put together amounts to thus much that Gods presence in his Covenant with any people implyes that they are dearly beloved of him that hee workes all their workes for them and shields and defends them against all their enemies I come now to the Application of it wherein because I chiefely intend the next poynt the Condition of Gods presence I will briefely make two or three Collections onely which I conceive may be most seasonable and sutable to your office and to the occasion of your meeting here this day First is it so that the glory and happinesse of a nation stands in the presence of God in his Covenant Then I humbly pray you all to take notice what are the greatest Evills and who are the most desperate Traytors against the King Church and State of England at this day I doubt not but you have a multitude of complaints of Grievances presented to the Parliament house all at least pretended to be contrary to the welfare of the State give mee leave to put up one Great One and to informe you who bee the Authors of the greatest Grievances and Evills that can possibly betide the Kingdome of England even they that would rob us of our God Solomon saith A man that wasts his Father and chaseth away his mother is a miserable wretch And I know if evidence should he brought into this Honourable assembly against any one that had deprived the King of a Subject you would think him worthy of severe punishment But higher if you should light upon one that should endeavour to deprive the King and Kingdome of a wise Counsellour and States man in the multitude whereof is the safety of the Kingdome But higher yet if any should be found that had lift up his hand against his Majesty the Lords anoynted who is the breath of our nostrills if any such should be discovered would you not say of them as she said to David Let the soule of my Lord bee bound up in the bundle of life and let the Lord sting the soules of his enemies as out of the middle of a sting yea would not every true hearted subject in the Kingdome say thus also O but Honourable and beloved they that would rob us of the glory of our King and Kingdome that would take away all our happinesse and protection and prosperity that would leave us naked to our shame that wee should become a scorne and spoyle are not they worse than any of the former You will say Who is he and where is he that dares presume in his heart to doe so I pray stay for a full answer till the next poynt touching the Condition of enjoying God be unfolded in the meane time take this in part I pray God there bee none such met this day to fast and pray before the Lord Every sonne of Belial every one that is a Rebell against God every one that workes wickednesse is that wicked Haman that sells Hester and all her people to destruction If there be any such here you will give me leave being Gods Minister and your Servant to discharge my Office faithfully Should there bee but one such I say among you that are called together to bee the Repairers of the breaches to such a one let me thus speak If thou be found to bee the Achan that keepes God from going out with our armies the Jonas that art ready to cast away the ship so that there is no hope of our safety till thou be cast out if thy conscience accuse thee that thou art a child of Belial an Idolater a superstitious person a prophane Esau lay this close to thy heart how miserable and wretched a man thou art that not onely adventurest thine own soule to most certaine ruine in opposing the Lord but as another Sylla thou pluckest out thy fathers purple haire and deprivest the Kingdome of the glory of it so that it may be written upon thy Grave-stone This man was the ruine of his King and Countrie And for the Lords sake Honourable and beloved take it to heart and lay it up with you that if Gods presence be our glory then those that would robus of it are our greatest enemies Think of them all as he upon lesse ground said of the Children of Dan. You have taken away my God and what have I more And secondly let me beseech you all in this your great Nationall Councell and Assembly to take seriously into your thoughts what may be the best way of lengthening out our tranquillity Beloved all the Nations in Christendome have beene in grievous perplexities many yeares round about us wee have beene hitherto kept as another Land of Goshen where light hath still shined when all others have beene in darknesse And I know the hearts of some of you have sadly expected when God should come and erect his Iustice seat among us or give the sword a Commission against us now you are met for this very thing to provide for our welfare for the Lords sake take care to keepe him with us if he goe all goes wee can never light our Candle if this Sunne bee set wee shall never fill our Buckets if this Fountaine bee shut up All your counsells and advising will be nothing if God say I will stay no longer in England Wee shall then bee a spoyle to any enemy a few unarmed men will bee too hard for us all It is recorded of the Palladium in Troy that while that Image remained there the City was impregnable and that till the Greeks lighted on that stratagem to steale that Idoll away they could never winne the City What ever fancy there was in that you know how much it concernes us to keepe our GOD with us let your maine care bee to fixe and settle him therefore among us and then wee are safe if you let him goe we are an undone people Thirdly if Gods presence in his Covenant bee the glory and safety of a people then may all of