last solemn meeting you had in this place upon a like blessed occasion And the grounds or reasons why this ought to bee done why these things should bee recorded are necessary First in relation to God Secondly in relation to the Generation who receive these mercies Thirdly in relation to the posterity that are to come after First in relation to God and his glory As the works of God are all worthy to be registred and remembred so the work of building the Church and answering his peoples prayers is the most worthy the most excellent because these are his master-pieces in all these works God appeares in his glory all his excellent perfections shine forth in their beauty and therefore none so worthy to be written And as this work is most worthy so there is no way or meanes so excellent and effectuall for the perpetuating of the honour and glory due to him as the faithfull recording of it and delivering it from hand to hand in all generations which else will soone bee forgotten and lost as loose pearles and pretious stones But when they are recorded they are like pretious and excellent pearles put upon a golden thred and thereby easily kept together and preserved and his glory thereby made everlasting His Works are all Eternall à parte ante in his decree this writing and registring of them will make them so à parte post in the eternall commemoration of them Thus shall be fulfilled to his glory that which Solomon says I know whatsoever God does it shal be for ever it shall last for ever to his glory Secondly in relation to them who receive these mercies the present age that enjoyes them may also bee great gainers by it for it makes the favour and mercy deeplier written in their owne hearts in indeleble characters and the frequent reading of them would keep the mercy alwayes fresh and green alwayes of the same efficacy and vertue unto them who have received it And besides those excellent Instruments whom God hath employed to helpe in the great worke of building the Church shall thereby enjoy the honour and praise which God is willing to have conferred upon them for hee would have the righteous in everlasting remembrance when in all ages it shall be known not onely what the Lord hath done for his people but also who they are whom God hath been pleased to employ in this great Work wee know the old saying Multi ante Agamemnona fuere fortes c. there were many valiant Commanders and Souldiers before Achilles or Ulysses but none of them are famous to posterity because they wanted a Homer their worthy deeds are not recorded but by such a faithfull register the Lords worthy instruments are in all ages made partakers of a glory which is next the glory of Heaven But chiefly my Text leads to the third in relation to posterity These things shall be written for the Generations to come and for their sakes they ought to be written 1. Because they are their due and the present generation cannot without injustice deprive posterity of a faithfull record of Gods mercies for in all these things he speaks to all the ages to come as well as the present You have it in Hosea 12. 3. where Jacobs wrestling with God and meeting with him in Bethel are mentioned There sayes the Church hee spoke with us what he spoke to Jacob hee spoke to Israel that lived in Hosea's time above a thousand years after it and what Paul spake 1 Cor. 10. 11. concerning Gods Judgment All these things happened unto them for ensamples and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come is as true of all his works of mercy they hapned unto them for oursakes as well as for their owne and the Prophets knew this unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did adminâ—ster the things which are now reported Now look as it is with Parents who though themselves know they cannot live long and peradventure some of them are but termers in their states and Honours yet their Evidences of their Lordships or Mannors which belong to their children they dare not but transmit the Copies of them to those who shall inherit their Lands after them Since then the records of these things are their due wee cannot deny them to posterity unlesse we would rob them of that which God will have them receive from us Nay secondly it is their gaine as well as their due yea it may prove an infinite and invaluable gain to posterity for by the recording of these great and excellent Works posteritie may learne to know God to trust him to feare and serve him they may out of these learne their duty and read their destiny This was the very end why God made that law Psal. 78. 5. That the Parents should transmit unto their children the wonderfull works which hee had done That they might set their hope in God and keep his Commandements and might not bee as their fathers a generation whose spirit was not stedfast with God The like causes of writing these things you shall find Rom. 15. 4. 1 Cor. 10. 11. Look as it is with them that travaile at Sea take for instance Columbus or Drake or any of those famous Sea-men that have discovered unknown tracts in the deep waters when they themselves had past them if they had come home again without making a Sea-mans Chard who had been the better for all their voyages whereas now ordinary Sailers by help of their Chard can compasse the world round about because they know where the safe chanels and where the rocks and dangers lye So in the faithfull Stories of the works which God showes to his people in one generation the generations to come shall before their eyes be able to read the right way by the fall of others they shall know where lies the rocks and stumbling blocks by the deliverance of others they shall know where out-gates are to be found The reading of a record of Mordecays good service was a meanes to save all the Church of the Jews at one time Est 6. 