not to war with Counsell for then we should have raged in cold bloud and upon mature deliberation But we have now escaped both these and all the war is concluded in a Parliamentary peace Brethren Exod. 14. v. 13. here let us stand still awhile and see the salvation of God let us even loose our selves in an unparallel'd wonder Call to mind all your readings in Scripture in Civill Histories new and old Greeke Latine English were all these particulars ever read or heard to concurre in one businesse since the day that God created man upon the earth I say all these particulars First that ever any Nation living in the same continent under the same Monarch and Religion with a Sister Nation was by that Sister I meane generally and publiquely preached against prayed against proclaimed disclaimed exclaimed against throughout all their Churches And that Secondly this Sister Nation was with an Army in the field skirmished withall even to bloud-shed in the bowels of her Sister Kingdome And yet Thirdly now marke the wonder that this people so called and used as traitors should anon bestiled and enacted Our Brethren by a Parliament and that their faithfulnesse and constant loyalty should be commanded by the King and supreame Court of the Kingdome to be proclaimed in the same places and by the same men which before proclaimed them the worst of enemies and all this shut up in a day of publicke thanksgiving 4. Nay and to make the wonder overflow in a word the greatest sticklers in this Commotion those which like Zedekiah the sonne of Chenaanah 1 King 22.11 did make themselves hornes to push most at these supposed Syrians they are caught by their owne hornes Gen. 22. v. 13. like Abrahams ramme in the thicket and are now like to be sacrificed in stead of Isaack I meane in in stead of the innocent party Let me conclude this wonder with those words of the Prophet Isaiah Isa 64. v 3. taken in our sence When thou didst terrible things O Lord which we looked not for thou camest downe the mountaines flowed downe at thy presence ver 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the eare neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee which doth so for him that waiteth for him And was not this a great Removall But I am too narrow all this while in staying so long upon one though a great particular There are many many many evils removed from us Brethren I have thought with my selfe in this point upon the plagues of Egypt they were exceeding great you know and very many but what if we can paralell them all in both respects in those evils which are already in whole or in a great part removed from us Give me leave to enter upon a Collation or Comparison many of them I am sure doe fall in properly My method in every particular of the Collation shall be this 1. To set downe the Egyptian Plague 2. The English Paralel 3. The Parliamentary Removall But before hand take this my just Apology concerning this Collation In the following enumeration of Grievances and in all other like passages of these Treatises mine onely end and purpose is to magnifie the Lords mercy our Soveraignes goodnesse and the Parliaments noble service in freeing the Kingdome from these evils The fault and guilt doth rost wholly upon the Proiectors Procurers and Executioners and that offence is so much the more hainous in them because they have misinformed so gracious a Soveraigne and have abused those grants to the oppression of the Subiects which his Maiesty did vouchsafe under the notion of publicke benefits and did apprehend as commodities to his people and therefore I conclude mine Apology with some of those words of King Solomon to Shimei 1 King 2 cap. v. 44 45. Therefore the Lord shall returne their wickednesse upon their owne heads and King Charles shall be blessed and the Throne of his Father shall be established before the Lord for ever And in this sence I proceed to the Paralell 1. The first plague in Egypt was the turning of their waters into bloud Aaron did lift up his red and smote the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh Exod. 7. v. 20. and in the sight of his servants and all the waters that were in the river were turned into bloud And the fish that was in the river died ver 22. and the river stuncke and the Aegyptians could not drinke of the water of the river and there was blood throughout all the Land of Aegypt Now what are the waters of a Kingdome Quest I find in Scripture two sorts of them which are eminent Answ 1. Eze 47. v. 1.2 c. There are the waters of the Sanctuary which are the Ministry and preaching of the word these are the Ecclesiasticall waters And alas how were those turned into blood throughout the Land Instead of cleansing which is one use of waters they did defile and pollute For Popery Arminianisme Antisabbatarianisme c. they were the rising Doctrines generally vented in your golden Pulpits And instead of refreshing and quickning too for that 's another use of waters they did in many places grieve the hearts of the righteous How common a practice was it to preach downe preaching and to jostle out praying with prayers When poore soules asked or came to the Church for bread Mat. 7. v. 9. lo a stone was given unto them nay cast at their heads if they asked for fish