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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89586	The song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lambe: opened in a sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons, at their late solemne day of thanksgiving, Iune 15. 1643. for the discovery of a dangerous, desperate, and bloudy designe, tending to the utter subversion of the Parliament, and of the famous city of London. / By Stephen Marshall, B.D. and Pastor of Finchingfield in Essex. Published by order of that House.	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1643 (1643)	Wing M789; Thomason E56_5; ESTC R16053	30,483	54

the credulous prayers for the devout works of piety for the charitable voluptuousnesse for the dissolute pardons for the faulty dispensing with all rules for men of lawlesse conditions with what ever else might allure the Nations to drink of the Whores intoxicating cup Neither hath the Devils cunning and power more appeared in the first contriving of it then after in the upholding of it in all ages stirring up men of excellent and rare perfections constantly and diligently to put in execution all his counsels and devices to hold in those who are already caught in their snares to allure others and to weaken and undermine all opposers how great and potent soever It is therefore well becomming the wisedom and power of this King of Saints to grapple with this Beast after this manner that in the things whereof he is most proud He might shew himself to be above him Secondly this enemy hath been the sorest and heaviest Adversary that ever the Church of Christ had in the world Nebuchadnezzar of old and the rest of the Assyrian Monarchs did break their bones like a Lyon the Aegyptian Pharaoh like a Dragon devoured them Antiochus Epiphanes cast down the Saints and stamped upon them and did weare them out the Romane Ethnick Emperours the three first hundred yeares wasted them in ten severall Persecutions but these and all these were as nothing in comparison of this Destroyer all their loines lay not so heavy upon the Churches back as the little finger of Antichrist Whether we respect the cruelty exercised upon the body or tyranny over their soules and consciences or the extent and length of time in both I say in respect of cruelty first upon the body I beleeve that upon a due survey there would be found upon his score more blood of Saints and Martyrs then was shed from the blood of righteous Abel to the beginning of his reigne A hundred thousand within the limits of one Kingdome put to death in a few weeks thirty or fourty thousand boasted to have fallen by the hands of one of his emissaries in the space of a few yeers and if so what hath been done in the rest of the Nations where all who once tasting of the whores cup delight to drink and to be drunken with the blood of Saints In her is found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slaine upon the earth Secondly in respect of tyranny upon the soule we read not that Pharaoh or seldome any of the rest though they all oppressed the people of God in their outward liberties did much endeavour to force their consciences or if they did as sometimes Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus the case was so cleare that they needed not take time to answer about it but this tyrant causeth all both small and great rich and poore free and bond to receive the marke of their spirituall slavery in their right hand and in their foreheads so that none must buy or sell save he that hath the mark or name of the beast and that with such deceivablenesse of unrighteousness with such power signs and lying wonders that he deceives those that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he hath power to do So that even many of the Lambs own followers have in part been deceived by him and if it were possible they would finally deceive the very elect of God Or if thirdly we respect the continuance and length of his bloody reigne in this also he exceeds the rest In Aegypt they were evil intreated about two hundred yeers The Babylonish yoke oppressed them threescore and ten years Antiochus sorely wasted them but it was but for a very little season The Heathen Empire of Rome proved more cruell and bloudy then any of the rest for the space of three or four hundred yeers but this Antichrist makes incessant desperate and bloudy war upon them no lesse then twelve hundred and threescore years together And if you put all this together you shall finde just cause why the King of Saints should proceed thus severely and strangely in ruining this great enemy of Himselfe and people making him as wonderfull in his terrible fall as he had been in his bloudy reigne Thus you have the truth of the doctrine fully and clearely demonstrated it remains now that I make some application of it to You wherein I shall confine my selfe to those three uses which we finde the Church makes