THE CVRE OF THE KINGDOME An old fashioned Sermon Treating of Peace Truth Loyaltie A Discovery of the Diseases of the State with a Direction to the true certaine and only means for the recovery of health to this distressed Nation BY R. P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coll St. Jo. Cant. 2 KING 20. 19. Is it not good that Peace and Truth be in my dayes Printed October 1. 1648. The Cure of the KINGDOM 2 KINGS 20. 19. Is it not good that Peace and Truth be in my dayes THese are the last words which the Pen-men of holy Scripture have left in writing as memorable in the History of Hezechiah King of Judah Successor to David and Solomon in the Kingdome and heire unto them both of what was excellent in them both The most commendable thing in David was his Integrity of heart 1 King 15. 3. It is said of Abiah His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his Father was The most memorable thing in Solomon was his excellent wisdome 1 King 3. 12. Loe I have given unto thee a wise and understanding heart so that there was none like thee before thee neither after thee shall arise any like to thee Hezechiah was a follower of them both in these most excellent gifts 1. Of David in uprightnesse 2 King 18. 3. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his Father did 2. Of Solomon in wisedom foure whole Chapters of the Proverbs 25 6 7 8. were copied out by the men of Hezechiah probably at his appointment What things may we not expect to come from such an one who proposed to himselfe such worthy pattern It is yet to be remembred that they were the last words which are upon record of this wise and upright King verba novissima verba notatissima The last words are commonly most memorable most carefully observed and most commonly reported Et dixit moriens nothing maketh a deeper print in the memory of a man then the last words of a dying friend Lastly they were cygnae a cantio his Swans song after the terrour of a mighty Thunder-clap of an imminent judgement in the two former verses Vers 17. Behold the dayes come that all that is in thine house and that which thy Fathers have laid up in store unto this day shal be carried into Babylon nothing shal be left saith the Lord. Vers 18. And of thy sonnes that shall issue from thee which thou shalt beget shall they take away and make Eunuches in the Palace of the King of Babylon In these distresses the stay of his state and the summe of his comfort was that notwithstanding these Judgements were to come upon his Kingdome yet Peace and Truth should be in his dayes In this memorable speech there are chiefely two things to be observed 1. The Manner 2. The Matter 1. The manner of speech is delivered by way of Interrogation Is it not good 2. The Matter is a Rejoycing for the continuation of these two blessings Peace and Truth I spare to run into any subdivisions or to take notice of unnecessary circumstances or by-observations the words hastening to so usefull application that as Saint Bernard speaketh of another text Antequam panis frangitur ecce fragmenta Me thinks every one should be ready to gather up the fragments before the bread be broken and to make some application of the text unto himselfe before I have made mine Analysis or resolution of the words into their severall parts First of the manner of speech by way of Interrogation Is it not good The Rhetoricians make many kinds of Interrogations as being used many wayes We take notice only of three 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By way of Inquisition to get understanding as Mat. 11. 3. The Disciples of Iohn said unto Christ Art thou he that shouldst come or doe wee looke for another 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By way of Temptation to get an advantage Gen. 3. 1. Yea hath God indeed said yee shall not eat of every tree of the Garden 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By way of Exaggeration to get an unavoidable concession unto that which is demanded Luke 17. 17. Are there not ten clensed where are the nine This Interrogation may well sute to the last sense viz. by way of exaggeration or vehement affirmation when we aske of those things whose truth is knowne and granted In this case an Interrogation is not a doubtfull question but an earnest affirmation or full resolution Tremelius renders the Text thus Quod futura sit pax stabilitas in diebus meis bonum est that there shall be peace and stability in my dayes it is good The Prophet Esay in his repetition of this speech maketh it a resolute Proposition Esay 39. 6. Moreover Hezechiah said It is good if Peace and Truth shall be in my dayes So then it is resolved upon the question that It is good that Peace and Truth be in our dayes And this resolution doth resolve it selfe into foure assertions or asseverations First That Peace is good Secondly That Truth is good Thirdly That it is good that Peace and Truth should goe together as they are here coupled together by this Band or copulative conjunction And Peace and Truth Fourthly that it is good that this blessing of united Peace and Truth should continue all our dayes Is it not good That which the Psalmist makes the common quere of all worldlings Psal 44. Who will shew us any good The same is common to all men in the world all enquire after good every Art Science and endeavour of man saith the Philosopher hath this ayme to attaine to some presupposed good Arist Eth. 1. The name of Good is so attractive as that it