a time of peace there was no instrument of Iron no toole of the work-man heard in the rearing of it Christ the Prince of peace his Disciples the children of peace quiet fishermen not hollowing hunters and whooping Faulkoners may the Church be as the Temple Ierusalem as the Schoole of Christ a Citie a house of peace take Ierusalem in in the third sence in the largest acception of the word for the whole kingdome of Israel of which Ierusalem was the head Citie and then pray for the peace of Ierusalem for peace in the kingdome pray that there may be no homebred conspiracies none left of the house of Saul to wage warre with the house of David no discontented Sheba to blow the Trumpet of sedition and rebellion no flattering Absalom to steale away the hearts of the Kings people no gallant Adonijah to make a strong partie against Salomon no Achitophel Politician to give pernicious counsell against David pray that there may bee no revolting in the kingdome that neither Edom nor Libnah no kingdome nor Country no Citie nor Towne nor person may fall from their allegiance to the King Pray that there may bee no forraine enemy no Syrian no Assyrian no Egyptian no Roman no Turke no Saracen no Italian no Spaniard no Dutch no French Pray for the peace of Ierusalem for all the kingdomes that pertaine to the King of Ierusalem for all the Countries Cities and Townes in these kingdomes for the Church in the kingdome Pray for the peace of Ierusalem the Citie the Church the kingdome Peace is taken in as large a sence as prosperity it comprehends all blessings in the wombe of it I shall principally take it in the strictest sence and Ierusalem in the largest and then the duty is Pray for the peace of Ierusalem that there may bee no warre in the kingdome Warre is only sweete to them that are ignorant of it Our kingdome hath enjoyed a longer time of peace then some kingdomes have of being Our age hath not beene rowsed with the barking of uncouth-Wolves the midnight drum hath not frighted our sleepes the sounding trumpet hath not deaft our eares our beacons have not beene fired our shippes arrested our walls manned our Townes have not beene ransacked our houses ruined our women ravished our infants dashed against the stones wee have not sowed and the stranger reaped we have not built and the enemy possessed we have not beene confounded with strange languages but peace hath beene within our walls and plenteousnesse within our dwellings Peace the daughter of the Gospell of peace Plentie the daughter of Peace Peace the glory of Heaven the joy of the whole world Pray for the peace of Ierusalem IN the prosecution of which I will shew you the misery of Warre the great danger that wee are in of having warre the hopes that remaine to escape it I begin with the first First consider the misery of warre The sword is one of Gods foure sore Iudgements whereby he layeth waste and maketh desolate the greatest kingdomes And I will appoint over them foure kinds saith the Lord the sword to slay and the dogges to teare and the fowles of the Heaven and the beasts of the earth to devoure and destroy For thus saith the Lord how much more when I send my foure sore Iudgments upon Ierusalem the sword and the famine and the noysome Beast and the Pestilence to cut off from it man and Beast Where you may be pleased to observe the sword is not only one of the foure but the first of the foure the most devouring the most destroying God usually sendeth none of these judgments but when his patience is much wounded when his Royall Indignation is kindled when his Iustice is forced when his mercy hath no more to say God hath a store house a rich treasury a Magazen of judgments there are all Instruments of death and bloud sicknesse to death and sicknesses not to death Agues and Feavours and consumptions and these God usually sends before the destroying Pestilence God hath his Staffe and his Rod his Bow and his Arrowes with these he corrects the sons of men before he drawes his sword his sword furbished and glittering to make a sore destruction Iupiter throwes not at first his dreadfull Thunderbolts The heavens usually grow darke and blacke the clouds gather together the raine falls the lightning breaketh forth the sword the famine the noysome beast and the Pestilence they are in the darkest in the most inward roome of the Castle and Tower which God never opens till he be hard put to it till his lesser judgments are despised see the method of Gods proceedings he will proceed from few to many from lesse to greater he will punish us seaven times more for our sinnes when the foure winds breake loose when any of these foure judgements come then God is angry indeed of these foure judgments the sword the famine the pestilence and noysome beasts the sword is the worst of the foure that which God reserveth till the last as the greatest witnesse of his displeasure and the swiftest messenger for our destruction any one of these foure brings feare and trembling horror and terror palenesse and death if the pestilence which is but Gods Arrow if that bee let off of the string though in any part of the kingdome the Arrow that flyes in the darke that usually poysons most in the darke corners of the land amongst the poorest sort of people yet what a feare it strikes into the body of the whole kingdome if but one Citie be infected what flying out of the Citie what watch and ward what strict examination and doings of all that come from that Citie every one being like Cain afraid of every one that meete them least they should kill them runnagates upon the face of the earth Remember the feare that surprised you when GOD shot this Arrow but into one house of this Towne when it fetched the heart-bloud but from a few what flying what posting away your selves your households my Brethren if the plague bee so terrible what will the sword bee that comes after the plague more fierce more terrible by how much the mercies of man are lesse then the mercies of God yea when the sword comes the rest of these foure Iudgements attend on it The plague may come alone and the famine may come alone and noysome beasts may come alone these oftentimes come before the sword if possible to prevent it but when they cannot doe the work the sword will then contemne the rod set at naught what ever the former judgments have done it will come furbished and sharpened and this blacke guard of pestilence famine noysome beasts will be at the heeles of it The sword layes men dead in the fields it ruines Townes and houses it leaves the fields unplowed unharrowed unsowed hence famine growes grievous that kills whom the sword escapes the noysome stinch of the dead begets plagues that
they may bee excommunicated deposed and deprived and experience showes it necessarily followes they must be murdered The same Bellarmine in his fift booke sixth chapter speakes out The Pope may change kingdomes and take them from one and give them to another and gives this Reason else saith hee Kings may pervert their people experience shewing that as the King is so is the kingdome Instancing in Ieroboam Constantine Constance Iulian King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt Queene Mary Queene Elizabeth All whose kingdomes changed with their Kings He affirmes this to bee a Catholike Doctrine and to prove it brings in the Verdict of Twenty Italians foureteene French nine Germans seaven English and Scots nineteene Spaniards all these prime Authors yea the Priests and Iesuites the great fomentors of those damnable Treasons against Queene Elizabeth give up father Bellarmine for their chiefest authority for their Oracle you see Bellarmine speakes plaine he saith enough yet not all I must tell you Bellarmine is modest to others that come after him though he saith somewhat yet they much more He maintained indeed against Aquinas that Kings are not to be murdered though they are Hereticks except they labour to make their people so too and maintaines against others that except the Pope have excommunicated and accursed them subjects are not to rise against their King But others Mariana and the rest of that blacke Guard speake out people are to rise against their King and though the Pope neglects his duty they are not to neglect theirs hee advises rather to poyson their chaire Incarnate devils yea the very vow that the Iesuites take will necessarily inferre this consequence therfore it 's not the opinion of a few alone but the whole order must avouch it I will not say every Iesuite and Papist de facto is not loyall and dutifull to their Prince I will say all their Loyalty depends on the Popes pleasure And what a rotten thread this is to hang so sharpe a pointed sword in over the head of Kings what loyall heart doth not tremble to thinke of it After a solemne profession that they beleeve the Popes absolute authority over all as the Vicar of Christ they make this vow to doe whatsoever the Pope or the Generall of the order shall command them immediately without any Tergiversation disputation or excuse at all and to goe wheresoever he shall command them whether to the Turks Infidels and Indians or Hereticks and Schismaticks among the Christians yea they are bound to beleeve that no error impiety injustice can come from the Pope but that all is Religion Zeale Devotion Equity and Truth My Brethren doe not these men commit themselves soule and body to the Pope doe not they give themselves not to beleeve their owne sences their owne Reason Iudgment and understanding And doe they not vow to goe to come to doe to say to execute upon all persons and against all persons whatsoever he shall command them and if this be true what hope what safety what meanes of refuge have Christian Kings and Princes but the Popes pleasure when these the slaves of the Pope for so the Iesuites call themselves which care not for their owne lives bee masters of the Kings And yet saith Bellarmine was it ever heard or read or did the Pope approve the fact after it was done if the Pope doth not allow of the killing of Kings and Princes wherfore I pray you doth he not set some severe Censure and with a fearefull frowne cry downe those Iesuiticall bookes of Mariana and the rest that not only approves but commends King-killing service Wherefore doth