of these workes in this place First they wonder at these wonderfull workes they observe them they have them digested into a song and sing this song of Moses and of the Lamb having as well their hearts filled with admiration of them as their mouths with praise And this Honourable and beloved let me commend to your practice in the first place Come and see the works of the Lord even the great and marvellous works of the Lord God Almighty how terrible he is in his doings towards the children of men All his works are great his works of Creation even of the least atomes the works of common providence governing even the wayes of the pismire are great and worthy to be sought out of all them that take pleasure in them but the works of the Lord towards his Church the goings of our Lord and King in his Sanctuary ruling his Saints in the middest of their enemies and after this manner breaking in peeces the Powers which doe oppose them is now the wonder of Angels and shall be the wonder of Saints to eternity and fit therfore that now it should be ours Mans disposition is naturally taken with thoughts and discourses of things great and wonderfull and is not satisfied but in something that raises the mind to a high pitch of admiration here you may behold an object fit if any to beget wonderment and indeed our spirits never are right till we stand at gaze here for this discovers a plaine difference between the spirits of godly and carnall men these latter are more taken with vaine and empty things A Poet or a well-penn'd Romancy how it takes some wasting upon it dayes weeks and moneths admiring the wit invention style or elegancy others wonder at the raising of this or that poore man to a great estate of wealth at another out of the dust advanced to the height of honour these things fill their hearts with thoughts when alone their mouthes with discourse when in company yet in the mean time the wonders of Christ are not taken notice of Christ's person offices administrations are too base things for them to busie their thoughts about they can see nothing but triviall matters and not worth their notice in them all yea they wonder at them who can spend their time in the Study of the Scriptures and the meditation of these works of Christ But these men whatever they think of themselves are sottish beasts carnall and brutish persons and

THE SONG OF MOSES THE SERVANT OF GOD AND THE SONG OF THE LAMBE Opened In a Sermon preached to the Honorable House of COMMONS At their late solemne day of Thanksgiving Iune 15. 1643. for the discovery of a dangerous desperate and bloudy Designe tending to the utter subversion of the Parliament and of the famous City of London By STEPHEN MARSHALL B. D. and Pastor of Finchingfield in Essex Published by order of that House REVEL. 17. 4. Come hither and I will shew thee the judgment of the great whore LONDON Printed for SAM: MAN and SAM: GELLIBRAND in Pauls Church-yard 1643. TO THE HONORABLE House of COMMONS now assembled in PARLIAMENT Honorable and Beloved THe holy King and Prophet David required that the prayses of God should be sung upon well tuned Instruments and some Psalmes which himself composed to that purpose he styled Michtam golden Psalms as being full of precious and choise treasure Such could I have wished might the Instrument have been and such the Song of Praise and Thanksgiving to have celebrated the goodnesse of God for this late wonderfull preservation of your Honorable Assembly and the famous and worthy City both whose ruine was plotted and designed by wicked and unreasonable men But you were pleased not onely to designe to this service a weak and untuned Instrument though not Crackt as Malice and Slander hath bruted it abroad but also to injoyn the publishing of this song of Thanksgiving which is full of weak and imperfect Notes And to this latter task I was I confesse farre more unwilling then to the former as being conscious unto my self how few conceptions could be brought by me to any such maturity as might render them meet to become the standing Monument of so great a Mercy and so happy a Day which is worthy to be ingraven on Marble rather then to be written on Paper and with letters of gold rather then with ink But in the pursuance of your Commands I have done it and added some few things which time nor strength would permit me to deliver in publike Being resolved to deny my self and to do nothing that may hinder me from being what I am and shall always desire to remain Yours wholly in the service of Christ and his Church STEPHEN MARSHALL A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE the Honorable House of COMMONS on the 15. of Iune 1643. being the day of their publique THANKS GIVING HOnorable and Beloved were the strength of my body and my furniture of wisdome learning and grace in any degree answerable to the service of this Day I could not but exceedingly rejoyce in being called to this work in this place at this time