is as fit for 1680 as it was for 1640. And we will not dissemble the truth of it but let it have its full Scope For this Text is part of the Epinicion or Song for Victory obtain'd by Deborah the Queen or Judge of Israel Judges 4.4 She Judged Israel at that Time and Barak her Captain General The Title of this Chapter wherein the Text is is The Song of Deborah and Barak after Victory obtain'd against the Queens Enemies the Captain of whose Host was wicked Sisera who with a Mighty Army came to Fight against Deborah the Soveraign of the Israelites of which her Subjects some Fought for their Soveraign Deborah as Zebulun and Naphtali some would not Fight for their Soveraign as Meroz Therefore Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord Curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord the help of their Soveraign there called the help of the Lord against the Mighty Enemies of Soveraign Majesty So that the help of the Lord in this Text is evidently the help of Deborah the help and assistance of the Soveraign Magistrate against the Enemy This is so plain and Evident from the Context that nothing can be more Intelligible Whence observe Doc. that to help the Soveraign Magistrate against the Enemy is to help God Or thus They that Fight not for their Soveraign Fight not for God And they that Fight against their Soveraign Fight against God Or the Kings Enemy cannot be Gods Friend Or He that Honors not the King Fears not God Or thus All Rebels and Disloyal Persons to their Soveraign are Cursed Rebels and Disloyal to God Truth 's so clearly deduced without any wresting from this Text as well as throughout the whole Scripture Canonical that we may well wonder that there could have been such Pulpiteers as to Cheat their Hearers with quite contrary Doctrines and Deductions from this Text or such easie Gulls amongst their Auditors that could be so grosly impos'd upon and be juggled out of their Lives their Money their Plate nay it is to be feared their Souls are accursed if this Text be true not only for refusing to Assist their Soveraign the Cursed Crime in the Text but much more for resisting him even to Blood and their own Damnation so easie are and so Damnable too many times those Juggling Tricks that Cheats the Vulgar Cheat the Vulgar Alas What is more Ordinary But this was the most Gross most Palpable and the most Fatal Cheat that ever was put upon them and from the Holy Scripture wretchedly wrested and from the Pulpit too Fatal to the People Fatal to the King and Kingdom With this Text that is the most Loyal Text in all the Bible was the Kings Army rooted our Blessed King Martyr'd and Murther'd and the Kingdom Ruined Which may teach Soveraigns by woful Experience that if they let loose the Reignes of Government especially in Ecclesiastical Affairs if they cannot or will not restrain the License of the Pulpit and Pulpiteers they loose the best Flower of the Crown and expose themselves and their People to the wild Expositions and Harangues of every bold Expositor and Boutifeau Where by the way note how necessary it is for a King as to outward Administration to keep the Key of David that Openeth and no man shutteth Isa 22.22 and shutteth and no man openeth and not to trust the opening the meaning and Interpretations of Scripture to his Adversaries or Rebells or such as he has no influence upon whether Pope or Presbyterian Popery or Foppery And have we not Laws enough and strong enough to bind the Bloody hands of both and hinder their growth if men have but honesty and courage enough to put them in Execution And this Doctrine so apparent in the Text that to help our Sovereign against his Enemies is to help God and not to help him is to be lyable to the Curse of God is founded upon these two following Reasons and infallible Arguments which I shall place in Answer to the third Quere why Meroz was accursed Reas 1st Because Disloyalty and Rebellion against the Soveraign Magistrate is a Sin of the same horrid nature with Disloyalty and Rebellion against God himself Nay the Holy Apostle does not say they are like one another as ever they can look but they are one and the same Rom. 13.2 Job 35.6.7.8 He that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God the Imperial Edict of God For if thou Sinnest what doest thou against God saith Eliphaz or if thy Transgressions be multiplyed what dost thou against him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand Thy wickedness may hurt a Man as thou art and thy Righteousness may profit the Son of Man Upon this account Jehoiakim who rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar contrary to his Oath of Allegiance and Covenant 2 Chron. 