them run parallel with the present It is certain we ought to lay to heart the afflicted Condition of those who are of the same Religion with us our Bowels shou'd yearn over them we should labour to have our Souls possessed with Resentments suitable to what they undergoe and endure And it greatly concerns us to present their Case in our deepest Humiliations unto our God. With what awful and earnest importunity should we wrestle in our Prayers with the Lord on their behalf With what reiterated vehemence should we entreat God to arise and scatter the Enemies of his Church and make his Arm bare and save his People which are appointed to destruction O Lord awake and stir up thy Power and come and help Hear thy People which prayeth unto thee and wherein-soever the Enemies of thy Church do behave themselves proudly shew thy self to be above them plead thine own Cause with all thy haughty cruel and contemptuous Adversaries and maintain thou the Right of thy People who look unto thee and have long waited for thy Salvation Remember this that the Enemy hath reproached O Lord and that the foolish People have blasphemed thy Name O deliver not the Soul of thy Turtle-dove unto the multitude of the Wicked forget not the Congregation of thy Poor for ever Have respect unto the Covenant for the dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty O let not the Oppressed return ashamed let the Poor and Needy praise thy Name Arise O God plead thine own Cause remember how the foolish Man reproacheth thee daily Forget not the Voice of thine Enemies the Tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God. For lo thine Enemies make a Tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the Head. They have taken crafty Counsel against thy People and consulted against thy hidden Ones They have said Come and let us cut them off from being a Nation that the Name of Israel that the Name of Protestant may be no more in remembrance For they have consulted together with one consent they are confederate against thee Do unto them as unto the Midianites as to Sisera as to Jabin at the Brook of Kison which perished at En-dor they became as Dung for the Earth Make their Nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb yea all their Princes as Zebah and Zalmunna Persecutethem with thy Tempest and make them afraid with thy Storm Fill O Lord That Men may know that thou whose Name alone is JEHOVAH art the most High over all theEarth But there is one thing more I would more particularly recommend to you as a piece of Service we more especially owe to our Suffering Brethren at this Time And that is To contribute what we can for their Support and Relief under their present Sufferings and for the hastening of their Deliverance from the Tyranny and Cruelty of their Adversaries If God will recompense his suffering Servants with a Glory which will infinitely exceed all that can be inflicted on them at present we may be sure he sets a a very high value on them and hath a very affectionate and tender regard unto them And is it not very apparent from hence that we ought to have a very great esteem of them and to concern our selves as much as possibly we can at present for their support and deliverance We should now be very free and liberal in imparting what we have to supply the Wants and Necessities of our distressed Brethren that comfortable Accommodations may be provided for them It is our Duty to do good to all but especially to those who are of the Houshold of Faith. And amongst these to have a more particular regard to those who suffer for the Faith. We should now extend our Charity to the utmost that some competent Provision may be made for them And here though I have not those Letters Pattents to read amongst you which I understand are to be read this Day in the Neighbouring Churches to excite the Charity of all honest and-piously disposed Christians I cannot forbear briefly to mind you how loudly the distressed Estate of the Irish Protestants doth call upon us all to commiserate them in their Affliction and to stretch our Charity every one of us as far as we are able and to contribute as plentifully for their Supply as our own Necessities will permit How grateful a Sacrifice would you offer unto God if you would every one voluntarily consign and dedicate the greatest Portions of your worldly Goods which your Personal and Family unavoidable Occasions can spare for the supply and help of these afflicted Christians even now whilst you are destitute of that more solemn invitation to Charity your Neighbours round about you have at this time O what a great generous and excellent Spirit prevailed in the Christians of old What a powerful and truly Divine Love flamed in their Breasts towards their fellow Christians How little did they value this World How tender were they of the Ease and Welfare of those who loved and served the same God and Christ they did when they gave not only all the Mony they had in present possession that the Members of Christ might be provided for and furnished with Conveniences but those who were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the Things that were sold that distribution