that end the Lord gave unto his people the same Law the same Sacraments and the same Gospell that the same God might have the same worship in all places and that his people might believe the same faith use the same prayer receive the same Sacraments and do the same publick service unto God in every City and in every place that so they might attain unto the same end which is the kingdom of heaven And therefore the Reverend Bishops and Governours of Gods Church were so careful herein to preserve the unity of the Church and the uniformity of Gods service that they prescribed the same prayers the same Psalms The set form of prayers and service of God justified 1. By the people of God the same Chapters and the same Service to be used in all Churches that all the world might know we worship the same God And to justifie this their practice of a set form of Prayers and Service of God they have 1. The Precept of God himself saying unto Moses Speak unto Aaron and to his sons saying On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee Numb 6.22 and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and so likewise he prescribeth unto them the very prayer that they should make and the very words that they should use both as they went forth and as they returned home from Battle for when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when the Ark rested Numb 10.35 he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel and the Prophet David useth the very same prayer and the same words saying Let God arise Psal 68.1 and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him 2. 2 By the Precept of Christ Luke 12.2 They have the Precept of Christ himself that biddeth us to use that prayer which he taught us saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. 3. 3 By the practice of the godly people in the Old Testament They have the practice of the godly people of the Old Testament as you may see the very words that they were to use in Gods service when they offered their first fruits and the very prayer that they were to make in Deut. 26. from the third verse to the tenth and verse 13. And so the very words that the Priests were to use unto the people when they came nigh unto the battle as you may see in Deut. 20.3 And the godly King Hezechias made certain Psalms after his recovery from his sicknesse and saith We will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord Esay 38.20 and when he reformed the service of God that the people had neglected and the wicked Kings had corrupted he prescribed a set form of Gods worship and commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord not as every simple Priest 2 Chro. 29 30. or silly Levite pleased but with the words of David and Asaph the Seer And Mr. Selden in his Notes upon Eutychius sheweth Selden in Eutych pag. 41. dist ad pagin 25. that since Ezra's time when after their return from Babylon the true Service of God was restored the Jews constantly used a set form of Gods worship in all their Synagogues every Synagogue using the same Service 4. They have the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament 4 By the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament Luke 11.1 Matth 26.44 Psal 22.1 as 1. Of John Baptist that taught his disciples a Set form of serving God and a set form of Prayer 2 Of Christ himself that used the same form of prayer and repeated the same words three times together and commanded us to do the like and when he was upon the Crosse he used the very words of the Psalmist changeing onely the Hebrew phrase into the Syriack Dialect 3. Of the Primitive Church as the Lyturgy of Saint James Saint Basil S. Chrysostom and the short Form of serving God which Saint Peter left at Rome and the other which Saint Mark left at Alexandria do sufficiently testifie 4 Of the whole Catholick Church as it appeareth out of Cassander and other Writers of the Lyturgica And Therefore the religious Emperour Constantine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vità Const l. 4 c 17. rendered Set Formes of prayers unto the Christians saith Eusebius and his Nobles used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers that the Emperour liked and they were all brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray the same prayer yea he prescribed a Set Form of Service for his souldiers Idem l. 4. c. 20. as the same Eusebius testifieth And Saint August saith that Sursum corda lift up your hearts are words ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita used in the Church of Christ even from the very times of the Apostles and are agreeable to the Constitutions of the Apostles L. 8. c. 16. 5. They have the practice of the Heathens that were so wise herein 5 By the practice of the heathens Plato de legibus l. 7. Alexand ab◠Alexand. l. 4. c. 17. Why the Gentiles used the same set prayers in their service as to use the same Service to every false god as both Plato and Alexander ab Alexandro do bear witnesse and they caused their prayers to be read out of a Book 1. That so the people might learn to repeat the same Prayers with the Priest when the same Prayers are constantly used in Gods service which they shall never be able to do when they shall have a new Prayer and a new Service upon every new day 2. Their Prayers were prescribed and read lest the simple and ignorant Priest should ask of God any evill thing that should not be asked and 3. Ne quid preposterè dicatur their Petitions were set down in verbis conceptis as we use to send messages to great persons in these and these very words lest we should offend either in the matter or in the manner in the thing requested or in the words wherein we have requested it Out of all which you may perceive how necessary it was for the Governours of Gods Church to see that the same God should have the same Service and that very Service which himself prescribeth and not what new Prayers and new worship in what Form and under what words soever every ignorant Priest should extemporarily pour forth to the Almighty God For if we ought to be very carefull to keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 then how much more carefull ought we to be to keep our mouths and look to