16.13 with an Infidel King and is said to have broken Gods Covenant Ezekiel 17.19 by breaking the Covenant made to that Heathen King whose sworn vassal he was as appears also Ezekiel 17.13.18 Murmuring against Moses the Chief Magistrate is called tempting of God 1 Cor. 9.10 And the People in their Confession of the Mutiny say as much Numb 21.7 We have sinned for we have spâ—ken against the Lord and against thee where note that speaking against Moses is called speaking against God even as the Royal Ayd in the Text is called the help of the Lord. Is not the People's murmurings against Moses called murmuring against God Exod. 16.2 The Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him and what are we your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord which must be taken implicitely for expresly they murmured only against the Chief Magistrate and Chief Priest Moses and Aaron Exod. 16.2 Nay God himself calls the rejecting of Samuel the Chief Magistrate the rejecting of the God of Israel 1. Sam. 8.7 1. Thes 4.8 The Spirit of Loyalty which moved Amasa to help the King is called the Spirit of God 1. Chron. 21.18 From whence then came that Spirit that moved Sheba to Rebellion and made him therefore a Son of Belial 2. Cor. 2 15. 2. Sam. 20.1 What Communion has Christ with Belial If then the help of the Soveraign be the help of the Lord as it is styled in this Text by the Spirit of God that Nick-names nothing then who do they help that ayd Rebells against their Sovereign The Devil without doubt And how meritorious is it in the sight of Heaven to help our Sovereign upon Earth the Blessing of God goes along with these whilst the other are Cursed by God and his Holy Angel as Meroz was Cursed Meroz Disloyal Meroz Thus the Indictment had been rightly drawn up against Naboth 1. K. 21.10 for Blaspheming God and the King if but the latter clause could have been prov'd The Counsel in their addresses to the Emperors made use of
for no History can tell us what is become of them to this day And this they got even ruin the certain Portion and lot of all Rebells whilst loyal Judah and Benjamin continu'd a Kingdom govern'd by their own Laws and Religion except in the Parenthesis of 70 years Captivity until the Blood of our Saviour which according to their wish fell heavily upon them unto this day and made them Cain's and Vagabonds upon the Face of the Earth All this shews us the Truth of the Old Religion of the Primitive Christians in spight of our new Presbyterian Church-Militant whose Weapons were only Prayers and Tears with which they defended themselves and wearyed out and at last overcame their Persecutors and Tyrants And as this is true Christian Piety so we in England find it the best Policy by Fatal Lectures of woful Experience People were so alarum'd from the Pulpits with such Texts as this and so frighted with Jealousies and Fears of Arbitrary Government and Popery that like men in a Shipwrack as I said before that leap into the Sea for fear of Drowning we gulf'd our selves into more Arbitrary Government Tyranny and Popery or Foppery and Phanaticisme the Spawn of Popery then could possibly have betided us if the worst had come that men did fear or were perswaded to fear How were our Miseries in the Late Civil Wars Prologu'd with a noise of Arbitrary Government in the Case of Ship-Money a Tax impos'd without a Parliament for Remedy whereof it came to Armes and Blood and Ruine and instead of one Arbitrary Tax as they call'd it by the King without a Parliament in a Case of urgent necessity to defend the Kingdom against Forreign Foes we underwent a Thousand Arbitrary Taxes by a Parliament without a King which is at least equally Illegal and Millions of Men and Treasure consum'd was not this Remedy worse than the Disease And was there ever any Tyrant heard of in any Age or Nation that ever Ruin'd and wasted his People at that Bloody Rate that we wasted and ruin'd one another and all this because nothing would please men but New Religions and New Preachers and New Expositions of Texts such as this is but explain'd quite contrary to Truth and the Old Christian Religion whose Weapons against Authority and Soveraign Majesty are only I say again Prayers and Tears And shall not God hear his Peoples Cryes and Groanings Yes surely read all Histories and you will find that as Rebels so Tyrants seldom come to the Grave in Peace Sine coede sanguine Nemo Nec siccâ morte Tyranni Rehoboam would play the Tyrant and lost his Subjects by it Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracusa thought he had ensur'd his Kingdom of Sicily to him with Chains of Adamant and he was glad to turn School-Master in Italy in Conclusion and get a Paultry living as a Tyrannical Paedagogue with insulting over Boyes The time would fail me to tell of the dismal ends of such Nero's and Dioclesian's and I am weary of this Tragical Discourse and will briefly come to a more pleasant Improvement of the Text concluding the Stated Question thus If the King happen to be a Child a Mad-man a Papist or an Infidel for his Personal Infirmities he shall answer to God alone but his Dominion and our Obedience are circumcised within the Limits of the Laws of the Land the only Rule