it may fall out betwixt some few who by Law may be judged and by degall force if they be injurious and tumultuous suppressed But the violence of warre as the wicked that are most addicted to it use the matter is a lawlesse and boundlesse confusion such as that complained of by the Prophet Isaiah The people shall be oppressed every one by another every one by his neighbour The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient the base against the honourable Esa 3.5 And by the Prophet Ieremie They that were brought up in scarlet were brought downe to embrace the dung-hills Lament 4. ver 5. and a confusion wherein such as are not meetly qualified for servants will take upon them to be Masters servants ruled over us say the degraded Masters of Israell by way of complaint Lamen 5.8 and those usurping upstarts when they are so leud and dissolute as no good-man would willingly endure them to lodge a night in his house will boisterously breake open his doores rifle all his Roomes Closets Chests Caskets and Cabinets and if he were as rich as Iob was in the height of his prosperity they will make him as poore as Iob in the depth of his adversity and much poorer too For Iob had the goods in his house spared from spoyle or pillage though he lost all his come and cattell in the field whereas many who carve out their owne portion of other mens goods by the Sword have not left the right owners so much as a ragge to cover their nakednesse So in the Country and if they could advance to rifle some rich City they that are not worthy to be trusted for a yard of Inkle would come into Shops and measure Velvet for themselves by the a We will enter and measure with the long Ell Phil. Com. l. 1. c. 11 p. 30. Upon which words the margin note is this by the long Ell he meaneth the Pike wherewith Souldiers at the sack of a Towne use to measure velvets silks and clâ—â—ths long Ell that is by the Pike take it away and pay nothing for it And their lust will be as unruly as their thest making no scruple to commit a Rape upon a mans Wife or Daughter or Maid-servant and in that wickednesse have some been so impudent as violently to bind the Husband to a Bed-post while they abused his Wife before his face That was one part of the barbarous wrongs of the Irish Rebells not long agoe committed as I have been confidently enformed by a Gentleman of good credit And it is upon perpetuall record in o Cuâ— Francâ— appâ—iâ—uissent exisâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 â—am viris quam mulieribus tempore missarum in Ecâ—â—esia ad ea◠〈◊〉 Ecclesiam cum 〈◊〉 festinatione concurrerunt interâ—â—cieâ—â—es multos deprâ—â—â—antes Ecclesiam aspexerunt inter caeteras quandum feminam pâ—â—â—iram 〈◊〉 eâ—e 〈◊〉 â—orme quâ—â—um â—â—â—inâ— converetat ut audiret missas Ad quam Nebuâ—â—â—es satis intemperanter in eadem â—cclesiaâ—â—â— denies mox suae libidini ut erâ—nt arâ—aâ—i prostraverunt etiam diâ—eâ— unus post aliam 〈…〉 donec mulier â—aâ—â—â—ara spirâ—tum exhalaret Tho. Walsingham Hâ—â—â— Edw. 3. p. 166. Walsinghams History of England that such an abominable filthy fact as you may reade of touching the Levites Concubine Iudg. 19. was committed in King Edward the thirds time upon a Holy-day at the time of Divine service by French Souldiers in a Church at Winchelsey in Sussex taking their lustfull turns upon a beautifull woman untill they had turned her out of the world And commonly as those three Commandements Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steale are ranked together in the Law so are they violated together in the lawlesse violence of Warre and so you find them threatned together in the 13. of Isaiah Their children shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes their houses spoiled and their Wives ravished Isa 13.16 and Maidens too for that is complained of in the Lament of Ieremie Chap. 5. Ver. 11. For those that have but little wit and no grace which is the ordinary qualification of meere mercinary Souldiers let loose the reynes of their corruptions to all licentiousnesse making so little account of the Lawes as gave occasion of the common Proverbe p Inter armâ— silens Leges The noyse of Warres drownes the voice of Lawes which are sure to be trodden under foote while the Sword of violence hath the upper-hand with this accords the complaint of oppressed Hierusalem in the Lament of Ieremie The Law is no more Lam. 2.9 no more in force because by force suffered to be no more in use and when Lawes are hush't matters are hurried by a boishterous prevalence not governed by right or reason Every one doing that which is right in his owne eyes Judg. 17.6 and that will be whatsoever is wrong in the eyes of God and all good men But of all Warres that which is called q Summum Brute nesas civilia Bella fatemur Cato apud Clandian lib. 2. Civill hath in the experience of all times proved most pernicious when a Kingdome is not united against a forraigne foe but divided against it selfe and by that division in great danger of a desperate downefall Mark 3.24 25. It