Holy Place and set up a graven Image in the House of the Lord. Thus Religion was laid wast and a Babel of superstition built upon its ruins Nay to fill up the Measure of Impieties he practis'd Witchcraft and kept a familiar Correspondence 2 Chron. 33. verse 6. with Devils And no wonder if Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness go hand in hand no wonder if they have no regard to the good of Men that have not the Fear of God before their eyes Blood is the usual Cement of every Religion that stands beside the Foundation of Truth and Reason and force the support of that disjoynted Cause that would otherwise tumble and be its own confusion To this Manasseh had Recourse suspecting that his bad Divinity would never propagate and stand but by the help of cruel Politicks Arguments as wicked as the Cause And accordingly you read that he shed innocent Blood very much 2 Kings 21. 16. till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other And this was indeed the grand provocation that incensed the Divine Justice so irreconcileably against that Place and Nation Manasseh's wicked Reign was the ground of all those Prophetick Threats 2 Chron. 34. 23. 2 Kings 21. 10. that open'd the Mouths of Huldah the Prophetess of Isaiah and Jeremiah And for this Cause was Manasseh himself the first of all the Men of Judah delivered into the 2 Chron. 32. 11. hands of the Assyrians as an earnest of the approaching Captivity And from this time forward the Babylonians every day got Ground upon them bating that little Respit in Josiahs time in the latter end whereof chap 35. verse 20. the Egyptians helped to do the work for them After this Nebuchadnezzer retook the chap. 36. verse 5. Cause into his own hands subdued Jehoiakim who for three years held the Crown in Capite of the Conquerour but he revolting became accessary to his own Fall Jehoiachin his Son had scarce Reigned three verse 9. Months when his City was Beseiged his Person seized on his Relations Officers of State Guards and Forces nay all the Artificers of Jerusalem taken to the number of ten thousand Men so that none remained but the Poor and Refuse of the Land that seem'd beneath the Enemies Displeasure over whom Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah verse 11. King But he Rebelled against his Benefactor and called in the Assistance of the Egyptians Which Act of Confederacy and Rebellion so enraged the Enemy that having disperst their Forces and entred the City they put the Inhabitants to the Sword half dead before with Famine and Pestilence Neither the gray Hairs of the Aged nor the verse 17. promising hopes of Youth nor the Charms of Virginity nor the Innocent Oratory of Infant Tenderness could divert the Course of their impartial Fury All places Sacred and Prophane were alike to them and the Sanctuary it self became a Tophet and Place of Execution And those poor Remains that escaped the Fury of the Sword were carried away to Babylon there to partake in the Captivity of their Brethren and bewail their Own Then was the Temple Sacked the Exchequer Plundered and all the Seats of the Nobility Spoiled and Pillaged And having possest themselves of all the portable Treasure of Jerusalem they brake down the Wall set fire of the Temple and left all her goodly Palaces in Flames In this State of Captivity the Jews remained till the seventy years of Jeremiah's Prophesy were accomplished When Babylon being subjected to the Persian Empire God put it Ezra 1. 1. into the Heart of Cyrus to set his People free and to rebuild the City and Temple that the Caldeans had destroyed To this end he gave them leave to go up and restored unto them all the Vtensils of the House of God and ordered them to be furnished out of the places where they sojourned with Silver and Gold and whatsoever else was necessary for the Undertaking And having now with Joy begun the Work chap. 4. 1. the Samaritans of whom I gave you an Account before sollicite the Heads of Judah that they might be joined with them in the Building of the Temple pretending that they Worshipped the same God and Profest the same Religion which the Jews did * So our Sectaries plead for comprehension do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of Faith the same Acts of Worship see Dr. Owen Plea for Non-Con p. 21. verse 4. But the Fathers of Israel well knowing that such a Comprehension would endanger the Purity of Religion and the peace of the Church utterly reject the Proposal and tell them flatly that they neither had nor should have any thing to do with them in Building a House to their God but that they would do it Themselves as King Cyrus had commanded them This Answer so netled the Samaritans that they resolved if it were possible to hinder what they could not be admitted to have a hand in To which end they had always some States-man or other in Fee to perswade the verse 5. 6. 