you undertaking any service for GOD and his Glory most comfortably and securely rest on God to defend and protect you against all dangers It is no question but your enemies are mighty malicious and cunning and it may bee they are digging as deepe as Hell for Counsell to doe you mischiefe in this great way and work that you are in But while you are with God God will bee with you Are not five Sparrowes sold for a Farthing saith our Saviour Are not you more worth than all the Sparrowes in the World are you not in Gods Worke As Caleb said The Lord is with us feare not them They shall all be bread for us Goe on boldly use what providence you can to prevent dangers but comfortably remember that the Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous runne to it and are safe I will conclude this with a story of Luther which he tells of a Bishop of Magdenburg A Duke of
A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons now assembled in PARLIAMENT At their publike Fast November 17. 1640. Upon 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while yee bee with him and if yee seek him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you By STEPHEN MARSHALL Batchelour in Divinity Minister of Finchingfield in ESSEX Published by Order of the said House LONDON Printed by J. Okes for SAMUEL MAN dwelling in St. Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Swan 1641. A Sermon Preached before the Honourable house of Commons at their publick Fast 2 CHRON. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while yee bee with him and if yee seeke him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you THis portion of Scripture is a part of a Sermon preached to the whole body of the Kingdome of Judah and a fitter I do not know in all the Bible to be preached upon to the Representative body of a Christian State especially on a day when they are drawing nigh to God The more inexcusable should I be in adventuring to shew my weaknesse at this time in this place were I not able to call the most High to witnesse that nothing but conscience of my duty kept me with Jonah from running away from the Lords worke But Amos the herdsman must prophesie at the Kings Chappell when God commands him The speciall end of your meeting this day is to afflict your soules before God that so with Ezra you might seeke a right way for your selves and the weighty affaires of his Majesty and the whole State and the speciall errand I have to deliver from the Lord is to assure you of the same truth although in other words which Ezra told the Persian Emperour that the hand of God is upon them for good that seek him but his power and wrath against all them that forsake him viz. That God will be with you while you be with him Which Text that you may the better understand give me leave to carry you a little back and give you a plain view of the state of the Church of Iudah at that time In the dayes of Rehoboam there had beene an horrible apostasie from the purity of Gods worship Religion was very much corrupted and the forces of the Kingdome were exceedingly weakned And in Abijahs time things grew worse and worse But now when Asa being a godly man came to the Crowne he begins at the right end and makes it his first work to set upon reformation of Religion taking away the Altars of the strange Gods and the high places brake down the Images cut downe the Groves commanded Judah to seeke the Lord God of their Fathers and to doe the Law and the Commandements casting out whatsoever was a stench in the Lords nostrills and he prospered in whatsoever he put his hand unto This done hee then calls all his Nobles and Princes and Elders together and tells them that they had sought the Lord in matters of Religion and God had beene found of them and that now they should goe and fortifie the Kingdome and so they did in all the Cities and prospered But in the midst of this worke comes out Zerah the Cushite the Ethiopian or rather the Arabian Ethiopia lying beyond Egypt with an Army of a thousand thousand and three hundred Chariots it may be the greatest Army that ever you read of in any story with these he breakes in suddenly upon Asa But he humbles himselfe before God betakes himselfe to prayer tells the Lord that it was all one with him to helpe by many or few And in the Lords name hee went out to encounter with that huge Army over which the Lord gave him a glorious victory and the spoyle of the enemies Country to boote Now as they were comming backe to Hierusalem the Lord calls out Azariah the sonne of Oded to make the gratulatory Oration for their safe returne and conquest in these words that I have read and so forward to verse the eighth and so I am come to my Text In which that I may make as briefe a way as I can possibly to the matter that I shall insist upon two things are to be unfolded First the scope and intent of the Prophet and that is laid downe in the latter end of his speech Bee strong therefore and let not your hands be weake that is goe on with the good worke of Reformation of Religion wherewith you were in hand before the enemy interrupted you Secondly the arguments whereby this is pressed and they are two The first is taken from their owne present happinesse who were in Gods wayes The Lord is with you while yee are with him and if yee seeke him hee will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you The second is taken from the misery of the ten Tribes who were out of Gods way concerning whom he speaks to this effect That for a long time