those that are given to change restore unto us the joyfull solemnities of thy worship and vindicate thy portion from those Sacrilegious hands that have robbed thee of the incouragements and supportance of thy Service that we may yet againe and ever more and more serve thee our God in unity and truth and glorifie thy name for thy mercies from generation to generation through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with thee O Father and thy holy Spirit one Almighty Eternall and most glorious God be all honour and glory and blessing and praise from hence forth and for ever Amen Psalmes for Humiliation and Imploration of Gods Mercy c. Psalme 6.1 O Lord rebuke us not in thine Anger neither chasten us in thine hot Displeasure Have mercy upon us O Lord for wee are weake O Lord heale us for our bones are vexed Our soules also are sore troubled But thou O Lord how long Returne O Lord deliver our soules O save us for thy mercies sake For in death there is no remembrance of thee In the grave who shall give thanks unto thee Psalme 7.9 O let the wickednesse of the wicked come to an end but establish the just For thou O Lord tryest the hearts and reines Psalme 9.9 Be thou a refuge for the oppressed even a refuge in these times of trouble Thou that liftest us up from the Gates of Death Psalme 9.19 Arise O Lord let not man prevaile breake thou the power of the Enemy for the presumption of them that hate thee increaseth yet dayly Put them in feare O Lord that they may know themselves to bee but men Psalme 10.13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemne God He hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it Verse 14. Thou hast seene it for thou beholdest mischiefes and spite to requite it with thy hand The poore committeth himselfe unto thee thou art the helper of the fatherlesse Verse 15. Breake thou the arme of the wicked and the evill man seeke out his wickednesse till thou find none Verse 18. Judge thou the fatherlesse and the oppressed that the man of the earth may no more oppresse Amen Another Psalme Psalme 12.1 HElpe Lord for the godly man ceaseth for the faithfull faile from among the children of men Verse 2. They speake vanity every one with his neighbour with flattering lips and a double heart do they speake Verse 4. They have said with our tongue will we prevaile our lips are our owne who 〈◊〉 Lord over us Verse 5. For the oppression of the poore for the sighing of the needy arise now O Lord according to thy word and set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Psalme 13.3 Consider and heare us O Lord our God lighten our eyes least we sleep the sleep of death Ver. 4. Least our enemies say we have prevailed against them and those that trouble us rejoyce when we are moved Psalme 17.3 Let our sentence come forth from thy presence let thine eyes behold the thing that is equall Vers 5. Hold thou up our goings in thy paths that our footsteps slip not Vers 6. We have called upon thee for thou wilt heare us O God incline thine care unto us and heare our speech Vers 7. Shew thy marvellous loving kindnesse oh thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from them that rise up against them Ver. 8. Keep us as the Apple of the eye hide us under theshadow of thy wings from the wicked that oppresse us from our deadly enemies who compasse us about Vers 13. Arise O Lord disappoint them cast them down deliver our soules from the wicked which are thy sword Vers 14. From men which are thy hand O Lord from men of the world which have their portion in this life and whose bellies thou fillest with thine hid treasure Vers 15. As for us we will behold thy face in righteousnes we shall be satisfied when we awake with thy likenesse Another Psalme Psalme 51.1 c. HAve mercy upon us oh God according to thy loving kindnesse according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out our transgressions Wash us throughly from our iniquities and cleanse us from our sinnes for we acknowledge our transgressions and our sins are ever before us Against thee have we sinned and done evill in thy sight That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest and cleare when thou judgest Behold we are shapen in iniquity and in sinne have out mothers conceived us we have sinned with our fathers we have done amisse and dealt wickedly Neh. 9.16 We and our fathers have dealt proudly we have hardened our necks and have not harkened to thy Commandements We have refused to obey neither have wee been mindfull of the wonders that thou didst for us and our Nation How thou hast brought us out of darkenesse into thy light How thou chasedst away the fogs of Errour and Superstition and causedst the glory of thy truth to shine amongst us Psal 84.11 How thou our God hast been a Sunne and a shield unto us Psal 66.12 How thou hast carried us through fire and water and hast delivered us from the Enemies hand How thou brakedst the Ships of the Sea and scatteredst the Armadoes of our Enemies upon the waters How thou armedst the very Elements to fight against our Adversaries And drewest forth the Stormes and the Tempests in array to chastise the pride and insolency of our foes and to turne the destruction upon themselves which they intended against us How thou hast defeated the divellish devises of the wicked and disappointed the hellish plots and conspiracies of the ungodly When the lot of destruction was cast upon us and the deepe designe thereof was even ready to blow us up When the contrivers thereof thought all things sure and that they were safe under the cloud of their darke counsels and were ready to triumph in the successe of their cruelty When the time of our expected overthrow was even come and they were gaping to swallow us up at once unto ruine Psal 78.65 Then thou Lord awakedst as one out of sleep as a Giant refreshed with wine Thou discoveredst the covering of their mischievous intentions and broughtest their designes of darknesse unto light Psal 18.12 At the brightnesse of thy presence the clouds removed and their secret wickednesse was laid open to our view Thou unfoldedst the riddle of their hidden impietie and madest us to understand the mistery of their iniquity so Thou overthrewest the enterprise of ruine that was against us Thou savedst us from the mouth of destruction and madest the pit that our adversaries had digged to swallow up themselves Thou gavest them shame for the wicked joy that they expected sufferedst them not to triumph in the bloud of thy people Psal 124.7 Our soules escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler the snare was broken and we were delivered Psal 106.12 Then beleeved wee thy Word and sung thy Praise Ver. 13. But