his holinesse suffer at Rome even under his nose those Iesuites that had the chiefest hand in Treasons to be pictured in Bookes like Martyrs and superstitious worship by the common people to bee done to them And those two Kings in France both murdered by Iesuites why did not his holinesse testifie to the Christian world his apprehension of so great misfortune which all Europe had cause to lament why hath not his holines made a Law and a decree against killing of Kings and Princes whereby they may enjoy more safety Let not words be credited when deeds speake so lowd King Iames in his answer to this flaâ—â—ting lye brings a full Iury of witnesses And Bellarmine himselfe in his eight Chapter twelve severall examples to prove the lawfulnesse that Kings may be deposed by the people I will keep at home and only tell you how the Pope proceeded against our King Iohn Queene Elizabeth King Iames Innocentius the first hee first interdicted the kingdome excommunicated the King cursed his person animated his subjects against him gave his kingdome to the King of France at last when the King somewhat relented and submitted to him he forced him to resigne his Crowne and kingdome to Pandolphus his Legate who kept it three dayes and after gave it him and made him tributary for his own kingdome That Bull of Pope Clement sent out against Queene Elizabeth is infamously and notoriously knowne whereby after much railing and blaspheming of her sacred person hee curses all that adhere unto her This Bull he sends into England fastened it on one of Saint Pauls Gates Saunders in his writings maintained it Bristow in his Motives approved it some of the Nobility and many of the Gentry were said to execute it From this fountaine all those bitter streames of cursed water flowed out damnable Treasons against her person But to passe all other the Treason intended this day speakes loud enough occasioned by Popish Religion attempted by Popish Catholikes encouraged by Popish Doctors maintained and blessed by the Pope himselfe I say the Pope himselfe for when father Garnet desired to know the Popes Resolution concerning the bloudy Tragedy Catesby presently resolved him The Pope saith hee that commanded our endeavours to hinder his comming in is willing enough wee should throw him out I know this Anniversary remembrance of this great deliverance troubles the hearts of tender Iesuites and Papists some in Print condemne it and say that the treason of the Powder Traitors ought to bee buryed in the grave of the offendors and not to be imputed to their Religion some impudently now begin to deny it and some with blacke mouthes labour to fasten it on the Puritans God rebuke them T is no new thing my brethren to disavow that which took no effect But had this damnable Treason beene executed it would not have wanted Patrons highly to have maintained it When that Parricide killed Henry the third King of France did not the Pope in full consistory of his Cardinalls make a glorious relation of it comparing the Asacinat to Eleazar and Iudeth forbidding all Masses and dirges to bee said for the soule of the King Is not his picture compleately set up in the Iesuites Colledge over the Altar with Angels protecting and crowning him I could at large relate the manner of the Iesuites proceedings how they raise the
one then a Reconciliation betwixt the Church of Rome and us I could bring in the testimony of many Reverend men of our Clergy if nothing else yet this is enough to free them from being limbs of Antichrist in regard that a reconciliation is impossible and if there can be no reconciliation I trust the reformed Churches will ever scorne to accept a dispensation and the piety and policy of our Christian state to admit a tolleration among us Come out of Babylon is the voyce from Heaven come out in affection come out in person separate farre from them say with Iacob ô my soule come not into their secret unto their assembly mine honour bee thou not united But what is this enough to abhorre future agreement with them to deny them approbation to their deeds Iacob goes further and we must follow him cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell One saith Babylons brats must not bee dandled on the lap but dasht against the Stones Another painted Iezabel the whore of Rome must be throwne out at the windowes to be troden under foot of horses Another Rome is like a Nettle stings them that handle it softly A fourth saith they are like unto bells never well tuned till they be well hang'd Only I say as Iacob saith Simeon and Levi made themselves stinke among the Nations and one day the Nations will consume them and their house I would not my brethren blow the Trumpet to this Warre Let Rome founded in bloud propagate her Religion in bloud I have otherwise learned Christ Iesus the King of peace I hate the person of no Papist under heaven I know God hath a great people among them else he would never say come out of Babylon yea Countries Nations and kingdoms that now adhere to the beast shall hate the Whore I see Iesuites themselves may be converted I dare not hate them nor so love their persons as to spare their wickednesse cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell cursed be the Religion that causes rebellion Treason murdering of Innocents treachery perjury The worst I will doe against them is to pray God divide them from the son of Iacob and scatter them from our English Israel This was the last part of the censure Iacob powred on his sonnes and it was not to be accomplisht til they came into the land of Canaan my brethren we have a certaine prophecy God will divide them from his Church but we must waite till we come neere the land of Canaan what ever faire face Rome hath yet her eyes are sparkling Basilisks that whore of Babylon her breath is the breath of Vipers her voyce is as the voyce of the Hyena that cries as the Crocodile to deceive and destroy us They are the best that are furthest separate both in affection and person we must come out of Babylon would God we could send them into Babylon Bellarmine tells us out of Theodoret That the boyes of Samosatenea playing at Tenis-ball in the midst of the market did solemnly cast it into the fire because it had but toucht the foote of the Asse whereon Lucius the Heretical Bishop rod And we read in the Spanish History of the zealously superstitious Biscans who were busied many dayes in scraping up the dust trode upon by the horse whereupon a certain Bishop rode that accompanied the Emperor Ferdinando and threw it as a thing infected into the Sea The Iewes once every yeare burnt all the Leaven that was in their houses they swept the house cleane and searcht every corner and cursed what was left Moses saith to the people of Israel comming into the land take heed that you make no covenant with the people of the land no cut downe their groves and stampe their Images in peeces Esay and Ieremie are very earnest with Gods people to come out of Babylon S. Paul would not have beleevers to beare the Yoke with unbeleevers nor Saint Iohn to say good night to an obstinate Hereticke Bellarmine saith The Catholicks will not suffer any that seeme to favour Lutherans in the least degree they have their flies and familiars Priests oathes and Inquisitions to discover good Protestants O then that our Pursevants Paritors Church-Wardens Constables Iudges Iustices Consistories High Commission Courts of Iustice that they would discover all these bloudy Papists and send them to Rome again I am no enemy of theirs to wish them where they would bee there they are in soule I would they were there in body there they are in Affection I would they were there in person I have now done with my Text and with the Application also and yet remaines some little of my Sermon behind you have heard my Brethren Simeon and Levi fit parallells of Iesuites and Iesuited Papists as face answers face in a glasse so the cruelty of the one answers the cruelty of the other Simeon and Levi in cruelty against Hamor and Shechem the rest of the Citie will be Typicall for the Tragedy of this day I see little difference but now in one thing in the last thing in the conclusion of all with which I will conclude my Sermon O they differ altogether They as their resolution was fierce so their execution was cruell they did not onely meere and consult plot and contrive and combine themselves in one but they did accomplish and finish and perfect their intention The last Act was Tragicall and bloudy But as for ours God frustrated all their preparations and that when it was but late there was not many sands to runne in the glasse not many strokes to strike at the Clocke not one Tide to passe the Bridge it was late last night that God discovered it and this morning it should have beene executed The knife was at the Throate the dagger at the breast the powder in the Barrell the Match burning in the hand there was the villaine ready to give fire But God delivered us and they perished in their Treason and let their memories perish with them But behold the servants of the Lord the King the Queene and that sacred Senate walking loose in the midst of the fire on whose bodies the fire had no power their rayment was not changed nor was the smell or touch of fire upon them at all ô tell it in Gath publish it in the Streets of Ascalon that the enemies of the English Nation may bee ashamed and confounded at their cruelty Let Popish Factors Spanish Merchants blunder out blasphemously and say GOD is the GOD of England Tell it to your Children and to your Childrens Children Let the fifth of NOVEMBER bee for ever kept holy in the English Nation O let the heavens Eccho out praises to God let there bee all outward signes of Ioy Let our Bells ring to drowne the noyse of the thundering skies Let fires flame to darken the light of the Sunne Let our Organs and Singers lift up their voyces that it may be heard and Ecchoed by Angels and Saints Let all that hath a tongue and breath praise the Lord I conclude with Paul 2 Cor. 1.9 10. But wee had the sentence of death in our selves that wee should not trust in our selves but in GOD which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom also we trust that he will yet deliver us *âŽ* FINIS Psal. 108 1. Iob 29.14 Psal. 91.6 Lev. 14.43 45. Isa. 13.21 2 Thes. 2.8 Ezra 6.14 Acts 10.11 Ps. 81.10 Isa. 9.6 7 â— Chro. 22.8 2 Chro. 21.10 Ier. 15.3 Ezek. 14.21 Lev. 26.18 28. Eze 21.10 2 Sam. 24.12 Verse 14. Iob 30 1 8. Deut. 32.26 27. Iudges 18.16 Amos 3.7 Verse 6. Verse 7. Verse 9. Verse 10. Verse 11. Verse 12. Ier. 37.5 Mat. 16.3 Gen. 43.11 1 Sam. 30.8 Mal. 3.16 Iudg 13.23 1 Kings 8.44 45. Rev. 17.16 Ioel 2.2 Isay 10.12 Psalm 137.5 Isai. 37.1 3. 2 Sam. 11.11 Dan. 6.18 Isay 22.12 Iudg. 5.23 Isay 58.5 Numb. 12.14 2 Sam. 19.24 2 Kings 23.26 27. Ioel 2.14 Dan. 4.27 Isay 1.16 1 Sam. 1.18 1 Chro. 19.13 Hest 9.20 Reas. 1. Dan. 12.9 Pro. 7.10 Dan. 9. and the last Reas. 2. 2 Tim. 3.6 Num 6.3 4. Heb. 11. Vse of Exhortation Ezek. 18.3 Gen. 18 25 Gen. 20.4 2 Sam. 24.17 Ezec. 17.15 The second Generall Eze. 37. Eze. 47.3
