she that is your Enemy may see it and shame may cover her Mic. 7. 10. That she may be removed that nothing of her be left amo 〈…〉 of her Idolatry and Superstition 〈…〉 your selves in array against Fren 〈…〉 abylon round about all ye that tred the bow shoot at her spare no Arrows for she hath sinned against the Lord saith the Prophet Jer. 50. 14. Some rubbish that escaped our first Reformers was left in the fall of so ancient and great a Building which remains yet untaken away but incumbers the Ground which in the Prayers that we are commanded to use in our Monthly Fasts run thus namely in the Prayer for the High Court of Parliament That all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours upon the best and surest foundations that Peace and Happiness Truth and Justice Religion and Piety may be established among us from all Generations Now another Foundation of Peace and Happiness can no Man lay than Christ and his Word We need not send to Rome nor any where else for any thing that concerns Religion The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart saith the Apostle Rom. 10. 8. and we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Eph. 2. 20. In the Prayer for the reformed Churches Purge all thy Churches from their Dreggs and make them meet for a glorious Deliverance that all the World may see that Salvation belongs to our God In the last Prayer Give us Grace Lord seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy Divisions take away all hatred and prejudice and whatsoever may hinder us from Godly Union and Concord that as these is but one Body and one Spirit and one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of us all so we may henceforth be all of one Heart and of one Soul united in one Holy Body of Truth and Peace of Faith and Charity and may with one Mind and one Mouth glorifie thee O God through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen The like Expressions are in the Prayer for the whole State of Christ's Church Militant here on Earth Let us deal plainly with God and our own Consciences and those to whom these Prayers are recommended unless we think to please God and Men with a few fair words of Devotion when our Heart is far from him and the performance of these things we pray for as the East is from the West Be not deceived saith the Apostle God will not be mocked Gal. 6. 6. however we may deceive Men with words smoother than butter but war is in the heart with words softer than oyl yet are they drawn swords Psal 55. 21. Is not this a casting of God's words behind us and taking his name in vain That lays us open to that surprizing expression of our Lord ex ore tuo est have ye not reason to fear the Lords Censure of the Elders of Israel that came and sate before Ezekiel in Babylon concerning whom the word of the Lord came unto him saying Son of man these men have set up their Idols in their hearts and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should I be enquired of at all by them Exek 14. 3. And that of the Prophet Jeremiah that from the Prophets of Jerusalem hypocrisie is gone out into all the land Jer. 23. 15. If we build continually by our practice that which wont seem to destroy so solemnly by our Prayer what do we make of our selves in the Eyes of the World but Transgressors Gal. 2. 18. Children in whom is no faith Deut. 32. 20. What then are these Dreggs we desire God to deliver us from Are they not the remainder of our natural Corruption and the sin which doth so easily beset us within and of Popery without that have been a snare to us and removed our Souls far from Peace that we may be delivered from them as well as other reformed Churches Again What are these great dangers that we are in by our unhappy Division for the laying of which seriously to Heart we beg God's Grace Are they about matters of no value that in the ballance of the Sanctuary have Tekel written on them as being altogether higher than Vanity Are we like the Man lying in a ditch praying Lord have mercy upon me and yet will not stir Hand nor Foot to help himself out If we will not prevent these dangers when we know what the late attempt to remove the occasion of them cost these Nations that were sore afflicted and sorely tossed with the tempest of a long bloody War and not fully comforted to this day Again Take away all Hatred and Prejudice and whatsoever else may hinder us from Godly Union and Concord And we will part with nothing by our good Will that may please many good people and can never tend to the real damage of any but add more fuel still to the old hatred and prejudice until that be taken out of the way by which the offence cometh that may kindle a fire that will never be quenched and feed a worm that shall never die Mar. 9. 46. from which Judgment the Lord deliver us Lastly All the terms of Union of Peace and Love in Heaven and Earth are mustred up together one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God c. many Vanities that we may with one Mouth and one Mind glorifie God c. Here a Man would think If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort in love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels or mercies if any truth in men Phil. 2. 