1 2. The remembring of Micah his prophecy saved the life of the Prophet Jeremy at another time Jer. 26. 19. the remembrance of the causes why Israel was carryed captive out of their owne Land was a meanes to bring them to repentance at another time The records of Gods dealing with Abraham Isaac and Jacob have succoured Gods people in their distresses ten thousand times the particular wayes how the Church hath profited by them are not to bee numbred inexpressible is the gaine which may be gotten by them therefore the Lord would have them written for the generations to come For Application of this First if the Lord will have his great Workes recorded to posterity that they may give him his glory surely then the present age should observe them and
A SACRED RECORD To be made of GODS MERCIES TO ZION A Thankesgiving Sermon Preached to the two Houses of Parliament the Lord Major Court of Aldermen and Common-Councell of the City of London at Christ-Church June 19. 1645. Being the Day of their Publike Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the Great and Glorious Victory obtained by the Parliaments Army under the Conduct of Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX in Naseby-field By Stephen Marshall B. D. Minister of Gods Word at Finching-field in ESSEX Exod. 17. 14. And the Lord said unto Moses Write this for a Memoriall in a Booke and rehearse it in the Eares of Joshua m Psal. 44. 1. Our Fathers have told us what Works thou didst in their dayes in the times of Old Psal. 78. 4. Wee will not hide them from their Children shewing to the Generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderfull Works that he hath done London Printed by Rich. Cotes for Stephen Bowtell and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in Popes-head-Alley TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT YOur time is so taken up with the important Worke of rescuing these bleeding Kingdomes and the Church of Christ in and with them that I am sure you are not at leisure to read long Epistles and were I able in a Dedication to write what might very much kindle your zeale provoke your whole inward man and thereby further your great Work I conceive it were onely to tell the world what counsell I thought might doe you good and therefore in stead of studying to present you with an Epistle which few of you would read I doe onely obey your Order and at your Command publish to the view and for the use of all and present unto your selves this plaine Sermon Preached unto you upon the day of your late Thanksgiving unto God for one of the greatest mercies the Victory and what came with it duly considered that God hath bestowed upon our unworthy Nation these many yeares What else I desire to have pressed upon your hearts I chuse to doe it when I am called at any time to Preach unto you or rather to beg it for you at the Throne of Grace where you and your great Work are every day as by many thousand others humbly remembred by Your most obliged Servant STEPHEN MARSHALL Die Veneris 20. Junii 1645. IT is this Day Ordered by the Lords in Parliament Assembled That Mr. Marshall one of the Assembly of Divines who Preached yesterday in Christ-Church London before the Members of both Houses of Parliament and in the presence of the Lord Major Aldermen c. of the City of London is hereby thanked for his great pains that he took in the said Sermon it being a day of Publike Thanksgiving within the said City and Lines of Communication for the late prosperous successe of the Parliaments Forces under the Command of Sir Thomas Fairefax And that he is hereby desired to Print and Publish the said Sermon which none shall presume to Print or re-print but by Authority under his own hand Jo. Brown Cleric Parliamentorum Die Veneris 20. Junii 1645. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sir Peter Wentworth and Sir William Masham doe returne the Thanks of this House to Mr. Vines and Mr. Marshall for the great paines they took in the Sermons they yesterday Preached at the intreaty of both Houses before the said Houses the Lord Major and Aldermen at Christ-Church in London And that they be dered to Print their Sermons And it is Ordered that none shall presume to Print their Sermons but such as shall bee authorized under their hands writing H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I doe appoint Stephen Bowtell to Print my Sermon Stephen Marshall A THANKESGIVING SERMON PREACHED To the two Houses of Parliament June 19. 1645. PSAL. 102. 18. This shall bee written for the Generation to come and all the People which shall bee created shall praise the Lord Right Honourable and Beloved I Have formerly in two Sermons opened the two Verses immediately going before this Text The first of them before the Right Honourable the House of Peeres The latter before the Honourable House of Commons and there shewed at large that these two Verses did containe two Circumstances which alwayes accompany the Lords Work of building up of his Church and they are rendered as two Arguments why all the world should stand in admiration of it The one is because when ever the Lord builds up Zion Hee dotb appeare in his Glory hee appeares like himself magnifying all his Attributes The other that he does then return a gracious answer unto the Prayers of his afflicted People These two were handled in the valley of Baca the valley of Teares upon dayes of Humiliation that out of them you might receive