hands in that great worke you are about Jt would be the glory of this latter age could there such a sheete be let downe to the Church as there was in vision to Peter that the difference of cleane and uncleane may be taken away such a golden Scepter reach'd out that all may be subdued unto it and embrace it O what an honour would it be to the present and a blessing to the future age that a consent of Doctrine and discipline might be confirmed by you that we that professe one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one GOD and Father of all under one King may be one Church That a Trinity of Kingdomes may be a Church in Vnity Pardon my presumption if my zeale for the publicke peace points at the meanes A Royall Convocation rightly constituted unto which all the Kingdomes may send their Clarks would facilitate the businesse It would adde much to the glory of it and be a Crowne unto his Crowne who accounts it the most glorious in all his Crowne to be worthy of that Title Defender of the Faith if from all the reformed CHVRCHES some may be invited if not to vote yet at least to assist The reason wherefore Generall Nationall Provinciall Councells have in this last Century beene so fatall and therefore by some of singular eminency beene disclaimed as a meete meanes for the settling of peace is because the greatest part have their standing Votes who will ever maintaine a strong partie for themselves Is it equall that Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes Arch-Deacons Chapter men should of course and by reason of their dignities have their places their suffrages when but two Clerks are elected by the choise of the Clergie May the Election of the Clarks for the Convocation be as free as yours for the Parliament and in some proportion unto it J doubt not but we should be as happy in our Canons as we are in your Statutes There hath been strange batteries made upon our Religion the thirty nine Articles are challenged by the Harlot Papists and Arminians claime them as theirs the Booke of Homilies are disclaimed unheard of violation hath bin offered to the second to the fourth Commandements Preaching is cryed downe Preachers discountenanced The Sacraments have beene defiled the people of the Lord have beene made to abhorre the offering of the Lord Presse and Pulpit have vomited forth corrupt and undigested matters Augustus made a Bonefire of all such bookes that corrupted the Roman Ethnick Religion it would be your wisdome to make a diligent search for all Apocryphall books Hereticall Popish Semi-pelagian Pamphlets slanderous Libels and impertinent writings and to sacrifice them to Vulcan We pray for great things to be done by you we have open our mouthes wide to the Lord we have heard of great things of you the Lord prosper you to an happy and blessed conclusion for a glorious reformation of Church and Common-Wealth The Counsellor The mightie God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace he upon whose shoulder the government lyes increase your government and peace order you and stablish you with judgment and justice henceforth for ever the Zeale of the Lord of HOSTS performe this Your Honours in all sincerity service and dutie Richard Heyricke The first SERMON PSAL. 122. ver. 6. Pray for the peace of Ierusalem NOne can speake more punctually in the commendation of peace then they that have beene long harrowed with Warre David a man of Warre in his younger dayes he slew a Lion he kill'd a Beare he overcame Goliah that uncircumcised Philistim that defyed the Host of Israel in his riper yeares he conquered the Canaanites the Amorites the rest of those heathenish Nations he had seaven yeares warre with the house of Saul Warre with his rebellious subjects with his treacherous traitorous sonne God witnesseth that he had shed bloud abundantly that hee had made great wars in his latter dayes he had a breathing time of peace in which respite and Interim he prepares to build God an house he rejoyceth in his preparation and prayes for the prosperity of it and encourageth others to pray Pray for the peace of Ierusalem Ierusalem either the City Ierusalem the Metropolis the chiefe Citie the Royall City the City of the great King the London of the kingdome of Israel wherein the Thrones of Iudgement the Courts of Iustice Westminster Hall was wherein the thrones of the house of David his Court his Pallace his house his Mansion White-Hall was Or Ierusalem taken for the Temple in Ierusalem the house of the Lord the place whither the Tribes went up the Tribes of the Lord to give thanks unto the name of the Lord And so by a figure for the Church of God the Temple in Ierusalem was a type of it Or Ierusalem taken for the whole kingdome it being the chiefe member of the kingdome the Chamber of the kingdome the stomacke of that body politicke which receives all the nourishment the forraine Marchandize and disperseth them abroad to every member take Ierusalem in the first sence in the strict and literal acception of the word for the Citie Ierusalem for the London of that kingdome Then pray for the peace of Ierusalem for the City London that there may be no destroying plague no evill disease no infectious sicknesse no dissentions no divisions no commotions no rising of lawlesse Creatures no rebellions no Treasons Pray that the forreiners and strangers that are in the Citie the Male-content and desperate heard the Cananites that dwell among them the French the Papists may not disturbe their peace and prosperity pray that David and Ierusalem the King and the City may accord together that the Thrones of Iudgment and the Thrones of the house of David Westminster-Hall and Whitehall may be Thrones of Iustice of honour and glory take Ierusalem in the second acception in a sence not so restrained for the Temple in Ierusalem for the house of the Lord for the Church of God and then pray for the peace of Ierusalem for peace in the Church pray that there may bee no heresie no hereticall doctrine no erronious Articles of Religion no Trent determinations no Socinian blasphemies no Arminian quiddities no Antinomian wickednesses pray that there may bee no Schisme no separation no wall of partition no heathenish customes no Samaritan rites no Idolatrous superstitions no Popish ceremonies no Canons to Batter and terrifie the consciences of Gods people pray that the whole Clergie may be of one spirit not divided not distracted not torne in peeces that one part may not speake prosperity in the eares of the King to send him to Ramoth-Gilead to dye there and that the other part may not humor and flatter the people to stubbornnesse and disobedience pray that the Church may be as Ierusalem a Citie compact together to which the people of the Lord may goe up without offence without trouble The Temple in Ierusalem was built by Salomon a King of peace in
them he is not hastie to cut off a member 't is the last that which he is the loathest to use yea God seldome or never useth this plague this judgement but he presently repents him of it and avengeth the bloud shed upon them that shed it Reade at your leasure 2 Chron. 28. ver. 9. Isay 10. verse 12. Rev. 6. ver. 6. Lastly see some aggravating circumstances of this judgment men are ever made the instruments of warre and therefore this judgment is greater then that immediately comes from GOD those instruments of cruelty the lesse they have of reason the more unreasonable the more fierce in their cruelties hence the mercies of man are cruelty in respect of God the cruelties of beasts farre worse than the rage of man the warre of Inanimate creatures more raging then that of the beast The Lion the Tyger know their bounds better then the fire the water yet the depravation of the more eminent and excellent is worse then the meere negation in the other when patience is abused in GOD it turnes into the heaviest fury the least sparke of his hell is greater than the greatest fire on earth when men lose their reason they are more mad then the beast that never had it bloudy minded men are the Instruments of this punishment and of them the most strong and stout and lusty the most irreligious licentious and violent persons the most base sordid and dung-hill people Againe in warre no man can bee master of his owne where ever the Souldiers passe their hands are bird-lyme like the griping Griffin they seise upon all The Danites rob Micah and Micahs voyce must not be heard least when he cryes for his goods he looseth his life war exhausts the Treasures of the Land there will be many borrowers that never will pay againe Theeves and Robbers The Kings Exchequer shall want money the Chamber of the Kingdome shall bee without supply then the Subject shall bee made poore no trading much spending Subsidies Fifteenes Taxes Privie seales Ship-moneys provision moneys Conduct money a thousand wayes to emptie private purses In warre men dye many deaths here lyes one without an Arme a Legge Trampled under the Horses feete none regards their cryes their lamentations The Drummes the Trumpets drowne their voyces In warre multitudes are led Captive tortured and tormented made vassals and slaves By warre strangers and enemies invade our possessions possesse our houses and lands deprive us of our rights liberties and inheritances by warre unnaturall slaughters are committed oftentimes the father fighteth against the sonne and the sonne against the father more bloud is shed in warre than