For having been lately restored from the gates of death what greater mercy could I wish then to praise God in the great Congregation and having been reported over the whole Kingdom to have altered my former judgement concerning this just cause of the Parliaments Defensive Arms yea that the horrour of my guilt in adhering to this Cause had distracted me and made me mad can I look upon it otherwise then as a great and publike taking off this reproach by being called to exercise my poor talent in that Assembly which is the whole Kingdom by Representation and at this time to be a furtherer of your joy and thankfulnesse for Almightie Gods watchfull eye and powerfull hand thus wonderfully manifested against the desperate and bloody Designes of those that would destroy you But I fear lest this which is so many wayes a favour to me should prove your losse through my weaknesse which would not permit me to study much in private and I fear will disable me in the publike delivering that little which God hath brought to my hand yet this doth encourage me I have abundant experience of your Candor and I know that both with God and man where there is first a willing mind especially in a day service of Thanksgiving it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to that he hath not Yea I have one encouragement more that Gods providence hath directed me to such a Text which is not onely sutable to our meeting and service but so really intended by the Spirit of God for your time and work that the very reading of it though an hour together might exceedingly affect you if once you have the true meaning of it which Text you shall finde written in REVEL. 15. 3 4. read also ver. 2. Verse 2. And I saw as it were a sea of glasse mingled with fire and them that had gotten the victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the number of his Name stand on the sea of glasse having the harps of God 3. And they sung the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lambe saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints 4. Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest THis Text though it be a part of the Apocalyps the darkest and most mysticall Book in all the Scriptures and therefore thought generally hard to be understood yet time one of the best Interpreters of Prophecies hath produced the events answering the types so full and clear that we have the whole Army of Protestant Interpreters agreeing in the generall scope and meaning of it which in a few words be pleased to take thus A great part of this Book is a setting out the conflicting state of the Church under the great Apostasie with the Antichrist the heaviest and forest enemy which ever the Church had and this Antichristian power and dominion is set forth as other Kingdoms elsewhere are by a systeme of the world wherein are earth water air sunne moon starres a King a Metropoliticall City Provinces People c. an Antichristian Empire an Antichristian World and this great Monarchy of Antichrist hath the time of its rising its triumphant reigning its declining and ruine and the state of the Church of Christ under all these clearly foretold in this Book And to say nothing of his rising and reigne his ruine is described in this fifteenth and sixteenth Chapter under the Type of seven Angels pouring out seven vials full of the wrath of God the seven vialls being so many degrees of the Beasts or Antichrists ruine which story of the vialls the Holy Ghost sets down two wayes first generally in the fifteenth Chapter secondly more particularly in the sixteenth Chapter In the generall description of them in this fifteenth Chapter we have first the circumstance of the place where this Vision was seen whence these Angels came that is heaven I saw another signe in heaven verse 1. that is the true Church whereof Christ is King opposed to the world wherein Antichrist reigns as beyond all doubt may

greatnesse of his strength we finde him leading them in uncouth wayes which they knew not and wayes which to them seemed unpassable His way hath been in the sea and his pathes in the great waters and his footsteps were not known yet still leading his people like a flock sometimes removing mountains our of their way making them flow down at his presence sometimes skipping over them sometimes his way hath been in the whirl-winde and in the great storm yet always working in such wayes and in such a manner as that first his own people have thought he could intend nothing but their ruin as Ionah did when cast into the Sea and swallowed up by the Whale an unlikely way of deliverance and in such wayes secondly as to the enemy have ever seemed most advantagious to their own purposes and destructive to the Church God suffering them to lay the Plot for their own ruin to dig a pit for their own destruction and making the ways by them intended for the Churches ruin to be the greatest meanes of their deliverance as fully and