Temple their cancel'd covenants shall be renewed and new covenants sealed and subscribed yea heaven and earth shall be called to witnesse what fast friends they were to God and their guides hands and seals and oaths and all that could be said and done to make sure work and all this lasted very hot how long for a slaying time whilest the sword was at their throats the pestilence in their houses the famine in the fields so long and not much longer vide Psal. 87. 34 35. When he slew them they sought him c. This provoked the Lord exceedingly as it doth a workman to have his work seem to fadge and then to fail him or a sutor to have his beloved accept of a ring and break a piece of gold and then to deceive trust this gauls worse then if there had been a churlish refusall at the first profer The first and suddain dislike of a man is imputed to strangenesse but a dislike upon knowledge charges the party repudiated with unworthinesse in this case all kindes of revolts are grievous but those that are reiterated are insufferable So to know Gods Name and not to trust him is a deserting with a witnesse which he takes so unkindly that if the whole flaming Army of his wrath can expresse the fury of his anger and jealousie the provoking party in this case must look for it It was for this that the Lord discovers so much passion by his Prophets and tells them their desolation should be so great that other Nations should raise the wonder and say Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this great City Why what had he done vide Ier. 22. 7. Prepared destroyers not weaponlesse but well armed able and resolved not onely to abridge them of their fuell which we now finde to be a great strait but to make fuiell of their farest houses and then to give satisfying reason for what was done vâ—â— Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord their God To these might be added many more but these enough to let us know that when God gives up a people to robbing and spoiling they would but look inwards and if they finde not these sinnes making way for this judgement under which we suffer let them argue the case with the Judge of all the world and plead with him that he works not by president but if they finde these fore-running sinnes and this judgment of robbing and spoiling following at the heels of them they need no more wonder in this case then to see the Sun rising in the East and putting forward like a Giant in his wonted course untill he sets in the West which being ordinary is not ordinarily regarded But those amongst us that are wise and would be glad to know what 's a clock by our Diall how our time goes it is fitting they should observe it and to this duty we are called in the last place being now come to the consideration required partly by way of a serious acclamation in the scope of the Text and preface partly by a severe objurgation charging it as the great delinquency in Iacob and Israel who though he were set upon by robbers and spoilers yet he was not gagg'd yea they came not like theeves in the night preventing all complaints and succours but comming with such warning as they did the wonder is that God hears not of them either by outcries or at least by sighes and groans this moves the Lord by his Prophet here to expresse himself with this wonder in the preface and complaint in the closure of the words Yet he knew it not yet he laid it not to heart And was not this strange to be rob'd and spoil'd and not to know it The Prophet Hos. 7. 9. thought it strange That gray hairs should be here and there upon them and â—hey not know it that there should be any symptomes or evidences of a declining State and they not foresee it but to have the death-stroaks and tokens of Gods wrath upon them and not to minde it to be fired round about and scorcht and to be insensible of all this If there were any thing left of the man or the beast in this people it could not be but they must feel it as beasts and know it as men and doubtlesse so they did the Prophet Hos. 5. 13. bears them witnesse they did Ephraim saw his sicknesse and Iuda saw his sinne They did so but how confusedly they did but composedly they did not they knew what ayled them well enough what their sinne was and what their suffering was in sensu diviso but to put these together in sensu composito as the cause and effect and to lay them so to heart as God required this they did not And this seal'd up their misery and layes them before us as the sad patterns and presidents of Gods wrath upon a brutish people that onely knows he is angry but not why This he takes to heart because they did not and gives us to know that God takes it ill when sinnes and sufferings are not rightly put together and his meaning known Briefly these things were written for our admonition so much the Prophet implies in the preface where he lifts up his voice to this purpose that posterity may hear him verse 23. Who will hearken and hear for the time to come Or if that reaches not home to us the Apostle takes it from him and stretches it even to our dayes and beyond 1 Cor. 10. 