they are sworne to acknowledge as their onely supream Governour Rom. 13. The Law of God teacheth us that we must not resist the higher powers and shews us that they that do so shall receive to themselves damnation They set up resistance and Rebellion for a vertue and slander that holy Law with the opprobrious title of Malignancy wherewith this brand those that submit thereunto Mat. 26.52 The Law of Christ is that whosoever takes the Sword against the power of the Magistrate shall perish by the Sword But they teach men and practice it themselves to take the Sword and ravish it from the supreame power and to use it not only without him but against him to maintaine their wicked Doctrines their Schismaticall designes and unjust oppressions and to beate down both truth and righteousnesse The Law of God tels us in the judgement of David that men ought to fighâ—â—â— defence of the Kings Person insomuch that David in 1 Sam. 26.16 tells Abner and binds it with an oath That he was worthy to dye because he had not kept the Lords annointed though so wicked Tyrant as was Saul And our blessed Saviour the Sonne of David tells Pylate Iohn 18.36 That if his Kingdome had been of this world then his Servants would have fought that he should not have beene delivered to the Iewes But they teach men not only to hold the contrary but bind them by wicked oathes never to interest themselves nor to assist any in the defence of the King and punish those that have followed this rule of the Scripture with imprisonment death and confiscation of goods The Word of God teacheth us to performe our oaths and to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the oath of God and designed a heavy judgment unto Zedekiah for breaking the oath wherewith he had sworne unto Nebuchadnezzar But they teach and practice not only the breaking of the sacred oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance but doe also compell men to sweare down those oaths and to vow perjury unto Sathan by the name of the great and holy God making it the instrument of wickednesse and using it for a seale to confirm their obligations unto the Prince of disobedience The Word of God teacheth people to study to be quiet and to do their owne businesse They teach them to forsake the businesse to raise tumults and disturbances in the Church and State The Law of God commands the Ministers of the Gospell to preach the Gospell They forbid men to preach the Gospell unlesse they will countenance their seditious practices The Word of God teacheth that men should be allowed and approved and ordained by imposition of hands that are to undertake the Ministery in the Church But now alas the Priests of Ieroboam of the meanest of the people intrude into the exercise of the Sacred Function in the Church without any allowance from just authority or competent furniture of solid knowledge And what is all this and much more of the like but to say of Christ Nolumus hunc regnare super nos we will not have this man raigne over us The symplicity of the Gospell is of too low a pitch to sort with the deep plots wise contrivements of our politicke braines it is much too plaine to serve the turne of those great designs which we have in hand Good God vindicate the Glory and Authority of thy truth But I must hasten The Judgement of God me thinkes is riding so post upon us that I am afraid it will prevent my admonition it will scarce give me leave to pursue my purposed intention My meditations are even overwhelmed with the flouds and deluges of those various calamities that have broken forth upon us in this wretched Nation we may justly crie out of them in the voice of the Psalmist The flouds are risen O Lord the flouds are risen the flouds have lift up their voice the waves of the Sea are mighty and rage horribly all our comfort is that the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier and as the same Psalmist telleth us in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 29.10 The Lord sitteth upon the floud or deluge to rule and moderate it for the good of his people and his owne glory and the Lord remaineth a King for ever were it not for this we could have no hope to escape the swallow of those devouring surges that do assault us Do but open your eyes and looke about you and you may see your selves encompassed with deepe and threatning waters on every side miscarriages in the manner and mannage of the work of instruction whilst the people and the Ministers both joyne together to seduce one another The one kindling the wasting flames of seditious Factions corrupt Doctrines clawing the itch of scabbed and putrified eares and the other blowing those fires and encouraging those evill performances in their Teachers by their applauses and bribing the poisonous tongues of those that love the reward of unrighteousnesse keeping up the market and commerce of destruction betwixt them The one buying and the other selling wicked deceits and spirituall impostures and the mutuall ruine of one another and the Truth So that as Learned Graser speaketh Neque