7. King to revoke his Grant and countermand what he had Decreed At length Cyrus being personally engaged abroad in Forreign Enterprizes and in the mean time consigning the Administration of the Government to his Son Cambyses otherwise called Ahasuerus Joseph de Antiqu. Judaic l. 11. c. 3 Tirin in loc Alii and Artaxerxes the Samaritans looked upon this as a fit Juncture to work their Designs in Wherefore pretending themselves mightily concerned for the Honour verse 14. and Peace of the Government they send a Letter to the Vice King to let him know of what dangerous Consequence the Building of Jerusalem might be that the Jews were a factious unquiet People and if once their Hands were strengthened and their City Fortified they would in all likelihood Revolt and refuse to pay Toll and Tribute and Custome and by this means the Revenues of the Crown would be impared for the Probability and Truth whereof they refer him to the ancient Chronicles where he should find that this City had been a Rebellious City and hurtful unto Kings c. Which Accusation though spiteful and invidious was not altogether false For upon Enquiry Artaxerxes found it was as they had said that the City had formerly made Insurrection against Kings and that Rebellion vers 19. and Sedition had been made therein So that all the Untruth if there be any must lie in the Misapplication For which Cause this City was destroyed when indeed their Destruction was the Execution of God's Sentence upon the Sins of Manasseh but we do not find that Sedition or Rebellion are any where reckoned in that Catalogue But notwithstanding that this was the Original Cause of God's displeasure yet Sedition and Rebellion were in a great measure the proximate Cause of its Execution For the Revolt of Jehoiakin and Zedekiah hastened their Ruine and effectually brought the final Judgment upon them They
Schismaticks Jeroboams Proselites in Samaria And that our Saviour refused to 2 Kings 1. do so too was more upon the account of that Mercy and Loving-kindness which he was so eminent for himself and by his example and Doctrine recommended to his Church than either the Merit of the Men or their Cause And though Christianity allows not that persons should be proceeded against by Fire and Faggot upon a Religious account in Foro Humano Yet this is no Abrigement of the Divine Authority but that he may still thus Visit us for our Schisms when he pleases Once more That Last irraparable Destruction which caused Jerusalem to be no more was every way the consequence of their Faction and Rebellion They rejected their Messias and would have none of him to Reign over them But served Their King as we did Ours And this was the primary Cause of all their after Miseries In less than forty years when the Measure of their Iniquity was filled up and they were dropping-ripe for Vengeance as if it came not fast enough they Rebelled agaiust Joseph de Antiâ— Judaic l. 18. c. 2 Cestius Florus their deputed Governour and so brought the Empire about their Ears which never gave them over till they were totally destroyed And in the De Bellâ— Jud Ib. lâ—â— c. 50. very last Siege by Titus though they were oppressed by the Enemy without and the Famine and Plague raged within their Walls they ceased not to create Intestine Factions among themselves Three several Parties whereof the Zealots were One contending Battle-Royal with one another And this gave the Enemy an Advantage equal to that of their own Strength At length the City being Storm'd an accidental Brand set Fire o' the Temple which no endeavours could Ibid. l. 12. c. 10. quench till both the City and Temple were level'd with the Ground Indeed this City hath been Guilty of many other Popular and provoking Sins that doubtless were Accessary to her Ruin But then they are for the most part the Monstrous Off-spring of the former and begot between Schism and Rebellion Atheism hath made its Party strong by our Diivsions in the Church Many have been tempted to be of no Religion because there is so much controversy about the True Popery that we are so willing should bear all the Blame has taken hold of the Advantage and perswaded many over to that side because Babylon forsooth is a City more at Vnity in it self Prophaness has enter'd at the same Breach and the Service of God hath been miserably neglected through the suspension of the Laws in Favour of squeamish Consciences neither hath the Grace of God had its due effect upon the minds of Men in such a divided State for that is ordinarily restrained to the Communion of the Church and hath no where engaged to follow Runnagates in all their extravagant Rambles and Flyings-out So that Men have been left Defenceless both by God and the Law to the Temptations of the Devil and the Incentives of their own Lusts and no marvel then that they are so Licentious and Prophane And that Rebellion hath been as good a Friend to Vice as Schism we need not question For it is a Sin of that prodigious Bulk that where it enters it makes an Inrode into the Conscience and leaves an open Passage to all the lesser Fry to enter after it Besides it is a Propagating Sin and Many are the natural Issue of it Such as Fierceness Revenge and Murder c. For they that have been Flesh'd and Blooded in an unnatural War and have seen Thousands Wallowing upon the Spot are past trembling at a single Man's Fall especially such as have been Murderers by Profession and Espoused THE unrighteous Cause To these we may add Rapine and Injustice for what can come amiss to those Mens Hands that have been used to Plunder Palaces Rob Churches and Prey upon the sequestred Rights of Gods Inheritance Lastly Cursing and Swearing Whordom and Drunkenness are no where so aptly taught as in an Army the School of Debauches Nor were they ever so openly practised in this Nation as they have been since that