draweth all mens hearts after it with incredible desires this is the Load-stone of our affections the Pole-star which doth direct the whole compasse of all our actions this is summa summarum the summe of all summes in which are summed up all the particulars of pleasure profit honour health wealth life and liberty all are cast up in this grosse summe of Good None are wise but they that seek it None are happy but they that find it The Philosophers who had their names from the wisedome they sought had many opinions touching Good some placing their chiefe Good in pleasure some in riches some in honor against whom Seneca argues most divinely thus Aut ista bona non quae vocantur aut homo foelicior deo est either those are not good things which are so called or man is more happy then God Hee hoardeth up no riches neither is he taken with the delights of carnall pleasure nor blowne up with the vaine titles of ambition The true wisedome teacheth that there is but one Good Deus optimus maximus the good great God he is sons boni the Fountaine of good Neither is there any good that is not from him
Ia. 1. 17. As he is the true wisedome and that one good so is he Pax mundi the peace of the world Lux mundi the Light of the world and vita mundi the life of the world He that is the Wisedome Peace Light and life of the world he that is stiled by Gregory bonitas nata hee hath shewed his servants what is good and what is to be desired in this world Is it not good that Peace and Truth c. First of Peace which by Cassian is thus defined Pax est concordantium in bono animorum ordinata tranquilitas peace is an ordinate quietnesse of minds that agree in the same good Hence I inferre that there is no peace to the wicked Esay 41. 1. And that for these reasons 1. They intend no good 2. They consent not to good 3. They order not themselves in the way to good Some make three kinds of peace Internall Externall Eternall 1. The Internall is grounded on faith Rom. 5. 1. Being therefore justified by faith we have peace with God 2. The Externall is set upon Righteousnesse Psal 72. 7. In his time Righteousnesse shall flourish and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth The Prophet Esay calleth it the work of Righteousnesse Es 32. 17. S. Iames calleth it the fruit of Righteousness Iam 3. The Psalmist saith Righteousnesse and Peace have kissed each other S. Augustins observation upon the place is very good Vultis pacem amate justitiam will you have Peace love Justice Justice and Peace are two inseparable companions they love one another they kisse one another Therefore if you doe not love Righteousnesse Peace will not love you nor come at you when Jehoram asked Jehu Jehu is it peace Jehu answered how can there be peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezabel and her witchcrafts are so many in number To conclude the point with that of Augustine Fiat Iustitia habebis pacem let justice be done and you shall have peace The third kind of peace is Eternall My text goes not so farre mounts not so high yet it is the high way unto it and brings us within the sight of it as Moses from Mount Nebo viewed the Land of Canaan S. Paul Ro 14. 17. doth thus chalk out the way to this eternal Peace Righteousnesse Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Righteteousnesse leads to Peace Peace to Joy in the Holy Ghost this Joy is crown'd with Glory But to confine my selfe within the limits of my text and to goe no further then Pax temporis the Peace of our dayes and the praise thereof Peace saith Augustine est serenitas mentis tranquilitas animi simplicitas cordis vinculum amoris consortium charitatis Peace is the clearenesse of the mind the simplicity of the heart the quietnesse of the soule the band of love and the consort of charity De verb. Dom. cap. 15. 8. Peace is so nearly affianced to Heaven as that it challengeth her part and property in God who is Deus pacis the God of Peace Heb. 13. 12. All the children of Peace are filij dei the children of God Mat. 5. 9. Blessed are the Peace makers for they shall be called the children of God None are in God but such as are in Peace 1 John 4. 8. None shall see God but such as follow Peace Heb. 12. 14. But Carendo quam fruendo c. good things are most highly prized in the want The sicke man is most fit to extoll the benefit of health The blind man though he cannot judge of colours is fittest to praise the blessing of sight Contraries being placed by contraries doe appeare in their proper colours Let us then take a view of the ill of warres and then wee shall see more clearly the good of peace see the condition of warre and as yee like of it so judge of Peace Warre is the scourge of nations the rod of Gods wrath and the staffe of his Indignation a devouring fire that devoureth to destruction warre in the Greeke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath these two Etymologies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bloody issue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common plague The Pestilence is but a private plague in respect of warre that taketh away a part of a Family or of a Citie This disperseth over a countrey and destroyeth a Kingdome This warre that is amongst us is unhappy above all other and that in three attributes being Vncivill Vnnaturall Vnreasonable First uncivill warre is called Bellum which in the proper sense signifieth good But it hath its name ex antiphrasi by the contrary quia minime bonum because it is not good nay the chiefe of evils So civill warre hath its name ex antiphrasi because it is of all most uncivill Civill and intestine warre is most dangerous A Kingdome divided cannot stand The Lord make up the breaches of this Kingdome and joyne the people together into one that they may serve the Lord their God and David their King whom he hath raised over them Ier. 3. 