to one another That we may be one as thou art one Unite our judgements in the harmony of thy truth and unite our affections in the sympathy of thy love Take away the spirit of discord from amongst us and put thy spirit of love and amity into our hearts that we may keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace That as there is one body and one spirit and as we are called in one hope of our Calling as there is one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all those that are true Christians so we may be by that one spirit united and compacted in that one body joyned together in that one hope unanimously subjected unto that one Lord That we may perfectly consent in that one Faith be quickned together by that one Baptisme That we may be the united children of thee that one God and Father of all that thou who art above us all by thy glory and greatnesse and through us all by thy divine power and efficacy mayest be in us all by thy heavenly grace and by thy spirituall life and saving consolations Raine downe the coelestiall dewes and the cooling showers of thy blessing upon our scorched and inflamed soules that may quench those hellish fires and unsanctified heates of envy and wrath and malice and fury of emulation and strife and debate and misguided zeal which have burnt asunder the bonds of amity amongst us And enkindle the holy flames of divine love and fervent devotion towards thee and of Christian charity and brotherly affection to one another in our hearts that we may put on at the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any man hath a quarrell against another even as Christ hath forgiven us And above all these things that we may put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse that so speaking the truth in love we may grow up together into him in all things which is the Head even Christ Give us the grace of self-denyall that we may not seeke our owne but every man anothers welfare Breake off our hearts from our private interests and give us publike spirits that we may all labour for the common good and be ready to sacrifice all our particular advantages in the things of this world unto thee our God for the procurement and maintenance of the publike peace and preservation Deliver us from the slavery of those earthly affections which divide us from thee and from one another and give us heavenly minds which will unite us unto one another in thee our heavenly Father Unite us under one rule of sound Doctrine and pure and orderly Worship in the Church That all siding and partiality and contradiction and admiring of mens persons because of advantage and all tyrannizing over mens consciences may be wholly banished that we may seek after the things that make for peace and wherewith one may edifie another Teach them that are strong to beare the infirmities of the weake and not to despise them nor to offend them but to be render over them as over the poor feeble members of the same body and as over the little children and spirituall infants in thy Family Teach them that are weake not to judge those that are strong but to labour to attaine unto strength with them Let not them that are wise contemne the simple nor those that are simple envy those that are wise Let not him that standeth trample upon him that is fallen but endeavour to raise him up in the spirit of meeknesse considering that he also may be tempted Nor let him that is fallen reject the help of him that standeth but receive it thankfully that he may be restored by it Teach them that are in high estate not to scorne or to oppresse the brother of low degree And them that are in a low estate to be content with their condition and not to emulate or behave themselves proudly against these that are honourable Suffer not the rich to despise the poore knowing that that is to reproach their Maker but rather make them willing to relieve them Nor suffer the poore to murmure against those that are rich nor let their eye be evill because thou art good Let not the subject intrude into the Office of the Magistrate nor the inferiour Officer into the station of the superiour But keep every member of this Church and State within those bounds and limits which thou hast set them make them to study to be quiet and to doe their owne businesse Make us all to be like affectioned one toward another To weep with them that weep and rejoyce with them that rejoyce To remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that are in adversity as being our selves also in the body And that the disjoynted bones of this distracted State may be set againe by thy goodnesse O Lord reduce us all under obedience to thine Anointed our gracious and pious Soveraigne Under one righteous and just Law and government Banish from amongst us all war and bloudshed and sedition and consusion Suffer us no longer to be the devourers of one another but rather make us ready to lay downe our lives for one another That so all our unhappy divisions and differences being composed we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all holinesse and honesty And let the peace of God rule in our hearts to which me are called in one body through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the members of the HOUSES and of the ARMY O Most glorious God who by the precept and example of thy deare Sonne hast taught us to pray for our enemies oppressours and persecutors We heartily beseech thee looke downe in thy mercy upon the sad and wretched condition of those Members of the Houses of Parliament and the Army who have thus long gone astray from thee and