Charme from the Almighty that may restore you to an youthfull condition if it may be or else at least provide for your latter end And oh that I had now the Spirit of Lamentation that was once so eloquent in the Prophet Ieremy wherewith he seemes to sing the funerall dirge of Ierusalem in those holy straines of bleeding compassion which are recorded in his Booke of sorrowes for that people Read that holy Booke of his with a serious heart and think upon England and would you not imagine that those miseries of the Jewes were but the type and figure of ours in this Nation scarce a peece that he drawes to hang about that hearse but seemes to be a fit Embleme to set forth unto us the mournefull Estate of our English Common-wealth at this time Lamen 1.1 The solitary widdow wherewith the holy Prophet adornes the frontispeice of that sad Poeme he hath there composed what is it but an apt resemblance of the wretchednesse of England at this time Deprived of the presence and comfort of her politicke Husband The Father of this great Family being chased away from the care of his Houshold and the poore Widdow become a prey to her owne ungracious children of whom she may even cry out as once God of Israel by the Prophet Isa 1.2 I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me When we read there of a great Princesse among the Nations Do we not see the splendour of our former condition whilst the light of the Lords countenance shined upon us and we were the envy and glory of other people And when wee cast our eye upon that Princesse reduced unto servitude and become tributarie doe wee not behold the very Image of that sad exchange of perpetuall and uncomfortable slavery which we have made for our former freedome whilst wee feele Excise Free-quarter a fifth and twentieth part and divers other greedy devourers like so many harpies eating up the flesh and picking the very bores of the poore people whilst wee can finde no reliefe for the present The Lawes whereby our Liberties should be secured and preserved being trampled under foot notwithstanding all the Protestations and Covenants wherein men have bound themselves to preserve both the Nurse and the Child both the Lawes of the Kingdome and the Liberties of the Subject and almost as little hope appearing of any ease or remedy for the future Vers 2. There we find Ierusalem weeping sore in the night when others eyes are safe and aâ—â— rest within their Canopies Here were restlesse fountaines of sorrow but we cannot find any such streames flowing amongst us for the most part and we have cause to weepe the more because we weepe so little whilst these wells are dry we want their water to quench the rage of that devouring flame which is about our eares But though we weepe not as she did we are as comfort lesse as she was may I not complaine for England as well as he for Ierusalem That amongst all her lovers she hath none to comfort her all her friends they at least that pretended to be her greatest her only friends have dealt treacherously with her All their faire promises of safety and Honour and Riches and Libertie and of Religion it selfe have proved but Golden shadowes specious baites with bearded hookes hidden in the midst of them The faire baits are all swallowed up in the confusion that is still more and more upon us and the hooke is only left sticking in our bowels Vers 3. The Lamenter of Israel complaines That Iudah was gone into captivitie and that she was sent to dwell among the heathen and found no rest And we may truly complaine That Captivity is come unto us and hath overtaken us in our owne Land and that the heathen dwell among us even heathen Christians which are the worst heathens in the world How many are there amongst us that are heathens in judgement 〈◊〉 That hold and professe the very Doctrines of the heathens That have denied the Lord that bought them That have accounted the preaching of the Gospell foolishnesse That have set up the Dagon of their corrupt and carnall reason in opposition to the holy Arke of God Casting downe the glorious and sacred Truths of Christianity tevealed from heaven clearly recorded in the holy Booke of God and confirmed by the abundant Testimony of God himselfe in many wonderfull and holy miracles and delivered unto us from the best and soundest antiquity even the holy Doctrines of the Divinity of the Son of God and of the holy Ghost The very fundamentall Points upon which all the building of Christianity doth depend and is supporred and in the contradiction whereof that whole frame falls to the ground Casting downe I say these Sacred and awfull Truths to set up the Idols of their depraved ratiocinations in the place thereof And how many more heathens in practice are there amongst us yea even Atheists that are worse than heathens the whole course of whose lives is a current Lecture of Atheisme every Action whereof deth as it were speake blasphemy and saies there is no God no Supreame Power that governeth ruleth the world none to punish Injustice Deceite Rebellion Oppression Uncleannesse nor any wickednesse none to call men to account for their actions And what rest can poore Christians take in such miscreant Society The persecuters of Iudah overtooâ—e her between the straites so mournes the holy Prophet for that Nation That is to say they got such power over her such advantage against her that there was no way left for escaping like as when an enemy overtaketh a man in the pursuit of vengeance in a narrow place where there is no space to avoid or flye from the stroke of his fury Put but England for Iudah and the Persecutors and the straites are at home with us They whose mouthes were full heretofore of the clamours against persecution for little else perhaps but because they were not flattered promoted for their factious and seditious practises have now sanctified the name and Office of Persecutors whilst they thinke they doe God service to starve their brethren and fellow-subjects I feare our Saviours Prayer will not serve their turne Father forgive them for they know not what they doe But yet I wish we may all joine to offer up Saint Stephens Prayer for them Lord lay not this sinne to their charge And for our selves Lord lay not this charge for ever upon our sinnes but rid us from them that persecute us and deliver us Yea let us from our hearts pray as the Church of England hath taught us if we may have leave of an Ordinance and Directory That it may please thee to forgive our enemies persecuters and slanderers and to turne their hearts We beseech thee to heare us good Lord. Varse 4. Did the wayer of Sion mourne being left desolate as it were for want of the cheerfull society of passengers to the House of
from our Services Schisme and Faction hath broken the bonds of holy Communion amongst the people in the Church envy and malice hath set us on fire against one another Pride and Vanity hath still the dominion over us Usury and Sacrilege are established by Law amongst us unjust gaine is taken for godlinesse Perjury is used for Wisedome and Policy Our hearts are estranged from thee and from heavenly things and set upon the vanities of this present world and the sinfull pleasures of the Flesh and all these Mischiefes and Corruptions are bred in the womb and nourished in the lap of that spirituall ignorance and blindnesse that is in us Thou ô Lord our God hast a Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land because there is no Truth nor Mercy nor Knowledge of God in the Land by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing Adultery they break out and bloud toucheth bloud hence it is ô Lord that thou continuest still to plead with us in judgement and that thy hand is stretched out still Hence it is that thou still withholdest peace from us that thou hast stopped the Current of thy favour towards us and hast delivered us up into the hands of our Enemies Lord we acknowledge that thou art just in this and all thy dealing with us Yea O Lord we acknowledge thou art mercifull therein unto us that thou hast not long agoe given us up to a totall ruine and desolation and suffered us at once to have beene devoured by our enemies Thou hast not dealt with us O Lord after our sinnes but hast punished us lesse then we have deserved and hast sweetned thy Corrections with many blessings which thou hast yet continued unto us in that thou hast preserved us a remnant and hast yet given us our lives for a prey in that thou hast preserved unto so many of us our Liberties and enlarged thy selfe unto us in the supplyes of thy providence in the respite of thy judgements and hopes of further mercies O Lord our God wee beseech thee pardon and forgive us all those grievous and horrid offences which have exposed us to thy great and heavie judgements and made us unworthy of thy mercies Breake our Hearts with true and heartie sorrow and contrition for them all wash and cleanse us from them with the precious bloud of thy deare Son let the cry of that bloud which speaketh better things then the bloud of Abel drown the cry of all our iniquities that they may not incense thine anger any more against us Cloath us wee