while his precious interests and People are in such hasard shall the Lords voice be crying to the city to the countrey to the nation to all the Churches of Christ in the earth and shall not we be so wise to see his name and understand the language of this his terrible rod held over our head and the designe of him who appointeth it It 's high time to awake when we are liketo sleep the sleep of death if we sleep long Secondly it is not every inquiry into the emergents of the present day or observation of the sad posture of affairs that will prove us to be men of understanding who know the time If we could dive into the depth of all our enemies secreets and make a perfect discovery of all their desperat designes yet unlesse we consider the things which are like to overwhelme us in their procuring cause unlesse we set our selves to search out the accursed thing that is with us and what are the national yea personal provocations of his sons and his daughters for which he is like to give up the dearlie beloved of his soul into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of such as hate them with cruel hatred all is lost labour It would draw me to a length beyond my designe to reckon up in order our provocations or represent them with their high and hainous aggravations time would fail for such an undertaking who is sufficient for this thing we may with great certainty say upon a very overly search that our wickednesse is great and our trasgressions infinit it 's well for us they want this of simple infinitnesse that they can be swallovved up of infinit mercy But there seemeth to be some special provocation comprehensive of all the rest pointed at by these manifold and multiplied dreadful calamities under vvhich this poor nation hath been crushed and by all these more formidable things vvhereby utter destruction of our persons posterity and of all our interests both sacred and civil is further threatned this is the thing for which he is mainly contending and this is that dangerous enemy that domestick enemy the destroyer of the Church and Nation after which our inquiry should be and having discovered this enemy if we would have Peace with God even that Peace which passeth understanding peace in life and death Peace in our borders and on the Israel of God we are not to let him when found go in Peace a revenge here vvith the height of hatred and indignation is not onely lavvful but in order to the preservation of soul and body Church and Kingdome Religion and liberty simply necessar and indispensibly duety If vve do not search this out he vvill seek out our vvickednesse till he finde none and then vvoe unto us or having found it if vve make light of the matter then we engage him to let us know that it is a bitter and an evil thing that we have forsaken the Lord our God and that his feare hath not been before us if we would have his eye spare our's must not But what may this Provocation be I must professe my self helped in this inquiry by calling to minde what an eminently faithful Minister of Jesus Christ said preaching at a fast upon our anniversary day kept for the burning of London after he had insisted upon many sins which might be pointed at by such a remarkable stroak but said he the strangenesse and stupendiousnesse of this judgement seemeth to point at some one sin which is by the head and shoulders taler then all the rest ajudgement the like whereof was never in the nation seemeth to point at a provocation never before in all it's circumstances nationally committed what can this be Truely said he we need go no further to finde it out here it is God burnt or permitted in his anger this City to be burnt because in it by an order of King and Parliament horresco referens be astonished O heavens at this that solemne Covenant entered into with the most high God about things which had the most cleare connexion with his glory and direct tendency to the advancement of the Kingdome of his Son in the nation and in the souls of men wherein also the temporal aswel as the eternal welfare of each and all the persons contracting vvith the Lord God as his Maj. vvho ovveth his crovvn and establishment to it may say vvas provided for and secured even this Covenant vvas burnt in our city by the hand of the common Hangman this said he is a punishment in it's greatnesse and strangenesse some way proportioned to the sin pointed at whereby it vvas procured He spake like a Seer and one who had the minde of Christ that said it O that all ministers of the nation spake the same things at least on those dayes appointed for weeping between the porch and the alter and that all the professing people of the nation who have come under the bond of this Covenant might in order to a right mourning before the Lord be like minded However in this discovery I subsist It was fit it was an act of holy righteousnesse in the judge of all the World that the nations abroad who had heard of the burning of this Covenant and had observed how in this our rage against God his vvork way and People had reached unto heaven by which act also he being the great and glorious party contracted with we gave him with all imaginable fury and formality the defiance should also heare hovv this glorious Lord God thus dispightfully and dareingly provocked had burnt that City and sent as it vvere fire dovvn from heaven upon it to consume the place vvhere such a prodigious vvickednesse had been committed Truely my brethren it concerneth all of us in this day of his contendings with us and in this yeer of controversies to call to minde a broken Covenant and a burnt Covenant vvhereby vve our King our Parliament and the vvhole nation stood unalterably engaged to make our selves happy in holinesse in vvorshiping the living God according to his ovvn vvill and in walking before him in our particular stations and relations like the vvorshipers of the true God vvhose main designe in the World should be the adorning of his Doctrin and shewing forth his vertues in all things This Covenant I say which bound us to our own blessednesse in binding us to the good behaviour towards him was broken and these cords were cast away from us this pale whereby we were onely hedged up from falling into everlasting burnings was plucked up Now Brittain novv England lay it to thy heart for this the hand of the great God hath smitten for this thing it is still stretched out Will we not take warning will we harden our selves against him prosper May not the things which have overtaken us already make us know that it is a feareful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Oh inconsideration hath hardened