ver 10. the waters were turned into blood the fish was dead and instead thereof too many Ministers gave them a Scorpion like unnaturall spirituall parents as they were Thus were the spirituall waters turned 2. There are Civill waters of Judgement in a Kingdome too Amos 5. v. 24. Let iudgement runne downe as waters and righteousnesse as a mighty streame Amos 6. v. 12. But alas againe how were these also turned into gall and hemlock yea into blood in diverse cases and places the potion it selfe became a poyson unto many for those very waters of our Lawes which were enacted to purge away the wicked like drosse and to refresh and releeve all loyall subjects these streames like Jordan were driven backward Psal 114. v. 3. upon the free holy loyall spirits of the Kingdome and our owne Ordinances were turned upon us This was ours Paralell to the first of Aegypts Plagues 3. But now behold the Removeall of this already in some comfortable measure Pure doctrine is againe let loose yea truth insteed of falling in the streets now lifteth up her voyce in the places of concourse and equity can also enter Unsound doctrines are suspended and extra-judiciall opinions are now judged themselves Reddita Roma sibi est England doth once more at present enjoy her English protestanisme and priviledges The second Aegyptian plague was the Frogs And the Lord spake unto Moses say unto
sine destructive conclusions and upshots of Jesuiticall emissaries 4. Lastly to the same purpose we might adde ver 9. Their brest-plates of yron noting their serpentine defective craft and power their swiftnesse and noyse upon the wing shewing their compassing of Sea and Land to make one Proselyte And finally Their tailes like Scorpions Mat. 23. v. 15. ver 10. intimating what a sting they leave behind them and what bitternes in the latter end The Multitudes of these worst of Papists have bin very great amongst us of late yea 't was conceived by some of judgement and conscience that in our Metropolis there were more of these Locusts I meane of Jesuites at one time then there were Protestant Ministers of all sorts in that City Sure I am that the preamble before our late made Protestation doth much complaine of their present indeavours to undermine our Religion and to subvert the fundamentall laws of this Kingdome But now for the removall of these we know that they have had a day of departure set them already and many of them it is hoped are gone Let us pray that the Lord would deale with those that remaine as he did with these Aegyptian Locusts Ex. 10.19 That he would turne a mighty strong winde and cast them into the Sea so that there might not remaine one Locust in all the coasts of England Amen Amen The ninth Plague was palpable Darknesse And Moses stretched forth his hand toward Heaven Ex. 10.22 and there was a thick darknes in all the Land of Aegypt three daies they saw not one another ver 23. neither rose any from his place for three dayes c. And Brethren to match this what think yee of the grosse suppressing of light in this Kingdome of late and the many meanes that have bin used both to drive and to keep cut knowledge Let me shew you but some steps and degrees of this darknes 1. First our weekly Lectures and all meere Lecturers were suppressing or suppressed already in some Dioces they were wholy put down in others partly besides that the setting up of more was either denied or supplanted Yea in those places where the enemies of light had not the face or power utterly to suppresse Lectures yet there they would quarter them yea doubly and triply quarter them foure eight twelve men in some Townes were appointed for one weekly exercise that so it might become like that web of Penelope that one man might untwist that the other did spin or at least that the multitude of Cookes might marte the potrage No no this sort of lights was too bright and blazing for those enemies to suffer them they were as wandring Planets or Comets rather and did as they thought cast a dangerous influence upon their Tribe and therefore they must be extinguished Hence the very name of Lecturer was become to some Church-men both ridiculous and odious Yea as these many Petitioners against Episcopacy from Ireland doe complain in that Kingdome the Priests and Fryers were both guests and neighbours to some of their grand Church-men when a poore Lecturer could not be suffered to live nay durst scarce be seen amongst them Yea further it was grown a maxime amongst your great Clearks great in Benefices I meane that a Lecturer had no footing in the Church of England and this maxime perhaps shortly should have bin made a Canon too but a strange position me thinks it is that one which hath bin called to the Ministry ordained by themselves and is commanded by the Lord yea by his Ordinary to preach the Gospell which he doth suppose ably faithfully and fruitfully that yet this man should have no footing in the Church of England This makes me to wonder farther what a Church of England these Rabbies would make such a Church it seems it must be as doth exclude and dismember those Ministers which are too very Preachers In a word you know Brethren if you know any thing how this sect of men as they accounted them were every where spoken against as the