the rivers are full of us Good God what a menace was this which went out against Egypt What water the land with blood Yes with blood And good reason for that countrie which had beene so fertile through the overflowings of Nilus was now growne more glutted with skarlet sinns then their river was pregnant reemed with misse shâ—ppen monsters Thus Goâ— can doe and thus God will doe when hiâ— patience is over-pressed with the infinite in crease of insufferable crimes And thus o thus he now doe's to my poore nativeâ— bleeding countrie This this land which waâ— like the land of Egypt Gen. 13 10. Lam. 1.1 Ier. 5.9 vers 10 even as the garden of thâ— Lord which was great among nations and Princesse among Provinces is now Made an astonishment and an hissing and a desolation The voyce of mirth and the voyce of gladnesse and the voyce of the Bride-groome and the voyce of the Bride and the sound of the mill-stones and the light of the candle are taken from us and this whole land by degrees become's a desolation vers 11 Lam. 1.4 and an astonishment Her priests sigh her virgins are afflicted and she is in bitternesse Lord what a strange and sad alteration is here in every corner of the Kingdome in all estates and conditions of the people Our cities are become prisoners even to their owne fortifications and seeme to be coffind in the walls of their strength The grave and ancient inhabitants of them who had out-lived their sweat and labour are now enforced to become young apprentices to their allmost forgotten crafts and finding their stiffe stickie fingers unapt to purchase bread for their bellies they moisten their shrivell'd cheekes with those few teares their age can allow them The cornets and the sack-buts are turned into trumpets and fifes our feasts are turned into mourning Amos. 8.10 and all our songs into lamentation and sack-cloth is brought upon all loines and baldnesse upon every head and our mourning is as for an onely sonne and the end of our mirth is this our bitter day Our dances are changed into marches our banquets into famine our gownes and liveries into garments made of the skinns of Elkes and Buffeloes and the suites of gold and Tissue into glittering armour The hatts composed of the sofe wooll of the Beaver are turned into helmets beavers of hard and heavy mettall the lofty proud structures into poore and narrow hutts and tents and the pride of the cup-board and the glory of the fingers into salarie for souldiers and the price of blood Ioel. 3.9 Warre is proclaimed in our gates it is prepared our mighty men are awaked all the men of warre draw neere and come up vers 10 Our plough-shares are beaten into swords and our pruning hookes into speares Our citizens hands forget the cunning of their trades and occupations Ps 144.1 by teaching their hands to warre and their fingers to fight Our penns are turned into pikes our maces into swords our walking staves into halbeards and partizans and leading staves and our voyces of harmonie and musick into showtes and horrid cries of formidable armies The bells which merrily rang the peales and the changes either roare out our destructions in engines of warre by a strange metamorphosis or if they continue in their ould condition they skarce know any other tone then knells for the slaine the death of whom causeth the wringing of hands among orphanes widdowes Our Beth-els are turned into Beth-avens so that now wee skarce dare to seeke Bethel Amos. 5.5 or enter into Gilgal or passe unto Beersheba Our Daniels Dan. 6.16 vers 18 oh our Daniels are cast into the denns of Lyons and yet few of us doe passe the night in fasting nor doe we send away the instruments of musick from before us nor doth our sleepe goe from us O that wee would yet once tremble and feare before the God of Daniel vers 26 who is the living God and stedfast for ever and his Kingdome that which shall not be destroyed for his dominion shall be even to the end vers 27 He delivereth and rescueth and hee worketh signes and wonders in heaven in earth Sad was the time with Ieremiah the Prophet Ier 37.12 when he went out of Ierusalem to goe into the land of Benjamin to separate himselfe thence in the midst of the people For vers 13 when he was in the gate of Benjamin a captaine of the ward was there whose name was Irijah vers 14 and he tooke Ieremiah the Prophet saying Thou fallest away to the Caldeans but Ieremiah said It is false I fall not away to the Caldeans but he hearkened not unto him So Irijah tooke Ieremiah and brought him to the Princes vers 15 wherfore the Princes were wroth with Ieremiah and smote him and put him in prison in the house of Ionathan the Scribe for they had made that a prison Bad Eze 2.6 o full bad are our times too for our Ezekiels live among briars and thornes and dwell among scorpions Heb 11 36. The Prophets of the Lord have their trialls of cruell mockings yea of bonds and imprisonment They are stoned they are tempted vers 37 they are slaine with the sword they wander about in sheepe-skinns and goate-skinns being destitute afflicted and tormented vers 38 of whom the world is not worthy