might be made unto every Man according as he had need What Friends may you now make to your selves of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness What everlasting Habitations may you now secure to receive you when this World shall not be able to serve or retain you any longer Indeed I know your Stations Capacities and Circumstances are such you cannot make such splendid Oblations as may be offered in most if not all other Protestant Assemblies in this Land But if you are not straitned in your own Bowels you may contribute so much as will be of some use to these needy Persons and most real and affecting Objects of Charity You who are poorest if with the poor Widow in the Gospel you give but your two Mites what you give will be graciously accepted of the Lord For if there be first a willing Mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath and not according to that he hath not Whatsoever we give on this Occasion provided we do it with simplicity and chearfulness we do but lend the same unto the Lord who will not suffer us to be losers by what we trust him with or lay out upon his Credit He will in due time and in his own way recompeâ—se our shewing Mercy our Kindness our Liberality our Charity to his suffering Servants Children and Members with an hundred-sold yea with many thousand-sold Gain and Advantage If we own and relieve and help the persecuted Followers of Christ to the utmost of our
Flatteries Pleasures and Pomps of 〈…〉 World and expose themselves voluntarily to the m 〈…〉 el and barbarous Usages of the implacable Enemies 〈…〉 ne true Faith and Religion Yea they have actually 〈…〉 ed and refused to accept of the Offers of Deliverance â—â—om the most painful Tortures By Faith Moses when he was come to Years refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh 's Daughter chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season Esteemirg the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the Recompence of the Reward Heb. 11. 24 25 26. And we read of others who were tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection Heb. 11. 35. Having thus briefly discoursed of the two Points taken notice of from the Text I shall raise a few Inferences from what hath been discoursed First This should greatly endear the Protestant Religion unto us and mightily confirm and settle us in the Profession and Practice of it The Protestant Religion is the only true Christian and Scripture-Religion It takes in and comprehends all that the Word of God doth teach and authorize and it rejects and renounces every thing from being a part of Religion which the Scriptures do not warrant All this is very evident and plain to those who do impartially compare our Religion with the holy Scriptures The Protestant Religion is the Religion that is from above and is first pure then peacable gentle and easie to be intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisy James 3. 17. This is the Faith and Religion we are commanded by God himself to stand fast in and to contend earnestly for and as it were to enter into an Association to defend and maintain it against all the Attempts of its Adversaries for we are required to stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel Phil. 1. 27. The Protestant Religion is that which was the common Religion among the Apostles and all good Christians of old It is the Religion of all the Reformed Churches at present This is the Religion we all make a Profession of and it is such a Religion that if we be but sincere in and true to it we may suffer if occasion be for it with Comfort and the more we suffer for it the greater measures of Glory we shall be recompensed with at last People may call what ever they fancy and whatever their Interest doth incline them unto by the Name of Religion but it is the Protestant Religion which is the only true Christian Religion and the only Religion which is worth suffering for And if our Religion be such as will bear us out in Sufferings yea cause the greatest Sufferings we can be exposed unto for its sake to turn us to the most desireable and advantagious account how does it deserve to be esteemed by us What a Zeal should we have for it How concerned should we be on its behalf With what firmness should we adhere unto it With what Courage and Resolution should we encounter all Difficulties we may meet with whilst ingaged in and for it With what assurance should we own to the World that we are of this Religion With what Care and Circumspection should we walk that our Conversations may not thwart with nor blemish but every way accord and comport well with this Religion What Valour and Excellency of Spirit should we all manifest in opposing and endeavouring to pull down according to the Stations and Capacities we are in all the Insolent and Arbitrary Attempters to supplant and overthrow our Religion This is the Religion God hath revealed which he owns and will recompence this is the Religion which leads to Glory It is indeed a Religion the Men of this World do hate And therefore its Professors must expect but little courteous Entertainment from them They must look for Tribulations and