6 10. Now these things were our ensamples and are written for our instruction and admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come So that unlesse we mean to be made pillars of salt to season succeeding generations unlesse we mean to be made examples to others let us take examples by others and be made wise at the best hand and cheapest rate we can to this purpose give me leave to put home the serious consideration of these things premised and lay them to heart as a gracious duty which the Lord calls for at our hands and hath set apart this day to put forth the acts of it being indeed such a work of the day as will imploy all the powers and faculties of the soul and is to be exprest in some especiall acts which I shall briefly open to you for the clearing of the truth and so fasten it upon your hearts by way of application As first it implies An act of the Iudgment commonly called the minding of a thing when the understanding is seen in its office to weigh things aright in the ballance of the Sanctuary and judges of them not according to appearance but with righteous judgment layes the sinne in one scale and the judgment in another and never gives over untill it hath the just weight of what God hath done and we have suffered Thus David that at first had no more leisure but to cast his sinne into the scale
many able heads to whom they are now entrusted But when they are brought from the heads to the hearts of our State then God hath his end and if his ends and ours meet we shall be happy for all this though this be the day of Iacobs troubles yet the hope of Israel and Saviour thereof in the time of trouble will remember Iacob and all his troubles To this purpose I am to bespeak you all Honourable and beloved according to the severall rankes and files wherein you stand to expresse and improve some acts of this duty required that the Lord may see and say there is many an hearty and affectionate soul amongst us willing to give him a meeting as Iacob did and not let him goe without a blessing to this purpose let me but briefly name some few advertisements that may satisfie you 1 when it is done 2. how it may be done 3. what if it be not 4. what if it be and I shall have done for my part and pray that the Lord would doe his and yours for you and so conclude Know that God takes these things as laid â—o heart when they work in us these two properties viz. 1. a sympathy that we can hear of these afflictions of Ioseph as if they were our own though for the present most of us are under safe roofs many of us under our own and as yet enjoy as much of our former satisfactions in wives and children Families and goods c. as the course of these times can lawfully afford if we can bring our selves to look upon these as if not considerable as Phinehas wife upon her Ichabod and set our selves as neer as may be in the case of the distressed families in our Kingdome that are fain to fast upon other terms then we doe because the robbers and spoilers have taken away their childrens bread if we now feeling a little hunger could be more pincht with the thought of theirs or beholding the sad countenances of each other could bewail the rufull sight of theirs sitting in sad or forlorn postures either in their own houses or which comes all to one under the dark roof of hungry and dismall prisons O it were a brave spirit indeed that could in this case un-Lord or un-Knight himselfe in his heart for a while as good Nehemiah did who had wine and oyl enough to make a glad heart smooth countenauce yea and that which is more then the best He amongst us can boast of for the present he had the Kings favour to maintain and increase this yet as if all this were nothing all was black and dark with him whilest the sepulchers of his fathers lay wast surely it would become us well to look upon our land as a Golgotha rather then Bethel of sepulchers rather then houses a place that may be called after the naâ—ue of Isaacs wels Esek and Sitnah strife and hatred where there hath been great pains taken to dig and keep open the fountain of Justice and as much strife and hatred exprest to trouble the waters if there were no more but this it might make our hearts bleed and sympâ—thize with our State This were enough to see this representative body of our State the glory of our Nation to be accompted as a Traytour with the head upon the block and the hand of many a bloody executioner lifted up to part the head from the body What living member can chuse but sympathize in this case and by fear and trembling shew he laies it to heart When we can sentence our selves to have as deep a share in the sin as in the punishment when we can lay our hands on our hearts and smite upon the thigh and say It is I Lord I know none in some sense a greater delinquent then my selfe if others have been Traitours to our Soveraigne I have been so to his Soveraigne Lord of lords and King of Kings one that hath made me not his creature onely but his favourite doubled many a blessing upon me belonging both to life and godlinesse and so much mercy streaming from the fountain of grace might break my heart if it were not Adamant They that can say and do this feelingly and faithfully may be said to lay this to heart But how may this be done Briefly thus by putting forth and stirring up some acts of naturall affection which the Lord commands and commends in his own and charges the contrary as an heathenish vice Could we to this purpose consider but these two things viz. 1. How miserable our friends have been made and 2. that our false and uneven reckonings with our God have made them so When we hear of such a County or Town once the pleasing seat of our habitation now made a Stage of watres or cage of unclean birds where the Ziim Iim and wilde Satyrs play When some of us may say There have I left my flock whereof I was once a Minister