of his Soveraignty and our Obedience and all other Doctrine of Obedience is Parasitical or Prophane Vse 1. If the help of our Soveraign Lord the King be the help of the Lord God and if Royal Aid be Divine Aid then who do they help that Fight against and resist their Sovereign Who are they for For the Devil sure There is no middle way no favorable Limbus no Purgatory that can Intervene but they that help not Heaven they help Hell they that help not the Lord help the Devil As do all those that are so Disloyal Lazy or Cowardly that neglect to help their Soveraign when endanger'd or distrest by Enemies much more do those help the Devil that Rebel and Tumultuously resist and Fight against their Soveraign If the Spirit of Loyalty be the Spirit of God as the Holy Ghost calls it as aforesaid then what Spirit is that which Resisteth God by Resisting the Soveraign Magistrate who is called God but the Spirit of Antichrist and the Spirit of the Devil Not the Spirit of the Devil in his own Black Hellish likeness and Apparition that would affright rather than invite men to be his Followers But a Devil in the likeness of Samuel in the likeness of a Prophet a Rebel with his Cloak on the Old Cloak of Religion and the Cause the Cause The Devil was great in Absalom to make him a Rebel against his King and Father but he was a Crafty Politick Devil withall 2 Sam. 15. to make him pretend Justice and Courtesie and Humility to gain the Populace and above all Arts Religion let me go and pay my Vows which I have Vowed to the Lord in Hebron saith he the Place of Conventicle and the Place of Randevouz and Parade also Finge Deum Belial quoties vis fallere plebem And such Devils in the likeness of a Prophet I say in the likeness of Religion is the fiercest the Bloodyest the most Antichristian and Devillish of all Devils Did ever man read of more Bloody Massacres than under the Conduct of the Papists Covenanted together in France by the Name of the Holy League Did ever any thing Parallel it except those Hellish contrivances and Bloody Butcheries in this Island under the favor and Influence of the solemn League and Covenant We read in the Holy Go pel of a kind of Devils that cannot be Cast out but by Prayer and Fasting but this kind of Devil or Spirit of Antichrist that I am Treating of gets Life and strength by Prayer and Fasting Variety of opinions there are the Man of Sin Spoken of 2. Thef 2. the Son of Perdition Be this Spirit of Perdition or Man of Sin who it will I am sure 1st It is a religious a pretendedly Religious Spirit because it sits in the Temple of God vers 4. Secondly It is a Rebellious Spirit against the Sovereign Magistrate opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God that is the Magistrate So that those that under color of Religion and upon pretence of Religion Fight and Kill and Slay and break the peace As in our Age have the Papists especially the Jesuits and the Fanaticks especially the rigid Presbyterian and Fifth-Monarchy-Men we are sure they are Men of Sin and Sons of Perdition opposing the Magistrate for God's sake or in pretence of Religion Religion certainly true Religion is the greatest happiness that God gives to Mortal Men thereby we converse with Heaven upon Earth thereby Men live on Earth like the Glorified Saints and Angels in Heaven thereby comes Glory to God on High on Earth Peace good Will towards
should believe Moses and the Prophets handed to them by Tradition and Humane Authority Ay but the Pharisees the Puritan Party of the Jews they must have a surer Card for their Religion then other Jews and therefore they were not content with Faith though the Prophet Habakkuk had told them that the just should live by it Hab. 2.4 no they must have more Religion and a better ground for Religion then the other Jews or then God required or did expect which was Faith only And would make the World believe that as if they had been as old as the first Mutineers and Ambitious Puritans Corah Dathan and Abiram and had seen Moses Face to shine like the Face of an Angel when he came from speaking with God in the mount they do not only by Tradition of their Fathers believe no but they knew that God spake by Moses Mr. Calvin I confess for him and his followers that he was forc't to give a Definition of Faith contrary to that in Heb. 11.1 for fear the Papists had run him a ground For if he believed Christ and the Gospel upon humane Authority or the Authority of the Popish Church which he renounc't he knew not well how to answer the renouncing the Tradition of that Church without also renouncing Jesus Christ and his Gospel therefore which he should not need he was glad to define Faith to be a stedfast and an assured knowledge of Gods kindness c. and this by a certain witness of the Spirit within a Man By which secret perswasion if he means Gods Grace to make a Man believe Humane Authority Christian and Humane Tradition and Laws whereby we believe the truth of the Holy