clearly as Hamans Plot proved the exaltation of the Iews and Mordecai and the ruine and destruction of himself and family a Volume might be filled with instances of this kinde The device of Charles the fifth to disinherit the Duke of Saxony to keep the Landgrave of Hessen in perpetuall imprisonment thereby intending utter ruine to the Protestant party in Germany was the very occasion of the confederacy of Smalcald which almost drove Charles out of Germany and established the Protestant party in the liberty of their religion The Massacre in France in which were destroyed within the space of thirty dayes as the Historian reports it above seventy thousand Protestant souls proved ye know a means within a short space to double and treble if not quadruple their numbers in that Kingdom and procured them publike Edicts and Cautionary Towns for the liberty and security of their Religion which before they had not The cruelty and tyranny of the Spaniards in the Netherlands one of whose Deputies Duke D'Alva boasted that he put to death six and thirty thousand Hugenots and Protestants hath been the greatest meanes to prevent the swelling of his intended Monarchy and increase the freedom and strength of the Protestant party not onely in the five United Provinces but in all these parts of Europe Who that hath read the Scottish Story is ignorant that the Archbishop of St. Andrews cruell burning of Mr. George Wischart conferred much to the Reformation of that whole Kingdom The time would fail me to tell you of the desperate Conspiracies of the Priests and Jesuits in England all the time of Queen Elizabeth of the Powder-treason and their unwearied Machinations in other States and Churches and how constantly the Lord hath turned them all to the advantage of his Church and to bring ruine and destruction upon the contrivers of them And if any of you have not had time or means to observe these things in Story your eyes cannot but see them all fulfilled in Christs late and present dealings with our selves and our brethren of Scotland For them what great things hath the Lord lately done and by what very weak means hardly the fifth part of the Nobility as I have heard appearing for them the greater part openly opposing them scarse one fourth part of the Kingdom owning the Cause how often were they at their wits end when some unexpected door was opened to them And were not all their works wrought for them by the rage cruelty and cunning of their enemies Were not the book of Service and the book of Canons sent and obtruded upon them from England the occasion of their late mercies was not the tyrannie of a few of their Prelats a means to unburden them of their whole Prelacy and when they were as much shut up in straits as the Israelites at the Red-sea and knew not over-night what would become of them the next morning then constantly some absurd desperate Plot or other of their enemies brake out which gave them an out-gate to escape And even so hath God dealt with England his work amongst us is of the very same warp and woof The great mercies which we enjoy the great deliverances we have lately received from what a high hand have they come to what a very dead low ebbe were we brought Our liberty almost swallowed up and turned into slavery our Religion into Popery and Arminianisme and even then God remembred us in our low estate and by what instruments becommeth me not to speak much in your own presence Your selves know how sinfull and all the Kingdom how mean and contemptible in the eyes of your adversaries they looking upon you as Sanballat and his company did upon Nehemiah and his builders and with like scorn uttering the same reproaches What do these feeble Iews will they fortifie themselves will they make an end in a day will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish even that which they build if a fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall And well may you take up the builders complaint Hear O our God for we are despised and yet by such despised broken vessells hath the Lord hitherto delivered us And which is still more wonderfull to the glory of God be it spoken our greatest deliverances have been more promoted by the cunning treachery and violence of the enemy then by the foresight vigilancy and strength of our best friends The Prelates late Canons and Oath purposely contrived for the perpetuating of their Hierarchy and their other treacherous and malicious endeavours against the State joyning with the Papists and with them labouring to turn all into confusion rather then suffering the least abatement of their former pride and tyranny have helped thus farre towards the taking them away both root and branch The multitudes of calumnies and reproaches cast upon the Parliaments just proceedings slighting their Authority slandering their intentions misinterpreting their actions have they not through the goodnesse of Him who preserveth them from the strife of tongi