WHen I consider how many powerfull Ora­tours God hath sent unto our Nation to declame unto us up­on this Theame, in those ma­ny and heavy afflictions which he hath laid upon us; It might well seeme needlesse for me to speake in an argument that is [Page 2]set on with so much eloquence from heaven. But when on the other side I remember how deafe wee have beene unto all those Orators, it might well be conceived a thing hopelesse for me to be heard, where so many and so earnest pleaders from heaven have not obtained an hearing.

Not a stroke that God hath laid upon us, but hath brought with it an admonition unto hu­miliation and Prayer.

The Word of God, and the rod of God are but several prea­chers in a divers dialect of one and the same doctrin. The word speakes it more clearely: The Rod more terribly: The Word is the interpreter of the Rod [Page 3]and the Rod the quickner and enforcer of the Word: In the WOrd God dictates his Rules and Precepts, and calamities are as it were the Presse of the Almighty to imprint them upon the Tables of our hearts. Affliction urgeth us to every duty, but to none more pro­perly then to humiliation and prayer.

The Rhetorique thereof hath been so powerfull, that it hath convinced Hypocrites, and e­ven meere naturall men. It was so powerfull that it brought downe Pharaoh and Ahab to do something in humiliation. Though they came short of the full performance; it forced some expressions even from [Page 4]corruption it self, it overcame the stubbornesse of rebellious Israel, although their hearts were not right toward God; yet whilst the hand of the Lord was upon them in the multiplied lashes of the divine indignati­on against sin, they durst not stand out in a professed oppo­sition, but fell downe prostrate at the incensed divinity, Psal. 78.34. When he slew them, them they sought him, and they retur­ned and enquired early after God, and they remembred that God was their Rocke, and the high God their Redeemer.

It was prevalent upon the naturall temper, (for we know no other that bee had) of the Shipmaster in Ionah, so that he [Page 5]could become the reprover of Ionah for his sluggishnesse, and exhort him to the necessary du­ty of supplication to the divi­nity, Ionah 1.6. when the storme was violent upon them, hee thought it strange that Ionah should be asleep and forget to pray. He came to him and said, what meanest thou O sleeper, arise call upon thy God, if so be that God will thinke upon us that we perish not.

It is a Doctrine that nature it self it seemes can heare from the mouth of present distresse and anguish; a voice of God that overcommeth the deasenesse of those that are spiritually dead: A principle much below Chri­stianity, that was legible in the [Page 6]dark and gloomy glimmerings of corrupt humanity: That it concernes men to seek for help of God in the time of danger, and anxiety. Yea some have thought that it hath been for­cible enough, to improve the bruitishnesse of meere sensible creatures, and to teach them some motions toward God and heaven in their extreame ne­cessities; The Lions roaring af­ter their prey seeke their meate of God; who prepareth for the Ra­ven his food, when his yong ones cry unto God? Iob 38 41.

And although that of Lori­nus be good Commentary, that it signifies, that God is invo­cated by them, [...], not by the clamour of language [Page 7]but by the cry of their necessity, which God is pleased to heare by the holy eare of his provi­dence, so farre as to extend his care herein unto those bruitish Creatures; Or that of Simeon de Muis upon the 104. Psalme, That these bruitish Creatures are said to seeke their food of God, whose office it is to pro­vide for all, in the like sence, wherein we may say, that the child by his cry asketh food, or the Teat of the mother, which yet knoweth not the mother.

Yet I find Euthymius brought in for the Author, that many men have often seene it in the time of famine or drought, that those brutes have lift up their eyes unto heaven, as if they did [Page 8]by an ineffable kind of language call upon their Creatour for a supply.

And is it not a shame that wee should bee such dunces in Piety, that we should be of a lower forme therein than the beasts themselves? that wee should be set to learne to seeke God in affliction of the Ravens and the Lions, and yet come short of the lesson?

It was an ignominious re­proach that lay upon the ingra­titude of Israel, Isa, 1.3. That the Oxe knew his owner and the Asse his Masters Crib: And yet Israel did not know nor consider the bounty of God who was so liberall a Master toward them; at whose hand [Page 9]they were continually fed, at the breasts of whose provi­dence they continually sucked: who bare them in the armes of his mercy, and carried them in the bosome of his compassion.

The Wiseman without doubt intendeth to shame (as well as to instruct) the sluggard when he sets that Truant to Schoole unto the Pismire, that he may learne industry and providence of that little Mistris.

And certainly Iob meant it for no grace unto the Schol­lers he was instructing, when he sends them for learning in matter of providence to the Beasts and Foules, to the Earth and to the fishes: And what a dishonourable stupidity is it [Page 10]in us; that Affliction should in any sense worke that upon na­turall men, upon meere hypo­crites, yea upon bruit crea­tures, that these should in any signification be said to seeke to God in the time of affliction; And that we cannot learne this lesson of the same Master. It is time for us to disclaimeour very humanity and kind, and to yeild up all the preheminence thereof unto the meanest of those creatures, if wee suffer them to outgoe us in Religion too, as well as they are beyond us in many other perfections.

And yet alas how dull have we approved our selves! How many severe Masters hath God set over us for the purpose; To [Page 11]teach us these so low and mean Lectures of Piety: To seeke for deliverance from God in the time of our trouble, at least when the cause is so with us, that we can see no hope of attaining it any where else; that we should at least make God our Cum nemini as it is said, and betake our selves to him when all other helpers reject us; that wee should make him our last refuge, if we will not make him our choise; and yet how poore proficients have we proved our selves herein? Are wee such sworne fooles that experience can teach us nothing after so long a Prentiship of misery? Are we so fast asleep that no Thunder can awake us? So [Page 12]dead in our Lethargy, that wee cannot feele so many bloudy gashes that the Sword of the Lord hath made upon the wounded and dying body of our Nation? that we have no sense of the scorching and the scalding of those flames of the wrath of heaven, which have so wasted and consumed us, and burnt away so many mem­bers of our Church and State unto ashes?

Have so many yeares pru­ning and digging about us made no cure at all of our barrennes? but that we will needs have that fearfull sentence, Cut it downe, why cumbreth it the Ground?

Hath the Cycle upon our [Page 13]branches beene so utterly un­effectuall, that wee will needs have the Axe laid even to our root? that wee may be hewen downe, and cast into the fire; because wee will bring forth no good fruit unto God for all those corrections wherewith hee hath chastised us?

Shall the Lord complaine of us, as once of Israel, I have corrected their children in vaine; the Bellowes are burnt, the Lead is consumed of the fire, the Founder melteth in vaine: for the wicked are not plucked away.

Will neither the Rod tur­ned into a Serpent, the whol­some Rod of Government that heretofore bore Almonds of Peace, and Plenty, and happi­nesse, [Page 14]unto us, turned into a Ser­pent of oppression and vio­lence, that hath stung so many of us even unto death?

Nor the waters turned into bloud; The calme and pleasant streames of concord and pro­sperity wherewith this Land of ours was heretofore watered and refreshed; turned into a red Sea of Christian blond shed so abundantly among us.

Nor the Frogs, the spawne and progeny of corruption, that have so covered the face of our Nation; those multi­tudes of errors and heresies and blasphemies that do swarm in our Aegypt, which have made it to stink in the nosthrils of the Almighty.

Nor the lice of beggery and bondage: Nor the Flies of Oppressours that sit galling upon our sores, and have cor­rupted the Land wherein we live: Nor the literall murnins that have destroyed our Cattle: Nor the Biles and blaines of the Plague and Pestilence, that have transplanted so many Co­lonies weekely into the Land of darkenesse where all things are forgotten: Nor those more pernicious Biles and Plagues of the body of the State, whose swelling Tumours of ambiti­ous Tyranny, and limed spots of corroding envy, are sad pre­sages of the approaching death of this poore Nation. Nor the terrible and wasting sho­wers [Page 16]of haile that have bin shot against us from heaven in many judgements, and from the en­gines of war and enmity, that have been upon man and upon beast, mingled with the raging fire of desolating devision: Nor the Locusts and Caterpillars that have devoured the fruit of our Land in the field; nor those armed ones that wast our pro­vision in our houses and habi­tations, and eate up that which hath escaped the former.

Nor the darkenesse of A­theisme and infidelity that hath obscured us; nor the destroy­ing Angell that hath been sent forth against us, and hath cut off so many of the first-borne; and of the chiefe of all the [Page 17]strength of our nation: will not any of these I say, nor all of them worke upon us, nor soften our hearts, that we may let them go from that hard and vile bondage of sinne to which we have inslaved them, That Aegypt of ungodlinesse, where­in they are in servile captivity; that they may go & do sacrifice unto the Lord in the offering up of the holocaust of a bro­ken and contrite spirit, and the incense of earnest and sincere prayers and supplications un­to God for mercy? Are we so hardened in our stubbournesse with Pharaoh and his people, that nothing will take us off from the pursuance of our sins? but that wee will needs [Page 18]follow them on desperately, e­ven into the midst of the Sea of the fury and rage of our in­censed God; that wee may bee utterly overwhelmed and swal­lowed into destruction.

Do we not yet perceive that we are miserable and wretched? Do we not yet feele that wee are caught, that we are intang­led in the snares of confusion and destruction from the Lord?

That whethersoever we flie, and which way ever wee run, the bearded arrow of the anger of the Almighty still sticketh fast in us?

The fire of his indignation still meeteth us in the face, and the threatning flames thereof have encompassed us round a­bout, [Page 19]so that we can finde no way to get out: we have turned this way and turned that way, and sought at every corner to make our escape from his fury, but still the Angell standeth with his sword drawne in our way, and we (like blind Bala­am) cannot discover him.

It is now a long time, that this pooro miserable Nation hath laine lowing and tumbling like a wild Bull in a net; wee have strugled, and bellowed, and foamed, and fretted, and tired our selves with striving to breake out; but the more wee have strugled, the more we have been entangled.

Wee sinke still more and more into the mire of destru­ction; [Page 20]The flouds and the bil­lowes still arise upon us, and we like the poore Dove can find no place to rest our foote on, and yet we will not returne unto the Arke; wee have fled from it unto this Mountaine and to that hill, but the waters of desolation still ascend up after us, and no advantage of ground hath secured us.

Our wounds are rankled, and Gangrened, and the fretting Cankers thereof have eaten e­ven unto our hearts, and are ready to seize upon the very principles of life; and yet we delay to seeke for a recovery; we will not admit of any mor­tifying applications that may kill the rancour of these devou­ring [Page 21]Ulcers, that we may pre­serve the being of this perish­ing Nation: Doe not bee so foolish as to thinke you are safe because the Sword is taking breath a while from the chase of your bloud, because it seems to rest it selfe for some houres after so full a meale as it hath made of the flesh and the car­kases of this people: This tem­porary cessation (if you take not heed) may prove but a re­enforcement of its violence, that may shortly returne it up­on us with the greater rage, and gaine it but the better stomack and appetite to feast it selfe more freely hereafter in our ut­ter ruine. You would not think him to bee a good Polititian, [Page 22]that should presently conclude the siege to be raised, because the roaring of the Cannon of the Adversary is intermitted for a space; that takes every Truce for a conclusion of the quarrell: Such leasures are ma­ny times but the gaining of opportunity either for the contrivance and expediting some new workes or designes that may prove more effectuall to more speedy destruction; A giving of us leave to fall asleep, that wee may bee surprized in our security and oscitancy. Gods respits of judgements if they be neglected by us, and not entertained with addresses of conversion and humiliation unto him, become not the re­movalls, [Page 23]but the growths of our calami­ties; when his long suffering leadeth us not to repentance, it will deliver us up at length un­to the greater condemnation: and every minute of his forbea­rance shall be set upon our score, and be reckoned for by us in the advancement of our following miseries. What though the instruments of death which he hath prepared be not for the present active upon us as heretofore? wee see yet they are still brandished a­gainst us; The mistery of our desolation wee see is working every day: The engines of our destruction are restlesse in their motions, and nothing we see can stop them from the fatall [Page 22]businesse they have in hand: but they are still hastening on the sad period of this once flourishing Nation, as if they had no price left them to pur­chase their owne safety, but by procuring the ruine of us all. The case is with us as it is said to have been in France in some part of the Reigne of the Great Henry of that Kingdome: It is impiety to speake of Peace, and Treason to seeke it. All the gra­cious tenders of a pious King offering the most precious jew­els of his owne Crowne to buy the safety and preservation of his people, and to divest him­selfe of his honour, to save the lives and the bloud of his poore subjects, are scornfully despised [Page 25]and thought unworthy of an answer; The great Masters of our calamities are become like the spleene in the body, which groweth bigg by the con­sumption of the rest of the parts. Ephraim is against Ma­nasses, and Manasses against Ephraim, but both together a­gainst Iudah: Pilat is against Herod, and Herod against Pilat, but both agree together against Christ and against his Church. The publike misery is the common marke that they both shoot at from their opposite stations. The showers of bloud that have fallen a­mongst us, have not at all aba­ted the lowring of the skies: but, The clouds have returned af­ter [Page 26]the raine, Eccles. 12.2. They are still gathering more and more thicke and gloomy about us, and threaten us againe with a more violent tempest. The sharp physick that we have ta­ken, hath indeed weakened our body, but hath not at all cured us of our diseases; The evill humours are still predominant, and ready to cast us into a re­lapse, and to renew the parox­ismes of our furious maladie. Doe you not perceive, that af­ter all those dreames of happi­nesse, That some have so boa­sted of to themselves and o­thers, in the sad successes of their prosperous impieties: who promised you grapes from those thornes which they plan­ted [Page 27]and fostered, The Ser­pents root is yet still alive. The root of division, discord, and sedition; and that it is rea­dy to bring forth a Cockatrice, and the fruit thereof to be a fiery flying Serpent; a Serpent for the poysonousnesse; fiery for the fiercenesse & rage; and flying for the swiftnesse of that devasta­tion wherewith it menaceth us.

What though wee have ta­sted deepe of the Cup of that Red Wine of the divine wrath and indignation, which was filled and mixed for us in the hand of the Almighty? Be not secure: The dreggs of that Cup it may be justly feared are still behind: and if we will not seeke to prevent it by repen­tance, [Page 28]this ungodly Nation must drinke them and wring them our. But Lord if it be thy will let this Cup passe from us. Iudgment hath begun at the house of God: in those persecutions and miseries that have befallen the Church and the faithfull people; it was Gods pleasure that they should begin the round: but the rest must looke to pleadge them at the last without a timely reconciliati­on unto God: and woe be unto them, whose lot it shall be to drinke the bottome of the hea­venly fury. I feare we have ye [...] seen but the beginnings of sor­rowes; and that yet we may [...] that saying fulfilled, Anglorum miseria ultima, pessima, My [Page 29]deare fellow-Country men, whose preservation I heartily and earnestly long after. I that speake unto you am a man full of infirmities and sins, yet I hope I may say truly with that good woman of Abel. of Beth­maachah, 2 Sam. 20.19. That I am one of them that are peaceable and faithfull in this Israel. And though (I confesse) I should not be unwilling with her to throw a Traitors head over the wall, where it is necessary to prevent the swallowing up of the Inhe­ritance of the Lord: yet I call God to witnesse, who knoweth that I lye not; that if I know my owne heart, there is not that man living upon the earth (maugre all the hard dealing [Page 30]that I have met with from some in these times) whose safety and happinesse I would not willingly promote; and I hear­tily wish that the sufferings of my selfe and others that have been my fellow patients in that Phisicke which God hath ad­ministred unto us, and our Bre­thren in tribulation, may if God please, excuse all others of this Nation of what side so­ever they have been, from those draughts of miseries which are yet behind; but then I must beseech you to be sensible of your miseries; That you will seriously lay your present condition unto your hearts, and those yet greater calamities that are impendent over us. That we may be all in­duced [Page 31]to joyne for the procure­ment of a release. There is none more dangerously sicke than he that is well in his sicke­nesse: that is unsensible of his disease, and takes his malady for health. And then secondly, I would faine put you in mind of those fountaines and rootes from which our calamities flow, and upon which they grow and pro­sper, and will do still if we pre­vent not, to our utter undoing.

And then thirdly, I would willingly perswade you unto this truth (not that you may know it, for I doubt not but you do, unlesse you be ignorant of the very naturall principles of Piety,) But I would faine presse it upon your affections [Page 32]that it may bee operative in your hearts and lives: That there is no possibility of obtaining a release from our distresses, a de­liverance from those judgements which are befalne us, but from God, and that without him no outward meanes, agents, or indea­vours can procure it us.

And than fourthly, That there is no way to obtaine this from God, but by repentance, hu­miliation, and faithfull prayer unto him; that we may be stir­red up all of us to set about these businesses, unto which I shal labor to incite you by some powerfull motives thereunto.

And then I would entreate you to accept my poore indea­vours for your direction, and [Page 33]guidance in the reght performance of these workes, of farre greater moment than all Humane Counsels or Armies, and with­out which they will be all in vaine and pernicious unto us.

And after all, I shall offer my poore mites into your trea­sury, for your help and assistance in the exercise of these duties.

The Lord of heaven help me in the performance of these se­verall taskes, and give his bles­sing unto them for the good of this poore Nation, and to the eternall honour of his glorious mercy, to which I desire to be a poore servant, though most unworthy in this enterprise.

And the first thing that I have here to doe, is to perswade you [Page 34]that you are miserable. That we may be sensible at length of the sad and wretched state of this Nation, both in regard of those evills that are already come upon us, and also those that seeme to stand at our doores ready to devoure us. As long as we are not touched with a sense of our evills, we are ne­ver like to looke after the re­medies. The torment of the disease is the sollicitour of health, and the best advocate for the entertainment of the Physitian and the Physicke. There are two great baggs of poyson in the serpentine hearts of corrupted men, that doe above all others keepe us off from the cure of our spirituall [Page 35]diseases; presumption or secu­rity, and despaire of mercy: The one keeps us from taking notice of our wretchednesse: The other renders us hopelesse of reliefe. And therefore the great Physitian of the Church though he be not wanting in his provision against all our sick­nesses, yet he seemes in the ge­nerall scope of his compositi­ons to have aimed at the remo­vall of these two. Having or­dained us two great Antidotes against them: The Law against Securitie and Presumption; whose office is the discovery of the malignity of sinne, both in its owne nature, and in the curse and condemnation that it brings with it; For By the Law [Page 36]saith the Apostle, is the know­ledge of sinne, Rom. 3.20. And the same Apostle Rom. 7.7. telleth us, that he had not known sinne but by the Law. And at the 8. vers. Without the Law sin was dead; That is (as I conceive it may well be understood) that the sense of sin is dead: that it is not felt to be alive, but is in us like a Gangrene in a morti­fied member, that eateth on in­sensibly to the destruction of the body: and in the like signi­fication wee may perhaps not amisse understand that which followes in the 9. verse, When the Commandement came, sin re­vived and I dyed: That is; Sin appeared to be sin, the sense of it was quickened, and thereby I [Page 37]was mortified & humbled, &c. and thus the Law rouzeth us from our Presumption and se­curity.

