A SCOURGE To the REBELLIOUS OR A SERMON Preached at the Parish Church of St. Antholin in the City of London June the 28th 1685. By Steph. Willoughby M. A. For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch Mal. 4.1 Pax bello potior Enter'd according to ORDER LONDON Printed by D. Mallet for the Authour MDCLXXXV The Epistle DEDICATORY To the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Lrod Bishop of Lincoln My Lord I need not tell the World of your unwearied Diligence to find out a Blessed Name in the Book of Life that herald's your Praises above the Wings of Common Fame and sets you in a degree of Glory there neither need I trouble you with any other Apology for what I have done than even the for lorne Estate of our divided Isle the hideous Noise of a Rebellion blackens the Land with dread least Apostasie or the Invasion of a revived Julian should disturb the Peace of our Sion and though Ruin threaten my welfair in this distractted Age yet I declare I had rather follow Presbytery to the Gibbet than be a Mourner at the Funeral Solemnity of Episcopacie to the Grave I confess indeed my Oblation might have deserv'd better Entertainment if it had the management of a riper Wit But I 'll beg of all men to believe that my Genius feeds upon Pulse and Water though I fear they will allow me no more favour than usually men do to those whom the Press makes Common I 'll submit to Providence and your Lordship's Candor in the perusal of my little Book and if it should render you any Satisfaction next to God's Glory I have gain'd my only end that as the Almighty hath given an Ability to suchan examplary piece of Piety as you so that you may be a continual Succour to all the languishing Members of an Holy Jesus until the day shall come when sorrow shall be no more but Triumph and Bliss the Period of your Mortal Race is the Hearty Prayer of your Lordship's Most Faithful Servant and Obedient Son S. Willoughby A SCOURGE to the REBELLIOUS Or a SERMON Preached At the Parish Church of St. Antholin on the 28th of June 1685. Jonah 2.4 Yet Fourty Days and Ninevch shall be overthrown NOthing can favour a Christian in his journey to an immortal Canaan while he courts the false pleasures of a fading World the best whereof decay's in the bud and dy's when they begin to be The example is every Sinner but particularly the man in Paradise that was baited with an Apple and hooked in to a state of dying Hence the Apostle may seem to have alluded in his Epistle to the Romans what fruit had you in those things whereof you are now ashamed for the end of those things is Death Such were the Ninevites in my Text to whom a learned Orator Jonah the holy Prophet came pressing Repentance with the threats of Ruin Nineveh shall be overthrown * Jonah 3.5.7 so the people believed God and proclaimed an universal Fast The Marble Pallace and the Clay Cottage were hung in Sack-Cloath and sat in Ashes lest Nineveh should be overthrown In which Words observe 1. A Prediction with a Limitation Yet Fourty Days 2. A Denunciation of Desolation Nineveh shall be overthrown Whence these following Doctrines do arise 1. That Sin brings Judgment 2. That God usually warns all the Rebells of Heaven of their approaching danger as a method he takes to avert a final Destruction beyond the Grave 3ly That it is not the outward bravery of an Earthly Sphere not the Pomp and Pageantry of a sading World that can guard us if we sin from the frowns of Heaven or shield us from the Fatal Blow For Nineveh though outwardly adorn'd with galantry yet being inwardly blacken'd with deformity therefore exactis quadraginta diebus Nineveh delebitur Yet forty Days and Nineveh shall be overthrown 1st That Sin brings Judgment Sin and Sorrow Irreligion and the Scourge do meet in Families or Villages Towns or Provinces Cities or Common-Wealths When the first beats the Drum for Battle the last begins the March and leaves the sinner in a Field of Blood For as by one man Sin enter'd into the World and Death by Sin so Death pass'd upon all men * Rom. 5.4 for that all have sinned This is the Harbinger of Ruin and the Fore-runner of a dreadful Day when the unregenerate shall pass the Gates of Death and tremble at the Bar of Judgment when all the miscarriages that ever have been committed in the darkest Corners of the Land shall appear before God and Angels * Joel 3.16 Then the Lord shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem the Heavens and the Earth shall shake Sin is the Fountain Guilt and Punishment are the streams that 's the Cause this is the Effect Now all we that aim at the Haven of an Eternal Rest must pass by that Scylla and this Charybdis for says Solomon * Prv. 6.7 Can a man take Fire in his bosom and his Cloaths not be burn'd which implys that there is no sin without sorrow