Israel that is the ten Tribes had bin without God without a teaching Priest and without law and as they had cast off God so God had cast off them howbeit if they would have sought to God and turned to him God would have bin found of them but they going on in the way of desperate apostasie the Lord vexed them every where in the City in the Country in the Family every where God was too strong for them as certainly God will make every one to know that he hath a hard match to encounter with that dares to beare Armes against the Lord And so from their misery hee presseth Asa and his people to go on in the right course to prevent the like for comming upon themselves This second Argument of the misery of the ten Tribes belongs not to my worke I betake my selfe therefore to the other wherein I shall spend the allotted time for this exercise namely The present happinesse of the Church of the Iewes that were in Gods way in which observe these two things First what the happinesse was that they enjoyed in these words The Lord is with you Secondly the Condition upon which they enjoyed this happinesse or the termes upon which they held it and that is First more generally propounded The Lord is with you while you are with him Secondly more particularly and exegetically expounded in the next words If yee seeke him hee will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you I begin with the first of them The present happinesse of the Church of the Iewes Iehovah is with you Where there is but one question to bee answered for the cleering of the Doctrine that I shall a while insist upon and that is what presence of God is here intended by the Prophet Iehovah is every where Whither shall I goe from thy presence Nay he is not onely present every where but he manifests
goes if God goe It is a knowne story in the 1. Samuel 4. that when the Arke that was called the glory of God the visible token of Gods presence in the Covenant of Grace was taken Captive by the Philistines Phineas his wife bowed her selfe and travailed and though they after told her that a Man-child was borne shee regarded it not but called his name Ichabod saying The glory is gone because then Gods presence departed from them What need I say any more The worke of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God and the Redemption of the VVorld by him was such that one maine end of making this goodly frame of Heaven and Earth was that it might be the stage upon which that Worke should be acted A worke wherein not onely all mans happinesse lyes and whence it flowes but wherein all Gods Attributes are glorified to the highest and for which the Church Triumphant shall thinke Eternity short enough to prayse God Of this Worke I say the summe is given in one word Immanuel God is with us And plaine Reason may demonstrate that it must needes be so What is glory but the shining out of excellency VVhat is happinesse but the fruition of the greatest good Now there is no Excellency that shines out in any thing like to that which beames out from God in the Covenant of grace to his people There is no good that any people can enjoy like the fruition of God in that Covenant It is true God manifests himselfe to all the Nations in the World in him they live and move and have their being yet it is as in a darke Cloud they grope after him and cannot feele him but in the covenant of grace men behold him with open face like the Sunne shining in his strength as through a Mirrour Such a Mirrour as the Prince of Orange had that would shew the Sunne in his full bignesse and beauty Thus God shines in the Covenant of grace The Prince is virtually present in all places of his Kingdome but his Court is his Glory So where God is in his Covenant there Heaven is therefore this is usually in the Scripture phrase called the Kingdome of Heaven But if yet more particularly you enquire what Gods presence in his Covenant implyes As he who being askt what God was required first a day then two then three alledging that the more he studyed it the lesse able hee found himselfe to answer it So the more I thinke of this the more unable I see my selfe to make a satisfactory answer what I can take thus To the Nation of the Iewes it implyed something which concernes not us but mystically or analogically As to have the Arke Vrim and Thummim to have God to reveale himselfe in Visions and Dreames To answer by Thunder c. which my haste allowes me not leisure to explaine But to them and to all other people Gods presence in the Covenant of Grace implyes these three things First the owning and acknowledging of them to be his owne separated people knit to him in a league of love he is their God they are his people they have a propriety in God and God hath a propriety in them so that they may say of Him This God is our God and God of them This people is my people Now this is the greatest happinesse nothing can exceed it It hath bin often questioned what was the greatest favour that ever Almighty God did for man Some preferre Creation wherein man received his being and excellent endowments some Redemption wherein man is recovered to a better and surer estate than hee injoyed in Creation but out of question to be a Iedediah beloved of God to be neare to God as his Children as his Spouse is the comprehension of all that can be said or thought of the happinesse of a people And if you looke into the Scriptures you shall see that Gods love to his peculiar people is such a love as carryes with it all relations It is the love of a Father to his Children I will be your Father and you shall bee my Sonnes and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty It is the love that a man beares to the wife of his bosome I will marry thee to mee in righteousnes and truth and mercy It is the love of a friend I have called you my friends And Abraham the Father of all that are in Covenant he was stiled The friend of God And from this interest in God flow innumerable priviledges for being thus beloved of God and precious to him it followes that they are accepted in their services that all their sinnes are pardoned and that they have liberty to aske any thing that is good for them When Solomon was beloved of God 2 Kings 3. 