have through thy just judgement upon us for our sinnes been the instruments of injustice and oppression unto the people of this Nation Lord we know there hath nothing befallen us by them but what thou in the counsell of thy divine wisdome hast fore-appointed and ordained for us and is farre lesse then our sinnes have deserved from thee and thou hast assured us that all things shall worke together for the good of those that love thee our God It is not therefore for us O Lord our God to murmure against thy will or to resist thy good pleasure but to acknow ledge thy justice and admire thy mercy in that thou hast been pleased to correct us so gently and to punish us so farre lesse than our deservings Neither dare we to fall into any furious or revengefull thoughts against our adversaries although they have been thus cruell unto us But as thy sonne hath taught us so we desire to
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 holy assemblies and of the full Solemnities in the sacred festivals of the Lord. And thus that victorious Martyr of patience Iob blazons the Armory of his sable afflictions of that pedegree of mischiefes that made up the matter of his trialls by setting forth the honourable and prosperous condition wherein he was before they fell upon him Iob 29.2 c. Oh that I were saith hee as in mneths past as in the daies wherein God preserved me when his Candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkenesse c. But now they that are younger than I have me in derision whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the doggs of my flocke It added much unto the tryall of Iobs patience and to the burden of his misery that he was fallen from an estate of so much happinesse and honour That therefore I may give you the greater and truer sense of your calamities give mee leave to desire you to remember what you have been and to compare it with what you are now and that in these severall regards First In matter of Religion Secondly In matter of Peace Thirdly In matter of Liberty Fourthly In point of Government Fifthly In point of honour and Reputation And in all these as in many more respects we shall finde the impairements very great that are upon us First concerning Religion which is above all others of greatest weight and consideration and of the highest importance unto happinesse The time was not many years since that we were the glory of all the Reformed Churches The home as it were and proper habitation of the true sincere beautifull and orderly Worship of God which was an Exile in most other places of the world and in some received as it were but as a stranger and sojourner under the conditions of restraint and bondage and rather permitted as an harmelesse evill than embraced as an honourable and commodious good Here Religion was in the Throne in other Kingdomes and Nations it was set as it were upon the footstoole In this Realme of ours it was ruling as a Mistris or Queene in most others it was made to serve as an underling or servant Here it was in power and glory and ornament in other places in subjection and servitude Here it was in its free and full course like a cleare and untroubled River or streame watering the severall parts and territories of our Land and conveying unto them the rich Traffique of Spirituall and Eternall blessings together with the vantage of temporall prosperity whereas in other places for the most part if it were at all in sincerity yet it was not at all in freedome and libertie but chained up and limited unto this or that particular station under confinement restraint as if it were some dangerous and pernicious beast Oh how comfortable and glorious was the state of Religion once with us in this Nation When it was encouraged by the Royall example of a gracious and pious Prince Mannaged in the hands of a Learned and Religious Ministry Steered and carried one not after the humours of foolish and frantique men not put to Lackey by the side of those unsanctified designs which have bin the Brood of the brains of the Achitophels of our Age but guided by the Load-star and Compasse of the Divine Truth in the true road of Eternall happinesse conducted by the wholesome rules of order and decency Administred with an holy and awfull reverence answerable in some kind to the Majestie of hat great God unto whom the acts of Worship were directed Strengthened and enforced with Unity and Christian Concord of the people of God gathered together in the law full and orderly Assemblies of the People in those places which are consecrated to the peculiar service of the Almighty secured from blasphemies and other inconveniencies by the helpe of a pious and excellent set forme of publique Devotion framed with great deliberation and judgement by those holy Martyrs who have sealed the Truth of God and testified their sincerity in the embracement thereof by the losse of their dearest bloud and Authorized by the Authority of the Church Oh how happy was it then with us When this Church of ours was as it were the throne of the glory of God here upon Earth The Zodiake wherein the Sunne of righteousnesse had his motion The choice and peculiar portion of God The Land of Truth and Holinesse But now alas what is become of us Our silver is become drosse Our wine is mixt with water The tried silver of divine Truth stamped with the image and superscription of God himselfe wherewith we were enriched for the traffique of Heaven is turned into the drosse of errours and heresies foisted upon us under the names of Truths Those malae monetae those counterfeit peeces which the Coyners and