some strength in your mourning after the Lord to help you to wait upon him while you are at his Work building the Street and Wall of Hierusalem in a troublesome time But now the Lord having in great measure given a gracious experience and fruit of those two in this late great and unexpected Victory and Mercy wherein God hath appeared in his Glory and answered his Peoples Prayers in our exceeding low condition his Providence having also called me by your choice to meet you in the valley of Beracah the valley of Blessing to praise God for this I could not thinke of a fitter Text then of the very next words to those that helped you in the dayes of your Mourning which containes the use which the Church in all ages shall make of the Lords building up of Zion And though my time for preparation hath been very short yet I am incouraged because I have been taught of God that a Peace-Offering to himself is easily found And I have often found from you that my poore endeavours how weak soever being the best I have have never been rejected And therefore without further Apology and Preface let us consider of the words as they thus lie This shall bee written for the Generation to come And the People which shall bee created shall praise the Lord Here are you see two Sentences And for the Interpretation of them some Expositors doe conceive that the first Sentence containeth the use that the Generation who receive this Mercy shall make of it They shall Write it for the good of Posterity The second they think containes the use that the future Generation shall make of former Mercies that are thus written and and transmitted to them The People that shall bee created shall praise the Lord the unborn Generation shall praise God for it But others and I think more rightly doe conceive that both sentences are meant of the same individuall People and that the one of them is but an Exegeticall interpretation of the other or rather the first of them is an expression of one way how the redeemed of the Lord shall
while in the world and then it is dissolved and their people remaine not to them but are either destroyed or delivered over and left to some other Governour but this Kingdome of Christ shall never leave its people to any other Conquerour It is with other Kingdomes as my Text a little after tells you it is with the Earth and Heavens as a garment they all wax old as a Vesture they change and rot and come to nothing but the Kingdome of Christ like himself hath never any end and the Generation of his Servants shall ever continue in his sight The Church is sometimes more and sometimes lesse visible The people that praise God are sometimes more in number and sometimes fewer but they alwayes are in all ages God will have them that shall give him his glory and sing him praises in the Churches This I onely mention Secondly another which more concernes us is the works they should attend unto that the glory of this great deliverance might be alwayes rendred unto him Which affords us this lesson That a People who are truly thankfull for Gods building up of Zion and hearing the prayers of his afflicted ones will endeavour by all meanes possible that all ages present and to come may glorifie God for it Or more briefly take it thus The whole work of Gods redeemed people is to provide that God may alwayes and every where have the glory of it Expositors observe upon this Text that this redeemed Church take no thought concerning themselves about their own ease pleasure wealth gaine or any thing else might accrew unto themselves by this deliverance to make their own life easie or sweet but their thoughts and studies are wholly laid out how the present and succeeding Generations should give all glory to God for it And hee that runnes may read it in the practise of many others recorded in Scripture The time would faile me to give you a catalogue of the Churches Kings Prophets Priests and other holy men of God who have been like minded Their care was as Joabs at the taking of Rabbah of the Ammonites that David might have the glory of it Thus did Moses when they were brought out of the Egyptian bondage Thus Deborah and Barak after the discomfiture of Jabin Thus did Hannah 1 Sam. 2. and innumerable others who in all the Lords administrations to them whether inlargements or pressures have been studious of nothing so much as how in all things God might have his glory preserved and spread David the man after Gods own heart exceeded all others in this thing Quid retribuam what shall I render unto the Lord was his usuall study and hee never thought his own parts his wit fancy thoughts tongue pen c. sufficient for it but when hee had stirred up all within him Blesse the Lord O my soule and all that is within mee blesse his holy Name Hee would also stirre up all without him all the Church Blesse the Lord yee house of Israel let Israel say let all that feare God say His mercy endureth for ever All the Nations make a joyfull sound unto God all ye Lands All the Angels Blesse the Lord yee his Angels all yee his Hosts Yea all Creatures blesse the Lord all his workes in all places of his Dominion whether above or below animate or inanimate The Sun and Moon the Starres of Light the Dragons and deeps fire and haile Snow and vapours Mountaines and hills fruitfull trees and Cedars Beasts and all cattle creeping things and flying Fowles hee layes a tax upon them all to come in and contribute their utmost that God might have the glory due to his Name for exalting the horne of his people even the children of Israel the people neere unto him And there are three speciall Reasons why this should bee the