But because this Physick of it selfe is very destructive, and if it should be let alone, would never cease, till it had brought us to despaire, and so killed us with a contrary Disease. Therefore God hath ordained the Gospell for a Cordiall to abate and qualifie the violence of this Corrosive: to keep us from being desperate and hopelesse of health: to meete with the rigour and sincerity of the Law, and to hold us up in the hope of salvation, by the offers of mercy in Christ Jesus. The Law is like a Lance [Page 38]to open our Tumours, and to search our Wounds: but as the Lance of it selfe cures no sores; so the Law of it selfe heales none, but makes way only, and propares for the Go­spell, which applyes the sa­ving Plaister thereunto. The Law is our School-master, and whips us unto Christ, by gi­ving us a sense of our sinnes, and of the terrors of Hell, and the curse that is due unto them: And then Christ heales us with the comforts of the Gospell. And both these works must bee done in us, if wee meane to obtain our spirituall health; otherwise for want of the worke of the Law upon us, we may perish through securi­ty, [Page 39]and never know what Dis­ease we dye of; or else for want of the comforts of the Go­spell wee may perish through Despaire. It may bee some question which of these two are most pernicious, but they are both deadly; and if the que­stion be which is most univer­sally operative in its maligni­ty, Security and Presumption wil be found, I take it, by much the more Epidemical plague of the two; and that there are ma­ny, yea very many more perish by this, then by that over­whelming sense of the greatnes of their sinnes, which renders them hopelesse, and so help­lesse. The greatest part of the world dye of a Lethergy; the [Page 40]Devill deales much in Opium, and Narcoticks, that stupifie the soule; and deales with men as Physitians use to doe with those whom they use to cut of the Stone: hee first casts them into a dead sleep, and then cuts them and mangles them how he pleaseth, whilst they lye still and quiet, and never so much as cry oh! nor flinch at it, nor struggle against it, untill at length hee cuts out their ve­ry hearts and soules: Hee knowes his hellish enterprize never goes on so prosperously, as when it moves secretly and undiscovered. His great care is, that his Engines may not be heard, and therefore hee sends most men to hell in a slumber, [Page 41]charmed with the pleasant Dreames of earthly prosperi­ty, and sometimes of Heaven it selfe; from which they are never awaked throughly, till they finde themselves scorch­ing in the very flames of the Infernall Pit. Indeed Despaire it seemes to be but the Devills refuge, which hee seldome makes use of, but where his Opium will not worke: When he meets with some (and they are too few) that will not bee dandled in his lap, nor nuzled in the security of their sins, but that they will needs be search­ing into the wounds and cor­ruption of their hearts, then he strives to make them kill themselves with the Lance, [Page 42]presents their sins unto them in such a dreadfull colour, and doth so possesse their thoughts with the apprehensions of the greatnesse of their iniquities, and the fearefull flashes of hell fire, that they cannot believe God hath mercy enough to pardon them. But the former is his more usuall, and more ef­fectuall Stratagem; And therefore by the way give me leave to tell you, that I think there is a great fault in the ma­naging of the work of the Mi­nistery in these times, for want of the due application of the terrors of the Law unto the soules of men, for the discove­ry of their sinnes, which should be the Trumpet to rouze them [Page 43]from their security, and to fit them for mercy. Wee are all for Cordialls in these times; but it is easie to perceive, if we consider the loosenesse and slumbering condition that we are in, that wee have much more need of Corrosives to eate away our dead flesh, with­out which the Cordialls of the Gospel do usually rather streng­then our Diseases then our Soules, and rather hide & pal­liate, then cure our wounds; one maine reason why the worke of grace goes on no bet­ter amongst us in these dayes; and I pray God it may finde a timely Reformation. No­thing kills more surely then doth a false perswasion of our [Page 44]health: And therefore we find it was the Method that the Spirit used unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodice­ans, Rev. 3.15, 16, &c. to convince him of his great cor­ruption, and of his miserable Condition, that so hee might lead him on unto the cure. The Angel of that Church it seems was conceited of his owne Workes, and was not sensible of the luke warmnesse of his heart in the performance of them: that his Devotion was but halfe codled, as they say, therefore the Spirit puts the Searcher into his Wound; I know thy workes, saith hee, that thou art neither cold nor hot, I would thou wert colder hot. He [Page 45]shewes him that such a temper is of no acceptance with the Almighty, who receiveth no Sacrifices that are not offered up by the fire of Divine love: nay, that it was so farre from pleasing him, that it was loath­some unto him, and ready, as I may so speake, to turne the stomack of the Almighty, like luke-warme Water recei­ved into the stomacke of a man. Because thou art luke­warme, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth, ver. 16. And then hee shewes him yet a further view of his misery, by awaking him from the fond conceit hee had of his uprightnesse and happi­nesse: Because thou sayest I am [Page 46]rich, and encreased in goods, and have need of nothing, and know­est not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poore, and blinde, and naked. I counsell thee to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire, that thou mayst bee rich, &c.

As long as we are unacquain­ted with the vilenes an wretch­ednes of our condition through sin, we can never be cleansed from our iniquities; we must feele this burthen and groane under it, or else we shall never be rid of it. Therefore this is the order of the Spirit in the work of the healing of the soul, as our Saviour hath declared it, Iohn 16.8. When he is come (saith he) He will reprove, or convince the world (for that I [Page 47]thinke under favour is the bet­ter Translation of [...] in that place) of sin, and of righteous­nesse, and of judgement; of sin be­cause they beleeve not in me; of righteousnesse because I go to the fother, and ye see me no more; of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged. First, he convinceth of sin that they may know their owne vilenesse and corruption, and learn the whol­some lessons of selfe-despaire, and thereby obtaine a longing thirst after Christ, by teaching them what they are in them­selves without Christ Jesus, because they beleeve not in me, and then he raiseth them up upon the wings of faith unto the comfortable doctrine and ap­prehension [Page 48]of righteousnesse, of justification by Christ, who hath perfected the worke of our Redemption and reconci­liation, by his going unto the Father, by his Triumphant Ascention into the Holy place of heaven for us, where he sit­teth as Prince of our Salvation. Having overcome all our spi­rituall enemies, and gotten the victory for us, and not only so but from the apprehension of sin he quickeneth us unto the righteousnesse of Sanctificati­on and holinesse: Because by Going unto his Father, having led Captivity, Captive, hee hath received gifts for men, even for his enemiess, that the Lord God may dwell among them, Psalm 68.18. [Page 49] Eph. 4.8. He hath recei­ved power to bestow the gifts of heavenly graces and vertues, which he seattereth abroad un­to his people from that trium­phant Seat where he sitteth, to the sanctifying of their hearts, That the Lord God may dwell a­mong them in the height and holinesse of his Spirit; Because I goe to the Father; and then ha­ving laid in them the foundati­on of humility, and selfe-di­strust; by the discovery of sinne, and raised up the buil­ding of Justification by faith, and Sanctification by love thereupon; he in the last place convinceth them of judgment: That is, (as I conceive with submission unto better judge­ments [Page 50]it may be profitably un­derstood) He leadeth them from justification and sanctification, unto a comfortable hope, ex­pectation or assurance of a fa­vourable sentence from God in judgement: whereby they shall be invested into Salvation and Eternall life, Sathan their arch enemy being cast in his suit a­gainst them; Because the Prince of this world is judged. But the first worke we see is the convi­ction of sin; And this is Gods method in healing of sin.

And we cannot chuse a better for the curing of our miseries. There is no greater enemy unto true happinesse than a conceit of happinesse where it is not; neither is there any more incu­rably [Page 51]miserable, than he that will not beleeve himselfe to be so. Therefore it is the sad com­plaint of God against Israel; That when he [...] them, they grieved not at it, and that they laid not the judgements of God unto their hearts. He will not leave off from the punishments of his people untill he [...] hath quickened them from this stu­piditie: Lord when thy hand is lifted up (saith the Prophet) They will not see; But they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people; Yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devoure them, Isa. 26.11. God will make use of his owne enemies, even of wic­ked and ungodly Caitives to scourge his owne, rather than [Page 52]they shall dye of that disease. It was the grayest haire that was upon the head of Ephraim, and that that did most of all evi­dence him to draw toward his end; That he did not know the gray haires that were upon him; He tooke no notice of his de­caies, but was unsensible of his calamities, Hos. 7.8, 9. Ephraim is a Cake not turned; He lay bur­ning upon the harth of the fiery anger of God, and would not turn unto him, he would rather burne then turne; what was the cause of it? He had lost his sense, he did not feele the heate of the fire, no more then a Cake feeles the heat of the O­ven. Strangers have devoured his strength, & he knoweth it not; [Page 53]Yea gray haires (that is, such calamities as presaged his de­cay, as gray haires do the de­cay of Nature in the body) are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not: And what follow­ed upon this stupidity, but a deplorable neglect of seeking unto God: And the pride of Is­rael test [...]fieth to his face, and they doe not returne to the Lord their God, nor seeke him for all this.

The very case of wretched England at this day: gray haires are upon this Nation, not here and there, but all over: a mul­titude of gray haires, numerous calamities that presage her de­cay and approaching ruine; and yet this wretched people seems to take little or no notice of [Page 54]them, that they might addresse themselves unto the Lord, who alone is able to renew the youth thereof like the Eagles, Psalm. 103.5. It was a strange kinde of blindnesse that was upon the poore Foole that was kept for the sport of Seneca's wife; who had so farre lost her sight, that she could not perceive that she was blind: but as he himselfe telleth it for a wonder, Called unto her Governour to let her go abroad, complaining of the darke­nesse of the house; We are even become a Kingdome of such fooles; nay, are we not thinke you somewhat worse than shee? She took her blindnesse for the darkenesse of the house, and we seeme many of us to [Page 55]take our darkenesse for light. How many are there amongst us that are so unapprehensive of our miseries, that they do even rejoyce in them for hap­pinesse? Till this madnesse be healed in us, we are not like to be cured of any other of our diseases; give me leave there­fore to present you with a glasse wherein you may looke upon your selves, and see now at length how gray you are growne, what messengers of death and destruction are upon you, that you may seeke some heavenly Charme from the Almighty, that may restore you to an youthfull condition, if it may be, or else at least provide for your latter end.

And oh that I had now the Spirit of Lamentation, that was once so eloquent in the Prophet Ieremy, wherewith he seemes to sing the funerall dirge of Ierusalem, in those ho­ly straines of bleeding com­passion, which are recorded in his Booke of sorrowes for that people; Read that holy Booke of his with a serious heart, and think upon England, and would you not imagine, that those mi­series of the Jewes were but the type and figure of ours in this Nation; scarce a peece that he drawes to hang about that hearse, but seemes to be a fit Embleme to set forth unto us the mournefull Estate of our English. Common-wealth at this time.

Lamen. 1.1. The solitary widdow, wherewith the holy Prophet adornes the frontis­peice of that sad Poeme he hath there composed, what is it but an apt resemblance of the wretchednesse of England at this time; Deprived of the presence and comfort of her politicke Husband. The Fa­ther of this great Family being chased away from the care of his Houshold, and the poore Widdow become a prey to her owne ungracious children, of whom she may even cry out as once God of Israel, by the Pro­phet, Isa. 1.2. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. When we read there of a great [Page 58]Princesse among the Nations. Do we not see the splendour of our former condition, whilst the light of the Lords counte­nance shined upon us, and we were the envy and glory of other people? And when wee cast our eye upon that Prin­cesse reduced unto servitude, and become tributarie, doe wee not behold the very Image of that sad exchange of perpetuall and uncomfortable slavery, which we have made for our former freedome, whilst wee feele Excise, Free-quarter, a fifth and twentieth part, and di­vers other greedy devourers, like so many harpies eating up the flesh, and picking the ve­ry bores of the poore people, [Page 59]whilst wee can finde no reliefe for the present? The Lawes whereby our Liberties should be secured and preserved being trampled under foot, notwith­standing all the Protestations and Covenants wherein men have bound themselves to pre­serve both the Nurse and the Child, both the Lawes of the Kingdome, and the Liberties of the Subject, and almost as little hope appearing of any ease or remedy for the future.

Vers. 2. There we find Ieru­salem weeping sore in the night, when others eyes are safe and a [...] rest within their Canopies. Here were restlesse fountaines of sorrow, but we cannot find any such streames flowing a­mongst [Page 60]us for the most part; and we have cause to weepe the more because we weepe so lit­tle: whilst these wells are dry, we want their water to quench the rage of that devouring flame which is about our eares.

But though we weepe not as she did, we are as comfort lesse as she was; may I not com­plaine for England, as well as he for Ierusalem? That amongst all her lovers she hath none to com­fort her, all her friends (they at least that pretended to be her greatest, her only friends) have dealt treacherously with her. All their faire promises of safety, and Honour, and Riches, and Libertie, and of Religion it selfe, have proved but Golden [Page 61]shadowes, specious baites with bearded hookes hidden in the midst of them: The faire baits are all swallowed up in the con­fusion that is still more and more upon us, and the hooke is only left sticking in our bo­wels.

Vers. 3. The Lamenter of Israel complaines, That Iudah was gone into captivitie; and that she was sent to dwell among the heathen, and found no rest: And we may truly complaine, That Captivity is come unto us, and hath overtaken us in our owne Land, and that the heathen dwell among us; even heathen Chri­stians, which are the worst hea­thens in the world: How ma­ny are there amongst us that [Page 62]are heathens in judgement [...] That hold and professe the very Doctrines of the heathens? That have denied the Lord that bought them? That have accoun­ted the preaching of the Gospell foolishnesse? That have set up the Dagon of their corrupt and carnall reason, in opposition to the holy Arke of God? Ca­sting downe the glorious and sacred Truths of Christianity tevealed from heaven, clearly recorded in the holy Booke of God, and confirmed by the abundant Testimony of God himselfe, in many wonderfull and holy miracles; and deli­vered unto us from the best and soundest antiquity, even the ho­ly Doctrines of the Divinity of [Page 63]the Son of God, and of the holy Ghost: The very fundamentall Points upon which all the building of Christianity doth depend, and is supporred, and in the contradiction whereof, that whole frame falls to the ground. Casting downe (I say) these Sacred and awfull Truths to set up the Idols of their de­praved ratiocinations in the place thereof.

And how many more hea­thens in practice are there a­mongst us? yea, even Atheists that are worse than heathens, the whole course of whose lives is a current Lecture of A­theisme; every Action where­of deth as it were speake blas­phemy, and saies, there is no [Page 64]God; no Supreame Power that governeth & ruleth the world; none to punish Injustice, De­ceite, Rebellion, Oppression, Uncleannesse, nor any wicked­nesse; none to call men to ac­count for their actions: And what rest can poore Christians take in such miscreant Society?

The persecuters of Iudah over­too [...]e her between the straites: so mournes the holy Prophet for that Nation: That is to say, they got such power over her, such advantage against her, that there was no way left for esca­ping: like as when an enemy overtaketh a man in the pur­suit of vengeance in a narrow place, where there is no space to avoid or flye from the stroke [Page 65]of his fury. Put but England for Iudah, and the Persecutors, and the straites are at home with us: They whose mouthes were full heretofore of the cla­mours against persecution; for little else perhaps, but because they were not flattered, & pro­moted, for their factious and se­ditious practises; have now san­ctified the name and Office of Persecutors, whilst they thinke they doe God service, to starve their brethren and fellow-subjects. I feare our Saviours Prayer will not serve their turne; Father forgive them, for they know not what they doe. But yet I wish we may all joine to offer up Saint Stephens Pray­er for them; Lord lay not this [Page 66]sinne to their charge: And for our selves; Lord lay not this charge for ever upon our sinnes, but rid us from them that perse­cute us, and deliver us: Yea, let us from our hearts pray as the Church of England hath taught us, if we may have leave of an Ordinance and Directory: That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecuters and slan­derers, and to turne their hearts.

We beseech thee to heare us good Lord.

Varse 4. Did the wayer of Si­on mourne, being left desolate as it were, for want of the cheerfull society of passengers to the House of God: Where­with they were wont to be cheered up and beautified. Be­cause [Page 67]none came to the solemne Feasts, which were laid downe as it were in the time of the captivity? And doe not we see the like sadnesse and mourning solitarinesse in the wayes of our Sions, which lead unto the holy Mountaines and Sanctu­aries of the Lord, whilest the solemne Feasts, and Memorials of the Holy Saints of God, are abolished, which were so many Schooles of Holinesse unto the people; calling to their minds the excellencies of the Graces of those eminent and resplen­dent Lights of Piety for their imitation: and the Memorials of the most glorious mercies of the Lord are rejected, even of the Incarnation, the Nativity, [Page 68]the Passion, the Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ Je­sus, and of the Glorious Fruite of all: The sending of the Holy-Ghost, with so many Treasures of divine Graces and mercies to the enriching of the Church, which were of such excellent use; not only to stir up the people unto thankful­nesse, or to revive the comfor­table sense of Gods mercies in their hearts, whilest they were so often, and in such solemne manner presented unto their apprehensions by the Church: but were also so many blessed opportunities gained to draw the people together unto the solemne Exercise of Religion toward God, and of Christian [Page 69]Love and Charitie to one ano­ther; so many dayes of mercy to the poore beasts, and toyling servants. And were of excel­lent use, for the instilling and preserving of the Fundamental Doctrine of Christianitie in the hearts of the people: Which served in stead of an easie Catechisme unto the sim­pler sort; whilest if they were but wise enough to know what day went over their heads, they could not be utterly ignorant of the great Mysteries of Sal­vation. An use of solemne dayes which God himselfe or­dained, partly for that very pur­pose in the Church of the Jewes; See Exod. 12.26, 27. and so warranted sufficiently [Page 70]unto us. And which indeed is of great necessitie, in regard of the great ignorance and inep­titude that is in many, for the apprehension of the profound mysteries of Christianitie: Which being so great stran­gers unto Nature, and their naturall apprehensions, would not so easily have been enter­tained by them, but that they were by this Ordinance of the yearly solemnities of the Church, made familiar unto them by custome, which being as it were another nature, faci­litated by use the admission of that high and misterious know­ledge unto their soules: These, these alas are all now cast away, as if the Church could not be [Page 71]reformed, unlesse Christ Jesus and his glorious mercies were forgotten amongst us. I deny not indeed but those daid [...] were much abused by some unto loosenesse and licentious Li­berty; But then it had beene true Reformation to have sought the remedy of those miscariages, and to have redu­ced those daies unto their pro­per and holy use, by making more strict rules for the dire­ction and restraining of men unto the right observation of them, and so to have retained them to the honour of God, and edification of his people, in the due exercise of the workes of Piety towards God, charity and love one to another, and of [Page 72]mercy and release to our poore Beasts and Servants. But alas, if the matter be rightly examined, I doubt we may find that the Workes of Piety, Mercy, and charity are only cast away, and the licentiousnesse and lawlesse liberty of those daies is still re­tained, at least that there is no such watch set against the latter, as against the former. And I can hardly forbeare to tell you, that it is the right method of the de­vils Reformation, to cast away the good and retaine the evill. They winnow with Sathans Sieve that shake out the good Gorne, and retaine the Chaffe and offall; so hee would have winnowed S. Peter no doubt; & so some have now winnowed the [Page 73]flower of our Church. This whirlewind-Reformation of ours, hath even blowne a great deale of the Wheate from us, by casting out the holy Ordi­nances of God, the beauty and Order of his Service, together with the Government of the Church, and instead thereof hath left us I know not how many great heapes of Chaffe, of Corruptions, Confusions, and Depravations amongst us, which are ground and mini­stred unto the poore deceived people, who whilst they expect Bread to nourish them, finde Huskes to choake and destroy them. I confesse heretofore there was some Chaffe in our heapes which did deserve a [Page 74]winnowing, but with a more moderate wind. But we had better have eaten the Wheate and the Chaffe together, then to have had the Wheate taken from us, and so much Chaffe left us in the stead of it.

I should be too voluminous in this sad Subject, should I draw out the Paralells of our Evils and those of the Jewes. Through the whole Booke of the Prophets Lamentations, should I shew you every face of our miseries, in those waters of Marah, or bitternesse; Those flouds of affliction wherewith they were overwhelmed.

I might tell you of the Ex­altation of the Adversaries of each Church. The prosperity [Page 75]of their Enemies, Ver. 5. But they themselves will no doubt bee your remembrancers of that.

Of the Princes of our Nati­on as well as of theirs; yea, the King himselfe (as we all know) amongst the rest become like harts, poore chased Harts, hun­ted up and downe by the bloud-hounds of our times, like Harts that finde no pasture, and gone without strength before the pur­suer, Vers. 6.

I might present this poore Church neglected in her Affli­ctions, bemoaning her selfe un­to you because none of you will bemoane her; In the sad Dia­lect of Ierusalem, there, ver. 12. Is it nothing unto you all yee that [Page 76]passe by? Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger, &c. And set her before you like poore forsaken Sion, sprea­ding forth her hands, whilst there is none to comfort her. ver. 17.

I could tell you (but what need I?) of the Sword that hath been bereaving abroad, and of the Plague or death that hath been destroying at home. v. 20.

Chap. 2. ver. 1. &c. The cloud of Gods Anger wherewith Sion was vailed. The casting downe of the beauty of Israel from heaven unto the earth: That is, from a state of happinesse and glory, to a state of misery and con­tempt. The Lords forgetting of [Page 77]his footstool; his swallowing up of the Habitations of Iacob; the throwing downe of the strong holds of the daughter of Iudah; the polluting of the Kingdome and the Princes thereof; treading them as it were in the mire in his fury. The cutting off the horne: That is, taking away the strength and glory of Israel. The drawing back of his right hand from before the Enemy; That is, the with­drawing of his protection and defence, and his giving of them over to the fury of the Adver­sary. The burning flame, and the bent bow. The powring out of fury, like a streame or floud of fire. The taking away of his Tabernacle as it were of a Garden; That is, either the pulling down [Page 78]of the Church of Israel, or the removing of the gracious pre­sence of the Lord, whereby he dwelt amongst them in his mercies and graces, in the light of his Truth, and the comforts of his Ordinances. These, and many other like these, are all but so many emphaticall ex­pressions of the violence and fury of Gods anger against that nation in those times, and may serve for the same purpose a­mongst us in these sad daies of ours. As if the Prophet had therein set us a Copy to write after, our present miseries be­ing as it were a Translation of a great part of that sad origi­nall Text, wherein God was pleased to read humiliation un­to [Page 79]to them, as our Language in the Lamentations thereof is a Translation of theirs.

But when we read of the de­stroying of the places of assembly, and the forgetting of the solemne feasts and Sabbaths again in Sion: (for that it seemes was an evill that the Prophet would not dismisse with a single Lamen­tation, and of the despising of the King and the Priest:) Those great Symptomes of the Anger of the Almighty, when both Government and Ministry: The two great Cisternes where­by God usually conveyes the streames of mercy from that unexhaustible fountaine that is in him, in all manner both of Temporall and Spirituall bles­sings [Page 80]unto a people; when both these (I say) are demolished and trampled on, when we read of these, and of these three toge­ther, me thinkes, we may see there the very lively Counte­nance of the sad and calami­tous estate of our owne Nation at this present; as if the Pro­phet had then beene looking through the prospective of his Spirit, upon England in this very time and condition it is now in, whose paralell mise­ries may seem to be a sad Com­mentary & Exposition of those sad expressions of Ieremiah: our Glosse and his Text come so close one to another in every particular there mentioned, that it needs no more but bare [Page 81]and ordinary observation to understand the compliances.