whereof we boasted as if already arrived at our hoped for harbour our substance is consumed there is a moth in our Estat he bloweth upon what we had and bloweth it away we lose our flesh and fatnesse our mirth is turned into mourning and our organ into the voice of them that weep the whole nation filled with murmuring and complaints of penury and which is a prodigy the very Court that eat up all cryeth out my leannesse my leannesse To passe these things I say without insisting upon them let us by a few crying evidences remember how God remembred this iniquity and visited us for this sin with judgement And because England had never nationaly so dared him to his face as in his own sight in the sight of Angels and men to burn that obligation by a decree wherein the nation had obliged themselves to be his to be no more their own to be no more at the dispose of others but in a due subordination to him as supreme he giveth order to a destroying Angel to fall upon that City where this wickednesse was decreed and perpetrat and then the chief Actors must flee for it and seek another seat and city I need say no more of this but as never Prince never Parliament neither the Nation or City had been guilty of such outrage and Rebellion against the Lord so never did plague rage in the same manner nor did the destroying Angel get a command to put up his sword till such heaps were laid upon heaps and so many thousands upon thousands that all who heard thereof behoved to observe and say never was there such a plague in England and if resolved into it's true cause we must say righteous art thou O Lord God injudging thus we are worthy for never was there such a provocation in England One vvoe is past and behold another vvoe cometh quickly An evil Spirit from the Lord entereth into our counsels precipitateth us into a vvar vvith the Dutch soliciting a peace vvith us I forebeare to mention the unrighteousnesse of it vvhich vvas a greater plague upon the contrivers and actors then all that followed upon it though the shame and losse will make a great total in the beginning of this war we were plagued with so much successe as made us encourage our selves in this evil matter victrix causa diis placuit thought we and yet in that little seeming succcesse we had any discerning person might have observed how the hand of the Lord God of hosts was gone forth against us for though our enemies did flee yet as being deprived by the Lord of both counsel and courage we did not follow vvhen we had them even for the taking up so that if our effrontry make us boast of this bout as a victory we may with blushing remember the greater shame that the Lord poured upon us in depriving us of the Spirit of conduct that we knew not how to improve the advantage over a beaten enemy so that the Lord by this successe did seem onely to lift us up that he might with the greater shame noise and observation throw us down and truely whoever remembereth that action and day may confidently affirme that the Lord fought for Holland and against England seing he so observably interposed as a rere-vvard But before this Angel have done his vvork that vve might have a nevv proof of the displeasure of the Almighty and that he might make the World see hovv he himself and not men did cast us dovvn he sendeth a fire into our chiefe City before this war be ended vvhere vve had burnt that Covenant I passe all consideration of the immediat instruments let us give and graunt it was done upon designe even this maketh the judgement demonstrative with a witnesse of his wrath and indignation and as this fire seemed to take wings or be carried from house to house and street to street by a destroying Angel so those who were employed to quench it O it 's ill quenching where he kindleth except with teares were deprived of all wisdome and discretion or rather as if in the righteous judgement of the Lord they had designedly set themselves to obstruct the quenching of it and so it burnt till the bulk of the City was turned into ashes That as the Nations abroad had heard of our rage in burning that Covenant so they might hear of an act of holy revenge and be witnesses to the righteousnesse of his judgement in giving us fire for fire and as the like fury had never been witnessed against the Lord before so he had never kindled the like fire in the Nation before Nay nor almost the like in the World since the burning of Jerusalem and truely the parallel between the judgements may put us in minde of a parity betwixt the provocations as the crucifying of the Son of God and putting him to an open shame burnt the City of that bold abomination so the crucifying of him again in shedding the blood of his servants and puting him to such a shame in burning a Covenant made with him which is an unheard-of indignity amongst Princes and Stats even when after the violation of Leagues they fall in open hostility kindled this fire consumed the City of our solemnities and buried it into it's ashes But for all this as we do not turn away from the evil of our way but in stead of stoping and taking notice of the