facile dici potest utra pars alteram fortius ducat aut ducatur It is hard to determine whether the people be more guilty of corrupting the Ministers by their acclamations and bribery or the Ministers of the deceiving of the peole by their pernitious and sophisticated Doctrines And of those that are not for this evill Traffique yet there are too many as the evill effect thereof seemes to demonstrate that for want of the right gage of Christian prudence to steere and regulate their unguided zeale which they have indeed toward God but not according to knowledge runne from one errour into another and sometimes perhaps leape out of the pan into the fire that I say not out of Gods blessing into the warme sun that like the foolish horse that hath no understanding blench into the pit to flie from the fluttering of a bird in the hedge who may well be compared with Dionysius Alexandrinus unto an unskilfull Gardiner or dresser of an Orchard who when he findes a crooked plant instead of straitening it bends it as much cleane on the other side or unto some unexperienced Physitians who to cure the patient of an Ague or some cold disease by over-strong Physick begetteth a feaver in the stead of it and doth not somuch remedy as change the malady They are very much for Reformation and it is not to be denyed but they light upon some things that are fit for animadversions but whilst they pull up the teares they plucke up the wheate with them They abhominate superstition and therein they do well but in the overmuch abandoning that they fall into the opposite mischiefe and run into profanesse They are much they say for the clearing of the Truth for the purity of Worship for the
for him and in an houre that they are not ware of and shall cut them asunder and divide them their portion with the hipocrites There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth It was a sad account that one gives of the miscarriages of this kind in his time Invitus dico tamen dicere coger Ecclesiarum cat hedras hodiè multis in locis pro rabularuÌ„ causidicorumque hujus generis demagogoruÌ„ rostris haberi ex quibus ij quibus statio haec concredita est Satyrus suas in imaginatos adversarios declamitant I am loath to speake it but I am compelled to speake it That the Chaires of the Churches are in many places at this day esteemed for the Pulpits of Raylers Cause-drivers and such like side-maken amongst the people out of which they unto whom this station is committed declaime their Satyrs against those whom they imagine their adversaries To which we may adde what he complaines of afterwards Pro salubri alimento quod familia Christi apponere debebant auditorum plausum favâ—reâ— captant fictaeque compâ—sitâ— orationis lenocinio Petrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diceret fluctuantis populi motum pruritum ad suaslibidines torquent circum agitant Hoc igitur boni deplorare corrigere autem preter Deum nemo poterit Instead of that wholesom nourishment which they should administer unto the houshold of Christ they hunt after the applause and favour of their Auditors and with the alluring dresses of their sophisticated language or as St Peter hath it with fained or plaistred words faire in shew but durty and filthy in substance they turne and â—osse the itching and moveable people at their owne lusts this good men may and ought to deplore but God only can correct and amend which God grant of his great mercy That the houses of God may be no more turned into brothels by committing adultery with the soules of the people That they that have the manage of holy workes in those places may remember whose cause it is that they have in hand that they are not to woe for themselves but for the Bridegroom which is Christ Jesus whose servants they are to make ready and adorne his Spouse which is his Church against the wedding That they may not seeke to gaine the applauses of the people unto themselves which are too often made the hire of vanity and corrupt Doctrine but to gain the soules of the people unto Christ To conclude that they may not preach themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves the Churches servants for Jesus sake And it were much to be wished that the nursery of this evill affection in some Ministers were removed by changing those theatricall applauses of the people which if rightly valued are rather the accusations and reproaches of the Ministry and too suspitious a symptome that that worke is not performed with that gravity and severity that it ought to be especially in such times as these into sighs and teares and sobs of Godly sorrow for their sinnes and into the cheerfull concurrency of the votes of the people to the petitions and praises that are offered up unto God But it is a signe of no healthfull constitution in the Congregations of the people when their periodicall hummes of the Minister are lowder then the Amens of their Prayers and Thankesgivings unto God This and not that is the thuâ—der of the Church wherein sâ—e strucke and battered in pieceâ— the adversaries of the Truthâ— That would throw downe thâ— Towers of Sathan and his iâ—struments Those Babels of confusion that are setting up amongst us That being accompanied with the lightening 〈◊〉 a fervent devotion would break the cloud of the displeasure of the Almighty and make the fruitfull showers of his mercies flow downe upon us Blessed is the people that know this joyfull sound And yet the faults we have spoken of might be the better borne with were they not accompanied with more and those of no mean depravation in the Ministry of the Word Such is the too much unworthy and effeminate pusillanimity and extreame lukewarmenesse that is found in too many in this age who dare not reprove prosperous sins that have betrayed the Cause of God his Church and his Annointed for feare of the frownes of men Such whose discretion hath