any other way when GOD intends to destroy a stocke a Country a Kingdome he sendeth warre by war might often prevailes against right the worser part the stronger the ruines and desolations of warre last long after a few months the next yeare may supply the defacings of the plague of famine but many yeares many ages to repaire the losse by warre You see the misery of Warre As you would escape the fury of it pray for the continuance of our peace Pray for the peace of Ierusalem Secondly consider the great danger we are in of loosing our peace of falling into the misery of warre GOD deales fairely in the administration and execution of his justice Surely the Lord will doe nothing but he will reveale his secret to his servants the Prophets seldome or never doth God bring generall judgments upon a people but hee gives faire warning he strikes not unawares You have heard of late sad presages signes and forerunners of destructions I will not tread that path againe The sword is the plague we now feare God hath given us some warning the sword hangs over our heads God hath been long whetting his sword hee hath blowne his Trumpet to the Battle he hath discharged his warning peeces hee hath charged his murdering peeces First lay to heart that God hath already visited us with all other plagues and judgements yea hee hath gone them over againe and againe how often hath the Land groaned under the plague what dearths and scarcities have we had what secret and wasting judgments have beene consuming of us GOD hath runne through his Armory his Treasury Castles Towers Magazens he hath tryed all the rest of his judgments to see if they will bring us to Repentance so that none remains but the sword hath not GOD visited us with the plague with plague after plague with dearth and famine hath he not made the heavens brasse and the earth Iron hath hee not let loose the foure winds of the earth which have overthrowne Shippes and houses hath there not beene fearefull earthquakes thundering and lightning strange divisions dissentions mutinies fearefull sad things amongst us What remaines for God yet to do if all this will not doe the worke but that hee sends the sword the last the worst of all See Amos 4. verse 6. and so on I have given you cleannesse of teeth in all your Cities yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord I have withholden the Raine from you yet have yee not returned unto mee saith the Lord I have smitten you with blasting and mil-dew yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord I have sent among you the Pestilence yet have yee not returned unto mee saith the Lord I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah yet have yee not returned unto mee saith the Lord He speakes after the manner of men in whom just indignation stoppes the passage of further speech The greatnesse of his wrath wants words to expresse it selfe And because I will come prepare to meete thy God O Israel God will come like a man of warre prepare to meete the Lord See if thou be able to stand against him with his sword drawne furbished and sharpened ready to make a sore destruction God hath gone over other Iudgments againe and againe therefore we may well feare the sword is now comming Secondly God hath sent the sword amongst other nations wee hitherto like Gideons fleece have beene dry when all the earth about us hath beene drencht with bloud the sword hath beene in Bohemia in the Palatinate in Denmarke in Germany in France in Holland The Cloud hitherto hath bin violently carryed from us and hath emptyed it selfe in other parts The sword hath beene filled with bloud and hath beene made fat with fatnesse drunke with bloud when the Angell of the Lord with his drawne sword had visited other places of the kingdome at last he came and stood over Ierusalem when God hath gone through other Lands and Countryes through other kingdomes and Churches he will then sheath his sword upon us The Iudges they are now in their Circuit they have their Commission from the King to goe from one County to another the Iudges before they have done they will come in their Circuit to us wee must have our
shed by them Hannibal when he was but nine yeares old vowed himselfe a perpetuall enemy to the Empire of Rome The warre of Rome Christian runnes Retrograde to the warre of Rome Ethnicke though they had often the worst in the present battailes yet they were ever conquerers at last when as Rome Christian though they sometimes pevaile for the present yet they shall never conquer our warres with them are as the warres with the Children of Israel when they travelled into the land of Canaan sometimes they turned their backs before the enemy but they were sure to conquer at last Our Shippe may by stormes and Tempests be beaten and torne be as the Shippe in which Christ and his Disciples were tossed and in danger but 't is sure at last to arrive safe at the haven my brethren God may make the Papists whippes and scourges hee may make them as thornes in our eyes as prickes in our sides Ioshua and Israel may turne their backes before the enemies the Papists may have their long-waited for day which may for the present bee to us as that day we read of in Ioel A day of darkenesse and of gloominesse as dayes of clouds and of thicke darknesse a day fearefull as our day of doome as our day of judgement yet it shall not be our day of doom nor our day of judgement the sunne shall not goe downe in a Cloud when our day is over their night shall begin blacknesse of darknesse shall cover them the Sunne shall never rise againe they shall have an eternall night they are greater sinners then wee and when God begins he will make an end my brethren we need not over much feare what Atheists and Papists can do what hell or Rome what the Devill or Spaniard there may come an houre of temptation an houre of darknesse Sathan may cast some of us into prison wee may have Tribulation tenne dayes but hee that shall come will come and will not tarry Our deliverer our Saviour will raise up a mighty salvation for us Pharaoh may oppresse for a time but wee shall after a while see the Egyptians drown'd in the red Sea They are Gods enemies and we shal see the salvation of the Lord Are they against whom wee must fight under the same King of the same religion they cannot but be as desirous of peace as we our selves we cannot fight against them as against enemies nor can they fight against us The King solemnly protests and declares to the world be wageth not warre against them his Armes are open to embrace them What ever bloud hee drawes from them he counts it as bloud from his owne veines the kingdome is not forward for warre God is called to Vmpire the cause Therefore Pray Pray for the peace of Ierusalem You have seene the misery of warre the probability of a present warre the possibility of escaping of it O then pray for peace which brings me to a use of exhortation further to presse this duty upon you First bee seriously affected with it before you pray lay the warre to your heart thinke of it when you rise in the morning and when you goe to bed at night Let the Trumpet that sounds to this warre bee as the Trumpet that sounded in the eare of Saint Ierome that where ever he went or what ever hee did he heard the sound of it It is recorded of Ignatius that when hee was dead the name of Iesus was found ingraven in his heart in letters of Gold Of Saint Francis that the markes and prints of Christ crucified were upon his hands and feete Queene Mary said when she was dead they should finde Callis writ on her heart And 't is said when Sardis was lost that every dinner one cryed Remember they have taken Sardis have deepe thoughts my Brethren concerning this warre because of the Divisions of Reuben there are great thoughts of heart O lay it neere to your hearts sleepe with it wake with it eate and drinke with it set it ever before your eyes Vnlesse you are truly affected with it you can never pray effectually for it Remember the affection of David If I forget thee 0 Ierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning Take to heart what Hezekiah did when warre was threatned hee rent his clothes hee covered himselfe with Sackcloth This day is a day of trouble and of Rebuke and Blasphemie call to remembrance what Uriah did a Souldier he would not go to his house nor lye with his wife nor eate of the Kings provision whilst the Arke and Israel and Iudah dwelt in Tents Nebuchadnezzar that heathenish King when he set his heart to deliver Daniel and could not he returned sad to his palace he passed away the night fasting he would have no Instrument of musicke brought before him his sleep went away from him he arose early in the morning and hasted to the denne of Lions O ye Priests of the Lord remember old Eli when warre was at the gates his heart trembled for the Arke of GOD hee watched at the doore the Lampe did not goe out all night the newes that the Arke was taken strooke him to the heart Phinea's wife felt the losse of the Arke more then the travell of her child certainly my brethren they are neither faithfull to God their King nor Countrey that are not affected with this war that doe not pray for the peace of Ierusalem This day God calls to weeping and mourning to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloath They that will not this day fight the battailes of the Lord with their prayers they shall bee cursed of the Lord Curse yee Meroz because they came not to helpe the Lord against the mighty If the enemy should break in upon us then you would weepe and mourne cry and howle a grievous shrike should bee heard among you Then ô my sonne Isaac and ô my Father Abraham weep and mourne that the enemy may not come doe as Iehoshaphat did Secondly bee not afflicted nor affected for a day onely though you begin your sorrow to day doe not end it to day a woman is not long conceiving shee is long breeding she is not long bringing forth shee is long training up Sow the seed of sorrowes to day and watch over it and water it every day weep day after day for Ierusalem Is it such a fast that I have chosen that a manshould afflict his soule for a day and to bow downe his head as a Bull-Rush and to lye downe in sacke-cloath ashes Wilt thou call this a fasting or an acceptable day to the LORD O my Brethren Let this day bee but the beginning of your sorrowes Let GOD and the whole World see that you are become sorrowfull mourners indeed ESTHER fasted three dayes DANIEL three weekes the people of ISRAEL in their Captivity seventie yeares abate while the Pestilence the warre lasteth somewhat of your pleasures of your profits you know what God