And let all that have any eyes yet left amongst us, judge whether wee have not a large portion, in that which follow­eth at the 14 ver. of the 2 chap. Thy Prophets have seene vaine and foolish things for thee, and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turne away thy Capti­vitie: but have seene for thee false burdens and causes of banish ment.

What dawbing hath beene amongst us with untempered morter? What sowing of pil­lowes under the Armeholes of most horrid sinners? even of Rebells, Perjured, and Sa­crilegious persons: What [Page 82]strengthening the hands of the wicked? What calling evill good, and good evill? What putting of light for darkenesse, and darkenesse for light? What exchanging of Doctrines be­tweene heaven and hell? What confounding of the Lawes of Christ and Belial? And a mul­titude of other miscarriages have been of late in the Mini­stry of the Church: What Gall could make Inke blacke or bitter enough to declame against them? But ‘motos praestat componere fluctus!’

I shall break this holy Glasse of the Prophet into no more pieces. You may at your lea­sure [Page 83]contemplate the heavy case of this poore Church and Na­tion in the sundry passages of it, and exercise your selves in the just Lamentation thereof, in those severall helpes that he there most elegantly admini­streth to teach us the art of ho­ly sorrow.

I shall come more plainely, and closely home unto you; and entreate you of this Nation to consider two things with me, very requisite for the right understanding of our miserable condition.

First, what we have been: And secondly, what we are, from whence we are fallen, and whether we are fallen.

First, Consider what you [Page 84]have been, that by the compa­rison of your lost prosperity you may the better take the measure of your incumbent misery. This is one stone or weight that both spirituall and humane Oratory makes often use of. Happinesse & calamity as opposite neighbours as they are, yet at their departure, they many times, and almost alwaies leave some Legacie behind them unto one another; so that each is advanced out of the o­thers store. Precedent calami­ties leave jewels and ornaments behind them, to beautifie the face of succedent felicity. Health is much the sweeter af­ter a fit of sickenesse; A calme season at Sea seemes a kind of [Page 85]heaven unto the tossed and wea­ried Mariner, after the blu­string and tearing assaults of tempests, the raging moun­taines and valleys of the tu­multuous billowes; A fore­going povertie and indigence, enricheth the store of every de­gree of plenty and abundance that comes after; and it is pro­bable enough, that the Celesti­all joyes and rest in heaven are the sweeter and more pleasant unto the Saints, for every por­tion of misery and bitternesse that they have tasted in the va­rious afflictions of this turbu­lent and transitory life here in this world; That of the Apo­stle may be true even in this sense amongst others: That our [Page 86]light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory; 2 Cor. 4.17. Not only in regard of the great recompence that the Lord there rewards our sufferings withall: but also in respect of the en­hancement and value that our sufferings here do bequeath as it were unto our recompence there. Thus every Crosse here, is turned into a Diadem there: The thornes of our present troubles, and tribulations, may seeme to adde sweetnesse unto the Roses of our future tran­quility which grow upon them.

And so on the contrary; A foregoing state of happinesse, [Page 87]addeth unto the burden of our subsequent adversity: Poverty is a wracke indeed unto that worldling that hath lately wal­lowed in the golden mires of his riches. That man that is borne blind, and never tasted with his eye of the sweetnesse and pleasantnesse of the Sunne beames, doth not find neere so much discontent in his naturall darkenesse, as he that hath late­ly enjoyed the various delights of the seeing eye. Miserum est fuisse foelicem; It is a wretched thing to have once been happy. Fuimus Troes, wee were once Trojans, is a Motto of a mourn­full importance; Therefore we find it the Eloquence of the Psalmists sorrow, Psalm. 42.4. [Page 88]Lamenting the sad losse of the comfortable Society of Gods people in the divine worship, by reason of some affliction that had befallen either him­selfe or the Church: To ag­gravate that dammage upon his owne disconsolate Spirit by the memory of the former joyfull freedome thereof which he enjoyed: When I remember these things, saith he, I poure out my soule by me selfe; why so? Why, because it had not al­waies been so with him: For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them unto the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holyday. Q. D. It grieves mee much the more to thinke what [Page 89]felicity I have lost: that I have been heretofore in a better con­dition, when I enjoyed the free­dome and comfort 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 [Page 90]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. [Page 91]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 [Page 92](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 [Page 93]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 [Page 94]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 [Page 95]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 [Page 96]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 [Page 97]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 [Page 98]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 [Page 99]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 [Page 100]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 with those wicked and seditious designes that the de­vill and their carnall interests commend unto them for the ruine of the publike; one while corrupting them by false inter­pretations, another while de­praving them with impious additions of their owne preten­ded visions and revelations, ei­ther fained by themselves, or [Page 101]inspired into them by the spi­rit of errour, God having gi­ven them up to strong delusi­ons, that they should beleeve a lye, because they have not re­ceived the love of Truth that they might be saved. Yea least there should be left any impe­diment to crosse them in their waies, and to hinder the spread­ing of their hellish errours, it is thought there are some that have taken the boldnesse, to pull the Scriptures downe from the Throne of excellency and infal­libility wherein God hath pla­ced them, as being the dictates of his owne infallible Spirit, and to equall with them, or preferre before them, their owne wicked fancies, and the [Page 102]very witchcrafts of Sathan.

Hence it is come to passe a­mongst us, that the light of true Christian knowledge is so eclipsed amongst us, like the Sun in caudâ draconis in the Dra­gons taile, as the Astronomers speake; for what else are these wicked Sophisters, these bold disturbers of the Church of God, than the taile as it were of the great red Dragon sweeping downe the starres of heaven, the true and genuine lights of the Church, and of Divine knowledge.

Hence it is that humane in­terests have gotten so much the start of sincere piety, and are become so impudent as to take upon them to give rules unto [Page 103]the Spirit, to silence the preach­ing of he pure Word of God, to build sanctuaries and asy­lum's unto the grossest sinnes, whereby they are become incu­rable Gangrenes and noli me tangeries in the ulcered body of this Church and state.

Hence it is that there are so many supersedeases, counter­mands, and inhibitions served upon the Scripture from the Chancery of the corrupt judg­ments, or rather affections of wicked politicians, to reverse or silence the Edicts & decrees of the most high God, to em­bezill and invalidate the Re­cords of heaven, making them subordinate to the impious and unsanctified ordinances of men, [Page 104]and allowing the sacred and un­changeable Oracles of the Al­mighty to be of no force any farther than they can be wre­sted to a seeming and forced compliance with those wicked principles and ends that world­ly minded men have entertain­ed and proposed for the con­summating of that worke of ruine and confusion that they have undertaken; which must be asserted and made good with a non obstante, to all that the spi­rit of God hath declared to the contrary, whereby they seem to deale in some sort with Christ Jesus as with his substitute, un­der the colours and faire pro­mises to render him glorious, not only attempting to make [Page 105]void the authority of his Pro­pheticall office, by disallowing his directions to be an infalli­ble and all-sufficient guide in­to all truth, but also to depose him from the Throne of his Royalty by repealing and abo­lishing the force of his divine Lawes, which he hath made for the rule and government of his people, whensoever they lye opposite to their seditious and pernitious judgements; as if no act were high enough to shew the absolutenesse of that supremacie which they chal­lenge unto themselves, unlesse the Precepts of God, as well as the Lawes of men, be made the Pavement for them to trample on at their pleasure, in the [Page 106]passes and repasses that they make for the carrying on of the bold adventures of their awlesse and Lawlesse tyranny.

Would you not thinke them the heires, if not the Ghosts of that inso lent Romane Senate in the time of Tiberius? And that as they refused to admit of our Saviour for God, because he was consecrited a God before he was so decrecd and approved by the Se­nate: so these had determined to reject him from being God, because he was not deified by their ordinance, and received not has Godhead from them.

What is it else for them to take upon them as they do, to set up their owne rules in op­postion to the cleare dictates [Page 107]of his Law and Gospell?

The Word of God teacheth us to celebrate the memorialls of the great blessings of God, and to solemnize his praise for them in the Congregations of his people. Psal. 103.1, &c. Psalm. 42.4.

They teach men to abolish the memorials of the great bles­sings of Salvation wrought for us by Christ, and forbid by their command, and hinder by force, the Ministers of God from assisting the People therein.

Psal. 2. Psal. 95. The Law of God teacheth us to serve the Lord with feare, and to reioyce [Page 108]unto him with trembling; to bow downe and kneele before the Lord our maker.

They teach men, or at least allow them, to abolish outward reverened from the Divine ser­vice.

6. Com. The Law of God teacheth us that we shall do no murder.

They teach men, and engage them to murder their Brethren, and to destroy the lives of those that are innocent for the com­passing of their wicked purpo­ses, and to make good the usur­pation of their unjust power and greatnesse.

8. Com. The Law of God [Page 109]teacheth us that we shall not steale.

They justifie the robbing and plundering of their Bre­thren, the good and peaceable Subjects, and even the King Himselfe, without any colour of Law or conscience, and without so much as allowing many of them a hearing.

The Law of God teacheth us that we must be mercifull as our Father which is in heaven is mer­cifull.

They teach men to be cruell and bloudy, as their father in hell is cruel & bloudy, who was a murderer from the begining.

9. Com. The Law of God tea­cheth [Page 110]us that we must not beare false witnes against our neigh­bour.

But now men are encouraged, and it is thought suborned too, to beare false witnesse a­gainst their Brethren, that they may get Naboths Vineyard into their possession.

1 Cor. 9.13, 14. The Law of God teacheth us, that the Ministers of the Gospell ought to live of the Gospell, as they that waited at the Altar were partakers with the Alear.

But now men are taught to deprive the Ministers of God of their lawfull supportance and livelihood, neither allow­ing them to enjoy their porti­ons, [Page 111]nor to exercise their cal­lings.

The Law of God forbids men under the danger of dam­nation, to doe evill that good may come.

These teach men to do ma­nifest evils under the pretence of holy purposes, but indeed for the procurement of greater evils, making one wickednesse the scale to get up to another.

Acts 23.5. The Law of God tells us that wee must not speake evill of the Ruler of the people.

They do not only speak evill of him themselves, but counte­nance [Page 112]the same, & teach others to do so.

1 Pet. 4. 2 Pet. 13.14. The Law of God teachethus that me must submit to the King as Su­preame, and to Governors as unto those that are sent of him.

They teach the people to despise and disobey the King, whom they are sworne to ac­knowledge as their onely su­pream Governour.

Rom. 13. The Law of God teacheth us that we must not re­sist the higher powers, and shews us that they that do so shall re­ceive to themselves damnation.

They set up resistance and Rebellion for a vertue: and [Page 113]slander that holy Law with the opprobrious title of Malignan­cy, wherewith this brand those that submit thereunto.

Mat. 26.52. The Law of Christ is, that whosoever takes the Sword against the power of the Magistrate shall perish by the Sword.

But they teach men (and practice it themselves) to take the Sword, and ravish it from the supreame power, and to use it not only without him, but against him, to maintaine their wicked Doctrines, their Schis­maticall designes, and unjust oppressions, and to beate down both truth and righteousnesse.

The Law of God tels us in the judgement of David, that men ought to figh [...] defence of the Kings Person, insomuch that David in 1 Sam. 26.16. tells Abner, and binds it with an oath, That he was worthy to dye because he had not kept the Lords annointed, though so wicked: Tyrant as was Saul. And our blessed Saviour the Sonne of David tells Pylate, Iohn 18.36. That if his Kingdome had been of this world, then his Servants would have fought, that he should not have beene delivered to the Iewes.

But they teach men not only to hold the contrary, but bind them by wicked oathes never to interest themselves, nor to [Page 115]assist any in the defence of the King, and punish those that have followed this rule of the Scripture, with imprisonment, death, and confiscation of goods.

The Word of God teacheth us to performe our oaths, and to keep the Kings commandement, and that in regard of the oath of God, and designed a heavy judg­ment unto Zedekiah for break­ing the oath wherewith he had sworne unto Nebuchadnezzar.

But they teach and practice not only the breaking of the sa­cred oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance, but doe also com­pell men to sweare down those oaths, and to vow perjury [Page 116]unto Sathan by the name of the great and holy God, making it the instrument of wickednesse, and using it for a seale to con­firm their obligations unto the Prince of disobedience.

The Word of God teacheth people to study to be quiet, and to do their owne businesse.

They teach them to forsake the businesse, to raise tumults and disturbances in the Church and State.

The Law of God commands the Ministers of the Gospell to preach the Gospell.

They forbid men to preach the Gospell, unlesse they will countenance their seditious practices.

The Word of God teacheth that men should be allowed and approved, and ordained by impo­sition of hands, that are to un­dertake the Ministery in the Church.

But now —alas! the Priests of Ieroboam, of the meanest of the people intrude into the exer­cise of the Sacred Function in the Church, without any al­lowance from just authority, or competent furniture of solid knowledge.

And what is all this, and much more of the like, but to say of Christ, Nolumus hunc regnare super nos, we will not have this man raigne over us? The symplicity of the Gospell [Page 118]is of too low a pitch to sort with the deep plots & wise con­trivements of our politicke braines; it is much too plaine to serve the turne of those great designs which we have in hand. Good God vindicate the Glory and Authority of thy truth. But I must hasten; The Judge­ment of God me thinkes is ri­ding so post upon us, that I am afraid it will prevent my ad­monition, it will scarce give me leave to pursue my purpo­sed intention.

My meditations are even overwhelmed with the flouds and deluges of those various ca­lamities that have broken forth upon us in this wretched Nati­on; we may justly crie out of [Page 119]them in the voice of the Psal­mist, The flouds are risen O Lord, the flouds are risen, the flouds have lift up their voice, the waves of the Sea are mighty and rage horribly; all our comfort is, that the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier; and as the same Psal­mist telleth us in another place, [...] Psal. 29.10. The Lord sitteth upon the floud or deluge, to rule and moderate it for the good of his people and his owne glory, and the Lord remaineth a King for ever; were it not for this, we could have no hope to escape the swallow of those devouring surges that do assault us. Do but open your eyes and looke about you, and you may [Page 120]see your selves encompassed with deepe and threatning wa­ters on every side, miscarriages in the manner and mannage of the work of instruction, whilst the people and the Ministers both joyne together to seduce one another; The one kindling the wasting flames of seditious Factions & corrupt Doctrines, clawing the itch of scabbed and putrified eares, and the other blowing those fires, and encou­raging those evill performan­ces in their Teachers, by their applauses, and bribing the poi­sonous tongues of those that love the reward of unrighteous­nesse, keeping up the market and commerce of destruction betwixt them: The one buying, [Page 121]and the other selling wicked deceits, and spirituall impo­stures, and the mutuall ruine of one another and the Truth; So that as Learned Graser spea­keth, Neque facile dici potest utra pars alteram fortius ducat aut ducatur; It is hard to deter­mine whether the people be more guilty of corrupting the Ministers by their acclamations and bribery, or the Ministers of the deceiving of the peole by their pernitious and sophisticated Doctrines.

And of those that are not for this evill Traffique; yet there are too many (as the evill ef­fect thereof seemes to demon­strate) that for want of the right gage of Christian prudence to steere and regulate their un­guided [Page 122] zeale, which they have indeed toward God, but not ac­cording to knowledge; runne from one errour into another, and sometimes perhaps leape out of the pan into the fire; that I say not out of Gods blessing into the warme sun; that like the foolish horse that hath no understand­ing, blench into the pit to flie from the fluttering of a bird in the hedge, who may well be compared with Dionysius Alex­andrinus, unto an unskilfull Gardiner, or dresser of an Or­chard, who when he findes a crooked plant, instead of strai­tening it, bends it as much cleane on the other side; or un­to some unexperienced Physi­tians, who to cure the patient of [Page 123]an Ague, or some cold disease, by over-strong Physick, beget­teth a feaver in the stead of it, and doth not somuch remedy as change the malady. They are very much for Reformation, and it is not to be denyed but they light upon some things that are fit for animadversions, but whilst they pull up the teares they plucke up the wheate with them. They abhominate super­stition, and therein they do well, but in the overmuch abandon­ing that, they fall into the op­posite mischiefe, and run into profanesse. They are much (they say) for the clea­ring of the Truth, for the purity of Worship, for the po­wer of Godlines (a name that [Page 124]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 [Page 125]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 [Page 126]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 [Page 127]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 [Page 128]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 [Page 129]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, [Page 130]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 [Page 131]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 [Page 132]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 [Page 133]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 [Page 134]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 deplora­ble state of the Church of God, which was lamented by Saint Basil, as an evill of too much growth in those times, seemes to have acquired a more perfect malignity amongst us. [...] [Page 135] Neque Sacrae jam literae tantum valent, ut intercessio harū admit­tatur: Neque tradita ab Apostolis controversias horū inter ipsos di­judicare possunt, unus est inimi­citiae terminus, ea loqui quae de­lectationem habeant, & inimici­tiarū satis praeclara causa, non con­venire sententiae: firmior autem reperitur ad seditionis secietatem omni conjuratione, sola errati si­militudo. It needs no other tran­slation, then the sad and perni­cious practice of our time and Nation, doth dayly make of it, wherein we are so farre engaged by the evill spirit of contradiction, in the main­tenance of quarrells against one another, that we may pre­serve the credit of our sides, [Page 136]our owne judgements and inte­rests, and our malice and un­charitable dispositions against others. That the holy Scriptures are not allowed to be of such force as to be admitted for inter­cessours or arbitratours betwixt us: Nor do we suffer our contro­versies to be decided by those things which have been delivered unto us from the Apostles, no end of our strifes but to sacrifice the Truth unto the pleasures of those that oppose it, whilst that doth not please us which is true, but that only is allowed to be true which pleaseth us. And it is held for a laudable and specious cause of enmity, if any man will not subscribe unto our sentence. And compliance in the [Page 137]same errour, is become a greater security to associate men in the contrivance and practise of sediti­on, than any conjuration or con­spiracy whatsoever. How many controversies had been preven­ted, & how many more had bin long since ended amongst us, could we but have bin brought on all sides to a faire and sin­cere compromise to stand to the award of the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures, and sound reason agreeable to the Scriptures, and not to have re­served an appeale from thence (in our hearts and judgments at least) unto the usurping umpi­rage of this spirit of partiali­ty and opposition? How had the names of Papists, and Prote­stants, [Page 138]and Puritans, of Luthe­rans, and Calvinists, and those new make-bates of Roundheads, & Cavalieres, & Malignants bin either long ago forgotten, or else never knowne amongst us, were it not for this humour of siding and contradiction against one another? I speake it from my heart, and not without griefe to thinke of it, and I wish it might be well considered by all others. I do not finde when I looke upon the state of the quarrels that are amongst us, that they are held up neere so much by any difficulty or want of cleerenesse, either in the rules of Scripture and reason which concerne them, or want of light in mens judgements to [Page 139]apprehend what they declare therein, as by that partiality of heart which men beare either to themselves, or some whom they adhere to, and by the pre­judice and opposition against others, whom they are resolved to contend with be it right or wrong, whereby they have en­slaved their owne soules unto errour, contention being their Jaylor; whilst men are not so much contentious because they erre, as they do erre because they are contentious. So true is that which Charron hath in his booke of wisdome; Chacun prend plaisir de se tromper; Every man makes it his sport to deceive himselfe. And yet they are not satisfied with this unlesse they [Page 140]may deceave others too, and play the decoies of their Master to draw others into his net with them.

Hence it is, that there are daily amongst us such tumultu­ous and irrationall crying down of most cleare and evident Truths, without so much as allowing them a faire tryall, or a liberty to speake for them­selves.

Hence it is that there is such headlong condemnation of righteous Doctrines, and pra­ctices, with no better arguments than such as the Jewes used a­gainst our Saviour before Py­late. If any part of Christian Doctrine or duty seemes to lye opposite unto humour, and [Page 141]those evill ends which men have proposed to themselves, then presently the cry is, Crucifige, Crucifige, crucifie it, crucifie it, and if any aske why? and what evill that Truth hath done? They have no more to say many times than they had than against Christ, Iohn 18. who when Py­late asked them for their accu­sation, instead of objecting any crime against him, cry out, If he were not a Malefactor, wee would not have delivered him up unto thee; As if it were crime enough to condemne Christ Jesus himselfe, that he had the foolish people for his Adver­faries; A way of proceeding, that I feare hath left too much bloud upon the score of this [Page 142]Nation in these times: viderit populus, & viderit Pilatus; Let the people, and the Pilates both looke to it. So if the true and an­cient Doctrin of Obedience, and of Suffering and bearing the Crosse, in case of Tyranny or persecution, one of the most proper notes and tokens of the Christian Church and Profession, which is so glo­riously recorded in the bloud of so many Martyrs, come but in the way: What other cry is there with some in these daies, but Crucifige, Crucifige, Cruci­fie it, Crucifie it? They are ready to Crucifie the Crosse it selfe, and those that teach them any such foolish Doctrine as to submit to it: But then if they be asked as the Jewes were, [Page 143] Why, what evill hath that Do­ctrine or the Preachers of it done? or, What accusation bring ye against them? it is enough that they dislike them, and that they are not for their turnes.