the words of God And It should teach the people to esteem of their Preachers as of the Ministers of Christ and as Legati à latere the Embassadours of Christ and the dispensers of the manifold mysteries of God and it should likewise move them to hear our words not as the words of men but as the words of the true Preachers are indeed the words of God Therefore Christ saith to his Disciples that while the Scribes and Pharisees do sit in Moses chaire and so teach the doctrine that Moses taught all whatsoever they bid you observe Aug. advers lit Petil. l. 2. c. 6. that observe and do but do not ye after their works Dicunt enim quae Dei sunt faciunt quae sua sunt for they say the words of God while they teach the Doctrine of Moses but they do the works of their own Wills when they do what Moses forbids them saith Saint Aug. And that should perswade the people to hear the Preachers words with more reverence and to believe them with lesse doubting 2. 2 God himhelf As the Prophet is Gods Herald and Embassadour to proclaim Gods will so God himself is the chief Authour of this Proclamation and the principall proclaimer of this war against the wicked for there is no peace to the wicked Psal 62.2 saith my God And God hath spoken it once and twice and the Prophet heard the same That power belongeth unto God and he hath said it once and twice that there is no peace to the wicked as you see here in this Text Aug. ad Pollent l. 2. c. 4. and in c. 48.22 Et verba toties inculcata vera sunt viva sunt planae sunt therefore we may be sure we need not doubt it there is no peace unto the wicked because God which proclaims this war is able to make it good against them because he is as he is stiled the Lord of Hosts And his Host is both 1. Celestial And 1 Part of Gods Host threefold 2. Terrestrial And 3. Infernal And 1. 1 Regiment of Gods Army Aietie His Celestial Host is threefold 1. Aiery And 2. Starry And 3. Glorious And By the first he drowned and destroyed the world for the Windowes of heaven were opened Gen 7. c. 19 24 Josh 10. and by the same Host he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone and the Ammorites with hail-stones and we see great winds destroyed many on the Seas and great frosts do devour many on earth Psal 147.17 for if God sends forth his Ice like morsels the Prophet demands Who is able to abide his frost The second part of his Host is the starry heaven 2 Regiment starry that is called Caelum quasi caelatum engraven and enamel'd with such glorious aspects And this Host as it speaks for God and declares the glory of God as the Psalmist saith so they fight for God Psal 19.1 as the stars in their order did fight against Sisera and the Sun stood still at Gibeon and the Moon in the valley of Aialon to assist Joshua to overthrow Gods enemies Josh 5.20 c. 10.13 3. Regiment glorious which is threefold The third and most powerful part of Gods Host which is most glorious resideth in the Empyreal heaven and they are 1. Saints And 2. Angels And 1. 1 The Saints blessed souls Raynold de Idol l. 2. c. 1. The Saints and blessed souls departed saith Raynold De sua faelicitate securi de nostra salute solliciti sunt and without question they do pray for the Church in Generall against the wicked and their prayers are very available 2. The Holy Angels are instruments of Gods love and mercy 2 The Holy Angels Act. 5.19 to help the faithfull servants of Christ as you may see how the Angel helped Tobias and brought the Apostles out of prison and they are the executioners of Gods justice against the wicked as you may find how an Angel slew all the first-born in Egypt and an Angel of the Lord went out Exod. 12.19 and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning Behold they were all dead Corps 2 King 49.35 And if one Angel was able to slay so many what cannot millions of Angels do And we read what a glorious King was Herod and how he was magnified by the people as a god and not as man but because he gave not the glory unto God the Angel of the Lord smote him Act. 12.23 so that he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost and our Saviour testifieth unto us Math. 24.31 what service the Angels shall do to God and for his servants at the last day 2. Gods terrestriall Host is both 2 Part of Gods Host two fold 1. The Sea 2. The Land And all that are contained therein and you know 1. How the Sea drowned Pharaoh and all his mighty Army and drowned many thousands since and you cannot forget 2. How the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Corah and his companions So the frogs flies and worms do fight for God Num. 16.32 against the wicked and as the Prophet saith The stone shall cry out of the wall Ps 106.17 and the beam out of the timber shall answer it Wo to him that buildeth his house with blood Hab. 2.11 and so all the parts of the earth shall fight against the wicked 3. Gods infernall Host are the very Divels and damned spirits 3 Part of Gods Host that can do nothing without Gods leave and must do all that he commands them For so we read that an Evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul 1 Sam. 16.14 and vexed him for his wickedness And so they will do to all wicked men vex them and plague them for their wickedness And so you see how it is impossible for any transcendent wicked man Murderer Rebel Idolater or the like to have any peace either with himself or his neighbour or especially with God that is so powerfull a God so able to destroy all his wicked enemies And therefore let all such wicked men repent and all others take heed of being wicked because my God which is the true God and the God of truth proclaims this truth unto the world that There is no peace unto the wicked THE FOURTH TREATISE Jer. 14.10 Thus saith the Lord unto this people Thus have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins WHAT our Saviour saith of the Prophesy of Esaias Esay 61.1 This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears which was a very joyfull fulfilling of it indeed Luk. 4.21 so I am affraid I may say of this Prophesy of Jeremy that in these daies you may see this Scripture fulfilled amongst us because