is called intestine Warre which is as a burning in the bowells or intrailes and of all Civill Warres the worst and most woefull that can be is that which is managed under such Titles as import the most perfect Unity and the greatest estrangement from war-like hostility Such is that which is now waged under the Colours and with the sound of our English Standards and Trumpets Which if it should goe on as the wicked wish and all good-men abhorre to thinke of would make this Kingdome of a famous Sanctuary of peace a Seminary of discord of a Granary or Store-house of plenty or garden of delights as t Vere hortus noster deliciarum est puteus inexhanstus est Math. Paris Histor major in Hen. 3. p. 936. Pope Innocent the 4th called it a wildernesse of Want for such is the Wast of Warre as makes the Land which before an Army was as the Garden of Eden behind it to be no better then a desolate Wildernesse Joel 2. v. 3. which if it long continue must needs bring forth a devouring famine throughout a very spatious and plentifull Kingdome And famine hath made even pitifull women to be cruell to their owne children as to act the parts of Butchers Cookes and guests at the same Messe the flesh of their little ones their little ones of a span long Lam. 4.10 2.20 But there is another Famine sometimes an effect of Warre much worse then this proceeding from the interruption of Religion and the desolation of the Sanctuary which though by the ungodly it be little regarded to such as are truely Religious will be matter of the heaviest apprehension that can be How will it afflict their hearts to call
abroad here was the sanctuary of refuge hither was the resort and no other way found for a foundation of peace And for a returne of all loyall and affectionate observances to his Majesty on the Parliaments part you with your right Honourable colleagues have professed your resolution * So in the Declaration of both Houses March 12. 1642. to keepe your selves within the bounds of faithfullnesse and allegiance to his Royall Person and his Crownes ¶ The Parliaments second Remonstrance p 1. to provide for the publike peace and prosperity of his Majesty and his Realmes protesting in the presence of the all-seeing Deity that it still hath beene and still is the only end of all your counsells and endeavours wherein you have resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aimes personall respects or passions whatsoever And your * Ibid p. 11. earnest desire of his Majesties returne to London that upon it you conceive depends the very safety and being of both his Kingdomes and therefore you have protested you will be ready to say or doe any thing that may stand with the duty and honour of a Parliament which may raise a mutuall confidence betwixt his Majesty and your selves as you doe wish and the affaires of the Kingdome doe require And to the same purpose againe ¶ Ibid p 13. we intend say you to doe whatsoever is sit to make up the unpleasant breach betwixt his Majesty and parliament By such expressions as these carrying most cleare and legible Characters of your Loyalty and Love to his Maiesty you have righted your Reputations against all iust cause of suspition of Popish tenets or intentions against his Person and his Crowne and have gained the beleefe of all good Subiects that you spake in sincerity when you said * In the third Remonstrance or Declaration of the Parliament May 26. 1642. p. 4. You suffered not such things to enter into your thoughts as all the world knowes the Papists have put into act whereof I shall shortly give instance in my other Sermons upon this Text which some worthy Members of your Honourable Society have required to the Presse And so upon confidence in your fidelity have ingaged their affections and all their Interests both for the present and the future under the conduct of your most prudent Counsels and commands accounting it a most fickle unfaithfullnesse and finally destructive to the foundation of our English Government if they who have voted your Election to places in Parliament should upon any Malignant surmises against you desert either their due obedience to you or just and necessary defence of you though with the hazard of their estates and persons Against such assurance as you have given of your faithfull allegiance to his Majesty your zealous Constancy in prosecution of a perfect Reformation of Court City and Country from prophanenesse and Popery importeth no colour of contradiction at all though some whose condition most requires it distast and desire to wrest it to some such misconstruction but carrieth with it an exact conformity to what you have professed For what better proofe of integrity in what you undertake then your pressing to promote the prosperity of the King as well as of the Kingdome And what meanes more conducible unto that end then Religion and Justice As S. Augustine sheweth where he saith * Neque noâ— Christâ—anos quoâ—â—â—aÌ„ emperatores â—deo foelices dâ—cimus quia vel diutiùs imperarunt c. Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 5. c. 24. We account not Christian Emperours happy because they have raigned long or because they have had power to suppresse insurrections or oppresse their enemies nor because they have dyed a quiet death and left their children to raigne after their decease †Sed foelices eos dicimus si justè imperarunt si inter linguas sublimitèr honoranâ—um et obsequia nimis humiliter salutantiam non ex tolluâ—â—uâ— sed se homines esse memnerint si suam potesâ—aâ—eÌ„ ad Dei â—uiâ—uâ— c. â—bid But we call them happy if they rule with justice if among the tongues of those that too highly extoll them or too humbly salute them or too obsequiously serve them they remember themselves to be but men if they apply their power so as to make it most serviceable to the honour of the divine Majesty if they feare and love and worship God and more love that kingdome where they need not feare competitors or consorts then that wherin they may be afraid of them * Sâ—â—uxuâ—iâ—â—aÌ„â—ò eis est castâ—gâ—â—â—â— quâ—nâ—â— possi◠〈…〉 â—upiditatibus 〈◊〉 quam 〈…〉 imperare Ibidem if they so much more refraine from luxury as being without restraint of others they may be more free unto it and bad rather raigne over evill concupiscence then Countries and Nations ¶ Tales Christianos imperateres dicimus esse foelices Ib. Such Christian Emperours saith he we call happy and happy surely are the people who are governed by such an one as so governeth himselfe And for your zeale against the prevailing of Popery and for the advancement of the Protestant Religion it makes most for his Majesties honour and safety not only in respect of piety but of policy for that wise State man the Duke of Rohan in his Treatise of the Interest of Princes and States makes his observation of the State of England in these words ‖ The Duke of Rohan his Treatise of the Interest of Princes and States p 58. Besides the Interest which the King of England hath common with all Princes he hath yet one particular which is that He ought throughly to acquire the advancement of the Protestant Religion even with as much zeale as the King of Spain appears Protector of the Catholick And what zeale that is he hath showed before in the * Ibid â— p 4. ad nonam Interest of Spain Notwithstanding all this there be some men who deeply guilty of deceit themselves will never be satisfied with any evidence of sincerity in other men with such there is no security in the Prerogative of the King nor the Priviledge of Parliament against in urious traducement since nothing beareth sway with them but their self-conceit or particular advantage or which is worse their virulent spleen against the better part which stirreth them up to reproach them as tumultuary busie-bodies who doe but bring some buckets of water to quench a burning which they have treacherously kindled against their own Country and as confidently and not more innocently to cry Sedition Sedition against the most loyall and true hearted Subjects of Royall Maiesty as Athaliah did Treason Treason 2 Kin. 11.14 When Sedition is their raigning sin as treason was hers and that the worst Sedition of all others for what can be worse then that and theirs is such which separateth those in iudgement affection and locall mansion who for the two first should alwaies and for the third should very often
unreconcileable quarrell against us and all our fellow Professours of the same faith And what they have determined for the destruction of us all It is worthy the notice of those that have not read it in the Irish Remonstrance and of their remembrance that have read it what order they have agreed upon for our confusion which is this First They have resolved to extirpate all the English out of Ireland as hath been shewed ¶ Irish Remonstrance p. 31. That Kingdome setled and peopled only with sound Catholikes it is their title not mine for in very truth they are neither sound nor Catholike Thirty thousand men must be sent into England to joyne with the French and Spanish forces and the service they should say the Sacrifice for they meane a slaughter of the English in England performed then they will joyntly fall upon Scotland for the reducing of that Kingdome to the obedience of the Pope which being finished they have engaged themselves to the King of Spaine for assisting him against the Hollanders that was their plot discovered by examination taken upon Oath There is then more cause that England Scotland and the Netherlands should be united in a league of mutuall defence then that we of this Kingdome should first breake asunder by division and then breake in upon each other with enraged violence For if all the crafty Counsels of Spaine of the Conclave of the Pope and Cardinals of the Congregations of Iesuites and other Assemblies of pestilent Polititians our sworne Enemies should lay their heads together for an undoing device against us they could not imagne any one more dangerous and desperate then that which we are now acting upon our selves The Lord open the eyes and