devoured their devotion that cry out it is no time now to preach against such sinnes because they are wickednesses in high places that could talk much and earnestly against Rebellion in an Assembly of Loyall men in those Cities and places whilst there were any where Rebellion dwelt not or in those Times when sedition was in a lower condition But in these times and in those places when and where those sinnes are in their power and glory they cry it is wisdome and thinke it no impiety to hold their peace as if a Physitian should say he is discharged from the necessity of giving Physick because the patient is very sicke and standeth in great need of it forgetting that the workes of the Ministry are to be gaged not by the interests of our safety but of Gods glory and our duty to him and his people and that however we may please our selves with some present ease that we find upon our shoulders yet that security will prove deare bought in the end that we have purchased by suffering and conniving at the spoile of Truth and Righteousnesse and although this may go for prudence amongst men yet it will be found Treachery Treason in the account of God Oh how have we forgotten those severe and peremptory rules of the Almighty so earnestly exacting the discharge of our consciences in this duty See Ezek. 33.8 If thou dost not speak to warne the wicked from his way that wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his bloud will I require at thine hand How have we forgotten those woes of the holy Scripture which are threatned against fearefull hearts and faint hands See Revel 21.8 See it and tremble Do we feare the menaces of men and do we not feare the menaces of God Home minatâ—r mortem metuis contramiscis Deus gehennam minatur contemnis Man that shall die himselfe and perhaps before he hath done threatning menaceth death if thou speakest and thou fearest and shakest God threatneth thee with hell if thou beest silent and thou contemnest it and yet God can defend thee from the threatning of man but man cannot defend thee from the threatning of God If God be with us who can be against us But if God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers must stoope under him Oh I beseech you consider this in time you whom God hath honoured so highly as to be made the Advocates of his truth you that are the sollicitours and the Atournies of the King of Kings Impeach these Trayterous Iniquities boldly and faithfully and do not become Traytours your selves in becoming accessary to those horrid impieties whereby your Lord and
a great cause in this very thing of those judgements which God hath sent upon us whilst the overmuch imperiousnesse of some and the too much disorderlinesse and ungovernablenesse in others have intrenched it may be feared so farre upon that Christian temper which should be found especially amongst the Ministery as to render their quarrels too liable unto such a Character as was once given upon the contention of two great men in this Kingdome to this purpose as neere as my fraile memory doth serve me Gaufridus Hugo magno cum scandalo inter se concertarunt hic ut praesset ille ne subesset neuter ut prodesset Geffry and Hugh Are fallen in two Bout what thinke you He strives to raigne This subjection disdaines Neither cares for the Churches gaine An happy condescention in this particular would not only be a meanes to set the things of the Church in the rightest and safest way but also to revive the dying flames of Christian love and charity which should have their vigour in the Ministry above all other men and withall to stop the mouthes and and take away the occasions of the haters of all order that seek occasions and to keepe up Christianity amonst us which is too visibly stealing away from us at those gaps and breaches which our contentions have made and above all others those which are most ours and indeed the great fountaine of others The contentions of the Ministry However it be we see clearly enough that the power of Ordination is not at all placed in the people by the determination of the Apostle If there be any part theirs in this holy businesse it is that they may be present at these publique performances as witnesses not as judges and that they may have liberty to speake freely and with such modesty and reverence as befits them if they know any just and certaine cause why such as are to be admitted into these sacred offices should not bee invested thereunto But nothing will serve the turne in these daies of ours unlesse all order be cast out of the Church to make roome for that excellent piece of confusion which men are now pleased to call a Reformation A Reformation that hath put too much colour of truth upon that Sarcasme which I once heard fall from a foule mouth against the Protestant Churches Eglise reformee est deformee The reformed Church is the deformed Church I am sure they that have gone about to make such a jumble of holy things and profane together and to take away the distinction of the Ministery and People in this Nation have done so much to justifie it as I can scarce tell what one thing the Adversaries could have asked of them or hired them to have done more for the asserting of their Calumnies against the Church of England Of whom we may too justly complaine as Tertullian doth of the Hereticke in his time Simplicitatem volunt esse prostrationem disciplina cujus penes nos curam lenocinium vocant pacem quoque possim cum omnibus miscent nihil interest illis licet diversa tractantibus dum ad unius veritatis expugnationem conspirant With these men the overthrow of Discipline is reckoned for simplicity and to take any care thereof is accounted wantonnesse whatever difference of opinions there is amongst them as there is very much yet they can agree well enough with any so that they may conspire together against the truth They are all swollen with