and therefore I say that the bond of this Christian fraternity which we are commanded to retain and to love all that are comprehended within it though it be woven like Josephs coat Gen. 27.3 with some diversity of thred and threds of many colours yet ought it not to be easily broken and soon cut in sunder and the mercies of God should not be too narrowly contracted for why should men be more rigid then God or why should any errour exclude men from the Churches Communion which will not deprive them of eternal salvation and we find that in the Apostles time the Corinthians denied the Resurrection of the flesh which is a principal Article of our Christian faith and the Galathians erred as fowly in one of the chiefest and most fundamental points of Christianity which was the point of our justification so far that S. Paul tells them if they be circumcised as many of them would be that is after they had embraced the truth of the Gospel they were fallen away from grace and Christ should profit them nothing and many other foul errours they had amongst them and yet the holy Apostle in regard of their profession to be Christians and their Christian conversation to lead a just and an upright life calleth them Saints brethren his children and the Churches of God Chillings p. 220. And so the seven famous Churches of Asia were infected with many errours and accused of foul corruptions and yet the holy Ghost denieth them not to be Christians and disdaineth not to call them the Churches of God And therefore I say though the Papists and Puritans Anabaptists and Brownists and the like differ from us that are the true Protestants in many particular points of our Religion yet while they professe to believe in Christ What are the chiefest points of charity and to live like Christians in the fear of God in true obedience to their King and in unfeigned love and charity towards their neighbours which I conceive to be the chiefest points of Christianity and the parts and parcels of our wedding garment I say they are our brethren and to be deemed our Christian brethren and we ought to love them and are obliged to live in peace with them and to suffer them unwronged to live peaceably with us and not to do as in the madnesse of their misguided zeal too too many men are bent on either side to hate persecute rob and murder one another because they will not be of the same opinion as we are or they are of which is a thing impossible in nature because Faith cannot be compelled either to believe what I list not or not to believe what I list as Lactantius saith and it is inconsistent with the very Principle of our profession that we should rob men and take away their estatesâ—s because they will not professe the same Faith and Religion that we do for compulsion may make men hypocrites but not Saints and you know the chiefest points of our Christian Religion are Faith Hope and Charity and the Apostle tells us the greatest of these is Charity because our love and our charity as they are of a far greater perpetuity so they should be of a far greater latitude and extent then our Faith and Hope can be And therefore What we are to hate and what to love in all Sectaries and professors of Religion though my knowledge and my judgment will not suffer me to be of the same Faith either with the Papists Puritans Anabaptists or the like erroneous Sectaries but perswadeth me to hate and detest both their Positions and their Practices yet my Religion teacheth me to love their persons and in my conversation to live in Peace and to joyn the right hand of Christianity with them and rather desire to exceed them in all the Offices of love then any wayes to shew the least hatred or do the least injury to any one of them all and withall to pray for them and to use all loving means to bring them to repentance for their errours and to embrace the truth This which I professe is the readiest way to winne them for as the Scripture saith Prov. 10.12 Hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth a multitude of sins and is the readiest way to convert the sinner And I think if men did this and not break the bond of love nor straighten the extent of this brotherhood they might the sooner be reduced to imbrace the same truth and to be united in the same faith because true love is the most attractive thing in the world and the want of love is the cause that so much wickednesse doth abound even as our Saviour testifieth And therefore it is most requisite that we should be very earnest and very often to insist upon these points and to urge these duties to honour all men and to love the brotherhood And so having heard that no Christian that is baptized and professeth the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be excluded from this Brother-hood We are now to confider wherein the love of this Brother-hood consisteth and what this Extensive love includeth in it and upon survey we shall find it to comprehend 1. An Vnfained affection of good-will unto them without dissimulation to wish them all happiness and prosperity not only in words but even from our very hearts 2. An Earnest endeavour to procure them all the good that their necessity requireth so far as it lyeth in our power to help them As 1. To pray for them that God would bless them and preserve them from all evil and save them even as S. Paul saith Brethren Rom. 10.1 my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved 2. Most cheerfully to administer to their necessities in all that lieth in our abilities for that is the Apostle's meaning both in his Epistle to the Romans chap. 12.13 And in this 1 Tim. 6.17 18. Chrysost in loc as S. Chrysostom sheweth saying Non solum pecuniis sed verbis rebus corpore aliis quibuscunque modis vult nos juvare egenos the Apostle would have us to help the needy not only with our purses but also with our words in speaking for them and with our labours to do them good and to preservs them from all manner of damage in their estates yea Rom. 12.20 without any difference of friends or foes for so the Apostle bids us If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink And so the Lord saith if thou meet est thine enemyes Oxe or his Ass going astray thou shalt surely bring hem back again to him Exod. 23.5.6 and if thou seest the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden and thou wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help him or leave thy business to help him O most heavenly and divine love how happy were we if we were filled with such love and how