spirituall imposturers of this age have put upon us which will purchase us nothing but shame and confusion destruction and damnation and the pure wine of the Divine Worship and Ordinances that refreshed the hearts both of Men and Angels is mixed with the muddy and unwholesome waters of unreverent unseemely and corrupt performances in Religion whereby the holy heate and fervour is cooled the life and vigour thereof is deaded and extinguished and the soule-reviving strength and vertue thereof is rendered lawguid and forcelesse Not any thing left us wherein Religion is concerned but all is either abolished and cast off or changed for false wares or poysoned and sophisticated with venomous mixtures and infusions The Harlot of schism and sedition hath dealt with us as the Harlot is charged to have dealt in the first of Kings the third Chap. and 20 verse She hath stolne away the living Child of true Religion and Piety of which this Church of ours was happily delivered by the Divine goodnesse and hath left her dead child of disorder and depravation instead thereof in her bosome and the poore deprived mother is abridged of her remedy Her wise and pious Salomon oh that he were a Salomon in peace as much as he is a Salomon in wisedome is kept from the Throne that he cannot heare her cause and redresse her injurie and restore unto her the living child againe but he that is greater than Salomon will we hope in his good time restore both If we looke for the true and sincere rule of Religion the golden standard of the pure and incorruptible Word of God illustrated and explained unto us by the solid and sound interpretation of Antiquity Instead thereof we find the foolish and franticke imaginations of every presumptuous and unlearned Enthusiast imposing drunken dreames for the dictates of sober and sanctified Divinity setting up themselves for the measures of Religion whilest they take upon them a superintendency over the very Scriptures themselves to mangle and cut them into what formes they please bending and bowing them like that regula lesbia like a leaden rule to make them square
power of Godlines a name that is of late given I feare unto a mystery of iniquity but they are so over-busie in snuffing the light to cleere it that they often times put it cleane out in striving for Purity they justle out Order and Decency And for those that are of a more moderate and Christian spirit than to deny a truth or reject a good usage because one that is esteemed an Adversary embraceth it or to thinke every glimmering appearance of some small mistake in the one or miscarriage in the other a sufficient ground to dissolve those golden Chaines of Unity and Charity which are the Ornaments of the Spouse of Christ and the badges of true Disciples The furious and unguided Zeale of those that feele no other heats but of self-love and hatred of all others that will not allow them as Gods to set up their Throne of infalibillity in the consciences of other men is presently ready to cry downe such honest and peaceable men to be worse than Heretiques Vt qui Christum Belialinter se reconciliare velint as if they went about as a learned Author speaketh to reconcile God and Belial and to make up a match betweene Truth and Falshood They looke upon such not as Starres but as Meteors hanging in the middle Region of the Aire and allot unto them no other portion than somtimes is observed to befall those that dwell in the middle story of an house digni propterea qui inferiorum faetorem hauriant a superioribus lotio perfundantur worthy to be molested both with the droppings of unsavoury excrements from above and with the stench of smoake and ordures from beneath Thus whilst men state their Religion not so much in the embracement of the truth or in the sincere obedience unto God as in the abhomination of one another True Devotion and Piety is murdered betwixt them in the quarrell and that of a good Father is proved too true amongst us Dum alter alteri anathema esse cepit propè nemo Christi est whilst we curse anathematize one another in the bitternesse of opposition we are on all sides too much anathematized from Christ for want of Charity and true Devotion An evill than which I know not any under which the Church of Christ hath more laboured nor have I observed any Stratagem in all the policy of Sathan whereby he hath more perniciously either hindered the good or promoted the ruine of the Church than is this spirit of opposition and contradiction setting up of sides and dividing one against another by odious names and appellations intruding our selves or others whom we admire into the Throne of Christ and allowing no other scale to measure Truth or Falshod by but the dictates of our owne judgements fancies or affections and theirs And thrusting all men into the bottomlesse pit of hell by our presumptuous and uncharitable censures that depart though but in some small and inconsiderable matters from their or our magisteriall impositions whereby not only many falshoods are put upon the world instead of truths obtaining admission not by any true price or value that is in themselves but by the credit of their Authors with us or the affections that are borne unto them whose sentences we take for authenticall rules without any due tryall by the divine Word but also many Truths are rejected by the prejudice that men have entertained against those that offer them and those truths which are received upon such termes rendred not very much better than falshoods unto the soules of them that do so admit them whilst they entertaine them upon such false grounds as