And in like manner they deale with other advices and in­structions which are offered to them, concerning Reverence, Order, and Decency in Gods Worship, &c.

And this evill hath so far pos­sessed the Pulpits, & Presses in our times, that instead of being for what they were ordained, the great gates for the entrance of true and sincere knowledge into the Publique: They are become the marts of division and strife, the Channels and [Page 144]common gutters to convey the filthy and infectious ordures of vile contumelies and reproa­ches, not away from us, but a­mongst us, to the poysoning of the very aire of this whole Climate, and to the breeding and spreading of contagious Plagues throughout the whole Region of this Kingdome; whilst they (whose office is to instruct the people) have for­gottten the businesse of their Master, which is to be the dis­pensers of food unto his family in due season, and like that evill servant in the Gospell, Math. 24.48, 49. seeme to say in their hearts, The Lord delayeth his comming, and fall to beating of their fellow servants, thrusting [Page 145]them out of their employments and possessions, as if that terri­ble threat of the great Judge were but a meere mormo, or Bugbeare to fright children with, but they will one day find it to be true; The Lord of those servants will come in a day when they looke not for him, and in an houre that they are not ware of, and shall cut them asunder, and divide them their portion with the hipocrites, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It was a sad account that one gives of the miscarriages of this kind in his time; Invitus dico & tamen dicere coger, Ecclesia­rum cat hedras hodiè multis in locis pro rabularū causidicorumque, & hujus generis demagogorū rostris [Page 146]haberi, ex quibus ij quibus statio haec concredita est Satyrus suas in imaginatos adversarios declami­tant. I am loath to speake it, but I am compelled to speake it; That the Chaires of the Churches are in many places at this day esteemed for the Pulpits of Raylers, Cause-dri­vers, and such like side-maken amongst the people, out of which they unto whom this sta­tion is committed, declaime their Satyrs against those whom they imagine their adversaries.

To which we may adde what he complaines of afterwards Pro salubri alimento quod fami­lia Christi apponere debebant, auditorum plausum & fav [...]re [...] captant fictaeque & comp [...]sit [...] [Page 147]orationis lenocinio. ( Petrus [...], diceret) fluctuantis populi motum & pruritum ad suaslibi­dines torquent, & circum agitant. Hoc igitur boni deplorare, corri­gere autem preter Deum nemo po­terit. Instead of that wholesom nourishment which they should administer unto the houshold of Christ, they hunt after the applause and favour of their Auditors, and with the alluring dresses of their sophisticated language, or as St Peter hath it, with fained, or plaistred words, (faire in shew, but durty and filthy in substance) they turne and [...]osse the itching and move­able people at their owne lusts: this good men may, and ought to deplore, but God only can [Page 148]correct and amend, which God grant of his great mercy. That the houses of God may be no more turned into brothels by committing adultery with the soules of the people; That they that have the manage of holy workes in those places, may remember whose cause it is that they have in hand: that they are not to woe for themselves, but for the Bridegroom, which is Christ Jesus, whose servants they are, to make ready and a­dorne his Spouse (which is his Church) against the wedding; That they may not seeke to gaine the applauses of the peo­ple unto themselves, which are too often made the hire of va­nity and corrupt Doctrine, but [Page 149]to gain the soules of the people unto Christ. To conclude, that they may not preach them­selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and themselves the Churches servants for Jesus sake. And it were much to be wished, that the nursery of this evill affection in some Mini­sters were removed, by chang­ing those theatricall applauses of the people; (which if right­ly valued, are rather the accusa­tions and reproaches of the Mi­nistry, and too suspitious a symptome, that that worke is not performed with that gravi­ty and severity that it ought to be, especially in such times as these) into sighs and teares, and sobs of Godly sorrow for [Page 150]their sinnes, and into the cheer­full concurrency of the votes of the people to the petitions and praises that are offered up un­to God, But it is a signe of no healthfull constitution in the Congregations of the people, when their periodicall hummes of the Minister are lowder then the Amens of their Prayers and Thankesgivings unto God. This, and not that, is the thu [...] ­der of the Church wherein s [...]e strucke and battered in piece [...] the adversaries of the Truth [...] That would throw downe th [...] Towers of Sathan and his i [...] ­struments: Those Babels of confusion that are setting up amongst us. That being accom­panied with the lightening [...] [Page 151]a fervent devotion, would break the cloud of the displeasure of the Almighty, and make the fruitfull showers of his mercies flow downe upon us. Blessed is the people that know this joyfull sound.

And yet the faults we have spoken of might be the better borne with, were they not ac­companied with more (and those of no mean depravation) in the Ministry of the Word.

Such is the too much unworthy and effeminate pu­sillanimity, and extreame luke­warmenesse, that is found in too many in this age, who dare not reprove prosperous sins, that have betrayed the Cause of God, his Church, and his [Page 152]Annointed, for feare of the frownes of men: Such whose discretion hath devoured their devotion, that cry out, it is no time now to preach against such sinnes, because they are wicked­nesses in high places, that could talk much and earnestly against Rebellion, in an Assembly of Loyall men, in those Cities and places (whilst there were any) where Rebellion dwelt not; or in those Times when sedition was in a lower condi­tion; But in these times, and in those places, when and where those sinnes are in their power and glory, they cry it is wis­dome, and thinke it no impie­ty to hold their peace, as if a Physitian should say, he is dis­charged [Page 153]from the necessity of giving Physick, because the pa­tient is very sicke, and standeth in great need of it, forgetting that the workes of the Ministry are to be gaged not by the inte­rests of our safety, but of Gods glory, and our duty to him and his people, and that however we may please our selves with some present ease that we find upon our shoulders, yet that security will prove deare bought in the end, that we have purchased by suffering and con­niving at the spoile of Truth and Righteousnesse, and al­though this may go for pru­dence amongst men, yet it will be found Treachery & Treason in the account of God. Oh how [Page 154]have we forgotten those severe and peremptory rules of the Almighty, so earnestly exacting the discharge of our conscien­ces in this duty. See Ezek. 33.8, If thou dost not speak to warne the wicked from his way, that wic­ked man shall dye in his iniquity, but his bloud will I require at thine hand.

How have we forgotten those woes of the holy Scripture, which are threatned against fearefull hearts, and faint hands, See Revel. 21.8. See it and tremble.

Do we feare the menaces of men, and do we not feare the menaces of God? Home minat [...]r mortem, & metuis, & contrami­scis: Deus gehennam minatur & [Page 155]contemnis; Man that shall die himselfe, and perhaps before he hath done threatning, me­naceth death if thou speakest: and thou fearest and shakest: God threatneth thee with hell if thou beest silent, and thou contemnest it; and yet God can defend thee from the threatning of man, but man cannot defend thee from the threatning of God. If God be with us who can be against us? But, if God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers must stoope under him.

Oh, I beseech you consider this in time, you whom God hath honoured so highly, as to be made the Advocates of his truth, you that are the sollici­tours, and the Atournies of the [Page 156]King of Kings, Impeach these Trayterous Iniquities boldly, and faithfully: and do not be­come Traytours your selves, in becoming accessary to those horrid impieties whereby your Lord and 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, [Page 157]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 [Page 158]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 [Page 159]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 [Page 160]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 [Page 161]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 [Page 162]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 [Page 163]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? [Page 164]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, [Page 165]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, [Page 166]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 [Page 167]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, [Page 168]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 [Page 169]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 [Page 170]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 [Page 171]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 [Page 172]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 [Page 173]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 [Page 174]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, [Page 175]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 [Page 176]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 [Page 177]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 [Page 178]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 and holinesse, and dehor­tations from sinne, may be more and more encouraged and promoted amongst us: And am not at all of the opinion of those men (of which side soever they are) that cry downe prea­ching [Page 179]of the Word in that kind, as if it were the cause of more evill than good amongst a people; because too many have made a perverse and cor­rupt use thereof, to the serving of their owne or others unsan­ctified ends, & to the raising of factious and seditious motions in the Body of the Church and State,) a mischiefe that lyes full sore upon our shoulders at this very time,) and yet of no such force as to give us a war­rant to desire the abolition thereof from amongst us. For this were to fall into the errour of the Papists, who upon the like pretence have locked up the Scriptures in unknowne tongues from the people, and [Page 180]prohibited them the liberty of the reading of them; because as it is too true (though not of all those upon whom the Church of Rome would fixe the charge thereof) That many through presumptuous ignorance, and resting too much upon their owne judgements, and despising those guides which God hath appointed for their help to lead them on safely, and keep them from drowning in those depths: And perhaps many more through wilfull perverse­nesse, have drawne poyson from that hony, and by an ill compo­sition, and worse application of those excellent drugges that are there laid up and ordained by God for the health of our [Page 181]soules, have procured diseases, and death both unto themselves and others. This were to be as unjust and unreasonable as some others (that walke under a better title) in these times, that can find no other way of Refor­mation, than like that foolish Vine-dresser, that cut up the Vines by the roots in stead of pruning them; to pull up the Trees of Government in Church and State, Root and Branch, because some boughes or spriggs thereof were unfruit­full or corrupted. I know in­temperance is a great evill, and hath proved very pernicious, both unto the bodies and soules of men: And yet if any should advise the Husbandman not to [Page 182]sow his ground, or the houshol­der not to provide meat and drinke for his family, or any other, absolutely to forgoe the use of those creatures for feare of abusing them; It would be a hard matter to tell which were the wiser, the giver or the taker of such counsell. Many Doctors perhaps through carelesnesse or ignorance be­come the greatest diseases of their Patients: And naturall bodies as well as politicke prove oftentimes to be sicker of their Physicians than of their mala­dies: And yet he were no good Physician, that would perswade men to cure themselves by abo­lishing the use of the Physician & of medicine. It is the expresse [Page 183]command of the Spirit of God, and no pretences of humane wisedome must dissolve the force of it: Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Yea there is not only a bare com­mand, but a severe charge and adjuration applyed to Timothy by the Apostle to that purpose: I charge thee before God (saith he) and the Lord Iesus Christ, who shall judge the quicke and dead at his appearing and his Kingdome. Preach the Word, &c. And dare any say that this was for Timo­thy only, and not for all those that are called to the like office in the Church? As well they may goe about to make void [Page 184]the Churches interest in the Gospell of St Luke, because it was dedicated to Theophilus; or deforce the Universall Au­thority of the Epistles of Saint Paul, because the first was writ­ten to the Romans, the second & third to the Corinthians, &c. As if the People of England were not bound to submit to the King as Supreame, because Eng­land is not in the Title of that Epistle of St Peter, where this Precept is Recorded, but that it is directed to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Ga­latia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bi­thinia; nay, there is no respect of persons with God. Wheresoever any meet in their callings, they must meet in duties as they do [Page 185]meet in obligations. Therefore I say againe, I cannot, I dare not be of their opinion, that would upon any pretences pull downe the Pulpits, or strike them dumbe to prevent mis­chiefes; and whilst God shall allow me liberty, and strength, and ability of performance, I shall alwaies hold it my duty to be exercised in that worke, and so much my duty, that I shall take no humane prohibi­tions to bee my discharge, though Kings, or Parliaments, or both joyne together therein. And I wish there had been, and were still more of my mind in this, remembring that answer that the Apostles returned un­to the inhibition of the Rulers [Page 186]of the Jewes, that forbad them to speake at all, or teach in the name of Iesus, which I am resol­ved shal ferve my turne against any of the like sort. Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye. Act. 4.19. And yet though I have made all this digression to satisfie my Rea­der of the uprightnesse of my judgement and desires in this particular, I am not afraid to professe, that if the case were so, that wee must needs part with one of them, it were bet­ter and safer for a Church to want any other kind of instru­ction, than to be deprived of the use of Catechisme, which containeth the Principles of all [Page 187]Christian Doctrine; for where this is well managed, there can nothing be wanting in matter of knowledge that is absolutely necessary to salvation; so that this alone, where no more is to be had, might serve the turne to steere us unto heaven; and besides he that hath the princi­ples well setled, cannot but be made master thereby of many of the conclusions that flow from them. These Fountaines will runne and produce their streames: These seeds will grow and bring forth their flowers and their fruits: though they have no other manure than our owne private meditations. But where principles are not set­led, the conclusions that are [Page 188]taught without them are nei­ther like to be soundly appre­hended, nor firmely embraced, where the fountaines are not opened, whatsoever showers may fall, or whatsoever store of water may be cast in, it will hardly produce a constant cur­rent of divine knowledge, and Christian practice in the soule; where the Plant wants Root, it will have no lasting growth or fruit. Nay, I will venture, one step farther, and I am rea­dy to wish, that we knew no more than Catechisme, than the meere necessary Principles, so that all the Christian name were united in this, rather than for want of holding this Head, for want of sticking to this [Page 189]Foundation, there should be so many quarrells and conten­tions amongst us as there are, to the so great scandall and re­proach of Christianity. Pardon me if I forget the bounds of my discourse, so farre as not to forbeare when I have been in contemplation of these disea­ses, to adde some hearty, though poore consultations about their remedies.

Had I the art of mournefull Rhetoricke I might anatomize and dissect many more mem­bers of this sad body of our de­solations in matter of Religi­on; Consider I beseech you, how the holy Sacraments those great Seales of the King of Kings are defaced, abused, and [Page 190]rejected from amongst us. How the Sacrament of Baptisme is denied by some unto the Chil­dren of Christians, who like presumptuous Disciples take upon them without commissi­on, to rebuke those that bring these little ones unto Christ in that or­dinance; and that after the pro­mulgation of that mercifull (permittite) of Christ Jesus: Suf­fer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for to such belongeth the Kingdome of God.

How the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is even utterly left off and cast away as a thing un­necessary or rather pernitious, in too too many places of this Land. The frequent use where­of, as it was an excellent Foun­taine [Page 191]of comfort to distressed soules that hunger and thirst after spirituall refreshings in Christ Jesus, and a powerfull exacter of selfe examination, than which there is scarce any thing more conducing to the restraining of the liberty of sin, or the keeping up and re­enforcing of decaying duties in us, so the neglect thereof (un­der what pretences soever of strictnesse it is brought in by those Pharisaicall Spirits that have taken the Chaire in times, who shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men, and nei­ther go in themselves, nor suffer those that are entering to goe in. Math. 23.13.) yet if the evill effects of it be but well obser­ved, [Page 192]and rightly weighed, will be found (I doubt) to be one of the maine Stratagems of Sathan to widen the gate, and enlarge the way that leadeth to destruction and damnation, and to keepe men from being disturbed or awaked from their sinfull cour­ses. I cannot forbeare mee thinkes to put one question here, and wish all those that are concerned in it, to make a true and unfained answer to their own consciences, for they shall whether they will or no one day unto God, whether the aboli­tion of this Sacrament under the pretence of strictnesse, be not joyfully made use of by too many to serve their turnes, who are entred and engaged in­to [Page 193]those known sinfull courses; those bloudy, unjust, and sediti­ous designes, which they know too well if persisted in, (and I feare they are too far gone to returne) must needs make this holy Sacrament unto them, no­thing but the Seale of their owne damnation. But they will find the deeds betweene Sathan and them authenticall enough, without that Seale, and it will afford them no such advantage as they do perhaps dreame of; for he that refuseth the Sacra­ment because he will be unwor­thy of it, is in little better con­dition, than he that receives it unworthily: At least I am sure, if the latter crucifies Christ, the former sels him, and makes him [Page 194]the price of his sinfull courses, since he will rather reject Com­munion with Christ, than with his sinnes, and than I see not but both are guilty of the body and bloud of Christ, unlesse whilst we condemne him that abuseth the Sacrament, we will absolve him that despiseth it, or give an acquittance unto one that gi­veth up Christ Iesus, that the se­ditious murderer Barrab as may be delivered.

Ponder this well, and how to the so great an abolition of the holy Communion is added (as another underminer of Re­ligion) the casting out and ex­communicating of Excommuni­cation it self out of this Church, whereby it is come to passe that [Page 195]no way is left us to purge out the evill leaven from the Congre­gations of the Almighty; so that the Incestuous Corinthians, and the Sacrilegious Achans, the Rebellious Korahs, with their Da­thans, and Abirams, and the rest of the Rabble of Adulterers, Murderers, Blasphemers, &c. doe not only appeare freely, but may take upon them with­out interruption, to rule po­werfully in the Assemblies; and how can that body thinke you continue in life or health, that is neither allowed to re­ceive things that are wholesome, nor to purge out things that are noxious and hurtfull, the two great meanes of preservation, both in the body Naturall and [Page 196]Ecclesiasticall. All our Con­gregations are become sicke of an Iliaca passio as it were, or a miserere mei, they purge not at all for the most part, or else at the wrong end, and in the wrong matter: But I pray God this and other miscarriages, make not Christ Excommuni­cate the whole Land.

What shall I say? Or, where shall I end? Imagine what you will or can almost, to make a nation despicable, wretched, and unhappy in this kind wee are now speaking of, and see whether you can misse of it here in distressed England.

If an unworthy, unlearned, corrupted and depraved Mini­stry will do it. Would it not [Page 197]wound a Marble heart to see that glorious assertion which did heretofore so adorne and beautifie the English Nation; (Irascatur mundus, saeviat daemon, stupor mundi clerus Anglicanus;) turned now into this, Rideat mundus illudat daemon, pudor mundi— I will not speake it! my Pen shall not be guilty of proclaiming so sad a story. Yet this I will say; Heretofore Learned, Grave, and Reverend Bishops, Champions of the Lord, that by their victorious Pens triumphed over the pride, and Sophistry of Babilon, and Conquered this Land of ours to the possession of Truth, Mi­nisters, and Deacons, approved, ordained, furnished for the work, [Page 198] burning and shining lights, burn­ing with zeale, shining with knowledge, burning to consume the drosse and stubble of Errour and Falshod; to wast the holds and habitations of Sathan; shining to illustrate and manifest the Truth: But now, Heu quantum mutatus ab illo? Boyes, Novices, Shoomakers, Coblers, Wo­men, what not! without any calling, but their owne Pride, and the peoples Folly to admit them: without any furniture, but their own intolerable im­pudence to enable them; proh puder! proh dedecus! as if that awfull, holy, and weighty Fun­ction (enough almost to crack the shoulders of Angels, which drove St Paul unto his [...] [Page 199] who is sufficient for these things, that made the holy Pro­phet cry out in the considerati­on of the greatnesse of the work: [...] Ah Lord God, behold I cannot speake for I am a child,) were fit for nothing but to lackey at the side of the meane employment of every mechanicke, to be their sport and recreation from their more serious occupations. But whilst every sort is thus ready to make a claime unto the Mi­nisteriall abilities and privile­ges, that they may divide the spoile of the Ministeriall sup­portance among themselves, how few are there that thinke themselves bound withall to the rules of Ministeriall con­versation [Page 200]and holinesse? That they should be blamelesse, vigi­lant, sober, of good behaviour, gi­ven to hospitality, [...], apt to teach, as well in regard of abili­tie and furniture, as readinesse of mind, in respect of skill, as well as of will to doe it, no doubt: Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler or figh­ter, not covetous? or how do we find that they do according to the Apostles rule, endeavour to approve themselves as the Mi­nisters of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprison­ments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, by pure­nesse, by knowledge, by long suf­fering, [Page 201]by kindnesse, by the holy Ghost, by love unfained, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the Armour of righteousnesse, on the right hand and on the left, by honor & dishonor, as deceivers and yet true, as unknowne and yet well knowne, as dying and yet li­ving, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowfull yet alway rejoycing, as poore yet making many rich, &c. Blamelesse they are indeed in their own eyes perhaps, puf­fed up (as the Pharisee) with the windy conceit of their own holinesse, canonizing them­selves for the only Saints, to make roome for whom, poore Peter and Paul, Iames and Iohn, yea, and Christ himselfe too must be put out of the Calen­der [Page 202]of the Church, where they may succeed in time in red Letters, in bloudy Characters written with the gore of those thousands of Christians, who have bin made sacrifices for the consecration of their holinesse. But whilst they stile themselves Saints, I would they did not prove themselves — But the poore Publicans, whom they de­spise who stand afarre off knock­ing their breasts, with a Lord be mercifull unto me a sinner! might go home to their houses (if they would let them, and did not keepe them from them as the purchase of their piety) justi­fied in the sight of God rather than they. Indeed some of them may be called Saints, according [Page 203]to that Hebrew phrase, where­by Iobs wife wished him to blesse God, that is (as it is in­terpreted) to curse him: or as the word [...] or [...] from [...] to be holy. Is used to signifie the impurest kind of polluted carnalists, that make a trade of the vilest sins, or as Sacrum in the Latine is used sometimes for Sacrilegum, or impium, as in the Poet, as I remember,

That is the unholy love of [Page 204]riches and wealth, which is the root of all evill.

Vigilant they are indeed, but to do wickednes, like those in the Proverbs, They sleepe not except they have done mischiefe, and their sleepe is taken away un­lesse they cause some to fall; They are watchfull as Sathan is watchfull, who goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure.