great worke of the Lords saved and rescued people and why indeed they can doe no other then study thus to exalt him One is because they well know that the Lord hath reserved nothing to himselfe but onely his glory the benefits hee gives to them all the sweetnesse and honey that can bee found in them hee gives them leave to suck out but his glory and his praise is his owne and that which hee hath wholly reserved of that hee is jealous lest it should either bee denyed Eclipsed diminished or any the least violation offered to it in any kind All Gods people know this of him and therefore they cannot but indeavour to preserve it for him Secondly besides they know as God is jealous in that point so it is all the work that hee hath appointed them to doe he hath therefore separated them to himself out of all the Nations of the world to be his peculiar ones for this very end that they might give him all the glory and praise of his mercy I have said God created him formed and made him for my glory Esay 43. 7. This is the law of his new Creation which is as powerfull in them as the law of Nature or the first creation is in the rest of his Works And therefore with a holy and spirituall naturalnesse if I may so call it the hearts of all the Saints are carryed to give God the glory as really as the stones are carryed to the Center or the fire to fly upwards this is fixed in their hearts the work of grace hath moulded them to it that they can doe no other but endeavour to exalt God it being the very end why their spirituall life and all their other priviledges are conferred upon them Yea thirdly they know their owne Interests are much concerned in Gods glory they never are losers by it if in any work of God he want his praise they will want their comfort but if God bee a gainer they shall certainly bee no losers Whatsoever is powred upon the head of Christ what ointment soever of praise or glory it will in a due proportion fall downe to the skirts of his garments nor is there any other way to have any sweetnesse comfort praise or glory to bee derived unto themselves but by giving all unto him to whom alone it belongeth and then although hee will never give away his glory the glory of being the fountaine the first supreame originall giver of all good yet they shall have the glory of Instruments and of fellow workers with him which is a glory and praise sufficient This is a lesson of singular use to all Gods redeemed ones in many particulars But the onely thing I shall at the present insist upon is to direct how we may best improve the mercy of this day and how we may do something worthy of this dayes meeting the Lord hath turned our heavinesse into rejoycing hath took off from us the garment of mourning and put upon us this day the garment of salvation And I am perswaded this honourable Assembly hath
not for a long time had a more reall rejoycing heart then you now feele for the mercy which this day wee meet to celebrate and commemorate Now would you know what you should doe what you should render unto the Lord what would bee the comeliest and most excellent sacrifice in this day of your praise and rejoycing before God Surely there is nothing comparable to this That you provide that of all those great things which the Lord hath wrought for us all possible praise and glory may bee set upon the head of our Lord Jesus and abide unto succeeding Generations Some such work as might preserve his honour in the present and succeeding ages were worthy such a great assembly worthy of the name of a day of their Thankesgiving I am perswaded your hearts are so warmed with the unexpected Victory that you would readily swear with David to take no rest untill you were doing that very Work if once you knew what it were I shall tel you Even in doing that where in his glory is most concerned in all ages and that is the setting up of his Kingdome the purgation reformation of Religion setting up his Ordinances in purity providing that his Church may bee governed and ruled by his own laws according to his owne Word This would indeed bee a lasting Monument of your thankfulnesse This wee should all study and to this every thankfull heart may contribute something but none so much as you Right Honourable Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament by whose appointment and for whole furtherance in this work I stand here this day God hath put into your hands the greatest opportunity and meanes of providing for all the glory that he expects from England while the world stands that he did put ever into the hands of any The measuring line and plummet of his house is put into your hands as once it was in the hand of Zerubbabel From you he seems to expect what portion himselfe shall have in England for time to come what kind of Subjects hee shall have what Worship shall bee offered to him what kind of Guests shall sit with him at his Table by what lawes his house and people shall be governed hee seems now to put into your hands what unto the end of the world hee may expect from the Kingdome of England in the way of his Ordinances not onely the managing of a Kingdome of men but of the Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus seemes now to bee in the hands of the two honourable Houses of Parliament Now when such opportunities as these are in your hands to doe such great things for God how silent should all slesh be till this worke be done how hush't and laid aside should all your other businesses bee your own estates and priviledges and private interests or any thing that concernes your selves names or families how should they all be waved and set aside till