies at this time their vailes vizards maskes and periwigs are plucked off so that men see them in their colours Secondly they are met withall and crossed even by a Divine hand in all their plots projects and conspiracies As the Prophet Elisha directed the King of Israel to meet with the King of Syria in all his stratagems 2 Kin. 6. v. 8. to ver 13. Then the King of Syria warred against Israel and tooke counsell with his servants saying in such a place shall be my camp And the man of God sent unto the King of Israel saying Beware that thou passe not such a place for thither the Syrians are come downe And the King of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of and saved himselfe there not once nor twise Therefore the heart of the King of Syria was sore troubled for this thing and he called his servants and said unto them will ye not shew me which of us is for the King of Israel And one of his servants said none my Lord ô King but Elisha the Prophet that is in Israel telleth the King of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber Now when the bed-chamber counsels of traiterous Enemies doe come abroad 't is a signo that they are declining apace Exod. 14.24 ver 25. The Aegyptians we know were mirrours of incurable stubbornnesse against the Lord and yet even they when they saw that their hoast was troubled and that their Chariot wheeles were taken off so that they drave them heavily even they do confesse 't is time to flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for them against the Aegyptians And so 't is reported of those Spaniards that came against England in that Armado in Eighty eight that seeing the windes and seas and all against them they cryed out that God was turned Lutheran ô me thinkes the present factions of Papists Anti-Deliverancers and Anti-Reformists they might as well imagine now that the Lord God is turned Covenanter and Puritan I take the word so as those men doe usually abuse it Act. 14 14. And for mine owne part after the way which many persons doe call Puritanisme so desire I to worship the Lord God of my Fathers But this is a second signe of their tottering and of our standing upright Thirdly which followeth from both the former they doe grow weaker continually both in their party 2 Sam 3. v. 1. and in their spirits 'T is said There was long warre betweene the house of Saul and the house of David but David waxed stronger and stronger and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker Yea and in Sauls owne particular case 1 Sam. 28. v. 15 see how spirit-falne he is when his destruction approacheth And Samuel said to Saul why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up And Saul answered I am sore distressed for the Philistines make warre against me and God is departed from me and answereth me no more neither by Prophets nor by dreames ver 20. therefore I have called thee that thou mayest make knowne unto me what I shall doe And after hearing his doome from the Divell Then Saul fell straight way all along on the earth and was sore afraid because of the words of Samuel and there was no strength in him But you will say nay Ob. rather the Enemies now doe grow more desperate and couragious No Answ there is a vast difference betwixt desperatenesse and valour though for the first fit they may seeme to be alike There is great oddes betwixt the playing of Fishes in the pond and their frisking in the kettle though both may seeme alike Desperate attempts are sure badges both of a conquered man and a coward for though dead men cannot bite yet dying persons doe bite most deadly These are grounds of Probability from the Enemies But from the Church and the Reforming party Ground 2 we may gather Arguments quite contrary to all these three For 1. Their Counsells doe prosper like that of Hushai against Achitophel And Absalon and all the men of Israel said 2 Sam. 17. v. 14 the counsell of Hushat the Archite is better then the counsell of Ahitophel for the Lord had appointed to defeat the counsell of Ahitophel And 2. They are now more and more Honourable before all tollerable men as was Joseph Gen. 41. v 39. comming out of prison Dan. 6. v. 28. and Daniel out of the den of Lyons Yea the hand of the Lord is upon them for good as it was with the same Joseph and Daniel 3. In short both their party and their spirits doe in a comfortable degree increase and grow continuall as it was with the house of David before mentioned 3. Ground 3 Probable ground of Deliverance and Reformation are the Lords Ingagements in this businesse and these are of two sorts First his Ingagements to the worke it selfe as an helper Auxiliary or beginner and these ought to support our hopes not a little It is an Argument with which I find the Saints in Scripture doe much stay their hopes and presse the Lord in times of great provocation and perill As when they had committed that great sinne in making a Calfe and the Lord had a kinde of desire to consume them Exod. 32. v. 9. ver 10 11 12 yet Moses useth this Argument to appease wrath and to continue preservation and doth obtaine his request 2 Chro. 20.1 2 So when Jehoshaphat was in triple danger there were three Nations to one against him but he giveth himselfe to prayer and a maine argument of his prayer is set downe to be this ver 5 6 7. Art not thou our God who didst drive out the Inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever Lo with how many Relations and Ingagements doth he there presse the Lord His Relations doe lye in these wordes Our God thy people and the seede of Abraham thy friend The Ingagements in these words Thou didst drive out the inhabitants of this land and gavest it to the seede of Abraham c. Brethren let us in an humble and edifying way to the Lords honour the works promotion and our encouragement edifie one another with these sayings This is the Lords Ingagement to the work as an helper 2. Is his Ingagement against the Enemies as a Party or a Principall And this we may gather if we looke upon the great blasphemyes of the Enemies even against the Lord himselfe 'T is good newes for the Church when her Enemies are growne rancke in blasphemy when they are come so farre as to despight the power of godlinesse and to hate holinesse quatenus ipsam as