hand that is gone forth against us we continue in puting forth our hand to iniquity we become more insatiable in sinning rushing foreward in our course as the horse doth to the battel every bit and bridle that 's put in our mouth is too weak to hold us so his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still The Angel who had drawn the sword in stead of puting it up seemed onely to have been furbishing it while the flame was consuming our City As we were become a frovvard generation Childreen in vvhom was no faith so he continueth in his righteousnesse to heap mischiefs upon us to spend his arrowes upon us We goe on with the war now that God who deprived us of wisdome hovv to improve our former victory first leaveth us in the pride and haughtinesse of our heart to the folly and infatuation of dividing our fleet and then he mustereth the host of the battel that cometh against us and so vve are foiled and put to flee before that enemy of vvhom vve had said vve had no other regret but because engaged against an enemy unvvorthy of our spirit and courage novv are the Dutch their prisons filled vvith English prisoners But vvhy doe I insist The close of the vvar is the confusion of England and a perfect Ecclipse of it's glory our English vvalls are broken dovvn and burnt vvherein the hand of him vvho judged us vvas so visible that the actors themselves doe not mention it othervvise then as the doing of the Lord vvhich vvas
us into impenitency and ripened us for judgement Will nothing awake us till the terrors of God take hold on us as vvatter and a sudden tempest of indignation steal us avvay in the night It vvill be too late then to think of fleeing out of his hand when he hath begun to cast upon us and not spare when he hath vvhet his glittering svvord and his hand hath taken hold of vengeance Dreadful may the expectation of our hearts be in the consideration of the things vvhich for this wickednesse are coming if repentance prevent it not our not having mourned for this abomination our siting to this day with vvhole hearts beside the matter of so much sorrovv may make us meditat terrour least he tear in pieces there be none to deliver Let us consider what judgements and plagues follovved upon the avouched and enacted breach of this Covenant that vve may know hovv he hath contended and will contend for this if vve return not In the first place there is no man who is not under the plague of spiritual occecation nay no man vvho retaineth so much of morality as will distinguish him from a beast but if he vvill consider the practice and conversation of the men vvho framed this mischiefe into a lavv yea and of all vvho rejoyced in that day and said Aha so would vvee have it this is the day we looked for we have found vve have seen it but it must extort this testimony from him in despight of all palliatings and covering vvith those coverings vvhich are not of his spirit that since that day and time never vvas there a race of men never vvas there a generation more remarkeably given up of God to vvalk in the wayes of their ovvn heart that is hell-ward as there were never men who have more manifestly declared their sin as Sodom or have been lesse solicitous to hide it so there was never a Nation never Princes never People who might have been more justly expostulat with in the same terms that his People of old were upbraded for their wickednesse Is. 1. 10. Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give ear unto the law of our God ye People of Gomorrah As never People did cast off so blessed and honourable a yoke with so much malice and dispight so never was there Nation or generation who did more advisedly and deliberatly take on Satans yoke seting themselves to vvork wickednesse in the sight of the Lord insomuch that we are become a by-word a hissing an abhorrence as the very border of wickednesse for our prodigious unheard of impieties to the Nations about us Oh whither since the day of our breach of faith with God have we caused our shame to goe We have spoken and done evil as we could and as if we had raked hell to find out new methods of sinning we have surpast the deeds of the heathen and as we had been onely delivered to doe all these abominations so vvith a displayed banner have vve fought against God glorying in wallowing in the very kennel of hell boasting of vvearing Satan's black colours and thinking it onely manhood and gallantry to fight under his banner Let the records of former times be searched into and let the practice of this generation be compared with the greatest and most universal vvickednesse vvhich at other times had overspread the Nation and I am confident impartiality must say that since the day of our solemne revoult from our svvorn subjection to the most High Satan hath been let loose more manifestly to open as it vvere the very sluce of hell to the drovvning of the Land vvith a deluge of profanity even after that the knovvledge of the glory of the Lord especialy upon our entering in that blessed Covenant vvith him had covered the land in a good measure as the vvatters cover the sea From that day forevvard Alas did the Lord poure out his plagues upon the hearts of the men of that conspiracy so that he who did run might have read this engraven upon their practice that as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge so God had given them over to a reprobat minde to doe those things vvhich are not convenient being filled vvith all unrighteousnesse fornication c. After they had broken Covenant vvith him they added this iniquity of burning it to that sin proceeding from evil to worse which had more of displeasure in it then if they had upon passing this law been stricken dead with a thunder bolt from heaven for this was to be left to act so and doe that wickednesse vvhich being considered in it's complexe and with all it's