5. God bids him Aske what I shall doe for thee It is but aske and have And this is the confidence that wee have in him that if wee aske any thing according to his will he heareth us They have friendship with all his friends In Zach. 8. 23. Ten men shall lay hold upon the skirt of one that is a Iew of whom they be able to say Wee have heard that God is with you Indeed to have God thus making himselfe over to a people to bee their portion to love them and to owne them is not onely an heaven upon earth but the very heaven of heaven Secondly Gods presence with a people in his Covenant implyes Gods assisting them and prospering all the workes they put their hands unto This is the ordinary expression of the Scripture Every thing prospers where God is It is said of David whithersoever Saul sent him he prospered for God was with him Every house where Ioseph came prospered for God was with him In all undertakings in all Counsels for wars for peace for trade c. Gods aid and assistance comes in If they decree a thing God will establish it If they commit their worke to him the very thoughts of their hearts shall be established Whatsoever they doe God will make it to prosper Thou O Lord workest all our workes for us Whereas now if God be absent all mens endeavours are to no purpose in any kind Except the Lord build the house they labour but in vaine that build it It is to no purpose to plough that field that God will have lye fallow Ye earne much saith God but it comes to nothing ye sow much and bring in little ye eate and have not enough yee drinke and are not filled he that earneth wages puts it into a bottomlesse purse What was the reason the Lord blasted all And it must needs be so all the second causes worke onely by vertue of the first the great wheele carries on all the other A notable example of this that Gods presence is mans prosperity wee have in Hag. 2. where when God had told them that the reason of all their ill successe in their
Saxony prepared warre against him the Bishop hearing of it falls to praying reforming of his Church and amending what was amisse One of the Dukes spies then in that City when he saw him make no preparation for defence came and asked him if he did not heare what the Duke was preparing against him Yes saith he I doe but Ego curabo Ecclesiam meam Deus pro me pugnabit I must looke to my worke and the defence of me belongs to God which when the Duke heard he disbanded his forces and acknowledged that hee should prove too weak to deale with that man that ingaged God in the quarrell against him So follow you on the work be yee for the Lord and comfortably rest your selves under Gods wing to prosper and protect you So much for their present happinesse The Lord is with you I proceed now to the second part the condition upon which this happines is to be enjoyed For God is with you while you are with him This Adverb while implyes First the duration of time how long God will be with you so long as you are with God so long and no longer for so it is used in the very next words of the Text If yee seek him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he wil forsake you So David saith to Solomon Know thou the God of thy Fathers and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind if thou seeke him hee will bee found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever Secondly While signifieth likewise the Degree and measure of Gods presence This is the beame by which GOD weighes out his presence the Standard whereby he measures it that is in what degree people are with God in that degree he is with them If they bee with God in outward formalities only God will be with them in outward blessings only If they be with God in all things as Amaziah was but not with a perfect heart God will be so with them if they be with God absolutely intirely as Iosiah and David and Hezekiah c. were with God God will bee so with them fulfilling that in Isai. 26. that the most upright God ballanceth out the wayes of the just hee weighes out their way and gives them a just proportion according to that in the eighteenth Psalme With the pure God will shew himselfe pure and with the froward hee will shew himselfe froward that is hee will deale with men as they deale with him This is fully laid downe in Levit. 