said of Miriam if her father had but spit in her face should she not have been ashamed seaven dayes If God was never so little Angry with us we should fast seaven dayes much more now he hath plagued us with his greatest plagues Mephibosheth neither dressed his feete nor trimmed his beard nor washed his cloathes from the day the King departed untill he came againe in peace till God and the King returne in peace doe as Mephibosheth did set one houre apart every day for prayer one day more in the weeke eate lesse drink lesse sleep lesse put on your mourning apparell lay by your feasting your banquetting let your laughter be turned into weeping your joy into mourning water your Couch with teares Encite and exhort and encourage one another to pray David doth not only pray himselfe but hee commands others to pray Pray for the peace of Ierusalem The word is in the plurall number Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another The more prayers the more power we have at this day a great gale of prayers at our back Noah Daniel and Iob The prayers of Noah alone preserved himselfe and his family Daniel returned the captivity Iob prevailed for his friends if these severally could doe so much with God what can they all do joyned together If one favourite can prevaile with the King how can hee be denyed when all the Court when the Counsell when the Kings Children when the Queene joynes with him get what stocke of prayers you can pray your selves call in others to pray Let the Husband pray with the wife the wife with her maides The Parent with the Children let one neighbour provoke another An Army of men cannot stand against an Army of prayers One praying Towne can overcome a fighting Kingdome make your party strong by prayers Fourthly in this your day of prayer vow reformation to God if any thing will prevaile with God prayer and reformation will doe Indeed you should have reformed the evill of your wayes before this day of prayer Reformation should goe before Humiliation The King of Nineveh when hee sent forth the Proclamation for the fast he sent it forth for reformation also the times have beene when reformation would not serve the turne There may so much guilt lye upon a kingdom that no reformation shal priviledge the kingdome There can be no preservation without Reformation though reformation will not alwayes doe the worke yet the worke can never bee done without it It is the condition that GOD ever requires that which his servants covenant for with GOD that which encourageth them to pray This ever leaves a possibility a hope a may bee Therefore now saith the Prophet Ioel Turne yee to me with all your heart who knowes if he will returne and repent breake off your sinnes saith Daniel by righteousnesse it may bee a lengthning of thy tranquillity Reformation must go along with prayer Wash you make you cleane take away the evill of your doings cease to doe evill Reforme the abuses the sinnes of the place the drunkennesse the idlenesse the whoring the swearing reforme the sinnes of your houses the want of Prayer of Catechising your personall sins your covetousnesse your pride your oppression breake off your sinnes God may have mercy Lastly pray and rest comforted in your prayer quiet your spirits what you can feare not their feare shew that you can doe what the wicked cannot doe you can Anchor your soules upon God Admirable was the deportment and carriage of poore afflicted Hannah when shee had powred forth her soule unto God she went home and did eate and looked no more sad It was a good resolution of a wicked man yet a good Generall in the field Be of good courage and let us behave our selves valiantly for our people and the Cities of our God and let the Lord do that wch is good in his sight Iacob was resolved after he had used the means If it must be so If I am bereaved I am bereaved Esther was at a point goe I will if I perish I perish I cannot foretell you of certainety what this day may bring forth what answer wee shall have of our prayers but I can say this confidently and promise you in the name of the Lord they that pray for the peace of Ierusalem they shall prosper either in the publike prosperity of Ierusalem or in their owne particular person or in the prosperity of their posterity The Children that are not yet borne may blesse you for this day Pray then O pray Pray for the peace of Ierusalem for the Citie for the Church for the Kingdome The second SERMON 2 Thess. 2.15 Therefore Brethren stand fast GReat deliverances ought to bee celebrated with solemn remembrances Nationall deliverances with Nationall remembrances When God delivered the Nation of the Iewes from that intended Parisian Massacre Mordecai proclaimed the foureteenth and fifteenth dayes of the month Adar to be kept holy that they should make them dayes of feasting and joy It is recorded of the Iewes that on these dayes when they reade the booke of Esther as often as mention is made of their enemy and adversary wicked Haman so often they expresse their inward indignation by some externall angry passion they stampe with their feete upon the ground they knocke their hands they threaten with their frowne they thunder with their words This day this fifth day of November a day for ever to be remembred by the English Nation GOD delivered God immediately and miraculously delivered our Religion our King our Queene our Prince and Princesse the Senate and Councell of this Kingdom the Iudges the Knights the Burgesses the whole house of Convocation the monuments of our fore-fathers the records of the Kingdome in a word the whole kingdome from that diabolicall monstrous unparallell'd Gun-powder Treason This day our High Court of Parliament hath enacted and may that Act be as the Act of the Medes and Persians that alters not may it stand as the Sunne and Moone for ever that this day should be kept holy that wee celebrate this day with a joyfull triumph with new Cantica Canticorum with whole new sets of songs with preaching with feasting and sending gifts one unto another with ringing of Bels with making of Bonefires with sounding Trumpets with thundering of Ordnances with all outward expressions of joy That so God may see our thankfulnesse that people from the Pulpit may heare of their deliverance that children in the streetes may understand the salvation of the Lord that strangers abroad may know the barbarousnesse of the Plot the Religion of the Traitors the bloud-thirstinesse of Papists Horret animus beleeve me I cannot thinke on the horror of the Treason but my spirit is moved within me my indignation is stirred as often as the very mention of the name Papist is made of such Papists that adhere to the Pope of Rome as to their head
Heaven is such as Arius Luther and Calvin was The Star that shall lead me to the light of this Starre that is fallen from Heaven shall bee that fixed Starre now in Heaven KING Iames Kings have a speciall interest in the book of the Revelation And God hath made them of great use there to bring downe the man of sinne Then it may well stand with the wisdome of God to reveale the meaning to them And of all Kings I heare of none that hath taken that paines in the Revelation as King Iames This Starre saith hee is the Pope who was once in the kingdome of Heaven as a glorious bright Starre in Heaven above who had an eminent place in an eminent Church of God The Locusts that infect the aire are that innumerable multitude and diverse orders of Ecclesiasticall persons as Fryers Monkes Priests Cardinalls Iesuites and I know not whom who bring as much destruction upon all sorts of men as Locusts to the grasse and tender herbe As Locusts come by swarmes and overspread the whole earth so these fill the whole earth with their Insinuations The shape of them is like unto Horses prepared to battell to signifie that their forme of practise and policie shall be so worldly wise that they shall want nothing pertaining to the setting forth of their intents no more than a horse of service which is curiously barbed fitted and prepared for the fight They had on their heads Crownes of Gold they pretend great holinesse none more then that Ecclesiasticall order even as the Elders because of their true holinesse had Crownes of Gold so they because of their pretended holinesse have Crownes of Gold also They have the faces of men they come with the faces and Reasonings of men Sophisticall Arguments subtill Philosophy which Saint Paul cals vaine Philosophy The haire of women As the haire of women is a speciall part of their bewty to deceive men so they have Arts and Crafts to draw men to their Religion They have habergeons of Iron to shew they are backt with authority and the like I could goe on further they are many and crafty full of power have Crownes of Gold the heads and faces of men the haire of women all alluring tempting enticing and bewitching those that in this place are called Locusts in the sixteenth of the Revelation and the 13. are call'd frogs Frogges indeed like those frogs that came into the houses and bed-chambers of Pharaoh King of Egypt and of his servants and all his people no place nor person free they are the sublimate and the transcendent Instruments of deceit they come out of the mouth of the Dragon out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet The very spirit of the Devill active powerfull strong and stirring full of delusion to deceive men Brethren you see what reason you have to stand fast that you be not by any drawne back againe to Popery Secondly consider it 's a dangerous thing to be drawne away to Popery I say consider the danger that attends all them that are drawn away All Papists in that sense that I speake of Papists for I doe not speake of all that may be Popishly affected or incline to some Popish opinions but such Papists as derive their name from Papa the Pope that hold him to bee the