beseech thee with the Garment of thy Sons Righteousnesse that our Iniquities may not appeare before thee turne us O good Lord and so shall wee bee turned convert us and wee shall bee converted Helpe us all wee beseech thee to renew our Covenant of Obedience unto thee that thou maist renew thy Covenant of Mercy towards us Oh let us now at this very time break all the bonds of Corruption in our soules that we may not from henceforth allow our selves in any sinne raise up our Affections to thee our God and sanctifie us unto thee by thy Holy Spirit that thy Service and thy Glorie may bee precious unto us that our lives and safety may be precious unto thee Let Swearing and Blasphemie bee turned into Praiers and Praises unto thee our God Uncleanenesse and Intemperance into Sobriety and Chastity Violence and Injustice into Righteousnesse and Honesty Prophanenesse into Pietie Disobedience into Loyaltie Crueltie and Murder into Mercy and Compassion Pride into Humility Idolatrie and Superstition into Puritie and Worship Schisme and Faction into Unity and Concord Let Hypocrisie be changed into Sincerity and desire of Vaine-Glorie into an earnest seeking of thy Glorie let Malice and Emulation and Strife bee turned into the holy Flames of Brotherly Love and Christian Affection let the sordid love of the World and the impure flames of fleshly Desires bee turned into the holy Fires of Divine Love toward thee our God and to things that are above where Christ Jesus sitteth at thy right hand Let not Usurie nor Sacrilege nor Perjurie nor any other horrid Iniquities curse this Land of ours any more And that all these happie Changes may be wrought in us let the grosse blindnesse of our mindes be healed by the precious eye-salve of thy holy Spirit and thy heavenly light that so thou being reconciled unto us our warres may bee turned into an holy well-grounded and lasting peace our Confusion into Order and Beauty our sadnesse and discontent into joy and chearefulnesse that thine Anointed may be restored unto his power and Majesty to rule thy people according to thy will that all our Calamities may bee redressed thy Judgements removed thy blessings restored continued and encreased unto us And that the glorious light of thy Gospell may be more and more resplendent amongst us to guid us in thy waies and in the purity of thy worship O Lord according to all thy righteousnesse which is thy mercy we beseech thee let thine anger cease from ns for we are not able to beare thine indignation O let thy fury be turned away from this Nation which hath been heretofore thy holy mountaine Because for our sins and the iniquities of our fathers we are become a reproach unto those that are round about us now therefore oh our God heare the prayer of thy servants and their supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate for the Lords sake O our God incline thine eare and heare open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the people that are called by thy name for we do not present our Suplications before thee for our righteousnesse but for thy great mercies O Lord heare O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do deferre not for thine owne sake oh our God for thy people are called by thy name oh let the sentence of mercy come forth now from thy presence and call in those Commissions of vengeance and indignation which thou hast given forth against us oh make us to heare the voice of joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Oh comfort us againe now after the time that thou hast plagued us and for the yeares wherein we have suffered adversity shew thy servants thy work and their children thy glory and let the glorious Majesty of the Lord our God be upon us Oh take off the indignation of thine anger from the King and from the Priest and from all the people of the Land let the Magistrates rule in righteousnesse the Ministers guide in holinesse all the Members of this Nation live peaceably and religiously and honesty in their vocations keeping themselves within those bounds and limits of their callings which are proper unto them Let them study to be quiet and to do their owne businesse and keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace teach them to feare the Lord and the King and not to meddle with
thee thy gracious Promises in Christ and the Merits of thy Sonne whereby thou hast engaged thy selfe that what we aske in his Name we shall receive Thou hast opened unto us a gate of mercy in him he hath purchased a Pardon for us with his owne Bloud He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and thou hast opened in him a fountaine of Grace to sanctifie our natures and reforme our sins That the clouds may be removed and thy light and grace may shine upon us We desire therefore to relinquish our selves to disclaime our selves and to come unto thee in and by Christ Jesus beseeching thee for his sake to save our poore sinfull Nations O deale not with us after our iniquities but according to the greatnesse of thy mercy thinke thou upon us O Lord for thy goodnes O Lord forgive our great and horrid offences that have provoked thy wrath against us O cleanse our filthy and polluted soules rinse us in those Rivers that flowed from thy Son in the Garden and upon the Crosse Perfume us with thy holinesse Adorne us and sanctifie us with the graces of thy spirit Give us cleane hearts and pure affections and holy and Christian lives and Conversations O Lord forgive us that thou mayest reforme us and reforme us that thou mayest heale us O grant us broken and contrite hearts humbled spirits and melting souls that we may mourne for our sins past Grant us those Spirituall groanes and sighs that may pierce even into thy Bowels by the Merits and Mediation of Christ Jesus that they may be moved in compassion toward us Grant us cleane soules and renewed consciences that we may speedily and heartily forsake all our wicked sinfull and abominable courses whereby we have enflamed thee our gracious God against our selves our King and People Rouze us up from our carnall security that we may seek speedily and earnestly unto thee our God who for our sins art justly displeased O be gracious be gracious unto us be favourable O Lord be favourable unto thy people and let us not be brought to confusion give us not up to destruction and desolation for the Lords sake Call back thy Judgements and Plagues that thou hast sent forth against us The Pestilence and the Dearth and the devouring Sword that hath so long drunke up the bloud of the people Call backe that spirit of corruption and confusion of division and distraction that hath beone sent forth into these Lands and make up a happy union and peace amongst us for the Lord Jesus his sake Call backe that spirit of rebellion and oppression of cruelty and rapin that hath seized upon the hearts of so many of this Nation and reduce them into the waies of obedience and righteousnesse Send forth the spirit of truth of peace of righteousnesse of mercy of loyalty and obedience into all our hearts that we may be restored to a happy and prosperous condition Lord restore the King and deliver him Lord preserve his Queene Children and Family Lord have pitty upon His distressed People upon the Prisoners and the outcasts and the poore persecuted Subjects of this Land and deliver them from the fury and the cruelty of their Adversaries Lord direct guide sanctifie and prosper all the Loyall Armies and those faithfull people that are engaged in the cause of thine Annointed and his people let not their sins nor our sins stand between thy mercy and them or us Lord be mercifull to our Enemies make their hearts to relent forgive them and convert them and preserve them if it be thy blessed will reconcile us all to thee that we may be reconciled to one another Or if they shall still continue in their wickednesse Lord suffer them not to prosper therein suffer them to prevaile no more against thy Substitute and thine Ordinance to oppresse no more to kill and murder thy poore People no more but bring them downe O Lord we beseech thee for thine infinite mercies sake O Lord heare us O Lord help us O Lord relieve and succour us O deliver us and be mercifull to our sinnes for thy Son Christ Jesus his sake to whom with thee and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen A short Prayer to be used upon the undertaking of any just designe or enterprize for peace O Lord I blesse thy holy name for that good motion which thou hast put into our hearts for the procurement of peace unto these Nations I confesse O Lord I am not worthy to be an instrument of so great a blessing neither is there any strength or wisdome in me thy poore Creature that I should be able to mannage so excellent a worke but thou art the God that pardonest sins And art pleased to make use of weake and worthlesse meanes that the glory may be so much the more thine I beseech thee be thou glorified in us thy Servants pardon our sins heale our infirmities supply us with wisdome and thy strength and assist us by thy spirit make us to set up thy glory before us and sincerely to seeke the good of thy Church and people