as Micaiah if such return in Peace God has not spoken by us Hear ô People c. 1 Kings 22. 28. Not doubting God is on 's way to Judge and Plead Fourthly Our use is not destroy'd by a close Prison our Walls may be others wells as Israel's rock gave out both Water and Hony too Our confinement corporally may prove others Liberty Spiritually For the word is not bound Thus Jeremy had a word from God in the press yard or Court of the Prison Chap. 32. 2. As a promise of Liberty and as a sign bought Land there for nothing is too hard for God vers 17. 27. and what got not vent by a Pulpit he propogated by his Pen as Chap 36. 2 5 8 19. 28 32. And in a second Edition and with some Additions too So did Paul A Prison for Christ is an high tho' hard Pulpit and a good Pen may be a cloven Tongue loud and â—orid Paul is converted Young and Preacht long but a Prisoner aged as Phil. 9. Ephe ' 4. 1. And then wrote when he could not Preach several of 's Epistles how be it in 's Body he bare the Stigmatas of the Lord Jesus _____ be it a literal brand or some Odium of reproach as Factious Seditious I say not Yet still the Gospel got ground Christ wins more Souls to the Truth by Paul's chaine and his True Successors in Prison then by Episcopal palls and Lawn sleeves When Bishops began to rusle in Sattin a Voyce was heard Hodie venerum in Ecolesiam funditur As Flint and Steel the Collision of two hard things mans enmitie with Gods Truth brings out a more Sparkling Glory to Christ Grace and Truth shine brightest as Diamonds in the dungeon It matters little where the Pulpit stands so many hear learn and edify Some Sermons are Preacht to few in one place or Age But those are well Preacht indeed and loudly Canorous that make thousands abroad nay after Ages to hear as Eph 2. 7. And see the exceeding Riches of his Grace Some of us were pain'd in our silence and gravid of our Sermons till safely laid in and brought to bed in N G. and other Prisons and now our Mr. nay our Enemies have took our Testimony for Christ off our hands got us visits and forc't us to live safely log'd in a corporation Yea eas'd us of our Duty to Souls and besides took the guilt of our silent Sabbaths on themselves And now our cry is on them be the Blood of Souls Lo we are clear and free Fifthly Cryes are hence ascending not only our own but others for us And that of divers kinds For how can the opprest hold Prayers have a cry like that of the poor Widows for vengeance and at last obtains the Lambs that are spoil'd of the green pastures and expell'd to common cry and say as Ezek. 4. 14. or Peter Acts 10 14. Lord we never eat what was 〈◊〉 common or Polluted And the bleating Sheep in the Wood and Pits cry as Mica 7. 14. Feed thy flock that dwell solitary So do the Darlings that like Joseph are in the Pit cry and though men hear not the anguish of their Souls like his Gen. 42. 21. God surely hears The very wrongs themselves suffer'd have a Cry often in the Consciences of Oppressors and is not still'd till Exonerate David cry'd to the Most High out of the Low Deepes and never rested till God pull'd him out and set his Feet on a Rock and perform'd all for him Psal 40. 2. 130. 1. 140. 5 6 12. 142. 1 5 7. and brought him out of Prison If one can Pray and make the Walls or Mountains Eccho again no Distress or Bonds will rest long The Holy Unction of Prayer will supply the hard knots resolve the Fetters of Brass Psal 107. 10. 13 14. and serve as a Golden Key to open all Doors of Iron of themselves Acts 12. 10. This was an Effort of Prayer EKTENES drawn out for Peter v. 5. So was Paul freed of old and Larmouth a late when at Prayer a piece of the Prison-wall fell down and a Voice called him out If the Mountains Timber Stones may speak and cry as once Ezek. 7. 7. Habac. 2. 11 Luke 19. 40. why not our Prison-walls They that think to destroy Religious Assemblies for Prayer and Prophesy by shutting our Doors Seizures and Confinements may consider whether they do not by violent practices rather propagate them and tho' they should scatter us they do but truly multiply us and for one Meeting of many together cause ten and twenty perhaps an hundred to grow out of the ruines of that one so impossible is the purpose a foot of suppressing us totally If the Tears of a Widow one Orphant or Opprest cry so loud to God what will the Cry of Blood and Souls under the Altar obtain that are slain for the Word of God Testimony they held to the very last 6thly As Cryes hence are many so mighty God heard and was with Joseph and Daniel in the Den and so heard every Groan Psal 102. 20. Nexorum ut gemitus audiat As Bucha Christ was pleased to declare both his care of and concern'dness in his by the procedure of the Final Judgment Mat. 25. 