upon the meere reputation of humane judgements and upon the request of our partiall affections for if I embrace a Doctrin never so wholsome or practice a duty neverso Pious or Religious in it selfe yet if I doe it either in admiration of one man or side or in opposition to another and not out of any due regard unto the rule of God either in Scripture or sound Reason I therein worship man malice or my selfe and not God for he must needs be the owner of my worship in whom I place the ultimate resolution of my judgement in matter of Truth or of my affection in matter of Duty and whilst we ground not upon God but upon the errable and fallible opinions of men or sects therein it is upon the matter but meerely by chance that wee hit upon that which is in it selfe right and so a good building falls upon our heads for want of a right foundation Yea I thinke I need not much feare to say That he is in as good if not in a much better case that cleaveth to an erroneous opinion or practise so it be not of too pernicious a nature with a heart unengaged to sides and Factions or to selfe-love and opinion but exercised in sincere and earnest enquiry after those divine and sure evidences which God hath ordained to be our guides and with a strong perswasion that he hath right ground from thence than he that receiveth a Truth out of a factious mind either out of admiration of one or abhomination of another or inordinate love unto himselfe for as it is not enough to make us accepted with Christ to receive a Prophet unlesse we receive him in the name of a Prophet So neither is it accepted with God for us to receive a divine truth unlesse wee receive it as a divine Truth making God and not men nor any parts that are in them or any affections we beare to them the reason of our acceptance of them or submission unto them giving up our judgements and prostrating all our affections at the Throne of his infallible Divinity and not unto any humane excellencies or endearements nor to the selfe conceit of our own judgements or to the partiall defence of our owne opinions or received practices or to the desire of victory over others much lesse to the hellish tribunall of malice and enmity against others of whom we have entertained an evill conceit in our hearts Nor yet is this all the mischiefe that Sathan worketh by this hellish engine of partiality and opposition to impose falshood upon us exclude us from embracing the Truth or enervating the vertue of those Truths which we receive upon such grounds and depriving us of the benefit and comfort thereof and of the duties which they direct us unto But herein lies one great master-piece of the Prince of division to keepe up divisions and contentions in the Church it lyeth diametrally oposite unto Peace and Charity and is the very bellowes of the devill to blow the flame and the fueller to nourish and maintaine the fires of perpetuall quarrels and contentions among people A meanes to keep the wounds of that body still bleeding and ranckled there being scarce any more importunate factour of strife than the Tyrannicall imposition of our owne opinions for laws upon other mens consciences whilst that
Master is dishonoured in these times You that are the Embassadours of peace be not afraid to proclaime war against those that are enemies unto Peace You that are the Factors of the God of heaven buy the Truth and sell it not buy it though you pay your owne bloud for it God will account it againe unto you He that will save his life shall lose it but he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it Sell it not no not for the greatest preferments not for freedome nor for life it selfe Oh let us nor be so vile as to keepe the doore whilst the devill and wicked men commit fornication together in the most horrid iniquities Let us not see the name of God dishonoured the Church of Christ demolished and ruinated the Lords Annointed abused imprisoned and trampled upon and sit still and say nothing as if we were not at all concerned in it or as if all were well because you enjoy your liberties your revenues whilst your Soveraigne is in bondage poverty and persecution me thinkes we should be even ashamed of our freedom almost whilst he suffers such strait imprisonment for us what shall I say to this I will say no more but wish that we may remember the curse of Eli and take heed of it I have told him saith God that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth not for the iniquity which he had done because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not And yet Ely was not altogether wanting in the businesse he did reprove his sonnes after a manner but it was too gently for such sins he was too ceremonious and complementall with their iniquities 1 Sam. 2.24 Nay my Sons for it is no good report that I heare c. And yet this would not serve to free him from the judgement And shall we thinke to escape if we sit and say nothing whilest the most horrid iniquities ate acted and justified amongst us Adde unto these that great neglect under which this Church of ours doth so miserably groane and which is the great fountaine both of our corruptions and distractions and those other bloudy streams of sedition confusion and oppression in this Nation The laying aside of that most necessary kinde of instruction by Catechisme whereby the foundations of Christian Piety and Righteousnesse should be laid in the hearts of children and young disciples A method practised by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus who held it a duty in themselves and by their authenticall example have