Shew us the waies that are conducible thereunto and conduct us and speed us therein and give a happy issue thereunto to the glory of thy Name to the comfort of thine Annointed and all his People to the furtherance of thy Gospell and to the good of me and mine c. and of these whole Nations through Jesus Christ our Lord. A Prayer for the restoring of an happy and setled Government in this Nation O Lord God who rulest and governest all things by thy Son Christ Jesus and hast ordained Magistracy and the power of Government amongst men as a ray or branch of that supreme authority in Christ Jesus to be the guardian under thee of peace and righteousnesse among thy people The foundation of humane society The Pillar of the world The shield of thy people and of all the blessings that they enjoy And of all other Governments hast most approved in thy holy Word of that excellent forme of royall Monarchy as that which is the most lively Image of thy rule and the most fruitfull Channell of safety and peace and felicity unto a people Weblesse and magnifie thy holy Name for this thy great and holy Ordinance whereby thou hast so provided for the fecurity and preservation of thy poore Creatures And more particularly we blesse thy holy Name for that comfortable portion which thou hast given unto this Nation heretofore in this thy blessing and in the benefits thereof in setting over us Kings and Princes to take the charge of the Government of this Land whereby thou hast been pleased for so long a time to preserve this Nation of ours in peace and plenty and prosperity and happinesse We confesse O Lord that there never was any the least merit in us that could challenge the least part unto us of so great a blessing whilst we
to one another That we may be one as thou art one Unite our judgements in the harmony of thy truth and unite our affections in the sympathy of thy love Take away the spirit of discord from amongst us and put thy spirit of love and amity into our hearts that we may keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace That as there is one body and one spirit and as we are called in one hope of our Calling as there is one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all those that are true Christians so we may be by that one spirit united and compacted in that one body joyned together in that one hope unanimously subjected unto that one Lord That we may perfectly consent in that one Faith be quickned together by that one Baptisme That we may be the united children of thee that one God and Father of all that thou who art above us all by thy glory and greatnesse and through us all by thy divine power and efficacy mayest be in us all by thy heavenly grace and by thy spirituall life and saving consolations Raine downe the coelestiall dewes and the cooling showers of thy blessing upon our scorched and inflamed soules that may quench those hellish fires and unsanctified heates of envy and wrath and malice and fury of emulation and strife and debate and misguided zeal which have burnt asunder the bonds of amity amongst us And enkindle the holy flames of divine love and fervent devotion towards thee and of Christian charity and brotherly affection to one another in our hearts that we may put on at the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any man hath a quarrell against another even as Christ hath forgiven us And above all these things that we may put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse that so speaking the truth in love we may grow up together into him in all things which is the Head even Christ Give us the grace of self-denyall that we may not seeke our owne but every man anothers welfare Breake off our hearts from our private interests and give us publike spirits that we may all labour for the common good and be ready to sacrifice all our particular advantages in the things of this world unto thee our God for the procurement and maintenance of the publike peace and preservation Deliver us from the slavery of those earthly affections which divide us from thee and from one another and give us heavenly minds which will unite us unto one another in thee our heavenly Father Unite us under one rule of sound Doctrine and pure and orderly Worship in the Church That all siding and partiality and contradiction and admiring of mens persons because of advantage and all tyrannizing over mens consciences may be wholly banished that we may seek after the things that make for peace and wherewith one may edifie another Teach them that are strong to beare the infirmities of the weake and not to despise them nor to offend them but to be render over them as over the poor feeble members of the same body and as over the little children and spirituall infants in thy Family Teach them that are weake not to judge those that are strong but to labour to attaine unto strength with them Let not them that are wise contemne the simple nor those that are simple envy those that are wise Let not him that standeth trample upon him that is fallen but endeavour to raise him up in the spirit of meeknesse considering that he also may be tempted Nor let him that is fallen reject the help of him that standeth but receive it thankfully that he may be restored by it Teach them that are in high estate not to scorne or to oppresse the brother of low degree And them that are in a low estate to be content with their condition and not to emulate or behave themselves proudly against these that are honourable Suffer not the rich to despise the poore knowing that that is to reproach their Maker but rather make them willing to relieve them Nor suffer the poore to murmure against those that are rich nor let their eye be evill because thou art good Let not the subject intrude into the Office of the Magistrate nor the inferiour Officer into the station of the superiour But keep every member of this Church and State within those bounds and limits which thou hast set them make them to study to be quiet and to doe their owne businesse Make us all to be like affectioned one toward another To weep with them that weep and rejoyce with them that rejoyce To remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that are in adversity as being our selves also in the body And that the disjoynted bones of this distracted State may be set againe by thy goodnesse O Lord reduce us all under obedience to thine Anointed our gracious and pious Soveraigne Under one righteous and just Law and government Banish from amongst us all war and bloudshed and sedition and consusion Suffer us no longer to be the devourers of one another but rather make us ready to lay downe our lives for one another That so all our unhappy divisions and differences being composed we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all holinesse and honesty And let the peace of God rule in our hearts to which me are called in one body through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the members of the HOUSES and of the ARMY O Most glorious God who by the precept and example of thy deare Sonne hast taught us to pray for our enemies oppressours and persecutors We heartily beseech thee looke downe in thy mercy upon the sad and wretched condition of those Members of the Houses of Parliament and the Army who have thus long gone astray from thee and have through thy just judgement upon us for our sinnes been the instruments of injustice and oppression unto the people of this Nation Lord we know there hath nothing befallen us by them but what thou in the counsell of thy divine wisdome hast fore-appointed and ordained for us and is farre lesse then our sinnes have deserved from thee and thou hast assured us that all things shall worke together for the good of those that love thee our God It is not therefore for us O Lord our God to murmure against thy will or to resist thy good pleasure but to acknow ledge thy justice and admire thy mercy in that thou hast been pleased to correct us so gently and to punish us so farre lesse than our deservings Neither dare we to fall into any furious or revengefull thoughts against our adversaries although they have been thus cruell unto us But as thy sonne hath taught us so we desire to