of it And whereas this day five years past all the Protestants in this Kingdome and we especially of this City were destined to be sacrificed and slaughtered and sent as an Holâ—â—â—st or whole burnt-offering from the holy Father to the infernal God as many thousands of our Brethren were then and since yet by the love of God towards us we are still preserved alive that we might serve him and love him again And what more shall I say but cry out with the Psalmist O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31.21 and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the Sons of men for thou hast shewed us Marvellous great kindness I cannot say in a strong City but I say in a weak City and delivering us from strong Enemies whose Subtilty and Cruelty Treachery and Perfidiousness would require the head of the best experienced converted Jesuite to express it I had rather preach of Gods Love than treat of their Malicâ— and to talk of his Goodness rather than their wickedness and that great goodness The Lord Marquess of Ormond which he hath so lately shewed in delivering our most Excellent Governour so often from that malicious wickedness of the Sons of Belial so perfidiously intended against him is not the least Testimony of Gods Love to us all especially if we consider that what was intended this day 5 years had now questionless been executed if God had not broken the Snare of the Fowler and by delivering him redeemed us all from the Sword of Malice and from the Jawes of death and therefore this ought to be rightly weighed and duly remembred in our Thanksgiving among the many great undeserved and unexpected Preservations that our good God hath wrought for us And because his Excellency trusteth not in Lying Vanities but putteth his Trust in the Lord and in the Mercy of the Most High therefore he shall not miscarry But indeed this Love of God to us hath been so great and his Blessings in our Deliverances have been so many that if I should go about to enumerate them I might as well tell the Stars for as the Prophet saith they are more in number than I am able to expresse and therefore I will now conclude with our hearty thanks and Praise unto our good God for all his Love and Favours and Deliverances that he hath shewed unto us through Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for evermore Labilis memoria hominis How easily and how soon men forget good things the memory of man is very frail and slippery especially in the retention of all good things for though as the Poet saith Scribit in marmore laesus we write injuries in marble and never forget nor forgive the least ill turn that is done against us yet we write all benefits and all good instructions in the sands where the waves of forgetfulness do soon wash all away as the children of Israel regarded not the wonders that God wrought in Aegypt neither kept they his great goodness in remembrance Psal 106.7 13 21. but soon forgot his works yea and forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Aegypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea therefore lest you should forget the first part of this text before you heard the second I thougt it high time to proceed to those points which the time prevented me to inlarge not the last time I was in this place but the last time I treated of this verse and I hope you do remember that I told you this text was a text of love and of a twofold love 1. The love of God to man And 2. The love of man to God And In the first I noted these four things 1. The lover God 2. The affection Love He loved us first 3. The beloved Us. 4. The time First And I have done with the first three and therefore not to stand upon any further repetition I am now to proceed to shew you the fourth point that is the time when he loved us 4 The time when God loved us first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he loved us first i.e. before we would or could love him for love is one of the affections and the affections are seated in the heart and the heart is placed in the midst of the body and the body could not contain the heart nor the heart cast forth the affections nor the affections produce love before our loves Jer. 31.3 God loved us from everlasting before our Creation and affections and hearts and bodies had their being But God loved us before we were created and before we could have the least thought of our very being for I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee saith the Lord and this love was everlasting as well a parte ante from the time past as a parte post for the time to come and this love will appear the greater if we consider how freely and how undeservedly he hath loved us for the object of love is good either that which is really so indeed or seeming so to be And S. Aug. reasoneth most truly that antequam creati eramus nihil boni merebamur before we were made we could do no good we could merit no reward we could deserve no love And yet before we had received any being the love of God towards us had received a beginning and when our souls were unbreathed our bodies unframed and all this glorious structure laid in the dust before ever we beheld the light or the light was brought out of darkness or the darkness was upon the face of the deep our bodies and our souls were affected by God and we had a deep interest in the love of God when as then the earth was created for our habitation the creatures were produced for our service and the heavens were appointed for our comfort So God loved us before our Generation before we were before we had our being and after our transgression God loved us after our transgression John 8. when as God had made us his sons like himself and we had made our selves like our Father the devil there was cause enough of hate but none of love for then we found a way to run away from God we invented garments to hide our shame and to cover our nakedness from the eyes of men but to make us most loathsome in the eyes of God and we became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God that laboured with the old Gyants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight and war with God to unthrone him and to ungod him when we desired to make our selves like Gods nay the only Gods and he should be no God at all unless we might have our wills and not his will to be done in heaven as we do in earth Yet then when