1. that we are resolved now to fill the Evangelical Prophecy of Zephany to serve the Lord with a pure lip and with one shoulder Zeph. 3. 9. with Uniformity of Doctrine Worship and Discipline that there may be one Lord and his name one according to that of the Prophet Zach. 14. 9. Lord put this heart in those that have commanded us to put up those sweet words to God in truth and simplicity of Heart Amen That we may not be said to have a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3. 5. is an outward delineation of piety of peace and unity denying the power and practise of it as the Apostle speaks or as Jeremiah They have healed the hurt of the Daughter of the my people slighted saying peace peace when there was no peace Jer. 6. 14. and those that are required to make their Addresses to God in these words say Hast thou utterly rejected Judah hath thy soul loathed Zion why hast thou smitten us and there is no healing for us we looked for peace and there is no good and for a time of healing and behold trouble Jer. 14. 19. Then said I ah Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceivid this people and Jerusalem saying ye shall have peace whereas the sword reacheth unto
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
when there seemed to be but a step between us and ruin which I write not to puff us up with Pride nor Himself whose not the least Praise is that he delights not in the hearing of his own Praise but to make us thankful and to stir us up to pray heartily to God for him that he would keep his Mind in him for evermore and confirm his love to him for ever Bless Lord his substance and accept the work of his Hands for thy Church and People smite through the Loyns of those that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise no more which is Moses's Prayer for Levi. Deut. 33. 11. See David's Prayer 1 Chron. 29. 18. O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel our Fathers keep this for ever in the Imagination of the Thoughts of the Heart of thy People and prepare their Heart unto thee that at length our Eyes may behold that joyful sight That Mercy and Truth are met together that Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Psal 85. 10. as the Psalmist speaks and the full Accomplishment of that Evangelical Promise Violence shall be no more heard in thy Land Wasting nor Destruction within thy Borders that Men may call our Walls Salvation and our Gates Praise Isa 60. 18. that when he rests from his Labours his Works may follow him My next Address is to you my Reverend Brethren of the Ministry of the New Testament to you in a special manner is the Word of his Salvation sent Acts 13. 26. as the Apostle speaks to the Church of Corinth being by nature as hateful to God and hating one another Tit. 3. 3. as those that are embodied with you Let the Peace of God rule in your Hearts into which ye are called not only in one Body Mystical as all Christians are but also into one Body Ecclesiastical and be ye thankful that ye be all of one Mind 1 Cor. 1. 10. We are Embassadors for Christ the Prince of Peace the King of Peace upon whom the Chastisement of our Peace was laid Isa 53. 5. That came and preached Peace to you that were afar off and to them that were near saith the Apostle Eph. 2. 17. and hath left us a Legacy of Peace and hath committed unto us the Ministry of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. the Gospel of Peace Rom. 10. 15. O that it might be said of us under the New Testament as he speaks of Levi in the Old He walked with me in Peace and Equity and did turn many from Iniquity Mal. 2. 6. Let us be diligent in our Master's work like faithful and wise Stewards whom our Lord hath made Rulers over his Houshold to give them their portion of meat in their due season Blessed are those Servants whom our Lord when he cometh shall find so doing of a Truth I say unto you that he will make them Rulers of all that he hath Luk. 12. 42 43 44. That we may recover poor Sinners out of the Snare of the Devil who are taken Captives by him at his Will 2 Tim. 2. 25. That when the chief Shepherd shall appear we may be found of him in Peace without spot and blameless and receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 14. That being Teachers sent of God to teach the way of God in Truth may shine as the brightness of the Firmament and by turning many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever as the Prophet Daniel speaks Dan. 12. 3. Now since God by this Text as by the tenor of the whole Book of God calls us to Peace how many of our Profession are counted the greatest Enemies to it in the whole Kingdom as being neither Peace-makers nor Peace-keepers with our Neighbours but by Austerity and Severity exacting our dues to the utmost Farthing with such rigour as the Sons of Eli did use that were Sons of Belial and knew not the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 12. contrary to that Spirit of the Gospel which Christ's own Disciples were ignorant of when they would have consumed the Samaritans with Fire from Heaven as Elijah did the Guards of Ahaziah Luk. 9. 