nay destruction certainly follows unless Heavens assisting Grace reform our Lives and conform our Obedience to all the Precepts of an holy Jesus But desolation follows Sin from the one part of the Earth unto the other it ransacks the corners and cranies of a sinful Land * Psal 107.34 The Almighty turneth Revers into a Wilderness and Water-spring into a dry Ground a fruitful Land into Barrennes for the wickedness of them that dwell therein * Josh 7.29 'T was Achan's sin that brought him under the burthen of a painful End God will pour out his Wrath upon the Families that call not upon his Name * Hos 9.11 This made Ephraim's Glory flee away from the Birth-Womb and Conception This made Sodom and Gomorah fewel for Divine Vengeance in a dreadful burning Here Sin enters the Gates and Ruin throws down the Bull-warks and Strong-holds demolishes the lofty Fabricks and makes the poor sinners Captives to the scorching Flames * Amos 1.2 This make the Habitation of the Shepherds mourn and the top of Carmel wither Hence it plainly appears that Sin brings Judgment but for the further Prosecution of my present undertaking let us consider 1st After what manner doth the Almighty afflict mankind for sin I Answer By how many methods we take to sin by so many ways God is able to send his Judgments sometimes by Water thus an universal Deluge once came upon an unrepenting World and brought perdition in a raging Wave Thus he overwhelmed Pharoah and all his Host in the Red Sea He hath Hail-stones to kill the Amorites and * 2 Kings 19. ver 35. Angels one of which will destroy in one
there is first a Prediction Yet Forty Days 2ly A Desolation Nineveh shall be overthrown Such is God's Patience to frail Mortality * Pet. 3.20 that he spar'd the Old World with long-suffering in the Days of Noah * Ps 95.10 and provoking Israel Forty Years Forty Years long was I grieved with this Generation and Rebellious Nineveh Forty Days But if the hearts of men be so obdurate that they will not turn before a Tamen or a remarkable Warning come then God will whet his Sword he hath bent his Bow prepared his Arrows Instruments of Death against his Persecutors Now the Almighty is said to warn all the Rebells of Heaven c. 1st By his Ministers such was Jonah to Nineveh and Noah to the Old World He gave them Commission to cry aloud and spare not to lift up their Voice like a Trumpet to tell the People their Sins * Ezek. 3.18 19 20 21. Son of man saith the Lord I have made thee a Watchman unto the House of Israel therefore hear the Word at my mouth and give them warning from me when I say to the Wicked thou shalt surely Dye and thou givest him not warning to save his life the same wicked man shall dye in his Iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand And if the obstinacy of sinners be such that they bring not forth Fruit meet for Repentance Then let the Ministers of God denounce Judgment * Hos 6.7 and Isa 3.11 For I have hewn them saith the Lord by the Prophets I have slain them by the words of my mouth VVoe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for thereward of his hands shall be given him But 2ly The Almighty warns a People by calling the Faithful to their long home At their departure 't is time that a whole Land should mourn for a dismal desolation is at hand They being the Props and Pillars Horse-men and the Chariots of Israel Walls and Bull-warks both of Church and State To stand as Moses in the Gap to turn away God's wrathful Indignation Such is the prevailing Efficacy that attends the Ministry that Eliphaz the Temanite said of Job * Joh. 4.4 Thy words have upholden him that is falling and thou hast strengthened the feeble Knees The wicked are spared from destruction because of the intercession of these holy ones I deny not but these may be taken away in a common Calamity But had there been Fifty Righteous in Sodom nay if there had lacked Five of the Number if there had been but Forty Five take Five from that if there had been but Forty there nay twice Ten more if there had been but Twenty there yet Ten more if there had been but Ten there Sodom would not have been laid waste in Ashes * Gen. 18.32 For says God I will not destroy it for Tens sake So tenderly affected is the Lord with good men that he will hear their Prayers for the Wicked * Numb 25. For thus saith the Lord Phinehas the Son of Eleazer the Son of Aaron the Priest hath turned my wrath away from the Children of Israel While he was zealous for my sake among them that I consumed not the Children of Israel in my jealousie Hence it appears that the dissolution of good men is a prelude to our dissolation and a timely warning to all unrepenting Sinners 3ly God usually warns a People by some remarkable Judgment visiting our Offences with a Rod and our sins with Scourges speaking