or my family whereof I was once a Master not as the Estridge doth her eggs in the sand but as the mourning Turtle scar'd from her nest and mate sits groaning at a distance to see or hear some bird or beast of prey to seise upon the nest and young and spoil all If this be not the â—ad case of some of us it is doubtlesse of many in our Kingdom and of some very near in relation to us and if we could but think what prayers and tears they have and do put up for us and others as yet in safety that we may be kept from their condition our hearts would melt into tears to do as much for them And this is a means to set this passion a work 2. What our sins have contributed to their sufferings who can choose but tremble to see his fellow bleed under correction for the same fault wherein he knows himself to be not an accessary onely but a principall agent Doubtlesse there are none of those wasting sins formerly mentioned whereof this Congregation can freely wash their hands and shall the Lord be visiting our sins upon our countrey and kindred fire our Nation round about and we not lay it to heart Cursed be that opinion of the Antinomists whoever either maintains it in his thoughts or takes occasion to start it in so unseasonable a time is doubtlesse a great factour for hell and puts poyson into our wounds that they may not heal Are they greater or better then our father Iacob It is recorded of him that he wept and made supplication doubtlesse then his own and others sins were laid to heart Hos. 12. And if they think God sees not any iniquity in his own for which he is angry with them they may do well to read over this Text once more and I should think that if there were not one more besides this in the Scriptures this alone were enough to let them
in the grosse 2 Sam. 12. 13. I have sinned comes at better leisure to weigh it more distinctly Psal. 51. 3. I know mine iniquity c. q. d. now I know what I have done and what I deserve to suffer This the Scripture calls The returning of a man to himself as Christ expresses it in the case of the prodigall that had lost himself by not considering his wayes in his heart did at length returne to himself No doubt but before his return he knew what his folly was and felt his miserie and hunger and so did the swine he fed but when he laid these together and considered what his father was and minded his return then was he uncharm'd from his swinish disposition changed in the renuing of his minde and he that is brought to this may be said to lay things to heart 2. An â—ct of the will which is the first chosen principle My sonne give me thy heart and the first choosing principle whereby we choose what to do or suffer in a strait commonly called a resolution upon a debate when in evills we choose the least and in good things the best Thus David in the Choise of three evills of penalty chooses the least and Paul in a strait between two good things chooses the best and in this deliberation may be said to lay it to heart According to the Wisemans advise Prov. 4. 25 26. after the pondering of our paths to look upon the right way and pitch there Thus did not these do and therefore were rather wilfull then wife as the Lord upbraids them by the brute creatures They stand not to deliberate whether they were best sinne on and suffer or return and be saved but there they lie like so many blocks under a two-handed Saw the robbers and spoilers if God will snatch them like so many fire-brands out of the fire well and good if not there they lie ready to be sawen and cleft out for the fire smoak and smother out in a carelesse neglect Contrary to this is a faire warning willingly chosen and resolved on to flee from the wrath to come 3. An act of the affections as sorrow grief care c. whereby sad and passionate men are said to lay things to heart as we finde it exprest to the life in Zach. 12. 10 11 12. where they take themselves apart every family apart and person apart and look upon him whom they had pierced as one that had little deserved this cruelty at their hands and fix their eyes upon that sad spectacle of their injustice and at the sight of this they pour out their tears and passions as the parent that weeps for his own childe or as he that is in bitternesse for his first-born 4. An act of the conscience which we commonly call the pricking of the heart when the judgement rightly inlightned reflects upon it self and upon cleâ—â— evidence of the fact takes Gods part against it self accuses judges condemns and executes sentence upon it self smites upon the thigh As God observes it in Ephraims case when he heard him complaining of his own foul misdemeanors Ah I was an untamed heifer therefore ashamed and confounded to think of his youthfull miscariages This the Lord takes as laying his case to heart and finding what carefulnesse it wrought in him what clearing of his God and condemning of himself what indignation what fear what vehement desire yea what zeal and what revenge the Lord pronounces him clear in this matter and gives in his discharge and absolution in the next words No longer a beast now but his dear sonne and pleasant childe ver. 20. So that when the soul is brought to this temper that the sin works upoÌ„ the conscience more then the suffering doth upon the outward man and can freely acquit God in his righteous proceedings as Ezra did in the behalf of this people that after all that these robbers and spoilers had done to them could say verse 13. After all that is