a great cause in this very thing of those judgements which God hath sent upon us whilst the overmuch imperiousnesse of some and the too much disorderlinesse and ungovernablenesse in others have intrenched it may be feared so farre upon that Christian temper which should be found especially amongst the Ministery as to render their quarrels too liable unto such a Character as was once given upon the contention of two great men in this Kingdome to this purpose as neere as my fraile memory doth serve me Gaufridus Hugo magno cum scandalo inter se concertarunt hic ut praesset ille ne subesset neuter ut prodesset Geffry and Hugh Are fallen in two Bout what thinke you He strives to raigne This subjection disdaines Neither cares for the Churches gaine An happy condescention in this particular would not only be a meanes to set the things of the Church in the rightest and safest way but also to revive the dying flames of Christian love and charity which should have their vigour in the Ministry above all other men and withall to stop the mouthes and and take away the occasions of the haters of all order that seek occasions and to keepe up Christianity amonst us which is too visibly stealing away from us at those gaps and breaches which our contentions have made and above all others those which are most ours and indeed the great fountaine of others The contentions of the Ministry However it be we see clearly enough that the power of Ordination is not at all placed in the people by the determination of the Apostle If there be any part theirs in this holy businesse it is that they may be present at these publique performances as witnesses not as judges and that they may have liberty to speake freely and with such modesty and reverence as befits them if they know any just and certaine cause why such as are to be admitted into these sacred offices should not bee invested thereunto But nothing will serve the turne in these daies of ours unlesse all order be cast out of the Church to make roome for that excellent piece of confusion which men are now pleased to call a Reformation A Reformation that hath put too much colour of truth upon that Sarcasme which I once heard fall from a foule mouth against the Protestant Churches Eglise reformee est deformee The reformed Church is the deformed Church I am sure they that have gone about to make such a jumble of holy things and profane together and to take away the distinction of the Ministery and People in this Nation have done so much to justifie it as I can scarce tell what one thing the Adversaries could have asked of them or hired them to have done more for the asserting of their Calumnies against the Church of England Of whom we may too justly complaine as Tertullian doth of the Hereticke in his time Simplicitatem volunt esse prostrationem disciplina cujus penes nos curam lenocinium vocant pacem quoque possim cum omnibus miscent nihil interest illis licet diversa tractantibus dum ad unius veritatis expugnationem conspirant With these men the overthrow of Discipline is reckoned for simplicity and to take any care thereof is accounted wantonnesse whatever difference of opinions there is amongst them as there is very much yet they can agree well enough with any so that they may conspire together against the truth They are all swollen with pride and selfe conceit and like unskilful Empericks or Mountebankes in Religion they all promise much knowledge in their Bills whilst for the most part there is nothing but ignorance in their Boxes Indeed that that followeth hath too much order in it for them Ordinationes corumtemeraria leves inconstantes nunc neophytos collocant nunc saeculo obstrictos nunc Apostatas nostros ut gloriâ eos obligent quia veritate nonpossunt Their Ordinations saith he are temerarious light and inconstant sometimes they place Novices in the Ministry sometimes secular men sometimes those that are Apostata's from us that they may oblige them with glory and preferment unto them whom they cannot with the truth Should we not spend all our breath in sights and all our moysture in teares to thinke on it that our Age should be found of such transcendent perversenesse and irregularity that the very disorders of former times would be a kind of desireable Discipline to us This is a great evill a wombe bigge with a multitude of mischiefes A nest of Serpents A very fountaine of poyson A great gate of corruption and distraction A Pandora's Boxe full of Pestilences and infections A blazing Comet that threatens destruction to all truth and righteousnesse And I beseech God it prove not the very passing-Bell of Christianity in this Nation and the forerunner of Tureisme and heathenisme to make way for their entrance into the inheritance of the Lord. And now we need not thinke it strange though we must not forget it as another deplorable degree of our present miseries that they whose piety it is to rob the Church of the Ministry make no scruple at all of Robbing her and the Ministry both of their revenues and supportance Indeed there might seeme to bee a kind of justice in it that when such unskilfull fumblers have undertaken the worke and ravished it out of those hands whom God and the Church hath filled therewith as the Hebrew phrase of consecration to the holy Function may imply for in that Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fill their hand signifies to consecrate the Priests or holy Officers in the Church and may well intimate that they that are best furnished and most authentically and orderly admitted unto that worke have their hands full of that great businesse and therefore should not have their hands left empty of supplies and encouragements But since they have put that worke into such hands as they have they may seeme to observe a kind of justice in their wickednesse in leaving them no better wages then they are like to earne but the compliance of impieties is no harmony in the eares of God or of good men The uniformity of iniquities is but beautifull uglinesse neither can the issue bee legitimate however equal or consenting the contract be between those actions or designes that are of any kindred in that bloud therefore we cannot but looke upon it as another horrid declination of this Church from the happy state and condition that it hath been formerly in that those revenues which were heretofore dedicated and consecrated to the maintenance of Divine Service should be now accounted the wages of Rebellion and as if God himselfe were a malignant that his peculium the portion of his house and worship should not only be Sequestred but wholly alienated from him as if it were the lawfull prize of those whose usurped power greatnesse knowes no limits either in heaven or earth But it is too too cleare an
evidence that they have fought against God that make his Sacred Portion the spoile of their victory for Conquerours if I mistake not do not usually make a prey of their friends but of their enemies and then the plundering of Gods house is no good marke of an holy Warre nor the confirmation thereof by Law any good Symptome of an holy state But they will say perhaps that these Lands and emoluments though they weare the title of Gods Interest yet they were dedicated to superstitious purposes The blind and foolish zeale of our Ancestours had so eaten up their braines that they had not wit enough to keep their owne these things were gotten from them by evill Arts and false pretences upon erroneous and hereticall considerations of no truth nor value such as are those two great cheates and impostures of the Church of Rome Purgatory and Merit and as they were gotten per malas artes by evill arts so they were dedicated to evill and superstitious uses as to the maintenance of that Romish Dagon of the Masse Prayer for the dead worshipping of Saints adoration of Images for the supportance of a false Priesthood and Sacrifice set up in opposition to and derogation of the Priesthood and Sacrifice of Christ for the adornation of the Temples of Idols and for the holding up of many superstitious orders and distinctions of idle Monks and Friers c. And the fruits and effects thereof have been not much better even none other but the Pride Luxury Sloath Tyranny Covetousnes and many other mischiefes in the Ministry the devouring of Families and impoverishing of the Civill State with the reducing of Judaisme amongst us in Tithes and Offerings which were indeed things proper and peculiar as they boldly affirme unto the Jewish Oeconomy and administration of the old Testament as was also the difference between things Sacred and Profane which to bring in or continue in the time of the Gospell were to deny the comming of Christ and to make void the fruit thereof unto the people to countenance the Jew in his expecting yet another Messiah and to raise up the Spirit of Bondage againe in putting that intollerable Yoke of ceremonies laid upon the necks of Christs Disciples which neither they nor their fathers were able to beare These and such as these are the pleas and colours that must paint over this Strumpet of Sacrilege and turne the Robbery of God into a pious Reformation yea we must be perswaded hereby that Sacrilege was but a Jewish sinne and that there is no such thing at all in the Christian Church or if there be any thing alive now under that name it is not a vice but an eminent vertue Oh the pernicious bewitching Sophistry of Covetousnesse Sad and dangerous is the condition hard and hazzardous the warfare of those truths which are to fight against the Militia of Mammon in this age when once the hearts of men have set up that great IDOL-GAINE into the place of God and put profit for Godlinesse what verity is so awfull but will passe away in their Market What sinne so deformed but shall finde a vaile in their Wardrobe under which it shall be counted as a piece of innocency nay as a point of wisedome and piety What iron wickednesse so hard or unconcoctable but the fiery stomacks of these O striches will digest it and put it over But if there be no such sin as Sacrilege in the time of the