chew these cordialls the more sweetness shall we draw from them O therefore that Christ would open our eyes that we might see his wonders in their just dimensions in the wisdome power faithfulnesse greatnesse justice and truth shining in them that those things might be glorious and excellent in our eyes which are mean and common in the eyes of others that wee might be able to answer such as see no such thing in them with the Painter who being much taken with a piece though seeming plain yet of excellent workmanship to one ignorantly asking him what worth he saw in that poor peece O friend couldst thou see with my eyes thou wouldst be ravished with it And that our mouths might be filled with praises all the day long especially upon this day purposely set apart by us thankfully to record the great and wonderfull works the true and righteous judgements of our King of Saints In delivering us from the hurtfull sword in being on our side when men rose up against us in causing our soul to escape as a bird out of the snare of the fowler making their mischief to return upon their own head causing them to sink down in the pit which they made in the net which they hid is their own foot taken And so much for the first Use the Use of Admiration The second use the Church makes here of the works of Christ is to provoke and quicken themselves up to fear him and glorifie him Who would not fear thee and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy Lord who can understand these works of thine thus great and marvellous thus just and true and not acknowledge thee to be the onely holy One Let me presse it by way of exhortation to provoke you to the same duty Where first I must open what is meant by fearing and glorifying his Name and that which is made the ground of this fear and glory because thou onely art holy and first of his holinesse Holinesse whatever it is predicated of is nothing but a separation of the thing from common uses and to sanctifie is to respect it according to such separation or as becomes its holinesse and holinesse in God is nothing but the incommunicable Eminency of the Divine Majesty exalted above all other eminences whatsoever So that to be holy alone or to be the holy one in Scripture signification and to be God is all one Hab. 1. 12. Art not thou from everlasting my Lord my God my holy One Isai. 17. 7. At that day a man shall look to his Maker and his eye shall have respect to the holy One of Israel that is unto God Psal. 89. 18. The holy One of Israel is our King that is Iehovah is our King Amos 4. 2. The Lord hath sworn by his holinesse that is the Lord hath sworn by himself So then for thou onely art holy is as much as to say Thou onely art God these works of thine thus great and marvellous thus just and true sufficiently speak or prove thee O King of Saints to be the Lord God Almighty Secondly fear who would not fear thee To fear in this sense and in this place is to give that awfull respect unto Christ as becommeth his Excellency to serve him with a singular separate incommunicable service and is so commonly in the Scripture taken for the whole duty which we owe unto him thus to fear God and to take him for our God alone is all one Gen. 31. 53. Iacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac that is by the God of his father Isaac Isai. 8. 12 13. Neither fear ye their fear that is serve not their gods sanctifie the Lord of Hoasts and let him be your fear that is let him be your God alone And glorifie thy Name thy Name that is thy self thy Divine Majesty and to glorifie this holy One is not meant by making him glorious or by adding lustre or excellency to him which before he had not for who ever hath given unto him But to glorifie him is to acknowledge his excellency and glory to do unto him what may become his glorie to set up and exalt his glory To fear him then and glorifie his Name as the holy One is to acknowledge his Divinity to own him as their onely Lord and King and renouncing all other false Christs and Mediatours to devote themselves to serve him alone and worship him with a singular separate incommunicated worship his jealousie admitting no Corrivall there is none holy as the Lord neither shall any partake with him in his glory absolutely eminently to do to him themselves and to provoke others to do as becommeth his Excellency This is the duty which the Church here engageth her self unto and is in truth the whole of Christianity the summe of that everlasting Gospel which the Angel flying thorow the midst of heaven was to preach to them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people saying with a loud voyce Fear God and give glory to him and worship him that made heaven and earth that is Iesus Christ alone by whom all things were created and by whom all things consist And this is the duty Honoured and Beloved which I desire to presse upon your selves even that you would be good Christians in your hearts and in your lives in your private places and in your publike standings to engage your selves with all your might with all your authority to advance the glory of Christ as the redeemed of the Lord as true Subjects to this King of Saints to offer up as a living sacrifice what ever you have or are to his service in advancing his Cause his Worship his Church doing it your selves and promoting it in others To this end I shall first give you a few quickning Motives to stir you up to make you ready and willing to your duty and secondly tell you what the Lord expects at your hands First consider what great and wonderfull things Our Lord hath already done for you and how little you have feared and glorified his Name to this day Who of you can count the great and righteous dealings of the Lord towards you not onely as you are men great or rich learned or noble nor onely as you are Christians redeemed called justified sanctified by this King of Saints though all and every of these mercies call loud upon you for this duty but I mean as you are a Parliament what great things he hath done for you in reference to this service wherein he hath lately employed you Hath he not carryed you in his bosome hath he not kept you as the apple of his eye as an Eagle fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them beareth them on her wings so the Lord alone hath preserved you How constantly hath he discovered and hitherto frustrated all the attempts of your enemies suffering no weapon of war to prosper that hath been