They wander in deserts and in mountaines and in denns and caves of the earth This thou hast seene ô Lord Ps 35.22 vers 23 keepe not silence ô Lord be not thou farr from them Stirre up thyselfe and awake to their judgment and to their cause o our God and our Lord. The time is allready come that judgment hath begun at the house of God 1. Pet. 4.17 and if it first begin at them what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel Wee see not our signes there is skarce any Prophet more and who is there among us that knoweth how long Ps 74.9 Wee have unsettled people among us who are apt to say to the Seers see not to the Prophets Is 30.10 Prophesie not unto us right things speake unto us smooth things Prophesie deceits Get yee out of the way turne aside out of the path vers 11 cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us The Prophet Ieremiah complained that in his time a wonderfull and horrible thing was committed in the land Ier 5.30 vers 31 the Prophets prophesied lies and the people loved to have it so and what saith hee shall wee doe in the end thereof c 14.13 Againe he cries out Ah Lord God behold the Prophets say unto them Yee shall not see the sword neither shall yee have famine but I will give you assured peace in this place vers 14 The Prophets Prophesie lies in thy name whereas thou sentest them not neither hast thou
may passe from miferie to eternall happinesse Heare Lord have mercy both upon mee and mine and graunt my petitions for the worthinesse of that most mercifull and most blessed sonne of a woman thine onely begotten Iesus Christ my Lord and onely Saviour Amen soliloquy 2 2. ly Teares of a woman after her deliverie from the paines of Child-birth The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words o Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray A Woman Io 16.21 when shee is in travell hath sorrow because her hower is come but as soone as shee is delivered of the child she remembreth noe more her anguish for joy that a man is borne into the world O how truely doeth my heavenly Iesus describe both his mercy and my comfort I who ere while was full of anguish and teares am now with comfort brought againe to my bed I who had allmost despaired of mercy in the midst of my sufferances have found a deliverer Mee think's I could weepe because I wept so much and grieve because my cryes did savour of distrust Many teares did I shed through the anguish which I suffered but have I none left of sorrow for offending in my pangs I will begge for pardon at the hands of him who sent mee this ease and then I will thanke him for his bountie in sending mee this child Prettie infant the beginning of his cryes was the end of mine and the beginning of his trouble was the end of my labour O how did I long to see him whom I now embrace How did I wish to be delivered of him whom yet againe I receave Hee is parted from my wombe to be caried in mine armes and he who before was the burden of my bowells now is made the delight of mine eyes Now with a greater comfort I hope then the first sinner embraced the first that ever was borne I may rejoyce and say I have gotten a man from the Lord. Gen 4.1 1. Chr 4.9 Gen 35.18 True it is that I might call him a Iabez because I bare him with sorrow I might name him Ben oni because hee was the sonne of mine affliction and sorrowes but I will rather with Iacob call him Benjamin the sonne of my right hand O how gratious was my God unto mee in that hee sent mee a mid-wife to helpe mee neighbours to comfort mee a house to cover mee a fire to warme mee and now a bed to ease mee The mother of my Lord had not an house but a stable onely Lu 2.7 for there was noe roome in the Inne Her holy child was layed but in a manger whereas mine is in a cradle yet I am wicked I am sinfull and uncleane yea and this babe is not borne without originall pollution But I will begge of the Lord that with Simeon I may take up my Iesus in mine armes vers 28 or rather in my heart and I will beseech him that as I desire to embrace him in my soule so hee will embrace mee in the armes of his mercy Mee think's when I remember how hardly the Israëlites were used by the Egyptians when the midwives were commanded to slay the males Ex 1.16 I cannot choose but tremble at the miseries of the women It might seeme a sinne in them to desire sonnes seeing they knew that their birth was but a stepp to their graves Those mercifull hands which brought them into the world were commanded to be the executioners of the innocent babes The women were to be as cruell in their murders as the King was in his commands and yet such bloody acts were to be called executions and not styled murders They had a command to put in practise what was so horrid and barbarous whereupon they were perplexed to thinke that either they must necessarily disobey authoritie or else destroy those who had not offended It is true that if God had commanded it the act had beene righteous Gen. 22 2. Abraham not onely may but must be the priest to sacrifice his sonne his onely sonne Isaak when God requireth it But if God forbiddeth