Gospell why doth Saint Paul aske that impertinent question Rom. 2.9 Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege Why doth the Apostle wrong this vertue so much as to yoke it together with Idolatry as if they were sins of the like nature to rob God of that which is devoted and due unto his worship and honour and to give that which is Gods due unto another Or why did God himselfe provide so ready an Executioner to execute that dreadfull sentence of Saint Peter upon those two Sacrilegists Ananias and Saphira by cutting them both off by a strange sudden and exemplary death Act. 5.5 c. For but keeping backe some part of the price of that Land which they sold and pretended to offer up at the Apostles feet Or how I beseech you comes it to passe that Christ is become such an Alien amongst us as not to be allowed capable of a donation or inheritance Or how is it that he hath forfeited his Interest Were the Jewes thinke you true witnesses against him That he was a perverter of the Nation a teacher of Sedition forbiding men to pay Tribute unto Caesar that he was a Traitour in making himselfe a King Or if they were surely these are such vertues now that they might rather according to the Doctrine and practice of this Age give him a title too more rather then forfeit any of his peculiars Or have men a freedome and libertie to bestow their Lands and their Goods at their pleasure upon the devill in Luxury and Pride and Lust and Cruelty and in the support of that hellish traine of costly sins which are the glory of our times And is it only unlawfull or a void act for men to give any thing to the Service of God It is our honour and Gods great goodnesse that he is pleased to stand in need of us not in himselfe he cannot for as we receive all from him so in that respect we may say unto him in some sort as he unto the Emperour Nec tua fortuna pardon the word desiderat remunerandi vicem nec nostra suggerit restituendi potestatem The state of all-sufficiency in him doth neither require any remuneration nor the state of indigency and poverty in us suggest unto us any power of restitution but we must still cry out in all our offerings to God in the voice of holy David 1 Chron. 29.11 c. All that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine who are we that we should be able to offer c. For all things come of thee and of thine owne have we given thee But yet it is the honour he is pleased to do unto us his poore Creatures to send unto us by his Servants in the state of his Exaltation as he did once by his Apostles in the state of his humiliation with a dominus opus habet The Lord hath need of us he is pleased to stand in need of us in his Members in his Ministers in his House and in his Service which as he hath ordained for us so he lookes they should be maintained by us If then God hath need of us and is capable to receive from us and we not at all forbidden but most highly obliged to give unto him shall not those Vowes be as Sacred in the time of the Gospell whereby such gifts are conferred and solemnly dedicated unto the Worship and Service of God as ever they were in the time of the Law Is it not as reasonable that our Ministry should have a
and more excellently conducing to the Salvation of the people and requires at least as much diligence and labour in the Ministers thereof it ought therefore to have at least as large nay a more large and a more comfortable supportance And it is not nor can be so comfortable unlesse it be certaine and setled for no man can deny but there is more comfort in an assured and setled allowance than in that which is onely at pleasure or else why should any man give more for a lease for life or yeares than for a tenancy at will And therefore though in the time of the first rudiments of the Gospell the Church could not upon the suddaine attaine unto such a settlement partly for want of the Christian Magistrate and partly by reason of the afflictive condition of the Church which in those times required and produced a kinde of community amongst those that were throughly establisht in Christianity who brought all as it seemes to the Apostles feet and partly for feare of offending those that were not yet established lest they should be frighted by worldly respects from the embracement of the Gospell Yet where the Gospell is setled and established by the authority of the Magistrate it is most requisite that there should be as a liberall so a certaine and setled allowance unto the Ministerie not onely for their encouragement in the manage of that great charge that they have upon them but also to free them from manifold temptations and snares that tye in the dependance upon the voluntary and uncertaine supplies of the people For first in such a case of uncertainty the Minister cannot likely but be much confounded in the disposing and proportioning of his expences and provisions his Revenues being still upon uncertainties and not onely alterable but quite extinguishable upon every dislike of the people The consequences whereof are like to be not only disturbance of mind and distraction but also a great impediment unto the exercise of his Hospitality and Charity since he can scarce possibly tell how to regulate it For hee that knoweth not what he hath cannot know what he can spare If any shall here reply that the Minister is to depend upon Gods Providence I answer that is the duty of every Christian as well as the Minister and yet it is not held at all unlawfull for the workman to agree before hand for his wages Nor doe those that presse this either hold it or practice it as a Duty to leave it to the wills of their tenants and so to the providence of God moving them what Rents they shall receive from their lands for their supportance The Ministerie of the Jewes was equally bound to depend upon Gods providence with the Ministery of the Gospell and had as cleare promises for temporall things as we and yet the Lord was pleased to provide against temptation by allowing them a certaine proportion But then secondly Thereby the Minister is too dangerously exposed unto the desire to please men and to preach placentia to play that tune that they are pleased to dance left he be turned away without his reward Thirdly it is a meanes to discourage the Minister in the reproofe of sinne when hee knowes that he may not onely lose the Peoples favour but their supply too when by such a course the people are made as it were his Judges and enabled to censure and mulct him whensoever hee doth not humour them Fourthly it is likely to occasion many temptations to discontent and partialities of affection between the Ministers and people as they shall increase or decrease afford or take away their Contributions Fiftly experience teacheth us that this hath beene too fruitfull a nursery of Schismes and Factions and Divisions in the Church As wee may see too clearely in the Divisions of these times which are sufficiently knowne to bee set a foot much more by those if not altogether by those who have had their dependency upon the voluntary supplyes of the people than by others of the Ministery Sixtly this would bee too much encouragement for wicked men to go on in open and scandalous iniquities when they know that they have the command of such a key unto the Ministers mouth c. I confesse we nor they should not yeeld unto any of these nor unto any other temptations But in the regulating and ordering of the publick matters of a Church it is a point of Christian wisedome to provide as much as may be against sinne by setling all things in the safest way against temptations and humane weaknesses on all sides And this is done herein by a setled and competent allowance to the Ministerie And though I confesse there may bee some doubt made whether that very precise proportion of the tenth part be absolutely necessarie in simple and primary consideration now under the time of the Gospell as under the time of the Law Yet first I know no Arguments that they have against it to prove the contrary The best that they can doe I concerne is but to infuse some doubt and ambiguity into the matter and then in a Question of Title between God and us it is much safer for us to yeeld than to stand to the hazzard of a triall with God at the last day when wee should have nothing left to make restitution with but our soules and the forfeiture may be out eternall damnation All the over-plus that is paid unto God God will assuredly restore if we doe it with a Christian heart But if wee hold back any thing that is his due it may be purchas'd to us at too dare a rate both in judgments here as is often seen and the eminent and notable stories collected by Sir Henry Spelman and his sonne Master Clement Spelman and others of Gods revenge against Sacrilege may informe us and if we take not heed in greater judgments hereafter And then secondly it may be some presumption for any to undertake to finde out a wiser way than God himselfe found out as was this way of tithing unto the Ministerie whereby God provided excellently both for the Ministerie and the People 1. For the Ministerie that they should bee free from that enslaving dependance upon the people and yet still learne to live upon the Providence of the Almighty according whereunto their revenue and supportance was measured forth unto them every yeare and that thereby the Minister might bee continually put in minde of his duty and charge over the people from whose hands hee received his supportance 2. For the people who were thereby first secured that their allowance unto the Minister besides their voluntary offerings should bee no more than such as should bear a competent proportion to their commings in since in this course the allowance of the Ministers or Priests increased and decreased according to the increase and decrease of their Estate and commings in And withall the people were hereby continually urged to remember the fountaine of their