circumstances had never been done under the whole heaven before let be in the Nation I graunt the the like was acted in our neighbour Nation of Scotland where the causes of wrath were burnt containing an acknowledgment of sin for the breach of this Covenant but as this was an act of the same abused power so it was of a piece with this monstruous impiety so that I may very rationaly doubt if ever there was a more solemne and acceptable Sacrifice offered unto Satan upon the earth then to have the Nations Engagement with God so opprobriously cast into a fire I know all the ten Plagues of Egypt to a gracious heart who looketh upon sin as the worst of evils if they had together fallen on the Nation would not be remembred in one day with this cleare and undeniable evidence of the displeasure of the Lord that the Nation should be left to commit such a wickednesse Satan who had fled seven wayes before the fire of that zeal which was found amongst the people of the Lord in the day when they entered into this Covenant with him tooke on them these vowes knew well that now a throne would be erected to him that he should without controul exerce a soveraignity in the Nation we have seen it so Hovv Alas hath he since that day exerced as a Prince a dominion how hath that spirit wrought in the childreen of disobedience But secondly because the generality did not observe this dreadful evidence of his displeasure and were not sensibly affected vvith the vvrath that vvas vvitnessed against men by leaving them to post in the vvayes of perdition and run according to the drivings of Satan he tooke other vvayes to make the most stupid of the nation sensible of his anger from that day to say nothing vvhich yet speaketh the thing so distinctly that idiots may understand it of disapointment of our hopes and blasting of our big expectations for vve dreamed of nothing but upon his Majesties return that vve should be the head and all other nations the tail that vve should then floorish in trade and increase in treasure and strength to the suppressing and overawing of all who would offer to compet with us now in stead of this expectation wherein we blessed ourselves and
mervellous in their eyes Novv is our Court confounded and distracted because the Lord against vvhom they had sinned vvith so high a hand made bare his holy Arm in the sight of the nations by fighting against them novv is the nation in an universal consternation novv is London seised vvith a panick feare to that height as it had been easy for the enemy to have burnt the remainders of our City that had escaped the former fire And vvhereas vve vvould have a vvar on any terms vvith our peacable neighbours novv vve must post avvay our order to accept of a peace on any termes and vvhich is remarkable be forced to passe from those pretensions on vvhich vve had founded the equity of our vvar thus are vve stript of our glory and the crovvn vvhich vve had vvorn for many yeers in the sight of the Nations falleth from our head alas that vve should have forgotten to have said woe unto us that we have sinned England vvho had upheld these Provinces against the pride of the Spanish Tyrranny England vvho had conquered France and at the same time vvere victorious over the Scotch their confederats must novv finde the nation perfectly besieged by them vvhom in our pride vve thought not a people our ships burnt in the most secure harbours of England and vve necessitat when under the feet of these whom vve had despised to accept of a peace which they might have made us condescend unto upon lesse honourable termes Which things befell us that when the present generation shall consider and the succeeding ages inquire into the cause of this disaster and aske the question how vve vvere so vvonderfully brought down It may be answered because in stead of keeping the Covenant with their God they burnt it therefore that they might read their sin and rage in their judgement or if they would not others might as he had formerly burnt their City now he burnt their ships not in the sea but vvithin their harbours and thus he called the Nations to be vvitnesses to the heat of his displeasure in burying our glory As their was never such a sin before committed in the land we were never thus put to shame and spit upon in the sight of the nations our being made base contemptible in the eyes of them vvho honoured us and had us in estimation must be refounded upon our bold sining against the most high God and our trampling upon his honour and interest vvith such evidences of contempt hath made us be greatly despised amongst the Nations and caused him against whom we had lifted up our selves trample us under foot as the mire of the streets Well wee must now beare our shame and finde our selves sunk in the gulfe of ignominy whereby the Lord was in a manner trying us if vve would turn from the evil of our way But Alas that which was the observe of the Holy Ghost upon Ahaz was manifestly verified upon us so that it might have been with the same evidence and certainty said this is that Court this is that Kingdome who being rebuked so remarkably did in stead of accepting the punishment of their sin trespasse yet more and more against the Lord. In this interval wherein we seemed to have tranquillity from enemies without the plague upon our heart is more evident by the evil that was in our hand vve had some quiet it 's true vvherein he gave us space to repent and accept of the punishment of our sins but it vvas not so much a true peace as the dravving back of the hand of the great God that he might fetch the sorer blovv for in stead of humbling our selves under the mighty hand of God as if vve did meditat revenge against heaven vve not onely continued in our former unchristian practices but vvhat our imperial crown had lost of it's lustre vve think to make it up by appending the Mediator's