pride and selfe conceit and like unskilful Empericks or Mountebankes in Religion they all promise much knowledge in their Bills whilst for the most part there is nothing but ignorance in their Boxes Indeed that that followeth hath too much order in it for them Ordinationes corumtemeraria leves inconstantes nunc neophytos collocant nunc saeculo obstrictos nunc Apostatas nostros ut gloriâ eos obligent quia veritate nonpossunt Their Ordinations saith he are temerarious light and inconstant sometimes they place Novices in the Ministry sometimes secular men sometimes those that are Apostata's from us that they may oblige them with glory and preferment unto them whom they cannot with the truth Should we not spend all our breath in sights and all our moysture in teares to thinke on it that our Age should be found of such transcendent perversenesse and irregularity that the very disorders of former times would be a kind of desireable Discipline to us This is a great evill a wombe bigge with a multitude of mischiefes A nest of Serpents A very fountaine of poyson A great gate of corruption and distraction A Pandora's Boxe full of Pestilences and infections A blazing Comet that threatens destruction to all truth and righteousnesse And I beseech God it prove not the very passing-Bell of Christianity in this Nation and the forerunner of Tureisme and heathenisme to make way for their entrance into the inheritance of the Lord. And now we need not thinke it strange though we must not forget it as another deplorable degree of our present miseries that they whose piety it is to rob the Church of the Ministry make no scruple at all of Robbing her and the Ministry both of their revenues and supportance Indeed there might seeme to bee a kind of justice in it that when such unskilfull fumblers have undertaken the worke and ravished it out of those hands whom God and the Church hath filled therewith as the Hebrew phrase of consecration to the holy Function may imply for in that Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fill their hand signifies to consecrate the Priests or holy Officers in the Church and may well intimate that they that are best furnished and most authentically and orderly admitted unto that worke have their hands full of that great businesse and therefore should not have their hands left empty of supplies and encouragements But since they have put that worke into such hands as they have they may seeme to observe a kind of justice in their wickednesse in leaving them no better wages then they are like to earne but the compliance of impieties is no harmony in the eares of God or of good men The uniformity of iniquities is but beautifull uglinesse neither can the issue bee legitimate however equal or consenting the contract be between those actions or designes that are of any kindred in that bloud therefore we cannot but looke upon it as another horrid declination of this Church from the happy state and condition that it hath been formerly in that those revenues which were heretofore dedicated and consecrated to the maintenance of Divine Service should be now accounted the wages of Rebellion and as if God himselfe were a malignant that his peculium the portion of his house and worship should not only be Sequestred but wholly alienated from him as if it were the lawfull prize of those whose usurped power greatnesse knowes no limits either in heaven or earth But it is too too cleare an
from our Services Schisme and Faction hath broken the bonds of holy Communion amongst the people in the Church envy and malice hath set us on fire against one another Pride and Vanity hath still the dominion over us Usury and Sacrilege are established by Law amongst us unjust gaine is taken for godlinesse Perjury is used for Wisedome and Policy Our hearts are estranged from thee and from heavenly things and set upon the vanities of this present world and the sinfull pleasures of the Flesh and all these Mischiefes and Corruptions are bred in the womb and nourished in the lap of that spirituall ignorance and blindnesse that is in us Thou ô Lord our God hast a Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land because there is no Truth nor Mercy nor Knowledge of God in the Land by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing Adultery they break out and bloud toucheth bloud hence it is ô Lord that thou continuest still to plead with us in judgement and that thy hand is stretched out still Hence it is that thou still withholdest peace from us that thou hast stopped the Current of thy favour towards us and hast delivered us up into the hands of our Enemies Lord we acknowledge that thou art just in this and all thy dealing with us Yea O Lord we acknowledge thou art mercifull therein unto us that thou hast not long agoe given us up to a totall ruine and desolation and suffered us at once to have beene devoured by our enemies Thou hast not dealt with us O Lord after our sinnes but hast punished us lesse then we have deserved and hast sweetned thy Corrections with many blessings which thou hast yet continued unto us in that thou hast preserved us a remnant and hast yet given us our lives for a prey in that thou hast preserved unto so many of us our Liberties and enlarged thy selfe unto us in the supplyes of thy providence in the respite of thy judgements and hopes of further mercies O Lord our God wee beseech thee pardon and forgive us all those grievous and horrid offences which have exposed us to thy great and heavie judgements and made us unworthy of thy mercies Breake our Hearts with true and heartie sorrow and contrition for them all wash and cleanse us from them with the precious bloud of thy deare Son let the cry of that bloud which speaketh better things then the bloud of Abel drown the cry of all our iniquities that they may not incense thine anger any more against us Cloath us