take the rules of Iustice and Piety from him Since there must be yet more Warre remember this Bethinke your selves of your former sins and forsake them Enter into a true and a holy Covenant with God you cannot thinke I meane the solemne League and Covenant but enter into a Covenant of righteousnesse of holinesse and obedience with God dedicate and cōsecrate your selves unto him and then the Lord will be with you Be carefull to feare God as well as honour the King yea let the feare of God be the bond of your obedience to his Annointed else it is worth nothing we must submit to the King for the Lords sake and then we must needs submit to the Lord for his owne sake If you be Traytors to your God you will be likewise to your King You know my meaning your impieties and vile courses have betrayed him once already I speake not of you all no God forbid I should wrong that happy combination of Loyalty and Religion that hath shined in so many of you so gloriously I acknowledge it I honor it I rejoyce to think of it I could even kisse the dust of their feet But let me beseech them to encrease more and more And for others I beseech them to take better Courses I beseech them for their owne sake for their soules sake for their lives sake for their distressed and pious Kings sake for their Countries sake for the poore tottered and forsaken Churches sake yea for Gods sake If beseeching will not do But oh that it would If not I must take the boldnesse to require them to command them in the name of God The great and glorious and terrible Lord God In the name of Christ Iesus we have power to do it In that name at which the Devils tremble To conjure them As they will answer at the dreadfull day of judgement for all the misery that may befall their King The ruine and destruction that may yet farther befall their Country for the dishonour of righteousnesse and the miscarriage of that holy Cause which they have to mannage for the reproach of Religion and the Truth and the countenance of wickednesse and falshood and the utter devastation of this Church which may follow upon it That they give themselves to Humiliation and Repentance and to the practice of faithfull and earnest Prayer and Supplication to God The God of heaven worke it upon you all and make this poore and plaine but very friendly advise acceptable unto you my deare friends and Brethren and fellow sufferers that you may receive it as a message sent unto you from God for your good I might say much more and multiply arguments but I must not There remaineth yet one thing to make my building answerable to my platforme to speake some few words of direction for the right performance of these workes and I have done they must be but a few the Lord supply what shall be wanting 1. In generall to all 1. Let us all set upon a serious search and triall of our hearts and waies according to that advice of the Prophet in the like case Lam. 3.39 40. Let us take the survey of our former thoughts of our Words and of our Actions Of the substance of the circumstances and aggravations of our sins of our omissions commissions and repetitions of the same sins Of our failings in the end of our obedience in not ayming at Gods glory in our performances but rather sacrificing to our owne glory and to our worldly and wicked purposes which hath polluted our best Actions Of our failing in the rule of obedience In the matter and in the manner and in the measure c. Let us examine our selves and judge our selves not by the customes of the world nor by the opinions of men nor by the humours of the times nor by the corrupt imaginations and partiall affections of our own hearts But setting our selves before the tribunall and at the Barre of our Consciences as before the tribunall of God Let us sift our selves by the Law of God and consider wherein we have failed either in matter of piety towards God or in matter of Iustice and charity to one another or in matter of Sobriety and Purity and Chastity in our selves Trying our soules and putting Interrogatories to our consciences how we have lived in respect of every severall Commandement And when we have found out our sins let us condemne and judge our selves for them acknowledging them unto God with compunction of Spirit considering what a glorious and powerfull and what a gratious and mercifull God we have offended What a tender Saviour we have dishonoured what a holy Law we have transgressed what precious soules we have endangered what a glorious inheritance we have forfeited what horrour of hell and eternall damnation we have deserved what reproach we have brought upon the name of Christ and upon the profession of the Gospell and what ruine and destruction we have provoked hereby upon our selves and others upon the King the Church and the Commonwealth c. Secondly Let this set us upon a loathing of sin and of our silves for sin after the patterne of holy Iob. Iob 42.6 Thirdly Let this put us upon our slight from sin And upon the pursuit of righteousnesse Seeking unto God for pardon for what is past with hope in his mercy toward us in Christ Iesus and imploring the gracious assistance of his holy spirit for the time to come that we may be able to resist sinne and to cleave unto him in holinesse Fourthly Let us set our selves upon the diligent and conscionable use of the meanes of grace in reading the Scriptures and meditating frequently on them Hearing the word with reverence and godly feare examining all our thoughts words and actions thereby keeping this resolution as an unreversible fixed Law in our hearts not to allow our selves in any thing that is displeasing to God though it bring never so much pleasure or profit or seeming honour with it withall we must exercise our selves in the pious and frequent receiving of the Sacrament the neglect whereof as it may be well suspected to be one of the great floudgates of iniquity and impiety amongst us so the restoring of the Christian and frequent use with the due administration thereof would likely be a great meanes to recover holinesse amongst us Fifthly we must apply our selves to some honest businesse and some good employments Idlenesse being the great harbinger of sin the devill being like a great and exacting Lord of a mannour laying claime to all the woste and to a Christian watchfulnesse over our selves prudently avoyding the occasions of sin and endeavouring to foresee and provide against temptations It would be very helpfull I conceive every Evening to make even with God the English word Evening me thinkes may put us in mind of it and perhaps that may be the reason of the name by turning Pythagorases rule into Christianity Examining our selves alwaies
we soone forgot thy workes and waited not for thy counsell Ver. 21. We forgat God our Saviour which had done so great things for us 22. Wondrous things in the Land of our habitation and fearfull things upon the great Sea Psal 78.32 For all this we sinned still and beleeved not for his wondrous workes Ver. 41. We turned backe and tempted God and limited the holy One of Israel Wee turned backe and dealt unfaithfully we turned aside like a deceitfull bow Psal 78.5 c. Thou establishedst thy Testimony in our Jacob and appointedst thy Gospell in our Israell which thou commandest our Fathers that they should make them knowne to us their children That the Generations to come might know them even the children that should bee borne who should arise and declare them to their children That they might set their hope in God and not forget the workes of God but keep his Commandements And might not bee as their Fathers a stubborne and rebellious generation a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God But we have not regarded the mighty works that thou hast done nor the wonders that thou hast wronght for us For all this we have sinned yet more against thee and have lightly esteemed the rocke of our Salvation Psal 80.8 Thou broughtest us as a Vine out of the Aegypt of Popery and plantedst it in a very fruitfull hill Thou preparedst roome before it and didst cause it to take deep root and it filled the Land The hils were covered with the shadow of it and the boughs thereof were like the goodly Cedars Thou wateredst it with showers from above and enrichedst it with the River of thy goodnesse and blessedst the springing of it Thou causedst the beames of thy heavenly light