crown to it and therefore though we fall before others yet we will as we began continue to fight against God and in this interval of peace from forraigne enemies as we had burnt the bond of our subjection to Jesus Christ so in prosecution of the same quarrel we advance our supremacy to the degrading and exautorating of him by whom Kings reigne and carry with that height of insolence as if we had not onely resolved to out-do all that ever led the way to us in this opposition to Christ as King in Zion but further to give the defiance to all that ever should come after us to make a law vvhich being considered in it's most plain and obvious meaning can without straining speak this more explicitly that this man this one Jesus who calleth himself a King shall not reigne over us we have no King but Caesar we stated the question de finibus Imperii mediatoris and decided in our ovvn favour once for all making a decree to take the house of God in possession to our selves yea and as if vve intended to eternize our enmity and opposition to the son of God vve together vvith the imperial crovvn of the Nation transmit a legal right to our successors to the crovvn and scepter of Jesus Christ as if it vvere a satisfaction for us to lie dovvn in the grave vvith an assurance that his crovvn should not floorish upon his ovvn head by vvhich one act all our former insolencies were reacted vvith this addition that vvhatever vve please to do in the house of the God of heaven hereafter must be legal And thus the Church hath got an exotick head and vve have filled up the measure of our iniquity O that it might please the father of mercies to give repentance to his Majesty the Nation and to preserve both from reaping that harvest of grief and desperat sorrow vvhich such a seed-time presageth In the mean time the consumption of the nation is visible in it's countenance it 's soul and substance is consumed as vvas excellently laid openin that first second discourse of my Lord Lucas before the house of Lords in whom alone the ancient gallant spirit of the English Nation did shew it self and shine forth who by that heroick act hath erected to himself a monument in the heart of all true English-men proposed himself as a worthy paterne of imitation to all who affect the glory of being true Patriots yet while the Nation is in this low and languishing condition vve are ploting and contriving a new war against the Dutch and therefore vve pick quarrels vvith them to give our own designes some colour of justice having resolved upon the vvar let them offer what rational satisfaction they can yet as if the Lord from heaven would openly rebuke these secret mischievous contriveances and works of darknesse he in a manner giveth a commission to that very element the stage on which we designe to act this wickednesse to fall upon us sink our ships at sea sweep away a considerable part of our
remaining substance and svvallovv up our Land and as upon Pestilence fire and svvord this had been vvritten by the finger of the righteous judge of all the earth never the like before seen in England so of this tempest this turnado and inundation vvhereby the sea vvas become difficult and dangerous for passage in reguard of broken ships filled also vvith the sad spectacle of drovvned men driving to and fro in it the land overflovved houses beasts and men having one common burial place it was also said never did the Lord witnesse at once so much of his displeasure against the Nation by any sea-storme hereby particularly pointing at and plaguing the Kingdome both for our breach of Covenant vvith the most High and our former and again resolved upon breach of Covenant vvith our neighbours as also our foolish pretension to an absolut dominion of the sea to vvhich vve could set no bounds if that by taking notice of the displeasure of the living God against our iniquous contriveances vve might be stopped in this unhappy Carreer but all in vain forevvard we vvill goe And the thing that maketh the anger of the Lord more manifest against us and our French confederat's in this dispensation was that remarkable passage of providence vvhile much havock vvas at the same time made upon the French coast aswel as upon ours the Dutch fleet against which we were making most fervid preparations did ride all the time safe at anchor as it were in the centre betwixt the two without any lose God thereby in a manner manifesting that he had taken these whom we in designe and endeavour had devouted to destruction into his own immediat protection a happy Omen and who knoweth but it is a speaking prognostick of what he intendeth further to doe for them and by them to the frustration and disappointment of our projects preparations how because we would not behold the Majesty of the Lord nor see when his hand was listed up nor listen to the voice of such a dreadfully menacing disswasive he mindeth to make us see and put us to shame for our envy at his people and cause the World take notice of it when he maketh the fire of his enemies to devour us Now my friends and brethren my designe in this deduction and the assignement of it's cause is not to lodge the provocation alone with the Court and leave it at their door as if we were innocent and in case to plead guiltlesse no for besid's that we have made it our ovvn for not mourning as we ought for this horrid abomination our shareing so deeply in the punishment pointeth at proveth us to be deeply guilty in the provocation That vve may therefore by repentence prevent the vvoeful day by remembring vvhence vve have fallen renew first love and return to first vvorks before he remove the Candlestick vvhich is the terrible judgement vvherevvith vve are this day threatened let us consider hovv justly he may proceed to the utmost of holy severity and observe vvhat of spotlesse equity hath been manifested in all