wee beseech thee with the Garment of thy Sons Righteousnesse that our Iniquities may not appeare before thee turne us O good Lord and so shall wee bee turned convert us and wee shall bee converted Helpe us all wee beseech thee to renew our Covenant of Obedience unto thee that thou maist renew thy Covenant of Mercy towards us Oh let us now at this very time break all the bonds of Corruption in our soules that we may not from henceforth allow our selves in any sinne raise up our Affections to thee our God and sanctifie us unto thee by thy Holy Spirit that thy Service and thy Glorie may bee precious unto us that our lives and safety may be precious unto thee Let Swearing and Blasphemie bee turned into Praiers and Praises unto thee our God Uncleanenesse and Intemperance into Sobriety and Chastity Violence and Injustice into Righteousnesse and Honesty Prophanenesse into Pietie Disobedience into Loyaltie Crueltie and Murder into Mercy and Compassion Pride into Humility Idolatrie and Superstition into Puritie and Worship Schisme and Faction into Unity and Concord Let Hypocrisie be changed into Sincerity and desire of Vaine-Glorie into an earnest seeking of thy Glorie let Malice and Emulation and Strife bee turned into the holy Flames of Brotherly Love and Christian Affection let the sordid love of the World and the impure flames of fleshly Desires bee turned into the holy Fires of Divine Love toward thee our God and to things that are above where Christ Jesus sitteth at thy right hand Let not Usurie nor Sacrilege nor Perjurie nor any other horrid Iniquities curse this Land of ours any more And that all these happie Changes may be wrought in us let the grosse blindnesse of our mindes be healed by the precious eye-salve of thy holy Spirit and thy heavenly light that so thou being reconciled unto us our warres may bee turned into an holy well-grounded and lasting peace our Confusion into Order and Beauty our sadnesse and discontent into joy and chearefulnesse that thine Anointed may be restored unto his power and Majesty to rule thy people according to thy will that all our Calamities may bee redressed thy Judgements removed thy blessings restored continued and encreased unto us And that the glorious light of thy Gospell may be more and more resplendent amongst us to guid us in thy waies and in the purity of thy worship O Lord according to all thy righteousnesse which is thy mercy we beseech thee let thine anger cease from ns for we are not able to beare thine indignation O let thy fury be turned away from this Nation which hath been heretofore thy holy mountaine Because for our sins and the iniquities of our fathers we are become a reproach unto those that are round about us now therefore oh our God heare the prayer of thy servants and their supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate for the Lords sake O our God incline thine eare and heare open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the people that are called by thy name for we do not present our Suplications before thee for our righteousnesse but for thy great mercies O Lord heare O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do deferre not for thine owne sake oh our God for thy people are called by thy name oh let the sentence of mercy come forth now from thy presence and call in those Commissions of vengeance and indignation which thou hast given forth against us oh make us to heare the voice of joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Oh comfort us againe now after the time that thou hast plagued us and for the yeares wherein we have suffered adversity shew thy servants thy work and their children thy glory and let the glorious Majesty of the Lord our God be upon us Oh take off the indignation of thine anger from the King and from the Priest and from all the people of the Land let the Magistrates rule in righteousnesse the Ministers guide in holinesse all the Members of this Nation live peaceably and religiously and honesty in their vocations keeping themselves within those bounds and limits of their callings which are proper unto them Let them study to be quiet and to do their owne businesse and keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace teach them to feare the Lord and the King and not to meddle with
thee thy gracious Promises in Christ and the Merits of thy Sonne whereby thou hast engaged thy selfe that what we aske in his Name we shall receive Thou hast opened unto us a gate of mercy in him he hath purchased a Pardon for us with his owne Bloud He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and thou hast opened in him a fountaine of Grace to sanctifie our natures and reforme our sins That the clouds may be removed and thy light and grace may shine upon us We desire therefore to relinquish our selves to disclaime our selves and to come unto thee in and by Christ Jesus beseeching thee for his sake to save our poore sinfull Nations O deale not with us after our iniquities but according to the greatnesse of thy mercy thinke thou upon us O Lord for thy goodnes O Lord forgive our great and horrid offences that have provoked thy wrath against us O cleanse our filthy and polluted soules rinse us in those Rivers that flowed from thy Son in the Garden and upon the Crosse Perfume us with thy holinesse Adorne us and sanctifie us with the graces of thy spirit Give us cleane hearts and pure affections and holy and Christian lives and Conversations O Lord forgive us that thou mayest reforme us and reforme us that thou mayest heale us O grant us broken and contrite hearts humbled spirits and melting souls that we may mourne for our sins past Grant us those Spirituall groanes and sighs that may pierce even into thy Bowels by the Merits and Mediation of Christ Jesus that they may be moved in compassion toward us Grant us cleane soules and renewed consciences that we may