what man commandeth wee must be more ready to suffer then to obey those commands When wee dare not doe what wee are unjustly commanded wee must dare to suffer what shall be unjustly inflicted on us O how grievously was Iochebed perplexed in her miseries Ex 2.3 when for feare lest her Moses should be slaine according to the decree shee was enforced to expose him to the brinke of the river That child whom shee could noe longer hide shee was faine to cradle up in an arke of bull-rushes Thus shee who durst not keepe her infant adventured upon a trade which shee never had learned but her directour was his preserver Surely the teares which shee shed for feare of his death did perswade the river to carie him alive for shee so bribed the torrent with the droppes from her eyes that it tooke more compassion then the heart of the tyrant One word of that King might have saved at once both her sorrowes and her feares Mee think 's the very river might have taught him to melt for his cruelty but where grace is wanting every thing that should check the petulancie of sinne doe's but give vigour to the execution thereof There was a sorrowfull mother weeping for feare of the death of him who might peradventure have cost her her life and there was a child too crying as if it had beene either sensible of the cruelty of the salvage tyrant or else struck with compassion for the tender mother The cryes of both were so lowd and so just that they pierced the clowdes and were heard up to heaven and the daughter of the King was moved to save what her father in his fury did seeke to destroy The child was found by Pharaoh's daughter and ignorantly as well as compassionately shee put him to nurse to his indulgent mother O what cannot God doe when hee decreeth to act His justice is severe and potent Ps 145 9. but his mercy which is over all his workes is full of goodnesse and wonder Hee who preserved Moses hath saved this infant and I hope hee hath chosen him for a vessell of honour Zacharias was promised that hee should have joy and gladnesse in Iohn the Baptist Luc. 1.14 I will hope for the like in this new-borne babe and I will begge of my Lord that hee may be beloved of him Him I must magnifie for the deliverance of my selfe and him I must thanke both for the shape the life of my child My wombe might have proved the grave of mine infant and my selfe the sepulcher of a child unseene I might have dyed in the birth of this which I embrace and the litle infant ignorant of my cryes might unwittingly have beene the destroyer of his mother Or else I might have lived
it doe tingle yea and mee think's not onely mine eares tingle but even my heart allso tingleth and trembleth at the same Well though that stone be there yet the inscision shall be made and howsoever I will desire that a paine I may endure If yet I am not sensible enough when the inscision is made I hope I shall have time enough to smart before the eskar be off Lord I desire that I may be sensible of the wounds of this land and that the blood which is shed in these violent times may be washed away by the teares of mee and other penitent sinners Or if blood requireth blood Lord let the wine and oyle of the best Samaritane let the blood of my mercifull Redeemer prevaile for pardon for the blood which is shed in these un-naturall warrs and let it stoppe the fountaine the current the issue thereof If my poore countrie was formerly troubled with a plurisie I am sure that now it useth the harsh meanes of phlebotomie for it is let blood in every part in the head the armes the leggs the feete yea and even in the very heart And yet for all this are there not some among us upon whose hearts the stupifying infernall stone is layd who are like unto Moab Ier. 48.11 who have beene at case from their youth and have setled upon their lees and have not beene emptyed from vessell to vessell nor have gone into captivitie and therfore their tast remaineth in them neither is their sent changed Are there not those among us that put farre away the evill day Amos. 6.3 vers 4. and cause the seate of violence to come neere That lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eate the lambs out of the flock the calves out of the midst of the stall vers 5. That chaunt to the sound of the violl and invent to themselves instruments of musick vers 6. That drinke wine in bowles and annoint themselves with the chiese ointments but are not grieved for the afflictions of Ioseph Ierusalem was then surest of her destruction when she laughed and rejoyced in her surfeits and riotts my compassionate Iesus at the same time foreseeing her ruine mourned and wept over her Oh Luc. 19 41. mee thinks when I lay my hand upon my heart when I touch my heart I find it a stringed instrument and when I stoppe upon the fretts the lesson that it playeth is nothing but Lachrymae Yet I feare I weepe not so much as I should and I feare too that every one doth not weepe so much as I doe I feare there are still those among us Isa 49.26 who dilight to be fed with their owne flesh and to be drunke with their owne blood as with sweete