unhappy time And what else could be expected but that wickedness should break in like a Torrent upon us when all the Bonds of Restraint were broken and every Man left to do what was Right in his own Eyes And now our Sins have taken such hold upon us that they were not easily to be broken off Custom has made them Familiar and Familiarity is improved into Delight that we pursue our Lusts with infinite Desire and Greediness not being lyable to the checks of Shame or the fears of Disgrace Because the worst of Sins are now but common Failings and every Day produces Instances of the like kind And for all this we are unfortunatly Beholden to our Schism and Rebellion So that if this City was destroyed upon the account of our Sins then doubtless Schism and Rebellion had the Principle and Leading hand in the Judgment And now what will the Samaritans say to these things why they will call us Rebels to our Teeth and Laugh at the Misery and Shame we have brought upon our selves When we tell them of the Henries of France or the Powder-plot nearer hand The Tragick History of the Martyr'd Charles will Strike us Dumb For the Children of Babel were never guilty of a more bloody Deed For which Cause this City was destroyed Well But they are only the Samaritans that say so those Babylonians that helped to destroy it Yes our own Consciences if they be soundly put to it will tell us so too and would often have told us so er'e this if we had not stifled their Clamours being loath to ascribe our Ruine to that which we are so ready to do again The Babylonians say we set Fire to our Habitations I should be loath to wrong them and add the Sin of an uncharitable Censure to those I am called to Repent of This Day But suppose it were so our Sins Alas betrayed the City into their Hands If we had not lost our Charter and forfeited our Right in the Divine Protection the Flames of Hell could not have prevailed against it That we may say in this Case as our Saviour did to Pilate in another They John 19. 11. could have had no power at all against this place had it not been given them from above therefore we that delivered it unto them have the greater Sin And now having discovered to you the true Cause or what we have too much Reason to suspect was so of that dreadful Calamity we are this Day met together to Commemorate and deplore let me exhort you to a serious Repentance of those Sins that in all probability occasion'd it For if they escape us we Fast and keep the Day to no purpose Sedition and Rebellion are sins of that formidable Look and of that monstrous Size that if they do not pain our Consciences and put
their particular Conceits and Imoderately ambitious to see their Judgments Enthroned and that the Pragmatick Votes of their own private Fancies might pass into publick Ordinances and become the Established Standing Forms of Religion to the whole Church and Nation And thus from our differences in Religion arose Sedition in the State Here was the first Ground of the Quarrellaid From these unhappy Beginnings we proceeded to hate and revile and proseeute one another with the utmost Spight and Rancour At the first we demurely pretended that we sought onely the Liberty of our own Consciences but afterward nothing would serve us less than the sovereignty over other Mens And they that refused to allow us this proclaim'd themselves our Enemies in that Denial the Government it self not excepted and as such we proceeded against them First with bitter Words and then with downright Blows and by these Degrees Sedition advanced to an Open and unnatural Rebellion A Rebellion that had no tollerable Pretence to Justify it A Rebellion most unreasonably charg'd upon the Score of Religion which in the General does no where countenance it and for that of this Church in particular it neither needed nor deserved it For it was Reformed allready as far as Reformation was necessary and almost tollerable that is to its Primative Purity and wanted nothing so much towards it's due Perfection as the Conformity of those that exclaim'd against it And the Conscientious Profession and Practice of it might have made us happy in this World and in the next if it be in the Power of Christianity it self to make us so Religion was as entire as Christ and his Apostles left it our Articles of Faith were neither more nor less than theirs and our Rules of Life the same And for those Ceremonies that made all the Noise what were they but such decent Useages as were recommended to us by the best of Christians for the first four Hundred years who look'd upon them as the Ornaments of Religious Worship and lived and died in the Use of them That if they were such Antichristian Prejudices to Religion and the Salvation of Men as has been pretended We must Judge very hardly of those blessed Saints and Martyrs that they are either on this side Heaven or that they made but very narrow Escapes thither But if Religion had been out of repair how unfit a Rebellion was to mend it I hope by this time we are all convinced A Rebellion as unreasonable on the account of the Government as of Religion And more unreasonable it could not be For as Monarchy is the best of all Governments so is Ours the best of the sort A Government Established by wholsome Laws that gives to every man as much Right and Liberty as Justice and Modesty can crave Laws that have