come upon us for our evill deeds and our great trespasse Thou O God hast punished us lesse then our sinnes deserve so when our conscience is rightly informed by laying our sinne and sufferings together that God hath done us nothing but right and in weighing the case do so determine it that passion gets not the upper hand of our reason to say O how severe hath God been But O how rude and ignorant was I and in that point a beast Psal. 73. When judgement is thus brought to victory that Gods proceedings are clearly discerned and our deserts faithfully acknowledged and the right use made of all then are these things rightly laid to heart 5. An act of the memory whereby we recall things past and gone and well-nigh lost in the tumults and confusions or dangers and fears which are no friends to the memory but when we can return into our fixed thoughts without any longer roving and wandring and gather them close together to make a good result of them then the heart takes fire as David expresses Psal. 39. 3. He was fain to bring many scatter'd and confused thoughts together before he could work the right consideration of his case upon his heart As he that fetches fire from the Sunne with a burning-glasse gathers the scatter'd beams into a narrow compasse and there must hold them fixt before the matter will take fire so there must bee good skill and pains taken to recollect mercies of old on Gods part and as many forgotten injuries on our parts and when these are brought together by a faithfull act of the memory then the duty works kindly This David cals the examining our heart upon our beds Psal. 4. 4. the Prophet Zeph. 2. 12. cals sifting and searching over and again so the words would be read Excutite vos iterumque excutite Let us sift and search our wayes saith Ieremy Lam. 3. 40. A duty which the Lord seriously looks for of all those that enter covenant with him of better obedidence and promises that he will bestow it upon his own one of the first graces he gives in the new covenant as we find Ezek. 36. 31. Then shall you remember your own evill wayes and doings that were not good c. And loath your selves in your own eyes for all your iniquities c. Lay these things together and we may be said to lay them to heart more then this God requires not and lesse will not serve the turn Therefore charges home the neglect of this as one of the main causes why he proceeds on in the severity of his purposes as we find Ier. 12. 12. The spoilers are come in and made the Land desolate he grants that the Land mourns and yet concludes they laid it not to heart v. 11. Briefly therefore let this be my warrant from God to charge home this duty as ever we look to be 〈◊〉 of robbers and spoilers or see an end
thought pity that those Pirats and robbers that brought a floating Iland by Sea to over-power ours by land should have their will of us that design was blasted and we in pity spared for that time So again in the beginning of our late Soveraigns days both King and Parliament were not only strongly united in themselves but were upon the work of uniting three kingdomes into one to make a threefold cord not easily broken and it was pity then the Powder-plot should burn those bands at the first tying all this while though there were cause enough yet there was not this cause but now our sins comming to those bounds where God bids stand and like the raging sea dashes against those white rocks of our kingdome which are set to keep it off it is now at that high tide and so out of measure overswoln that it is too much for the Land to bear it or God to forbear it so that the least we can doe is to take unto us words and acknowledge the cause Dan. 9. 7 8. Not only so but accept the Penalty too Levit. 26. 41. Doe this also or we have but dallied in all our humiliations it is in vain to pretend sackcloth and ashes if we cloath not our selves with shame lay our hands upon out mouthes and our mouthes in the dust and sigh our condition in the Churches words Micha 7. 9. I will beare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Now by that time this is done feelingly and faithfully then we shall have leave to throw off our mourning garments and cast them upon the back of the the scarlet whore as is intimated in the next ver. 9. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it and shame shall cover her which said unto me Where is now the Lord thy God mine eies shall behold her when she shall be trodden down like the mire in the streets In the mean time it is a sad case I confesse to be rob'd and spoil'd But is it not a heavy case to rob our God Who began first God acknowledges plainly what he hath done in the case and why he hath done it yet the proud sinner being charged in this case boldly denies Mal. 3. 