wine What shall I say of such or how shall I pleade for them Have these workers of wickednesse noe knowledg Ps 14.4 who eate up the people as they eate bread and call not upon the Lord 2. Sam. 2.26 Lord shall their sword devoure for ever Know wee not that it will be bitternesse in the latter end How long shall it be then ere the people be bid returne from following their brethren The Lord hath said by the mouth of his servant David that he will abhorre the bloody Ps 5.6 Ps 55.23 and deceitfull man yea he saith that bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their dayes Ps 68.30 Ps 51.14 Ps 46.9 and that hee will skatter the people that delight in warre Deliver 〈◊〉 from blood-guilinesse ô God thou God of 〈◊〉 salvation O that my God would make these warrs to cease O that he would breake the bowes and cut the speares in sunder and burâ—… the chariots in the fire This I am sure heâ— and hee alone can doe Hee and hee onely is our refuge and strength vers 1. and a very present heâ—e in trouble This therfore that hee may doe I will imitate the Prophet Daniel and I will speake Dan. 9.20 and pray and confesse mine owne sinnt and the sinns of this people and present my supplication before the Lord my God and thus I will say The First Prayer wherein is set downe 1 Gods Iustice in punishing his owne people in former times 2 His Iustice allso in the present punishing us for our offences 3 An earnest supplication for our repentance and his forgivenesse O Righteous father thou who art righteous in all thy wayes Ps 145.17 and holy in all thy workes I thine unworthy creature in the very griefe of my heart and with a sad and bleeding soule cannot choose but sit downe and weepe Ps 13â— 1. vers 8. in the consideration of our poore Sion wasted with miseries Yet great and grievous though our afflictions are and the increase and growth which they may yet arise higher unto is all-together as unknowne to us as when the period and end of them shall be howsoever I must confesse thee to be a righteous God strong and patient And seeing all things are naked and open unto thee with whom wee have to doe I cannot choose but acknowledg here upon my bended knees before thine all-seeing majesty that the sinns oh the grievous the scandalous the out-ragious sinns of this nation have cryed for this vengeance Ps 51.4 that thou mayst be justifyed when thou speakest and be cleere now thou judgest I confesse ô Lord out of a sense of mine owne transgressions and consideration of the crimes of this people Is 59.12 that our transgressions are multiplyed before thee and our sinns testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities I desire of thee Lord that wee may know them When thine owne deare people of Israel would not be reformed by terrour Lev. 26 16. vers 17 and consumption and the burning ague by their enemies eating that which they had sowed and reigning over them by their fleeing when none did pursue them by making their heaven iron their earth as brasse vers 18 by suffering them to spend their strength in vaine vers 19 and causing their land not to yeeld her increase nâ— the trees their fruite vers 22 by the wild beasts robbing them of their children by destroying their cattell and making them few in number and their high wayes desolate then didst thou threaten them vers 23 saying If yee will yet walke contrarie to mee then will I walke contrarie to you vers 24 vers 25 and will punish you yet seaven times for your sinns I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrell of my covenant when yee are gathered together within your citties I will send the Pestilence among you Deut. 28.15 yee shall be delivered into the hand of the enemie Againe thou didst allso threaten them saying If thou wilt not hearken to the voyce of the Lord thy God to observe to doe all his
commandements and his statutes vers 25 the Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies thou shalt goe out one way against them and flee seaven wayes before them and thy carkeise shall be meate unto all fowles of the aire and unto the beasts of the earth vers 26 and noe man shall fray them away Iud. 2.13 Thus when Israel forsooke thee their Lord and served Baalim and Ashahroth vers 14 then thine anger was hot against them and thou didst deliver them into the hands of spoilers that spoyled them and didst sell them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies c. 3.7 Thus againe when they did evill in thy sight and forgat thee their Lord and their God and served Baalim and the groves then thine anger was hot against Israel vers 8. and thou didst sell them into the hands of Chusan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia and they served him eight yeeres vers 9. But yet when they cryed unto thee thou didst raise up a deliverer to them who delivered them Thus allso when they did evill in thy sight c. 6.1 thou didst deliver them into the hands of Midian seaven yeeres And thus at another time when they did evill againe in thy sight and served Baalim and Ashtaroth c. 10.6 and forsooke thee and served thee not vers 7. then thine anger