forged against you condemning every tongue that hath risen up against you in judgement I need not name the particulars I am perswaded your selves beleeve that no former Parliament can parallell Gods dealing towards you and all this while let me speak freely how little have you done for his honour and glory I know your distractions have unavoidably hindered much of what might and I hope else would have been done But say in this day of your thanksgiving if you be not infinitely behinde hand with this Lord God Almighty with this King of Saints if you have not ordinarily forgot his mercies as fast as he hath wrought them Hath he not often filled your hearts with joy and your purses with money and you like unthrifty children have played away all at a cast Have you not checked his providences not improved his deliverances and the advantages which God hath put into your hands or if your hearts at any time have been raised a little have they not presently been at a dead low ebb again have you not gone about to kill his goodnesse with your unkindnesses by provoking him at the sea even at the red sea even when and where he hath delivered you Especially have not many of you dishonoured his Name and grieved his Spirit by your sinfull lives by breaking out into things extreamly scandalous doing the devills work while you professe your selves to be the Lords servants Let me tell you the Lord will not alwayes strive in one way in the way of mercy and deliverance when he hath many a time delivered a people and they goe on to provoke him with their counsells he knowes how to say I w 〈◊〉 ll deliver them no more he knowes how to bring them low for their iniquity and to give them up into the hands of their enemy he that for a long time hath seemed unweariable in watching over an unthankfull people will prove weary of repenting and in stead of saying I have seene their wayes and will heale them will in the end sweare I will overturn them overturn them overturn them as a man wipeth a platter turning it upside down Secondly consider your own place and standing the calling office and work wherewith God and his people have trusted you at this time doe with a wide and loud voyce call upon you to feare the Lord and glorifie his Name More then the salvation of your own soules depends upon you the glory of Christ the establishment of this Church and Kingdome yea the welfare of all Christendome in great measure are all imbarked in that vessell the steering whereof is in great part committed unto you You are in part one of the Angels who are to poure out the viall of the wrath of God who should therefore come out of the temple cloathed in pure and white linnen having your breasts girded with golden girdles adorned like the Priests of God holy and pure Be you cleane yee that beare the vessels of the Lord Honourable and beloved how a bominable a thing were it to see the Angels of God live like the instruments of Satan how uncomfortable a thing would it be to the people of God who have chosen you to this worke and beare you in their hearts and present you every day at the throne of grace who are willing to sinke and swimme with you to live and dye with you that they should hear that such and such a Parliament man will be drunke that such an one dare blaspheme and swear and abuse Religion that Reformers of Religion should hate religion that such as are called to save the Kingdome should betray the Kingdome that in the grief of their spirits they should be compelled to say O Lord can these men save us tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Askelon How dishonourable would it be not only to you but to the King of Saints who useth you that they who hate the worke you are about should hate it the more in regard of your wicked lives who are intrusted with it That they should have occasion to say of you as Amurath the great Turke said of the Christians who brake their league and Covenant with him and therefore sped accordingly O Iesus are these thy Christians if thou beest a God as they professe thee to be revenge this impiety upon them So when Papists and Atheists and such as hate religion and reformation when they shall see the deformity of your lives shall say O Iesus are these thy Reformers are these the Angels that must pour out the vials of thy wrath Oh beloved do not with Elies sonnes occasion men to abhorre the work of the Lord far be it from you But let the office you are called unto the place you are set in the worke and the dignity of the work ingage you to glorifie the name of Christ that both his work may prosper in your hands and your selves be established before the Lord for ever But if you will not hearken to me let me sadly speak it to you you are as a City set upon an hill you and your wayes are looked upon by