are brought into the bowels of the English and many Noblemen and Gentlemen are so pleased with the Children of those Strangers that they have French Servants Papists to attend them whom they have well Mounted and Armed enough to make a little Army of themselves And this they do that their strength may be hidden till opportunity shall serve to make it appear It is well known that the chief Places of Strength and many Chief Commands are in the hands of Papists And now they become so numerous and having such power what is there wanting but a convenient Opportunity to fulfil all that is in their Hearts upon Secure Unarmed Unprepared People and to dispatch their work in few days and especially upon thee O London who art their chiefest Eye-Sore O England except the Lord prevent it thy Calamity is near at the very Door and thou mayst expect every day now Peace is made Abroad when these will unsheath and draw their Swords upon you here at Home and you must be charg'd in the Kings Name for so they will abuse it to stand still and to hold forth your Throats to Murderers You cannot forget the dreadful Maffacre at Paris nor that late more dreadful and bloudy Massacre of the English Protestants in Ireland when more than a Hundred Thousand Innocent Persons Men Women and Children were in a very short time with the greatest Cruelties and Torments that ever were heard of murdered by them and what Authority they pretended for it But they have treasured up in their minds the fulness of all Cruelties for you English-men They have discovered something of their Kindness and good Pleasure to you in their firing the City of London which they have left as an Everlasting Monument of their Treachery and Villany to England and of their hatred to English Protestants and let this most notorious fact of theirs be engraven in great Characters on the Gates and Walls and Chief Places of your City when it shall be built again that all Posterity when they shall see New London may know and consider what Persons and what Religion burnt the Old They have also often attempted the firing of Southwark and of the remaining parts of the City for nothing but the utter ruine of it will satisfie them And when the kindling of some of these later flames was related to a Great Person they laughing said Now the Game is begun again for they make but a May-game of consuming all And yet Fire only will not satisfie them it is bloud must follow or they are never the near It is you O English Protestants whose lives they thirst after and they can neither eat nor drink comfortably nor sleep quietly till they be filled with this Venison And therefore of you it may be truly said Your lives are in jeopardy every hour Yet for all this let us not despond nor cast away our Confidence saying Our hope is cut off and we are perished for he that sits in Heaven laughs them to scorn even the Lord hath them in Derision and though we hold our peace he will speak to them in his Wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure He will make his Arrows drunk with their bloud and his Sword shall devour their flesh from the beginning of Revenges upon the Enemy Rejoice O ye Nations with his Paople for he will avenge the Bloud of his Servants and will render Vengeance to his Adversaries and will be merciful to his Land and to his People Thirdly Another of your Dangers which also is one of the greatest is your own Heedlesness and strange Security in the midst of such thick Clouds and Storms which have encompassed us round able to awaken even dead Men. How stupid and sottish were you at the burning of your City when you saw with your own eies your Houses your Substance your Riches all consuming together in those furious flames before your faces yet how insensible were you of your deplorable condition how regardless of that heavy hand of God how insensible of the Treachery and Cruelty of Men who did not only begin those flames but also continue them in the Progress they had appointed for them Had you the Brains or Hearts of Men to suffer those Incendiaries who were taken in the very Act to be rescued from Justice and released to carry on their Villany again surely you were so Sottish that had not the Lord been the more merciful to you your Lives and Houses had perished together as it was designed Moreover how insensible have you been of the Popish Plot and intended Massacre as if those good Men had been but in Jest when a Regiment of Papists was brought up to secure the Protestants and a company of Wolves to guard the Flock and when some of their own Pens and Lips reveal their minds why should you yet be so ignorant of it who are wholly concerned in it Wherefore as your Lives hitherto have been dear to God so let them now also be dear to your selves and do not you say Peace Peace when the Papists intend and prepare Destruction Destruction but let that be verified of you which Henry VIII saith of his time to wit The World is not now in so light a suspicion