Scripture he is in the right but he is evidently out of his Story in calling this Faith an assured Knowledge For alas the best of us except we Lye and Cheat and Vapor as those Puritan Pharisees did we must say with the Apostle we see but in part as in a glass Darkly and not with stedfast and assured knowledge as the Saints Triumphant do and as did the Apostles who saw and knew our Blessed Jesus and Saviour in the Flesh But hence comes all the mischief from this Vapor and Lye in making our Faith just like St. Thomas his whose seeing was believing and the rest of the Apostles what ever was true of the Apostles must be true of us which is an abominable Cheat and Imposture They were Witnesses of Christs Resurrection we only tell what they said or did Witness at the second or third hand said I no at the Thousand'th hand and at long run by the Tradition of the Christian Church and Laws of the Land he that pretends other ground for his Faith either believes he knows not wherefore and is a Fool or Enthusiast or Fanatick which is all one and a Cheat and Impostor or else is a Papist and has an Implicite Faith in the Church of Rome or else by doing Miracles as the Apostles did can and must give a Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power In the Name of God what would these Disturbers of Man-kind be at Here 's ado with their Religion their Religion and there 's not one of them knows where he got it except from the Church of England or the Church of Rome And yet they disclaim both these and consequently can demonstrate nothing nor rationally convince any Man of the Truth of their Faith except by their own secret perswasion which though it may be of God yet they cannot shew and prove but that it may be a Lye a Cheat and from the Father of Lyes Are they Ordain'd to Preach the Gospel Let us see their Commission and Ordination They answer they are Ordain'd by them that were Ordain'd by them that were Ordain'd by those that were Ordain'd by the Papists c. I knew whether they would come at long Run Nor can they justifie to the World that that English Minister of Gods word that is not the Kings Minister Ordain'd according to the Sacred and Christian Laws of England is any other then a Minister of the Pope or the Devil either a Papist or an Enthusiast and possest with the Spirit of Popery or the Spirit of Foppery Religion true Religion our Saviour says like a Tree is known by the Fruits consult all Histories antient and modern view the present posture of Affairs if ever this Hundred Years there ever was any Rebellion Massacre Tumults or Treasons Blood Rapine and Murder but either Papist or Fanatick or both had the great hand in it To look no further back then the Reign of King James who dethron'd his Mother and made a Slave and property of him in his Infancy but that Bloody Knox Buchanan and the rest of that Puritan Presbyterian brood by woful experience he tells his Son our late Martyr'd Sovereign in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That under pretence of Religion he should find Alas alas He did find it by sad experience no such Barbarous and Bloody Villains in the World When King James came into England they still made him weary of his Life and the Papists on the other hand endeavor'd to take away his Life by the Gunpowder-Treason But Blessed be God unsuccessfully all his Reign but what the Plots the Popish Plots could not accomplish against his Son the Presbyterian Plots did perfect Crowning their Villany with the Blood and ruin of the Kingdom bringing the Blessed King to the Bloody Scaffold and our Gracious Sovereign to the more Ignominious Stool of Repentance And is this your Religion where did they learn it not from God from Holy Scripture nor from this Text but from the Devil who was a Murderer from the beginning and a Lyar like these his Children and the Father of Lyes These things are plain and palpable and had not now been remembred but that Men tread the same steps follow the same methods may we not Fast and Pray say they sad oh sad may we not Preach wo be to us if we do not Preach the Gospel and wo be to you good People if we do not Preach as if the Gospel were confin'd and Monopoliz'd to a Crew that can show no Authority no Commission no Call no Warrant for what they do except from the Pope and Jesuits who I fear have a great Influence among them The King and his Laws Ordain and constitutes in England the only true Christian Bishops Priests and Deacons as he does the only true Judges and Justices of the Peace and he may deprive all of them equally And therefore if they cannot justifie there Ordination and Commission their Warrant and their Call in an Ordinary and orderly way nor yet by Miracles in an extraordinary way let them no more so idly so impudently and so vainly apply the Apostle's sayings to themselves but contrarily wo be to them if they Preach the Gospel without sufficient Call Warrant Ordination and Lawful Authority Pilate rationally and honestly subjoyn'd to the