by the importunity of their People to yield to many things that they desired And what Favours and Priviledges they thus obtained from these Kings they challenged as their Right and Due from the succeeding Princes and the more Favours and Priviledges they obtained the more still they desired and at last in some Parliaments from Advisers the Members thereof would fain become Directours and instead of being Counsellours they aymed to be Commanders of their Kings and to perswade them that they ought and must enact what Laws and do what things as they concluded should be done But seeing as the Poet saith Flumina magna vides parvis de fontibus orta small Springs do often make great Rivers therefore to prevent the increase of this growing Mischief to allay the Disease before the Sore grew to be incurable and to quench the Flame before the Fire burnt the House the wise and prudent Kings retained always in their own hands the power to dissolve the Parliament whensoever they pleased that as they called them together when they thought good so they might dismiss them when they listed either when all things were reasonably concluded or when they conceived the Parliament men to become unreasonable in their Demands which was the first Signal Evidence of the Ambitious Desire of Kingly Majesty in the Lord Protectour when he dissolved the Long Parliament which made me to believe he aymed to be a King Therefore when the King perceived Qui sâ—mel verecundiae fines transgress us fuerit eum oportet gnaviter esse impudentem Cicero not the importunity but as some of the King's Friends said the impudency of this Long Parliament beyond all the Parliaments that preceded it and saw them so insolent and their proceedings so violent in all their courses for him then to pass away that Supreamest Power or at least one Branch of the Highest Power which was in him and which never any other King passed before and so to give that Sword which God had put into his hands into the hands of any mad men or to the usage of his Enemies was such a fault in my apprehension as passed all the errours that this good King ever committed or as I believe any other for this was none other then to give the Sword to his enemies to enable them to destroy him So that this good King might well cry out with the Poet Heu patior telis vulnera facta meis Indeed Golias's Head was cut off with his own Sword but David took it from him perforce and Golias gave it not neither could he hold it when he lay at David's feet when as the King was not so when he passed this Act but he might have easily denied to pass this Bill of an indissoluble Parliament which had never been an Act had he not given his consent unto the same which in a short time after made his Enemies Kings and unkinged him and the Lord Protectour was hereby put in mind of his Grammar Lesson Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum and therefore he never gave to his Parliaments such advantage against him But you will say that the Parliament deceived the good King who was therefore the sooner deceived because he was good for as the Oratour saith Cicero Epist l. 10. Vt quisque est vir optimus it à difficilimè esse alios improbos suspicatur and Cicero saith most truly that Credulitas error magìs est quà m culpa quidem in optimi eujusque mentem irrepit facillimé So the credulous and well-minded King believed the deceitful Protestations of the subtle Parliament who pretended onely they desired him to pass this Act that they might the sooner be trusted to raise up Moneys to satisfie their Brethren the Scots that were their Brethren indeed but intended hereby to change the Government to root out the King and to exstirpate the Royal Race and so to settle themselves and their Successours in the Throne of Supremacy for ever as it is more amply expressed in the Discovery of Mysteries and as afterwards they shewed their intentions unto all I answer that it is most true they deceived the good King so did the Serpent deceive our Progenitours and the old Prophet deceived the Man of God yet this excused neither of them And the Lord Coke saith Tantum abest Cokus Dè Jure Râ—gis Ecclesiastico ut ignorantia excuset aut extennet ejus errorem qui veritatem invenire poterat quam necessariò agnoscere debeat tantùm investigare noluit ut in causa sit cur graviùs plectatur And it cannot be denyed but that the King should have searched and sifted into their Plots and not to have been ignorant of their Wiles as we are not to be ignorant of the Wiles of Satan as the Apostle testifieth And I must confess that as it was wickedness in them to deceive the King so it was want of good Counsel in him to be deceived and suffer himself to be circumvented by them for had he consulted with God and by God's Ministers that were now to be all tumbled down I believe these Foxes of Satan should not have ensnared his Majesty because they could have sufficiently informed him how the Old Serpent hath Emissaries enough to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. And therefore as he was as innocent as the Dove so he should have been as wise as the Serpent to avoid the Stings and to finde out the Windings of the Infernal Serpent and one man's head though the wisest among many is scarce sufficient to pierce into the Plots and Subtilties