36 43. both in rewarding the Sheeps and the 〈◊〉 the one for visiting him the other for the neglect of it and takes what is done or omitted to his little ones as unto himself So the Reproaches in Aegypt are called Reproaches of Christ Heb. 11. 26. or for him which as it carryes a Rebuke on the first view for the omission that some excuse too easily So it shows both what a good Master and Advocate Christ the Judge will be on whom we may draw all our Bills of Exchange and on sight our Benefactors will receive payment in full for every good work and also what revenges he 'll take for lawless confinement of his Saints and Witnesses that Labour'd in his Word and Name If he 's angry at omitting to visit his far more at commitâ—ing them to Goals Nor will it excuse to have been civil to them as Pilate scourging Christ to release him or to say 't was but according to Law c. for if Humane Laws may be once allow'd to thwart with the Divine Daniel and the three Children were far out and the Apostles too Acts 4. 19 20. 5. 28 29. in exposing themselves to needless Sufferings as one lately avers for a Moat or Rite But Fides Venales and a Cheveral Conscience we still detest and demur on our Cause and appeal to the ulmitate Judgment In the Interim expecting that a word will come like Josephs from God or Men Preceptive or providential to free us For the Lord will not cast off forever nor will he approve to crush underfoot Lam. 3. 34. all the Prisoners of the Earth And if it be not True of the Lyon to spare what is prostrate nor proper to Kings to open Dens and call Prophets out
Yet God himself will do it And if our hopes fail here and we dye in the Pit as one alate did that may not fail there 's a General Jaol delivery at hand And so 7ly and Lastly 't is an allay to Confinement to be assur'd the time is confin'd and set by him that bounds rage of Man and turns it to his praise 'T is a Title given to God with other attributes the Lord foreseeth Prisoners Psal 146. 7. So he did of old by Joseph and so to Peter Paul Silas and so to many in the Marian Days and some condemned to Death I mean not only at Death which is the final deliverance when the Pris'ners rest together they bear not the Voice of the Oppressors and the weary be at rest Job 3. 17 18. But in life oft God owns that Title For 'T is a part of Christ's Office by Prophesie to open the Prisons to them that are bound And to say to them come forth and feed Isai 42. 7. 49. 9. He also paid the Ransome after which 't is unjust with Men to hold them fast the Blood of the covenant is so valuable a price to God that it builds a strong hold of Hope to us our fleeing to 't is both safety and discharge Job 33. 24. I have found a Ransome my Son paid it says the Father and now go open the Doors and bring them out with gladness Besides Experience verifies the facts Joseph lay but untill his word came Psal 105. 19. Gods Word in the promise becomes ours in performance and that which tryed his Faith freed him at last Nor are Examples wanting how this is done in all Ages both Ordinary and wonderful whereof all storys are well fraught Sometimes the Rulers themselves that detain'd them unjustly release them on better advice more justly as Pharaoh did Joseph Darius did Daniel Breaking an unrepealable Persian Law to do it Dan. 6. 23 24. Because he trusted in 's God So they that earst had shut Paul up are glad precariously to perswade him out Acts 16. 37 39. as not able to justify that illegal confinement So was that Earthquake a wonderful mean of his discharge tho' under a double restraint ver 24-26 God will shake the foundations of the Prisons rather then suffer his Embassadors of Peace to be long shut up as Pris'ners of War Sometimes Prayers are drawn out at length to draw them out and so Peter was rescu'd by an Angel Acts 12. 5 10. And now and then the Angel knocks a Herod c. on the Head as with the Key ver 23. and so the word grows and multiplies being water'd both with the Blood of Martyrs and at last of Malicious Persecutors Some condemned to dye in flames were by Queen Marys Death free'd And if the time be ask't for one Psalm indigitates it when God appears in 's Glory to build Zion to hear the Prayer of the lowly and destitute and to look from 's Sanctuary on the Earth and hear the Groaning of the Pris'ners and lose the Sons of Death as it is in Psal 102. 13 15 27. 19 c. to 22 ver A Glorious Prophetick Psalm And tho' the time be prolong'd and some may drop as ripe Figs ere it 's accomplish't Yet by the encrease of the guilt of some and the Cryes of oppressed Souls at and under the Altar it cannot be long it 's seldom seen but violence to Sacred matters is aveng'd in the same Age 't is committed As the Eagles theft of flesh from the Altar carry'd alive coal thence that fired her nest young and all tho some Sinners are bore long with yet after Patience has suffer'd sufficient abuse Divine Wisdom Justice and goodness it self consult a time swiftly and speedily to repay recompences Joel 3. 