been an occasion of making their Authority Priviledges intentions actions clear as the Sun at noon day And to instance no further this late bloudy and mischievous Design in which this Honorable Senate this famous Citie and with them our lives religion laws and liberties had undoubtedly been made a prey to their mercilesse rage and fury the Lord hath not onely brought to light without any foresight or watchfulnesse of yours but made those that were the contrivers to be the discoverers their own evidence and confession being the thread which lets you into the depths and labyrinths of those counsels which they had digged deep to hide if possible even from the eyes of God himself and thereby giving you a great opportunity the Lord in mercy teach you to improve it to advance the glory of his Name for

things are set as if there would be a lengthening out of these unnaturall wars untill the Cities and Countries are utterly spoiled and the Land wasted without inhabitant Now in these calamitous times every mans thoughts run as Nebuchadnezzars with desire to know what should come to passe hereafter and to demand with that Saint How long it shall be to the end of these troubles and all complain that there is no Prophet to tell us how long neither can I blame them as curious who are modestly solicitous to know what will be the event of these things for even the Prophets and holy men of God heretofore searched diligently to know what and what manner of times the Holy Ghost intended when he spake of the sufferings of Christ whether in his Person or in his members Now my Text gives I say a satisfactory answer to this difficult Question and I undertake without fear of being censured to be wise above what is written to tell you what will be the issue and event of all these troubles All Protestant Writers do agree that we are under the pouring out of some one or more of these seven vialls Some think the fourth viall is now powring out upon the Sun of the Antichristian world Others the fifth upon the throne of the Beast there are that think we are come as farre as the sixt viall and the river Euphrates is drying up I will not determine which of them it is it is sufficient which of them soever it be my Text assures me the event shall be this which is the event of every viall Antichrists part shall be weakned and the Church of Christ shall be strengthened Something in every viall may afflict the Church but incurably wounds the Beast As the seven Trumpets were so many degrees of the destruction of the Heathen Empire so the seven vialls are so many degrees of the destruction and ruin of the Antichristian Empire and it is worth your observing that all the time the whole twelve hundred and threescore years of Antichrists reign Christ always had an army of Saints to warre against the Beast a competent number of witnesses who loved not their lives unto the death But all the while of Antichrists rising and triumphant reigning the event of every conflict or scuffle was that the Beast grew higher and the Church fell lower the Papacy prevailed over all that rose up against it so that the Church in the end was hardly to be found visible upon the face of the earth But it is far otherwise in his declining time the time when the vials are pouring out every one of thē plucks part of his fleece one of them strips him of this Kingdom another of that one of them weakens his Temporall another his Spirituall Jurisdiction He is under the vials as Haman before Mordecai having once begun to fall he can never more prevail against them untill in the end the seventh viall being poured out upon the whole power of darknesse the whole Church triumphantly shouts with a loud voice It is done there is an utter end of this enemy So that I dare speak it as confidently as I beleeve the Revelation to be divine Scripture and the meaning of it thus farre made known to the Churches that what viall soever is now powring out the issue will be That Antichrist shall lose and Christ shall gain And there is but one objection against it which I confesse to be a great one and that which troubles many viz. Whether the two witnesses be yet slain their story ye shall read in the eleventh of the Revelation These two witnesses are the small yet competent number of pure worshippers who follow the Lamb and conflict against the Beast all the time of his reign now it is there said that during this whole space of time they prophecy in sackcloth and ashes in a low and mournfull condition and the Beast makes warre against them and prevails against them but quando finituri sunt testimonium a little before the end of their mournfull prophesie which is a little before the Beasts finall destruction the Beast shall not onely keep them low in sackcloth and ashes and prevail by degrees against them as heretofore but shall kill them and their dead bodies shall lie unburied in the streets of that great City that is in all the Territories of