unto us in this Language that we may speedily return from our wickedness lest a worse Judgment fall upon us for our Saviour saith * Luk. 13.5 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish The Almighty warns us Reas 1 1. That all mankind may discern that neither Joy nor Misery hath any dependance on either Chance or Fortune but all things both in Heaven and Earth are guided by an over-ruling hand I form the Light says God and create Darkness Isa 4 5.7 I make Peace and create Evil I the Lord do all these things Reas 2 2ly He warns a People with threats of Death that we by a newness of Life might live to dye and dye to live for ever and herein is the manifestation of his Patience and long-sufferings to the Sons of men As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked but that they turn from their Evil ways and live and he graciously indents with his departing people Turn ye turn ye from your Evil ways for why will ye dye O House of Israel Again * Ezek. 33.11 My people says God are bent to Backsliding from me but how shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together I should now insist upon the third Reason which is Reas 3 3ly t That man may have nothing to say in his own defence when Judgment is pronounced against him but Righteous art thou O Lord and true are thy Judgments Doct. 3 But I shall proceed to speak briefly of the third Proposition viz. * That it is not the outward bravery of an Earthly Sphere not the Pomp and Pageantry of a fading world that can guard us if we sin from the Frowns of Heaven or shield us from the Fatal Blow What if Nineveh had the best Situation for the Salubrity of Air and Fertility of Ground yet had sin remained Forty Days longer and even Nineveh had been destroyed her stately Structures could not priviledge her from Ruin nor her strongest holds from Destruction nor could all her Embellish'd Arts tempt or allure the angry Angel to withdraw his resolute Arme. Suppose this to have been the Worlds Wonder or the Princes amongst all Nations under Heaven Yet Forty Days and sin would have levelled her with the Dust and laid all her Pomp and Glory in the Grave Suppose this City had been surrounded with the Walls of Brass and circled round with Trenches whose Bottoms were lower than three times the Alpes are high yet even they could not beat back the Heavens revenging blow and the Reason may be given Reas 1 1. To manifest to the World that God is no respecter of Persons but that Judgment * Job 34.9 is as equal at the Pallace Gates of Princes as at the Cottage Doors of the meanest Peasants the lofty Pine and the tall Cedar the Bramble and the Shrub are all one But in every Nation Act. 10.34.35 Colos 3.25 2 Cron. 19.7 he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him and he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done and there is no respect of Persons Reas 2 2ly That Gods Wisdom Power Justice and an Odium against sin may the more appear this made the Ninevites discern their approaching Ruin Then they cryed mightily unto God yea
they turned every one from his evil way who can tell say they but that God may turn from his Anger Jonah 3.9 10. and we not perish And 't is said that God saw their works and repented of the evil that be had said he would do unto them and did it not But to conclude by way of Vse and Application Vse 1 1st Doth Sin bring Judgment Then this may serve to justisie God in all his Proceedings against this Nation As Jacob said of his Son Josephs Coat an evil beast hath devoured him So may we say of our Sins for they are the Grand Devourers both of Church and State we had been at peace with one another had not our sins the troublers of our Israel challenged the Almighty into Martial Armes for impietas ad arma vocat and the dread we have of a final Ruin openly proclaims hic fuit iniquitas hic hostilitas that here hath been some reigning and damning Sins for here hath liv'd the Atheist and the debauch'd good Fellow the sensual and the secure Man the Oppressor and the Godly Hypocrite the Unjust and Violent the Prophane and Ignorant a Plundering Achan and an Oppressing Ahab a Covetous Nabal and a Fratricidious Cain a Backbiting Ziba and a Cursing Shimei a Scoffing Cham and a Prophane Esau Thus we have drank Iniquity like water and declin'd Sin throughout all the Cases In the Nominative by Prophaneness In the Genitive by Pride In the Dative by a Carnal Security In the Accusative by Hypocrisie In the Vocative by an Insurrection In the Ablative by a Damnable Rebellion I should have left a Case for Destruction too but that comes in the Plural Number First To all ye wretchedly Prophane * Ezek 5.4 Ezek. 28.16 and therefore says God I will bring up a Company upon them and will give them to be removed and spoiled Heb. 12.19 Ezek. 23.42.47 