of many heads And if you say he had his Counsellours true and I could name them and they were great ones too and wise men too but as I said before they were not the Ambassadours of Christ the Counsellours that are sent for God for their Advice was not suffered at this time to be desired their presence was to be excluded and themselves shortly to be imprisoned And therefore as Lucan saith Hoc placet ô Superi cùm vobis vertere cuncta Propositum nostris erroribus addere crimen Therefore as the King though unwillingly gave way to these Foxes to suppress and to exclude God's Ministers from his Counsels so God might justly give way for his Counsellours to betray him to his enemies by yielding to their Desires to have an everlasting Parliament thereby to end him and to remain as Kings themselves without end Some other Misprisons it may be the good King might commit of less moment and not so easily to be observed though easily pass as Plutarch saith in great affairs But howsoever for all that this good King did and in all the things that he suffered or have happened unto him you may see that God is just in all his ways and holy in all his Works and how the Judgments of the great God as they proceed from him may easily be justified by the weakest of men And yet as in the sufferings and
of Ormond had resolved to travel in his own person as he did to Kilkenny and Clonmel to cause the concluded Articles of peace to be proclaimed in the chiefest Cities of that Kingdom these wretched men bewitched with the poyson of Rebellion in the pride of their heart which as the Prophet saith of the Edomites hath deceived them instead of a thankful acceptance of so merciful a favour and abundance of graces concluded for them did most desperately reject their own happiness and as not forgetting their usual Treacheries they laid snares and plotted how they might take the noble Marquess and render evil what or how much I know not to him that had with much cost and more paines procured so much good for them To shew unto us that as the Inhabitants of the Isle of Malta unjustly said of Saint Paul so we might justly say of them though the mercifull King desired not their Blood to their ruine yet vengeance would not suffer them to escape Act. 28.4 but as the Lord said of Edom behind they whose judgment was not to drink of the Cup have assuredly drunken and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished thou shalt not go unpunished but thou shalt surely drink of it for I have sworne by my self saith the Lord that Bozra shall become a desolation a reproach a waste Jerem. xlix 1â— Jerem. xlix v. 37. and a curse and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes and as the Lord said of Elam I will cause it to be dismaid before their enimies and before them that seek their-life and I will bring evill upon them even my fierce anger saith the Lord and I will send the Sword after them till I have consumed them so the very like judgment doth now fall upon the Irish for the Sword is sent after them And yet the last v. of this C. may be a great comfort unto the Irish for it shall come to pass in the latter dayes that I will bring againe the captivity of Elam saith the Lord and so the Irish repenting and reduced to their obedience may be received again into a sociable communion and become a great and a good nation and they are dismaide before their Enemies and they are become a Desolation a reproach a waste and a curse and their cities as they were theirs perpetual wastes and that even in the judgment of man most justly too because as I shewed to you before they have rebelled against the Lord and against a good King and were so cruel against their brethren and have committed such horrible wickedness against innocent persons and yet as blinded in their own malice they have refused their own happiness for now the Lord God that ministreth true judgment unto the people maketh inquisition by his Magistrates for all the Blood that they have spilt and if the Blood of Abell that was but one man cried so loud to God from off the Earth for vengeance against Caine that was likewise but one single murtherer then how much more loud do the Bloods of so many hundreds of men so many women and so many infants as so many thousands of these Irish Rebells have most cruelly spilt crie to God for Vengeance against those wicked murtherers And therefore whatsoever hath befallen them or shall happen unto them God must needs be justified in all the judgments of these rebells and themselves cannot deny but that he which sits in the Throne that judgeth right hath done them right in all that is done unto them And I fear that before God makes an end of their punishment as the Prophet saith I will houle for Moab and I will crie out for all Moab mine heart shall mourne for the men of Kir-heres O vine of Sibmah Jerem xlviii 31. I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer so we may weep and lament for the desolation of Ireland and the sad condition of the poor Irish people when they shall find and feel the mighty distance and difference betwixt a mercifull King that they had and merciless enemies and a cruel Tyrant whose little fingers shall be found heavier then the King's loynes and who For these things weâ—e written in the time of the Usurper in stead of those twigs wherewith the King would have most gently whipped them will most severely Scourge them with Scorpions Fourthly touching the Scots I shall as brief as I can speak 1. Of Charles Stuart whom they Crowned to be their King and is both their and our lawfull King 2. Of those perfideous and distressed Subjects that have Crowned him First their Crowned King Charles Stuart as the Son of a good Father and no less Virtuous a mother is in the judgment of all that now know him a verie wise discreet and Prudent Prince and they say as Valiant and Couragious as any Gentleman whatsoever I need not say much of his worth it is so well known to all that know him and his Enemies cannot deny it neither doth the Relation of his worth any ways lessen theirs that have any worth in them but were he as wise as Solomon the