commended it unto the Church to administer first this milke unto children that they might thereby be prepared and fitted for the stronger meat of more perfect knowledge The want whereof hath proved most unhealthfull unto the Congregations Having proved that saying of Master Calvin too true that he hath in an Epistle of his unto the Protectour of England That without the use of a set-forme of Catechisme it is not possible for a Church to consist If any aske the question how it comes to passe that the building of Christian doctrine and practise is of so sinking and tottering a condition in these dayes And that the solid and true knowledge of God and Christ Jesus which is eternall life is turned into so many ayry and foolish fancies and imaginations with the people Or if any shall enquire from whence it proceeds that there are so many contentions and divisions such a multitude of foolish and mad conceits and apprehensions such devillish heresies and horrid blasphemies such ignorance of Christian duties and such generall counter-practise thereunto in this Kingdome If any shall expostulate why the light of Christianity is growne so dimme among us that there is such a blacke cloud that I say not an Eclipse of the Sun of divine and heavenly illumination That faith is so weake devotion and charity so cold zeale so intemperate and unguided our wisedome so earthly sensuall and devillish why obedience to God and the Magistrate so trampled on If any shall wonder as they justly and sadly may why under the bare name of a Christian profession which is a profession of mercy and meeknesse of righteousnesse and humility of purity and patience under the Crosse There walketh such horrid and more than Turkish and Heathenish cruelty and barbarousnesse why such injustice and fraudulency in our trades and dealings such intolerable haughtinesse of spirit such ambition spirituall pride and contempt of one another such Pharisaicall boasting such Epicurean luxury intemperance and uncleannesse such envy hatred murmuring and revengefulnesse Or if it shall be examined why all Religion is so much monopolized by the tongue and the eare and so little a share left unto the heart Why men are so sicke of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or canine appetite So greedy after Sermons and yet so fruitlesse in the use of them why they devoure so much spirituall food and yet after all are like Pharaohs leane Kine leane and ill-favoured as before why such hypocriticall fasting such dull and uneffectuall praying c. One of the most generall answers that I know how to give unto these and all other pensive and mournfull quaeries that our evill and ruinous condition may prompt us unto is this That the people of the Land have not been catechised as they ought That they have not been instructed in the first grounds and principles of sacred Doctrine That they are thereby become destitute of the knowledge of God of his greatnesse of his goodnesse of their great and indissoluble obligations unto him as they are his creatures and his purchase of the holy Vow and Covenant that they have entred into in their Baptisme of the priviledges of a Christian and the duties that hang upon them Of the great necessity and comfort of obedience and holinesse Of the nature and meaning of the divine Lawes and the holy rules of Christianity Of the propriety and purity of divine worship Of the true characters of holy and Christian love Of the necessary matter and object of faith and of the inseparable connexion thereof with good workes and holinesse of life Of righteousnesse temperance and judgement to come Of the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation Of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Of his Natures and his Offices Of the Spirit of God and his gifts and operations Of the Essence unity order and power of Gods Church Of the communion of Saints with Christ by faith as members of that body of which he is the Head and with one another by Christian charity in Christ and the operations thereof towards one another as fellow members of one another in him Of the glorious fruits of this holy fellowship and communion with Christ The pardon of sinne The Resurrection of the Body and everlasting life and salvation c. In stead whereof the foolish and unsteady curious impertinents and affectatours of science falsty so called have like the
prodigall childe or like the Swine sed upon the huskes of empty speculations or upon the dung and drosse of grosse Errors and carnall doctrines and have rendred themselves of that evill complexion which the Apostle deciphereth in the first Epistle to Timothy the sixth chapter and the fourth and fifth verses Proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof commeth envy strife railings evill surmises perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the Truth supposing that gaine is godlinesse forgetting the wholesome advice of Saint Paul 2 Tim 2.14 Strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers And that at the 16 verse of the same Chapter c. Shunne profane and vaine babling for they will encrease unto more ungodlinesse and their word will eate as doth a canker And that of the 22 and 23. verses Follow righteousnesse faith charity peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they doe gender strifes Or else not minding that elegant and excellent rule of the same Apostle Rom. 