of you Papists as it hath been hitherto but every Man seeth before his Eies your deceits your Wicked Minds your Immortal Hatred against the Truth and the Professors of it every Man sees how many miserable Tragedies your pretence of an Unity and Concord hath brought into Christendom They see your fair face of Peace hath served Sedition and troubled almost all Christian Realms And therefore seeing they were so quick-sighted who lived above an hundred and thirty years ago to see and foresee the Treacheries and Cruelties of the Papists let not us who live so many years after and have had far greater experience of them be altogether blind and see nothing at all in the clear Noon-shine of their Doings Wherefore let all be admonished that after the desired Tidings of Peace they be not so eagerly addicted to the rebuilding their Houses and regaining their Trade and prosecuting their Worldly Affairs and Concernments whilst yet they are uncertain of the enjoyment of any thing that they become careless and regardless how it fares with the Church of Christ and his Gospel which is the very light and life of our Souls as well as the foundation of all our outward comforts or how active and watchful the Brood of Antichrist which lurks amongst us becomes that they may deprive us of our Religion and Lives and so be as greedy Birds that are scratching for food whilst the Net is spreading over them to catch them at unawares for what will it profit you to win Estates and to lose your Lives your Lives are better than your Estates and your Estates are but for the comfort of your Lives And if the Enemy take away your Lives whose shall your Estates be they shall even become a reward
Comfort in Affliction OR ADVICE TO PROTESTANT DISSENTERS IN Times of Persecution TOGETHER WITH Remarks on the just Judgments of God upon this City and Land since the Prohibition of the Gospel by Mulcts and Penalties By J. O. LONDON Printed for R. Jones 1682. COMFORT in AFFLICTION OR ADVICE TO PROTESTANT DISSENTERS c. THE Suppressing the Glorious Light of the Gospel and Banishing it out of Publique View the silencing the Grace of Christs own Lips and causing the Joyful Sound that Proclaims the Acceptable Year of the Lord to cease out of our Borders is the Evil of Evils and the Misery of Miseries which brings all other Evils and Miseries along with it yea this shuts up the Kingdom of Heaven from the World and sets Hell wide open for all men to run headlong into it as we see it done this day This excludes the Love Mercy and Goodness of God from the World as much as possibly it can and brings in his Wrath and heavy Displeasure to wast and consume it of which we have had the sad and most exquisite Experience now alas for several years together For since the Gospel under several Mulcts and Penalties hath been forbidden to be Preach'd how many Manifestations of Gods Just Anger have we seen in many strange and unusual Prodigies in the Heavens in the Waters c. Being loud Warnings of the Wrath to come What a griveous and desolating Plague the Scourge of the Almighty hath destroyed Thousands and Ten Thousands in that late great City and in many other parts of the Nation the like whereunto hath not been heretofore What a dreadful Conflagration hath devoured that Famous and Incomparable City the Head and Glory of these Nations and laid it in Ashes and Ruines like Sodom and Gomorah which Cities were set on Fire from Heaven but this from Hell by the Locusts of the Bottomless Pit the Emissaries of the Pope and his Clergy which Vermin have swarmed in this Nation since the removal of the Gospel And this provoking Sin is not so much the Sin of the people as of Evil Counsellors at the Helm who as it were have openly renounced Christ and desired Barabbas to be given to them in his stead they have rejected the sweet and Meek Gospel of Christ and have desired to be given to them the Cruel and Murderous Religion of Antichrist And this one thing carrys weight in it that they who tolerate Popery to take its ease among us and to lengthen its Cords and to strengthen its Stakes though it be directly against Christ and they who tolerate the open exercise of the Jewish Religion which denies and blasphemes Christ will by no means suffer nor endure the true and sincere Gospel of Christs Kingdom to be published but under great Penalties From hence follows the greatest and deepest ignorance of God and Christ that can be and of all their unsearchable Riches which the Gospel hath discovered to the World The greatest ignorance of the Law and of Gospel of Sin and of Righteousnes of Salvation and Damnation of Heaven and Hell in a word the grossest ignorance of all the Revealed Truths of God which concern us either to obtain Eternal Life or to avoid Endless Death Never was there such a Deluge of Sin seen upon Earth as now covers the Face of the Nation this is even become the covering of all Flesh All sorts of People of High and Low Degree whether Secular or