Sufferings as they pass on their Pilgrimage through this Wilderness But then it is a Religion which secures this advantage to all its faithful Professors That their Sufferings shall be their Gain and the more they suffer on its account the greater and more glorious their Reward shall be How dear should that Religion be unto us which assures us of such a Glory that all the Sufferings of this Life are as nothing when compared with it Secondly This should hugely incourage and support those who do suffer for the Protestant Religion The Protestant Interest hath been at a very low Ebb a great many Years very subtile formidable and general Designs have been on foot to destroy the Reformed Church And as the Enemies of our Religion did considently please themselves in all Nations with an Opinion that their Projects should take effect and that they should certainly root out that only true Religion which they call Heresy so no doubt they would have succeeded in their Attempts had not God been on our side who always hath been is and ever will be true and faithful to his Word and Promise He hath built his Church on so firm and unmoveable a Rock and hath so engaged his Faithfulness and Power on its behalf that no Counsel or Strength shall ever be able to prevail against it But tho God will not utterly forsake his People tho he will not cast them off for ever yet he may permit the Plowers to plow long and deep Furrows on their Backs He may suffer the Antichristian State to rage violently and many of the Kings and Rulers of the Earth to take Counsel together and set themselves against the Protestant Churches These may treat the best Christians with much Insolence and Barbarity but he all the time sits upon the Throne of his Majesty and really laughs them to scorn and derides the bloody Enemies of his Truth and Gospel God seems to wink at the Enemies of his Truth and permits them to carry on their Designs so far as he thinks fit to over-rule their Methods and Courses to Ends they never think of But when his Peoples Dross is purged away and their Adversaries have filled up the measure of their Iniquities and are fully ripe for Vengeance then will be open a way for the solemn and illustrious conducting of his Church to that pure and prosperous Estate which he hath promised to place her even in this World in the open view and sight of the Nations Great Multitudes of eminent Protestants have for many Years now past been very inhumanly treated Great numbers are at this time very cruelly used their Sighs and Groans do sound loud their Sufferings are very apparent and visible But poor Sufferers be not you discouraged your Groans do reach Heaven they penetrate unto the Mercy-Seat they come unto the Ears of your God the Lord of Hosts who only is mighty to save He is jealous for his Honour he is jealous for his
all the rest But it is to be hoped God will soon bring him to a Reckoning God hath now put it into the Heart of our Soveraigns and of other Protestant Princes to declare War against that Mirror of Inhumanity in order to the securing of this Land and all other Protestant States from the cursed Designs the Popish Party have been long projecting and to rescue the suffering Servants of the most High God out of that intollerable Servitude and Bondage with which they have been long oppressed Let not any of us murmur or complain let us not be discontented nor manifest the least unwillingness to pay any Sums which are or shall be legally appointed to promote so good a Work. It would greatly become us to evidence such a promptness and alacrity in this Affair that there might be ground to believe that the only Ambition of every one is to exceed one another in a ready and joyful compliance with every Motion that hath any tendency to promote so glorious an Enterprize What have our Foreign Adversaries been aiming at all this while but to possess the Enemies of our Faith in those Mannours Farms Lands and Estates which were in former Times blindly surrendred up to the voracious Appetites of some ravenous Priests And to make People of the same Perswasion Masters of all those other Lands and Estates which by a wiser management have hitherto been preserved from Superstitious Clutches Let us take care that we be not at this Time Stingy Nigardly and Penurious lest by our over-much concern for a small Particle we sacrifice all and betray our selves into their Hands who will prophane the whole pretending that every part is Sacred Our Adversaries Designs are evidently to deprive us of our Religion and of all that we can properly call our own and to reduce us under that vâ—â—e that ignominious that insupportable Oppression under which the Protestants in France have long groaned How would English Men ennoble themselves and raise their Reputation and Character thorow all the World would they generally and unanimously resolve to empty all their Treasures and Morgage and spend all their Lands and Estates though abundantly less will serve the turn rather than such a laudable Vndertaking shall not be crown'd with success rather than Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power shall not be extirpated rather than those