all that bee done from which Jesus Christ shall receive glory in all ages If then Right Honourable and Beloved any of you should after all the mercy God hath bestowed upon you make it your worke to feather your own nests build your owne Houses and let the House of God lie waste or hinder the setting up of this Work in purity and perfection if you should make a slight businesse of the Worke of Religion and cause the authority of the Gospel and Kingdome and Ordinances of Christ to vaile bonnet to the lusts and liberties of poore sinfull Men and decline the setting up of the authority of his Scepter lest the corruptions of Men should be brought under the yoake more then they are willing you will provide ill for Christs honour ill for the Church worst of all for your owne souls in betraying the cause of Religion and spoyling the most glorious opportunity of advancing the honour of Christ that ever men were betrusted with these thousand yeares But if you shall resolve so to goe through with it that there shall not need a reformation to come the second time I meane in stablishing the rule for Faith VVorship and Government as neere as can be found out by the VVord all carnall considerations set aside should you but doe this that it may bee set up in the Kingdome and transmitted to posterity God will then acknowledge you really thankfull and that you have done as much for his honour as hee expects from any mortall men and posterity shall confesse that as you are the most remarkable Parliament for Gods owning you protecting and saving you so God received more glory from you then from any former Parliament Josiahs praise should be verified of you â—ever the like went before you or followed after you I therefore humbly beseech you Right Honourable Lords and noble Gentlemen whilst now your hearts are warm with this mercy all of you are ready to say with David what shall I tender to the Lord what shall I give the Lord for all his mercies towards us take this cup of salvation resolve to pay your vowes the vow you made that you would endeavour the reformation of Religion according to the word of God and to the nearest conformity with the best reformed Churches Goe on zealously and impartially with it let the successe bee what it will work belongs to us successe belongs to God therein shall you in truth give unto God and our Lord Jesus Christ that glory and prase which a Parliament should give him other people must come short though wee all are interessed in this Mercy and are equally bound to provide for his honour yet our meanes are shorter wee move in a narrower spheare Some of our endeavours must bee in our own Families to make them better Others in a Pulpit to make our Congregations better few of us though raised to our highest are able to do any great things for his glory but if the Lord enlarge your hearts to doe your worke aright the whole Christian world in her severall ages shall be able to give glory unto him by your improvement of these mercies which our God hath given us And a little further to provoke you unto it consider seriously of these three things First in all our great conflicts these huge shakings of the Nations and combustions the Lord hath no designe in any of them but onely the building up of his Church and answering his peoples prayers his heart is set upon nothing else You indeed contend for Liberties and Laws and justly you may doe so and the rather because the liberty of your Religion stands and falls with your laws but God can looke upon England as well if it were in slavery as in freedome he regards neither of them further then slavery and freedome hath relation to his Church and the welfare of it if all other his works were buryed as one day they shall resolve into the Chaos out of which they were taken God cares not one whit sobeit that
glorifie him if our present mercies shall bee the wonderment of the world in after ages how ill would it become us who receive them to passe them over unregarded or put them into oblivion what a catalogue should every one of us have how full should all our memories and records bee who receive them thus by heapes upon heapes how excellent and comely a thing were it if every one wee meet with in the streets and fields could bee able to tell us the Story of Gods dealing for England these three or foure or five yeeres beleeve it it is our shame that wee are not able to doe it What a shame and unworthy thing is it to lay up in our memories trash and vanities write downe in our Books our passions toyes and fooleries and have no records of these glorious VVorks of God how shall wee lift up our heads before God when he shall reckon with us for this ingratitude O that every one of us could endeavour to have our records of these mercies as perfect as Gods are he observes and keeps account of all let us doe so likewise let our books and memories be treasuries of these works and wayes of God let our tongues talk of them let us be all good Historians at least of these latter yeares since the beginning of this Parliament be able to count all our journeys and pitching places our deliverances and Victories from Kynton unto this day yea and when wee think or speake of them let it bee with admiration which is the individuus comes the inseparable companion of praising God wee never can duly tender his praises for these mercies unlesse our understanding see it selfe conquered by that which it contemplates and be compelled with David againe and againe to cry out O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name how wonderfull are thy workes Doe these things daily but doe them this day more carefully