and the Company shall stone them with Stones and dispatch them with their Swords and they shall slay their Sons and their Daughters and burn up their Houses with Fire 2ly To all ye that are proud God will deck himself with Majesty and array himself with glory he will cast abroad the Rage of his Wrath and behold every one that is proud and abase him 3ly To all ye that are carnally secure Thus the secure People of * Laish were awakened Jud. 18 27 28. when the Edge of the Danites Sword came upon them and when they burnt the City with Fire 4ly To all ye Hypocrites * Your hopes shall perish Job 8.13 and ye shall not come into the presence of the Lord. * Woe unto you Hypocrites Mat. 23.14 for ye devour Widdows Houses and for a pretence make long Prayers therefore ye shall receive the greater Damnation 5ly To all ye that make Insurrection Thus Judgment fell upon the fair Metropolis of the Dissenting Jews Jerusalem hath been a City hurtful unto Kings and because they have moved Sedition within the same therefore was this City destroyed hide me from the gathering together of the froward and from the Insurrection of the Wicked Doers 6ly and lastly to all ye Rebells There is a near affinity between an Insurrection and a Rebellion the first being the seed the last the harvest for grant Schism to be sown in a Conventicle and you may presently reap a Rebellion in a Common Wealth Isa 30.1 But woe to the Rebellious Children who take Council but not of me and that cover with a covering but not of my Spirit that they may add sin to sin Such are the fearful aggravations of England's miscarriages that we have sinn'd against mercys and many great deliverances against Truth and all Goodnss these shaddow our Gospel-land with Clouds and thick darkness and obscure the path that leadeth unto Life that few there be who find it Hence it was that Brittain like the Land of Aegypt even as the Garden of the Lord became once a second Rama where in many Rachaels wept for their slain Infants and woud not be comforted because they were not and it is even now just with the Almighty that Rebells be made Instruments of our Ruin and Voyals of Vengeance to our mourning Isle Changing our Cornets of Peace and Joy into Trumpets of Warr and Sorrow our Pens into Pikes and our Maces into Swords They like Sampson value not their own Destruction therefore are come to Engrave the History of a Rebellion with the Sword and with such Ink as Draco's Laws were wrote in Blood Vse 2 2ly Is this the top of our Terrene perfection to have our Coat of Or Conversation Sable to be grac'd with the name of Piety and yet disgrac'd with Infirmities charg'd with a load of Guilt where is our Repentance When we lye under the burthen of a Griping Conscience or the heavy pressure of Gods displeasure when we are under any temptation or in danger of falling into any sin In a word when any Judgment whether Spiritual or Temporal threatens our ruin 't is then time that the Guilty should cry aloud with a hearty sorrow for sin Save Lord or we perish and why should we distrust but that the same God that hath given us a Being and protected us from our Births to this Moment will also give us a sincere Repentance beat back our Enemies and guide our Feet into the way of Peace for we know he hath a return for the wandering Shulamite and a Kiss for the home-come Prodigal The Psalmist once lay under the frowns of heaven and was shrouded with a cloudy Day when from Adultery he fell into Blood and Wounds he kill'd Vriah the Hittite with the Sword of the Children of Ammon tho Nathan said thou art the Man and shalt surely dye yet such is the Lord's Mercy that after Repentance comes Pardon Says David I have sinned against the Lord then says the holy Prophet the Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye Joy then to the repenting sinner to him that has clip'd the Wings of Faith and dash'd in pieces the Comforts of his saving hopes and turn'd Gods Glory to Dishonour for says the Apostle * such were some of you meaning the Corinthians But ye are wash'd but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God To this End the Blessed Blood of the Paschal Lamb was once spill'd that our Scarlet Sins might change their deepest Dye and be made as white as Snow even such as brought him from his Throne and nail'd him to the cursed Tree by his blood he hath cancell'd all obligations and made us heirs of an eternal inheritance This is the fountain of Mercy that flows continually to refresh the drooping Spirits of afflicted Souls * Where the Spirit and the Bride says come and he that is a thirst come * and let whosoever will come and take of the Water of Life freely From this Fountain the Redeemed of the Lord return and come with singing unto Sion But 3ly and lastly Let us herein admire God's Love that