mysteries of States and the requisites to govern many people will require many heads and those likewise not of the meanest sort but of the wisest and greatest capacities to assist him for as Xenophon saith Pauca aliqua unus videat unus audiat one man can neither see much nor hear much and therefore Tacitus none of the meanest States-men saith Xenophon Cyr. lib. 8. Non est unius mens tantae molis capax but great affairs such as fall out within the Spheres of Kings and Princes do require many Heads to advise and many hands to effect and manage them How requisite it is for all Kings and Princes to have wise Counsellours to advise them and to be consuited with when as one arm is altogether unsufficient to bear up so unsupportable a Burthen as is the Government of many people and one brain is not capable of such a charge as to be alone sufficient to advise how to discharge so great a business but as Velleius saith Magna negotia magnis adjutoribus egent great businesses do require great assistants and therefore a Princes or King's affairs being great especially to regain such a loss as this Prince received he must not follow his own opinion though grounded upon very probable suppositions but he must yield to his faithful Counsellours when they produce more forcible reasons because he that needeth no Counsel especially in great matters must be more then a man and he that refuseth all Counsel is not much better then a Beast And it was most wisely said of Mar. Antoninus the Philosopher Aequius est ut ego tot taliumque amicorum Consilia sequar quam tot talesque amici mei unius voluntatem Tit. Liv. lib. 44. It was fitter that he should follow the Counsel of such and so many Friends then that such and so many men should follow the mind and will of
Discovery of Mysteries and the Revelation of the great Anti-Christ And for which doings the Lord God hath if not sufficiently yet apparently shewed his just Wrath and Indignation against them many ways First In the discovery of their secret Hypocritical and hidden under-ground Mysteries of their Iniquitie which could not otherwise be sifted out and manifested but by the omniscient Spirit of the all-seeing-God Secondly In raysing so many godly men though to many with the hazard and to some with the loss of their lives and fortunes to oppose them and with a courage raysed by the divine Spirit to withstand their wicked ways and to uphold the true service of the living God Thirdly In the reducing of their chiefest Plots and Devices to nothing though out of his patience and long-sufferings he suffered them for a while to prosper and to walk on still and to proceed in their wickedness for they intended like those Gyants that built the Tower of Babel to erect such a frame of Government in these Kingdomes that they only and their Posterity and Successours should sit at the Stern to turn and guide the same as the thirty Tyrants did for a while in Athens so long as the Sun and Moon endureth and to that end they destroyed their King they suppressed the Bishops they excluded the Lords and then framed such an Engagement as might infringebly oblige and tie all the inhabitants of these dominions to adore them for their good Masters and Governours for ever But lo he that dwelleth in Heaven laughed them to scorne Psal ii 4. and the Lord had them in derision for as the Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel and upon Barak and Gedeon to destroy the Aramites Canaanites and Midianites and as the Lord stired up Sampson and David to destroy the Philistines so the same Spirit stirred up one even the Lord General Cromwel a Philistine from among these Philistines and a grand Rebel out of these Rebel's that did first so wisely disannul their brazen Engin the Engagement and then seeing his opportunity and finding how acceptable it would be to God and beneficial to all good men he did with an Heroical courage dissolve that knot and scatter those Parliament-men as the Lord scattered the Jews that were the murderers of his Son and their own King over all the parts of this Kingdom And thus by the just Judgment of God the whol Mass of that long Parliament that thought to remaine as Kings for ever became like the chaff which the winde scattereth away from the face of the earth And therefore Secondly The just Judgment of God upon the dismembred members of the long Paâ—liament I must now proceed to shew you the just Judgments of God upon the dismembred parts of this great body as I finde them driven by the winde of God's wrath here and there throughout all the parts of these Dominions But I must confess that for the particular persons of that Parliament and their adherrents that have in a great measure already felt the heavy hand of God's wrath for their Transgressions in that confederacie it is a work beyond mans reach either to set them down or to shew their punishments and therefore I will confine my self and as the Lord shewed unto Moses the land of Canaan from the top of Mount Nebo afar of which sight must needs be therefore but very partial and imperfect so will I give you a tast and a glimmering light of some judgments of God and the justness thereof upon some particular men and the more noted Members of that Parliament and I will begin with him that was the beginning of our trouble the first disturber of our peace and the General of the late unhappy War the Earl of Essex First It was said as I remember of Dionysius King of Sicily Of the Earl of Essex that he was a Tyrant begot of Tyrants then which a worser Character could not be given and a baser description could not be made of him saith Plutarch But I will not say of this noble Lord who in deed had a great deal of Honour in him and carried himself for ought that ever I heard like a man of Honour and pius inimicus a noble Adversary unto the King that he was a Traytor begot a of Traytor yet I must say that his Father was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and was arraigned and beheaded for Treason à ainst the Queen whether justly for his deserts or unjustly by the malice of his enemies I will not determine and though her Royal