speedily and heartily forsake all our wicked sinfull and abominable courses whereby we have enflamed thee our gracious God against our selves our King and People Rouze us up from our carnall security that we may seek speedily and earnestly unto thee our God who for our sins art justly displeased O be gracious be gracious unto us be favourable O Lord be favourable unto thy people and let us not be brought to confusion give us not up to destruction and desolation for the Lords sake Call back thy Judgements and Plagues that thou hast sent forth against us The Pestilence and the Dearth and the devouring Sword that hath so long drunke up the bloud of the people Call backe that spirit of corruption and confusion of division and distraction that hath beone sent forth into these Lands and make up a happy union and peace amongst us for the Lord Jesus his sake Call backe that spirit of rebellion and oppression of cruelty and rapin that hath seized upon the hearts of so many of this Nation and reduce them into the waies of obedience and righteousnesse Send forth the spirit of truth of peace of righteousnesse of mercy of loyalty and obedience into all our hearts that we may be restored to a happy and prosperous condition Lord restore the King and deliver him Lord preserve his Queene Children and Family Lord have pitty upon His distressed People upon the Prisoners and the outcasts and the poore persecuted Subjects of this Land and deliver them from the fury and the cruelty of their Adversaries Lord direct guide sanctifie and prosper all the Loyall Armies and those faithfull people that are engaged in the cause of thine Annointed and his people let not their sins nor our sins stand between thy mercy and them or us Lord be mercifull to our Enemies make their hearts to relent forgive them and convert them and preserve them if it be thy blessed will reconcile us all to thee that we may be reconciled to one another Or if they shall still continue in their wickednesse Lord suffer them not to prosper therein suffer them to prevaile no more against thy Substitute and thine Ordinance to oppresse no more to kill and murder thy poore People no more but bring them downe O Lord we beseech thee for thine infinite mercies sake O Lord heare us O Lord help us O Lord relieve and succour us O deliver us and be mercifull to our sinnes for thy Son Christ Jesus his sake to whom with thee and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen A short Prayer to be used upon the undertaking of any just designe or enterprize for peace O Lord I blesse thy holy name for that good motion which thou hast put into our hearts for the procurement of peace unto these Nations I confesse O Lord I am not worthy to be an instrument of so great a blessing neither is there any strength or wisdome in me thy poore Creature that I should be able to mannage so excellent a worke but thou art the God that pardonest sins And art pleased to make use of weake and worthlesse meanes that the glory may be so much the more thine I beseech thee be thou glorified in us thy Servants pardon our sins heale our infirmities supply us with wisdome and thy strength and assist us by thy spirit make us to set up thy glory before us and sincerely to seeke the good of thy Church and people Shew us the waies that are conducible thereunto and conduct us and speed us therein and give a happy issue thereunto to the glory of thy Name to the comfort of thine Annointed and all his People to the furtherance of thy Gospell and to the good of me and mine c. and of these whole Nations through Jesus Christ our Lord. A Prayer for the restoring of an happy and setled Government in this Nation O Lord God who rulest and governest all things by thy Son Christ Jesus and hast ordained Magistracy and the power of Government amongst men as a ray or branch of that supreme authority in Christ Jesus to be the guardian under thee of peace and righteousnesse among thy people The foundation of humane society The Pillar of the world The shield of thy people and of all the blessings that they enjoy And of all other Governments hast most approved in thy holy Word of that excellent forme of royall Monarchy as that which is the most lively Image of thy rule and the most fruitfull Channell of safety and peace and felicity unto a people Weblesse and magnifie thy holy Name for this thy great and holy Ordinance whereby thou hast so provided for the fecurity and preservation of thy poore Creatures And more particularly we blesse thy holy Name for that comfortable portion which thou hast given unto this Nation heretofore in this thy blessing and in the benefits thereof in setting over us Kings and Princes to take the charge of the Government of this Land whereby thou hast been pleased for so long a time to preserve this Nation of ours in peace and plenty and prosperity and happinesse We confesse O Lord that there never was any the least merit in us that could challenge the least part unto us of so great a blessing whilst we