he warns us before he smites us Yet Forty Days c. his Love insnatching our Brittain from the Jaws of Death and staving off Destruction from our Habitations here When Sodom burn'd Lot took Sanctuary in a little Village and when Jerusalem was lay'd waste some few Inhabitants had a Pella too Sing O Heavens and rejoyce O Earth that our Zoar is yet the house of God and the Gate of Heaven thither thither will we flee and be at rest For God is in the mid'st of her therefore shall she not be removed God shall help her that right early O come let us sing unto the Lord let us heartily rejoyce in the strength of our Salvation that our Land is not yet soak'd with Blood nor our dust with the Fatness of the slain that Monarchy triumphs yet above Anarchy and Shields the Throne from Cruelty and Usurpation and our Sion from Destruction that Episcopacie is yet the Cherub that guards the Paradise of God from all Invaders landed on our Christian Shore but least an over indulging Care of securing our outward Peace should seem to lesten our Christian Charity and tempt us to a loss of that within let us send as we are taught humble beseeches unto God that in his own good time he would bind up the breaches delineate the blemishes and raise up the lapsed Reputation of his divided Spouse and all for the honour as well as merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour To whom with the Father c. Amen FINIS
Night an hundred fourscore and five thousand of the Host of the Assyrians the Earth is the Lord's and all that therein is he hath made it open its jaws to swallow up Corah and his fellow Rebells Lice Frogs and Flies were the Aegyptian Plagues sometimes by a Civil War with seuds and disorder in their own dwellings thus when the Amonites had destroyed the Inhabitants of Mount Seir they at last preyed upon one another whilst the Earth was bedewed with Blood over-spread with the relicts of the spoil The Almighty's Wisdom is not limited to one particular way His ways are in the Seas his paths are in the deep Waters * Job 28.7.8 The Vultur's Eye hath not seen them the Lyon's Whelp hath not troden them nor the fierce Lyon passed by them therefore we may add a Note of Admiration with the Apostle * Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out 2ly The time when When the Sins of the people are ripe therefore God told Ibraham that his Seed should not possess the Amorites land till the fourth Generation and the Reason was given this viz. Because the Iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full 3ly What are the sins that are most destructive to a Nation or a Kingdom such indeed are all the Breaches of the Moral Law and therefore for breach of Covenant God threat'ned Judah * Jer. 22.6 7 8. Thus saith the Lord unto the King's House of Judah thou art Gilead unto me and the Head of Lebanon yet surely I will make thee a Wilderness and Cities that are not inhabited I will prepare destroyers against thee many Nations shall pass by this City and shall say wherefore hath the Lord done this to this City then shall they answer because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord. But I shall confine my self to those that are most common and therefore seem to be most destructive here First Swearing An Oath says the Apostle is the end of all strife and there is scarce found any other means or to be sure none to be compar'd with this to determine Controversies between man and man without which no Justice can appear to be no humane Society can stand 'T is twofold either Assertory or Promisory Now 't is a grievous sin when men shall make use of the Name of God either lightly or wantonly or to bind an Argument and make it a Period to a Lye Or 2ly If a man hath no regard to his absolute Necessity but wilfully acts contrary to his Promise made ratified and confirmed by Oath then he renders abuses to the sacred Name of Majesty vilifies and contemns Omnipotency and incurrs a severe penalty annexed to and denounced against the breach of this moral Precept Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain And when men are once arrived to such a height of wickedness as to make this customary breathing out Blasphemy as if they intend to infect the Air and poyson succeeding Generations with their Plagues and Damning what remains but that their own Curses shall return again for God will not hold them guiltless that take his Name in vain and the * Zech. 5.3.4 flying Roll shall torment them c. This makes a Nation sorrow for * Jer. 23.10 because of swearing the Land mourneth 2. Pride The lofty Mountains shall be barren when the lower Vallies are laden and enriched with store God resisteth the Proud and giveth grace to the Humble Shame is her hand-maid that waits upon her to the gates of ruin * Prov. 11.7 For when Pride cometh