all men and if you hinder the worke by your lives which your office calls you to further it were better you had never been born into the world Them that honour Christ he will honour and them that despise him shall be lightly esteemed yea he knowes how to make use of you and your gifts to promote his cause and to destroy you for the iniquity of your lives as many of those who forwarded the building of the arke yet perished in the waters Thirdly consider how loud this dayes deliverance cries in your eares to ingage your selves to feare him and glorifie his name who hath wrought this great salvation for you It were a wastefull expence of time to insist upō the particulars of this late bloudy design in this Assembly though in others usefull All the light we have about it comes from you The many great and high hands which were ingaged in it the subtilty of the contrivance the neernesse of the execution the woefull consequences and the bloudy fruits which must needs have issued from it The good hand of God in crushing this cockatrices egge before it brake out to be a fiery flying serpent are fit things to be published and to be spread abroad in other Congregations But to you I shall only be a remembrancer of thus much That you knew not your neer approaching danger and that had this treacherous and bloudy contrivance took effect many of you had been at your long home ere this time and the rest of this Honourable Assembly hitherto the great preservers of our liberty had beene made as a Parliament of Paris the greatest instruments of the Kingdomes slavery and vassallage for time to come But the Lord was awake when we slept and hath took the enemies in the pit which they digged and hath filled your hearts
be cleared out of the fourth Chapter of this Book which is the Stage of all the Apocalypticall visions Secondly we have the things themselves or the marvellous signes which were seen in this place and they are three First The behaviour of the true Church of Christ during this time of the pouring out of the vialls ver. 2 3 4. Secondly The description of the seven Angels the instruments who were to pour out these vialls their apparatus qualifications and furniture they come out of the temple clothed in pure and white linnen and having their breasts girded with golden girdles Habitu cluctu sacerdotali ornati like the Priests of God Ezek. 44. 17 18. pure worshippers Thirdly A description of the Church in reference to Christs presence with it his owning and protecting it though after a more dark manner vers. 8. The Temple was filled with smoak from the glory of God and from his power c. alluding to Gods taking possession of the Tabernacle Exod. 40. 34. and of Solomons Temple 1 King 8. 10 11. The first of these I am to deal with at this time viz. The behaviour of the Church during the time of the pouring out the vialls Wherein observe two things first their state verse 2. secondly their work verse 3 4. Their state I saw as it were a sea of glasse mingled with fire and them that had gotten the victory over the Beast c. stand on the sea of glasse having the harps of God This sea of glasse or crystall is described Chap. 4. 6. placed before the Throne alluding to the great Laver or Sea in Solomons Temple wherein the Priests were to wash themselves from their uncleannesses whenever they approached nigh to the Altar of God to offer sacrifice onely that was made of brasse this of a more pure and transparent metall In this Laver the Reformed Churches had lately been washed from the foulnesse and pollutions of Antichristianity out of which they had newly escaped having gotten the victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his Mark and over the number of his Name and being cleansed in this Laver though mingled with fire whether of contention or other affliction I dispute not they stand up on the brim of it with the harps of God in their hands with instruments of praise as the Israelites did upon the banks of the Red-sea thorow which they had lately passed and in it been baptized unto God singing a song of praise for their great deliverance from Pharaoh and his Hoast who perished in the pursuing of them This was their condition and their posture a delivered cleansed condition a praisefull posture Secondly their work during the time of the pouring out the vialls they sang an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a triumphant song Canticum gratulatorium eucharisticum a song of praise and thanksgiving wherein observe two things first the Title of the Song The Song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb Secondly the subject matter of the Song Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty c. The title First the song of Moses the servant of God i. e. such a Song and upon such an occasion as Moses and Miriam and the rest of the Israelites sang unto God when they had passed through the Red sea 2ly and the song of the Lamb we have many songs of the Lamb recorded in this Booke cap. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power c. is the constant song of the whole Church of Christ cap. 5. 9. the same quire sings a new song to the Lamb when hee had taken the booke to unloose the Seales thereof cap. 11. 17. the same Church sings another song of prayse upon the resurrection of the two witnesses and the fall of the tenth part of the great City We give thee thankes O Lord God Almighty c. cap. 12. 10. upon Michaels victorie over the dragon there is another Song of praise Now is come salvation and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ c. cap. 14. 3. there's a New Song sung before the throne which no man could learne but the hundred forty and foure thousand which were redeemed from the earth Now whether this Song of the Lamb be the Song which those harpers sang or whether and how farre it is composed out of the rest of the songs recorded in this Book is needlesse as some Interpreters doe to enquire because we have the matter of the Song layed downe in so many words it is sufficient that it 's therefore called the Song of the Lamb because it was indited by the Spirit of the Lamb and tends to advance the glory of the Lamb their Saviour and Deliverer 2. The matter of the Song which divides in selfe into two parts 1. The Churches confession of the nature of those workes which Christ doth in the pouring out the seven vialls ver. 3. viz. Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints i. e. They are great and wonderfull fit onely to bee done by him who is the Lord God Almghty just and true well becomming him who is the King of Saints 2. The use which the Church makes of these works which is threefold 1. They record celebrate and publish them 2. They engage and binde themselves faster and closer to him in his worship and service Who shall not feare thee O Lord and glorify thy Name for thou onely art holy 3. They prophetically foretell the use which shall be made of these workes by such as yet were strangers viz. As Christ proceedes to manifest these wonderfull and righteous plagues and judgments upon the Antichristian world the people of Italy Germany France England Scotland Denmarke Sweden Polonia Hungaria and the rest of the elect shall shake off the Yoke of Antichrist and submit to the Scepter of Iesus Christ for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest Thus you have a plaine view of the Text together with the interpretation out of which many excellent and usefull truths might be observed As first that all which is done in the pouring out of the seven vialls is the wrath of God upon the Antichristian faction so that however in the pouring out of every viall there is something which is grievous to the reformed Churches to humble purge and quicken them yet there is no wrath upon anywhere ever it is poured but onely as there is something of Antichrist among them which Christ will search for find and destroy where-ever he finds it Consider the whole work of the vialls and you shall finde noysome and grievous sores upon them onely that have the mark of the Beast the drinking of bloud the scorching with heat the gnawing of their tongues for paine the being destroyed with hailstones c. All these light
greatnesse of his strength we finde him leading them in uncouth wayes which they knew not and wayes which to them seemed unpassable His way hath been in the sea and his pathes in the great waters and his footsteps were not known yet still leading his people like a flock sometimes removing mountains our of their way making them flow down at his presence sometimes skipping over them sometimes his way hath been in the whirl-winde and in the great storm yet always working in such wayes and in such a manner as that first his own people have thought he could intend nothing but their ruin as Ionah did when cast into the Sea and swallowed up by the Whale an unlikely way of deliverance and in such wayes secondly as to the enemy have ever seemed most advantagious to their own purposes and destructive to the Church God suffering them to lay the Plot for their own ruin to dig a pit for their own destruction and making the ways by them intended for the Churches ruin to be the greatest meanes of their deliverance as fully and clearly as Hamans Plot proved the exaltation of the Iews and Mordecai and the ruine and destruction of himself and family a Volume might be filled with instances of this kinde The device of Charles the fifth to disinherit the Duke of Saxony to keep the Landgrave of Hessen in perpetuall imprisonment thereby intending utter ruine to the Protestant party in Germany was the very occasion of the confederacy of Smalcald which almost drove Charles out of Germany and established the Protestant party in the liberty of their religion The Massacre in France in which were destroyed within the space of thirty dayes as the Historian reports it above seventy thousand Protestant souls proved ye know a means within a short space to double and treble if not quadruple their numbers in that Kingdom and procured them publike Edicts and Cautionary Towns for the liberty and security of their Religion which before they had not The cruelty and tyranny of the Spaniards in the Netherlands one of whose Deputies Duke D'Alva boasted that he put to death six and thirty thousand Hugenots and Protestants hath been the greatest meanes to prevent the swelling of his intended Monarchy and increase the freedom and strength of the Protestant party not onely in the five United Provinces but in all these parts of Europe Who that hath read the Scottish Story is ignorant that the Archbishop of St. Andrews cruell burning of Mr. George Wischart conferred much to the Reformation of that whole Kingdom The time would fail me to tell you of the desperate Conspiracies of the Priests and Jesuits in England all the time of Queen Elizabeth of the Powder-treason and their unwearied Machinations in other States and Churches and how constantly the Lord hath turned them all to the advantage of his Church and to bring ruine and destruction upon the contrivers of them And if any of you have not had time or means to observe these things in Story your eyes cannot but see them all fulfilled in Christs late and present dealings with our selves and our brethren of Scotland For them what great things hath the Lord lately done and by what very weak means hardly the fifth part of the Nobility as I have heard appearing for them the greater part openly opposing them scarse one fourth part of the Kingdom owning the Cause how often were they at their wits end when some unexpected door was opened to them And were not all their works wrought for them by the rage cruelty and cunning of their enemies Were not the book of Service and the book of Canons sent and obtruded upon them from England the occasion of their late mercies was not the tyrannie of a few of their Prelats a means to unburden them of their whole Prelacy and when they were as much shut up in straits as the Israelites at the Red-sea and knew not over-night what would become of them the next morning then constantly some absurd desperate Plot or other of their enemies brake out which gave them an out-gate to escape And even so hath God dealt with England his work amongst us is of the very same warp and woof The great mercies which we enjoy the great deliverances we have lately received from what a high hand have they come to what a very dead low ebbe were we brought Our liberty almost swallowed up and turned into slavery our Religion into Popery and Arminianisme and even then God remembred us in our low estate and by what instruments becommeth me not to speak much in your own presence Your selves know how sinfull and all the Kingdom how mean and contemptible in the eyes of your adversaries they looking upon you as Sanballat and his company did upon Nehemiah and his builders and with like scorn uttering the same reproaches What do these feeble Iews will they fortifie themselves will they make an end in a day will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish even that which they build if a fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall And well may you take up the builders complaint Hear O our God for we are despised and yet by such despised broken vessells hath the Lord hitherto delivered us And which is still more wonderfull to the glory of God be it spoken our greatest deliverances have been more promoted by the cunning treachery and violence of the enemy then by the foresight vigilancy and strength of our best friends The Prelates late Canons and Oath purposely contrived for the perpetuating of their Hierarchy and their other treacherous and malicious endeavours against the State joyning with the Papists and with them labouring to turn all into confusion rather then suffering the least abatement of their former pride and tyranny have helped thus farre towards the taking them away both root and branch The multitudes of calumnies and reproaches cast upon the Parliaments just proceedings slighting their Authority slandering their intentions misinterpreting their actions have they not through the goodnesse of Him who preserveth them from the strife of tongi been an occasion of making their Authority Priviledges intentions actions clear as the Sun at noon day And to instance no further this late bloudy and mischievous Design in which this Honorable Senate this famous Citie and with them our lives religion laws and liberties had undoubtedly been made a prey to their mercilesse rage and fury the Lord hath not onely brought to light without any foresight or watchfulnesse of yours but made those that were the contrivers to be the discoverers their own evidence and confession being the thread which lets you into the depths and labyrinths of those counsels which they had digged deep to hide if possible even from the eyes of God himself and thereby giving you a great opportunity the Lord in mercy teach you to improve it to advance the glory of his Name for
the present putting a new song of praise into your mouthes A prop for your faith to stay upon for time to come the Lord hath delivered and will deliver A further advantage to break the power of the malicious and ungodlymen and a warning to you to beware of neuters and secret false friends who though they take sweet counsell together with you and speak you fair beleeve them not for there are seven abominations in their hearts And by all this ye are I suppose fully satisfied that these works of our Lord God Almighty are as marvellous for their manner as before you have heard they were for their time kinde and instruments working light out of darknesse causing even the experience of the Church in these later ages clearly to interpret Sampsons riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetnesse and making all the bloudy and cruell entendments of the Antichristian enemie in the effect no more hurtfull and dangerous to the Church then his was to Phereus Iason when he run at him with his sword and in stead of killing him opened an incurable imposthume and saved his life Secondly as they are great and wonderfull so as evident is it that they are just and true the justice of them is celebrated chap. 16. 5. Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus and chap. 18. 