Majesty did Royally and most Graciously restore this man both to his Fathers Lands and Honours and King James confirmed the same and King Charles more then that made him one of his Privy Council and Lord Chamberlain of his House-hold which was for Honour one of the best Offices as I take it in the Court and for profit a place worth viis modis near about 2000. pounds per annum as I heard and conferred many other favours upon him and for all this this Lord as is conceived out of no other cause then ambition of popular praise which greedy desire of popularity hath undone many a noble minde or as others think out of a secret grudg which he bare to this good King and to King James his linage for giving way to his Lady and Wife to be divorced from him onely propter frigiditatem naturae which all Divines and Canonists do not consent to be a sufficient cause of divorce presently and willingly accepted the motion of the House of Commons Plinius lâ—b 8. cap. 23. and commission of the Parliament to become the General of all their Forces against the King wherein as Pliny writeth of the Aspick saying Conjunga ferè vagantur nec nisi cum compare vita est itaque alterutra intercepta incredibilis alteri ultionis curá persequitur interfectorem unúmque eum in quantolibet populi agmine notitia quadam infestat perrupit omnes difficultates ut perdat eum qui comparem perdiderat that he pursueth him which hath hurt or killed his Mate and knows him among a multitude of men and therefore hunteth him still and layeth for him breaking throughout all difficulties to come at him so it may be this Lord was such as Seneca speaks of qui tantùm ut noceat cupit esse potens that accepted of his office that he might be revenged for his disgrace when notwithstanding King Charles was not the Author of his dishonour nor did any wayes further that divorce and therefore should not have been maligned for anothers fault Or if it was not for this cause as I heard some confidently say it was yet for what cause soever this or any other and with what minde soever this Lord accepted that office as being loth to stain his Honour and Ambitious to retain the Fame of an honourable Soldier I never heard the King nor any other of the Nobility accusing him for any base ignoble and perfidious act
with grief and sorrow of heart we do confess that we have sinned with our Fathers and with our Teachers that have mis-taught us to do amiss and to deal wickedly to prophane those thy Sanctuaries to destroy thy Temples and to make those houses of thee our God to become Dens of Thieves Cages of unclean Birds Stables for our Horses and the Receptacles of other bruit and fouler Beasts and as the Prophet saith of the Heathen so we may truly say of our selves Thy holy Temples have we defiled and made thy Churches heaps of Stones the Monuments of thy Martyrs we have thrown down and the dead Bodies of thy Servants we have given to be meat unto the Fowls of the Air and the flesh of thy Saints unto the Beasts of the Field And for this our great Wickedness we are become an open shame to our Enemies and a very scorn and derision unto them that are round about us and we do confess that we have justly and most justly deserved all the evils that are come upon us and we say with Ezra that thou our God hath punished us less then our Iniquities deserve Yet thou O Lord God like a most gracious Father didst not suffer thy wrath to burn like fire to encrease more and more and to continue as our Iniquities continued but in the midst of thy Judgments thou hast remembred thy mercies and commanded thy destroying Angel to put up his Sword and to punish us no more but to turn our heaviness into joy by rooting out our Oppressors and the Depravers of thy Service and restoring to us our most gracious King for which great Blessings and inestimable favours of thine O gracious God we laud and praise thy glorious Name and we will thank thee and magnifie thee for ever And now O Lord seeing we are taught by thy holy Prophet that Holyness becometh thy House for ever and thou hast commanded thy people of Israel that they should keep their Tents and Habitations holy and clean lest thou that can'st abide no impurity in thy sight shouldst depart from them which was a Type to signifie unto us how much more holy and clean thou would'st have us to preserve thy House where thy Service is celebrated thy Name magnified and thy Presence promised to be assistant unto thy Saints we do therefore in all humility beg of thee and from the bottom of our hearts beseech thee to blot out and pardon all the Abuses Prophaneness and Wickedness that hath been done in and against this House and we pray thee to accept of these our Prayers and Supplications unto thee to sanctifie the same and to make it a fit place for thy Service and so to preserve it an holy Tabernacle for thy Majesty to be present with thy Saints to have thy Name magnified thy people instructed and their Petitions presented unto thee and when they do pray unto thee in this place do thou hear them out of thy holy Heaven and let thine Eyes be open towards this House night and day even towards this place of which thou hast said My Name shall be there and thy dear Son and our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ hath said Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be there in the midst of them and this House being erected for the gathering together of thy Saints dedicated for thy Service and by our Prayers consecrated for thy Worship we do most humbly beseech thee to be present amongst us to hear our Prayers to grant our Requests and to give us strength and enable us through thy Grace to finish the Reparation of this House with Joy and to thy Glory which with such Alacrity we have begun and we pray thee likewise to guide us by thy blessed Spirit to walk according to thy Will that our sins may not provoke thee to suffer the Sectaries and the Enemies of thy truth and the Depravers of thy divine Service to prophane the same any more grant this O blessed Lord for Jesus Christ his sake to whom be all Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen