upon their Consciences by Jotham to the mutual destruction of them and Abimelech whom they had advanced over them upon thâ— ruins of the 70 Sons of Jerubbâ—al For saith Jotham My Father fought for you and adventured his Life for you and delivered you out of the hand of Midian and ye are risen up against my Father's House this day and have slain his Sons threescore and ten persons upon one Stone and have made Abimelech the Son of his Maid-Servant King over the Men of Sechem because he is your brother c. Judg. 9. 17. Then God sent an evil Spirit between the men of Sechem and Abimelech to punish their cruel ingratitude v. 23. Which is the Substance of that whole Chapter of Judges 9. And after they had destroyed one another that sad History as any in the Book of God is concluded thus Thus God rendred the wickedness of Abimelech which he did unto his Father in staying his seventy brethren and all the evil of the men of Sechem did God render upon their heads and upon them came the curse of Jotham the Son of Jerubbaal v. 56 57. So that now you see this horrible sin of Ingratitude that is punished by God in so high a degree must needs be an accursed and destructive thing Another said instance of the like sin and punishment we have recorded concerning Joash King of Judah who was marvelously preserved in the Massacre of the Royal Family from Athaliah's bloody Fingers by Jehoiada the High Priest and his Wife Jehoshabea and kept safe in the House of the Lord six Years under the tyrannous Usurpation of that wicked Idolatress 2 Chron. 22. 10 11 12. Jehoiada set the Crown on his head put down the Usurper restored the Kingdom to their former freedom and raised the Royal Family to their former Splendor and Dignity and left it flourishing in Peace and Plenty But after the death of his 〈◊〉 Tutor Governour Gua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Protector 't is recorded Thâ—â— this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and turned 〈◊〉 and Murderer two iâ—separable Companions and commanded Zachariah the Priest the Son of Jehoâ—aâ—a to be stoned even in the Court of the House of the Lord for reproving his Idolatry and saying Because ye have forsaken the Lord He also hath forsaken you Thus Joash the King remembred not the kindness which Jehoiada his Father had done unto him but flew his Son and when he died he said The Lord look upon it and require it Which Prayer of this dying Martyr the Lord heard and recompensed this cruel ingratitude of Joash towards God and Man speedily upon his own head to the ruine of himself and of all his Princes that seduced him and of all his Armies in which he trusted by an inconsiderable party For the Army of the Syrians came with a small company of Men and the Lord delivered a very great Host into their hand because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers so they executed Judgment against Joash And besides all this The Lord smote him with grievous torments in his body by incurable diseases as in the case of Jehoram that murdered his Brothers 2 Chron. 21. 18. And at last to put an end to the miserable life of this godless Wretch his own Servants conspired against him for the Blood of the Sons of Jehoiada the Priest and flew him on his Bed and he died But they buried him not in the Sepulchres of the Kings 2 Chron. 24. 18 20 21 22. an honour that was bestowed upon Jehoiada the High Priest his Preserver and Restorer v. 16. though out of indignation denied him as to Jehoram before him that lived undesired and died unlamented 2 Chron. 21. 20. Thus did God plentifully reward this proud Doer as the Psalmist speaks Measuring to him again with the same measure that he had meted withal a just measure of Wrath pressed down and shaken together and running over into his Bosome as our Lord speaks Luke 6. v. 38. Obj. Some will say My Will is good but I want means and abilitiy to requite any henefit received hy me Answ 1. Profess and acknowledge always the good Turn it is a part of an ingenuous Disposition to profess who hath done thee any pleasure yea half a requital Eph. 5. 20. Secondly Use Prayer to God for their good Estate if thou be poor he is rich to requite and doubtless as the cry of the poor can awake His Justice as Himself speaks For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Psal 12. 5. So can the joyful Thanksgiving by the mouth of them that are partakers of the benefit and withal their Prayers for the means of it awake His Liberality as Paul undertakes My God shall supply all your necessities according to his Riches in glory by Christ Jesus Phil. 4. 19. Here I cannot but put the Poor in mind of their duty which receiving good at the hands of them that relieve them are very unjust if they give not again this Duty back to them to Pray for them So Ministers which in that very Name as one part of their Ministerial Duty for the whole is the Word and Prayer as the Apostles speak But we will give our selves continually to Prayer and to the Ministry of the Word Acts 6. 4. receive temporal things Lastly Before I close up this place of Thankfulness to Men we must not pass by our Thankfulness to God For if to Men we must be Thankful How much more to GOD And the ground of Unthankfulness to Men is from their Unthankfulness to GOD. There is not any other fault more generally blamed even by those that have but the Light of Nature than ingratitude as I have largely shewed nor any Ingratitude greater than towards God because of none we receive more or greater Benefits than from him to say nothing that it being impossible that we should attain to that degree of Thankfulness which should be in requiting the Benefits we daily and hourly receive of him he is contented to take the Acknowledgement of them for Payment so as it must be the effect of a most Villaâ—nous Injustice to deny him that For which cause in the Scriptures we have the Invitations of Holy Men to Thankfulness the praise of this Duty and the Precedents of good Men performing it In special the Book of the Psalms hath his name in the Hebrew Tongue as ye would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Book of Praises not as if the whole Book had nothing else but because it is the chief part and most principally intended And for this cause doth the Church use in the beginning of her solemn Service the 95 Psalm as a means to invite us to that Duty so good and comeâ—â— yea so just and necessary as the Psalm for the Sabbath Day begins 'T is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises to thy
Look into Colossians the 3. v. 15 IF a dumb Beast cou'd Naturâ—s Silence break And Balâ—am's Ass at Heaven's Command cou'd speak Let 's wonder less that the same God cou'd reach The Voice of Ravens his great Truth to Preach â—ut 't is his own kind Call no less a Grace Than to invite us his Rich Peace â—'embrace Vâ—ion and Love Oh happy Isâ—ael When in Thy Gates such Heavenly Guests can dwell VOX CORVI OR THE Voice of a Raven That Thrice spoke these Words distinctly Look into Colossians the 3d. and 15th The Text it self look'd into and opened in a Sermon Preached at VVigmore in the County of Hereford To which is added Serious Addresses to the People of this Kingdom shewing the use we ought to make of this Voice from Heaven By Alex. Clogie Minister of Wigmore c. Licensed according to Order Matth. 21. xviii And Jesus saith unto them Yea have ye never read Out of the Mâ—uths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast perfected Praise London Printed by W. B. And are to be sold by R. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane and by most Booksellers in London and Westminster 1694. TO THE Christian Reader THis following Discourse is presented to thy Perusal under a double Recommendation not only as containing so Evangelical a Blessing as the Peace of God in the Text offer'd to thee our heartiest endeavours for the obtaining whereof is so much our highest Christian Importance and Duty but likewise more particularly the Occasion that gave the Reverend Preacher the choice of this Text which first in the plain matter of Fact take as follows On the 3d. of February 1691. about Three in the Afternoon this Reverend Divine a Person of the venerable Age of Eighty Years and Forty of those a Laborious Teacher of God's Word in the Parish of Wigmore in the County of Hereford being in the Hall of his own House being with the Pious Matron his Wife some Neighbours and Relations together with two small Grand-Children of his in all to the number of Eight Persons Thomas Kinnersley one of the said Grand-Children of but Ten Years of Age starting up from the Fire-side went out of the Hall-Door and sate himself down upon a Block by a Wood-pile before the Door employing himself in no other Childish Exercise than cutting of a Stick when in less than half a quarter of an Hour he returned into the Hall in great Amazement his Countenance pale and affrighted and said to his Grand father and Grand mother Look in the Third of the Colossians and the Fifteenth with infinite Passion and Earnestness repeating the Words no less than three times which Depâ—rtment and Speech much surprizing the whole Company they asked him what he meant by those words who answered with great Ardency of Spirit That a Raven had spoken them Three times from the Peak of the Steeple and that it look'd towards W. W.'s House and shook its Head and Wings thitherward directing its Looks and Motions still towards that House All which words he heard the Raven distinctly utter three times and then saw it mount and fly out of sight His Grand father hereupon taking the Bible and turning to the said Text found these words And let the Peace of God rule in your Hearts to the which you are also called in one Body and be ye thankful Upon reading whereof the Child was fully satisfied and his Countenance perfectly composed agen Now as the Voice of a RÃ ven to speak in such a marvellous manner may seem an incredible Relation especially in an Age of such little Faith yet we do here offer these serious Considerations for the Manifestation of this real though amazing Truth First What may stagger some People viz. That the greatest and indeed only Authority in so weighty a Concern is only from the Testimony of a Child of but Ten Years old is upon due and full Examination one of the strongest Arguments of an undoubted Truth For first here were no less than Eight People of honest Credit and Reputation that heard this Declaration of the Child and were all Witnesses and Observers both of the Childs Countenance Gesture and Behaviour in the whole thing Now tho' but a Child of no more than Ten Years to come running from his Play with so alter'd and changed a Countenance and so much Vehemence of Spirit and Earnestness of Expression to press an aged Grand-father and Grandmother to so serious a work as the search of a particular Text of Scripture had something extraordinary in it Now had any Person of riper Years or any other single Authority come in the like manner and with the same Vehemency advised the Inquiry into such a Text and given any such credible Relation of hearing a Raven speak here might have been some Grounds of Suspicion in the Veracity of such a single Testimony for at those elder Years the change of Face and passion of Expression might possibly be Vizor and Artifice and consequently afford matter of Doubt and Scruple Nay possibly a Person of Maturity as knowing the Fewds and Jarrs of the Family towards which the Raven directed this Text might even out of a good and honest design have feigned such a Relation as thinking thereby to have reconciled the long Disunion and Discords of a Neighbour's House by so amazing a warning-piece for Peace and Concord as coming from the Mouth of a Raven tho' in reality a Fictitious story But in the case of a Boy all this shadow of Doubt is utterly removed for both the forementioned change of Countenance and importunate Earnestness together with the Child 's constant Asseveration of the Truth of this astonishing Accidents were all beyond the capacity of a Child to feign or counterfeit as being a Masque morally impossible for his young Face to wear And not only so but the matter and manner of his Delivery were Alien to his Years for a poor Infant then out of doors a whitling of a Stick or some such piece of innocent Childhood to come running home on such an important Errand as indeed no less than a Message from God take it in all the Circumstances was beyond the possibility of Art or Cunning. And moreover as a thing done at Noon-day here was the plain and sensible Conviction both of the Child's Eye and Ear in the case and not as people in the Dark many times frighted and Bug-bear'd into the seeing imaginary Chimeras and Fantoms To sum up the Evidences therefore Here is possibly a full Testimony even to demonstration it self And undoubtedly the Almighty was particularly pleased to deliver this unusual Warning from Heaven only to the Ear of a Child that Innocence and Simplicity might be the greater and stronger Commissioner of his Divine Will and Pleasure on such an occasion Now the Reasons why this Reverend and Pious Divine has appeared thus in publick and so long after now above Two Years since the thing was done are these As a modest sober good Man it
of the first Chapter The Syriack reads this Text thus Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts He is our peace saith the Prophet Micah 5. 5. and this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall tread in our land The Prophet Isaiah calls him the Prince of peace Isa 9. 6. as typified by Melchisedeck King of Shalem the true King of peace as the Apostle renders his Royal Titles first beng by interpretation King of righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of peace Heb. 7. 2. and well may he deserve that honourable Title For he is our peace saith the Apostle to the Ephesians Ephes 2. 14. Who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us between Jews and Gentiles and between our God and us having made peace through the blood of his Cross saith he in the First Chapter of his Epistle and 20th verse He is our Peace-maker with God Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 1. At his Birth all the Militia of Heaven sang this joyful Ditty in a Proclamation of Peace Glory to God in the highest peace on earth good will towards men Luke 2 14. At his Death he left us a Legacy of peace My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth I give unto you John 14. 27. 4. God the Holy Ghost the third Person of the glorious Trinity is the God of peace the Spirit of peace and love And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly the conclusion of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians ch 5. ver 23. He is the Sanctifier of all the Elect people of God The excellent fruits of this God of peace are set down by the Apostle to the Galatians But the fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law Gal. 5. 22. And because the God head and Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father is by all this discourse approved and that also of the Holy Ghost I will conclude this Point after the phrase of the Athanasian Creed The Father is the God of peace the Son is the God of peace and the Holy Ghost is the God of peace and yet they are not three Gods of peace but one God of peace And with that Prayer wherewith the Apostle concludes his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians which includes all this Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means the Lord be with you all 2 Thess 3. v. 16. Observ 4. In the brief Application of this Point before I proceed any further let us observe for our Instruction That this is a close Argument to perswade the more to permit this Peace to hold the Mastery in us because it is God's and so indeed God shall rule in our hearts by his peace The name of the King's Peace is of no small weight as to repress the Outrage of the Unruly It ought to be at least when the Officer cries I charge you in the King's Name to keep the King's Peace God's Sacred Name is greater that is King of Kings and Lord of Lords the greater their Sin that break his Peace at once offending God and the King Exhort Let us not say then we will not have his Peace rule in our hearts as those Ill-bred Citizens that hated their Noble Lord and sent a Message after him saying We will not have this man to rule over us Luke 19. 14. but rather as the men of Israel said to Gideon Rule thou over us both thou and thy son and thy son's son also for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian Judg. 8. 22. And hath made peace in our borders as the Psalmist sings Psalm 147. 14. Let every one of us say with him again and again I will hearken what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people c. Psal 85. 8. To the which also ye are called in one body Now to the Apostle's Reasons why this Peace of God should rule in our hearts which are two First God's calling Ye are called to peace For the meaning whereof it is as much as to say As God when he severe you from the World would lay this task upon you to have peace rule in you for this was the Prophecy of Isaiah concerning the times of the Gospel that cruel and savage Beasts should lay down their fierceness Lions Wolves Serpents learn other manners and become at unity with Lambs Oxen Children c. This purpose of God you must become Instruments to bring to pass The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Child shall lead them and the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lye down together and the Lion shall eat Straw like the Ox and the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned child shall put his hand on the Cookatrice den they shall not hunt nor destroy in all my holy mountain For the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Isa 11. 6 7 8. A great shame for a Minister of outward peace to break the peace A Justice who is the Conservator of the Peace or a Constable who is sworn to see the Peace kent to be a Fighter or maker of Frays Penal it is in a high degree when a man is bound to the Peace to be a Striker So it is surely a shame and a just cause of shame when a Christian who by his Calling is bound to the Peace to be a Quarreller Make-bate Ranter c. Christianus contentiosus was one of the greatest Paradoxes and Scandals in the Primitive Church The Apostle Paul in the Sixth Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinths reproves the Corinthians for their breach of God's Peace that ought to rule in their hearts for Lawing one with another before Heathen Judges when there was not so much as a Christian Constable in the World which Fault having very sharply reproved and told them of another course by Arbitrement even of the meanest of the Church if there were no other wise or able man amongthem He presseth so far as to say They ought rather to suffer wrong whereas they wronged their Brethren whereupon endeavouring to remedy this matter in the root he appeals to their knowledge if Injustice as many other Sins did not exclude from the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven yes he avouches it and so falling off into a more gentle manner he tells them roundly what they were sometimes but now by the Grace of God otherwise he leaves it to be esteemed then that to those things they ought not to return again that are inconsistent with this Evangelical
I did it to God's Glory that I might express my Thankfulness to him and the joy of my Heart in doing him Service whom since the rest know not they are not to be respected if they scorn nor is it to be wondred if they be strangely affected with it as above the compass of their Conceit Fifthly How without hope of Requital are all yea the least of God's benefits that call for Thankfulness a cup of cold water only given to drink in Christ's name because ye belong to Christ shall not lose a just and superabundant requital saith our Lord Mar. 9. 41. See the full and final requital of all good and charitable Deeds Matth. 25. 34 35 36. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prinson and ye came unto me The Wicked he requites here sometimes in their own Coin as Adoni bezek acknowledgeth when his thumbs and great toes were cut off As I have done to threescore and ten Kings so hath the Lord requited me Judg. 1. 7. We are all ready enough to requite Evil for Evil to give him quid pro quo as good as he brings as the Proverb rimes as Sampson served the Philistines As they have done unto me so have I done unto them Jud. 15. 11. But it being impossible to requite God in any thing it is a most heinous Provocation of his justice to render Evil for Good Do ye thus provoke the Lord O foolish people and unwise saith Moses with Astonishment and Abhorrency Deut. 32. 6. 'T is left as a sad blot in Hezekiah's Scutcheon tho' otherwise a good Man and a good King by God's own Testimony He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among all the Kings of Judah nor any that were before him But Hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wroth upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chr. 32. 25. For after the defeat of Senacherib's Forces by an Angel of God that slew in one night an hundred fourscore and five thousand men of war in the Assyrian Camp and after the recovery of his Health confirmed by a sign from Heaven in the Sun's Retrogradation by ten degrees and the addition by Patent from God of fifteen years to his days with exceeding much Riches and Honour yet for all this he was not so careful to please God in an humble and thankful Acknowledgment of such great Favours as God was to pleasure him in them all Sixthly Consider from what odds the Person giving to our baseness have been all his benefits he being the great Independent Jehovah greatness is stampt upon all his Benefits to us and we a Seed of evil Doers a people laden with Iniquity children that are corrupters our spot is not the spot of his Children we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and in want of all things as our Lord writes to the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. v. 17. Lastly Consider with what advantage of time and order in first bestowing have his Benefits been to us No eye pittied thee to have compassion upon thee I said unto thee when thou wast in thy Blood live saith the Lord Ezek. 16. 5 6. we love him because he first loved us saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 19. His love to us is an antecedent love we love him with a consequential love because he hath cast his love upon us first and therefore is no way indebted to us for our love The Apostle asks this question Who hath first given unto him and it shall berecompenced to him again for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Rom. 11. v. 35 36. It is said by some we can never requite our Parents by some also we owe more to our Masters and Teachers than to Parents in as much as one gave being the other well being doubtless in both respects we cannot requite God and Christ First Our Parents begat our Bodies he gave us our senses who is therefore styled by the Apostle The Father of our Spirits Heb. 12. 9. 2. Our Masters and Teachers gave us with God's Blessing Knowledge and Learning Christ teacheth us the way to Heaven who is the Way the Truth and the Life Christ gave himself to us and for us to wash us from our Sins in his own Blood Joh. 14. 6. without which it had been better for us to have been any thing rather than men yea at all not to have been Let us with the Psalmist again and again say What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psal 116. 12. all his benefits are above us even the one also of our former means to express Gratitude here fails us what can we wish or desire to the most absolute and perfect Being Only we may acknowledge the Benefits and the Excellency and Liberality of the Giver which further may desire that all others would do the like this is our utmost unless further to endeavour not to be disobedient to this Heavenly Author of much good to us which yet is our duty otherwise the less we have means to the former the more ought we to be in this and say with the Man after God's own Heart I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praises to my God while I have my being my Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord Psal 103. 33 34. and in another At Midnight will I rise to give thanks to thee because of thy righteous Judgments Psal 119. 62. Let us beg of him as another Benefit that he will give us Grace and a mind to do these things who hath given the ground an occasion of them even the same our Lord Jesus Christ Now because the Apostle Peter saith no Prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. so neither are all of sole private application but some are of a larger Extent and Compass than others if I should have studied long for a fit Text Psal 119. 16. Thy commandment iâ— exceeding broad and turned the whole Scripture I could not have had a fitter passage or greaâ—◠〈◊〉 in all the Book of God he calls more both for private and publick application than this that is in so strange a manner laid open before us to look into it and yet no more strange than true as the truth is in Jesu before whom I stand for this Doctrin of the Peace of God that ought to rule in the Hearts of all Believers gives great help advantage and admonition to Kings Law-makers Rulers to
the soul Now most noble Lords and Commons Since God hath endued many of you with excellent parts of learning of all sorts and Wisdom both Theorical and Practical above all the Sanedrims Synods and Anti Synods since that of Nice in which a plain Country-man in demonstration of the Spirit and Power convinced the Heathenish Phylosophers more than all the three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers that were there I hope you will in the fear of God assert the everlasting Gospel in the purity and simplicity of it and all the approved Teachers of it in allowing them a just Maintainance for their Supportation that they may be encouraged in the Law of the Lord 2 Chr. 31. 