8. and when convinced yet argues the case ver. 13. thinks he hath hard measure God forbid there should be any of that temper amongst us that shall deny or distinguish we are come to acquit the Lord and to accept with all humility this just deserved penalty It is a shame to be stript naked but it is worse to deserve it It is a sad case to have such as Iob speaks of such striplings as we would have been loath to set with the dogs of the flock for they were usefull creatures but these the burden of the earth and viler then the earth ver. 7 8. that such as these should not only quarter but wholly Lord it in our houses command what they please at bed and boord whilest they stay and take away the rest at parting it is an hard case we think to hear and bear the lashes of such rods but what is it to provoke that God to wrath that might justly turn us out of our houses into hell the same houre well it is his mercy we are on this side of it though for the present likely to be overwhelmed with miseries yet must our uncircumcised hearts relent accept of the punishment and acknowledge there is a cause But that is not all we must put the finger upon the sore place and see and say There is this cause for it so that now we are come to the second branch of Information to take notice of those robbing and spoiling sins which we shall finde coucht in the words and refer to those that are specified in the context and complained of in this Prophesie as sins most intrinsecally crosse to the Covenant these must be singled our or we shall not know where to begin or where to end in the duty of humiliation Briefly therefore because generals work not so well in publique acknowledgements we are to enquire what speciall sins the Lord points at as robbing spoiling sins which if they be not looked to in time wil not only lengthen out that miserie under which we groan but make way for a worse thing that may befall us Now though it were fitting that these should be discovered to the full yet being in hast I can but shew them at a running view as he that paints out an Army of enemies at a distance thinks it enough to shew the heads of some Commanders in the Van together with the tops of their colours and points of their spears so this that I shall say concerning these must suffice to conjecture of the rest that you may meet with in the conflict For the general take in our Gospel sins that fight against the remedy and lay a people open to wrath without a covering Io 15. 22. Now have they saies Christ no covering for their sin having refused to put him on who was the white-rayment which he counselled them to buy for that purpose Re. 3. 19. When a people are so high-mounted in the seat of the scorners that the most pretious treasures of the gospel the dreadfullest terrors of the law are belcht out of their mouths into cuostomary oaths and imprecations viz. As they hope to be saved or Dammy if they do not that which they never intended when men make no better accompt of faith then to swear by it and of Repenpentance then to scoffe at it as a thing hidden from their eies when these graces of the new Covenant are trampled under feet and blood of the Covenant accounted as an unholy thing when they crucifie to themselves the Lord of life if Grace and Salvation it selfe be thus abused and turned into wantonnesse who or what shall save them from the wrath to come This we find to be the generallâ— complaint of this Prophet against this people in his time a warning given them 60. years before the robbers spoilers were fully let in upon them given indeed but not taken till they had scoft away their God and Covenant their liberties and lives and came to lie under the fury of his anger and strength of battell Next to these were the sins of those whether Priests or Prophets which were by their office neerest to God and should have been farthest from provoking him When it came to passe that the sins of these setting aside their personall aggravations were the same for number and nature with the basest of the people the same pride and prophanenesse the same cruelty and covetousnesse the same excesse and uncleannesse c. and by these means so strengthened the hands of the wicked that they came forth in a full strength to make a Covenant with death and hell and to break all Bonds and Covenants with
God it was then high time for God to look to his honour being in good earnest driven from the place where his honour dwelt which â—e was resolved to visit with a vengeance the first place he began withall Ezek. 9. 6. Mal. 3. 3. It were too large to bring in the severall complaints put up against these Sanctuary sinners by those of their own Tribes Wolves and Mastives may be alike in hair and colour but differ much in their respects to the fold the one watches over it for good the other for a mischief this the Lord saw and therefore as there was no remedy when the bad people abused the good Prophets 2 Chron. 36. so when the bad Prophets abused the good people there was no remedy but ruine God cals in all the robbers and spoilers round about to make a prey of Priest and People in this case Es. 56. 9. 19. 11 12. Such I mean whereby Priest and people joyn'd hand in hand together to make a faction of hell strong enough to over-power both the word and sword when it comes to this passe that Magistrates and Ministers Gods faithfull witnesses are not able to make a considerable party to deal with these then no remedy but this penalty thus was it with them and how much better of late with us when those Priests were the only men of worship that could silence their brethren in a Lordly tone and courtly scoffe As Amaziah did Amos 7. 11. O thou man of God Fly thy way c. when these could by an Arbitrary power of their own dispence with the power of godlinesse and the honour of Gods dayes and in their rare and solemn Sermons discourse the people into a dream of wine and strong drink Mich. 2. 