If they be sober in regard of wine or strong drinke, yet how many of them are drunke with pride, intoxicated with the opi­nion of their carnall security? or what is the cause there is such a vertiginous swimming in their braines, such reeling too and fro in their unconstancy of [Page 205]opinions and resolutions? How come they to thinke there is no Church but what turns round? or how few are there that are sober in their judgements, in their opinions? nay, may it not be truly said of many that are taken to be the wisest and the gravest amongst them, that they do but cum ratione insanire, are but more soberly mad than others; for what is it indeed, but meere madnesse, to thinke to set up the Throne of mercy in bloud? to call cruelty piety? and to professe Christianity in oppression? to thinke to main­taine a reputation of sanctity in themselves, by talking of Religion and Godlinesse, whilst they are at the same time in [Page 206]their hearts contriving, and act­ing in their outward perfor­mances, the great and horrid designes of seditious wicked­nesse; Ioabs in practice, as well as some of them in profession, dealing with Christ as he with Amasa; at the same time he gives him a faire salute with his tongue, Art thou in health my brother, and takes him by the beard with his right hand to kisse him with his lips, and with his left hand stabs him under the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground. 1 Sam. 20.9. And what did Iudas doe before hee hanged himself? And what is it else to give Christ good words, to have mouths full of Religi­on, and hearts full of intolerable [Page 207]and diabolicall pride, envy, ma­lice, covetousnesse, and ambiti­on, yea, both hearts and hands full of Bloud, Treason, Mur­der, and Oppression; but is it not pure madnesse, to thinke that God will thus be mocked; may they be as bold with him as they make with his Annoin­ted? Or will he take it well that they shall jeere him with a ben­ded knee (but indeed this is scarce allowed him) and a [...] That like those Souldiers in the 15. of Mark. verse 18. They should put a crown of thorns upon his head, and then salute him with a haile King of the Iewes. That they should at once or in the same breath smite him and spit upon him, by those persecu­tions [Page 208]and contempts, those scorns & reproaches, that they cast upon his poore members, and yet pretend to adore and worship him? Are wee turned Lucians, Iulians, porphyries in­stead of Christians? is this so­briety? Let them remember what Saint Paul received from heaven, for all his strictnesse, (& yet he was in earnest,) when he was exercised in the busines of cruelty against Gods people, all his zeale and mistaken holi­nesse, could not secure him from that terrible voice, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Burning lips and a wicked heart, are like a potsheard covered with silver drosse; so saith the wise­man, Pro. 26.23. pious and de­vout [Page 209]discourses, are but drossie pigments or varnishes: Though we put never so many of them upon earthy and wicked minds, God will be cheated with no such ware; Hee hath a touch­stone that will quickly discover it, Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, saith our Savi­our, shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven, but he that doth the will of my father which is in hea­ven, and what is the will of God? Even our Sanctification, that our hearts and our actions should be religious as well as our tongues; And what is true Religion and undefiled before God? To throw downe the Thrones of Princes, that they may without controule devoure [Page 210]and oppresse their miserable Subjects? To lye and dissemble with God, the King, and a whole Nation, to bring to passe their wicked purposes, untill they have got them, and then to cancell all their promises and protestations? To make wicked Covenants to joyne one ano­ther together in sedition, ma­king the holy name of God the bond of their hellish and black conspiracies, and then when their Idoll-interest prompts them to it, to breake them in pieces as Sampson did his new Cords, and to become open confessours of Sathan, (they may have the honour to be his Martyrs in time) by professing atheisticall policy, & as if oaths [Page 211]were of no force but to be the servants of their designes, when they have done their worke, and served their turnes with them, to turne them out of doores and send them packing, saying that they are but old Almanacks. Is not Matchiavell think you that Christ which they so talke of, that was never known till they taught him to the people: Iura perjura. &c.

Let me make it out a little.

Or is not that religious speech of him in Lucan, a great part of their new Gospel which they bragg of:

But let them take heed how they play too much with God. His Magazine is not all spent, they have not disarmed him yet; He can when he pleaseth frowne them all in a moment from the greatest height of their successe and glory (where­of they do so boast) into the lo­west depth of ruine and confu­sion: and let them not thinke with the wicked man in the Psalme, that because God holds his peace for a time, he is there­fore even such a one as them­selves. There will be a time [Page 213]when he will reprove them, and set all their sins in order before their faces.

Or let the heathen Poet aske them one question:

Take it briefly thus.

Let not the forbearance of God, make them presume too much. Yea, let them remember [Page 214]that pure Religion and undefiled before God is this; to visit the fa­therlesse and the widdowes in their affliction, and to keepe himselfe unspotted from the world, Iam. 1. v: 27. To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walke humbly with God, Micha 6.8. If they be sober let them teach and pra­ctise these things.

And is their scornefull and insolent carriage, that good be­haviour that the Apostle re­quires? Or is it hospitality to turne men out of their owne houses, in stead of receiving them into theirs, that they may imitate therein the piety that was heretofore shewed unto Chrish; The Son of man (saith he) hath not where to lay his head. [Page 215]Math. 8.20. Is this the ho­spitality that the Apostle re­quires? or are they apt to teach, in the Apostles sense, that are scarce capable to learne? Or if we hold it absurd in Popery to say ignorance is the mother of devotion, is it not almost as bad to hold ignorance to be the mo­ther of Instruction? Or when the blind leades the blind, do we thinke the ditch will have no­thing but water in it?

Are they no strikers, that make it their practice to smite with their tongue, to curse the Ruler of the people, to speake evill of dignities? and have set up the trade of smiting with their hands too, which they have so deepely embrued in the Chri­stian [Page 216]bloud of their brethren, and are angry that men will not admire it for a beauty in them: That God that would not suf­fer David to build his Temple because he had had his hand in the sheding of bloud, though it were the bloud of Gods ene­mies and Rebells, in just and lawfull warres, will he (thinke we) approve of such bloudy builders as these, to set up his Church, or to repaire the de­caies of his spirituall habita­tion? Are they not given to fil­thy lucre, that to enrich them­selves with other mens havings have sold themselves to worke wickednesse, and have taken away the lives of the owners thereof?

Will they say they are pati­ent, [Page 217]which will not only suffer nothing for Gods sake, but are enemies even to the very Do­ctrine of the Crosse? Teaching men to resist, and not to suffer, let our Saviour say what he will; in stead of practising pati­ence themselves, exercising the patience of others by their persecutions; and whilest they forbid men to suffer under the lawfull Magistrate, they com­pell them to suffer under their unlawfull Tyranny.

They doe indeed well ap­prove themselves the Ministers of God: In afflictions, in necessi­ties, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments. For though they suffer them not themselves, yet they will be sure to act them [Page 218]upon others. In tumults indeed they are excellent, but it is in raising them against the lawfull power of the Magistrate; which Saint Paul thought good to cleare himselfe of, as being no good marke of a good teacher of the Gospell, Acts 24.12, 18. and likes it not well it seemes in the people, since he was afraid to find it amongst the Corin­thians as no marke of good Christians, 2 Cor. 12.20. I feare (saith he) when I come, that I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found of you such as ye would not; lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swel­lings, tumults. Bring them to the touch in these and the rest of [Page 219]those markes of Ministeriall perfection which the Apostle sets downe, and we shall easily perceive that fulfilled in them, that Tertullian takes notice of in some of the like spirit with them in his time, de monogam. c. 12. Quum extellimur & infla­mur adversus Clerum, tunc unum omnes sumus, tunc omnes Sacer­dotes, quia Sacerdotes nos Deo & Patri fecit. Quùm ad peraequa­tionem disciplina Sacer dotatis pro­vocamur, deponimus infulas, & impares sumus: When we are lifted up and swelled against the Clergy, (saith he, speaking in the person of some insolent spirits in his Age) Than we are all one, then we are all Priests, be­cause he hath made us Priests unto [Page 220]God and the Father; but when we are stirred up to the height or per­fection of Sacerdotall Discipline, then we lay downe our Priestly Ornaments, and then we are of an inferiour ranke.

Such were they of whom Saint. Cyprian not long after complained of in his time, as a pest of the Church: Hi sunt, saith he, qui se ultrò apud teme­rarios convenas, sine divinâ di­spensatione praeficiunt, qui se pra­positos sine ullâ ordinationis lege constituunt, qui nemine Episco­patum dante Episcopi sibi nomen assumunt. These (saith he) are they who take upon them of their owne heads to set up themselves, ever their rash and unadvised Congregations: That make them­selves [Page 221]Rulers and Leaders of the People without any legitimate Ordination, &c. And these the good Father saith, are Seden­tes in pestilentiae Cathedrâ, pestes & lues fidei, serpentis ore fallen­tes, & corrumpendae veritatis ar­tifices, venena lethalia linguis pe­stiferis evomentes, quorum ser­mo ut cancer serpit, quorū tactus pectoribus & cordibus singulorum mortale virus infundit. They sit in the pestilentiall chaire, they are the very plagues and mur­raines of the faith or Christian Profession, deceiving with their serpentine language: Artificers of corrupting the truth, vomi­ting out deadly poysons with their p [...]stiferous tongues, whose word doth creepe like a canker, whose [Page 222]touch doth infuse mortiferous ve­nome into the breasts and hearts of all men.

And now we see how the devill acts over and over his old tricks among us in these daies.

But sure the song of the 4 Beasts and the 24 Elders, Rev. 5. is not so to be understood, as if thereby all men indifferently were to be admitted to the publique Office of Ministry in the Church, because it is said there without distinction, that Christ hath made us Kings and Priests unto God; but it is rather in regard of that accesse which all true Christians have obtained by Christ Jesus unto the mercy-seate, accord­ing [Page 223]to that of St Paul, Rom. 5. ver. 1, 2. Therefore being ju­stified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ, by whom also we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand. Or that of Ephes. 2.13. In Christ Iesus ye [...]ho sometimes were farre off, are made nigh by the bloud of Christ. And ver. 18. Through him we have an accesse by one spirit unto the Father. As it was the priviledge of Priests heretofore in the Jewish ser­vice to draw nigh to God in the Temple: and also in regard of those spirituall Sacrifices which every true Christian may and doth offer up unto God in and by Christ; 1 Pet. 2.9. [Page 224] Heb. 13.15. Unto this Priest­hood we are consecrated, not by the bloud of our brethren, but by the bloud of Christ: Rev. 1.5. & Heb. 13.12. Not that the Spirit of God intended at all hereby to confound the cal­lings in the Church, or to give a generall Commission to all men that have insolency enough to presume upon their owne gifts, to take upon them the publike office of instru­cting the people; for why than did the Apostle aske that que­stion; 1 Cor. 12.29. Are all Prophets, are all Apostles, are all Teachers, &c. Or why doth the same Apostle give order unto Timothy and Titus solemn­ly to ordaine with imposition of [Page 225]hands? 1 Tim. 5.21. and Tit. 1.5. Why doth he give them such severe rules and cautions for the managing of the power of Ordination? That they should admit none but such as were rightly qualified, 1 Tim. 5.22. Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partakers of other mens sins: and 1 Tim. 3.1, 2. &c. He sets down the Catalogue of those conditions which they were to looke for both in Mi­nisters and Deacons, and will have them bee proved before they be suffered to exercise that calling; which were all in vain and to no purpose if (notwith­standing all those rules) it shall be still in the power of any to intrude themselves into the [Page 226]execution of those Sacred Fun­ctions; it is not to be denied indeed, but it is the duty of eve­ry Christian to make use of those occasions that God offe­reth to communicate that knowledge which they have un­to others, in private occasi­onall exhortations, consolati­ons, and reproofes of sin; and it is not only lawfull but requi­site for Parents and Masters, to instruct their Children and Servants in the knowne and certaine Principles of Christi­anity, and in the duties that belong unto them, according to those rules which are clear­ly set downe by the Church of God and the Scripture. But it is a businesse of an higher na­ture [Page 227]to undertake the publike administration of Doctrine in the Church, and of the in­terpretation of the Scriptures, unto which those inferiour workes of private instruction and admonition, are subordi­nate, and whereby they are to be guided. The people of God in the time of the Law, were to exercise the like duties to their Families and their Neigh­bours, &c. And yet the offices of the Priests and the Pro­phets were not thereby prohi­bited unto the common peo­ple, but were still preserved proper and entire unto them, otherwise the Spirit of God would not have said as he hath done in the 2. of Malachi v. 7. [Page] [Page] [Page 224] [...] [Page 225] [...] [Page 226] [...] [Page 227] [...] [Page 228] The Priests lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seeke the Law at his mouth. There is no scruple at all to be made but a Father or a Mother, a Master or a Friend, may ap­ply some knowne or ordinary medicines unto the wounds, or diseases of their friends, or children, or dependants, or o­thers; but yet if every man should take upon him the pra­ctice of Physick or Chirurge­ry, there would be more kil­led by Medicines, than by Di­seases in all likelihood.

If every Marriner or Pas­senger in a Ship should under­take the office of a Pilot, there would need no storms nor tem­pests to make Shipwrackes. [Page 229]The order and distinction of parts, members, and faculties, is not onely the beauty, but the preservative of organicall bodies, and substances. As we have many members in one body, (saith the Apostle, Rom. 12.4.) and all members have not the same of fice, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. But yet the unity of the body doth nei­ther confound the variety, nor destroy the order of the severall parts and functions, but the va­riety and order of the parts preserves both the unity and being of the whole. Having then gifts differing according to the grace given unto us, whether Prophecy let us prophecy, accord­ing [Page 230]to the proportion of faith, or Ministry let us waite on our Mi­nistring, or he that teacheth on teaching, &c. So the same Apo­stle, 1 Cor. 12.14. The body is not one member but many; and ver. 17. If the whole body were an eye where were the hearing? if the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? and if they were all but one member, where were the body? but now are they many members yet but one body. It is the Apostles rule, and sure it is a just one, That they that preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell; 1 Cor. 9.14. And that he that is taught in the word should communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things, Gal. 6.6. That double ho­nour [Page 231]should be given to the Elders that rule well, especially to those that performe their duties in­dustriously, laboring in the Word and Doctrine, 1 Tim. 5.17. And what the Apostle meanes, he himselfe will tell you in the next verse; for the Scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corne, and the labourer is worthy of his re­ward: If there be no distincti­on between Clergy and Laity, between Teachers & Learners, no bounds set about the Sacred Mount, but that every one that will, may breake in to the ex­ercise of the office of a publike Teacher in the Church, how should these rules of the Apo­stle be observed? how should [Page 232]it be knowne who is to commu­nicate, and who to receive the benefit of that Communicati­on? Or at least, how shall the people be able to maintaine all that will be ready to intrude into that businesse? Or, why hath God ordained such a supply in temporalls for the Prea­chers of the Gospell from the labours and possessions of o­thers? but that it was presu­med, that the worke of the Mi­nistry was to be their proper occupation and function; unto which they were so farre to ap­ply themselves, as to prohibit them the exercise of other trades and occupations ordina­rily: for although the extraor­dinary gifts of St Paul, and of [Page 233]some others perhaps in the Apostolicall times, did enable him or them to exercise both together, yet that is no warrant unto any that make no just claime unto that portion of gifts which God thought fit to bestow on them who were the first planters of the Gospell, to take upon them the like mix­ture of occupations. It is a good rule of the Schooles I thinke, that Opera liberi spiritus non sunt trahenda in exemplum communis vitae; That the workes of the free Spirit, that is, the ex­traordinary workes of the Spirit, are not to be drawne into exam­ple of common life, not to be pat­terns for us to walke by. But what unreasonable creatures are we [Page 234]growne? What an incongruity and grosse solaecisme is it to cry downe the Ministry so loudly and so earnestly as they doe in these daies, from having to do with civill affaires, or secular matters, under pretence that they are not to bee distracted from that great worke of their spirituall imployment? and upon that ground to render them meere slaves, depriving them of the liberty of assenting unto those Lawes whereby themselves as well as others are to be Governed? and yet with­all to admit of every Lay-man that will, to exercise the mea­nest and most toilesome me­chanick occupations, and with­all to take upon him the office [Page 235]of a Minister? To forbid the Clergy to meddle with Lay-matters, and at once to admit the Laity to meddle as they please with the worke and function of the Clergy? yea to ravish that worke out of their hands who are properly desig­ned and furnished thereunto? That they may get up into their places, to vent their mad fancies, their raw and rude con­ceptions, their follies, their blasphemies, their seditious doctrines, and their vaine dreames and imaginations to the people. If it be not likely, as it hath been pretended, that that Minister can answer the great expectation of the Mini­steriall worke: that makes it [Page 236]his maine businesse, his daily study, his ordinary exercise, that doth but admit of some few or rate interceptions from that worke, to attend perhaps once in three yeares at a Parli­ament, or to performe the Of­fice of a Justice of Peace once or twise perhaps in a moneth, or three, or foure, or five times in a yeare: How is it likely, or even ordinarily possible, that he whose maine imployment is in Secular affaires, that fol­lowes a Trade all the weeke long, and makes the worke and imployment of a Minister, only as a [...], a breathing busi­nesse, or matter upon the by: How is it possible I say with­out a miracle, that such a one [Page 237]should rightly performe that worke? Let the World judge, whether there be not either great want of reason and logique, or else great want of honesty and sincerity in these carriages? Or whether it doth not favour more of designe than of Reli­gion: First, to urge the weighti­nesse of the Ministeriall work, to exclude the Ministry from any secular businesse, to deprive them of all Offices in the State, of their voices in Parliament, and other temporall advanta­ges, that they may get them in­to their owne hands? and then, when that is done, to admit of a mixture of that holy and weighty businesse, with the most durty, bloudy, or toilesome [Page 238]imploiments in the world, by prostituting it at the feet of every dusty Mechanicke? that they may ravish both the work and the supportance of the Mi­nistry out of their hands unto whom it belongeth: Stripping by this meanes the poore Church-men, first of their per­sonall advantages by exclusion, and then of their spirituall pro­prieties by intrusion. But I know what will be said, Oh they have gifts, and why should they not use them? If God hath gi­ven them Talents, must they be bound to wrap them up in a napkin, and bury them in the earth for feare of displeasing a blacke gowne or a square cap? or intrenching upon that Mo­nopoly [Page 239]of teaching and saving soules, which a sort of people called Parsons and Vicars, have thus long challenged unto themselves against the liberty of Christians? When God hath given us light, must we hide it under a bushell? Did not Eldad and Medad prophesie in the Camp, without the cen­sure or reprehension of Moses, Num. 11.26. Doe not we read of the house of Stephanus, that they addicted themselves unto the Ministry of the Saints? Or where doe you find that Apollos was ordained, or that Aquila and Priscilla received imposition of hands, were they not Tent­makers as well as Paul? It may be answered: For their gifts [Page 240]which they have, God forbid that we should envy them, and perhaps there is no great temp­tation to it. But it is thought to be reasonable, That since the hearts of men are (as they teach us too clearely) very apt to overweene of themselves: And since what ever their gifts be, the use of them is not their owne but the Churches inte­rest, wherein the publike good, if well used: or evill, if ill im­ployed, either above their strength, or against their duty, is very much concerned: They are not therefore fit to be their owne Judges, whether their abilities be answerable to the worke they undertake or no; but it is to be judged by those [Page 241]that are designed by God and his Church for that purpose (such as was Timothy and Ti­tus, at Ephesus and Crete) that upon triall and approbation from them, and by solemne ordinati­on, and imposition of hands, together with Prayer and Sup­plication to God for a blessing upon them and their gifts, they may be admitted to that work, which is indeed very requisite for the security of the Church and Gods people, that they may not have wolves instead of Sheepheards, to devoure them in­stead of feeding them, that they may not have perverse insolence, and bold ignorance, but solid, so­ber, and modest knowledge to be their guides in the waies of [Page 242]righteousnesse and salvation; that they may not receive poy­son instead of nourishment, but that they may have the sin­cere milke of the Word admini­stred unto them that they may grow thereby. A matter of so great consequence, as our owne lamentable experience at this day may informe us abundant­ly, That although it were to be wished indeed, that the Church had the enjoyment of all her ri­ches, and that nothing should lye idle that may be of use, yet it were much better that many good gifts should lye hid, then that under the collour of a li­berty in making use of good gifts, the people of God should be bewitched, and poysoned [Page 243]with so many sophisticated im­postures of Sathan; have so many heresies and errours, and phrensies, and schismaticall, and seditious Doctrines put upon them instead of the truth of God, to the producing of such a Chaos of confusion a­mong us, and the enkindling of so many false, but raging fires of division and distraction in the Church of God. It is much better that the building of the Temple should go on some­what the slower, then that the Adversaries of Iudah and Beni­amin should be suffered under the pretence of promoting, to hinder and confound the worke, Ezra 4.1, &c. Many hands many times makes light [Page 244]worke in a worse sense then the Proverbe is usually understood in; that is, they make slight work. If a Watchmaker should suf­fer every commer in or passer by to be tampering with his businesse, he might well give them all his gaines for their wages. In short, do but stand still a little, and consider what excellent fruits this liberty of prophecying (as they call it) hath produced in this Church of ours, and if you can conclude it to be commodious or a bles­sing, go then and pull downe your hedges, and hire the hogs to dresse your Gardens and your Fields: set flames of fire to repaire your houses: let the moath be your taylour to mend [Page 245]your cloathes: or use the like husbandry for your selves that Sampson did for the Philistines; Tye the Foxes together by the tailes, and a firebrand betwixt them, and send them into your standing Corne to weed out the Thistles: no, no, we have learnt by too sad a triall, that Sathan hath his seed and his seedsmen, as well as Christ; and if all that will offer themselves may be admitted, thinke him not so dull a contriver of mischiefe, but that he is provided of his voluntiers, who though they hate the Garments of Ministry, yet they will will put on the Garbe perhaps of Angels, and will sow Tares instead of Wheat, even in the field of the Lord [Page 246]himselfe. I know none that de­sires to make any monopoly of the gifts of God, or of the businesse of salvation. I doubt not but there are of the lawfull Ministry, that are so sensible of the greatnesse and difficulty of the worke, that they could be content, if God would be pleased with it, to have any bo­dy take the burden thereof off their shoulders, and so that they might be rid of the great charge, willingly to part with the honour and supportance too of their callings, much more would they be ready to receive the aide of any that were fit, and willing to helpe them, and to joyne with Moses in that holy wish of his [Page 247] Num. 11.29. Would God that all the Lords people were Prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. But whosoe­ver they be that wish well to the Church, or to Gods glory, must needs wish withall, that those gifts may be well weigh­ed and allowed according to Gods will, and that they may be set free with a blessing, by the prayers of the Church, and a solemne ordination unto the holy Function, before they be let loose into the publike. That they may be tried and appro­ved not by themselves, for that old saying is too true, Omnes rerum nos trarum iniqui estima­tores sumus; We are all of us unfit to be the prizers of our o [...]wne goods; [Page 248]Non videmus id manticae quod in terg [...] est; It is an hard matter for us to looke round about our selves: And withall, it is not amisse I hope to desire that no private gifts may be so much prefer­red, as to destroy that great gift and ornament of the whole body of the Church which gives lustre and beauty unto all the rest, which is the grave and matron-like Robe of Order in the use and dispensation of these gifts, which doth at once safegard and commend them all, with which the Apostle concludes that excellent dis­course of his concerning spiri­tuall gifts, set downe in the 12, 13, and 14. Chapters of the first to the Corinthians, as that which [Page 249]was to have the guidance, and the moderation of them all, and to have them in custody and Guardianship; after he had set forth the variety of gifts, and their uses in the Church, he sets this rule as it were to have the government of them all, Let all things be done decently and in order.

