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
the child of the Devill then themselves Let them not come with their lives in their hands with the hazard of their bloud to pervert them committed to our charge and our selves sit silent but let us lift up our voyces in season and out of season And let them know there are Prophets among them and if the people will not be charmed send them to God with this Inscription on their foreheads Noluerunt incantari They will not be charmed Let us to our power save our owne soules and them that heare us Lastly you the people of God stand fast to the Gospell if an Angell from Heaven preach any other Doctine let him be accursed O search the Scripture throughly It was the speech of a dying Archbishop of this Province one of the last that ever he spoke to his Chaplein I have said much and writ much and read much and preacht much Yet in all the booke of God I doe not finde the least ground for Popery Saint Paul withstood Peter to his face and gave him no place no not for an houre O withstand Peter of Rome who can challenge nothing of Peters but that title which Christ once gave him Sathan and that fact in denying his Master I say withstand him to his face and give him not place no not for an houre I can never sufficiently admire and wonder at the speech of blessed Luther who though he was very earnest to have the Communion administred in both kinds contrary to the Doctrine and custome of the Church of Rome yet he professes if the Pope as Pope commanded him to receive in both kindes he would but receive in one kind It s a generall rule among the best that what the Pope commands as Pope though it bee good or indifferent as to pray to read to lift up an eye a hand to weare blacke or white a lace a modell to drop a Bead as the Pope commanding it It is a receiving the marke of the beast a yeelding our selves the Vassalls of Sathan and an Implicite denying the faith of Christ So extremely venimous is the poyson that lyes at the root of that fundamentall heresie which they have layed at the very Rocke and foundation of their faith so dangerous and pernitious it is to hearken to the Pope The renowned Martyrs in Queene Maries days would show no reverence to the commissioners from the Pope and let mee tell you there are many things in the Church of Rome that may be that are decent to be used in the Church of God some things there are at this day in practise in the Church of Rome that were in use in that Church when it was not Antichristian in the times of the Primitive Bishops and blessed Martyrs Some things used that are not yet commanded by the Pope as Pope what ever we use with the Church of Rome we use it as commanded by another power not because commanded by the Pope so that what we doe is to bee accounted an Act of obedience what they doe is to bee condemned because commanded by the Pope be wise as Serpents Innocent as Doves rightly distinguish of times places and persons so shall you not endanger your own soules nor disobey them that are over you nor scandall them that live with you Lastly must we stand fast Let us give thanks to our Lord God that we stood fast to this day It is very meet and our duty that wee should at all times and in all places give thankes to thee ô Lord holy father but chiefely for the deliverance of this day from that unparallell'd matchlesse damnable Gunpowder Treason Therfore with Angels and Archangels and all the glorious company of heaven we laud and magnifie the name of God and say Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboth glory be to God on high O all ye works of the Lord praise ye the Lord blesse him and magnifie him for ever O all yee Angels of the Lord blesse yee the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O all yee Children of men blesse yee the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O all yee Priests of the Lord blesse ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O all yee servants of the Lord blesse yee the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O all yee Kings and Emperors all people and Princes all Iudges young men and maides old men and babes praise yee the name of the Lord for his name is only excellent his glory is above the Earth and Heaven hee hath exalted the Horne of his people the praise of all his Saints even the people of England a people neere unto him praise the Lord Happie are we who are like unto us saved by the Lord the shield of our helpe and the sword of our excellency The eternall God is our Refuge and underneath him are the everlasting Armes he hath saved us and if wee trust in him hee will save us from this time forth and for evermore blessed be the God of our salvation and let all the People say Amen FINIS The third SERMON GEN 49. 5 6. and 7. verses Simeon and Levi are Brethren Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations O my soule come not thou into their secret into their assembly mine honour be not thou united for in their anger they slew a man and in their selfe will they digg'd a wall cursed bee their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell I will divide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israel THis Chapter containes the last Will and Testament of the Patriarch Iacob made on his death bed and it consists of two parts First the Legacy and portion that he bequeathes to his children Secondly his care concerning his buriall together with the manner of his death My Text is part of the first part and contains that part and portion that appertaines to Simeon and Levi wherin be pleased to consider with me two generalls First their sinne Secondly their censure Their sinne in the fifth and part of the sixth verses Their censure in part of the sixth and seaventh verses Their sinne was murder amplified and aggravated First by their mutuall consent and agreement in sinne Simeon and Levi are brethren Iunius saith on the Text Iacob doth not call them brethren because they were so in nature but because they were brethren in the murder Secondly their sinne is aggravated and amplified from the manner of their acting and perpetrating it they did it wilfully revengefully in their anger they slew a man in their selfe-will they digg'd a wall Thirdly from the extension the measure and degree their anger was fierce their wrath was cruell Their censure that also is aggravated First by the person that adjudgeth them it was their father Secondly from the circumstance of time when he did it when he was on his death bed Thirdly from the manner how he did it First with indignation and detestation denying any further protection to
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