the smoakings of his vvrath against us in all these blovves of his hand whereby our beauty is consumed let us think hovv guilty vve are for not having been stedfast in his Covenant and for not performing our vowes to the most High before he make a full end and smite us so that affliction shall not spring up the second time As it is neither possible for me to enumerat all those wayes how we have made our selves guilty of a contempt and dreadful misreguard of that Oath of God whereby vve were so expressely so solemnly indispensibly engaged in our several places and stations to walk before him to all pleasing minding and advancing above all earthly concerns reformation and Religion witnessing and shewing forth it's power in our conversation that the Nation might have been called by that name Jehovah Shammah that so the reproach of Egypt the untendernesse I mean and profanity which was amongst the multitude kept under superstitious ignorance for a great part before our late reformation might have been rolled away from us nor to accent and sharpen these challenges with their just aggravations and edge that they may cut us at the heart and make us cry out men and brethren what shall we do to be delivered from the approaching destruction and impendent ruine whereto we and our posterity for the breach of our Covenant and backslidings are exposed so I do purposely passe and forbeare it lest I should seem to exprobrat these to one party as more guiltie while I passe by another as more innocent but I am sure while all are charged with this guilt every gracious heart will suspect himself and say Master is it I And he is like to be found deepest in the transgression before God who is most ready to make light of the matter and with a supine misreguard of his own backslidings and Gods anger dare in stead of puting his mouth in the dust as guilty before him wipe it and say What have I done Let us not onely witnesse our repentance by a personal reformation but by a serious minding in our place and station the reviving of his work Let us set ourselves to weep over the dust and stones of Zion Let us give him no rest till he return and build his house and fill it with his own glorious presence making thereby our gates salvation and our walls praise God seemeth by all the dispensations of the day to put us without more debat or delay to chuse whether we will bleed or weep And if we be sparing of our teares justice is like to be prodigal of our blood If our eye do not trickle down without intermission at the sight of the desolations of the sanctuary and at the danger and distresse of all the Churches of Christ till the Lord look down and behold from Heaven he is threatening to bring distresse upon us that we shall walk like blind-men both because of our sining against the Lord and our security and to pour out our blood as the dust and our flesh as the dung Do we not see the Church and Nation ready to be devoured by the fire of his jealousy Do we not perceive the men with the slaughter weapon in their hand Why then do we delay to gather our selves together Why do vve not retire within our selves that we may return to the most High with rops about our neck as sentenced persons upon the sight of the plague of our own heart the iniquities that are in our hand but particularly our woeful departings from and breaches of Covenant with our God before the decree bring forth before the day passe as the chaff before the fierce Anger of the Lord come upon us As A none such hath been written over the head of these judgements which are already come so we may certainly conclude that A none such to make the ears of all that heare
it tingle and strike their hearts with amazement and terrour at the report thereof shall be written upon the wrath and woes that he will bring upon us for these breaches if not mourned over If the Lord employ the French Irish and English Papists which stand ready girt with their sword upon their thigh breathing out cruelty and thirsting after blood to be the executioners of his displeasure for a despised Gospel and to avenge the quarrel of a broken Covenant and punish us as our congregations have heard for our impenitencies and unperswadablenesse by all that hath yet come upon us so to make our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquity and understand his truth then may we conclude that the nation shall be made a Golgotha a place of dead mens skuls and that not onely the Massacre of Paris Alva's murther and blood-shed in the Low-Countreys the murthers and villanies committed in the valleys of Piedmont with all the Marian bloodshed persecution in our own nation but even that more bloody and barbarous Massacre of Ireland shall either be quit forgotten or mentioned as light things vvhen compared with the havocks bloods murthers fire and faggot whereby to the satiating the malice fury and revenge of her that must be drunk with the blood of the Saints and to the blunting of the edge of her instrument's rage keen to the utmost of cruelty the land shall be laid wast and made utterly desolat If we still sleep on after he hath done so much to awake us after so many voices of word and rod after he hath been saying unto us Shall I not visit for these things Shall not my soul be avenged upon such a generation as this Then there is no hope but that we shall be made a generation of his wrath nor is there another expectation but that he will accomplish his anger and cause his fury to rest upon us and be comforted O for grace to awake prevent this woeful day before he cause darknesse and before our feet stumble upon the dark mountains Let us therefore while it is called to day beware of hardning our hearts let us consider one another and every man himself to provok unto the excercise of repentance Let us think on our backslidings and breaches of Covenant that we may return