abated the Royalties of the Crown for the Interest and Easment of the People Laws of our own Choosing and such as our selves have voted for that no man can Suffer by them but upon his own Verdict That a better Government we cannot have nor an Easier and they that do not think so I am affraid do for their own Sakes wish that there might be None The Administration of this so moderate and kindly Government was then in the Hands of a Monarch so Piously Devout so Morally Just so Christianly Good so every way unfit to fix a Rebellion upon that we could never have timed it so unhappily to our own Eternal shame from the first Monarch that ever swey'd the English Scepter until now But as these Considerations prevailed not to silence the Seditious Clamours and tie down the Hands of a Rebellious People so neither did they abate one Grain of Malice in carrying on the Bloody Work For their Fury and Spight was all one as if the Grand Sultan or an Army of Bears and Tigers had invaded them and as if He they fought with had neither been their King a Christian nor a Man Refusing all Treaty but what they knew and were resolved beforehand should come to naught And when they had Caught the Prey they Hunted in defiance to all Divine and Humane Laws to that Natural Allegiance that Subjects owe their Prince to their own Solemn Vows and Protestations which they had only used as Baits to betray him they un-king'd un-man'd and Barbarously Murdered him and made no more on 't than if they had Cut off a Dogs Neck All the Formality of the thing being more a matter of Triumph than Respect And now Look into your Records Look if you can for Shame and see if this City be not a Rebellious City and Hurtful unto Kings This City I say that Influences all the Nation And whose Example whether Good or Evil is a President to the whole Kingdom and Governs it as a Law In these Kennels did the Generation of Sects and Vipers Breed Here where Schisms brought forth and Encouraged Here was Faction Preached and attended to with an Eager Joy Here were Seditious Libells Penn'd and Scattered about the Streets Here Rebels Club'd into Confederaces and model'd Forms of Association This was the Stay and Confidence of the Projecting Party This was the Refuge of Traytors First and after that The Five Members first shelter'd here and afterward carried through the Streets in Triumph their Theatre From Hence were Insolent Petitions prefer'd and the Government Solicited against it self with Vexatious Importunities From Hence was the whole Nation Alarum'd and put into a Fright by their Mid-night Out-cries and unseasonable Doubling their Gaurds and Watches From Hence was the Royal Palace more than once assaulted by an Armed Rabble Here the Common Fund was chiefly Stock'd for carrying on the Design and they that begrudged a Mite to the Loan could freely offer Hundreds to the Publick Faith and never Boggle at that Bugbear Objection of being Arbitrary Finally here were Armies raised Magazines furnished and nothing was wanting on the City's Part that their Zealous Spirits their outstretched Hands or their unchristian Bounty could do to promote and further the Cause And now what should make us afraid to say that for this Cause this City was destroyed Schism Sedition and Rebellion especially weigh'd with the former Circumstances are such aggravating Sins that certainly we needed no additional Guilt to ruin us And it is no new thing for such Sins to be so punished Thus God avenged himself upon the Rebellious Schismaticks of old the first of that Denomination There came out a Numb 16. 35. Fire from the Lord and consumed them And as if it had been their peculiar Right and Portion the Disciples James and John ask our Saviour if he would not that they should Luke 9. 54. command Fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans Those obstinate Seperatists from the Jewish Church who refused common Hospitality to any one that did but look Jerusalem-ward And this Demand of Theirs was grounded upon a like Instance For so had Elijah the Prophet destroyed a Hundred
were a Conquered People and by the Law of Nations bound to undergo that Yoke which their Sins had put about their Necks As for Zedekiah he was Nebuchadnezzars own Creature and of his preferring he had also taken a solemn Oath of Allegiance and deposited his Faith before God as a Pledg of his Loyalty and Obedience beside he had an express Command from God by the Mouth of Jeremiah Solemnly backed with the Sanctions of Promises and Threats to put his Neck under the Yoke of Jer. 27. 12. the King of Babylon and to serve him and his People which if he did he should Live but if not He and His should Die by the Famine by the Sword and by the Pestilence but he stiffened his Neck and would 2 Chron. 36. 