4. as Hezekiah is recorded to have done in his Reign according to that of the Apostle Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things which I take to be the Patent of the Ministers of the Gospel The gleanings of your Grapes are better than the Vintage of some Countrys where there is a competent Provision for their Ministers many able Men of yours have small allowance even for the meanest Imployments all Tyth being lock'd up in the Hands of Impropriators in many places and nothing left of the spoil but the old allowance The Nethimims that were of two sorts the Gibeonites and the Levites that were imployed to be Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water for the Alter of God t had a far more plentiful provision for themselves and their Families than many of your most painful Ministers have at this day that labour in the Word and Doctrine as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 5. 17. Prove me now herewith saich the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3. 10. That he may cause the blessing to rest in thine House saith the Prophet Ezekiel ch 44. v. 30. More over most noble Patriots that are called to sit on Thrones of Judgment for such a time as this where many of your Pregenitors Parents Kinsmen dear Friends fellow-Subjects and Country-men did sit above Fifty years ago that were able Men fearing God and honouring the King that were zealous for God and valiant for his truth as ye are all this day Act. 22. 3. that resisted all inevitations on Church and State even unto Blood Heb 12. 4. in themselves and others to prevent the setting up the image of Jealousie that provokes to Jealousie Ezek. 8. 3. which was like to bring the calamities of Esau upon them Jer. 49. 8. and their posterity after them that they might not be called the border of iniquity the people against whom the Lord hath Indignation for ever as the Prophet speaks Let not all the trouble seem little to you that hath come upon us our Kings on our Princes on our Priests and on our Fathers and on all the people Neh. 9. 32. since the time of King Charles the I. whose shield in that combustion was vilely cast away 2 Sam. 1. 21 as if he had not been anointed with Oyl as David laments the violent Death of Saul lest these things should be revived and advanced with a high Land that caused such alienation of affection and bitter destruction of many Persons and Families in these three Kingdoms You have like the Nobles of Israel given their evidence to the contrary Thas when Popery was issuing upon us like a mighty Stream Root and Branch in all the parts and Pendicts of it Then they had swallowed us up quâ—ck when their wrath was kindled against us Then the waters of Mara of bitterness had overwhelmed us the stream of Idolatry and Superstition had gone over our Soul Psal 124. 3 4. Then like so many Moses's you stood in the breach to resist Satan and all Iniquity and to turn away God's wrath from his People occasioned by the golden Calf or as so many resolute and self-denying Leviâ—es of whom it is written That he said to his Father and to his Mother I have not seen them neither did he acknowledge his Brethren nor knew his own Children when a Proclamation was made by Moses through all the Camp of Israel Who is on the Lords side let him come unto me Exod. 32. 26. In all these things you have approved your selves the faithful and true Servants of God Be it spoken to the glory of God and recorded among your Archives for your honour and of your posterity for ever that you did really thus with all your high and low Court-Relations Ye have seen also that Prophecy of Isaiah actually fulfilled in the Royal Person of our King when the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him Isa 59. 19. put him to flight by whom But by our King William whom God hath made to be his Standard-bearer against the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition in Honour and Obedience to him that is styled The standard-bearer among ten thousand Cant. 5. v. 10. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that hath in love to us all set his own King over us to assist you in all things that may do most good In whatsoever things are true in whatsoever things are honest in whatsoever things are lovely in whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise that ye may think on these things with him as the Apostle exhorts Phil. 4. v. 8. What God said to David Psal 2. This is my King generally he saith it of all that be like to David for he is the same The King whose Heart is upright with God as was David's the temper whereof you may see Psal 101. and Psal 131. as touching the Administration of the Common-wealth and his own Person and Family but more excellently as in his duty to God in the whole 119th Psalm Such a King is God's King himself such may assure themselves of safety and protection from the treachery and power of their Advesaries as Psalm 144. 10. It is he that giveth salvation unto such Kings that delivered David his servant from the hurtful hurt of Saul and all his enemies as the title of the 18th Psalm bears And without flattery be it spoken if God have any such King in the World it is our King as he hath well declared even by that very Argument of Protection from such villainous Practices as were contrived against him and such eminent dangers that he exposed himself unto both by Sea and Land to them that can or will mark no other reason Certainly if Sion if Jerusalem if Israel were beholding to the Lord for giving them the honour above all other Nations to be ruled by this King we are in the same debt to whom the best King in this World hath been given by him and then given when we feared the worst of all extremities that we could imagine