11. as ours did into whitson-Ales-Lords-day sports and this so pleased the people that they were resolved as most of ours are to engage their lives liberties to maintain these pleasing devotions this the Lord saw then and we may see now to be an horrible thing vid. Ier. 5. ult. An horrible thing c. shall I not visit saith God for these things c. Yes doubtlesse in this very way that he now goes in to let in the robbers and spoilers and tels what they shall doe v. 17. eat up thy harvest thy flocks and heards c. More particularly the despising of Gods word and messengers dared the Lord to spoil them David could do no lesse in point of honour then pour out the fury of his anger and strength of battell upon the Ammonites when his gracious message and messengers were so shamefully intreated and what remedy but ruine to that people that shal deal thus with their God This spoil'd al and brought in the finall plunder upon that state 2 Chron. 36. 16. and so doubtlesse it will upon ours if not prevented when a people shall so far under-value the word and Ministers that either they are not heard at all or which comes all to one for meer coustome the auditories either thin or thronged according as times and persons are pleased when we shall make a meer thorow-fare of divine ordinances and take them in the way to our profits and pleasures Feasts and Fairs as the Lord intimates with complaint Es. 33. 31 32. when men shall come with the same affections to the Temple as to a tavern call for what they please and like nought but what they call for Thus did these as this Prophet complains Es. 30. 9 10 11. Prophesie to us pleasing things which when the good Prophets could not in conscience do but told them of their sowr grapes bitter clusters they flung these reports into their faces with indignation and added this above all to thrust them into corners v. 20. it was time for the Lord to pay them in their own coin and deal with them as they dealt with his servants and let them see how good it was to be snared in holes and prison houses v. 22. how they liked bolts and chains slanders and scoffs this had they done to men of the most noted ability and fidelity in Gods work and this such a provoking and spoiling sin that God reades their doom in the Prophets curse Ier. 18. 20 21 22. the very judgment in the text Adde to this their dalliance with God in holy performances wherein they were content to be costly so God would value their service at their own rate they could talk of thousands of Rams and ten thousand rivers of oyl but if God had took them at their word told them that he required these things at their hands he should have been charged as an hard Task-master imposing impossible services But when in stead of these vain thoughts which he could not think of with patience Ier. 4. 14. he requires real duties to do justly love mercy walk lowly with their God here they started off like broken bows drawn beyond their strength their fastings and prayers services and sacrifices were such noisome formalties that the Lord starts off from them as so many dead and rotten carkasses that had neither life nor soul in them professes his loathing detestation Es. 1. from 12. to 21. And whereas against this they pleaded that God did them not right in not regarding and rewarding his own ordinances Es. 58. 4. he there turns them in-side out-side to the world and lets them know they were not the services he disavowed but the hypocriticall superstitious additions the formal performances for which he threatens not only to loath them but his own sanctuary which was polluted by them Ier. 7. 12. 14. and resolves to destroy all their wise contrivances whereby they deceived themselves abused the world and provoked him to wrath Esai 29. 14. Mark what a plundering youth what a mercilesse robber and spoiler he sends in upon them for this very sin Esay 10. 5. O Assyria the rod of my fury I will send them against an hypocriticall nation a people of my wrath Lastly that which sealed up the Ephah was their Apostasie starting off from the holy Covenant and from the pretended heats of their first love A sinne so often mentioned and threatned that the Prophets were as weary of speakiug as the people of hearing Gods complaints in this case therefore the Lord in pity to his Prophets and displeasure to this people gives them a discharge either of praying for them Ierem. 14. 10 11. or preaching to them Hos. 4. 17. Let them alone saith God q. d. they are joyn'd to their idols wedded to their wayes and it is in vain to forbid the bains between them and their new-chosen deities let them take their course I shall reckon with them once for all The thing that grieved him was their forwardnesse to strike Covenants and their readinesse to break them In the times of their reforming Magistrates when Piety was in fashion at Court then they will wade through bloud to get to the
of the fury of his anger which is not yet turned away but his hand stretcht out still Surely then we may know by that sad token the duty is not yet done which the Lord will have done by us before he hath done with us he grants the Land may mourn to him and yet no man lay it to heart so that there is something more to be done then hath been done yet which we shall doe well to enquire after and to that purpose give leave to your unworthy remeÌ„brancer in Gods name to demand Is it done or is it not done lay your hands on your hearts and feele and answer whether these sins premised and this duty required have been laid to heart doe you know what God hath done and our land hath suffered since this great breach hath let in the robbers and spoilers upon us What a strange question you wil say is this to be put to knowing men are the heads of our tribes such