55. and putting their Parishioners into the Court often for very small matters as if they sought not them but theirs so contrary to the Apostle as if Destruction and Misery were in their ways and the way of Peace they had not known as the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles Rom. 3. 17. Hence it is in the first place that Men prosper not under the means of Grace as thinking it impossible that the same Fountain should at the same place or spring-head send forth sweet Water and bitter as St. James speaks Jam. 3. 11. And that Men abhor the Offerings of the Lord as if all soughe their own and not the things which are Jesus Christs Phil. 2. 21. which the Israelites are recorded to have done of old for the vileness of their Priests that with Force and Cruelty ruled over them and many depart from them with Indignation to more peaceable Assemblies of Christians without any purpose to return because their Shepherds have caused them to go astray as the Prophet Jeremiah speaks ch 50. 6. And since our Liturgy that we read daily is so full of good Prayers Collects and Requests for Peace that God who is the Author of Peace and lover of Concord would give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Let this Charity begin at home and let us with our Apostle follow after the things that make most for Peace and the things wherewith we may edifie one another Rom. 14. 17 19. and ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord Men shall call you the Ministers of our God ye shall eat the Riches of the Gentiles and in their Glory shall ye boast your selves as the Evangelical Prophet speaks Isa 61. 6. lest the Lord divide us in Jacob and scatter us in Israel as he did Simeon and Levi that were Brethren in Evil but not in any good to their perpetual in famy remembring always that he that soweth Discord among Brethren is one of the seven things that are an Abomination to the Lord as Solomon speaks Prov. 6. 16. Again our Brethren that profess the same Faith of Christ crucified with us yet dissent from us in some Externals and Circumstances about Religion lay to our charge that we hang all our Religion and Ministration upon certain stinted Forms and Canonical Offices upon Persons and Places Times Canonical Hours Vestures Postures and Gestures c. and that under the Fig-leaves of Formality in the worship of God we cover all Iniquity as the Church of Rome doth whose whole Religion is nothing else but a Congeries of such insipid stuff And that of late we were ready upon the advance of Popery to turn Papists rather than part with our Livings perceiving some to be turned aside already after Satan like fallen Stars and others with Demas to forsake us
old Sins Let us not be high-minded saith the Apostle but fear indeed If God be for us who can be against us saith the same Apostle Rom. 8. 3. But how can he be Friends with us when we walk so cross and perversly with him His Name that ought not to be mentioned without highest Reverence is continually Blasphemed Isa 52. 5. Nothing hated but Holiness and the Lovers of it made the Song of the Drunkards and By-word of the People and a desire to walk with God according to our Christian Profession Soberly Righteously and Godly Tit. 2. 12. made a derision all the day c. Neither let us think to appease him and hold his Friendship with a few Sermons and Ceremonies of outward Service as the tything of Mint Cummin and Dill when we neglect Justice and Fidelity a Gospel Reformation of our Lives and Conversations and the weighty things of the Law and Gospel as our Lord speaks Matth. 23. 23. See what the Lord speaks by the Prophet Jeremiah For I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt-offrings and Sacrifices But this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my People and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you Jer. 7. 22 23. When in the mean time we hold his truth in Unrighteousness when I know not for what politick respects we prefer Musical Delight Am. 5. 23. and Solemnity in his Service before the Spirit and Understanding 1 Cor. 14. 15. and Justifie by our practice the Idol-Service which we accuse in our Books and Preaching And now O ye Priests this Commandment is for you saith the Prophet Malchi If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my Name saith the Lord of Hosts I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your Blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to Heart Mal. 2. 1 2. I will dash them a Man against his Brother the Father and the Son together saith the Lord I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy but destroy them Jer. 13. 