this day is separated for his praise and glory but in a more peculiar manner let him have the glory of this laâ—e great and unexpected Victory and let us consider seriously what kind of mercy it is which wee this day come to blesse the Lord for I shall not goe about by ostentation of words and hyperbolicall expressions to elevate it above its height had I Rhetorick and words to doe it this Assembly would not be taken with such kind of language but simply and plainly bee pleased to behold this great work of God both for the substance and circumstances of it for the thing it self for the substance of it Granted it is to bee one of the greatest Victories that ever the Lord bestowed upon us since the beginning of our troubles wherein all the enemies Foot all their Carriages all their Ammunition so many of their Horse were taken in the field But there are foure Circumstances accompany it which maks this mercy most wonderfull First the Time when this mercy was bestowed upon us Secondly the Place where it was bestowed upon us Thirdly the Persons by whom it was wrought for us And Fourthly the Manner how God did it for us First the Time when it was done truly when we were very low exceeding low in our Spirits low in our Counsels low in our Treasures low in our Arms low through our mutual Divisions jealousies wondrous low I think as we have been almost at any time since the beginning of our troubles at a time when the Enemy was extream high high in their Spirits high in their confidence high in their scorn high in their resolutions so high as if they had already swallowed all boasting that our Armies were crumbled to nothing and wondering we were so foolish as not to resign up all Yea done in a time when we had newly prayed and sought God when the Honourable Houses had called the City and the Assembly of Divines to lie in tears and dust before God to wrestle with him this was the time when the Lord remembred us agreeing with that of the Psalmist Who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever I may adde one more concerning the time it was in the rising of the yeare almost in the Spring when yet we have foure or five moneths before there be any necessity of winter Quarters in which time if God give us wisedome to follow it and himself please to goe on with us who knows what a blessed period our troubles may have Secondly and the place where is remarkable Where was it done truly in that part of the Land where the Enemy had lately wrought outragious villanies I speake not of taking a Town in a hostile way but of murdering of women of ravishing wives and maidens where the Commanders could boast what liberty they had given to their Souldiers though not to murder the women yet to ravish as many of them as they could where the Country groaned under the blasphemies and outrages that they wrought that the Lord should have it so ordered that where they had plundred and spoiled themselves should be plundred and spoiled that thither they should â—â—y with shame hardly daring to look in where all these cruelties and insolencies had been wrought by them Thirdly and take in the Persons by whom Of whom I will say two things which you will all grant to bee true They were an Army despised by our Enemies and little lesse then despaired of by our Friends as men from whom little was to bee looked for Gods glory is the more conspicuous this is according to his own manner of working Who delights by weak things to confound the mighty and by things which are despised and things which are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh might glory in his presence This is the Lords doing let it be wonderfull in our eyes Fourthly and the manner how is very remarkable how God did it truly so that the men should doe what men can doe that they might have the praise of Instruments giving them valour courage wisdome and faithfulnesse and yet withall letting them be so overborn one wing in a manner broken and many of the Foot routed and all in danger to be lost that it might appeare as hath been in the rest of our Victories that the thing was wrought by God Now can you looke upon all these things together not with admiration cry out This is the Lords doing this is wonderfull in our eyes Non nobis Domine non nobis Not unto us Lord but unto thy Name give the praise and glory Overmuch to extoll men God would not have you they would not have you doe it you would wrong them and your selves and your God if you should looke upon them otherwise then as instruments But O that you could admire this mercy that God hath given in that you could see all the mercies that are in the wombe of this mercy how many have already sprung from it
Leicester taken in againe and other tydings are come out of other parts of the Kingdome some mercies about Taunton others about Chester hath our God cast them in that this day might be as a day of Jubilee to us Shall not God have glory for all this shall not our hearts bee lifted up to give him praise Would God have a Chronicle written that the ages to come may stand amazed at it and shall we that see these things and enjoy them thus unexpectedly confine and pen up our praises to one day of Thanksgiving and not have our whole heart and our whole life filled with studies and endeavours to exalt him let this be our first Use if we should write them in a Book to provoke others then surely we should write them in our hearts to provoke our selves to praise him The other Use I would make of it is this That seeing the Lord would have his wonderfull Works written for the Generations to come Let the Honourable Houses of Parliament looke upon it as a