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have strained their weake and feeble wits out of joynt by reaching at the knowledge which was neither necessary for them nor comprehensible by them and if they have by chance more than skill perhaps light upon things in themselves true and wholsome yet in default of that growth and age and manly strength of Christianity which they should have arrived unto through the knowledge of the first principles as the spirit of God leadeth on Heb. 6.1 That food otherwise sound and healthfull yet for want of ability of digestion breeds ill humours and noxious qualities and pernicious diseases in them whilst they have refused to stand to that wise dispensation of the Authour to the Hebrews Chap. 5. verse 13 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For every one that useth milke is unskilfull in the word of righteousnesse for he is a babe but strong meat belongeth unto them that are of full age or to them that are perfect even those who by reason of use or habit have their senses exercised for the discerning of good and evill And so that is fulfilled in them which was spoken of the Gentiles by Saint Paul Rom. 1.21 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They became vaine in their ratiocinations and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fooles like weake and feeble eyes looking upon the Sunne or some glorious and splendid object above the passibility of the sense they have blinded themselves with too bold atttempts upon that light which they are not able to beare not considering that modestie and humility is the best gate to bring in knowledge into the soule and that there is scarce any more incurable bane unto agents and enterprises than the attempting of things that are above the strength of the undertakers From this it hath come to passe that this age of ours hath brought forth such monstrous and franticke opinions That the foolish and presumptuous seekers of our times have vented such mad and blasphemous questions like that which was once with great acutenesse and wisedome as the Author thereof seemed to thinke proposed to my selfe whether it were lawfull to desire God to forgive us our sinnes or no And indeed how can it bee otherwise but that many maladies both in judgement and affection and practice which is the child of these should proceed from such a miscarriage in dyet since it is of great consequence unto health not only that the food should be of good substance in it selfe but that it should be proper and fit for the nature and constitution of the body that receives it If all Parents should give unto their Infant children Beefe and Bacon instead of the breast and other such like sustenance which is apt for the weaknes of that age it were the ready way to the destrustion of mankind The blame of this mischiefe lyeth upon more than one sort of people The carelesnesse of Magistrates whose charge it is to see that things be rightly managed in the Church as well as to looke to the peace and government of the State and that should make that the principall worke of their Authority and wisdome The negligence of Ministers or which may be too probably suspected a vaine-glorious humour in them that affecteth nothing but that that bringeth honour applause unto themselves by the ostentation of their parts and gifts and hath taught too many of them to despise this and other prescribed duties of the Church and to looke upon it as a thing below their wisdome and excellency to have to do with children to descend to their weake capacities and to lead them on in that easie rode of instruction in the foundamentall points The intolerable improvidence of Parents and Masters of Families and their forgetfulnesse of that cure of soules which they have in this particular over their Families and of the great obligation that lies upon them for the performance of this duty to their Children and Servants by themselves and to send them at fit times to the Ministers for the bringing up of them in Religion and Piety that they may say with good Ioshua I and my house will serve the Lord whereby they become answerable unto God for the soules of their Children and Houshold whilst they take care indeed for their bodies and estates but reckon not at all what becometh of their soules whether they goe to heaven or to hell The miscarriage of Schoolmasters whose prime and most profitable businesse it should be at some set and convenient times frequently and orderly to initiate their Schollars and to leade them on in this way of Christian knowledge and to teach them Piety as well as other Learning That they may know Christ Jesus and him Crucified without which all other Rudiments will prove barren and fruitlesse yea even hurtfull unto them and will teach them only to be wise to do evill And lastly the stubbornesse of many children servants and others that stand in need of this instruction and for want of it incurre the danger of the damnation of their soules and yet will by no meanes submit thereunto Though invited and called upon accounting it their dishonour and an unnecessary slavery Oh how soone doe we grow too old and too wise to goe to Heaven The Lord grant that they may all seeke to reforme it That this so necessary and usefull an Ordinance may be restored into credit and practise againe amongst us The most ready way to recover the truth and unity of doctrine the firmenesse of faith the purity of worship and to reforme the abuses and miscarriages of life and conversation in this our lapsed and depraved Nation Yea although it is my hearty desire that the preaching of the word of God in the concionary way in doctrinall discourses Scripture-expositions declamatory exhortations unto vertue
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