to shine upon it That it might grow and prosper and beare fruit abundantly and that thou mightest blesse the increase thereof Isa 5.2 Thou fencedst it with the wall of thy divine protection and providence and didst set the hedge of an happy government about it Thou gathered stout the stones thereof by removing the offences that they might not hinder the growth thereof Thou prunedst it diggedst about it and dungedst the root thereof with the fat soyle of thine earthly blessings Isa 5.4 And what could have been done more unto thy Vinyard that thou hast not done in it But we quickly turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine unto thee and when thou lookedst for grapes we brought forth wild Grapes Therefore thou hast now taken away the hedge thereof and it is eaten up thou hast broken downe the wall thereof and it is troden downe It is laid waste and blasted with the burning wind of thy displeasure It is become a place of Briers and Thornes A Land of darkenesse and of the shadow of death Isa 34.11 The Cormorant and the Bitterne possesse it the Owle and the Raven dwell in it and thou hast stretched out upon it the Line of Confusion and the stones of emptinesse Psal 80.14 But returne we beseech thee O God of Hosts looke downe from heaven behold and visit this Vine And the Vineyard which thine owne right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madest strong for thy selfe It is burnt with fire it is cut downe and we perish at the rebuke of thy countenance Let thine hand be upon the man of thy right hand upon the Sonne of man whom thou madest strong for thy selfe So will not we go backe from thee quicken us and we will call upon thy name Turne us again O Lord God of Hosts shew the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole Another Prayer for these Kingdomes O Most glorious and gracious Lord God who rulest and governest all things Thine are all the Kingdomes of the world and all the Nations of the earth are in thy power and at thy disposing Thou buildest them that they may stand and thou plantest them that they may grow and whilst thou waterest them they flourish and at the blast of the breath of thy displeasure they fade away and come to nothing whilst thou blessest them they are blessed when thou cursest them they are weake and consumed Looke down I beseech thee upon these poore Nations that lye weltring before thee in their bloud in their sins that are entangled in the net and perplexed in the Labyrinth of their great transgressions and miseries and cannot tell how to get out O Lord our God I beseech thee take pity upon us and grant us a release Thou hast the soveraigne medicines with thee that can heale both our sins and miseries we are unworthy of thy mercy but thou art a God that delightest in mercy and the more undeserved it is the greater is thy glory nothing is too hard for thee no malady so desperate no sicknesse so incurable as to outbid either thy wisdome or goodnesse they are both glorified but neither can be puzzled or hindered by the extremities of our conditions It is thy property and thy divine peculiar worke to helpe when there is no help to be found wo have been struggling and striving O Lord a long time to get out of the toyle of our afflictions but all in vain The more we strive the farther still we are engaged in the mischief wheresoever we run thine arrows stick fast in us the poyson therof drinketh up our spirits thy terrors set themselves in array against us all our hopes in the Creatures have deceived us They have proved unto us but false conceptions they have brought forth nothing but wind we have waited for help but we have found none And therefore now O Lord we come to thee beseeching thee our God to have mercy upon us that what all the strength in the world cannot worke for us nor all the wisdome in the world contrive for us we may yet obtaine from thee our God But alas how should we obtaine any thing at thy hands when there are such loud cries and clamours of our great and horrid sinnes and iniquities against us How shouldst thou draw neere unto us that do continually run away from thee and flye from thy mercy by our impenitency and wickednesse even whilst we aske mercy at thy hands How shouldest thou but abhorre and abominate us that by our filthy and noy some iniquities have made our whole Land even to stinke in thy nostrills O Lord our God we confesse there is nothing in us that can challenge thy favour or bespeake any reliefe from thee If it be thy pleasure to destroy us to consume us with all thy plagues and damne us all even our whole Nation to the bottomlesse pit of hell we have nothing to reply or object against thee it is no more than our iniquities call for But we beseech thee O Lord to be gracious unto us all that we can do is to beg it at thy hands to beseech thy pardon to implore thy compassion to plead unto
had it we did not prize it nor esteeme it as we ought to have done neither did we walke worthy in any measure of so great a favour from thee our God But under the covert and shadow of this thine holy Ordinance we have conspired against thee and have committed great impieties to the dishonour of thy Name And by these our sins we have most wickedly forfeited our title and interest in such thy goodnesse which forfeiture of our sins thou hast most justly taken by letting loose the spirits of sedition and Rebellion of division and faction like tempestuous whirlewinds upon the face of these Nations which have overturned the frame of rule and order amongst us and have battered downe the Throne of thine Annointed and changed our happy Monarchy into Anarchie and confusion and in the ruines of this thine excellent Ordinance the wastes and decaies of all other blessings are befallen us the purity the order and beauty of Religion the equall and upright administration of justice Innocency of life and honesty of conversation All the obligations of naturall civill and Christian endearements the offices of love neighbourhood and charity and together with these our outward peace our safety our security our plenty our Trade and Traffique our liberty and what not have received their great and deplorable impairements by that great eclipse of Soveraignty in these Kingdoms and now we are become as the fishes of the sea as the creeping things that have no ruler over them spoyling and devouring and destroying one another raging and madding and suming against one another thrusting one another out of their rights and possessions reproaching and defaming and worrying one another with such monstrous and mercilesse cruelty as is not to be found amongst the most savage and wildest Creatures in the world much lesse is answerable in any degree either to the meeknesse of Christians or the sobriety and equanimity of reasonable men and Christians This O Lord is the sad and wretched condition that we are in And unlesse there be some timely remedy our house that is thus divided must needs fall and our Kingdome that is thus set against it selfe must needs be brought unto utter desolation But Lord who is it that can cure us of this our great and manifold malady Who is it that can water the dying root of this our Tree That can repaire the mouldered foundation of this our Building It is thou only O Lord our God that canst do it unlesse thou help us nothing can helpe us unlesse thou be mercifull unto us we shall have no mercy upon our selves Lord we are falling into the precipice of destruction if thou catch us not with the Armes of thy mercy we shall be broken and dashed in peeces we are overwbelmed in the floud of our fins and miseries if thou hold us not by thy heavenly hand we must needs be drowned and choaked in the deluge send downe thine hand from above and deliver us out of the deep waters Thou canst whensoever it shall please thee put a stop unto our raging calamities and snatch us out of the jawes of that ruine which hath seized us Let it be thy heavenly pleasure we beseech thee to looke downe in thy tender pitty upon the great confusions and desolations of this Kingdome and to command some deliverances for us we are here before thee O Lord God as a company of poore weatherbeaten sheepe scattered upon the mountaines without a Sheepheard ready to become the prey unto every wilde and savage beast Oh thou great Shepheard of the sheep seek thy flock and gather them unto thy selfe we are before thee like a poore tossed and tottered Vessell without a Pilot ready to dash in peeces upon every wave and to split upon every Rocke to be made the mockery the game and the pastime of these violent and contrary winds that are risen amongst us Lord save us or else we perish O restore our Shepheard unto us and enfold us againe within the defence of that happy Monarchy which thou hadst placed over us Yea Lord be thou both our Shepheard and our fold to keep us safe under the guarde of thy providence that the evening Wolves and the ranging Bears may no more ravish and devoure the poore people raise up againe the Throne re-embellish the Crowne and cement and strengthen the broken Scepter of this Kingdome that Piety and Justice may be revived and Peace and