head of the Church that subscribe to the Counsell of Trent all Italianated Iesuited Papists they are Traitors to the King under whom they live Heretickes Infidels and Atheists in continuall danger of temporall destruction and at last sure of eternall damnation First all sorts of Papists are Traitors to the King under whom they live Not to prove this by an Induction of particulars from those many Treasons that have beene committed in this Land when was there any Treason since the beginning of Reformation or scarce before but they were the Contrivers Plotters Actors at least the favourers and Abettors of it Was not Sumervile Parrey Babington and his complices Papists was not Lopez and his Abettors Papists was not Campion and Parsons Papists were not the Gunpowder Traitors Papists was not Catesby Winter and Persey was not Digby Rooke-wood and Tresham was not that Incarnate Devill Guido Fawkes were they not all Papists Nor yet to prove them Traitors because the Law of the Land makes them Traitors which hath enacted that all those Priests and Iesuites that come into the Land are Traitors all that bring Agnus Dei that maintaine the Popes supremacy above the Kings and labour to draw obedience from the King and perswade to Rome are Traitors But I will prove it from the principles and maximes of their owne Religion that shew necessarily all such Papists must bee Traytors in that kingdome where they live All Religions may perhaps have some that are Traitors in it but no Religion under Heaven set aside the Religion of the Church of Rome doth necessitate and compell men to be Traitors They have a maxime among them I finde it in Bellarmine that Kings have not their immediate power from God but from the people yet so that the people transferre their power into the person of the King yet keepe habitually in themselves which they may make a principle for Traytors It 's said of all that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and Kings standing so may be deposed and those that goe about to infect the people the people ought to rise up against them and that it is not only a lawfull but a necessary and a meritorious worke The English Papists saith a Iesuited English Priest are well to be excused for not rising against their King because they want power had they power to their will the King should either obey the Pope or else they would not obey the King Papists are Traytors Secondly Papists are Heretickes Infidels and Atheists not to speake of their innumerable multitude of lesser errors called Veniall sinnes yet notwithstanding the number of them may helpe to drowne the Shippe of Rome nor yet to speake of their grosser Tenents not yet confirmed in the Church of Rome but disputed in their Schooles there are some hereticall errors maintained among some so grosly hereticall that whosoever holds them must necessarily be an Heretick Infidell and Atheist Such is their Image worship their Altar worship their Crosse worship their Saint worship their Angell worship their Relicke worship and the like such is Iustification by works works of super-arrogation but above all the transcendent heresie the head of heresies that the Pope is the head of the Church above the Scriptures above Synods above Counsells that he cannot erre is so hereticall that whosoever holds it in Radice in fundamento denies all the Articles of the faith denies the booke of God and by necessary consequence denies GOD himselfe for whosoever they are that build any thing on a false foundation if the foundation falls all the building falls with it Saint Paul tells us that the man of sinne sits
to curse as well as sixe to blesse Moses the meekest man in all the earth was mediator of the condemning Law Saint Paul that was compounded of affection yet pronounced the greatest curse in the Book of God mens persons ought not so to be had in admiration that their wickednesse passe without condemnation In Courts of Iustice mens causes not their persons should speake Iacob lookes not on his sons cruelty with a fathers indulgent lenity but with a frowning Austerity whom GOD curses Iacob will not blesse cursed be their anger This censure will aggravate their sinne if you consider these circumstances First The Parents curse saith the wiseman rootes out the foundation of a child Gods curse usually goes along with theirs Noah cursed Cham and the Canaanites were cursed of God Saint Austen tells us of a Mother cursing her tenne Children that immediately from Heaven they were shattered in pieces Camerarius relates of one cursed by his father that presently by a miracle hee was fastned to the ground of a second devoured by Serpents of a third torne by devils sad and dreadfull examples a fearefull document to Parents to take heed how they rashly curse their children and for children how they provoke their Parents Parents are not easily moved to curse their children especially if they be religious parents men fearing God and yet Iacob Simeon and Levi's father holy Iacob curses but it is their anger not them their passions not their persons cursed be their anger this is the first aggravation Secondly the words of dying men are living oracles then men speak most affectionately and their words pierce most deepely Iacob at this time was on his death bed his sons crave his blessing he loves them but hates their sins as his soule at first gave no consent so his tongue now shall give no approbation to it at first he reproves them but having more liberty he detests it He was presently to appeare before Gods Tribunall so he calls them to his Thirdly an honest heart doth not only not act wickednes but abhors it Iacob as hee was no Counsellor to the offence so he would be no Patron to the offendors O my soule come not into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united Iacob as before he protested against it so now he disclaimes it Fourthly it 's the curse that followes the Iewes to this day to be a scattered people on the face of the earth division will follow unity in sin Simeon and Levi brethren in evill therefore Iacob makes them strangers in dwelling I wil divide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israel Simeon had no entire inheritance Levi no certaine Thus you have seen their sin and their censure But what 's this to us wil you say or what 's this to the busines of this day Have patience and this shall give more light and bee more welcome to you considering that Iacob in thus speaking is our spokesman Brightman speaking of the seaven Churches saith they were Typicall of the Churches of the Gentiles to the comming of Christ I should be too singular if I did say this history were Typicall and did set forth the tragedy for this day I wil not undertake to give an interpretation but I will promise and your selves shall see an exact application in all the particulars be pleased therefore once more to have recourse to the words of the Text and with a little variation of names and time read it thus Iesuites and Iesuited Papists are Brethren Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations O my soule come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine Honour be not thou united for in their Anger they slew a man and in their selfe will they digg'd downe a wall cursed bee their Anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell God divide them from the sonne of our Iacob and scatter them from our English Israel I will follow the same method that I did before I will shew you the sinne of these and their censure and that aggravated with the same circumstances as that of Simeon and Levi First then Simeon and Levi in their anger they slew a man a King The lives of Kings are sacred therefore those doctrines the most remote consequences whereof will maintaine killing of Kings are to be abhor'd among us But as for the doctrine of Iesuites and Iesuited Papists their Tenets and and principles sticke point blancke to this killing of Kings and in this their cruelty is farre worse than that of Simeon and Levi Simeon and Levi did once kill a King though de facto they did it yet they did it but once and their Religion condemned it and their father Iacob cursed it But it is the Religion of the Church of Rome and the constant practise of the Iesuites to doe it not only once but often yea their Religion maintaines it and in some cases makes it meritorious yea the Pope their father allowes it countenances and blesses it you were once taught to say on the service of this day that their Religion is Rebellion and their faith faction it is now altered And I have reason enough to beleeve there 's sufficient Reason of State for it though I see none I hope I shall make it easily appeare to you that the Religion of the Church of Rome maintaines killing of Kings Bellarmine in his Letter to Blackwell the Arch-Priest of England makes this Rhetoricall flourish did ever any Pope from the Infancy of the Church at any time command any King though heathenish to be kill'd or approve the Act after it was done Therefore saith hee why shall the King of England feare that that never any Christian King in the Christian world did ever or hath cause to feare boldly spoken and as a Cardinall Iesuite Let Bellarmine answer Bellarmine and throw blushing in his owne face I have the rather made choice of him because he is their Coripheus and few of them I beleeve deny what he affirmes yea I have him to shew if any denies what I say to you in his fifth booke De Roman Pontific 7. cap. he saith plainly Non licet Christianis c. It is not lawfull for Christians to tollerate a Heathenish Infidell Hereticall King yea saith hee it pertaines to the Pope alone to judge if the King be so or no he saith also in the same place if any sheepe become a Wolf any Christian Prince become a Heretick and labours to withdraw his subjects then the Pope ought to expell them excommunicate them drive them away from their kingdome and discharge their subjects of obedience And he gives this Reason and I beseech you marke it why the Christians in the Primitive times did not thus proceed against Nero Caligula Dioclesian Iulian the Apostate Valerian and the rest of those monsters Gods plagues to the Church because they wanted force So that by the doctrine of Bellarmine if Christian Kings are once Hereticks by the Pope