14. and 16. Give Glory to the Lord God before he cause Darkness and before your Feet stumble upon the dark Mountains and while ye look for Light he turn it into the shadow of Death and make it gross Darkness These things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. Excellently doth Ezra express the Affection Resolution and Reformation of the Jews after their Escape and Deliverance from Babylon and return to Zion with these words And after all this is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Transgressions seeing thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such a Deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandments and joyn in affinity with the people of these Abominations Wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Ezek. 9. 13 14. Let us take heed that we fulfill our Ministery as the Apostle exhorts Timothy 2 Tim. 4. 5. that we lose not our Church it self wherein Men glory so much your Glorying is not good saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 6. that it flee not away like a Bird as the Glory of Ephraim from the Birth and from the Womb and from the Conception as the Prophet Hosâ—a speaks and our selves also The Dissenters as we call them are like to steal it away from us and leave us naked and bare to read Prayers to bare Walls and empty Pews as many do already in City and Country Behold your house shall be left unto you desolate saith our Lord to the Jews What house The Prophet Isaiah tells us Our Holy and Beautiful House where our Fathers praised thee is burnt up with Fire and all our pleasant things are laid waste the only Cathedral that God had in all the World wherein was the Glorious Symbol of his Presence and the great Mystery of Godliness that praefigured Christ with all his Benefits This was done afterwards by the Caldeans He tells them further Therefore I say unto you the Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof Matth. 21. 43. What is meant by this Kingdom of Heaven The Church visible the Phrase often used in the beginning of St. John's Preaching and Christ's Matth. 3. 2. and 4. 17. and in the Parable of the Sower This Phrase is taken from Daniel And in the days of those Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom and the Kingdom shall not be left to another People but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Dan. 2. 44. The Church visible is now to be made up of the Gentiles as of old of the Jews chiefly our Lord having taken down the Wall of Partition that was set up by God himself between them why may not Men take down and demolish even to the Foundation the Wall of Separation dawbed with intempered Mortar of Malice and Envy set up in their Heart against their Brethren unless there be such a great Gulf fixed between them by it so that they which would pass from hence cannot nor can they pass to us that would come thence as Father Abraham speaks to the rich Man in Hell that would fain have changed his Quarters and Post for any Ease or mitigation of pain Luk. 16. 26. The Evangeilst Matthew tells us That this saying is commonly reported among the Jews to this day Matth. 28 15. that Christ's Disciples came by Night and stole him away while the Watch-men slept Mary Magdalen upon a double mistake thought that the Gardiner had stolen him out of his Grave Joh. 20. 15. We read of a great quarrel between the ten Tribes and the Jews about the stealing away of King David in his own Presence And behold all the Men of Israel came unto the King and said unto the King why have our Brethren the Men of Judah stolen thee away 2 Sam. 19. 41. The good and wise King could not decide the controversie without a Mutiny and sad Dissention as follows in the Text Moses tells us that Jacob stole away the Heart of Laban the Syrian when he fled from him Gen. 31. 20. upon the fall of his Countenance towards him with all that he had and that his Daughter Rachel stole away his Teraphim his Gods there was a Heartless and Godless Man left and what had he more Judg. 18. 24. as Micah speaks to the Men of Dan yet after all his fierce pursuing after Jacob with all his forces and overtaking him and searching all his stuff he found nothing of his to accuse Jacob of
Evil all the days of his Life As Sozomen reports l. 7. 6. That Theodosius thâ— Great was preserved from the Contagious Pestilence of Arianism that had over-run all the East by Placilla the Empress who kept him in sanctirate ti mere domini in Holiness and Fear of the Lord And Theodoret tells us l. 5. 18. That his Wife never gave over calling to his Mind the Laws of God that she was well acquainted with and among other things she said unto him My Husband you must remember what you formerly were and what you now arâ— if you perpetually think upon that you will never be ungrateful to your Benefactor but you will justly administer the Empire that you have received from him and upon that account still worship him that hath raised you to that Dignity With such gracious Speeches as these says Theod. she watered her Husband's Mind continually beholding her chaste Conversatition coupled with Fear as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 3. 2. Socrates reports l. 9. 