26. where God saith if they walke humbly with him hee will walke graciously to them if they walke frowardly and stubbornly and contrary to him hee will walke contrary to them If they vexe him seven times hee will vexe them seven times So in the seven Churches when some of them had a few things for God God would be with them in a few things If they will have something contrary to God hee will ever have something against them and as their wayes are to him so the most High God will measure out himselfe to them and that is the Doctrine that I am to handle viz. God will bee with his people to bee their glory their portion prosperity and protection just as they are with him Before I proceede further with this poynt give mee leave by way of Caution to remove two or three stumbling blocks which lye in the way of many men First when you heare that God will bee with his people as they are with God take heede you understand it not as some who that they may set up the rotten Dagon of mans free will above the Arke of Gods free grace doe use out of such conditionall Scriptures to argue that God hath an antecedent undetermined uncertaine suspended purpose of doing good to a people which is moved changed or determined according to the ebbings and flowings of their carriage towards him A few words may serve in this assembly these conditions shew not the moving cause of Gods presence but describe the Subject or People with whom he is present the hand of the Diall makes not the Clocke to goe but shewes how it doth goe These Conditions quicken us to our duty and tell us upon what termes wee must look for God to bee with us but he himselfe is not thereby limitted but still at liberty to worke in us the Condition which himselfe requireth of us Gods love of Friendship which is his manifesting himselfe in his Covenant we cannot expect except we be with him but no Law is hereby laid upon his beneplacitum his free favour whereby hee workes both the will and the deed and causeth his people to walke in his wayes God gives conditions to us but takes none from us Secondly much lesse neede wee sticke at the glosse of the Papists who out of such conditionall Scriptures use to argue our performance of the condition formally to merit Gods gracious presence and so they will have it to bee rendred by him not as a mercifull giver but as a just Iudge The Scripture is plaine to the contrary our merit is nothing but Gods mercy Wee grant indeed Gods presence to his people is a reward of their obedience but it is a reward not of justice but of mercy So saith the Prophet David Thou O Lord art mercifull for thou rewardest men according to their works * Thirdly nor yet must wee thinke that when this Condition is required of a Nation that it is so limited that unlesse the universality of the people shall performe it the rest cannot expect Gods presence with them for that was never done no not in Davids nor in Solomons time But it is chiefely meant of the Princes Rulers Ministers and the face of the people whose wayes whether good or bad in regard of Gods nationall proceeding with them are ever interpreted to bee the wayes of the whole body These blocks removed I returne to the Lessou viz. That God is with his people while they are with him in the sense before given For the making this more profitable I shall endeavour First to shew you what in the Scripture language the being of a people with God doth implie Secondly to make application of it to our selves First what is it for a people to be with God I must shew first Negatively what it is not Secondly Positively what it is First Negatively it is not barely to beare Gods Name and to bee called his people It is not meerely to draw neare to him in the externall performance of certaine duties It is not to hang down the head like a Bulrush for a day though in fasting and prayer It is not to bring thousands of Rammes and ten thousand rivers of Oyle before God You know many and many people have done all these things yet God hath protested they were not with him nor hee with them
Secondly positively and affirmatively what it is It implyes these three things First to bee a holy people a Ieshurun a righteous Nation to be those that undertake the counter-part of the Covenant that as God makes himselfe over to be their God and their portion so they deliver themselves up to him as a people renewed and sanctified to become his portion That is a chiefe thing which the Scripture alwayes meaneth when it speaks a people to be with God that they must be a holy people separated from all iniquity unto God as was cleerely and largely opened in the morning Read over all the booke of God and you shall never finde that a people are said to come home to God but when they put away all their abhominations threw away all their lusts and Idolls to the Moles and to the Bats loathing and detesting themselves for them being as the Doves in the valley every one mourning for their owne iniquities fully determining and resolving never to returne to them any more And indeed if this be not done it is impossible for a people to be with God or to endure God to be with them For God is a devouring fire to wicked men and all wicked men to him are as Straw Hay Stubble and Waxe which the nearer they are brought to the fire the sooner they are devoured Therefore you shall read that the nearer wicked men have at any time beene brought to God the greater their misery And for my owne part I question not but if an ungodly man should bee lifted up into Heaven where God most manifesteth himselfe in glory he would there be most miserable Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of a Temple upon which was written No unholy thing must come neare this place This is Gods very inscription Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evill and canst not look on iniquity Look over all the Epistles in the new Testament and you shall finde that however the externall profession of Christianitie admits men to the external priviledges of Gods presence yet unlesse they be inwardly renewed and sanctified there is no being nigh to GOD Iames 4. 