troublers of Israel How many of them are driven away into the wildernesse of America Others were so fast imprisoned that they could not obtaine the liberty of a banishment and other-some silenced suspended deprived by companies And least after those undoing censures they should shelter themselves and maintaine their poore families by some other liberall faculty they were way layd by these Canons which did enjoyne to the very School-masters the same subscription as to Ministers Let me conclude touching this sort of men and their former condition especially We are made by them as the filth of the world and as the off-scouring of all things unto this day 1 Cor. 4.13 Thus this sort of light was ecclipsed But those were accounted wandring Planets as I said and such as had no footing 2. Let us looke next upon beneficed Ministers these are acknowledged by the great Extinguishers to be fixed Stars and to have footing in their Church of England and yet even these especially if painfull and conscientious could not have footing in their owne Pulpits upon the weeke-dayes nor in the after-noone of the Sabbath Nay they were in some whole Counties forbidden then to catechize save onely in the bare words of that Childish Catechisme ☞ they durst not goe an inch out of their truckle Here I might adde the many cunning inventions and cruell pressings of multitudes of Innovations especially in matter of worship Tables were Altared Crucifixes erected bowings introduced and many other scandalous ridiculous and burdensome actions and gestures imposed and all these were used but as so many fanns or rinsives ot boult out the tender-hearted Orthodox and active Clergy that they might be blowne off as chaffe in every Dioces Thus both our Planets and fixed Starrs were darkned But now was there no other kind or means of light besides those two which the people might procure to guide their feet into the wayes of grace and peace Quest 3. Answ Yes there was another a third kind or means it was the Candle-light of Orthodox and holy Bookes these might have supplied in some measure the want of both the former And therfore the grand Extinguishers were well enough aware of this also and do take a compleat course for prevention The springs and fountains of godly Treatises they knew to be of two sorts some were penned within the Kingdome and to meet with these an Order is procured from Starr-chamber that they must all come through the hands of their Creatures Other such books might be brought in from other countries and therefore in the same order it is provided that all forraigne books likewise must passe under the selfe same Censors and all this least those poore conscientious souls which they call Mechanicall and Puritanicall Vulgars should get so much as lamp-light to guide themselves and to discover their mis-leaders Thus had these men like those Gileadites at Jordan Jud 12.5
shewers of fatherly benedictions would they let fall upon their heads Brethren let the very ashes of our Ancestors put some fire into us But secondly for future ages too thinke ô thinke upon your children yet unborne or not growne up poore soules they are not yet able to speake for themselves in this businesse but much of their future happinesse doth lie at the mercy of our present Activity O let us give them cause to blesse our memories in the times to come that so when they shall hereafter sit upon our Tombes and Graves they may there tell their children and childrens children that they had fathers and grand-fathers once which did live in a golden age of opportunityes and by their taking and improvement of those seasons they did treasure up unto us these blessed legacies of Truth and Peace which we and ours do now enjoy And now what more can I adde what golden Text of Scripture can I finde that is sufficiently emphaticall to tip and close up all this Discourse Let it be that of Saint Paul to his Corinthians we will but vary the number and take it to our selves 1 Cor. 16. ver 9. A great Doore and effectuall is opened unto us and there are many adversaries The words are a double spurr THE SECOND TREATISE INCITING TO HOLY AND LOYALL ACTIVITY EXOD. CHAP. 17. VER 11. And it came to passe when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when he let downe his hand Amalek prevailed ALthough it be the proper element and errand of a Minister to feede his people with spirituall knowledge and understanding yet is it also upon our commission to be your Nationall Watchmen Watchmen we are to promote the good Ezek. 33. v. 7. and to give warning against the evills of the land If we faile in either case to blow the Trumpet to the people then shall their bloud be required at our hands ver 6. The consideration of that heavy charge doth cause me to enterpose a Parenthesis betwixt mine ordinary Lectures and hath put me for a while upon a publike discourse It is concerning the Great things which are comming to passe in England in these dayes Judg. 7. v. 19 20 In this discourse I am resolved with Gideons men to blow my trumpet though I breake my pitcher and to hold forth to all that heare me a famous example both of holinesse and activity The man is Moses observe his indeavour and the successe thereof And it came to passe when Moses held up