Ecclesiastical are all drencht and dyed in it in such sort that Men live in this World in the manifest likeness of the Devil and if Satan himself were Incarnate you could not easily discern one from the other They set their Faces against Heaven and call out upon God to Damn them Soul and Body So Divelish they are that they would fain be tormented before their time and do often provoke Hell to swallow them up for because they can be no liker to the Devil in this World they would hasten to Hell that there they may be fully like him Oh Monsters of Mankind Oh the true Seed of the Serpent the right Generation of Vipers Ye have been fore-warn'd by God to flee from the Wrath to come but who hath warn'd you to flee unto it Who among the remote Nations would believe the report of all your Villanies The very rehearsal of them would put them into Pangs and the bare hearing of them into Tremblings their Sayings and Doings are such as are not fit to be mentioned or recited among Men but onely in the midst of Devils For who without horrible fear could either repeat or hear their desperate Blasphemies against God himself glorious in Holiness and against our Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath made his First-Born Higher than the Kings of the Earth and when he brought him into the World he said Let all the Angels Worship Him and against the Holy Spirit against whom whoever speaks a word it shall never be forgiven him against the blessed Gospel the great and onely Power of God to Salvation against the Kingdom of God on Earth and against them that dwell in Heaven Therefore O Lord forgive them not For their Vine is as the Vine of Sodom and of the Fields of Gomorrah their Grapes are Grapes of Gall their Clusters are bitter their Wine is the Poyson of Dragons and the cruel Venome of Asps The shew of their Countenance doth witness against them and they declare their Sin more than Sodom they hide it not they boast of it and every Man is famous as he can do most wickedly Wo unto their Souls for they have rewarded evil against themselves For therefore Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her Mouth without measure and their Glory and their Multitude and their Pomp and he that rejoiceth shall soon descend into it This their Day approacheth it comes it makes hast when they shall perish for ever like their own Dung and they that have seen them shall say where are they And therefore howl ye Profane Ones for the Day of the Lord is at hand it shall come as a Destruction from the Almighty then shall your Wicked Hands fall down and your Proud Hearts melt and you shall be sorely afraid Pangs and Sorrow shall take hold on you even Pangs as of a Woman in Travel and when ye shall look to one another ye shall be amazed at one another and your faces shall alter and change colour as Flames For behold the Day of the Lord cometh cruel both with Wrath and fierce Anger to lay the Land desolate for your sakes and he shall destroy the Sinners thereof out of it And he will punish the World for their evil and the Wicked for their wickedness he will make the Arrogancy of the Proud Ones to câ—ase and will lay low the Haughtiness of the Terrible Ones In that day Sodom and Gomorrah shall rise up in Judgment against you and it shall be more tolerable for them than for you O Ye Profane Ones
nothing London the Glory of the Kingdom the Beauty of England's Excellency is become as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and is now at present a place for doleful Creatures for Owls to dwell in and for Satyrs to dance in and for Wild Beasts to cry among the desolate Houses and Dragons in their Dwellings For thou art swept with the Besom of Destruction and the Line of Emptiness is stretched out upon thee because thou didst reject the Word of the Lord and knewest not the day of thy Visitation How art thou brought down which wast inhabited by Seafaring Men the renowned City which wast strong at Sea and thy Inhabitants did cause terrour to all Nations All that knew thee formerly are astonisht at thee thou art become a Terror to them that see thee and they that hear of thee are pained for thee I was bowed down at the hearing of it I was dismayed at the seeing of it O Lord behold my affliction for the Enemy hath magnified himself see and consider for I am become Vile Our Enemies say This this is the Day we have looked for we have found it we have seen it This Day shall do that which the Fifth of November could not do now shall we see our desire upon them for the Strength of the Protestant Interest is broken we have broken the Head of it and now shall we rase it to the very foundation of it But O Lord thou hast seen my wrong judge thou my Cause Thou hast seen all their Vengeance and all their imaginations against me thou knowest the Contrivers the Abettors the Incouragers the Actors the Favourers of this Hellish Mischief and all those that rejoice in it Give unto them All Sorrow of Heart thy Curse unto