then cometh Shame and 't is observed that the Mistriss always walks before her Attendants * Prov. 16.18 So Pride goes before Distruction and an haughty Spirit before a fall 3ly Carnal Security When men are lulled asleep on the lap of a carnal Security and lye snoaring upon a bed of Time without any regard to a furture Being like the indulgeing * Sardanupalus Ede bibe lude post mortem mula volupi Epicure that took his repasts in the present Tense and would have no joyes beyond the Grave 'T is then high time if ever to shake off such a drousiness lest it prove a Lethargy unto an eternal slumber Such was the cuse of the man in the Gospel Who though he had heaped up treasures for many years yet the same Night in which he though he had been most secure in the entry munt of his worldly Goods his foul was nequired of him then what were those things which he had possess'd And such are the common vanities of our depraved Age that allure poor Souls with their flattering smiles and counterfeit delights until they tickle them to Death Therefore says our Saviour love not the World nor the things of the World for whoso loveth the World the love of the Father is not in him Why then do we slumber out our days in this transitory Sphere among such vanities that only lead down to the Chambers of Death Knowing that even it must be dissolved as well as we the Sun shall be dark'ned and the Moon shall withdraw her shining the Stars shall fall and the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken all most become a prepared Mass and a funeral Pile for the Breath of the Lords displeasure that like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle Tophet Tho' Sentence against an Evil Work is not executed speedily why should the Hearts of the Sons of men be fally set to do wickedly But let such Security have an early Summons * Isa 30.33 For such shall know while they say Jud. 81 7. peace peace sudden destruction a shall come upon them as upon a Woman in travess and they shall not escape But 4ly And lastly Division or breach of Uniformity is another National overturningand Soul-destroying sin One asked a Thessalian who were most welcome to his Countrymen He answered they who were most peaceable and declined War Now that the breach of Uniformity is a Soul-destroying and National overturning sin will appear under a twofold Consideration 1. In that it is directly contrary to the welfare of the Church and secondly to State too As for the first Herein all will pretend to one common Faith and yet ingross all the Heresies of past Ages and study inventions to find out more All are extreamly wrapped up in their own persuasions impatient to hear of any error that belongs to them zealous to enthrone their judgments and prefer their phantasies to pass into publick Ordinances and become the established forms of Religion here Nay there is scarce an Heresie but will pretend to some Antiquity to authorize its Being (a) Euseb lib. 3. cap. 33. Thus the Millenaries fetch theirs from Papias (b) August cont Donat. Tom. 7. lib 2. p. 396. The Anabaptists from Agrippinus (c) Epiph. Har. 62. p. 513. The
Socinians are as Old as Sabellius And these Reprobatarians from Simon Magus and the Manichees But so directly doth Schism oppose the welfare of our Church * Lam. 1.2 That her tears hang sore upon her cheeks because of it Hence it is that she complains Her friends have dealt treacherously with her and that amongst all her Lovers she hath few to comfort her * Illa te aiù portavit in utero aiù aluit c. Hier Ep. 47. she that once bore them in her own Bowels and nourished them in her own Womb and even courts them now with a sweet harmony to return again she that delights in no Throne save that of Bliss in no Attendants but men Tongued like Angels Winged like Eagles and hearted like Doves now sings Lachrimae for her lost Delinquents her Priests sigh and her Virgins mourn so that we may say with St. Hierom * Quis unquā mortaliū juxta viperam securos somnos capit quae etsi non percutiat certe solicitat Epiph. 47. who can sleep secure that bordereth so upon the Viper who if he sting not surely solicites and endangereth out seduction Now the first pretence that our Dissenters had was to seek only the liberty of their own Consciences but now nothing more than the Soveraignity over other mens in a Damnable Rebellion a Rebellion that wants an Argument to justifie its Being do they fight for the Protestant Religion that 's kept secure from their invasion by the over-ruling providence of Heaven and wanteth nothing save only the Conformity of those that would destroy it Is Religion grounded on those Precepts which our blessed Jesus left behind So are all the Articles of our Faith no Diminution nor Addition and as for those few remain which they approve not of we only