who are oppressed and persecuted for the Faith of the Gospel shall not be rescued and delivered The Israelites did part with their Ornaments their Jewels their golden Ear-rings to make them an Idol though they might expect that thereby the Wrath of God would be provoked against them to a prodigious Degree And what do the Worshippers of Idols in our Days freely and willingly part with that they may Inherit the loss of their Liberty and of their Souls at the dearest Rate Will not all these rise up in Judgment against us if we think any thing too dear to be parted with to secure our Religion the Publick Interests our Private Rights and Liberties yea and to purchase the Fase Liberty and Freedom of the Church of God in other Parts of the World We of the Clergy do know that Mannors and Estates have been excused from paying Tithes to encourage the Owners to ingage in a pretendedly Holy War. Let us of the Clergy now manifest our selves so free from Worldly Minds and Covetousness that we will chearfully part with all our Tithes rather than Mony which is usually esteem'd the Sâ—â—â—â—s of War shall in the least be wanting to support this Enterprize which is as truly Just and Pious as it is apparently Great and Honourable Yea let not English Men only adventure their Fortunes but vigorously resolve they will One and All expose their Persons in this Affair if Occasion be And then if we have thorowly humbled our selves before God and duly implored his Blessing and Aid as we have lately pretended to do and do conscientiously endeavour to walk in all holy Uprightness before our God for the future we need not doubt but that this great and glorious Enterprize will be effectual to these Blessed Ends for which it is intended If we be thus disposed rather than we shall want Success our God who is the Lord of Hosts will imploy all his Attributes and muster together all his Armies to sight for us He will frown our Enemies into Confusion and turn their Swords one against another He will send an Angel to cut them all off in less Time than a Night He will knock out their Brains with Hail-stones and make the Staâ—s in their Courses to sight against France or he will find out some new and hitherto unexperimented Instances whereby he will make our Enemies the infamous Monuments of his Vengeance Let not any of us who are sincere in the Protestant Religion and heartily concerned for the deliverance of those who suffer for our Religion be discouraged Let none of us fear or be dismayed how potent or how numerous soever our Enemies are But let us be strong and of good Courage for the Lord our God is with us whithersoever we go Fifthly I would desire you to reflect once more on the Text and observe how much it doth concern every one of us in particular to get our Minds well assured that the future Glory will abundantly exceed all the Sufferings of this present time The better we are assured our selves of this the better use we shall make of this Text in all the parts of our Lives Let us labour to have our Minds possessed with as accurate Notions of both these things as we can let us often think of each and frequently compare both together Let us never rest satisfied till we have such a Perswasion and Sense of the future Glory as will make all things appear very little and inconsiderable whenever they offer to stand in competition with it Let us be earnest in our Prayers that we may be indued with such a Faith as may overcome the World and may be indeed to us the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. With what Life and Vigor shall we then perform all our Duties With what Patience and Chearfulness shall we entertain and endure every afflicting Occurrence With what Courage Constancy and Triumph shall we go through and accomplish our Christian Warfare How freely shall we contribute what we have to those who suffer How willingly shall we sacrifice all for our Religion and the Publick-Weal With what satisfaction may we look for the coming of Christ And how confidently may we depend on our appearing with him in Glory When your Circumstances shall be most menacing according to the Judgment of this World you may every one of you in particular say as the Apostle did I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give me at the last day and not to me only but unto all them that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 6 7 8. The God of all Grace wheâ—â—â—â—…th called us unto his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after 〈◊〉 have suffered awhile make you perfect stablish strengthen 〈◊〉 you To him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen 1 Pet. 5. 10. 11. FINIS 1 Cor. 29. Col. 3. 3. 1 Joh. 3. 2 1 Pet. 1. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Rom. 5. 2 3. Act 5. 41. Heb. 11. 35. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 1 Pet. 4. 12. Vers 13. Vers 14. Vers 15. Vers 16. Matth. 5. 10. Vers 12. Joh. 15. 19 1 Pet. 4. 4. Rom. 1â—â— 2 Cor. 1. 5. Rom. 2. â— 2 Tim. 1. 12. Rev. 1â— 16. Phil. 1. â—3 Rom. 13. 11. Rom. 8. 17. 2 Thes 1. 6. â— Psal 74. 18 c. Psal 83. 1. c. vers 9. c vers 15. vers 18. Act. 4. 34 35. Luk. 16. 9 2 Cor. 3. 12. Deut. 28. 48.