9. Secondly this warre hath beene unnaturall This hath broken the bands even the streightest coujunctions of nature Friendship and Religion First of nature A Father against a sonne vitam qui dedit adimit unheard of cruelty the sonne against the father which might make him justly to take up Davids complaint 2 Sam. 16. 11. Behold my sonne which came out of mine owne bowels seeketh my life O Generation of vipers how shall yee escape the damnation of hell Brothers like Cadmus brood sheathing their swords in each others sides Secondly the band of friendship is broken Two friends in whom there was according to Ariristotles definition of true friendship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one soule in two bodies or as it is said of Ionathan and David 2 Sam. 20. 17. They loved one another as their owne soules These not only brake the League of love but fell into bitter feude The Husband and the Wife which are but one flesh cannot agree to bee of one mind but fall into that distance of opinion that one Church cannot hold them both Thirdly the band of Religion is broken Two that before did unanimously consent in all points of Religion by diversity of opinion about these warres are growne into a division of society that as Paul and Barnabas upon their hot contention they cannot endure to walke together The third unhappy adjunct is unreasonable The chiefe things that made these differences so farre as they are presented to the publicke view were the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Priviledge of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Property of goods All these as they were earnestly requested of the one party so they were freely protested on the other party And yet for these we must fight and waste our selves and so weaken and destroy a most flourishing Nation You that have had a true sense of all those evils that are come upon us by
reason of these uncivill unnaturall and unreasonable warres I hope will be easily drawne to subscribe to the truth of this first Assertion that Peace is good The second Assertion or Asseveration is that Truth is good Mans excellency consists chiefely in two things Ratione Oratione in Reason and Speech one word in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth comprehend them both And one vertue in practise Truth doth crowne them both The want of it in both doth make a totall eclipse of mans glory For the first take Truth away from the understanding and Reason doth wander in darkenesse and so a man becoms like a bruit beast that hath no understanding And for the other take Truth away from Speech and then it were better for us to be as beasts dumbe and could not speake at all for so we should not sin so oft in word The want of truth in the one makes us like the beasts The want of truth in the other maketh us like the Devill Truth is lux mundi the Light of the world and as he affirmeth of friendship solem e mundo tollere videntur qui amicitiam e vita tollunt They take the Sunne out of the world that take friendship from the life of man may more truly be affirmed of truth They take the Sunne out of the world that take truth from the society of men Without it we groape in darkenesse Esay 59. 10. We see nothing we know nothing we can doe nothing without it we can doe nothing against it 2 Cor. 13. 8. We can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth Which words are to be understood according to that Christian axiome Quod quisque debet id potest Every man must have a reguard to what may be done de jure and not what is done de facto Presidents of fact ought to be no leading cases in matter of right vivendum legibus non exemplis We must live after the Lawes of God not after the examples of men The Law is spirituall men are carnall sold under sin If wee would have our waies well ordered we must looke unto what God hath commanded and not what men have acted Here what the Lord saith Zach. 8. 16. These are the things that ye shall doe Speak ye every man the truth unto his neighbour execute the judgement of truth and peace in your Gates And let none of you imagine evill against his neighbour and love no false oath for these are the things that I hate saith the Lord. A question is commonly moved whether a man is alwaies bound to speak the truth St. Paul ordereth the case aright Eph. 4. 15. Speak ye the truth in Love Truth without Charity is malicious Charity without Truth is blind O how happy should wee be if wee had these two to goe along with us in all our wayes to order our conversation aright in the feare of God! But alas both these are gone from us Truth mourneth for that what she feared is fallen upon her and that is to be hidden And Charity is gone up to heaven there to complaine that she can find no entertainment here upon earth And now that Truth and Charity are departed there are eome into their roome lying and falshood hatred and malice and all uncharitablenesse We may fitly condole the condition of our times in the words of Jeremyes complaint Jer. 9. 