8. Draw nigh to God and hee will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands yee sinners and purge your hearts c. This is most cleare in that great worke of mans Redemption by Iesus Christ when God had created man holy and righteous God delighted to bee nigh unto him but so soone as iniquity was found in him there was a wall of separation built and a gulfe made that never could bee filled up till the Lord Iesus Christ by his infinite sufferings did it And when that worke is done by Christ the Lord will not communicate his Christ to any soule in the world but upon these absolute termes and God hath sworn that it shall be so that so soone as he hath delivered them and brought them neare to himselfe in calling them to participate that Redemption they should serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life This is the first thing they must bee a holy people Secondly to be with God is to be true worshippers of him maintaining the purity of his Ordinances from Idolatry and Svperstition This is abundantly proved Hos. 11. 12. Ephraim saith the Lord compasseth me One would have thought that Ephraim was neare to God when he compassed him but saith God Hee compasseth me with lies What is that with Idolatry for it is usually expressed in the Old Testament that Idols are lies and lies are put for Idols as in Isa. 49. 20. Is there not a lie in my right hand Thus Ephraim that is the ten Tribes compasseth me saith the Lord but Iudah remaines faithfull with God therefore hee ruleth with the Saints What was Iudahs faithfulnes it was her keeping of the marriage Covenant with more care when in Hezekiahs time to which the Prophet referreth Religion was reformed and advanced then Iudah was faithfull with God For the more full understanding of this second branch let me commend one observation to you concerning all the Kings of Israel and Iudah after Solomons time the Scripture sets downe a character of every one of them that all the world might know what judgment God had of them You shall finde that of all the Kings of Israel though there were some very brave men yet there is not one of them that God acknowledged to have walked with him because they were all Ieroboamites worshippers of the golden Calves And when hee speakes of any King of Iudah hee ever singles out one thing as the chiefe matter of his commendation and that is how he stood affected in poynt of Religion Such a man was upright with God the meaning is all his dayes he maintained Gods worship And yet let mee tell you some of their moralities were no better than they should be Asa in the Text was a cholericke passionate man and covetous in his old age and many other weaknesses were found in him yet because hee went through-stitch in the reformation of Religion Asa's heart was said to bee upright with God all his dayes With this God useth to cover all their infirmities as with a veile But if any of the good Kings did but halt in this poynt God hath left it upon record as a blot upon their honours therefore are they blamed if through their default the high places were not taken away though the Idolls set up in those places were removed And in the new Testament throughout all the time of Antichrists apostasie the true Church of Christ that walked with him aright are described by this Character that they are a virgin company not defiled with women that is they were never guilry of the spirituall pollutions of that Apostaticall Church of Rome This was to be with the Lamb and to follow him wheresoever he goeth That is the second to keepe close to God in his worship Thirdly to be with God is to be on Gods side to be engaged in Gods cause to appeare in those things wherein God looks that all his friends should stand for him When the Levites would know neither Father nor mother but slay every man his brother or companion or neighbour that they might avenge Gods quarrell this was to be on Gods side When Elias was zealous for God at a time wherein all the Kingdome as he thought played the Apostates when Phinehas goes with his Javelin and executes vengeance on Zimri and Cosbi when men stand in the gap when in a word a people are for God and his cause as Iehoshaphat said hee was for Ahab I am as thou art and my people as thy people My horses as thy horses and my Chariots as thy Chariots this is to bee with God And indeed if this be wanting people cannot be interpreted to bee with God because God is not acknowledged in his due place unlesse they bee for him with
all their hearts and with all their soule and all their strength when he hath most neede of them If a woman will doe many things for her husband yet if her heart goe more after her Puppets her cloaths her servants than after him especially in times of his necessity her heart cannot beeinterpreted to be with her husband because he is not acknowledged in the due place of an husband So if there be any thing any cause any person that we rather ingage our selves for than for God and his cause wee cannot be said to be with God So now you have the meaning of the Condition of enjoying God while yee are with him It is 1 To be reconciled to God and to walk with him as an holy people 2 To continue with him in the purity of his worship 3 To stand by him in every cause which doth concerne his glory The deductions which might flow from this Doctrine for our use are many I shall confine my selfe to these two as being most sutable and seasonable to the time and your worke First matter of Humiliation