thereabouts had beene destroyed who can conceive the sad and bloudy consequences of it The sword would not onely have passed through Westminster London and the Regions about but all the Country and Kingdome should have felt the fury of it yea Children unborne should have beene smothered with the smoake of it When the Sicilians Massacred the French their fury was so great that they did not only not leave one French man among them but ript up all their owne women that were with child by the French that not one droppe of French bloud might remaine among them When that great dissention in Italy and those factious names of Gibilines and Guelphs came up one adhering to the Emperor the other to the Pope When the Gibilines called in a third to assist them promissing their goods they having obteyned the victory fell a Rifling of both without distinction being charged with breach of promise they replyed your selves are Gibilines and shall be safe but your goods are Guelphs I make no question but the English Papists that now complaine of Salomons yoake if ever the French Spanish or Italian should come victoriously among us which God forbid they would find Rehoboams burden all their goods should be English if not they themselves Arch-Bishop Cranmer was not hee burnt though hee recanted My sword saith the Duke of Parma knowes no difference In the troublesome Reigne of King Iohn when the traitorous and rebellious Nobles called in the French and joyned with them against their King You may remember what Vicount Melun troubled in Conscience upon his death bed told the Lords affirming it upon his salvation that Lewes and sixteene Lords had taken an oath that if ever the Crown were set on his head hee would condemne to perpetuall exile and utterly extirpate all their kinred that adhered to him as Traitors to their owne Soveraigne when the proud Spaniards exercised those Tyrannies in the Netherlands they first pretended the maintenance of the Romish Religion yet they spared not to deprive very many Catholikes and Ecclesiasticall persons of their Liberties and priviledges and the chiefest that was executed of the Nobility was that valiant Count Egmund that most zealously was effected to their Religion yet most cruelly tormented examples are infinite but I hasten to the third aggravation Thirdly Simeon and Levi punisht them above their offence nothing is more ordinary in the writings of the Iesuites then this that Hereticks can never bee enough punished One complaines of that bloudy duke of Alva that hee made the Netherlands worse by shewing too much mercy from Spanish mercy Lord deliver us Arist. saith There ought to be a Geometricall proportion betwixt the punishment and the offence lesser offences are not to bee punished with the great censures of the Law Doctor Burges preaching before King Iames relates a story of Pollio's Wife that commanded her Butler to be hanged for breaking of a Glasse The Emperor passing by stayed the execution and said the sight of the Gallowes was enough for such an offence and to prevent the like commanded all glasses to be broken It's Tyranny bloudy cruelty to punish every sinwith death When men exercise great censures for small offences It is as one said to kill a fly upon a mans forehead with a great Beetle The Papists will allow veniall sinnes against God but all are mortall against their Pope There 's no command of the morall Law but they can dispense with it but none of their Ceremoniall Law disobedience to Parents Murders Treasons Treachery Adultery Incest Theft Sacriledge Lying Perjury are all pardoned but nothing against him Let God say they looke to the breach of his owne Law wee will looke to ours Austin put to death 1200. Monks of Bangor because they differed something from him in the Liturgie and service It s a signe of a trifling Age when the fathers of the Church trouble the peace of the Church for trifles when they excommunicate one another for Tything Mint and Comin As the Easterne and Westerne Churches about the keeping of Easter What great offence did Alexander Bishop of Ierusalem and the Bishop of Cesarea commit when they layd their hands upon Origen so highly to offend the Bishop of Alexandria it argues usually bloudy times when easie offences are punisht with death Pope Innocentius in words thundered out against Grosted that good Bishop of Lincolne because he denyed to preferre an Italian Boy commended to him by his Holinesse hee swore he would hurle him to such confusion as to make him a fable a gazing stock and a wonder to the world But hee thundered indeed that casheered one of his Officers because he kept not the legge of a Peacocke blasphemously saying God banisht Adam out of Paradise for an Apple and may not I his Vicar for a Peacocks legge To excommunicate Kings and Princes to interdict kingdomes to raise motions and commotions to send out Crosado's against Christians as against Turkes because in every thing they conforme not to the Pope what greater injustice tyranny and oppression To raise one kingdome against another to give one to another what greater tyranny and cruelty What had our King and State deserved of the Gunpowder-Traitors that they should reward it with so great cruelty They were not put to death as wee were in Queene Maries dayes our State had not erected an Inquisition like that of Spaine It hath beene the constant attestation of our Princes and States that not one Papist hath suffered in the cause of Religion They enjoyed their possessions their liberties their titles of honour they were admitted neare to the Kings person had the protection of our Lawes no violence was offered to them English Papists saith one are more pontificiall then the Spanish or French That is more false treacherous traitorous bloudy and cruell Soe that when the Romish Religion was in place among us there were more invasions and Rebellions then ever since that it became proverbiall of our King and kingdome that our King was the King of devils Now since the puritie of the Gospell among us all Rebellions and Commotions have been of the Popish faction I am sure the conspirators of this day were bloudy Papists One said to Q. Elizabeth commending Seneca's booke of Clemencie and saying it had done her much good yea saith hee but it hath done your subjects much hurt You know not what Powder-Treason may bee hatching in Rome nor what Invincible Armado preparing in Spaine nor what Incarnate Devill and desperately resolved Iesuite with murder in his heart may be lurking in some secret corner of the kingdome I know while the Devill is in hell and the Pope in Rome and the King of Spaine aspiring to bee universall King as the Pope universall Bishop while the Iesuites are suffered in England and the English are reformed there wil not want Plots to confound us all O they are active spirits firy Gunpowder Traitors A French Papist made this Apostrophe to Henry the fourth King of France
the oath one saith the oath is voyd and holds it sinne for a Papist to performe his word to a Protestant I make no wonder that some Papists take the oath I wonder that any refuse it when the Pope can dispense with it and deale with them as hee did with the French King give him leave to take an oath and then promised to dispense with the breaking of it what certainty or security can Kings have when such damnable Tenents are broached in the world that oathes are not to bee kept with Hereticks and they are Heretickes whom the Pope will have so This is the fifth Aggravation Sixtly Simeon and Levi coloured their revenge and crueltie under a cloak and maske of religion Religion ought not to bee a Bond of Iniquitie yet under Religion in the Church of Rome all iniquitie especially Rebellions treasons Perjury Iustifies it selfe They make the cause of Religion to descend to the execrable Acts of the murdering of Princes Butchering of Innocents firing of States no men more pretend and boast of perfection and the holinesse of their meditations then the Iesuites doe yet this Platforme is heathenish Tyrannicall and able to set Aretine Lucian Machiavell and the Devill himselfe to Schoole I want words to expresse that pestilent project of the Popes coloured under a pretence of Religion for the recovery of the holy Land For two hundred yeares together they made the flower and Chivalrie of Christendome to fall by Millions in the foolish Conquest of Ierusalem They sent Christian Princes far from their own kingdomes to invest themselves into them never any Nation so heathenish and barbarous and divelish whose Religion maintained Murder Treason Treacheries Perjuries In every Religion and State have beene some such found but none whose Religion hath maintained them as the Religion of Rome doth Fawkes had nothing to charge the State withall but that Religion prompted him to this Treason When Ravilliac murdered Henry the fourth King of France being tortured to know his incouragers to it he sent them to the Sermons made by the Iesuites in Lent They that read Bellarmine Suarez Eudeman Becanus Emanuell Say shall easily perceive their Religion teaches Rebellion Treason That Act of Iehu in proclaiming a solemne service to Baal and then murdering of them and that of Constantine commanding all his chiefe officers to worship the Idol and then casheering them wants more subtill Patrons to maintaine it then either my Religion or my reason can reach to Religion needs not to bee shrowded under the Cloak of policy That great Diana of Rome they have lifted up to so high a straine that they equall him to God and say there is no appeale from him to God God and he are of one and the same Consistorie He can determine against the Law of Nations against the Law of nature against the Law of God Yea that his power and actions are no way to bee disputed of That is the cause of causes and the just cause of all O I am weary of the Blasphemy and cruelty of the Church of Rome their Blasphemies are so innumerable their tyranny so execrable their cruelty so unsupportable their delusions so heathenish their perjuries so divelish that the like was never in any state Murders Treacheries Treasons are there in their proper place they are no sinnes in Rome or at least but Veniall sinnes easily