by a couple of Calves in Dan and Bethel Instances of this Nature are endless to come nearer home a new new Religion a new new light fresh and new at least an old Heresie new broach't in the Spirit of Foppery did the Business the Devillish business of Murder Blood Ruin and Treason in the late Civil Wars when the Spirit of Popery had run its race and run it self out of Breath and off its Legs In Seven Years the Spirit of Popery could scarce get Seven Proselytes whereas a new light a new Sect a new exposition of Holy Scripture like that of this Text should fetch in Proselytes by shoales nay the Fishers could not throw out their Netts so fast as the Gudgeons came gaping and willing to be taken though to their own destruction But alas alas even this Cheat is also quite discovered I wonder into what Shape this Spirit of Foppery will next appear for the Devil hath no great success with it at this day no more than with the Spirit of Popery A Holder-forth may Yawle and Yarne Snivle and Whine Thump and Bawl 'till his Lungs and his Heart ake and yet neither make open hearted nor open handed their close-fisted Disciples Nay he shall now turn up the white of his Eyes and play as many tricks as Hocus Pocus at a fair and yet not get so much Money at Night as a Common and Profane Hocus But instead of giving them any thing Men are grown to subtle and the cheat so stale that when they begin their tricks and they hear them cant Men are apt to clap their hands upon their Pockets as when Gypsies are near them And know the meaning and aime of the Jugler as at long run they did of a Long-Parliament Fast when every Boy could thereby Prophesie the Ensuing Tax And such Villain Murderers and Traytors have appear'd in the Likeness of this Spirit of Foppery that worse did never appear in the Spirit of Popery You may wink and chuse a Bravo in Spain a Bandito a High-way-man Kill Men and Rob for Money 's sake so do those Murderers and Traytors and Rebells under the Cloak of Religion in the Spirit or guize of Popery and Foppery all this is for Moneys sake though the Vizard pretends for God's sake A Rebel 's a Rebel and a Trayters a Traytor and a Robber's a Robber though he Rob in a Fryar's weed or a Buff-coat or a Presbyterian Jump Vaux is Vaux though he carry a Dark lanthorn and wear a Vizard Object Oh! but Conscience Conscience is a tender thing Ans I grant it Conscience is a tender thing and a Devillish hard thing as any thing in the World The Holy Ghost compares it to the hardest things in the World to the Adamant stone Zich 7 12 what harder than the Adamant or the neather Mill-stone Why Conscience is harder and feels no more 1 Tim. 4.1 2. relents no more than if it were feared with a hot Iron 1. Tim. 4.2 And who are they that carry these seared Consciences that can swallow Oath upon Oath Kill and Rob Plunder and Steal Sequester and Behead and still their Consciences blunk no more than a piece of Brass Why the same Apostle tells us they are such as shall appear in the latter days that in the Spirit of Foppery shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 And in the Spirit of Popery Forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from meats c. 1. Tim. 4.3 I tell you nothing herein but plain Scripture truth's easily applyed and yet I am sensible it is like to cost me dear This Spirit of Popery and Foppery that I have rais'd and discover'd and shown to you this day is a fierce Devillish Bloody Spirit 't is easily rais'd but hard to allay two Arch-bishops one of England the other of Scotland irritated this Spirit but this Fierce and Bloody Spirit fell upon them and Kill'd and Murther'd them many thousand such Bloody Instances there are oh this Spirit has Talons sharp and Keen I know it experimentally nor durst I provoke it as I have done but that I trust in God through Jesus Christ being as willing to suffer as they are to make me suffer in so good Cause Object But some may say we are bound to help and Obey the Sovereign Magistrate against our Consciences Or when he Persecutes men for their Consciences are we bound to help him and is this help the help of the Lord Ans To which I answer first that no man on Earth can meddle with mens Consciences I 'le think in my Conscience what I list and be of what Opinion I list and none upon Earth can hurt me for the same though never so flagitious 'T is Gods Prerogative alone to be the only Searcher as well as Converter of Hearts and Consciences For man sees only the outward Appearance but the Lord Vieweth the Heart or Conscience And as the Magistrate cannot so he does not pretend to meddle with mens Consciences if Two Robbers or Two Murderers come to be tryed before a Judge the one Robber is perhaps a Leveller or a Covenanter and thinks in his Conscience he may take the Goods of a Rich man or a Lord especially of a Prelate or Spiritual Lord till he has pull'd him down nay pull'd him up Root and Branch as he has