borrow from he best of men who lived in the time when a bishop and a Martyr were both one Hence it is that they who interrupt the peace of a true Religion by nourishing a Faction if they own a God might acknowledge that they disobey his voice when he saith follow peace and holiness and what follows but the total exclusion of immortal joys without which peace no man shall see the Lord And how far from peace are the present Opposers of our Sion who defile the Press with unworthy Pens and ravish the Pulpit with prophane Tongues Our blessed Lord tells us of a sort of People among the Jews called Pharisees who took away the Key of Knowledge lock'd up the Law and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men * Mat. 23.13 that their Proselytes could as soon enter the Secreta Jehovae the privacies of Heaven as the Presence Chamber of God's revealed Will and such are by a Geneva Translation the present opposers of our quiet they lead Captive silly Women laden with their sins lock up the Kingdom of Heaven by their obstinacy and all the hopes of future joys by resisting Supremacy * Rom. 13. for whoso resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive unto themselves Damnation Now if this be the way that leadeth unto life the path in which the Redeemed of the Lord do walk then farewel Heaven and Religion too But Secondly This is a National-overturning sin and therefore prejudicial to State too Our Saviour faith If a Kingdom be divided against it self that Kingdom cannot stand But Division is the greater sin when it strikes at the root of that Government which is established by such laws as Justice and Modesty can possibly requir such as have abated the Royal dues for the interest of them that will be at peace and what is the issue of this Division but Distraction in a Common Wealth Hence Feuds and Discords Detestations and Revilings do arise The Son dishonours his Father and the Daughter arises against her Mother * Mich. 8.5 6. Brother delivers up Brother to death * Mat. 10.21 and the Father the Son and the Children arise against their Parents and cause them to be put to Death * Luk. 12.52 five in one house are divided three against two and two against three Hence it is that the Rich become Poor and they that were once of a low Degree would pride it in the Feathers of other Birds Even when the spoylers come upon high places * Ec. 10.6 7. Reloycing and Lamentations do both attend the bloody Victorys in a Civil War and as Division is sinful so our Conquests and Triumphs are mournful for by how much greater is the spoyl so much less is our Acquaintance here and much of that blood which we draw from others is part of that which runneth in our own Veins Thus the Lord doth Fan us as with a Fan in the Gates of our land bereave us of our Children our Widows are encreased above the sand of the Seas and the spoyler at Noon is brought upon us and all because we have sinned against him But who are the Actors in this bloody Tragedy * Gen. 49.7 Cursed be their Anger for it is fierce and their Wrath for it is cruel This once brought sorrow to the Greeks as Nestor said of the strife betwixt Agamemnon and Achilles Hom. il lib. 1. Plutrach calls it the Wound and Plague and Socrates the Ax and Sword Basil the Rottenness and Rust and Chrysostom the Moth and Canker of the Soul * Object Anger may be in some measure allowable if it be in the behalf of God and the defence of Goodness Only as * Exod. 32. Moses was wroth with Israel for their Idolatry * Numb 16.15 with Corah Dathan and Abiram for their Conspiracy * 1 Sam. 19.14 As Elias against Israel for their Apostacy and as * Jer. 6.11 Jeremiah was against the Jews for their Impietie But Anger amongst us is another thing the Coal is blown up and the Land is in a combustion now He whom the Lord hath sent to Crown the Earth with Peace and the Land with Fatness is disturb'd in his own Throne Malignants knock at his Royal Gates He that strengthens the Realm and fortifies Dominions with a standing Army to secure us from the Invasion of Foreign Enemies cannot be at rest for his home-bred Rebells but they like ambitious Phaaeton would mount the Fiery Charriot drawn with Fury and Revenge and ramble through our Brittish Spheres that they who follow'd might wade in Blood But he that sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed And this shall suffice concerning the first Doctrine viz. That Sin brings Judgment I proceed to the second Viz. That God usually warns all the Rebells of Heaven of their approaching danger as a Method he takes to avert a final ruin beyond the Grave Now that the Almighty's Arm is not stretched out for the Punishment of Evil Doers without an early Summons to repent that Iniquity may not be their ruin appears from the words I have hitherto insisted on where