13. not hearken but Conspired with the Egyptians and Raised Sedition and Rebellion Now whether the Text refers to these Instances as probably it does or to any other I dispute not but this is certain that for this Cause among others the City was destroyed This is the Story let us now proceed to the Application Our Judgments are not much unlike to Theirs only God hath in Mercy hitherto abated us the Famine which we have no less deserved then They. But we have been Blooded till our Veins were almost dry We have been in Captivity and our Lives and Liberties sold into the Hands of Tyrants and Usurpers We have been Plagued with a Witness and have seen Death march with his Armies through our Streets a Hundred Thousand strong And as this was the immediate Forerunner of Jerusalem's Desolation so no sooner were our Citizens returned to their Houses from whence the destroying Angel had driven them but the Fire consumed their Dwellings and the same wet Eyes that pay'd the last Tribute at the Graves of their Relations and Friends were set afloat afresh to bewail the City it self Buried in its own Dust The Shops of Trade the Halls of Companies the Royal Burse of Merchants the Habitations of Nobles the Seats of Judgment the Temples of God being all crumbled into Ashes and scarce one stone left upon another And dare we still Justifie our selves and say we are Innocent and Plagued for Nothing Did God thus visit his own People for their Sins and shall we that have had the very same Sentence Executed upon us plead Not Guilty These things are written for our Example And I think we have Copied them out to Purpose and are the very Antitype of their Plagnes and Sins The Sins of Manasseh were Idolatry Sorcery and Bloodshed The First of these by the Help of God we have long since Rooted out and our immoderate Fear of it is one of the greatest Superstitions that now remain among us But yet our Temples have been no less defiled than theirs at Jerusalem The Sanctuary hath been the Prison of the Loyal and Innocent our Altars have been Debauched with Rioting and Drunkenness our Pulpits the Mint of Blasphemy Heresie and Sedition The House of God a Den of Thieves a Slaughter-House of Murder a Stable of Horses Defilements that Manasseh would perhaps have Trembled at and that none but Babylonians and such as dare Fire a Temple durst have been Guilty of And that Ours escaped it Then was more of God's Mercy than any Sence of Religion on the Prophaners part The next Sin of Manasseh that the Spirit 2 Chron. 33. 6. of God hath put a Mark upon is Sorcery and I doubt not but we may Match it with a Parallel For what do you call inspired Lights Visions Revelations Daunings Breathings and the like Familiar Incomes of a Private Spirit which if they be not Religious Witchcraft no sober Man knows how to define What is I say the Enthusiasm of these latter Ages but the communications of a Satanical Spirit with Mens deluded Phancies whereby the Devil hath made a better Market of his Sophisticated Impostures among us of this Nation than ever he did in the World before And what is that Barbarous Cant and Phraseology that we have been so long cheated with under the Notion of Powerful Preaching and Spiritual Raptures the Sence whereof is either Mysterious or None but meer Charms and Exorcisms to bewitch Vulgar Imaginations and Spells to possess and lead their Affections Captive The last of Manasseh's noted Sins is Bloodshed He Murdered his own Subjects and so had the pretence of an abused Power But we without all Power and against all but what we Vsurped Murdered those whose Lives were as much their own as ours and more Our Fellow-subjects our Friends and Acquaintance our Brethren and Fathers our Masters and Governours our Priests our Prelate our King and defiled the Land with its best and vital Blood And what more could Manasseh do or wherein was his sin of Blood-shed which the Lord would not pardon 2 Kings 24. 4. greater than ours And now let us see what we have to plead to the Samaritans Charge Nay rather let us confess the Fact and say as They and all the World do that we are a Rebellious City and hurtful unto Kings For our Guilt is too manifest to be hid and of too deep a Grain to be blanched by Pleas and Excuses Sedition and Rebellion are the Articles of the Indictment Sedition And that is either Ecclesiastical or Laic Hales of Schism D. 1. For there is no great difference between Sedition and Schism but that Custom hath distinguished them appropriating One to a Civil and the Other to an Ecclesiastical sence And for Church-sedition What People professing one common Faith were ever more miserably divided then We have been In how many shapes have we drest up Christianity and called it by so many Names till our Wits were puzled to find out Names enough to call it by We had ingrossed all the Heresies of former Ages and wracked our Inventions to Coin a Multitude more that the World never heard of till Then And every one of these Constituted a Party of a distinct Denomination from all Mankind beside That the whole Nation was almost unchurched and nothing in the World but a Pack of Schismaticks shuffled together without any Vniformity or Cohaerence The Body of Christ was rended Piece-meal and the divided Members like Bones in a Charnel house lay unmatched and no man could tell how they related Every Man was a Christian Every Man a Saint and almost every man a Church too but we were Christians and Saints at large and Indefinitely it being Impossible to find out wherein our Relation to Christ and the Communion of Saints Consisted or how we belonged to the Common Head by any Joint Order and Connexion of the Parts unto one another This Breach of Vniformity in Religion easily divided our Affections and when once we ceased to be Brethren the Gap soon opened to such a Distance that in fine we were not Friends All were extreme fond of their own Perswasions Impatient to hear their Opinions slighted zealous to prefer