Sworne in his solemn League and Covenant till he has at least Rob'd him Plunder'd and Sequestred him of his Estate so that he has rais'd his own equal and Level with him The other Robber is a down-right Thief and never aggravates his Crime with Hypocrisie but both are Convicted of the Felony Does the Judge or can the Judge search into the Heart and Conscience of the Men and dive to find whether it be their Conscience or Religion to Rob or Steal be their Consciences what they will he is not concern'd but finding them Malefactors and Transgressors of the Law he Condemnes the Godly Thief and the Ungodly Thief to the same Gallows Yet how gently how favorably and Religiously has our Laws provided for tender and dissenting Consciences and Religions Men may Preach that will when they will what they will and where they will at this day in England provided they do not Randevouz above Five strangers to the Conventicle least they Fight the Neighbor-hood with their Old tricks of making a Long Prayer and a long Sermon the Prologue of some ensuing mischief And also provided the Non-conformist Preacher do not Hold Forth within Five Miles of the Parish he Deserted I had almost said Deluded and also not within Five Miles of a City or Town-Corporate How would the Apostles have Blest God for this Liberty if they might but have Preacht from House to House they would have Blest God and the Magistrate for the Grace and Favor But our Spirits of Foppery will not be Fob'd off so they must and will have Numbers Glory in their Numbers
Man was a Son of Belial in English a Son unyoak't unbridled unrestrained his lusts had their full Scope If any Man lusted after his Neighbors Wife his Neighbors Daughter his Neighbors House his Neighbors Land it was but cutting his Throat and the business was done till another stronger then he or many others combin'd serv'd the Murderer in his kind in the like Kind till another or others did the like for them and so for want of Law lust was a law and revenge was a Law and Ambition and Covetousness hurryed Men Captive to confusion and ruin for want of a Righteous Law and Yoak to restrain and protect them No wonder then that the Text says in those times there was no peace to him that went out or to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants man against man and City against City for God did vex them and they vext one another with all Adversity And this is the fruit of liberty liberty But understand a little ye brutish among the People Psalm 94.8 And ye Fools when will ye be Wise Never alas never till taught too late by the Fools Mistress woful experience And if Men should have but for one day the Tryal of an Inter regnum or Interval of Government as the Turks usually have at the Death of an Emperor and that every Man has liberty they that wish for it would find it the most dismal and Tragical day for Rapines and Massacres that ever they had if happily it prove not their Last Day So Fatal it is to want Government so Fatal to England to want Kingly Government and so Fatal to Rebel 's by Fighting against it to Fight against God and therefore do justly incurr the Curse of God as Cursed Meroz disloyal Meroz in this Text. Whence I conclude that as he that will not venture his Body can never be Valiant and he that will not venture his Soul can never be Rich so he that will not venture both Body Soul and Estate can never be a Rebel There is but one Question more to be Answered and then I have done And that is Q. 4. Why the Angel of the Lord does Curse at this Rate Surely the Debaucht and prophane Ranters of this Age does not from this Scripture learn to Curse and Damme after the Example of the Angel of the Lord here and yet the Lawfulness of Cursing is more plainly prov'd than the Lawfulness of Rebellion from this Text. And though it be a Devillish thing to Curse and Damme as well as to Rebel yet our Debauches seldom aggravate their sins by adding Hypocrisie to them and the Cloak of Religion the Common habit of Rebels in our Age Yet both of them are alike in sinning impudently with a High hand and a Brazen Face Do they Blush when they Swear and Curse and Damme And are Men asham'd when by stubbornness and Nonconformity they dare Confront as well as Transgress the Laws He that hides his Sin shall not Prosper faith Solomon Well this I 'le say for both the said Malignants both the bold Cursers and the bold Conventiclers they are so far from hiding their sin that they boast of it and Glory in it The one by Cursing Swearing and Damming hopâ—…s to be accounted a Daring Valiant Modish Gen tleman The Angel Cursed Meroz but this Fool dares Curse himself he dare pray to God to Damme him and seldom do these-Davils Incarnate put up any other prayer to God but God Damme them Devils Incarnate did I say Alas that speaks them not enough these dregs of Humanity are worse than Devils for the Devil did pray in St. Luk. 8.28 Lukes Gospel to our Saviour saying I beseech thee torment