4. Hab. 2. 7. Zac. 5. 1-4 c. And the delay makes a good expected long more Glorious Now if it be so if those be our just Groans and if they ascend on high and these our present allays for a fore taste of better hopes at the day of our full Redemption and Kingdom of our Lord let none grudge if we impart of our Prison scraps to many abroad that Hunger And say to any that own Humanity or Christianity For the Lord's sake remember the Pris'ners If not we chear our selves in the dark as singing Nightingales hoping day in this Gallicinium Corpus mens Oculus Conclusum Libera Laetus Est Fruitur Spectat Carcere Pace Palum The Body 's shut up the mind in Peace does lye The joyful Eye the Heavenly Pole does Spye FINIS An Hymn on Canticles 4. 8. Jesus from all Worldly Delights And Sufferings too his Spouse Invites 1 COme O my Spouse with me come home From Leb'non hast away With me from Lebanon now come From top of Amona From Shenirs Top and Hermon Hill From Dens of Lyons hast And from the Leopards fierce that still Thee on those Hills do wast 2 O come that word Attracts my heart Who will not hearken to 't For some must hear that word Depart Lord bring us to thy Foot To come with thee Lord I 'm content Wilt thou accept of me Tho' in the Lyons Dens I 'm pent Grant there thy Company 3 But can't my Lord be well content Without my Fellowship In pieces me tho' Lyons rent I 'le o're them Mountains skip Lord stay for these Ascents are hard From Leb'nons Sweet Delight Lead me along and be my guard When Lyons me affright And when these Mountains I have past In thy Sweet Company To th' Hill of Spices me at last Conduct to be with thee The Phoenix a Prison-Hymn LOrd here I sit alone My Liberty is gone My Ministry's resign'd to thee Grant Sweet Communion I once did others Water Whom thou now let'st men scatter O Fountain free now water me By what shall flow from thee My Testimony turn Tho' this the fire do burn Unto thy praise and after raise A Phoenix from its Urn. As Birds that lonesome sit Or Joseph in the Pit Or ev'n as when the Pellican To Wilderness takes flight So Lord I to thee sly To have good company Be thou my one companion For I 'm content with thee And when my days are spent That here thou hast me lent Now take me up with thee to Sup Where my Forerunner went An Hymn on Canticles 2. 14. I' th Clefts o' th' Rock apart from Noise Christ longs to hear his Doves sweet Voice 1 OH thou my Dove for secrecy In Clefts of Rock Retires In Secret Stairs that hid dost lye Lo this thy Spouse desires Come forth let me thy Count'nance see Fain hear thy Voice wou'd I For sweet thy Voice is still to me And Countenance comely 2. No Secret Staires no Clefts at all VVherein Christ's Spouse does dwell From Christ can hide No Den nor VVall Nor yet the Belly of Hell But even there our Cryes he hears And counts our face most sweet Tho' most bedew'd with Briny Tears And prostrate at his Feet 3. But Lord whence flows this Love and Grace How much to be admir'd That thou so long'st to see our face VVhy is our Voice Desir'd A place there in our Rock now is VVhere Christ his Flock does hide The cause of his desire is this And here we safe Abide But Lord hast thou so great Delight In our Imperfect grace What Joys shall we have in thy sight When we shall see thy face FINIS
had done nothing worthy of Death and what he said was in the name of the Lord And the Elders his Jury with Ahikam seconded them and clear'd him so his confinement was not Death nor very long tho' itterated for at last he was relieved and that 's a wonder at the sacking of the City by Nebuzaradan and releast to go at Liberty When his Malicious Natives went Captives Let good Prophets be Faithful to their Master and Message and tho' Country Men vex them for their fidelity God will make even Babilonians Favour them for their Misery or set them at Liberty Such Urbanity shew'd the Romanes to Paul Acts 23. 30. Chap. 23 29. Innocency and a good Conscienceâ— are still a good Plea tho' not ever Successful and at last obtain with God and Men and often do more for the Honour or discharge of a good Man then all the Shifts that complying Politicians use for themselves But negative Comforts are not all Tho' it's sweet not to Suffer as an Evil doer There are some possitive Supports that Strangers intermeddle not with known only to them that taste them valuable above all Riches and adapted to the Nature of our Testimony First This has been the lot of the best in all Ages and for a good cause tho' by the worst of Men Josephs chastity could not excuse him nor Mâ—caiahs plain dealing nor Jeremy's nor Peter's Nay Paul's Gospel tho' an Embassy of Peace even that exposed the Apostle Preaching oft does in se derivare furorem mundi One met with that Angel of God John Bradford then in Prison some rusled in their Prison-straw in the Marian