Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the yoak of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdome of Jesus Christ and the peace and tranquility of Christian Kingdomes and Commonwealths Bishop HALL'S Holy Order OF THE Mourners in SION FOrasmuch as there is no well-affected Christian that is not deeply sensible of the woful calamity of this once glorious Church now humbled into the dust of confusion and exposed to the pity of all those forreign Neighbours which heretofore blessed it as a singular pattern of Divine Mercy and to the scorn and insultation of Gath and Ascalen And for as much as it is and hath been ever the practice of the Enemies of our peace to range themselves into several Ranks and Files under various Forms Qualities and Denominations as on the one side the Society of Jesus the Order of the glorious Virgin thâ— Archi-confraternity of the most holy Trinity and the rest of this kind not easie to be numbred On the other side Seekers Quakers Shakers Dippers the holy Family of Love Ranters and such other Prodigies of Mis-religion and Faction and thereby have found advantage several wayes for the promoting of our ruine Why should it not bâ— found requisite that we the professed Servants of our Lorâ— Jesus Christ Orthodox and genuine Sons of the Church oâ— England whose hearts are moved by the good Spirit oâ— God to a just resentment of our miseries and dangers should firmly resolve for the countermining of these Engineers of Hell and Conspirers of our destruction to enteâ— into a safe warrantable Holy Fraternity of Mourners iâ— Sion whose profession and work shall be a peculiarity oâ— Devotion striving with servent Prayers and Tears to obtain from Heaven a seasonable redrefse of these our pressing Calamities and a prevention of that utter overthrow and final Devastation which threatens this miserable Church wherein we do yet live And for this purpose may it be thought meet to tie ourselves by our secret and silent Vows to these Rules following 1. That without all offensive tumultuous and suspectible Gomplottings and Conventions we shall hold up our private Devotions and perform these our godly undertakings to that premised end 2. That there shall be no superiority or subordination in this holy Fraternity nor any soul more interessed in iâ— then other and therefore no Formality or Ceremony of admittance into it but a free and voluntary entrance lest open for all comers into this strict course of Christian austerity without any noise without the required notice of any but God and their own Conscience that the world may well see and know that here is no other design then meerly spiritual aiming at nothing but religious transactions between God and our Souls and consisting in the performance of the unquestionable Exercises of Piety and holy Devotion 3. That we shall zealously excite our Neighbours and Friends to be passionately affected with this sad Estate of Gods Church and to be liberal of their sighs and tears and prayers for the happy recovery of it 4. That we will effectually endeavour to work our hearts to a found Humiliation for our own sins which have helpt to contribute to the common stock of our miseries and daily renue our Vows of a more strict and holy obedience and a more close walking with our God 5. That we shall deeply take to heart and secretly mourn for and lament the sins of our people representing them to our thoughts in their haynous nature and quality humbly begging for their serious repentance of them and earnestly deprecating the judgements provoked by them 6. That for this end we shall do our best indeavour to get just notice of the sad estate of this distracted Church of ours and to be truly apprehensive of the peril wherein it stands as also of the horrible Blasphemies and damnable Heresies which have been of late disgoi ged from the mouth of Hell amongst us and those hellish practises which have followed thereupon to the high dishonour of the Majesty of that holy God whom we pretend to serve to the utter shaming of that blessed Gospel which we professe for as much as we cannot mourn for what we know not nor mourn enough for what we do not know to be so transcendently sinful As of the sins whereby we have moved the fierce anger and wrathfull displeasure of our God against us so also shall we take full notice of the judgements whereby we have smarted from his most just hand yea in a larger comprehension of the judgements past present eminent amongst which how can we but sorrowfully reckon the mutual effusion of so much Christian blood spilt by the hands of brethren and as the Tribes of Israel did for Benjamin bitterly mourn for the slain of our people of whom so many on both parts have been swept away from the earth in the sury of a violent hostility as might well have served to store a populous Nation or might probably have over-run the professed enemies of Christendome To these we cannot but add the woful disasters and inexpressible miseries which do alwayes inevitably attend an intestine war But of all judgement none have cause to make so deep an impression in us as the spiritual as knowing that as our God is terrible in all his inflictions so most of all where he is least-felt when he payes us in our own coin when he punisheth us with our sins making one sin the revenger and executioner of another when he repayes our actual rebellion against him with a senslesse obduratenesse with a plausible security and deadnesse of spirit When he rewards our neglect and contempt of his Ordinances with giving us up to spiritual delusions and to the seductions of the spirits of errour to prodigious whimsies and spiritual blasphemies We shall then as we have too just reason lay together these evils that we feel with those which we have no lesse cause to fear and under the sense of both shall find our hearts pierced with sorrow and resolved into the just tears of our mourning 8. That we shall not fail both by night and day constantly to pour out our hearts in strong eries and fervent prayer to our God that he will be pleased now at last to visit this miserable and disconsolate Church in mercy and compassion and cause the light of his Countenance to shine upon us once again 9. That the matter of our Prayers shall be the illumination and reduction of those