turne the hearts of those in whose power it is to found a Retreat to this Martiall fury That English valour may be diverted from the ruine of England to the recovery of Ireland or if the Sword of warre must be the Sword of divine Justice to avenge the quarrell of thy Covenant against a rebellious people Let it O Lord we beseech thee doe most execution upon thine obdurate enemies and sway thou the victory upon their side whose cause and persons have better title to thine Almighty protection Thus farre of the Question How long shall I see c. as importing the Prophets strong apprehension of and vehement aversion from the evill of warre Now of the Answer For my people is foolish they have not knowne me they are sottish children they have none understanding they are wise to doe evill but to doe good they have no knowledge They neither know God nor acknowledge or glorifie him as God but set their wits on worke for wickednesse therin having a kind of cunning which the unwise world calleth wisdome while they remaine ignorant inconsiderate dull and stupid towards the doing of good The words are considerable 1. In generall 2. In particular In generall they containe two parts 1. An Accusation My people are c. 2. An Exception They are wise to do evill Under the accusation are comprehended two points of Importance The one expressed The other implied that which is expressed is the cause of the calamities fore-mentioned For my people or because my people is foolish c. And that will direct us to a two-fold Observation First The one of the Malignant operations of sin in procuring heavy punishments upon a people 2. The other the disgracefull denomination of sinners or the contemptible titles given unto them as foolish sottish without knowledge or understanding The particular implied is the continuance of sin for the Question being expressely made of the continuance How long and implicitely of the cause the answer is satisfactory to both shewing not only why the people are plagued but that so long they shall be plagued untill they be reformed untill the cause of their sinfull folly be removed they shall not or not in mercy be eased of their misery as long as they be so bad in their disposition towards God they must looke for no better a condition from God First For the cause in the 18. verse the Indictment against them is framed under other titles Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this thy wickednesse because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart So likewise in the Lamentation of Ieremy Ierusalem saith the Prophet hath grievously sinned therefore shee is removed Chap. 1. ver 8. And that it is not the peculiar case of Ierusalem he sheweth in more generall tearmes Wherefore doth living man complaine and man for the punishment of his sinnes Lam. 3.39 or as the Geneva hath it Wherefore is the living man sorrowfull He suffereth for his sinnes And Ierusalem her selfe as if she made answer to some such Question as this pleadeth not any excuse of her ignorance but cleareth Gods Justice and freely and fully taketh the Accusation of her sinnes upon her selfe The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his Commandements Chapt. 1. ver 18. We have transgressed and thou hast not pardoned Chap. 3.42 Which is not to be understood of the people only but with them of the Prophets and the Priests for the sins of her Prophets and the iniquity of her Priests did Jerusalems misery come upon her Chap. 4.12 for the Prophets prophecied falsly and the Priests bare rule by their meanes Jer. 5.31 And they ruled with bloudy and unrighteous rigour For they shed the blood of the Iust in the midst of Jerusalem Chapt. 4. ver 13. And in the 30. Chapter God emphatically avoweth his owne Justice against their wickednesse in these words I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruell one for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy sinnes were increased Why criest thou for thine afflictions Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy sins were inereased I have done these things unto thee ver 14 15. So that we must not take this Text though it impute ignorance unto these Jewes to import any extenuation of their transgressions which may serve to excuse them either a toto or a tanto as sometimes ignorance is pleaded by way of argument or inducement to compassion and pardon as it is by God himselfe in the Prophecie of Ionah Should I not spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons that cannot discerne betweene their right and their left hand and also much Cattell and by our Saviour Father forgive them they know not what they doe Luk. 23.34 and as S. Paul giveth instance in his own case I was before a blasphemer and a persecutour and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbeleefe 1 Tim. 1.13 for such ignorance was partly inevitable partly involuntary but this was neither and therefore it is urged rather by way of aggravation to augment their guilt as in the first of Esay Heare O ye Heavens and give