them Persecute and destroy them in Anger from under the Heavens of the Lord. And let all the People say Amen But now I must shake hands with thee O London in thy Dust and Ashes for there is hope in this thy End And I must turn my self back again to England the Land of my Nativity and take up a Lamentation for it O England what Nation was like unto thee from the Rising of the Sun to the Setting thereof thou wast a People satisfied with favour and full with the Blessings of the Lord but art now suddenly become a poor and peeled People meeted out and trodden down Thou art smitten with a perpetual stroke in anger by a heavy hand thou art oppressed spoyled and crushed in pieces evermore and there is no man to save thee For God hath remembred our Iniquities against us and set our sins in the light of his Countenance For by Lying and Swearing and Oppressing and Slaying and Drinking and Whoring and Blaspheming c. the Land is defiled under the Inhabitants thereof We have forsaken the Laws of God changed the Ordinances of Christ and broken the Everlasting Covenant and therefore hath the Curse devoured us Our Labours yield us no Profit our Plowing Sowing and Reaping eats up the Husband-Man our Trade is every where decayed our Gold and Silver are exhausted and drained away our Estates are impoverisht and wasted the Abundance we had gotten and laid up is departed our Exactions and Taxes are heavy upon us so that we eat our Bread with sorrow and drink with sighing for they have found out our Riches as a Nest and as one gathereth Eggs that are left so have they gathered the Substance of the Nation and there was none that durst move the Wing or open the Mouth to the People We are brought so low that we have forgotten Prosperity but we daily mourn and fade away for we are filled with bitterness and made drunk with Wormwood For our Wise Counsellors are become Fools Understanding is perished from them our Princes are rebellious and Companions of Thieves they are Riotous Persons that eat not for Strength but for Drunkenness Our Counsellors take Counsel but not of God but against him our Judges abhor true Judgment and pervert all Equity they turn Judgment into Gall and the fruit of Righteousness into Hemlock they justifie the Wicked for a Reward and take away the righteousness of the Righteous from him Our Priests of all Titles and Degrees are like roaring Lions in the midst of us ravening the Prey they rob the Purses of Men they imprison their Bodies they devour their Souls they live in Rioting and Drunkenness they commit Adultery and speak Lyes they strengthen the hands of Evil Doers that none doth return from his Wickedness Our People are foolish and unwise a company of treacherous Men that ly-in wait for precious Souls they are perverse Children who have forsaken the Law of the Lord and have said to the Holy One of Israel Depart from us Wherefore we are become a base Kingdom because we have rejected all righteousness yea the basest of Kingdoms because we have Apostatized from the Truth Of a Pleasant and Joyful Land we are become a Land of Trouble and Anguish where is the Young and Old Lion the Viper and fiery flying Serpent We are become a Mingled People Strangers devour us in our presence they devour our Strength they swallow up our Riches they eat up our Bread yea they destroy us our Cities and Towns and there is none to reprove them We who were the chief of Nations the Princess of Provinces who when we spake there was trembling to the ends of the Earth are now become weak and contemptible because our Rock hath sold us and the Lord hath shut us up Therefore the Pomp of our Strength hath ceased and our Spirit fails in the midst of us So that we are shamefully brought down by the least and lowest of the Nations who have subdued our Naval Power taken burnt and spoiled our Royal Ships the Wall and Bulwark of our Nation fought us in our own Bowels triumphed over us in our own River blocked up the Passage of our chief City stopped all intercourse of Trade made a Spoil of our Riches and a Prey of our Merchandise hindred and deprived us of all our pleasant things bereaved us of several of our Rich and Advantageous Plantations brought us down to their feet humbly to beg their favour and have made us a Reproach a Proverb and a Hissing to all Nations O England who shall bewail thee What Lamentations shall we take up for thee Oh that thou wert sensible of thy Stroke and couldst bewail thy self for thou hast sinned grievously therefore art thou cast out of the Mountain of the Lord thou art cast to the ground and laid before Kings and Nations that they may behold thee This is the end of the Children of Pride for they that exalt themselves shall be made Low And therefore talk no more so exceeding proudly let hot Arrogance come out of your Mouth again for God is a God of Judgment and by him actions are weighed The Adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces out of Heaven shall he thunder upon