unto the Lord our God before he cause his anger to fall upon us Let us hast while there is a may be of hope while there is yet a who knoweth if the Lord will return and repent and turn away from his fierce anger and think upon the Church the Nation our selves and posterity that we perish not The last thing wherewith I shall shut up this discourse is to remind you my brethren of what I formerly hinted viz That from the consideration of the manifest unrighteousnesse of this war not so much against the Dutch as against the Lord God in concurring with and assisting the sworn enemies of the reformed Religion yea and against our selves our liberties and our posterity by strengthening the hands of the most Stated adversary in the world to the prosperity of the English nation we may not onely be humbled that our Court should be left of the Lord to these wicked contrivances Religion and libertydestroying courses and that so many of our brethren should be dragged as slaves to assist in this Religion-overturning Covenant-breaking war but that as we would not by an association with the workers of these iniquities and a participation in their sin share in the remarkable punishments and terrible plagues whereby the righteous Lord will certainly be avenged for this breach of faith and Alliance for this conspiracy against the reformed Religion so we would withdraw and flee from if we would not fall into the hands of a provoked God all concurrence in carrying on this war directly or indirectly Neither let us think to please God or be approved of him if we acquiesce in a simple forbearance to contribut our assistance thereto nay somewhat else then such a neutrality is called for in a day when all things being considered there seemeth to be the most formally pitched Battel between hrist and Anti-Christ that hath been in many generations We are called under the hafard of being reput and reckoned enemies to Christ and his cause for when he is crying so formally at this time who is on my side who All that are not with him shall be esteemed enemies unto him while some of our brethren in the simplicity of their heart not knowing any thing are insnared and seduced into this quarrel and moe are deprived of their liberty dragged as slaves and pressed to go fight and sacrifice their lives to the Court and French interest in prejudice of all these precious things and interests which make life desirable and in the preservation whereof it is glory to die I say while it is thus we are called to pour out our hearts together and apart on the behalfe of our distressed shamefully by us deserted yea betrayed Protestant brethren that the Lord God of hosts would make bare his strong Arm and stand up for their help We are not onely debtors to them when we can contribut nothing else to their assistance while they must jeopard their lives in contending against the mighty enemies of the Lord and his People for all the supply and help we can make them by our assiduous and most importune beggings and beseechings of God for their safety and preservation upon the account of the reformed Religion vvhich if they be foiled and put to the worse must also fall with them as to it 's visible profession but also upon the account of the true liberty and reall interest of England let the things already mentioned to demonstrat this upon our supposed successe against them be considered and it will make the matter so evident that I am sure as he cannot be a Christian or one who wisheth the preservation of the Church and coming of the Kingdome of the Son of God in the World since there hath not been for many ages a People whose civil interest was so twisted and enterwoven with the great interest of Christ through the earth in opposition to Antichrist so I am upon rational grounds perswaded that he cannnot have the heart of a true English-man he cannot be a true lover of the real good liberty and honour of our Nation who doth not wish well unto and is not earnestly solicitous for the safety of the United provinces in this juncture Alas Shall our brethren the Dutch goe down into the valley to fight with the enemy and be engaged not onely upon the account of their own liberty their civil interests and the reformed Religion but also most evidently by an undenyable consequence for the liberty of England and the preservation of the same things amongst us And will not we goe up to the mount weep upon God to stand by them Shall they shed
their blood by sea and land for that truth and doctrine which is according to godlinesse that should be deare to us beyond and above our lives And shall not we offer them the assistance of our utmost intercessions What could we say to God Or how could we satisfy our own conscience in so cleare and crying an exigent if we should as nothing concerned in the quarrel or it's consequences forbeare to do this How will we make it appeare that we prefer Jerusalem to our chief joy and are lovers of righteousnesse on whose side soever it is found or are really desirous to do all that is in our power to prevent the bondage of the nation and preserve our selves and our posterity from being sold slaves to forraigne enemies and the exorbitant lust of our own Court if now when there is no other work for us to do we make it not our work to lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens praying and pleading by all manner of prayer and supplication either to reclaime our rulers from these unrighteous and violent courses or to preserve our oppressed brethren and appeare their protector when deserted of all humane help We would take heed how we lay our selves aside from this innocent and Christian concurrence I doubt nothing but as the Lord will write in most legible Characters and witnesse either sooner or later high and hore displeasure against all the contrivers of this war and willing contributers of their