As for Eldad and Medad, they were not ordinary men, they were of those 70 Elders that were chosen to assist Moses for the government of the peo­ple, unto whom God gave of the spirit that was upon Moses: for as we may see Num. 11.26. They were of them that were written, though they stayed be­hind in the Campe, and went [Page 246] [...] [Page 247] [...] [Page 248] [...] [Page 249] [...] [Page 250]not out unto the Tabernacle, and to these God was pleased to give the testimony of the spirit of Prophecie.

Apollos, and Aquila, and Pri­scilla lived in those times where in the Spirit of God as he gave extraordinary gifts, so he mo­ved men to the exercise of them by extraordinary motions, as was requisite in those times of the planting of the Gospell; and wherein the Church of Christ was not yet setled, so that the ordinary course of ad­mission unto the Ministry could not be every where had; and this may serve to answer to that in the 11. of the Acts, at the 19. concerning those that were di­sporsed upon the persecution [Page 251]of Stephen, and all others of the same nature, &c.

Now that the oeconomy of those times is not to be a pat­terne to the Church of God now in a more setled conditi­on, may appeare since we see even in those times where the Church was setled, (as in Ephe­sus and Crete,) the Apostle gives rule [...] for an orderly admission: so that these are no warrants for these men, to refuse the ordi­nary way of vocation to the Ministry where it may be had, to intrude themselves without i [...] unlesse they will plead that unsettlement which themselves have wickedly wrought in this Church for the colour of the in presumption, which is but to [Page 252]excuse one mischiefe by ano­ther.

If they shall say they are tri­ed, approved, and admitted by the people; I answer, that triall is coram non judice, since it be­longeth not unto the people either to judge in election, or to conferre that Ministeriall power by ordination.

The first is against reason, fot the election of Ministers must reasonably belong unto those that are able to judge of them: and as it is in Sciences, that that hath in it the rules whereby other Sciences are judged of, is held to be above the rest in wisdome and excel­lency, so in persons or callings: now whether that can be a fit [Page 253]man to guide the people that is inferiour unto the multitude in wisedome and knowledge, let any man judge; so that the very election by the multitude doth upon the matter inferre him to be unfit, and so that choice doth as it were destroy it selfe, and as the Musitian re­buked his Scholler (as I remem­ber the Story) because the peo­ple applauded him, telling him that hee knew it could not be right or good Musicke that they approved; and as a man may judge that to be crooked that agrees with a crooked rule, so of the two we might rather conclude that man to be unfit that the people chooseth than to be fit: and so more consonant [Page 254]to reason that he should even therefore be rejected than ad­mitted, for in that he is chosen by the people, it is to be presu­med that they are fit to judge of him, and if they are compe­tent judges of him, it will rea­sonably be inserred that he is inferiour to them in wisdome and excellency, but this is not to be imagined, and therefore the conclusion holds fairely; per argumentum ab absurdo, that the people ought not to have the choice of the Minister.

Againe, it is against two maine ends of Triall and Ele­ction, which are first that the Minister may be such as may not deceive the people, There­fore there must be some wiser [Page 255]than the people to try him, or else they may be deceived by him in the capacity of Triers, as well as in capacity of Disci­ples or Learners, otherwise this would suppose upon the matter all Election unne­cessary in regard of this end for if they are presumed to be able to judge of his Doctrine, there is no danger that they should be deceived by it; nay, for ought I know, it will inferre no neces­sity at all of a Minister, or of his teaching them, for if they be wise enough to examine him in point of Doctrine, or to try him in it, it is to be presu­med that they have as much or more light than he, for that light must be greater that will [Page 256]discover the failings or imper­fections of another light: unlesse we will have darkenesse to judge of light.

The second maine end is, that he may be such as will not corrupt them by his life and conversation, that will not lead them on by ill example in Fa­ction, Sedition, or in any wic­ked course. Now this is not likely well to be provided for by committing the Election to the people; for how soever the timpany of opinionate holines is become so generall a disease in these times: yet if we take not maskes for faces, if we un­derstand holines aright, or make a true survey of the people, it will be found a conclusion too [Page 257]operative even in these times; That the greatest part of the people are not of the best in­clinations; and than if that be a true principle, that owne ap­petit simile, Every thing delights in that which is like it selfe. The major part of the people which is evill, are not in any great probability to choose a pious Minister. In short, the question than will be, as I have it from an Elegant Lamenter of this Churches miseries in far bet­ter times, when these evills which we suffer, seeme to have been but in their cradle, Quo­nam pacto de eruditione imperiti, vel de sapientiâ stulti, and let me adde, vel de probitate impii recte judicabunt? Querim. Eccles. [Page 258]How shall rude and illiterate men judge of erudition? or fooles of wisdome, or wicked men of hone­sty and righteousnesse? Have we not cause to feare with him least in a popular Election the holier sort may be overcome of the greater number, and that they may choose such Mini­sters, as in their wills, their in­clinations, their lives and man­ners are most conformable un­to themselves?

If reason will not prevaile, let the Scripture be searched, and see if upon due examinati­on, it can be found that ever a meere popular Election was erected by any Divine warrant to be the gate for the Ministry to make entrance by into their [Page 259]Functions; I deny not there are pretences of Scripture for the purpose, but shadowes are many times much longer than their substances, & if they have any substance at all in them, that note which is taken from those that have shewed them­selves none of the best friends unto the true and genuine or­ders of the Church, may well serve to abate the force of them in this argument; Quae pro po­pulari Electione à nonnullis afferri solent, ea nascentium rerum pri­mordiis fuisse accommodata, sed nostrae aetati minùs aptè conve­nire; That those things that are produced in behalfe of popular Election by some, were proper un­to those rudiments and beginnings [Page 260]of the church, but do not agree with the age wherein [...]e live: not on­ly in regard of the necessity which might then give coun­tenance thereunto: but also be­cause the whole multitude of Disciples, and Christians, as they were much more pure and sincere, and more eminent in piety, which secured them pro­portionably from miscarriage in the choice, so they were en­dued for a great part, if not all, as it appeares with extraordi­nary gifts, whereby they were enabled to judge of the Abili­ties and Orthodoxnesse of those which were proposed to their choice.

And yet even in those times there is sufficient to be found [Page 261]to shew us that those acts that were done, or seeme to be done in that way, were not intended for ruled cases to the Church, in that it is evident in the pra­ctice of the same Apostolicall times, that men were sent to exercise the Ministry amongst the people, and accordingly undertooke and performed it, without any the least reference to their consent or approbati­on. See Acts 13.4, 5. and Acts 9.20. with divers other places.

And indeed had it not been so how should the worke of Gods building have gone on? How should the Vine of the Gospell have spread it selfe so gloriously as it did over the [Page 262]face of the earth, sending out her boughes unto the sea, and her branches unto the River, and co­vering the hils with the shadow of it, as the Psalmist speaketh in the 80. Psalm. Should the Prea­chers of the Gospell have staid and expected that they who were not converted to the faith, and yet enemies to the Gospel, should have chosen Ministers to preach it amongst them? Or how can it be expected now in these daies, that the people who are deeply infected with corrupt opinions, and schisma­ticall affections, should Elect Orthodoxe & sound Teachers, in such times as these are? wherein that sad prediction of St Paul (2 Tim. 4.3.) is fulfilled [Page 263] That the time should come when men would not endure sound Do­ctrine, how then is it likely that [...] should make choice of [...] [...]inisters, or not ra­th [...] [...] [...]hat they should (as they do) after their owne lusts heape unto themselves Teachers having itching eares, turning away from the Truth and being turned unto Fables? Nay, if the case were so, in such an age as this, where­in Religion seemes to be lookt upon and used by too many but as a meere cheate and im­posture of humane policy, and wherein there are so many that had rather save their Tythes than their soules: Both Mini­stry and Preaching would per­haps ere long be totally discar­ded [Page 264]and cast off, as things un­necessary and burdensome, when men have once fully ser­ved their turnes with the shews of Piety and Religio [...] [...] all would be swallowed [...] that Religion that the Storck speakes of in the Character that he gives too truly of the com­mon devotion, [...] where mens profit is, there is their Religion. If any here shall urge the practice of an­cient times after the Apostles wherein the Bishops were sometimes chosen by the peo­ple: I answer first, that it was not constantly so. Secondly, that the practice doth not so much convince the legallity of that course as the evills that it [Page 265]produced doth demonstrate the inconveniency; for as one saith, Vt eligeret, excitavit tumult us; Commisit varias caedes, & infini­tis prapè malis turbavit Christi­anam remp: as Tumult was the leader on to those elections, so they were the occasions of divers murders, and of disturbing the Christian Common-wealth, with almost infinite mischiefes. Thirdly, A facto ad jus non valet argumentum; it doth not follow that it was just because they did it, for examples are to be examined and corrected by rules; and as the same Au­thour of whom I last spake hath well determined, Non quid aliquando factum fuit, sed quid perpetuò ficri debet perquirendum [Page 266]est; We ought not so much to enquire what hath sometimes been done, as what ought in all times to be done. But alas no­thing is well done now unlesse the franticke people have the conduct and manage of it; Om­nes nempè imperatores in hac mun­disenect â natura gignit, nullos mi­lites; (as he also goes on) Na­ture is growne so strong in this old age of the world, that shee brings forth all Emperours, no Souldiers in these daies. But as Lycurgus once answered a certaine man that would needs perswade him to leave the Go­vernment of Sparta to the peo­ple. Go thou (saith he) first and leave the mannage of thy house to them, and if that course shall [Page 267]please thee well, then come and make it thy request that the mul­titude may have the rule and re­giment of all things. So say I un­to those that would have the matters of the Church (or of the State) in these daies left unto the people; let them first go and resigne up the rule of their private Families and estates unto them, and indeed perhaps they had almost as good do it before hand, for it is most likely to follow after with speed: for where there are so many Ma­sters of all things, no man is like long to be Master of any thing; ex pede herculem, wee may make a pretty guesse at it, by what the motions towards such a Government have al­ready [Page 268]given us a taste of.

But were it so that the right of Election were in the people, yet if the right of Ordination be not in them likewise, there will be a maime and failing in that Commission which is preten­ded for an universall Ministry; and will any say that this is needlesse? or this also belon­geth unto the people. Indeed they have gotten great promo­tions of late since the old plea of Korah and his company that was once buried alive with the Authors, hath gotten above ground againe among us in these daies, and men of any ranke dare tell both Moses and Aaron, both King and Mini­ster, that they take too much upon [Page 269]them, seeing all the Congrega­tion are holy every one of them, and the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord? Both Royall and Ministerial power (for it seems it is their fate to suffer toge­ther) are made a scatter among the people. It was shrewdly spoken by Tertullian, in his Book, de praescriptione adversus Hereticos. c. 41. Nusquam facili­ùs proficitur quam in castris re­bellium, ubi ipsum esse illic prome­reri est. There is no readier way to preferment then to be in the Rebels Tents, where the very presence of men is meri­torious. How easie is it to get up from hence, both into the [Page 270]Pulpit, and into the Throne.

Alphonsus a Castro (I con­fesse) ascribes it unto Luther, as if it were his Doctrine, (how justly I have neither oportu­nity nor lust now to examine) That all Christians are Priests, and that they are consecrated to this Office in their Bap­tisme, and that they have all equall power without distin­ction either of Sexe or Condi­tion: but yet so, that it is not lawfull for any to exercise this power, Nisi per consensum com­munitatis; But by the consent of the Community; Quia quod est omniū communiter, nullussingula­riter potest usurpare, nisi vocetur; because no man cansingly usurp that power which belongeth [Page 271]unto all in common, unlesse he be called: as if the power of Ministry or Priesthood were derived first to the Commu­nity, and then from the Com­munity to him that doth exer­cise the Ministry or Priest­hood. A fancy that may well contend for the prize in point of wisdome and commodious­nesse to Gods people, with that which our State-Levellers have taken upon them to vent: that will have the multitude to be the originary King as it were, put them both together and make them a Melchisedech, a King and a Priest, and then they will be well contented and live in peace, if we can but per­swade them to admit of one [Page 272]condition, that there may bee but one head, and one heart a­mongst them all, and that all the rest may be cut off and ripped out, otherwise we may conje­cture without the helpe of an Ephemerides, or consulting with the Starres, what excellent Grapes are like to grow upon such Thornes: In the meane time I cannot but wonder (me thinks) that either of these Pleas for civill or Church power should be so Authenticall with some in these daies, and yet that Ko­rah and his followers had such ill luck as to speed no better then they did in their suit for the like, especially for the lat­ter: since they had not only the same privileges of nature with [Page 273]these, but seeme to have alto­gether as seemely a title from the Scripture, had they but had the skill of our moderne in­terpretation, for what these men find for their purpose in our daies, from Saint Peter, and Saint Iohn, That God hath made us Kings and Priests: or a Royall Priesthood, &c. The like they might have urged for ought I know for themselves, Exod. 19.6. where God promiseth the people upon their obedi­ence, that they should be a king­dome of Priests unto him. And yet however it came to passe, the calling of Aaron and his Sons and their Successours, and of their Brethren the Levites, was their enclosure, without [Page 274]the Election or Consecration of the multitude. It might suf­fice to discover the folly of these pretenders, to tell them what exception one hath made against the force of that argu­ment which they would draw from the named places: Si ni­hil est Sacerdotis officium quia omnes vocaniur Sacerdotes, opor­tebit eadem ratione te fateri ut Christus nihil sit supra quem­quam corum de quibus dictum est, nolite tangere Christos meos. If the office of a Priest or Minister shall be nothing, because all are called Priests: by the same reason thou wilt be compelled to confesse (which God forbid) that Christ is nothing above any of those of whom it is said in the 105. Psalm. [Page 275]Touch not my Christs, for so the Originall will well beare, and so both the Septuagint and the Vulgar translate it; but if what hath been said already will not suffice to weane them from so fond a mistake of those places before mentioned of the Reve­lation and St Peter, let them take their choice of wiser Commen­taries upon those Texts, and be perswaded either to embrace that of Beda, that the faithfull or people of God are called Priests, because they are uni­ted unto Christ, who is the great and eternall Priest; or that of St Augustine not much unlike it, remembred by Fevar­dentius, in his notes upon Irenae­us, Sicut omnes Christianos dici­mus [Page 276]propter misticum chrisma, sic omnes Sacer dotes quentam sunt membra unius Sacerdotis; As we call all Christians because of the mysticall anointing, so all are called Priests, because they are the mem­bers of that one Priest, which is, Christ Iesus. Indeed that Priest­hood of Gods people is no more but their Christianity: and I pray God make all to be Priests in that sence, that is to say, good and humble, and faithfull Chri­stians: and upon that conditi­tion I should wish them Kings too, that they may moderate and keepe under their unruly affections, with the Scepter of our Royalty, which is the grace of Gods Spirit, and the power of his Word, not excluding but [Page 277]actuating sound reason therein as an usefull and commodious Minister; They would bee the better Subjects for being such Kings.

But we have before our eyes too numerous a brood of mis­chiefs from that womb, to wish that it should teeme any more, either to justifie the multitude in taking upon them the holy Functions in the Church them­selves, or to allow them to have power to ordaine others there­unto.

Could St Paul have found in his heart to have given it unto them, we should not have been against the claime that they make unto it: But then hee needed not to have left Titus at [Page 278] Crete for that purpose, or let them tell me if they can better than St Paul: How, and from whom Timothy received his or­dination, it was not sure from the people, but from Paul and the Presbytery; from Paul the Prelate (for so we may well call him) and I would to God we could leave snarling at harme­lesse names) assisted or atten­ded (envy not the honour of this terme unto the Apostle) with a company of Presbyters or Ministers of the Church; in which we have (me thinkes) a cleare and excellent patterne, of the Primitive and genuine course of Ordination, which God of his mercy restore a­mongst us in this Church and [Page 279]Nation. See the first of Timo­thy 4. ver. 14. Neglect not the gift which was given thee by Prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, And 2 Tim. 1.6. [...]. I put thee in remem­brance to stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the pitting on of my hands. Compare the pla­ces together, and see how sweet­ly they are argued to make up our differences had we mode­rate spirits: and did wee not seeke our selves more then Christ Iesw, to make good our owne humours, actions, and interests, (yea, I would to God I might not say) our Covetousnesse, our Pride, and other things as bad [Page 280]or worse perhaps then these, more than to procure peace in the Church: there is [...] in both, the gift, and in both there is [...]. Imposition or laying on of hands: St Paul and his Assistant-Ministers, both joyning in Ordination, and Ministeriall Collation of that gift, (if any shall straine the word Presbytery to make it a foundation for their skewed Synedrion, consisting of Lay and Clergy Elders together, ipsi viderint, let them be sure they can justifie it, for my part I confesse I cannot.) But then (me thinkes) there is some difference remarkeable: in the first place it is [...], and in the latter it is [Page 281] [...], With the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, But by the laying on of my hands; whereby, if I be not mistaken in the Criticismes of that Language, the Apostle may seeme to intimate by the variety of the phrase, the ine­quality of concurrence be­tweene himselfe and the Pres­bytery in the act of Ordinati­on, which was conferred by him as a more principall agent, or at least as an instrumentall one in an higher degree, as the word [...] or (by) being a causall may import, but with the lay­ing on of the hands of the Presby­tery, as his Assistants and subor­dinate concurrents therein; which may helpe to cleare us in the [Page 282]discovery of the right and ex­act manner of the performance of this worke, and of the true Apostolicall Government in the Church; which is then most exactly framed, and most au­thentically mannaged, when it is administred by one of super­eminent power, as succeeding the Apostle therein in his part, and with the Assistance of o­ther Ministers as subordinate helpers unto him therein: which, as it hath this and divers other arguments to convince it to be the true and Primitive Forme of Government; so the admission thereof amongst us, If private Interests interpose not, might satisfie all reasonable parties amongst us, and be a [Page 283]great meanes to recollect the scattered Members of this poore distracted Church unto one another, againe in unity and order, and to soder up those sad breaches and divisions of our Ministery: which have been much fomented and en­creased whilst the Competi­tours for Government and their adherents, (I meane the Episcopall party, and the Pres­byterian) have been so farre affected with their severall ex­treames, and each to the setting up of themselves, in a kind of solitarinesse of power, (I speak of some, not of them all) that nothing can serve their turnes but the exclusion of one ano­ther: whereas if they could be [Page 284]content as they ought to live and dwell together with their severall due portions in the ad­ministration of Church-mat­ters, the Lord might be much glorified in a happy and sweet compliance, and each might yeeld comfort and encourage­ment to one another: for want whereof, their mutuall quarrels and contentions, whereby they have throwne durt upon one another, have had no better effect for ought appeares, then to render both sides, even the whole Ministery contemptible to the people, and given occa­sion to a third party of utter enemies to all kind of order to lift themselves up and trample upon them both; let me not [Page 285]be thought presumptuous if I offer this earnestly unto the timely consideration of all our Fathers and Brethren in this Kingdome, least the continu­ance of their divisions prove the ruine of them both, and of this poore Church betwixt them; and beseech them in the bowels of Christ Jesus, that they would ponder it seriously whether there have not been a great cause in this very thing of those judgements which God hath sent upon us; whilst the overmuch imperiousnesse of some, and the too much dis­orderlinesse, and ungoverna­blenesse in others, have intren­ched (it may be feared) so farre upon that Christian temper [Page 286]which should be found espe­cially amongst the Ministery, as to render their quarrels too liable unto such a Character as was once given upon the con­tention of two great men in this Kingdome: to this purpose (as neere as my fraile memory doth serve me) Gaufridus & Hu­go, magno cum scandalo inter se concertarunt, hic ut praesset, ille ne subesset, neuter ut prodesset.