c. This Chapter doth present us with a paire of remarkable Histories One of Israels murmuring for water at Rephidim and the issue thereof that to ver 8th The second of Amaleks treachery with the consequents thereupon from ver 8th to the end The very order of these two is observeable and doth shew us that where murmuring goes before there enemies and invasions doe follow after But I passe on In this latter History we have divers particulars as First the fight or battell it selfe with the forces on both sides Offensive Amalek ver 8th Defensive Joshuah with some chosen men of Israel ver 9 â—h Next the Auxiliaries or Aydes assisting Israels party they were Moses Aaron and Hur ver 10th and what they did see ver 9 11 12. Thirdly the victory it selfe is set downe ver 13th Finally the Memoriall of the whole is commanded and recorded in the following verses 14 15 16. I shall handle the Text Per praecognita praecepta First laying downe the Premises then the Doctrine thereof 1. The Premises doe containe both Explanation and Division of the wordes In the Explanation we shall move and answer two Questions Explanation What this Amalek was Quest They were a people descended from Esau Answ as Israel from Jacob. Gen 36. v. 12. And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esaus sonne and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek So that this grudge was hereditary descended from Esau to his grand-child Amalek who though a bastard yet prooves too true an heire to that old hatred against Jacob Gen 27. v. 41 c. for the birth-right and the blessing What is meant by this action or posture of Moses Quest in holding up his hands Answ I find the phrase to have divers uses and significations in Scripture Sometimes 't was used 1. Civilly or Judicially it was a posture used in taking of an Oath or Vow Abraham said to the King of Sodom Gen 14. v. 22. ver 23. I have lifted up my hand to the Lord the most high God That I will not take from a thred even to a shoe latchet c. Iunius renders it Iuravi elata manu I have sworne by lifting up my hand And againe I lift up my hand to heaven and say Deut 32.40 I live for ever 2. Sometimes it hath a Religious use and that either 1. In blessing Lev. 9. v. 22. As Aaron lift up his hand toward the people and blessed them 2. Or in prayer So sometimes in petition Psal 28. v. 2. Heare the voyce of my supplication when I cry unto thee when I lift up my hand toward thy holy Oracle And sometimes in prayses or thankesgiving Psal 134 v. 2. Lift up your hands in the Sanctuary and blesse or prayse the Lord. 3. This posture hath also a Military use it was used in warre by such as bare the ensigne or colours to a band of men Isa 49. v. 22. Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people i.e. Cum vexillo Evangelij with my Flag or banner of the Gospell And in the same sence is that other text the soule that doeth ought presumptuously clata manu Numb 15.30 as a banner bearer with a highhand shall be cut off In the Text this phrase or posture may have I conceive a double use or signification Religious and Military 1. The action might be Religious that Moses during the time of the battell did hold or lift up his hand to the Lord in prayer for victory 1 King 8. v. 22. As Salomon is said to stand before the Altar and to spread forth his hands towards Heaven 2. But chiefely this posture of Moses was Military Like a Standard-bearer or Ensigne he held up the rod of God in his hand that is sometimes in one hand sometimes in the other as a banner or a Flag thereby to encourage the Souldiers which were now fighting in view in the valley for this rod of God had beene an instrument of divers former Miracles and deliverances to that people Exod. 7 v. 20. Exod. 8 9 c. it turned waters into bloud it brought in the Froggs and the rest of the plagues upon Aegypt In a word it was the same rod that did divide the red-Sea Exod. 14.16 21. and made a way of escape for Israel through the flouds And therefore the holding up of this rod to the fighting Israelites was a
Aaron Exod. 8. v. 6. stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streames over the rivers and over the ponds and cause frogs to come up upon the Land of Egypt ver 7. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt 2. These Frogs I conceive may fitly nay must be paralleld in the multitudes of Fryars and Priests amongst us croking and crawling up like their Frogs into houses and bed-chambers ver 2. They shall come up into thine house and into thy bed-chamber and upon thy bed and into the house of thy servants and upon thy people and into thine Ovens and into thy kneeding troughs And have not these croking crawlers of late especially come up from all the foure Seas or channells of this Island have they not in a sence almost covered the Land going like the Divell in the earth too and fro in the Nation Job 1. v. 7. and walking up and downe in it Nay have they not gone openly for a long time in the streetes of the Metropolis of this Kingdome like the shamelesse Harlot in the Proverbs A woman of whorish attire and subtill of heart Pro. 7. v. 10 11 12. she is lowd and stubborne her feet abide not her house Now is she without now in the streets and lyeth in waite at every corner And the Reason