was hot against them and thou didst sell them into the hands of the Philistines into the hands of the children of Ammon c 13.1 Yea and thus when they allso did likewise evill in thy sight thou didst deliver them into the hands of the Philistines fortie yeeres If then Lord thou sparedst not thine owne deere people when they thus sinned Ps 106.29 and provoked thee to wrath through their owne inventions how can wee the most abhominable of all thy creatures have the least hope of the cessation of thy judgments who still doe multiply and increase our unsufferable abhominations Neither terrour nor consumption nor any other of thy corrections formerly sent us have prevailed with us to search and try our wayes and to turne unto thee our dreadfull Lord. Iustly therfore doest thou walke contrarie unto us and causest the sword to avenge the quarrell of thy covenant Wee are smitten before our enemies yea even such enemieâ— who have beene and should have continued our friends for religion countrie neigbourhood affinitie and consanguinitie had tyed us together with the bonds of love But now alasse wee goe out one way against them and flee seaven wayes before them Wee have in many places had those among us who served Baalim and Ashtaroth and the groves and wee have had those too who allthough they have professed with Naaman that they would offer neither burnt offerings 2. King 5.17 nor sacrifice unto other Gods but onely unto thee the true Lord yet with Naaman allso they have bowed in the house of Rimmon vers 8. Iustly therfore ô most justly is thine anger hot against us and wee are delivered into the hands of spoylers Confesse wee must ô God that wee are a sinfull nation Is 1.4 a people laden with iniquity a seede of evill doers children that are corrupters wee have forsaken thee our Lord wee have provoked thee the Holy-one to anger wee have gone away backward vers 5. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint vers 6. from the sole of the foote even to the head there is noe soundnesse but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores they have not beene closed neither bound up neither mollified with oyntment Wee have indeede with our tongues called thee our father and our master yet thou mayst justly question us as thou didst the Israelites by the mouth of thy holy Prophet If I be a father Mal 1.6 where is mine honour And if I be a master where is my feare Ah Lord wee must confesse that wee are all as an uncleane thing Is 64.6 and all our righteousnesses are as filthy raggs wee all doe fade as a leafe our iniquities as the wind doe take us away vers 7. There is none among us that calleth upon thy name as he ought to doe that stirreth up himselfe to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities vers 8. But now ô Lord thou art our father wee are the clay and thou our potter and wee all are the worke of thine hand vers 9. Be not wroth very sore ô Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behould see I beseech thee wee are all thy people True it is c 28.3 ô eternall Purity that thoâ— didst threaten by thy Prophet that the drunkards of Ephraim should be trodden under feete and by thy servant Solomon thou hast warned us Prov. 23.20 vers 21 saying Be not amongst wine bibbers amongst riotous eaters of flesh for the drunkarâ— and the glutton shall come to povertie and drowzinesse shall cloath them with raggs And yet as if thy words were not true or thy judgments not to be feared and trembled at thâ—… is among us a roote that beareth gall and wormewood Deut. 29 18. to adde drunkennesse to thirst Wee hart Vriah's 1. Sam. 11.13 1. King 16.9 1. Sam. 25.36 made drunke and wee have Elah's Nabals drinking themselves drunke and making Kingly feasts where the end of their mirth is drunkennesse Seeing therfore theâ— is this guilt among us how can wee expect other but that thou shouldest tread downe to people in thine anger Is 63.6 and make them drunke is thy furie and bring downe our strength to the earth It was thy judgment upon Moab the he should be made drunken and should wallâ—… in his vomit be in derision Ier. 48.26 Is 51.17 Wee ô Lord are now made drunke with the cup of thy furie and drinke the dreggs of the cup of trembling and wring them out and that because of the cupps of drunkennesse and madnesse which have over flowed in our land Ier. 10.24 But ô heavenly father correct us but with judgment and not in thine anger lest thou bring us to nothing Luc 21 34. Make every one of us of this nation Take heede lest at any time our hearts be over-charged with surfeiting drunkennesse and cares of this life so that day the day of judgment come upon us unawares By King Solomon ô thou glorious Essence Frov 16.18 thou hast tould us that pride goeth before destruction an haughty spirit before a fall and the Apostle telleth us Iam. 4.6 Eze 16 49. that thou resistest the proude but givest grace to the humble and the Prophet telleth that pride was one of the iniquities of Sodome as well as fullnesse of bread and aboundance of idlenesse Yet ô Lord God all-mighty in our pride wee have neither remembred the