An happy condescention in this particular would not only be a meanes to set the things of the [Page 287]Church in the rightest and sa­fest way, but also to revive the dying flames of Christian love and charity, which should have their vigour in the Ministry above all other men: and with­all, to stop the mouthes, and and take away the occasions of the haters of all order that seek occasions, and to keepe up Christianity amonst us, which is too visibly stealing away from us at those gaps and brea­ches which our contentions have made; and above all others, those which are most ours, and indeed the great fountaine of others: The contentions of the Ministry.

However it be, we see clearly enough that the power of Ordi­nation [Page 288]is not at all placed in the people by the determination of the Apostle. If there be any part theirs in this holy busi­nesse, it is that they may be present at these publique per­formances as witnesses, not as judges, and that they may have liberty to speake freely and with such modesty and reve­rence as befits them, if they know any just and certaine cause, why such as are to be admitted into these sacred offi­ces, should not bee invested thereunto. But nothing will serve the turne in these daies of ours, unlesse all order be cast out of the Church to make roome for that excellent piece of confusion which men are now [Page 289]pleased to call a Reformation. A Reformation that hath put too much colour of truth up­on that Sarcasme which I once heard fall from a foule mouth a­gainst the Protestant Churches; Eglise reformee, est deformee, The reformed Church is the de­formed Church. I am sure they that have gone about to make such a jumble of holy things and profane together, and to take away the distinction of the Ministery and People in this Nation, have done so much to justifie it, as I can scarce tell what one thing the Adversaries could have asked of them, or hired them to have done more for the asserting of their Calumnies against the [Page 290]Church of England: Of whom we may too justly complaine, as Tertullian doth of the Here­ticke in his time; Simplicitatem volunt esse prostrationem discipli­na, cujus penes nos curam leno­cinium vocant, pacem quoque, possim cum omnibus miscent, ni­hil interest illis licet diversa tractantibus dum ad unius veri­tatis expugnationem conspirant; With these men the overthrow of Discipline is reckoned for simpli­city, and to take any care thereof, is accounted wantonnesse; what­ever difference of opinions there is amongst them (as there is ve­ry much) yet they can agree well enough with any, so that they may conspire together against the truth: They are all swollen with [Page 291]pride and selfe conceit, and (like unskilful Empericks or Moun­tebankes in Religion) they all promise much knowledge in their Bills, whilst for the most part there is nothing but ignorance in their Boxes. Indeed that that followeth hath too much order in it for them; Ordina­tiones corumtemeraria, leves, in­constantes, nunc neophytos collo­cant, nunc saeculo obstrictos, nunc Apostatas nostros, ut gloriâ eos obligent quia veritate nonpossunt: Their Ordinations (saith he) are temerarious, light and inconstant, sometimes they place Novices in the Ministry, sometimes secular men, sometimes those that are Apostata's from us, that they may oblige them with glory and pre­ferment [Page 292] unto them, whom they cannot with the truth. Should we not spend all our breath in sights, and all our moysture in teares to thinke on it? that our Age should be found of such transcendent perversenesse and irregularity, that the very dis­orders of former times would be a kind of desireable Disci­pline to us? This is a great evill, a wombe bigge with a multi­tude of mischiefes: A nest of Serpents: A very fountaine of poyson: A great gate of cor­ruption and distraction: A Pandora's Boxe full of Pestilen­ces and infections: A blazing Comet that threatens destru­ction to all truth and righte­ousnesse: And I beseech God [Page 293]it prove not the very passing-Bell of Christianity in this Nation, and the forerunner of Tureisme and heathenisme, to make way for their entrance into the inheritance of the Lord. And now we need not thinke it strange (though we must not forget it as another deplorable degree of our pre­sent miseries) that they whose piety it is to rob the Church of the Ministry, make no scruple at all of Robbing her and the Ministry both of their revenues and supportance. Indeed there might seeme to bee a kind of justice in it, that when such unskilfull fumblers have un­dertaken the worke, and ravi­shed it out of those hands [Page 294]whom God and the Church hath filled therewith (as the Hebrew phrase of consecrati­on to the holy Function may imply; for in that Tongue, [...] to fill their hand, sig­nifies to consecrate the Priests; or holy Officers in the Church, and may well intimate, that they that are best furnished and most authentically and orderly admitted unto that worke have their hands full of that great businesse, and therefore should not have their hands left em­pty of supplies and encourage­ments.) But since they have put that worke into such hands as they have, they may seeme to observe a kind of justice in their wickednesse, in leaving [Page 295]them no better wages then they are like to earne; but the com­pliance of impieties is no harmony in the eares of God, or of good men. The uni­formity of iniquities is but beautifull uglinesse; neither can the issue bee legitimate, how­ever equal or consenting the con­tract be between those actions or designes that are of any kin­dred in that bloud; therefore we cannot but looke upon it as another horrid declination of this Church from the happy state and condition that it hath been formerly in; that those re­venues which were heretofore de­dicated and consecrated to the maintenance of Divine Service, should be now accounted the wages [Page 296]of Rebellion, and, as if God him­selfe were a malignant, that his peculium, the portion of his house and worship should not only be Sequestred, but wholly alienated from him, as if it were the lawfull prize of those whose usurped power & great­nesse knowes no limits either in heaven or earth. But it is too too cleare an evidence that they have fought against God, that make his Sacred Portion the spoile of their victory: for Con­querours (if I mistake not) do not usually make a prey of their friends but of their enemies, and then the plundering of Gods house is no good marke of an holy Warre, nor the con­firmation thereof by Law, any [Page 297]good Symptome of an holy state. But they will say per­haps, that these Lands and emoluments though they weare the title of Gods Interest, yet they were dedicated to super­stitious purposes; The blind and foolish zeale of our Ance­stours had so eaten up their braines that they had not wit enough to keep their owne; these things were gotten from them by evill Arts, and false pretences, upon erroneous and hereticall considerations of no truth nor value: such as are those two great cheates and im­postures of the Church of Rome, Purgatory, and Merit, and as they were gotten per malas artes, by evill arts, so they [Page 298]were dedicated to evill and su­perstitious uses; as to the main­tenance of that Romish Da­gon of the Masse, Prayer for the dead, worshipping of Saints, adoration of Images, for the supportance of a false Priesthood and Sacrifice set up in opposition to, and dero­gation of the Priesthood and Sacrifice of Christ, for the adornation of the Temples of Idols, and for the holding up of many superstitious orders and distinctions of idle Monks and Friers, &c. And the fruits and effects thereof have been not much better, even none o­ther but the Pride, Luxury, Sloath, Tyranny, Covetous­nes, and many other mischiefes [Page 299]in the Ministry: the devouring of Families, and impoverish­ing of the Civill State, with the reducing of Judaisme a­mongst us in Tithes and Offe­rings, which were indeed things proper and peculiar (as they boldly affirme) unto the Jewish Oeconomy and administrati­on of the old Testament, as was also the difference between things Sacred and Profane; which to bring in or continue in the time of the Gospell were to deny the comming of Christ, and to make void the fruit thereof unto the people, to countenance the Jew in his expecting yet another Messiah, and to raise up the Spirit of Bondage againe, in putting that [Page 300]intollerable Yoke of ceremo­nies laid upon the necks of Christs Disciples, which neither they nor their fathers were able to beare. These, and such as these are the pleas, and colours, that must paint over this Strumpet of Sacrilege, and turne the Robbery of God into a pious Reformation: yea, we must be perswaded hereby that Sacri­lege was but a Jewish sinne, and that there is no such thing at all in the Christian Church, or if there be any thing alive now under that name, it is not a vice but an eminent vertue. Oh the pernicious & bewitch­ing Sophistry of Covetous­nesse! Sad and dangerous is the condition, hard and hazzardous [Page 301]the warfare of those truths which are to fight against the Militia of Mammon in this age: when once the hearts of men have set up that great IDOL-GAINE into the place of God, and put profit for Godlinesse, what verity is so awfull but will passe away in their Market? What sinne so deformed but shall finde a vaile in their Wardrobe, under which it shall be counted as a piece of innocency, nay, as a point of wisedome and piety? What iron wickednesse so hard or unconcoctable but the fie­ry stomacks of these O striches will digest it and put it over? But if there be no such sin as Sacrilege in the time of the [Page 302]Gospell, why doth Saint Paul aske that impertinent question, Rom. 2.9. Thou that abhorrest Idols, dost thou commit Sacri­lege? Why doth the Apostle wrong this vertue so much, as to yoke it together with Idola­try? as if they were sins of the like nature, to rob God of that which is devoted and due unto his worship and honour, and to give that which is Gods due unto another? Or why did God himselfe provide so rea­dy an Executioner to execute that dreadfull sentence of Saint Peter upon those two Sacrile­gists, Ananias and Saphira, by cutting them both off by a strange, sudden and exemplary death, Act. 5.5. &c. For but [Page 303] keeping backe some part of the price of that Land which they sold, and pretended to offer up at the Apostles feet? Or how I beseech you comes it to passe, that Christ is become such an Alien amongst us, as not to be allowed capable of a donation, or inheritance? Or how is it that he hath forfeited his Inte­rest? Were the Jewes thinke you true witnesses against him; That he was a perverter of the Nation, a teacher of Sediti­on, forbiding men to pay Tri­bute unto Caesar, that he was a Traitour in making himselfe a King? Or if they were, surely these are such vertues now, that they might rather according to the Doctrine and practice of [Page 304]this Age, give him a title too more, rather then forfeit any of his peculiars? Or have men a freedome and libertie to be­stow their Lands and their Goods at their pleasure upon the devill in Luxury, and Pride, and Lust, and Cruelty, and in the support of that hellish traine of costly sins which are the glory of our times? And is it only unlawfull, or a void act, for men to give any thing to the Service of God? It is our honour, and Gods great goodnesse that he is pleased to stand in need of us, not in him­selfe, he cannot; for as we re­ceive all from him, so in that respect we may say unto him in some sort as he unto the Em­perour: [Page 305] Nec tua fortuna (par­don the word) desiderat remu­nerandi vicem, nec nostra sugge­rit restituendi potestatem: The state of all-sufficiency in him, doth neither require any remuneration, nor the state of indigency and po­verty in us, suggest unto us any power of restitution; but we must still cry out in all our offerings to God in the voice of holy Da­vid, 1 Chron. 29.11, &c. All that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine: who are we that we should be able to offer, &c. For all things come of thee, and of thine owne have we given thee. But yet it is the honour he is pleased to do unto us, his poore Crea­tures, to send unto us by his Servants in the state of his [Page 306]Exaltation, as he did once by his Apostles in the state of his humiliation, with a dominus opus habet, The Lord hath need of us; he is pleased to stand in need of us in his Members, in his Ministers, in his House, and in his Service, which as he hath ordained for us, so he lookes they should be maintai­ned by us. If then God hath need of us, and is capable to re­ceive from us, and we not at all forbidden, but most highly ob­liged to give unto him, shall not those Vowes be as Sacred in the time of the Gospell, whereby such gifts are confer­red and solemnly dedicated un­to the Worship and Service of God, as ever they were in the [Page 307]time of the Law? Is it not as reasonable that our Ministry should have a supportance as their Priesthood? Is it not Gods own Ordinance, that they that preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell now, as well as heretofore that they that ser­ved at the Altar should live by the Altar? Or must the Oxe only be muzzled that treadeth out this Corne? Or is not faith to be kept with God now (thinke wee) as well as then? It hath been heretofore held injustice to violate a Promise, especially an Oath made unto man, though to our owne hinderance, or to temerate a deed of gift or Te­stament whereby Interests are conveyed from one earthly [Page 308]Creature unto another, and shall we think it any thing lesse than an high impiety to violate those Vowes, those donations, those dedications and consecra­tions whereby things are devo­voted unto the Service and Worship of the Almighty, to the supportance of his Mini­stry, and the keeping up of the worke of his honour among us? Stop thy mouth for ever then thou covetous bag-bearer; thou Iudas-Traitor-Temple-theefe, and cry no more, [...], To what purpose is this waste? When thou seest this oyntment pow [...]ed upon the head or feet of thy Master Christ Iesus; upon his head in the maintanance of Piety, or upon [Page 309]his feet in the workes of Cha­rity; Say not it might have been sold for much, and given to thine owne Pride or Luxury, or to the maintenance of the sediti­on or cruelty of others; do not buy nor fell in the Market of Sacrilege, least when thou sel­lest Gods right, his peculiar right, his devoted right upon earth, thou sellest withall that right which thou hopest for in God & heaven: and least whilst thou buyest the Sacred Portion of the Lord, thou have a Curse, a propagating spreading Le­prous Curse made over by God Tibi & Tuis, To thee and thine, to have and to hold for terme of life in this world, and hell and damnation into the bargaine in [Page 310]the world to come. Be not like unto the foolish Eagle in the Apologue, that tooke the flesh from the Altar to feed her young with, least the insepera­ble Coale of the Divine Indig­nation, set both thy nest and thy young on fire, and thou perish together with them in the flame. Be not so foolish as to imagine, that all things that were ordained in the Church of the Jewes were abolished by the comming of Christ; some things were of order, some things for unity, some things there were for helpes unto mens affections, as Mu­sick; some things for the ex­citement of their memories, as the writing of the Law in [Page 311]such manner as might make it obvious unto them; some things for the necessary and comfortable supportance of Gods Worship, the Officers and Instruments thereof; other things were properly ceremo­niall, and of a typicall use; some were of a mixt nature; be not carried away with pre­judices against the truth; take not the hire of Sathan in the proposall of advantages, (as too many have done) to betray thy judgement and thy conscience unto thy filthy and insatiable avarice; Bee not thine owne Iudas, that thou maiest fill the Bagg of that theefe corruption within thee, that would cheate thee to the deare purchase of [Page 312]Thine owne ruine: but take these rules rather to satisfie all doubts, and to answer the pleas of Sathan for this evill. First, Things properly ceremoniall, that were meere types and figures of Christ, are abolished by the com­ming of him who is the Substance: and what was the effect of this abolition? Even the same, and none other than that which is the effect of the abolition of every Law; to leave the things enjoyned or forbidden in the very same state and condition that they were in before the Law, and should have continued in if the Law had never bin made. The ceremonial Law made many things indif­ferent before, to become either necessary or unlawfull, it made [Page 313]them that had before no such use at all in them, to become types and figures of Christ, and of things to come. What does then the Abolition of this Law do? Why clearely, it re­moves all that that the Law added or put upon them, that is to say, the necessity of things enjoyned, the unlawfulnes of things forbid­den, the legall or typicall use of both, and leaves the things them­selves in the same naturall free­dome that they were in before. This is the voice of reason, and reason will receive it, & would thereby end some quarrels if it might be heard, and discover the mistake of those that thinke that the abolition of the ceremoni­all Law, made the matter of the [Page 314]Ceremonies unlawfull. It left them indifferent if they were so before, but makes it unlaw­full to use them as types, or as things of necessity. Brevity is obscure, and that I must now labour for, but understanding and peaceable men may make good use of this. I intend by Gods grace to say something more fully hereof hereafter.

Secondly, Things of order, of helpes of affections, of me­mories, and the like, as the generall reasons remaine so they may be usefull, the use of such things is not forbidden for such purposes, they were only shadowes that the com­ming of the Substance chased away.

Thirdly, Ordinances of sup­portance, as they have the same reason still, so they are no way abolished by the abolition of the Law of Ceremonies, but may be continued without any offence, for the like purposes in the time of the Gospell, for which they were instituted in the time of the Law, viz. for the supportance and furniture, and ornament of the Worship of God, and the instruments thereof: yea, it is not only law­full but necessary that the same (or as liberall a proportion as that, and that certaine) should be allowed for the maintenance of Gospell-Worship, as was allowed for the Ministry of the Law; for if the ministra­tion [Page 316]of the Gospell be more glorious, it is against all reason that it should be allowed lesse honour, or a lesse comfortable supportance. It is the Apostles argument, 1 Cor. 9.13, 14. Doe yee nos know (saith he) that they which minister about holy things, live of the things of the Tem­ple, &c. Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospell should live of the Go­spell: for if it be a good rule, that sicut se habent simplicia ad simplicia, sic se habent comparata ad comparata; As things in their simple and absolute consideration heare themselves to one another, so the like proportion holdeth in their comparisons with one another. Then I know not how it can be [Page 317]reasonably denied, but if it will follow from the allowance that was ordain'd for the Ministry of the Law, that there ought to be an alowance for the Ministry of the Gospell, because this as well as that is the worship of God, & the means of Salvation unto the people, which cannot be performed without the paines & labour of the Officers there­of, &c. It will follow, that be­cause the ministration of the Gospell is a more holy, and more excellent kind of Wor­ship of God, and more excel­lently conducing to the Salva­tion of the people, and requires at least as much diligence and labour in the Ministers there­of, it ought therefore to have [Page 318]at least as large; nay a more large and a more comfortable supportance. And it is not, nor can be so comfortable, unlesse it be certaine, and setled; for no man can deny, but there is more comfort in an assured and setled allowance, than in that which is onely at pleasure, or else why should any man give more for a lease for life or yeares, than for a tenancy at will? And therefore though in the time of the first rudiments of the Go­spell, the Church could not up­on the suddaine attaine unto such a settlement, partly for want of the Christian Magi­strate, and partly by reason of the afflictive condition of the Church, which in those times [Page 319]required and produced a kinde of community amongst those that were throughly establisht in Christianity, who brought all as it seemes to the Apostles feet, and partly for feare of of­fending those that were not yet established, lest they should be frighted by worldly respects from the embracement of the Gospell. Yet where the Gospell is setled and established by the authority of the Magistrate, it is most requisite that there should be as a liberall, so a cer­taine and setled allowance un­to the Ministerie, not onely for their encouragement in the ma­nage of that great charge that they have upon them, but also to free them from manifold temp­tations [Page 320]and snares, that tye in the dependance upon the vo­luntary and uncertaine sup­plies of the people.

For first, in such a case of un­certainty, the Minister cannot likely but be much confounded in the disposing and propor­tioning of his expences and provisions, his Revenues being still upon uncertainties, and not onely alterable, but quite extinguishable upon every dis­like of the people. The con­sequences whereof are like to be not only disturbance of mind and distraction; but also a great impediment unto the exercise of his Hospitality and Charity, since he can scarce possibly tell how to regulate it: For hee that [Page 321]knoweth not what he hath, cannot know what he can spare. If any shall here reply, that the Mini­ster is to depend upon Gods Providence, I answer; that is the duty of every Christian as well as the Minister; and yet it is not held at all unlawfull for the workman to agree be­fore hand for his wages. Nor doe those that presse this, ei­ther hold it or practice it as a Duty, to leave it to the wills of their tenants, and so to the pro­vidence of God moving them, what Rents they shall receive from their lands for their sup­portance. The Ministerie of the Jewes was equally bound to depend upon Gods providence with the Ministery of the Go­spell, [Page 322]and had as cleare promi­ses for temporall things as we; and yet the Lord was plea­sed to provide against tempta­tion, by allowing them a cer­taine proportion. But then se­condly, Thereby the Minister is too dangerously exposed un­to the desire to please men, and to preach placentia, to play that tune that they are pleased to dance, left he be turned away without his reward.

Thirdly, it is a meanes to discourage the Minister in the reproofe of sinne, when hee knowes that he may not onely lose the Peoples favour, but their supply too; when by such a course the people are made as it were his Judges, and enabled [Page 323]to censure and mulct him whensoever hee doth not hu­mour them.

Fourthly, it is likely to oc­casion many temptations to dis­content and partialities of affe­ction, between the Ministers and people, as they shall in­crease, or decrease, afford or take away their Contribu­tions.

Fiftly, experience teacheth us, that this hath beene too fruitfull a nursery of Schismes, and Factions, and Divisions in the Church. As wee may see too clearely in the Divisions of these times, which are suf­ficiently knowne to bee set a foot, much more by those, if not altogether by those, who [Page 324]have had their dependency up­on the voluntary supplyes of the people, than by others of the Ministery.