or ground of her boldnesse followeth For that the goodman is not at home ver 19 20. he is gone a long iourney c. So Parliaments are long in comming and when they came they made but little stay Yea once more have not these Frogs walked in those streetes more securely by farre and freer from Messengers then those Conscientious painefull Ministers which have scrupled some Ceremonyes in their owne natures indifferent Bretheren I appeale to your owne ingenuity and knowledge touching the multitudes of those Frogs 3. But now concerning their Removall blessed be the God of truth there hath beene already some order taken by Proclamation for their expulsion and they are deveted to banishment The good Lord finish this work that it may be done to them that was to those Frogs in Aegypt Saith Moses The frogs shall depart from thee and from thy houses and from thy servants and from thy people they shall remaine in the river only The third and fourth plagues being Lice and Flies I shall joyne together As they are joyned Psal 105. v. 31. He spake and there came diverse sorts of flies and lice in all their coasts Of the latter sort the plague of Lice see Exod. 8. v. 16 17. And the Lord said unto Moses say unto Aaron stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the Land that it may become Lice throughout all the Land of Egypt And they did so for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and smote the dust of the earth and it became lice in man and in beast all the dust of the land throughout all the land of Egypt Of the former viz. Swarmes of Flies see Exod. 8. v. 21 24. Behold I will send swarmes of slies upon thee and upon thy servants and upon thy people and into thy houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarmes of flies c. Calvin reads Examen and indeed both sorts of them are baggage vermine alike The English Paralell of these may be all our Proiectors and Monopôlists in the secular State and in the Ecclesiasticall all those Vexatious hang-byes and exacting underlings of that Court of Commissioners suppressed by the late Statute as insufferable oppressors All these Civill and Spirituall wickednesses ô how did they of late plague the soules bodyes and goods of the whole Kingdome The Paralell betwixt them and these Aegyptian vermine doth hold in diverse respects as First in respect of their Eduction or Generation the Lice were begetten out of the dust Exo. 8. v. 16. Stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land that it may become lice throughout all the land c. And were not these unlawfull Proiectors and Monopôlists for the generall Animalia ex putridâ materiâ solis calore c. obscure heads and vile persons raised out of the dust and this made that opression so much the more intollerable for there is no oppressor to a begger if once he can get on horse-back to oppresse Nihil deterius est imperante servo Nay 't is Scripture Prov. 28. v. 3. A poore man that oppresseth the poore is like a sweeping raine which leaveth no food What cruelty mentioned in the Gospell was like his which ought more then he was worth He takes his fellow by the throat Mat. 18 v. 28 29 30. would have no pitty on him but cast him into prison c. Secondly the likenesse holds in regard of their Multitudes Exod. 8.17 21. It became lice in man and in beast all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt And againe I will send swarmes of flyes upon thee and upon thy servants and upon thy people and into thy houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarmes of flies and also the ground whereon they are The Margent saith A mixture of noysome beasts Brethren and did not our case fall pat with theirs in this what corner what condition yea what commodity almost in the land was not pestered with those Proiectors and their emissaryes Oh the Alphabet of Monopôlyes which we might here reckon up yea rather an Alphabeticall Index there being diverse particulars belonging to one letter and so in severall letters of the foure and twenty What shall I say our meats our drinks our cloathings our extraordinaryes our necessaryes were all annoyed by these lice and flies Nay one thing more as in Egypt Exod. 8. v. 21. ver 24. the ground also was full of them and the land was corrupted by reason of the swarmes of flies So 't is observeable with us that those illegall taxes projected by some did destroy the very Land I meane they reached beyond houses and shops even to husbandry and to the beasts of the field And now see the removall of all these in a very blessed degree 1. How many Monopolies were cast downe by those first Proclamations and all the rest saving Justice a labour are tottered after of their own accord 2. Ship-mony is damn'd as they call it by one Act of Parliament 3. And vexatious Knight-hood by another 4. Besides that against stannery Incroachments and for the certainty of Forrests which though divers I doe put them together 5. And finally least the Hidras heads should spring again for prevention of a returne or relapse behold that great and gracious Statute of a Trienniall Parliament together with another for continuance of this present of which more hereafter Is 107.8 O that men would therfore praise the Lord fir his goodnesse and for his wonderfull