Almighty will find a time to have mercy upon his poor Church and to clear up his countenance towards his chosen Ones wiping all tears from their eyes and all spots from their faces and answering the holy desires of their hearts in shewing them his Sion in her perfect beauty Could we but weep soundly he would smile upon us and comfortably shine upon his Sanctuary and make the place of his feet glorious even an eternal excellency the joy of many Generations Indeed for the present O our God thou hast removed our Souls far from peace thou hast most justly filled us with thine indignation for we have deserved that thou shouldst pour out iniquities upon us and shouldst bring upon us the fruits of our own thoughts and measure our works into our bosomes and cause us to drink at thy Hand the Cup of thy fury yea even to have the dregs of the Cup of trembling to be wrung out to us for we have walked every one after the imagination of his own evil heart our transgressions are with us and are multiplied before thee and though we have professed to be humbled under thy mighty hand we have not cried to thee in our hearts when we howled upon our beds neither have we loathed our selves in our own sight for the evils that we have committed so as we do now justly lie down in our shame and our confusion covereth us willingly acknowledging that our iniquities have most deservedly turned away thy blessings from us and drawn thy judgements upon our heads But O Lord hast thou so smitten us that there is no healing for us Have we put our selves utterly out of the reach of thy boundlesse mercies Art not thou the God that retainest not thine anger for ever because thou delightest in mercy Oh why shouldest thou then be to us as a mighty Man that cannot save O thou the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in time of trouble return return to thy people in the tender bowels of thine infinite pitty and compassion humble our Soules throughly under the sense of our many back slidings and grievous provocations of the Eyes of thy Glory Oh strike thou our heart with an unfeigned repentance of all our evil wayes and once again speak peace unto thy servants Was there ever a more stiffe-necked and rebellious people O Lord then thine Israel more eminent in abused mercies more notorious in all kinds of abominable wickednesses more exercised with variety of judgements Yet when they cryed to thee in their distresse thou were still ready to hear and deliver them and to renew thy so often forseited blessings upon them and wouldst not let loose thy vengeance upon them till there was no remedy Behold we are thy people though a sinful one a second Israel both for sins and mercies Now Lord since it is thy marvellous mercy that we are not yet consumed be still pleased to magnifie thy infinite goodnesse in thy gracious forbearances and our powerful conversion to thee And though we cannot but confesse that we are a sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers yet Lord thou knowest that thou hast thy secret ones amongst us a people that prayeth and trembleth at thy judgements and waiteth humbly at the door-posts of thy Sanctuary a people that defireth to walk close with thee their God and to be approved of thee in all their wayes a people that figheth and mourneth for the abominable sins of the Land of their Nativity Oh for their sakes be thou intreated to hold off thy revenging hand from this sinful Nation and even yet still provoke us by thy goodnesse to Repentance O thou the righteous and merciful Judge of the world who even for ten righteous persons wouldest have spared a Sodome and Gomorrah from their fiery execution be pleased tenderly to regard the cries of thy many hundred faithful and devout Soules that sue to thee for the stay and removal of thy deserved judgements Oh do thou look down from Heaven and behold from the habitations of thy holinesse and thy glory the unsaigned humiliation of thy servants who are prostrate before thee with fasting and weeping and mourning turn away thine heavy displeasure from us and pitty thy Sanctuary which is desolate so shall our mouthes be full of the praises of thy Name and thy Saints shall rejoyce and sing new Songs unto the God of our Salvation In the mean time we shall in silence and hope wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from Jacob and not cease to pour out our selves in Tears and Supplications to him that is mighty to save neither will we suffer our cheeks to be dry or our souls to receive comfort till we shall receive a gracious answer from Heaven and shall see that the Lord hath been pleased to shew mercy to his Sion In this condition we that are Sions Mourners shall not need to be distinguished as other Orders are wont by Colours Devises Abiliments Our qualifications will be easily discerned by our sad faces wet eyes deep sighs mortified carriage willing neglect of those vanities wherewith others are transported our holy retirednesse assiduous Devotions and strict professions of Godlinesse Carry your selves thus dear Brethren and God and his Angels shall gladly welcome you into that holy Society of Mourners which shall be marked out for preservation here and for eternal comfort hereafter Lastly let none of you discourage himself from entring into this sacred Fraternity out of the sense of his bodily infirmity or the urgent necessity of outward impediments There is many an holy Soul that dwells inconveniently in a crazy tottering ruinous Cottage ready to drop down daily upon his head not able to endure the substraction of one Meales support There are not a few well-affected Christians whom the necessary exigences at their Calling and Estate like so many hard Taskmasters hold close to their tale of Bricks not allowing them the leisure of our limited Devotion Let all these of both kinds know that they have no cause hereupon either to hold off or to think they shall in this case need the dispensation of any superiour power since their condition doth sufficiently dispense with it self Even the severest Casuists of the Roman Church who are wont to be the rigidest Exactors of the outward exercises of Mortification do in these Cases allow of a just relaxation My Brethren if ye cannot fast yet ye can pray if your Stomacks be weak yet your zeal may be strong ye can mourn though ye pine not and if ye cannot spare a day in seven yet ye may spare an hour in twelve and make up the rest in your frequent and servent Ejaculations shortly if you have truly mourning Souls they will be accepted in the necessary want of the strict termes of bodily exercises Farewell in the Lord. FINIS