strangers in Israel as not to hear and know that which makes the ears and hearts of our State to glow and tingle do not they know what multitudes of men and sums of money have been lavisht and lost amongst robbers and spoilers what hopefull plants of our Gentry and Nobility too have been either cankred or cropt off in the bud what deadly fewds are dayly increased betwixt family and family as if linage and language were to be confounded at once Can other Nations ring of this and ours not know it Can the threats of the sons of violence and the cries of the oppressed scatter the noise of this like so much tempest and thunder and we not hear of it True this is to hear of it by the ear and perhaps at an uncertain sound as many doe that having taken reports upon trust make it matter of discourse others of gain and some make it matter of wit and sport as if fools were seasonabâ—â— in a Tragedy and might have leave to throw darts and say Am I not in sport Shall I praise them that doe this or those amongst us that like and suffer this I praise you not Are Nationall robberies such light matters that Nationall Mercuries may have leave to jeast upon them It was not the Apostles mind but the Corinthians Levity to suffer fools gladly It satisfies not to say that the Court set the kingdome or city on work and that the foole must be answered according to his folly It were safer far to let that folly rest in the bosome where it first began and not to suffer those that should be wiser to fight with the Devill at his own weapons when doubtlesse he will have the ods and the last blow I hope a word in this will be enough to the wise that know this is not the way to lay these things to the heart by tickling the ear with them nay grant we heard these things with the right ear yet is not that enough to work home this duty for the ear may hear more then the eye sees and what the eye sees not we say the heart rues not Yea but some of us you may say are more then ear witnesses of these things we have seen with our eyes enough to make our heartsake we have seen whole Troops and Regiments of as brave and daring men as the earth bears any such as would have made our common adversary tremble to see their courage or fury rather acted in other kingdomes These have we seen to butcher each other in their own countries soyling their land with their own blood as if they meant to make a plentifull harvest for the great destroyer we have seen goodly Lordships plundered and fired upon no greater quarrell but because their owners could not defend them Yea we have seen whole towns upon the like quarrell storm'd and surprised and fired because the Inhabitants durst not or could not be at cost and charges to keep themselves safe within their own wals these are things we have not taken â—pon bare report but our eyes the trustiest sense of all the rest have seen these things and can speak them feelingly as those that have heard with our ears and our eyes have seen them It may be so too yet for al this these things may not be laid to the heart it is true indeed the seeing eye and hearing eare are both the gift of the Lord Prov. 20. 12. but this implies what is said else where that there is an eye that sees not and ear that hears not and yet both wide open and such as can take in sounds and sights very readily and what if there should be such amongst us too that have heard seen as much as can be spoken or heard and are hereby ennbled to write stories and furnish tables with the sad relations of these things O Sirs as eating is not health and drinking is not strength but the means to procure both so the hearing and seeing of these things is not properly the laying of them to heart but the way and means with Gods blessing to doe it the Priest and Levite that past by the wounded traveller in the Gospel may be supposed not only to see the bleeding spectacle but to hear his languishing groans but it was the good Samaritan that properly laid his case to heart that laid him upon his beast poured oyle and wine into his wounds and left him not before some hopes of recovery And hath not our State done this too as far as in them lies have not they took full information of our common calamities sate out many a sad day and night month and some years to consult upon these things and are able for a need to give the world an accompt froÌ„ what quarters this dreadfull storm was first blown in upon us what unhappy constellations and conjunctions are ghest to be the second causes what dammage it hath done by Sea and Land Yea they can tell what goodly grounds this Land-flood hath spoiled and on the other side what durty ditâ—â—es it hath fild good for nothing but to breed toads and Efts In a word they can ghesse who have been gainers and losers by this sorry bargain And truly this is worth the knowing the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush be their cloud by day and pâ—llar of fire by night that their Assemblies may be directed and protected till judgement be brought to victory It is good learning to know Gods wayes in the whirlewind the outgoing of his displeasure in the effects and happy they that can make good advantage of them so but happier they that know them in the right causes they are wise that know how and where these sad distractions began but they are wiser that know where they will end and put forth all within them to be serviceable in that work It is good that these things be laid to the head and that there are so