duty they owe unto God and to the present and future age to provide that these glorious and admirable works which God hath done for England and Scotland since the beginning of our troubles may faithfully bee transmitted to posterity you hear God hath appointed it for a law and an Ordinance that the generations to come should know his wonderfull Workes and it 's both due and expected by one age from another it hath been the received Opinion of wise men that the World is more beholding to them who write Histories then to any men living except onely those that did the excellent Works which the others writ Tully tells you that History is the witnesse of time the light of truth the life of memory the school-Mistris of ourlife c. When yet alasse all their Histories were written with ignorance vanity passion partiality and gave very little help to our main businesse to teach us the administrations of God and the way hee hath taken in carrying on his Church which is the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ But now by the true and faithfull setting forth to the World what the Lord hath done for us you should honour God and advantage his Church as much as in any thing that you can possibly doe unlesse it be the building of the Church it self Never could more excellent things tending to advance the goodnesse wisdome power and mercy of God bee manifested to the world then this story of our times would afford The Jews have a saying That when God destroyed all the World there was a Copy of all kept in the Arke with Noah and after the Floud was gone this Copy was re-printed and spread over all the world The meaning was that the Creatures that were kept there did fill all the world with Creatures of the same nature that the World had before Truly I have often thought that were all the Copies in the world lost of Gods admirable dealing with an unworthy people except only those mentioned in the Scripture there might be a re-impression of them out of the admirable things that God hath done for us since these publike caelamities came upon us and all the world might learn sufficient out of our Story what a God our God is and learn to know and trust and fear him forever give me leave onely to name some Capita rerum some heads of things which is fit the World should read and know They should read of a Parliament called together by a strange providence and when they were called God dealt with them as hee commanded Ezekiel to deale with his own haire Ezekiel 5. one third part of it to be thrown away into the wind another to be burnt in the City and another to be againe purged and refined and kept in the skirt of his garment They should read of 4 or 500 Commons and multitude of Peeres some of them passing through the fire some scattered into all the corners of the land seeking to destroy the Nation that had entrusted them and a remnant left behind fined and refined and humbled again and again and kept to do wonderfull things for the Lords glory and his peoples good They should likewise read of Army after Army and fight after fight which wee have had with our Enemies of every one whereof they should be able to say what my Noble Lord said immediately after Kynton fight That there was never any thing wherein there was lesse of man and more of God They should acknowledge in all wee have done there was little of man and much of God There they should likewise read how this famous City and all the Countries where the Gospel had prevailed have faithfully stood to God and his cause even to their owne exhausting in the midst of infinite discouragements and how the rest that were nursed up under Popery and superstition both Lords and Commons and Gentlemen and whole Counties did endeavour to fight themselves into slavery and labour to destroy the Parliament that is themselves and all that is theirs There they should read how God broke all our crutches we leaned upon our Counsels our Treasuries our Armies and never prospered us really till he had deeply humbled and made us to look to himself onely for help how he brought the two Nations into a Covenant with him and set them upon a work of Reformation of Religion and carryed on that work in a troublesome time in a time of Warre better then in likelihood it would have been in a time of Peace There they should read the fruits and effects of Prayer how he suffered his Almighty hand to be as it were directed by it They should see what strange Plots were discovered prevented detected how God made some of our strong Holds to be easily delivered and others of no strength little lesse then miraculously preserved against all the Force of the enemy how usually God made our losses to bee our gaine and did us most good by undoing us compelling us often to say Perissemus nisi perissemus wee had been undone if we had not been undone and how our enemies that rose against us evermore found their gaine to prove their losse and that which raised them up highest instantly laid them lowest What shall I say they shall in a thousand particulars read in this Story our folly and Gods wisdome our weaknes and Gods strength our divisions and confusions and Gods ordering them all to serve his holy ends They should read such things as I am confident no History in the world is able to hold out the like Now I beseech you is it not pity that these things should be lost shall we deprive the world posterity of these things Serimus arbores we plant Trees which may beare fruit to after ages and shall we not doe this which like Nebuchadnezzars tree would beare fruit to all the world or shall wee hazard them to bee written by a lying or unskilfull