dispensed with by the Pope rebellions and Treasons Massacring and butchering of Innocents Draco's lawes and Spanish inquisitors insupportable wrath and inveterate rage perjuries and breaking Covenants these are the Religion of the Church of Rome It was once in the English Liturgy King Henry the eighth put it in Queene Mary put it out That we should pray that our Kingdom should bee delivered from sedition tyranny and conspiracy of the Pope wee may doe it still at least in private prayers from the treasons treachery perjury of the Church of Rome from the rage malice and cruelty from the Religion of the Church of Rome from Iesuites and Iesuited Papists Good Lord deliver us And thus I have done with the first Generall the sinne of Iesuites and Iesuited Papists It now onely remaines to speake of the second their censure Their censure shall I smite them my Brethren Iacob you heare would not spare his own sons though in the same house with him though they ate the same bread drank of the same Cup were of the same faith though what they did they did it in revenge of the wrong done to their sister shall we then spare them No I must follow Iacob still O my soule come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour bee not thou united cursed be their anger for it was cruell and their wrath for it was fierce God divide them from the son of our Iacob and scatter them from our English Israel O my soule come not into their secret we must neither with heart nor tongue affection nor action neither in word nor deed no my Brethren not so much as in thought nor look show any countenance to Popish Cruelty their treasons murders perjuries and the rest of that Heathenish cruelty It hath beene the desire of many the endeavour of some to worke a reconciliation betwixt the Church of Rome and us Franciscus de sancta clara whose booke of reconciliation hath been 23. times printed I have read it and I will say of it that the discourse doth more confirme mee that it 's impossible to make a reconciliation betwixt them indeed there may bee such a forme of confession drawn up in termes that both sides may subscribe to but then the termes shall bee so Ambiguous that at the next opening of the sore the skinne being but heal'd over before the breach will be more deadly A Botch is never cured as long as the core remaines excrements will grow on a dead body while the humor lasts Arius presented the Emperor Constantine with such a forme of confession that when the Orthodox read it they conceived it for their side and the Arians for theirs The quarrell betwixt Rome and us is not like Caesar and Pompey which should be chiefe but like that betwixt Rome and Carthage which should not be if Rome prevaile we shall not stand and if we prevaile they should not stay long Bellar. saith plainly the controversie betwixt them and us is whether the Church of God consist or no or be shattered in peeces A learned man of our Church yet very moderate too conceives it impossible that ever there should be reconciliation betwixt them Therefore saith he if these reconcilers were the wisest men under heaven and shold live to the worlds end they would be brought to their wits end before they could accomplish this works end to make a reconciliation betwixt Rome and us you know who printed it long agoe no peace with Rome that King of Preachers so called by the King of Schollers said plainely The Northerne and Southerne Poles may sooner meete in
spirits and steele the resolutions of others whom they set apart to this King-killing service I am sorry for the Christian Name that such damnable positions should bee publisht among heathen nations to the disgrace of Christendome The Apocryphall booke of Iudeth the Pope receives into the Canon it may be for this reason because it commends this Act of Simeon and Levi which Iacob curses There wants not Iesuites to Apologize for and justifie the powder Treason Saint Paul calls the Pope for on him I fastned it this day Twelve month the man of sinne that exalts himselfe above all that is called God some there are that exalt his holinesse above God himselfe but hee himselfe and all that adhere to him exalt him above all that is called God above Kings and Emperours The Pope makes himselfe good sport with the Crownes of Kings Kings and Emperours are his servants and Vassals they hold his Stirrop lead his horse goe before him in a kinde of procession The Pope at his pleasure tramples upon their necks hee crownes and uncrownes them with his foote he makes them waite bare foote at his gate he excommunicates them Armes their subjects against them gives their kingdomes to others discharges their subjects of obedience to them they poyson them at the Sacrament stabbe them in their Coaches murder them in their Courts they make themselves fatte with the bloud of Kings O might those Kings those tenne Kings spoken of in the Revelations 17.16 amongst whom some there are that name the King of England and the King of France to be there spoken of O may they hate the whore make her naked and desolate eate her flesh and burne her with fire Simeon and Levi kill'd a KING that 's the first thing Secondly Simeon and Levi Massacred Innocents it 's a ruled case among the Iesuites where the Catholike cause may be advanc't there the murdering of a few Innocents though hundreds and thousands is not to bee stood upon When Garnet was questioned by Catesby whether with a safe conscience they might proceed with the Powder project because in blowing up the Parliament house they should kill some of their owne Religion he quickly replyed such as this was not to bee stood upon And this Eudemon with great earnestnesse defends and it hath beene the constant practise of the Iesuites to this day I must now lead you into Golgotha a field of dead mens bones a field very ample and large as that to which God brought Ezechiel I am bold to affirme unto you that the tenne persecutions of the Heathen Emperors of Rome never put to death so many nor with that cruelty as the power of the Bishop of Rome Instruments of Cruelty indeed are in their habitations In their anger they kill men ruine Cities Countries nations full of men The heathenish persecution was long and bitter but as for Catholike persecution it is more tedious more bitter more cruell Pope Theodorus Bishop of Rome when the second time he excommunicated Pyrrhus Patriarch of Constantinople he mixed some of the consecrated Cup with Inke wherewith hee wrote the sentence of the curse a new unusuall forme of cursing not heard of before Something the Iesuites have added to former persecutions to make them more bitter and fierce this man of sinne Saint Paul cals the son of perdition and so he is both Active and Passive Genitives put for Adjectives adde to their signification son of perdition because he destroyes most Saint Iohn calls him Apollyon a destroyer He saith they make themselves druncke with the bloud of the Saints To speake of the Murders Massacres Treacheries Cruelties of the Papists it is so large a field that entring into it I know not where to begin nor where to end I could my Brethren show you a Sea of bloud flowing from the Sea of Rome like to the Sea Ezechiel speakes of which was at the first to the Anckles then to the knees then to the loynes deeper and deeper If I should race them by the bloud I should soone tire my selfe and your Attention I spure to relate their horrible cruelties and treacheries against the Albigenses and Waldenses the Cities of Merindoll and Cabriers The History is in English and worth your reading I will not tell you what cruelty they have done in Germany nor speak of that damnable Massacre in France I will not bee your Pilot to waâ—t you unto the Indians where the Christian Romans have kill'd more Pagans then ever Pagans kill'd Christians Onely take notice of one speech the Duke of Alba said who confessed in cold bloud that in sixe yeares government of the Nether-Lands hee had put to death of the reformed Christians meerely in the cause of Religion eighteene thousand in thirtie yeares after the Iesuites rose I find nine hundred thousand Protestants murdered in Christendome in a short time one hundred thousand in France I could desire to enlarge my selfe in declaring of the monstrous cruelty of the Inquisition 'T is a matchlesse Intollerable unsufferable persecution an invention found in hell and used still by hellish furies Give me leave I beseech you to recite one example of our own fellow subjects by that Iudge of the rest Lithgow a Scot having attained King Iames his Letters for his commendation for his safe travell through the world hee passes through the greatest parts of the knowne world amongst Turkes Pagans Infidels Iewes He travelled through Forrests Wildernesses and deserts hee met with theeves and murderers Lions Beares and Tygers yet came off safe But as he passed through Spaine in the Citie of Maligo on a suddaine he was surprised by nine Sergeants who fast grapled him about the throat that he could not speake violently snatched him away carryed him before the Governour who first offered to him as he called it that tyrannicall oath to answer to whatsoever they should aske Him they strip him naked of his cloathes Robb'd him of his money put him into a Dungeon without any light at all with great fetters and shakles on his legges fed him many dayes with a little musty bread and cold water they starved him wounded him In tenne houres he received seaventy severall torments at last all the Lords Inquisitors commanded him to receave Eleaven strangling torments at midnight and to bee burnt body and bones to ashes though they had nothing against him but suspition of Religion contrary to the peace then agreed upon that none should come into the Inquisition And yet after this God wonderfully delivered him hee was brought on his bed to our King wounded and broken who made this relation to the face of Gundimor the Spanish Embassador My Brethren if the monster of this day which was brought to the birth could the Devill have forced it forth O what massacring murdering and butchering of Innocents would there have beene besides the Massacre and murder of the day wherein the King and Queene the Prince the sacred house of Parliament and all that dwelt