1. O that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weep day and night for the slaine of the daughter of my people verse 3. They bend their tongues like bowes for lyes but they are not valiant for the truth upon earth verse 4. Take yee heed every one of his neighbour and trust not in any brother for every brother will supplant and every neighbour will walke with slanders verse 5. They will deceive every one his neighbour and will not speake the truth they have taught their tongues to speake lyes and bave taken great paines to doe wickedly And here we have a passage made unto the praise of truth by the consideration of the odious and common practise of lyes and untruth As the world did sometimes groane under the burthen of Arianisme So this Land may now groane under the burthen of lying This Country is come now almost into the condition of Creete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Lyers Tit. 1. 12. In times past we took notice only of three kinds of lyes They were Jocosa Jests Officiosa excuses or Malitiosa Slanders But now the sin hath taken such roote and the practise so farre spread that it doth dilate it selfe into many branches First Printed lyes I have knowne it hath been said this is true I saw it in Print but now This is Printed ergo suspected Secondly There are Pulpit lyes when leaving the fathers and antient expositors of Scripture they stuffe their Sermons with relations out of newes bookes fraught with untruths from the father of lyes Thirdly Propheticke lyes which are now in great price Those that were in times past but three halfe penny lyers and after two penny lyers are now come to be six penny lyers Surely their lyes are more or lyes are of more price then in times of yoare Fourthly Paliat or covered lyes and that is either when truth is thrust into some dark corner by Equivocation or led aside by a slye distinction Equivocation encites a man to make a lye to himselfe A subtile distinction doth animate him to maintaine a lye to another For Equivocation There are some that have hid the truth in the darke corners of the Covenant when unusquisque abundat suo sensu But this is strange to be observed in it They that first made it a Solemne League and Covenant have since declared it to be but an Order transient and like an Almanacke to last for a yeare and is now out of date Againe those that were most prest to Plunder those that refuse to take it were such as did refuse to take it themselves They bind heavy burthens and grievous to be borne but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers Mat. 23. 4. Christ the truth calleth such Pharises I cannot see then but they may be called lyers that call them Saints Againe as truth is hid by Equivocation so it is led aside by a subtile distinction Notwithstanding so bad but some will thinke to make it good Nothing so false but some will seeke to make it true by distinction The Law saith Thou shalt not kill When we lament the slaughter of thousands of our brethren It is no butcherly slaughtering but in their dialect brave execution Againe the Law saith Thou shalt not steale When we complaine that our horses and goods are taken away by force and violence It is answered This is no theft but Plundering and both these are maintained good by a distinction framed at the Jesuits forge They say they may doe these evills in ordine ad
spirituale bonum In order to the spirituall good ours say they may doe these evills in ordine ad commune bonum In order to the common good And so St. Pauls mouth is stopt with a distinction where he saith We must not doe evill that good may come thereof Rom. 3. 8. Againe the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 2. 17. Feare God and honour the King And the wise man saith Eccles 8. 4. Where the word of a King is there is power But some say where is the King The King is to be considered according to a double capacity Naturall and Politique By the one he is in one place by the other he is in another Juglars seeme to have pretty tricks at the first sight but when they are discovered they be very bald and we wonder that we could not find out they slight So this distinction at the first tooke many but being well considered was discovered to be very poore and idle Can a man be a King without a politique capacitie No more then a King can be a man without a naturall capacitie I believe where the Sun goeth he carrieth all his rayes about with him though he may be eclipsed or obscured for a time So the King hath all his rayes of Majesty with him though there be a curtaine drawne between him and us that we cannot now see the splendor of his glory The union of these two capacities are as necessary ad esse Regis to the essence of a King as the union of soule and body ad esse hominis to the essence of a man So that upon the separation of either both are lost Take away the soule from the body it is no more a body but a carcasse take away the body from the soule it is no more a soule but a spirit So take away the Politique capacity he is no more a King as take away the Naturall capacity he is no more a man Besides these Paliat and covered lyes There are Publike and open lyes Some come scouting in with a weekely Intelligence A Lyurnall great news lye and all But the Master piece of all is the new Century of lyes Had it come to have been made a Chiliad by adding as was intended the other nine Centuries to it Lucian the great Lyer with his verarum narrationum and Jacobus de voragine with his legenda aurea had been both outvyed wee had got the whetstone