and mourning before God for time past Secondly matter of Duty for time to come For the first Honourable and beloved you stand this day before the Lord to afflict your soules and though you bee the chosen men of your Tribes lifted up above your brethren yet you are now called not onely to bemoane your owne iniquities but to beare the iniquity of the whole Kingdome And me thinkes I looke upon you as upon the Prophet Ezekiel when he was to beare the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah hee was to lye upon his side and to eate his bread made of Wheate and Barley and Beanes Lentiles and Fitches miserable coarse bread and baked with the dung of man and to drinke a little water for many dayes together How sad and heavy the Prophets spirit must needs be when he was thus to beare such a burthen is easie to judge Such a temper of spirit would this day well become you And now could I but speak to you from the Lord how sad things there are against England in this point of not being with God could you with patience and grace heare me and would the Lord affect my heart and yours in handling and hearing of them we should make this place a Bochim a place of weepers the stoutest heart would be as Queene Huzzab and her Ladies when they went into Captivity tabering on their breasts and mourning as Doves yea howling after the manner of Dragons Could I as in a mirrour set before your eyes how infinitely farre off the body of this Kingdome is from being with the Lord we should wonder that the Lord hath not wholly forsaken us long agone and that instead of injoying this liberty of pleading with God for our lives for our Prince and Countrey and for whatsoever is precious to us we are not left like unto Sodom and made like unto Gomorrah Take a view of all the three particulars mentioned in the point First are we an holy people I am now pleading Gods cause and though a poore unworthy man I stand betwixt God and a Kingdome I aske again are we an holy people Are our Princes our Rulers our Magistrates our Ministers and the body of the people holy Doe wee walke according to the rules of Christianity the summe whereof for the practicall part is laid downe in the ten Commandements and those expositions that our Lord gives of them Doe we walke thus I know there is no man here so ignorant as to imagine that we doe Alas the Prophets speech too well befits us Ah! sinfull Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evill doers Children that are corrupters The whole head is sicke the whole heart is faint from the sole of the foote even to the head there is no soundnesse in it but wounds and bruises and putrifiedsores Aegypt was never more bespread with Locusts and Frogges than our Kingdome is with horrible prophanenesse uncleannesse oppression deceit and whatsoever is a stench in the Lords nostrills The generality of people wearing indeed the Lords Livery being Christned and doing the Devills work all the yeare long Nay is there any thing this day so hated as holinesse have we not gotten termes to scoffe down all goodnesse is not almost every man who will not sweare and be drunke and be deboyst as a Turke or worse cryed downe with the odious name of a Puritan That as Ambrose said of Paulinus a yong noble man of Rome at whom when he was converted to Christ and left the worlds glory to carry Christs Crosse there was more wondring than if a Mule had cast a Foale And as Bede said of the ancient Britaines immediately before their destruction by the Saxons that they were come to that height of wickednesse as to cast Odium in Religion is professores tanquam in adversarios God knowes many thousands are guilty of the same in this Land this day the measure of our iniquity seemes to be more than full O that our hearts could this day bleed for it Secondly see what wonderfull cause wee have to bee abased for all the injury the Land stands guilty of in abusing God in the poynt of his Worship which is the defiling of the marriage bed betwixt God and his people God hath visited all the Reformed Churches brought most of them almost to nothing yet passe over and see whether ever any of them have provoked the Lord in this kinde so much as wee have done Let mee name foure or five things too much practised and too little lamented God in mercy affect our hearts with them this day First the Articles of our faith the depositum the good thing committed to us which we received from our fore Fathers and should transmit entire to our posterity oh the miserable defection that wee have made from God adulterating thereof Tell mee beloved what one poynt what one Article of Faith controverted betwixt us and the Church of Rome is there that our Pulpits and Presses and University Acts have not beene bold withall as if we were weary of the Truth which God hath committed to us as if indeed for our not receiving the truth in love God were giving the Nation up to believe lies Secondly let me instance in the Lords Day a day which is a signe betwixt God and his people that He is their God that sanctifieth them That as Idoll-worshippers are knowne by keeping holidayes to their Gods So Gods people are knowne to bee his people by observing of his Holy day It is most true that our ancient Doctrine established is purer in this poynt than can be found in most of the Churches and excellent Lawes we have for the backing of it but I believe there hath not beene in all the Christian World such high affronts offered to the Lords day as of late hath beene in England and I am confident