Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A96494
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A sermon preached upon Sunday the third of March in St Maries Oxford before the great assembly of the Members, of the Honourable House of Commons there assembled.
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Wilde, George, 1610-1665.
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1644
(1644)
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Wing W2160; ESTC R203284
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20,300
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34
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Royall Majesty It were a reproach to our Nation to let the King be the sole Pacifique 'T is true and to your lasting Honours it will be spoken that you have not suffered your David to tread the way of Peace alone Witnesse the Dove which you sent at first from this floating Arke which though it return'd not home unto you with an Olive-Branch as you might expect though they answered your Dove with a Raven which you expected not yet wee have heard of your sending the Dove abroad a second time to discover whether the Waters be abated those Waters which King David complains of that they overwhelmed him and which in time would rot and quite sinke the Arke it selfe and to learne whether the Deluge of Blood which has now prevailed more then an hundred and fifty daies twice told may yet find some hopes to fall or runne into an Inundation of joy However if They who first imbarqued this Kingdome for a Tempestuous sea have not only torn down the sayles but cut off the Anchor as if it were all one to them sink or swimme If they who first drew the Sword have quite thrown away the Scabbard with intent never to sheath it more unlesse in the Bowells of their poor Brethren yet this whole Kingdom even all whom ignorance or malice have not left desperately blind do plainly see and can cheerfully attest how pressing You are to rebuild the Walls of Ierusalem and the Temple of Peace if it may be with the Trowell only without the supplement of a Sword Yea and they greatly rejoyce to see how unanimously You are inclined to compassionate your Brethren to preserve their Religion and so that I may speak to you in your own words to Boye up this Church and State from ruine and Desolation Indeed your Brethren they are your Brethren the sons of your Mother who now Bleed in every Veine of this Kingdome The Fortunes of your Brethren which are now wounded and sacrificed to the present fury of the Sword The Wives and Children of your Brethren which are menaced with an ensuing Famine yea and many your poore Brethren Themselves who are already overtaken with it now crying aloud unto you for bread doe you not heare them from Lambeth and from London hither and who being imprisoned for no other Crime but their Loyalty and Allegiance are there ready to starve for the Testimony of a good Conscience O let your Charity be heard anon to out-voyce to cry down their hunger and that too in some measure for Their sakes who are our Prisoners veriest Enemies viz. that they may nor be guilty of Murthering them in cold Blood They also are your Brethren according to the Flesh and we have no warrant to promote or wish any mans damnation But you have other Brethren in that great City who are more at Liberty in their Bodies but nothing so free in their Soules I meane such who adhere outwardly to the Rebellion though in their Hearts they daily curse the Authors and Fomenters of it Those who deny Christ for their Wives and Childrens sake and comply with the Times not for Love but out of Feare just as the Romans who deified Diseases or as the Indians who now worship the Divell Non quòd amant sed ne noceat that he may doe them no hurt Yet these poor timorous Soules deserve some Compassion They are your Brethren And then secondly Religion it is Religion that now runs Retrograde Religion that now lies a bleeding The pure Service of our God blasted and scandaliz'd with the name of Anti-christianisme The House of our God converted into a Denne of Theeves or whatsoever Denne else you know more savage The Navie of our God crucified and torne to pieces and that too I wish I could not say aswell by Royalists as by Rebells And therefore I hope you shall not need a stronger conjurement then this indeed I know not who can find a stronger then Brother and Maker For my Brethrens sake and for Gods sake We read at the first of Kings and the twentieth Chapter that when Benhadad and his two and thirty Kings had drawen out into the Field and besieged Samaria that Benhadad sent Messengers to the King of Israel in a manner to demand his whole Kingdome Thy Silver and thy Gold is mine thy Wives also and thy Children thy Servants even the goodliest are mine v. 3. Now can we imagine it to stand with the Honour of a King of Israel to yeeld to so unequall Conditions And yet yeeld he did According to thy saying saith he I am thine and all that I have v. 4. Yet this as God would have it who can draw Good out of Evill would not content Benhadad and his 32 Kings For perceiving the easinesse of the King and with what Facility they had obtained thus much They make this graunt but a step to a fresh Demand and now they must have more Even his men of Warre his strong-holds his Cities his Forts and Magazines yea and the house of his God Whatsoever was most desireable and pleasant in the eyes of the King v. 6. Whereupon he begins now to consider the unreasonablenesse of their demand collects Himselfe summons the Princes the Nobles and the Elders of Israel v. 7. whose generall Vote it was by no meanes to yeeld to such inequitable and unprincely Conditions And all the Elders and all the People said unto him Hearken not unto them nor Consent v. 8. He did so as they advised him and the next newes is The Syrians are smitten twice by the sword of Israel v. 20. 29. If either the Liberty of our Brethren or the worship of our God be demanded as a Prey and spoyle for the railing Rabshakeh or imperious Benhadad the promise of private ease and an effeminate Peace must not lock up the Sword within the scabbard But let the King say then as Nehemiah did vnto the Nobles and the Rulers and to the rest of the People Nehem. 4. 14. Be not ye afraid of them Remember the Lord which is great and terrible and fight for your Brethren your Sonnes and your Daughters your Wives and your Houses and for the house of the Lord Thus did Nehemiah who sought for Peace and was forced upon a posture of Warre And thus did David who ever prayed for Peace though sometimes with a Sword in his Hand And that For his Brethren and Companions sake and because of the House of the Lord his God Which leads me from the double Act to the double Motive A Motive of Community and Compassion and a Motive of Piety and Religion But first of the Motive of Community and Compassion For my Brethren and Companions sake That is as I told you at first for the Liberty of the Subiect A thing which at this day is invaded nothing more and yet nothing so much pretended to make the Invasion good Liberty which is so often acknowledged from the Quill of an Eagle to