Prosperity with all other blessings may be restored unto this Nation re-enforce we beseech thee those wholsome Laws and constitutions which have been heretofore the Conduits of so much security and happinesse unto this Land A bolish we beseech thee all unlawfull and usurped power and cancell all Arbitrary unjust and Tyrannicall Ordinances and set up that true and legitimate Government againe in this Nation which hath heretofore been so fruitfull in blessings unto our Land Give wisdome and fortitude and the spirit of Government unto thine Annointed and all those that shall be sent of him that they may be able to weild this thy great Ordinance and to mannage it to thy glory and the good of thy people to the punishment of evill doers and to the praise of them that do well And put the spirit of subjection and obedience into the hearts of the people of this Land that they may yeeld a willing a conscionable and cheerefull submission thereunto as unto the Lord and not unto men looking upon the Authority of the Magistrate as upon a sacred streame flowing unto them from the heavenly fountain of thy divine power that they may reverence it and as an instrument of thy mercy and great goodnesse unto them that they may embrace it that no unquiet or distempered motions may hereafter be raised amongst us in this Nation from private and wicked interests or from ambitious turbulent spirits to disturbe the happy peace and tranquility of thy people through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the King O Lord thou righteous Judge of heaven and earth who hast committed all power unto thy Son Christ Jesus both in heaven and earth and hast revived the rayes of his supreame Authority and Majestie unto Kings and Princes whom thou hast ordained to be the Rulers and Governours of thy people to the end that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty We beseech thee looke downe in mercy upon the Person of thine Annointed our gracious King the light of our eyes and the breath of our nostrils who suffereth at this time for the sins of us and these Nations under the cruelty and oppression of seditious and wicked men Consider his Enemies how many they are and what a tyrannous hatred they beare against him Consider O Lord how low they have brought him what great bondage and affliction they have laid upon him how they have imprisoned his Person robbed him of his revenue killed and massacred his Loyall and faithfull People bereaved him
put it in practice beseeching thee that thou wilt take pitty upon them and that thou wilt be pleased now at length to sosten their hearts and to open their eyes That they pursue no further their workes of violence and rebellion but that having a true sense of their great iniquities and being truly humbled before thee for their sinnes they may lay hold upon thy gracious offers of mercy toward them in Christ Jesus and leaving all their evill and seditious courses may returne unto thee their God their obedience unto their Soveraigne and to the affections of justice and charity toward their Brethren That upon their unfaigned repentance thou mayest receive them into thy favour and that their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Lord we know thou art a God thou art able to doe all things Thou stillest the raging of the Sea the noise of the wayes and the madnesse of the people Thou canst tame the fiercensse of the most savage Lyons and make the Woolfe to dwell with the Lambe and the Leopard to lye downe with the Kid Thou canst cause the fire to forget its fury and rage and thou refrainest the wrath of man Thou by the power and might of thy grace didst meet Saul in the midst of the very heate and violence of his persecuting zeale and didst turne him into a Paul a meeke and faithfull servant unto thee and madest him of an enemy to become not only a member of thy Church but also a glorious fellow-sufferer with thy people Lord shew the like power of thy mercy and grace unto these our persecutors smite them to the ground with an apprehension of their great cruelties and bloudy oppressions that they have exercised against thy poore Church and people and raise them up againe in the apprehensions of thy tender love and goodnesse in Christ Jesus Thou who hast pardon for the greatest sinners that come unto thee with penitent hearts and a firme beliefe in thy Son Christ Jesus as thou pardonedst Paul so Lord pardon them As thou convertedst Paul so Lord convert them c. and let them not pursue the destruction of their owne soules If it be thy blessed will O Lord bring them home unto thy fold Let not their successes beguil them any more nor any evill engagements detaine them in their sinnes Suffer them no more to set up their carnall policies against thy spirituall and heavenly wisedome but bring down every high thought in them unto obedience to thy heavenly Word make them to know that there is no shame but to be wicked and that their greatest honour will be to forsake their sinnes and to returne speedily and entirely unto thee their God O Lord breake in sunder those chaines of corruption whereby they are held from thee and deliver them out of the snares of the Devill O quench the fire of that malice and rage which is enkindled in them against us thy poore people and inflame them with Christian affections towards us againe As for us O Lord make us patiently to endure what thy fatherly hand shall be pleased to inflict upon us whether by them or by any other meanes and give us alwayes a readinesse of heart to forgive all those injuries that they have done unto us and to embrace an hearty reconciliation with them whensoever they shall be moved by thy grace to give over their unjust cruelties against us and Lord lay not those sins unto their charge Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake Amen * ⎠* A Summe of divers principall things contained in this Booke 1. AN Introduction consisting of various incitements unto Humiliation and seeking of God 2. A discovery of the sad condition of the present estate of the Church and Commonwealth of England First In a paralell thereof with the miserable condition of the Jewes set forth in the Lamentations of Ieremy pag. 57 Secondly In a more peculiar and expresse delineation of the cerruptions depravations and devastations thereof illustrated by the consideration of our former happy condition in matter of Religion of Peace of Liberty of Government of honour and reputation First in point of Religion and things conducing thereunto pag. 91 1. Of Corruptions on the rule of Religion pag. 99 2. In the mannage of the worke of Instruction pag. 110 1. By seaucing Doctrines Ibid 2. By running from one extreame to another pag. 124 3. By uncharitable censures of moderatâ— spirits pag. 124 4. By the spirit of contradiction and tyrannising over the consciences of men pag. 127 5. By partiality and prejudice c. The evill fruits whereof are described p. 128 6. Pulpits and Presses made marts of division p. 141 7. Hunting after applause p. 148 8. Pusillanimity and lukewarmenesse in the Ministry where an exhortation to Christian con-age p. 155 9. Neglect of Catechisme p. 159 2. Of corruptions about the Sacraments 1. Of Baptisme p. 190 2. Of the Lords Supper Ibid 3. In abolition of Excommunication p. 194 4. In rejecting the grave and learned Ministry and putting up youths and raw novices to be the guides of the people p. 196 And Lay men without any lawfull calling p. 29 A discussion of that point at large of popular Elections c. p. â—52 Of the ordination of Ministers the Apostolic call way p. 278 5. In the sacrilegious taking away of the revenues of the Church as Tythes c. where the Question about Tythes and of things devated to Gods Service is discussed p. 293 6. In Conventicles and unreverent carriage in the Church abolition of formes of Prayer and the evill effects thereof p. 361 7. In matter of Church government the sad causes and sountaines thereof p. 373 A discovery of the miseries and Corruptions of the civill State 1. In matter of Peace p. 388 2. In matter of Libertie p. 399 3. In matter of civill Government p. 415 4. In matter of Honour and Reputation p. 429 Of the sonntaine of these calamities which is the great wickednesse of this Nation p. 437 God the only Physitian p. 454 No way to obtaine deliverance from God but by Humiliation for sin p. 484 Conversion from sin p. 490 Prayer p. 497 Faith in Christ Iesus p. 501 The conclusion with exhortation to the Kingdome in generall p. 514 To the suffering Party p. 527 Directions concerning the exercise of the said daties p. 535 An help to Humiliation 1. A Confession and Supplication laying open the sinnes and miseries of this Nation and imploring Gods mercy p. 1 2. Certaine Psalmes for that purpose The first p. 41 The second p. 44 The third p. 46 3. Another Prayer for these Kingdomes p. 59 4. A short Prayer to be used upon the undertaking of any just designe or enterprize for peace p. 72 5. A Prayer for the restoring of a happy and setted Government in this Nation p. 74. 6. A Prayer for the King p. 86 7. A Prayer for Peace in the Church and State p 99 8. A Prayer for the two Houses p. 109 FINIS