may learn and all may be comforted but we must needs say whatever in suggested to the contrary that among us the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets for we own that God is not the Author of confusion but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints we hope there is so much of the English genius of Friendship and good nature abroad in the world that none will censure us either for familiar meetings which are neighbourly or for making good use of those meetings which is Christian Indeed we were unsufferable if we set up private meetings in opposition to publick Assemblies but it s a common observation by this time that we never go together privately the same hour that others meet publickly and indeed we are glad when they say unto us Let us go up to the House of God One thing we have desired of the Lord that while we seek after that we may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of our lives to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple And it s seldome that we escape any opportunities of joyning with the publick Assemblies for though we cannot administer in the Church yet we cannot separate from the Church we would not partake with the Churches sins least we be defiled we would not remove from the Church least we be nothing And indeed we desire only in private to set home upon our hearts what we have gained in publick we would second the Ministers at home whom we cannot assist abroad It s true they of us that fear the Lord speak often one to another but we dare not speak any thing that is amiss for we know the Lord hearkeneth and heareth us and a Book of Remembrance is written before for them that fear the Lord and think upon his Name 4. Forasmuch as there is no well-affected Christian that is not deeply sensible of the unsetledness division animosities prophaneness decay of Trade and other calamities whereby our Native Country is exposed to the pity of Neighbours and the scorn and insultation of Enemies we do effectually endeavour to work our hearts to a sound humiliation for our own sins which have contributed too much to the common calamities seeing we are so unhappy as to add to the measure of publick provocations we cannot but be so compassionate as to endeavour to add to the measure of publick prayers humiliations and intercessions 5. To prevail with God the more effectually we zealously stir up our Neighbours and Friends to be passionately affected with the present Estate of the Churches and Servants of Christ that as they helped on their miseries by their sins so they may assist in their recovery by their tears sighs and prayers 6. We endeavour by all means to gain just notice and a true account of the estate of our Native Country that as the men of Issachar we may be men understanding the times and knowing what Israel ought to do and herein we observe First our sins we allow to the great dishonor of the Majesty of the holy God we serve and the purity of the holy Gospel we profess And secondly the judgements we lye under by reason of these sins our great design is to root up the greatest evil that is Sin and draw neer the highest good that is God that he would take delight in us to do us good and would receive us graciously and love us freely 7. We deeply lay to heart and secretly mourn for the sins of the people representing them to our thoughts in their heynous nature and circumstances humbly entreating the Lord for their serious repentance of them and earnestly deprecating the judgements provoked by them so that we lay together both the evils we feel and those we have too just cause to fear and in a due sense of both we desire to humble our selves and others under the mighty hand of God 8. And therefore whensoever we have an opportunity to speak from God to his people in the publick Assemblies we desire to speak a present truth and to lay open and bewail the sins of the time and to awake the people with all zealous exhortation to a lively and just sorrow for all the overflowings of wickedness and to a vehement and godly striving against the stream thereof by their prayers and utmost endeavours day and night constantly pouring out their hearts in strong cryes and servent prayer to our God that he will be pleased to visit us in mercy and compassion and cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us 9. And however privately we set apart one day at least in every week for this holy end and purpose wherein we humble our selves in private fasting and prayer till it please our God to return to his in his wonted pity and compassion and put an end to our sins and miseries recovering us to that first state of Innocence peace and plenty which we were happy in before our late miscarriages 10. We do restrain our wonted pleasure not allowing the liberty of that mirth and lawful refreshment which we might formerly make use of while the hand of God lieth thus heavily upon us 11. We do not allow our selves the neglect of any good means of prayer reading meditation and conference whereby the peace and welfare of this Church and State may be procured and maintained and shall carefully avoid all words and actions ways and means which may at all tend to the widening of the unhappy breaches and the encreasing the many and woful differences among us seeking peace and ensuing it studying now in our leisure time to look into the bottom of Controversies that we may bring differences to as narrow a compass as we can beget a mutual good understanding and satisfaction among sober men clearing up things as far as lieth in our power for the reuniting of all honest and faithful hearts in a firm concord of Christian love endeavouring to discover and defeat all the devices and machinations of Satan and his Engines against the peace and welfare of the Church in all parts of the world especially in these wherein we are interested 12. And particularly considering our selves our own miscarriages and infirmities we shall not as afore fly out upon the weakness defects or excesses of our Fathers or Brethren aggravating the blame of those their actions or Opinions which may be capable of a gentler or milder construction resolving to look as charitably upon all their proceedings who are otherwise minded in matters of an inferiour Nature bending our whole endeavours against known sin and open prophaness the great Enemies of our peace and settlement As we have preached so we desire to live that charity that suffereth long and is kind is not easily provoked thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 13. And to that purpose we have first of all laid aside all our lesser Opinions among our selves and our