26. that Valentinian Major made a wicked Law to his perpeutal infamy That a Man should have two Wives contrary to the Law of God true Piety Christian honesty whereupon Salvian was not afraid to say That the Boars that abhorred that Law lived better than the Nobles that kept it though Baronius in his Annals denies this of him upon small Ground yet it was too true Bloody Lamech was the first Bigamist Gen. 4. 19 23. But to the Man that feareth God in whose Heart is his Law that made one for one yet had he the residue of the Spirit and wherefore one Mal. 2. 14. That he might seek a Seed of God he saith Thy Wise shall be a fruitful Vine by the sides of thy House thy Children like Olive Plants round about thy Table Behold that thus shall the Man be blessed that feareth the Lord. Yea thou shalt see thy Childrens Children and Peace upon Israel Psal 128. 3 4 6. 4. Parents and Children 1. IF the Peace of God rule in the Heart of the Parents which is the second Relation in the World into which they are called by Nature in one Body Parental and Oeconomical then their desire will be That he would circumcise their Hearts and the Heart of their Seed Deut. 30. 6. that he that made them Creatures may also make them new Creatures according to that Speech of St. Paul My little Children of whom I travel in Birth again until Christ be formed in you Gal. 4. 19. They will Consecrate them to the Lord in their Conception and solemnly in their Birth and Baptism They will be careful that as new born Babes they may desire the sincere Milk of the word that they may grow thereby And that all their Children may he taught of God the ways of Cod that great may be the Peace of their Children Isa 54. 13. according to the Evangelical Promise in Isaiah Then shall they not be ashamed when they speak with the Enemy in the Gate as the Psalmist speaks Psal 127. 5. Parents ought to bring up their Children for God that their Children may be the Children of God that God may be a Father unto them and they shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord God Almighty 2 Cor. 6. 18. They ought not to provoke their Children to wrath lest they be discouraged saith the Apostle but bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord as God testifies of Abraham For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Gen. 18. 19. They ought to say with Joshuah As for me I and my House will serve the Lord Josh 24. 15. and with Holy Job Offer Burnt-Offerings to God according to the number of them Job 1. 5. making mention of them in our Prayers as occasion is offered still going before them in good examples as in holy Instruction they being more apt to do as we do than as we say and do not Not stroking their Heads as Eli did to Hâ—phni and Phineas that were Sons of Belial they knew not the Lord upon whom God did threaten to bring a dreadful Judgment 1 Sam. 2. 12. at which both the Ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not 1 Sam. 3. 11 13. Theodoret relates a famous History of a noble Man of Beroa l. 3. 18. who was the chief Man in that Republick whose eldest Son had polluted himself with Paganish Impiety and forsook the true God and turned Apostate with Julian the Emperor this Father for that cause expelled him out of his House and did Abdicate him from his Inheritance as Adam was driven out of Paradise for eating the forbidden Fruit as a just Punishment of his Apostacy from God The Son went immediately to Julian who at that time was not very far from the City and told him how his Father had served him for renouncing the Christian Religion and embracing his and that he had Disinherited him Julian bids the young Man be of good Cheer and Courage and promiseth to reconcile him to his Father when the Emperor Julian was come into the City he invited the principal Men therein to a solemn Feast and among the rest the Father of this young Man both whom he commanded to sit at his own Table and in the midst of the Feast he spake thus to the Father of the young Apostate SIR I Esteem it altogether Unjust that any Man should offer Violence to the Conscience of him that hath turned aside to another Religion and would force him against his Will to a contrary Opinion compell not your Son therefore to adhere to your Religion though I could easily constrain you to embrace it But the Father sharpning his Mind by Faith in God thus said O Emperor Do you speak of this Knave of this wiched Villain who is hateful to God and hath preferred Falshood to the Truth of God Then Julian putting on the Person of Mansuetude for such he would seem to be Come saith he give over to revile and turning himself to the young Man he said I will take care of you seeing I cannot obtain this of your Father But The Tyrant was false as all Apostates are for not long after he fell in Persia with all the Threatnings that he had not obscurely thundred out against the good Father of this vile young Man that had forsaken the living God That he might say to a Stock thou art my Father and to a Stone thou host brought me forth as the Prophet Jeremiah speaks Jer. 2. 7. So that great Man shines as a singular Example of Zeal in the Church of God which all Parents ought to look upon who desire to preserve the true Religion in their Family that they may give a comfortable Account of all