of the comforts of his Queene and Children left him destitute of the solace of his friends abridged him of the attendance of his Servants disappointed him of the advice of his Counsell deprived him of the benefit of thine Ordinances shut him up from thy House and the Assemblies of thy People blasphemed him with vile and false reproaches spoiled him of his just power and greatnes and profaned his Crown down unto the ground and attempted by hellish conspiracies to take away his life These things have they done O Lord to the great dishonour of thy Name and to the great discomfort and destruction of thy people And in so doing they have rebelled against thee our God trampled upon thy Lawes violated thine Ordinance broken their Oaths and Protestations and that very Covenant which themselves contrived and imposed upon others of the people of the Land This thou hast seen O Lord and yet thou holdest thy peace whilst they triumph in their wickednesse against thee And because thou keepest silence they have though wickedly that thou wert even such a one as themselves and have strengthened themselves in their prosperous impieties But Lord how long wilt thou looke upon this Sirre up thy selfe O God against those that magnifie themselves in so many and so great impieties against thee Be thou glorious in the vindication of thine owne Ordinance cloath thy selfe with thy might and thy strength for the reliefe and deliverance of thine Annointed Pleade thou with them that strive with him and fight thou against them that fight against him lay hold upon the sheild and buckler and stand up to help him bring forth the Speare and stop the way against them that persecute him and say unto his soule that thou art his Salvation Pardon his sinnes and the trangressions of his people and let not the sins of his Fore-fathers come into thy remembrance but dispell them all from before thy presence as a cloud by the beames of thy heavenly goodnesse drowne them in the bottomlesse pit of thy mercy that they may no longer hinder thy favour from thy Servant but make thou the light of thy countenance to shine upon him Remember his patience his meekenesse his humility his mercy his love that he beareth unto thy House to thy Ministry to thy Worship and Ordinances his zeale to thy glory his devotion to thee his God And let all those holy Sacrifices that he hath offered up unto thee through thy Son be accepted in thy sight for Christ Jesus his sake Remember all those Prayers and Supplications that have been dayly made to thee in his behalfe and let them not returne empty from thy Throne Oh let it be thy pleasure to command mercies for him Be thou unto him a Pillar to support him in all his trialls a Shield to defend him in all his dangers a Treasure to supply him in all his necessities a Comforter to relieve him in all his distresses a Counsellour to advise him in all his perplexities And let thy extraordinary mercies and the heavenly influences and breathings of thy divine Spirit supply unto him the want of the outward meanes of thy Word thy Sacraments and thy publique Worship Oh let not his precious soul suffer through the wickednesse of those that oppresse him but feed thou him from thine own hand and by the ministration of thy heavenly Ministers in those straights and solitude that he is in even with the choice delicates of thy heavenly Table Be thou with him in trouble to keepe him from miscarrying and compasse him about with songs of deliverance as thou hast furnished him hitherto with thine excellent gifts of Patience and Wisdome and Christian fortitude and hast made him in spight of all his Adversaries and even to the shame and confusion of his malicious persecuters a glorious example of Christian constancy unto his people so Lord establish unto him every good gift which thou hast wrought in him and increase all thy spirituall graces in his foule that the splendour thereof may breake forth more and more through the clouds of his calamities to the amazement and astonishment of his rebellious enemies Arme him more and more with an unchangeable love unto thy Truth and to thy Service to thy Church and to thy people that neither the subtle and deceiptfull insinuations of any false Iudases nor the terrours or menaces of any insolent Rabshakahs may shake him from those pious and Christian resolutions which thou hast been pleased to put into his heart Set a guard of thy heavenly host continually about his Sacred Person that no wicked assasinates may dare to approach unto him and that the Son of violence may not hurt him Discover and defeat all hellish plots and devillish conspiracies that may be against him and blast them all with the breath of thy displeasure O prepare thy loving mercy and thy faithfulnesse that they may preserve him Breake thou his bonds asunder by thy strength make thou the doores of his Prison to flye open Soften the hard and flinty hearts of those that are the Authors and instruments of his restraint and miserie that they may relent towards him if it be thy blessed will or else affright them with the terrors of their evill consciences and strike them with trembling and feare that they may not be able to pursue their cruelties O Lord preserve his Fame and Honour from the scourge of those malicious and traiterous Tongues whose sport it is to speake evill of Dignities and to blaspheme the footsteps of thine Annointed Make thou his righteousnesse as cleare as the light and his upright dealing as the noon day O Lord restore him to the bosome of his Queene to the comfort of his Children of his Friends of his Servants of his Revenue Restore him to the joyfull Assemblies of thy People to the Comforts of thy house and of thy holy ordinances Preserve his Life enlarge his straits repaire his honour re-establish his Throne in peace in truth in holinesse and righteousnesse amongst us Bring him forth now at length like Gold out of the fire of his long afflictions precious and glorious in the eyes of God and men But thou O Lord deale with us according to thy name for great is thy mercy O Lord arise for the deliverance of thine Annointed for the Lord Iesus his sake Amen A Prayer for Peace in the Church und State O Lord thou God of Peace and Authour of Unity Looke downe we beseech thee in thy tender pitty upon the miserable distractions and bloudy divisions of this our Church and Kingdome of England who by our sinfull separation of our selves from thee our God are fallen in pieces from one another Thou O God art the center of Unity and we are like unto so many crooked lines that are fallen from thee our Center by our sinfull and corrupt affections straiten us againe we beseech thee by thy grace that being reconciled unto thee we may be joyned together in thee and reconciled