from them both Theirs were Monstrous and Miraculous Lyes our Mischievous and Malicious Eusebius reporteth of Polycarpus the Angell of the Church of Smirna that when he heard any thing where was much offence He usually burst forth into these words Deus bone in quae temporareservasti me ut haec audiam Good God unto what times hast thou reserved me that I should heare such things We have just occasion to use the words of this complaint Good God unto what times hast thou reserved us that wee must heare so many lyes and can heare so little truth I hope the consideration of our miserable condition by reason of lying will perswade with us to subscribe to this second assertion that truth is good I come to the third assertion It is good that Peace and truth be joyned together That axiome in Philosophy virtutes inter se concatenantur vertues are chained together Is also true in divinity There is a concatenation of vertues and graces in Religion As the Disciples came to Christ by couples Andrew and Peter James and John Philip and Nathaniel So the graces of his spirit are commended unto us coupled together Juncta juvant as First Wisdome and Innocency Math. 10. 16. Secondly Faith and Love 2 Tim. 1. 13. Thirdly Patience and Hope Rom. 12. 12. 4. Repentance and Obedience Revelations 3. 19. So we have here Peace and Truth Peace without Truth is a faire building without a sure foundation Truth without Peace is a good foundation but cannot be raised to any Glory and comfortable perfection All agree that it is good to have both but they differ about the order of acquiring whether linke they should first lay hold on that the other may follow Some say let us have Truth and Peace will follow I answer Peace may be the way to Truth as well as Truth the way to Peace In a setled state we first look upon truth then peace But in a distracted State we must first have Peace or else we shall never heare of truth Inter arma silent leges what truth can we heare so long as the beating of drums the cluttering of Armes and the roaring of Guns doe fill our ears The wisdome of the Town-clerke Act. 19. 35. is worthy of our observation and imitation when the Citie of Ephesus was in an uproar he first appeased the people then he perswaded them if any were wronged how to have redresse We have commonly the Cryer of the Court to cry Peace before we can heare truth fully argued cases rightly stated and right truly determined So in this case first Peace then Truth They that hate Peace cry out for Truth And yet I thinke Pilates question to Christ and what is Truth would have neither a suddaine nor sound resolution of them Veritas altercando amittitur Truth is lost by jarring it is a lamentable state when Truth must be commanded not argued and right measured not by statute but by the sword Lysander being chosen arbiter betwixt two neighbouring Nations who fell into dissention about the territories of their Dominions drew his sword and flourishing it about his head used these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee that can use this best is fittest to determine of right God keepe us from Lysanders Law that is Lesbia regula a crooked rule that will never square with Peace and Truth They are deceived that thinke that warres will produce Truth we see the contrary Ireneus who lived about the yeare 175. wrote against thirty heresies and Epiphanius who lived about the yeare 383. wrote against 80. heresies But in the time of these warres the Author of the Grangren observeth 200. heresies or there abouts to have appeared in the space of little more then foure yeares As the over-flowing of Nilus by stirring up of the mud doth cause many strange Serpents to be bred out of the slime So the overflowing of these warres have bred and fostered almost innumerable and unheard-of heresies and strange opinions amongst us Hezechiah putteth Peace before Truth so must it be with us or else I doubt it will never come at us Psal 85. 10. The Psalmist addeth two linkes more to this chain viz. Righteousnesse and Mercy Peace cannot stand without Righteousnesse as ye have heard and Truth would not be willingly without Mercy Truth is bitter without Mercy Mercy blind without Truth Luke 10. 34. Truth and Mercy are like the Samaritans wine and oyle all wine is too much fretting and smarting all oyle too suddainly and slightly healing All Truth will require summum jus right with rigour all Mercy
will regard nullum jus no right at all If we could pull this whole chaine to us it would be of more value then a chaine of Diamonds If we could lay hold on Righteousnesse that would draw Peace after it Peace would draw Truth unto it and Truth would draw downe the Mercy of God upon us and open the bowels of Mercy one to another And this for the third Assertion viz. It is good that Peace and Truth be coupled together So I come to the fourth Assertion the continuance of the blessing In my dayes The Ancients reckoned the time of their lives by dayes to shew the shortnesse of the time and frailty of life Iob 42. 1. Job died an old man full of dayes Gen. 47. 9. Iacobs life a pilgrimage of a few evill dayes Psal 90. 