Days with more true Content then others did in Sattin and Velvet And good cause for 't God is our Soveraign Disposer and may need or call for our Liberty or Life at pleasure and we are to resign it in the service of his Name and Truth as of more use then all our Preaching Beside there comes a Worldly rust oft on our Graces Silver has it's dross and rust and a Prison serves like the Scullions Office to rub us bright for the Lords Fable or the Summer Parlour The Zeal of a Poor Maid say Alice Driver or such a one shines more on Gods shelf then all the learning of X Bishops of Cant or York Spices smell best and Graces shine most when hard Rubbed This School of Adversity has accomplish't some in Experience for God better then the University has and to better Use Now to share in Society with the choicest Saints is great Support 〈◊〉 miseris socios habuisse doloris To bear as Simon did with Christ who ever takes the heavier part of our Cross yea and helps us to bear the lighter too is no small alay to its weight And all Saints have so often since shared that the Cross is by handling often planed smooth and worn light Bad associates may make Liberty uncomfortable and good makes bonds easy For Secondly God is also present and so was he with Joseph Acts 7. 9. And so with Jeremy Chap. 20. 11. This is no little Honour and Succour what it imports is not to tell in a few words Sometimes it means a Glorious presence in Duties and Ordinances This is promised to that Temple-State by the Name Jehovah Shammah So Ezek Vlt. Sometimes the Incarnation of Christ is noted by it as in the Title Immanuel Sometimes the Success of all affairs as in Josephs trust and Davids War And oft it denotes good success in our Prophesying Acts 18. 10. But most usually it notes Support in our Sufferings for Christ and the Gospels sake Such as Jeremy Steven Paul of old and the Martyrs a late had in all Ages past Nor needs a Man more to be happy now whatever it may intend in itself as Glorious it shows in its effects this has a Spirit of Glory resting on them that have it whatever shame or reproach comes for Christs name and sake As in 1 Pet. 4. 14. This in bonds is True Liberty and gives light in darkness 'T is that Precious Stone that was the light to Noah in the Ark whilst God shut him up above twelve Months which H. A. Notes and let our confinement be what and how long it will he that shut Noah in Gen. 7. 16. call'd him out again Chap. 8. 16. This makes darkness light a Den of Thieves an House of Prayer the detestable Dungeon Leonine a Garden or Palace of Christ And by this presence a Gridiron or a fiery Furnace converts to a Bed of Roses or pleasant Gallery in which Christ walks and talks with us And often do Persecutors both stumble and fall at this rock as Jer. 20. 11. He believed and Macaiah of old found whom Ahab committed and see why and what came of 't 1 King 22. 8. v. 27 28 and 34. compared The like found Herod Acts 12. Vlt. if not this yet none can express the love of God the Joy of Christ's smiles the Spiritual Liberty the Inlargements in Prayer the Content of mind that 's here save those that find them 3 dly Since Gods presence Seals not to a blank our cause is good 't is Christ's cause of which none ought to be nor are we asham'd The well strating of which is a key to let in Comfort to a Pris'ner for Christ's sake 't is no small relief to be marry'd to a Cross of Christ's choosing for us he ever intailing on 't what cost the Patient Bearers need to Bear all the Charges of it If any ask Pris'ners what our cause is We shame not to say this is the cause we Suffer for and dare venture further then to Prison in its Defence viz. The Royal dignity and primacy of Christ over all _____ Col. 1. 18. the Glorious Liberty of the Gospel in both the Profession of its Faith purity of its Worship and its Liberty of Prophesie We Suffer for not swearing to what we do not understand And because we dare not say far less Swear there needs no alteration in Rule Civil or Sacred when all things need it so much so it be for the better We Suffer for Preaching Christ and seeking to win Souls to him by the word for living in a City corporate when its Franchizes are discorporate and forfieted to the King And for Praying for its Peace reducted to Babel And for the Controversie of Zion and her stones in the dust Nay for dwelling Praying in our Famillies from which had we departed we should suddenly have been seiz'd and suspected for Plâ—ters And they that commit us do now force us to live in Lo who now 's in the fault These in part are our Pious Offences And in all we dare with our dying Breath Sigh out our appeal to the last Judge that will one day perhaps in the Body call us and our Persecutors to a second fair hearing And at present we may onely say as once David 1 Sam. 26. 19. if the Lord have incensed but if c. or