6. we finde the Angel calling upon the Church Reward her as she hath rewarded you double unto her double according unto her work in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double how much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her O in what exact ballances hath Christ proportioned and weighed out gall and wormwood reproach and shame bloud and ruin to these enemies making them to drink of the same cup which they had before reached to his servants They had grievously afflicted the bodies of the Saints of Christ and now behold upon them noysome and grievous sores They had drunk the bloud of the Saints and Prophets and now behold rivers and fountains of bloud given them to drink They had their Edicts to kill heretikes and Lollards as they called them and now in England and among the Netherlands it 's made capitall for the Iesuits and other Incendiaries and Factors for the Whore to be found amongst them They had burnt the worshippers of Christ and now behold themselves scorched with fire and great heat They had before deprived the Saints of the light of the Scriptures and now behold the Beasts Kingdom overspread with darknesse so that they gnaw their tongues for pain Thus you see the King of Saints rendring according to that rule of justice Eye for eye breach for breach tooth for tooth full measure shaken together and running over Ecclesiasticall historie is full of instances which speak home to our purpose in this particular of Emperours Kings Nobles Popes Bishops Priests men women of all ranks and degrees upon whom these righteous judgements of God have been made manifest you have a whole Catalogue of them digested to your hands in Mr. Foxes book of Acts and Monuments I shall let passe this particular onely with this one observation That whereas this great enemy this Abaddon this Apollyon is made up of all the hatefull qualities of all those Kingdoms which heretofore have oppressed the Church of God and is therefore called Aegypt Sodom Babylon so the wrath of these vialls poured out upon him is the mixture and quintessence of those plagues and judgements whereby all those Kingdoms formerly were destroyed for here you have noysome and grievous sores waters turned into bloud palpable darknesse thunder and lightning and great hailestones the plagues of Aegypt here you have the drying up of the river Euphrates the means of the destruction of Babylon fire and brimstone the judgement of Sodom Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are all thy judgements And they are as clearly celebrated for their truth Even so Lord God Almighty True are all thy judgements was the voyce of the Angel out of the Altar at the pouring out the viall upon the Rivers and Fountains of waters turning them into bloud and after they were all poured out Iohn heard the voyce of much people in heaven saying Hallelujah salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God for True and righteous are his judgements for he hath judged the great whore which to understand you must know that these vialls were put up long ago by Christ and laid up in store with him and sealed up among his treasures and written in a book and not onely so but the Counterpart of this book was sent and signified by his Angel unto his servant Iohn and the epoche or time of their beginning and the whole series of their accomplishment for time and place matter manner and measure exactly represented to him whereof many things are already come to our knowledge being fulfilled just ad amussim apocalypseôs according to the standard of the Revelation and although some things concerning the interpretation of these plagues and curses remain yet dark unto us being not fully accomplished yet when all these vialls shall once be poured out the whole Church shall be able to say of them as Ioshuah did in another case of the blessings You know that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to passe and not one thing hath failed So not one drop of all these vialls hath fallen to the ground in vain not a plague failed but all have accomplished the things for which they were sent write them down These are the true sayings of God If you would know some reason why Christ delights to proceed after this manner in the destruction of this enemy I answer First because this enemy is the master-piece of all the Devils workmanship the Dragons darling to whom he hath delivered over his power and his State his throne and dignity whatever Beelzebub prince of the Devils and the whole Conclave of hell could invent all hath been infused into this grand Adversary there was never yet State framed in the world by the wit and art of man more wisely contrived and plotted more powerfull and forcible to subdue the whole world unto it self by claiming a Ius divinum laying a foundation for firm obedience in mens consciences and having in it sufficient to nourish all mens affections and to fit every mans humour that each fancie may be satisfied and each appetite finde what to feed on yea what ever may prevail with any man is there to be found wealth for the covetous honour for the ambitious learning for the studious great employment for metald spirits multitudes of ceremonies for the superstitious gorgeousnesse of shows for the vulgar and simple miracles for
with joy and given you another day to praise him Can you upon this day of thanksgiving doe lesse then enquire What shall we render unto the Lord I will tell you what he calls for and expects from you and I beseech you by these mercies of God that you render it unto him That you present your bodies and your soules a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service that you feare him and glorifie his name for he only is holy Fourthly and principally consider the late sacred Covenant and vow which you have all entred into you have not only entred into it your own selves but intend to draw the whole Kingdome with you into the Oath of God let me minde you what you have done you saw we were designed to destruction and that Gods meer mercy hath hitherto prevented it You see there are still destructive and trayterous designes in hand in severall parts of the Kingdome you acknowledge your own sins with others have