assistance to it and reckon them vvho if it vvere but by their vvords and vvishes vvitnesse their concurrence and shevv themselves enemies to our oppressed protestant friends though they neither be guilty of that theiving basensse of caping or a more formal conjunction this abominable war adversaries to the reformed Religion through the World and enemies to all righteousnesse amongst men so I am equally perswaded they shall make themselves guilty of a detestable neutrality and incurre the curse of not helping the Lord against the mighty vvho do not implore his Aid for our oppressed brethren and stirre not up themselves to pray that he would appeare to plead a cause that is so much his own Let not the vain fancy of affection to the honour of the Nation when to the height of basenesse engaged in a vvar or lothnesse to see our countrey-men put to shame even vvhen it is impossible to appeare in this engagement and cover our shame de murre or foreslovv us in this duety It 's true our Nation ought to be deare unto us the lives and honour of our countrey-men precious in our sight but we should be so much Protestants so much Christians as to acquiesce rather that vve our posterity our name and Nation should be delete perish from under the heavens of the Lord before the reformed Religion that great interest of Christ in the World by our successe be destroyed or his declarative glory suffer an ecclipse Nay let us consult either reason or Religion and then the thing which seemeth to demurre or dissvvade will certainly drive us to the duety that is pressed Let us love our Lord Jesus Christ so well let us love the honour prosperity and welfare of our Nation so well let us love the reput and renown of our countrey-men so well as to pray that his Kingdome may come and that the designes of these who in this engagement are engaged against us and our precious interests may be defeat and that their hands may not be able to performe their enterprise and there is no more driven at or desired for if the sword that is now drawn against the Dutch return victorious and drunk with their blood it will not be put up till the yoke be wreathed about our neck and it have shed the blood of such who are not so much beasts as with a tamenesse to take it on and if we be deprived of and out-live the lose of our onely treasure Religion and liberty where then is the blessednesse we spoke of Where then is the glory of our nation whereof we boasted Happy is the man who knoweth the times and what Israel hath to do while it is the plague of many that they are as asses couching under the burden Once for all let us feare and stand aloof from yea in our place and station withstand all these sinful combinations with such as have turned aside unto their crooked vvayes and designe and endeavour vvith so much vigour the overturning of his vvork lest God lead us forth vvith the vvorkers of Iniquity It 's true he must have a Church and his interest must be preserved for the gates of hell cannot prevail against it yet if vve either join vvith these consederats against him or forbeare to witnesse our desire of his abiding with us by pleading with him for the preservation of his low his abandoned born down yea and betrayed interests deliverance shall come another way for he is the God of salvations against whom in this conjunction we have lifted up the head and stretched out the hand but we our interest and whatsoever is deare and desirable to men shall be destroyed and perish But my brethren as I hope for better things of you yea for all things vvhich may prove you to be lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity of the Churches abroad and of our Nation 's interest honour and liberty though I thus speak so I desire to beleeve that not onely that poor people against whom our Court with the French are engaged the second part of Herod and Pilat's History shall be preserved though they may be brought lovv but that the destruction of the poor remnant amongst our selves vvhich that the actors may at once take away Religion and liberty together with our lives is intended shall be prevented for strong is the Lord God who judgeth the enemies of his people and pleadeth the causes of their soul Let us therefore wait on him and continue with him in these tentations carrying in the duties of the present day and amidst all the dangers which accompany a faithful acquiting of our selves in our Masters service as knowing that the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces out of heaven shall he thunder upon them The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth he shall give strength unto his King the coming of whose Kingdome is now so much opposed by these Kings and destruction of whose subjects and people is so manifestly designed and furiously driven by them and exalt the horne of his anointed when he hath provided carpenters to fray the horns of these who rejoyce in a thing of nought and have taken unto them horns by their own strength to push the inheritance of the Lord Faxit Deus et festinet and then we have the desire of our hearts FINIS REader though thou mayest sometime finde in perusing this paper a Letter redundant as ane for an or it may be the same Letter twice or a letter wanting as of for off lest for least or one letter sometime for another as these for those which will not make thee misse the sense yet these few small following lapses thou mayest thus correct P. 13. l. 16. ingenuousnesse r. ingeniousnesse P. 16. l. 19. sea r. See P. 34. l. 7. do insist r. do I insist P. 67. l. 14. sujects r. subjects P. 69. l. 9. phohibit r. prohibit P. 70. l. ult bebate r. debate P. 77. l. 33. del of ibid. l 34. Alter r. Altar P. 84. l. 21. priciples r. principles P. 96. l. ult furbishing r. fourbishing P. 102. l. 2. remembring r. remembering P. 108. l. 1. conjunction this r. conjunction in this