me not But these worser kind of Devils or Demonaicks pray quite contrary praying at every word God I beseech thee torment me or God Damme me Vpon me be thy Curse my Son sayes a Rash Woman in Scripture But that any Man should say Upon me let my own Curse come is no where to be learnt but from Hell the Devil and the Damned Spirits God Grant that every one of us may hence Learn so to set a Watch before the Door of our Mouths that we may truly say with Holy Job Job 31.30 Neither have I suffered my Soul to Sin by wishing a Curse on another Mans Soul much less upon our own Soul We read indeed of some Devillish Confederates that made a solemn League and Covenant Acts 23. and bound themselves under a grievous Curse to kill St. Paul But never until this unparallel'd Age of prophaneness that any did bind themselves under a great Curse to kill their own Souls Eternally and be Damn'd 'T was Balacks policy to hire Balaam to Curse Come Curse me Jacob his Enemy but 't is these mens policies and all their piety to Curse themselves are their own Enemy The Devil prays they may be Damn'd so pray they Herein seeming to transcend the Blasphemy of those in the Prophet Isaiah Isaiah 8.21 that Curst their King and their God And except they Repent they shall with horror and astonishment hear our Saviour Eccho to them Go ye Cursed into everlasting Burnings prepared for the Devil and his Angels They have often very often pray'd and petition'd Heaven that they might be Damn'd their petition will be answered with a Fiat according to your dayly prayer Amen So be it For them that Honor God God will Honor but those that despise him and all Modesty 1. Sam. 2.30 all Religion all Vertue all that Good is shall be lightly esteemed I know I am and willingly I am in some Transport to meet with this sort of men yet not at all out of my way Only the Wonder in the Text is not yet taken away For though the Devil and Devillish men will Swear and Curse yet why should the Angel of the Lord use his Mouth to this Hectoring Language Though I speak with the Tongue of Men or Angels faith the Apostle Divellish Men and Devillish Angels have Tongues Cursing Tongues and Cursed Tongues But why should the Angel of the Lord Curse Ans Surely not but upon some notorious and strange occasion and for some Damnable and Notorious sin And what is that sin but Disloyalty Many other Scriptures decry and Condemn Rebellion a sin of Commission against the King But this Text Curses and Condemns Disloyalty which is only a sin of Omission not in acting against but in not acting for the Sovereign Magistrate So earnest is Heaven not only to keep the Peace on Earth but to help God I mean as the Text does the Sovereign Magistrate when opprest or in Jeopardy To sit still at such a Time or to be a Neuter is Damnable and lyable to a Curse And why Because above all other Duties peace is recommended in Holy Scripture above all other Legacies our Blessed Saviour Bequeath'd peace to his Disciples and Followers with a Blessing to the peace-maker and the peace-keeper and a Curse on him that breaks the peace Many other are the Blessings of Man-kind but peace includes them all many are the Miseries of Mankind but War Tumult and Rebellion includes them all as being the Mother of Mischief including all Mischief in the Belly of it And therefore the worst of men are thus paraphras'd by the Holy Ghost The way of Peace have they not known Thievâ—…s and Highway-men Murtherers and Bandito's are no doubt of the vilest sort of Wretches but yet not so Vile nor Damnable as Cursed and Tumultuous Rebels the former being but Retail-Rogues to those that Murder and Plunder by Whole-sale Not that all Papists and Phanaticks have nothing but Mischief and Blood in their Eye and Design many of them are like those Four hundred men that Followed Absalom in their simplicity but once engaged with him in Rebellion there was no Retreating Cursed Cursed for ever let them be then well may we say who have seen the Villanies of Rebels acted under the Guize and Vizard of Religion and Liberty Curse them I say or not I so much as the Angel of the Lord faith yea Curse them bitterly for their Dissoyalty that will not come to the help of the Chief Magistrate when in danger of Enemies that will not come to the help of the King the help of the Lord against the Mighty And now I have done And I hope I have done enough to make this Text speak better English then formerly and bespeak better English Subjects though vile Hackney Tongues have abus'd this Text and their own Judgments in spight of all Sence Grammar and the Context by wresting the plain and easie sence thereof to Gull the Blockish English to their Destruction Bees suck Honey from the same Flowers whence Spiders suck their poyson And I doubt not but you will conclude with me that in this Text thus naturally now Explain'd is verify'd Sampson's Riddle Out of the Eater is come forth Meat Judg. 14.14 and out of the Strong Sweetness FINIS