deserved all these judgements which either lye upon us or are threatned against us and as a means to prevent our utter ruine you think it necessary to enter into this Covenant with almighty God and you have done it wherein you acknowledge the desert of your own sins and you confess your hearty sorrow for them and your reall intentions to amend your own lives and what you will further doe to save and preserve Religion and all this you have done in Humility and reverence to the Divine Majesty calling the God of Heaven the searcher of all hearts to witnesse your integrity as you will answer it at that Day when the secrets of all hearts shal be disclosed Think now how deeply you are engaged and brought under the curse of God if you perform not this solemn Covenant Think how horrid a thing it will prove for any of you to stand as perjured men before God in marters of such Consequence Shall he break his Oath said God of a King and be delivered Shall he escape that doth these things O Beloved It is a fearfull thing in such cases especially to fall into the hands of the living God to whom you have appealed and whose vengeance if you wilfully fail you have invocated upon your own heads Lay therefore your hands upon your heart and think what your purposes and Resolutions are in these few things which I shall mention to you First for what is past what reall sorrow have ye in your hearts for those sins which you call God to witnesse you are thus sorry for How grievous is the remembrance of them how intolerable do you feel the burthen of them or do you take Gods Name in vain calling him to witnesse of the sorrow for those things which he knows you take pleasure in Think what answer you will make to this Secondly What are your Resolutions for time to come You know what blasphemies what prophanenesses what uncleannesses you have hitherto lived in what irreligion and libertinisme your selves and families have hitherto been guilty of else you would never have acknowledged your sins to have deserved these judgements Now I demand what you resolve to do for time to come Do you purpose to go on in your old ways He that was unjust to be unjust still he that was filthy to be filthy still and had no other purpose but to lead the Kingdom a dance to go before them in the formality of a service without changing your Leopards spots or your Blackmoors skins or in truth be you resolved being changed by the renewing of your minde to become new creatures to serve Christ in newnesse of spirit that Christ alone may reign as Lord and King hereafter both in your hearts and lives and families as Ioshuah did when he bid the Israelites choose whom they would serve for himself he was resolved though he went all alone He and his family would serve the Lord Thirdly as you are Parliament men what are your purposes concerning your faithfulnesse to Christ and the Cause of Christ and his Church committed to your hands If you should altogether fail deliverance will come another way the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church of Christ But are ye really resolved to save the Church and Kingdom though your selves should perish in the attempt or do you intend under pretence of being factors for Christ to drive a trade for Satan and Antichrist to betray Religion and Liberty or to trade in both the Indies to have a stock going on both sides that you may save your own stake which side soever win or lose to save your own skin whatever become of the Kingdom Like a certain Despot of Servia of whom I have read in the Turkish History who lived among the Christians and kept correspondence with the Turk who was a publike worshipper of Christ but a secret circumcised Turk that that Turkish mark might save him if need were Have any of you such cunning devices to procure externall safety with the certain ruin of your souls Honoured and Beloved I hope better things of you all though I thus speak I hope you purpose according to your Covenant and what God requires and expects at your hands to stick close to Christ and his Cause to sink and swim with the Church and Cause of Christ with singlenesse of heart and unwearied resolutions to carry on the work of God to value your selves onely as his Instruments and let him do by you and with you what is good in his own eyes And for your Encouragement let me speak a little of the third Use which the Church here makes of these great and marvellous these just and true wayes and judgements of this King of Saints which is a Propheticall Prognostication and foretelling of what shall further happen upon the pouring out of every viall and that is more and more people and nations shall come in and submit to Jesus Christ the Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest And this inables me for your comfort to help you to an answer of the most difficult question and most perplexing thought that I am perswaded is in the heart of most men living at this day viz. God hath cast our Lot in very perplexed times all the banks are broken down all Gods judgments seem to invade us at once and Gods administration to the Kingdom is such that the wisest man cannot guesse by Gods dealing to day what he intends to do with us to morrow Sometimes the Lord enables a handfull of ours to chase thousands of the enemies Sometimes multitudes of ours flee as at the shaking of a leaf when none pursues them Sometimes we have rare Instruments unexpectedly raised up by and by very usefull men are taken off and hopefull men prove treacherous Sometimes the Lord seems to intimate as in a Cock-pit that one fight shall end the businesse one way or other otherwhiles all