spirituall Babylon and the Beast and his followers shall be more jolly and glorious then ever they have been Now many learned Divines suspect this killing of the Witnesses is not yet past and if it be not the Church must go lower then ever it hath been and how then is the Antichristian State weakned by every viall To all this I answer that although I am not able to say This bitter Cup is yet past Father if it be possible let this Cup passe away yet I can say this is true I have delivered that every viall shall weaken the Beast and strengthen the Church and whether they be killed or not killed when ever their killing comes it lasts but three propheticall dayes and a half that is but three years and a half and then presently come in the glorious times which Christ hath promised and the Church long lookt for so that what that Father said of the Arian persecution Nubecula est cito transibit it is but a short though terrible storm and will quickly have an end and that end will be comfortable to the witnesses who shall after three dayes and a half arise from their death and ascend up to heaven in a cloud their enemies beholding it and the great City immediately destroyed with a terrible earthquake And is not this comfortable You see I go not about to determine what the event of these troubles will be to England as England is a Civill or Politicall State or Common-wealth Christ breaks and moulds Common-wealths at his pleasure He hath not spoke much in his word how long they shall last or what he intends to do with them onely this that all Kings and Kingdoms that make warre against the Church shall be broken a pieces and that in the end all the Kingdoms of the World shall be the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Saints and they shall reign over them But it is the cause of the Church the blessed event of these things to the Church of Christ which I speak of the welfare and good successe of Religion in which Cause you are properly engaged and interessed and which I hope is dearer to you then ten thousand Englands Therefore Beloved Be ye stedfast and unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord fear not your enemies because they are blasphemous and wicked because they are set on fire with the rage cruelty and treachery of Hell fear them the lesse for that Let my enemy be as the wicked and he that riseth up against me be as the ungodly Their wickednesse is your advantage it is their weaknesse and makes you strong Let not the huge stature of the Anakims and Zamzummims terrifie you Our state for the present is low it may be we shall be lower but lower we cannot be then Iob was upon the dunghill from whence God raised him up not lower then Ionah in the Whales belly from whence the Lord delivered him not lower then the Israelites at the Red-sea thorow which the Lord made a way for them Go on with your work and fear nothing this King of Saints hath depths answerable to all our depths depths of mercy answerable to our depths of misery depths of power answerable to our depths of weaknesse He can give a comfortable Outgate out of all our straits and my Text sayes he will do it and with my Text I conclude Great and wonderfull are the works of our God And he delights to work wonders both in ruining his adversaries to uphold comfort and deliver his people engaged in his Cause and to bring others in subjection to him who yet are strangers from him The Nations shall come and worship before thee because thy judgments are made manifest FINIS Some few instances clearing the main Doctrin and some in largement of the first Use 2 Cor 8. 12. The Text 1. 2. 3. Exod. 15. Josh. 7. The main Doctrine of the Text Explained Revel. 16. 5 6. Isaiah 59. 18. Judg. 1. 7. 〈◊〉 Doctr. 〈…〉 instances Deut. 32. 36. Isa. 59. 16 c. Albertus Crancius Cajetanus Cardinalis Judg. 7. 13 14. Jer. 31. 22. Jer. 38. 11. Neh 3. 5. Revel. 16. 8. Psal. 77 9. Isai. 64. 1. Cant. 2 8. Nahum 1. 3. Sleidan Veramundus de suroribus Gallicis Knox Hist. of Scot Thuanus Psal. 136. 23. Nehem. 4. 3. Prov. 26. 25. Judg. 14. 14. Revel. 16. 2. Ver. 5. Ver. 9. Ver. 10. Levit. 24. 10. Luke 6. 38. Vol 3. 954. c Vol. 2. 185. 187. Revel. 17. 5. Chap. 11 8 9. Chap. 16. 2. 3. 10. 21. Chap. 16. 12. Chap. 19. 20. Revel. 16. 7. Chap. 19. 1 2. Deut. 32. 34. Revel. 1. 1. Revel. 19. 9. Reason 1. Revel. 13. 2. Sands West relig. fect 13. Exod. 18. 11. Dan. Revel. 18. 24. Dan. 3. 16. Rev. 13. 16 17. 2 Thess. 2. 9. 10. Revel. 13. 14. Revel. 18. 4. Matth. 24. 24. Revel. 11. 2 3. Application 1. For admiration Mat. 24 2. Psal. 107. 43. Psal. 104. ult Motives 1. 2. 3. John 1. 50. Jer. 33. 3. 4. 5. 2. Vse of Exhortation Revel. 14. 6. Col. 1. 16 17. Motives 1. 〈…〉 10 11. Psal. ●●6 71. Psal 106. Esay 57. 16. Ezek. 2 Kings 2. Revel. 15 ● Isay 1 Sam. 2. 30. Ezck. 17. 15. 1. 2. 3. 3. Vse of Encouragement Dan. 2. 29. Dan. 8. 13. Psal. 74. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Ester 6. 13. Dan. 2. 24. Dan. 7. 22. Revel. 11. 15.