12. Moses prayer Teach us to number our dayes A day is a perfect modell of mans life A day hath a morne a noone and an evening so hath life if it be drawne out to the furthest period My dayes that is the time present of my now being the dayes past are not my dayes they are gone they are not the dayes to come are not my dayes they are not yet There t is but a small interim betwixt those two dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 18. The Passions or Passages of a point of time This time of My dayes is of so small extension It is an axiome of Devotion spirituall graces are to be asked without exception because God hath made an absolute promise to give them but temporall blessings with a condition and limitation if it be his will and for our times So we aske bread for the day and Peace for our dayes Wee need bread every day and Peace in our dayes And who knoweth but these warres and troubles of these times are come upon us for spurning at that holy suffrage of our Church Give Peace in our time O Lord. To conclude the point let all those that are peaceable in the Land and have a true sense of the miseries of these dayes and desire that better dayes may come unto us subscribe to the truth of this Assertion and take it into their prayers in their best devotion That Peace and Truth may be in our dayes And so I come to Application which is the life of Preaching and chiefest thing that I propounded to my selfe when I first purposed to treat upon this text of Scripture This text may be fitly compared to Eliahs cloud which was at the first sight but as the breadth of a mans hand but looking a while upon it it grew to that greatnesse and extension as that it covered the whole Heavens So this text is a small sentence if you looke into the number of the words But if you shall take it into a serious consideration you shall see it grow into such a cloud of matter as that it shall over shadow the whole hemisphere of our conversation and showre a blessing upon you to comfort you in these evill times sad condition We looke upon it as appliable to all circumstances Time Place Persons Matter and Manner None of all these can have his due praise or true comfort without it For the three first circumstances Time Place and Persons In all places there is a complaint of these times by all persons excepting those that desire to fish in troubled waters and that make a gaine of others sufferings These sacrifice to their nets and burne incense to their drags because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous Hab. 1. 16. These like the Idolatrous silver-Smiths Act. 19. 24. Cry up Diana's magnificence because it brought great advantage to their craft and imployment But how many cry against them 1. The cry of an impoverished Citie where trading fayling Poverty commeth like an armed man upon them 2. The cry of the Countrey which is eaten up With what a dejected countenance and repining indignation shall the Husbandman looke upon his crop when he shall thinke thus with himselfe Barbanus has segites shall the stranger consume all my labours After taxes and excises and such like payments then cometh quartering like the Locusts after the haile and eateth up all the residue of my increase Have I not ploughed all day and brake the clods of the ground and made it even that I might cast in my principall wheate and Rye and Barlie Longi perit labor irritus anni Behold I have laboured in vaine and spent my strength in vaine and for nothing Let us come to our Churches we looked that a Reformation would have swept all cleane but we see it farre fouler then before They sought to sweep away Ceremonies and superstition and have fouled it with sacrilege and confusion They pretend to pull down Popery and have set up heresie and so while they thought to put the Pope out at the Fore-door they have let in the Devill at the Back-door We thought that text of Scripture would have freed our Churches from annoyance Luke 19. 24. Yee shall keepe my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary But see how farre they are prophaned In our entrance into it we may see the Font sons regenerationis where the spirit of God moveth upon the water for our sanctification hath beene made a trough to water horses and broken downe in many places as if they desired to renounce their Baptism And to goe a little further and see for the other Sacrament we see no Shew-bread upon the Holy Table The Communion which was in the Primitive Church administred commonly every Lords day In many reformed Churches received once every moneth and upon Injunction of the highest powers to be administred thrice in the yeere at the least is now in some places scarce named once in seven years In some places they have it it may be once or twise in two or three yeare and that in the countrie about Harvest and that too upon the grumbling threats of the Parishioners why should he have his due and we cannot have ours And so they justly cause the people to renue the Prophets lamentable complaint Lament 4. 4. Pueri quaerunt panem non est qui frangat eis the children cry for bread and there is none to breake it to them To goe a little further and see how the Sanctuary is robbed of all her ornaments the two golden Candlesticks the two Testaments are indeed there but the Candles are seldome lighted We have had two Chapters read out of both Testaments but now it is well if there be one But commonly especially in great Assemblies a Psalme is sung of the new translation and then the new light is set up whereby as some have professed to their hearers they can tel them as much of the mind of God Almighty as the Prophets or the Apostles or Christ himselfe could And for the Arke of the Covenant with the memorable Monuments the Tables Aarons Rod and the Pot of Manna their Paralels the Commandements the