Sixtly, this would bee too much encouragement for wicked men to go on in open and scan­dalous iniquities, when they know that they have the com­mand of such a key unto the Ministers mouth, &c.

I confesse we nor they should not yeeld unto any of these, nor unto any other temptations: But in the regulating and ordering of the publick matters of a Church, it is a point of Christian wisedome, to provide as much as may be against sinne, by setling all things in the safest way, against temptations, and humane weak­nesses [Page 325]on all sides. And this is done herein by a setled and competent allowance to the Ministerie. And though I confesse there may bee some doubt made, whether that very precise proportion of the tenth part be absolutely necessarie in simple and primary considera­tion, now under the time of the Gospell, as under the time of the Law: Yet first, I know no Arguments that they have a­gainst it to prove the contrary. The best that they can doe. I concerne, is but to infuse some doubt and ambiguity into the matter, and then in a Question of Title between God and us, it is much safer for us to yeeld than to stand to the hazzard of a triall [Page 326]with God at the last day, when wee should have nothing left to make restitution with, but our soules, and the forfeiture may be out eternall damnation. All the over-plus that is paid unto God, God will assuredly re­store, if we doe it with a Chri­stian heart: But if wee hold back any thing that is his due, it may be purchas'd to us at too dare a rate, both in judgments here, as is often seen, and the e­minent and notable stories col­lected by Sir Henry Spelman, and his sonne Master Clement Spelman, and others, of Gods revenge against Sacrilege may informe us; and if we take not heed in greater judgments here­after.

And then secondly, it may be some presumption for any to undertake to finde out a wi­ser way than God himselfe found out, as was this way of tithing unto the Ministerie, whereby God provided excel­lently both for the Ministerie, and the People.

1. For the Ministerie, that they should bee free from that enslaving dependance upon the people; and yet still learne to live upon the Providence of the Almighty, according whereunto their revenue and supportance was measured forth unto them every yeare: and that thereby the Minister might bee continually put in minde of his duty and charge [Page 328]over the people, from whose hands hee received his suppor­tance.

2. For the people, who were thereby first secured, that their allowance unto the Mini­ster, besides their voluntary of­ferings, should bee no more than such as should bear a com­petent proportion to their commings in, since in this course the allowance of the Mi­nisters or Priests increased, and decreased, according to the in­crease and decrease of their E­state and commings in.

And withall, the people were hereby continually urged to remember the fountaine of their temporall blessings, by their pay­ing of Tithes and first fruits un­to [Page 329]the service of God: And withall, it might put them in minde of the holy use whereby they ought to sanctifie all the rest unto God, which they did as it were consecrate to him in the tithes and first fruits; for these may seem to have beene Gods earnest, whereby wee ac­knowledge all the rest to bee his due; and in the payment whereof we doe upon the mat­ter devote and consecrate all the rest unto God to be used in his service and to his glory, though not in his peculiar so­lemne worship. A meditati­on worthy of our serious con­sideration: And if I bee not much mistaken, this is the true thought & affection wherewith [Page 330]Christians are, as well as Jewes were, to pay their tithes and offerings. It is no Judaisme, but our duty still to consecrate and dedicate all we have unto God. To vow this and perform it, is a very acceptable service. The paying of thithes I con­ceive is still an engagement to use our whole Estates to Gods honour: and wee are to doe it as the paiment of our homage unto God, therein acknowledg­ing his supreme Lordship and Dominion, and giving pledge of our duty in the due imploy­ment of all: as also of our thankfulnesse unto God for that which wee have. If men would pay their tithes in this manner, they should have no [Page 331]cause to repent it, neither here nor hereafter; The benefit thereof would bee much more theirs in their engagement of themselves thereby unto their spirituall and Christian duties, than the Ministers in the sup­ply of his temporall necessi­ties.

But thirdly, in the greatest doubt that can be made hereof, it is to be considered how excee­ding dangerous it is to trust the deceitfull pleas of our hearts in a matter of Meum and Tuum, between God and us.

And fourthly, it is very con­siderable that Tithes were not proper to the Aaronicall Priest­hood, which was the Ceremo­niall Priesthood that was abro­gated, [Page 332] but also to the Melchise de­chian Priesthood, which is the or­der of Christs priesthood, & ther­fore seem in great probability, if not demonstratively, to stand still due unto Christ; and so to be due still unto him. And how can they bee paid more properly unto him, than in the supportance of his service? and in that it continued in both these Priesthoods, it appeares me thinkes thereby that it was no part of the Ceremoniall Law, but a thing common both to the ministration of the Law, and the Gospell, which were se­verally presented in those two Priesthoods, as I may so speak: For the Law was changed in the change of the Priesthood, [Page 333]as the Epistle to the Hebrewes teacheth. This Ordinance of Tithes therefore continuing, as well as the Ordinance or office of blessing in both those so diffe­rent Priesthoods, it appeares thereby to bee none of that changeable Law that is done a­way. I desire the Reader to excuse my engagement to bre­vity, so far as to save me some labor here, by casting a diligent eye upon the 7 ^th to the Hebr. from the 1. Verse to the 18. as also Gen. 14.18, 19, 20. Verses. Let these things bee seriously considered, and if they bee of weight, let them prevaile to end this quarrell; and let not covetousnesse and envy bee heard any more against reason [Page 334]and Scripture: nor the com­paring of mens owne ends bee set up for Religion; nor Mam­mon for the true God. If there be any paralogisme, or any un­soundnesse in these arguments, I refuse not to have them sear­ched by any mans pen that shal please. When their failing is discovered unto me, I shall be willing to relinquish them, and not hang this conclusion a­ny longer upon them.

But then fifthly, I desire it may be considered, that this way of tyranny holds excel­lent correspondence with that Command of the Apostle, Gal. 6.6. [...] Let him that is Catechised, (I seldome heare [Page 335]that word, but I thinke of the ruines of our Church through the neglect hereof: And I can hardly passe by it without re­newing my complaint) or taught in the word, communicate unto him that teacheth or Cate­chiseth in all good things. Which cannot bee exactly and orderly done (and let the buil­ders of Babel say what they wil, all things are the better for or­der) unlesse by that or some such like way.

And then sixtly, the rule wil hold à minori as before, that the proportion ought not to be lesse, but rather greater than that of the legall Ministerie: So that either tithes or more will bee due: and why first fruits [Page 336]should bee forgotten I know not.

And lastly, however the mat­ter be, at the worst that is ima­ginable, The Abrogation of the Law had left tithing indiffe­rent as it had been so before the Ceremoniall Law was given, by the rule afore set downe and declared; and if it be of an in­different nature, and ordinable unto the promotion of Gods glory, it may be the subject & matter of a Vow, and of a Law both Ecclesiasticall and Civil; and then in case where they are devoted, and that by the will of the dead, the most sacred and inviolable bond, and the most authenticall and irrevo­cable act of humane power [Page 337]in its kinde, and established by Law, both Ecclesiasticall and Civill. They are to bee paid with great fidelity, and that out of Conscience. And though the Law might be abrogated, and that it had not, as perhaps it hath in cases of this kinde, the nature of a publicke Vow, yet as long as the private Vow of the giver, and the Will of the dead is irrevocable, there had need to be much greater reason than is pretended for the violation. But I must away.

As for those evasions, (for they are no better, and covetousnesse, will straine hard, but it wil find one tricke or other to cheat the Conscience withall) whereby the Reformers of these times, as [Page 338]too many heretofore, would faine justifie the alienation of tithes and other things conse­crated to God and the Church. viZ. That the grants thereof were procured by erroneous perswasions; and upon false grounds, as was the opinion of merit, of satisfaction for sinne, of obtaining deliverance out of Purgatory, and the like; and that they were given to evill ends, as to the supportance of Idolatry and Superstition, in­stead of true Religion, and the sincere worship of God, al­though they have beene answe­red, and answered over and over by farre more learned and able pens, and sufficiently to the sa­tisfaction of any that have not [Page 339]enslaved their judgements and reason to the partiall opinions and admirations of mens per­sons, or to their owne corrupt affections and wordly intents, whereby they have made good that saying of the wise man, Proverbs 27.22. Though thou shouldst bray a foole in a Mor­ter, among Wheat with a Pestle, yet will not hts foolishnesse depart from him. And that of Petraach, algidum in cinerem nequicquam flabis, Hee that blowes into the cold ashes, shall doe no good thereby, but make them flye a­bout his eares. Or what Gregory Nazianzen said long agoe of those that are bewitched with the love of riches:

Yet notwithstanding give me leave manipellos meos horreo Domini immittere, to bring in my little gleaning hand­fulls into the Lords Barne in this point.

And first to reply to the for­mer of these evasions; That [Page 341]though it be too probable that many things were given in this kinde in the times of the blindness of Popery, upon such erroneous grounds and perswa­sions, as are before set downe, (and it is our great shame that their errors should bee more fruitfull than our truths) yet it will bee an hard matter per­haps for them to prove which of them were so procured, or given; or to assure themselves that there were not joyned with those superstitious apprehen­sions, some mixtures of better thoughts, that might bee suffi­cient to make good the interest of God and his Church there­in. Secondly, that long pre­scription doth make good [Page 342]those acquisitions that are founded in errour and mistake; for though it bee a rule in the Civill Law, that quod initio vi­tiosum est non potest tractu tempo­ris convalescere; yet this rule hath this exception, viz. Nisi haec duo simul concurrunt. sc. Vi­tii cessatio & novissimus actus. Thirdly, that it may bee very dangerous in these dayes to ad­mit of such a principle, that those grants are invalid that are obtained upon false pretences and perswasions: For this would entrench shrewdly upon the validity of the Act some yeares since obtained from his Majesty, for the continuation of this present Parliament, which was granted upon other pre­tences [Page 343]and perswasions than doe a­ny whit agree with those acti­ons wherein it hath beene since employed. Fourthly, give me leave to propose this Dilemma unto all mens consciences, that are any way concerned in this point. Either those errors that are supposed to be the inducements of those donations, made them void or no; if it did not make them void, they stand good unto the Church; if it did make them void, then without doubt it ought to returne unto the heires of the Donours, who ought not to suffer for the fraud of others, or their Fathers folly or superstition. What then hath any body else to do either to take them away, or to buy or sell them?

Fifthly, false perswasions or grounds, where the party gran­ting is faulty in the admission of them, doe not seem to make voyd concessions; especially when they are confirmed with sacred Bonds: Or if so, how came it to passe, that the league of Israel with the Gibeonites, who deceived them with their old shooes, and their old bottles, and their mouldy bread, and with a plaine downe right lye, Iosh. 9.4.9. &c. was yet so firme and lasting, that the breach thereof was so severely puni­shed by God so many hundred yeares after: as you may see 2 Sam. 21.1, 2, 3 Verses, &c.

To the second evasion I an­swer, That a superstitious use or [Page 345]intention, or emploiment, doth not make void the Vow, or the conse­cration of a thing dedicated, much lesse render it uncapable of being employed in the true worship and service of the Almighty. God himselfe pronounced the Cen­sers of Korah and his company to be hallowed, though they were consecrated in a superstitious and unwarrantable way, and used in a false worship, Numb. 16.38. and therefore though they must not bee used in that particular way in which they were dedicated, yet the Lord gives order to have them made into broad Plates for the Altar; and that is indeed the right cure of things dedicated to superstiti­ous uses, not to alienate them from the [Page 346]Church, & so turne them from the the service of superstition to be the instruments of pride, and lust, and luxury, and rebellion; but to vin­dicate them unto those employ­ments that are truly religious. See the Story of Gedeon offering Sacrifices unto God, with the wood of the Grove, Iudg. 6.26. And that by the command of God, and of the bringing backe the Vessels of the Temple to Ierusalem, Ezr. 1.11. & 5.14, 15. & 6.5. & 7.19. & Neh. 13.9. So wee see these evasions are no justifi­cations; But without doubt the gaine is the godlinesse; there lyes the sweetnesse of Reformati­on with these men. Demetrius and the Crafts-men may crie up Dia­ [...]; but the gaine, and the profit [Page 347]that came in by the silver shrines, that was the Diana that they worshipt. Had it not beene for that, they would perhaps have cared alike for Diana and for Christ. And men in these dayes may talke of Reformati­on, (and I would to God wee could see them once set about a true one;) but it is too appa­rent what the English of their Reformation is, even the plun­dering and the robbing of the Church Revenues, and the en­riching themselves with the spoile of the Ministerie, and the House of God, and the in­truding of themselves into the possessions of other men. It is an ill signe when these Cookes of Reformation grease themselves [Page 348]and lick their fingers so much in the dressing of it, it is like to be but a slovenly piece of Cooke­rie. Had the Church been poor enough, perhaps it had ne're been medled with by these men; and therefore wee see this hath been the great businesse: The Bishops Lands have been sold, and the Malignants, as they are pleased to stile them, have been sequestred: And in order to that and some other good pur­poses, they have beene pulled downe. But for any matter of Reformation in any thing else, what great matters have been done? What is the glorious issue of these seven yeares la­bour?

As for those evill fruits [Page 349]that are so much cryed out of, as Pride, Ambition, Idle­nesse, Luxury, Worldlinesse in Church-men, &c. I deny not but there have beene ill uses made of Gods blessings as well by us of the Cler­gy as by others; and wee most willingly acknowledge Gods justice in making use of the injustice and oppressions of men to scourge us for our mis­carriages, and to deprive us of those mercies and encourage­ments which we have used no better. But first, this is not the fault of the revenues, but of those that abused them; and then againe this might have beene remedied by a better course; by wholsome Lawes [Page 350]for the reformation of such a­buses. Thirdly, as Riches have their temptations, so hath poverty too. We do not find it is alwayes the mother of piety. The old saying is too oftē true, that Necessitas cogit ad turpia; Need sets men upon uncomely and unjustifiable actions. Fourthly, there are temptations also in the riches of the Laity; and if all matters bee rightly exa­mined, it will bee found that their Honours and revenues have yeelded no better fruits in them, than those which are charged upon the Clergy; let the world judge. But will you heare something out of a Church-complainant, in Queene Elizabeths Dayes, taxing the [Page 351]like fault in some Reformers of that time: Pamphagum quen­dam Helluonem spurcissimum, cum ad convivia invitatus esset, in delicatiores cibos sordes conje­cisse ferunt; Vt solus quibus vellet vesceretur: & certè quâ o­lim aviditate, gurges ille atque helluo ad cibos accersit: eadem re­formatores nostri ad devorandas Ecclesiae opes accersisse mihi vidē ­tur; cclesia enim opes arripiunt, cū condemnant, omnium malorum semina & alimenta esse dicunt, & in privates quaestus, nequissimè transferunt. It is said of one Pamphagus or Eate-all a most filthy Glutton, that when hee was invited to a Feast, hee went and cast some filth or durt into the most delicate dishes, that he might [Page 352]enjoy them wholly to himselfe: Iust so (saith he) doe our Refor­mers seeme to us to have addressed themselves to the devouring of the riches of the Church. They cast durt upon the Churches Reve­nues, and condemne them as the fountaines and causes of much mischiefe; but it is that they may gaine them to themselves. And truely that is but an unmanner­ly tricke, to spit in the Pot­tage to deprive others of it, and then to eate it all themselves. But give me leave to propound unto them some few interroga­tories out of the same Author: Si divitiis virtutem enervari statuant: quid divitiis circum­fluere tam vehementèr conten­dunt? Si opum abundantiâ Ec­clesiae [Page 353]puritatem concidisse existi­ment, quid tanti mali causam non sibi quoque perniciosam futurum putant? Si affluentior rerum copia sine scelere possideri non pos­sit: quid illis, sceleratius qui cu­piditati violentiam & avaritiae rapinas adjungunt. If riches bee so hurtfull, why doe they keepe such adoe to become rich? and if wealth cannot bee possessed without un­righteousnesse, what is more un­righteous than they, that have undone a King, a Church, and al­most two whole Kingdomes, to en­rich themselves? or are they so armed against the temptations of Mammon, that none of his Witchcrafts can hurt them? or if they may be so happy; why may not others as well as they? [Page 354]And if some of the Ministery have abused their riches, are there not others to bee found that have done much good with them? But have you never heard of some Clergy-Reformers, that heretofore cryed down Pluralities whilst they could not get them themselves? (for my part I confesse I approve them not, and yet not upon those termes, it is well knowne unto some I think.) But when there was by this happy Reformation a scatter of Benefices made a­mongst them, by the persecution of the Orthodox and Loyall Mi­nistery; how easily was their old Doctrine forgotten? and what scrambling there was a­mongst them for Pluralities? [Page 355]How were they ready to choak themselves with Greedinesse? swallowing down three or four Livings at one time. But, to the pure all things are pure. I confesse it; and yet there is a vast difference between Purity and Hypocrisie. Sure these things are of no good report. The God of heaven grant the spi­rit of sincerity amongst us. In the meane time let them and those others that are like them re­member, that as he speaks, vi­tiosos reprehendere, sed probare vitia, condemnare nocentes sed Crimina absolvere: to reprehend other men as vitious, and approve the same vices in themselves; to condemne them as nocent, and to forgive themselves for the same [Page 356]crimes, is no good signe of an up­right Conscience. And then they that rob the Church out of zeale to sanctity, put a velvet Maske upon a foul and an ugly strumpet, and goe about to arme the de­vill against himselfe.

Indeed Sacrilege is one great bane wherewith Sathan hath u­sed to poison Reformations, and Rebellion another. Heare how Master Calvin chid some here­tofore for this miscarriage in their worke. First, in an Epi­stle to Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, he notes this as a blemish of the English Refor­mation; Certè nunquam integra florebit Religio, donec Ecclesiis melius prospectum fuerit, ut ido­neos habeant pastores, & qui do­cendi [Page 357]munus serio obeant; Id quo minus fiat, occultis quidem arti­bus obsistit Sathan: Vnum tamen apertum obstaculum esse intelligo, quod praedae expositi sint Ecclesiae reditus: malum sane intollerabile. Certainly, (saith he) Religion will never flourish entirely, till there be better care taken for the Chur­ches that they may have competent Pastours, that may seriously and diligently exercise the function of Teaching; This indeed Sathan strives to hinder by secret strata­gems. But there is one manifest impediment, as I understand, That the Revenues of the Church are exposed to the spoyle: which is intruth an unsufferable evill. And againe, in an Epistle to Viretus: Acriter aurem illis velli cavi de [Page 358]administratione bonorum Eccle­siasticorum, in tempore cogitan­dumillis esse qualiter Deo & ho­minibus rationem reddituri fo­rent. Papam fuisse furem, & Sa­crilegum. Videndum, ne simus successores. I urged them sharply, about the administration of Church-Goods; That they ought to thinke upon it in time how they should be able to render an account to God and men. I told them that the Pope had beene a thiefe and a Church Robber: and wee were to looke to it, that wee doe not prove his successors.

And agreeable to these spee­ces of Master Calvin, is that complaint of Zuickius in a Letter of his to Caivin. Huc ventum videtur quod non sine [Page 359]gemitu dixerim. Vt magna no­strorum pars credat sese tum de­mum verè regnum Antichristi evasisse, si cum bonis Ecclesiaelu­dant pro libito. Nec ulli discipli­nae subsint. O egregium Chri­stianismum!

It is come to this passe (saith he) (which I may speak not without lamentation) That a great part of our people thinke they have then at length truely e­scaped the Kingdome of Anti­christ, if the Church goods bee exposed to be the game of all men at pleasure; and that they be sub­ject to no discipline. O egregi­ous Christianity! Iust such a Reformation is this of our dayes.

I am even wearied with this [Page 360]sad contemplation, and almost confounded with that floud & heap of Mischiefes and Cor­ruptions, that wilde Forrest and Desart of thornes and bri­ers that have over-spread the face of this poore Church of ours. I am gotten into the middest of them, but can scarce tell how to get out: my medi­rations are even out of breath, & I am entangled in this brake of our Calamities, neither can I see to the end of them. Wheresoever I looke, I see too much matter for lamentation. When I looke upon the hou­ses of God, and see them demo­lished and neglected; When I goe into them, and behold how they are profaned and abused; [Page 361]When I consider the waste that is made in the peaceable and or­derly assemblies of the people, which are devoured and consu­med by Factions and Sectious Conventicles: When I looke upon the unreverent and un­seemly behaviour of those that remaine, to the dishonour of God, and the scandall of Religi­on: When I observe how the Crutches are taken from the lame, and the guides from the blinde, by the mercilesse abolition of the set and advised Formes of Prayer out of the Church, a­gainst so many Warrants of Gods Word, allowing them, and prescribing them, so many ne­cessities of the people requiring them, so many undenyable rea­sons [Page 362]convincing the conveniency and usefulnesse of them, so many cleare advantages of the Church therby commending them, & set­ting forth the benefit of them, against so ancient, so constant pra­ctise of the Church, both Primi­tive and Reformed establishing and ratifying them; and such a multitude of evill consequen­ces upon their removall, which our daily sad experience in­formes us of, and urgeth unto us for the restitution of them. The Tautologies, the Blasphe­mies, the corrupt, unsound, and unorthodox expressions; the con­fused, unmethodicall, and undige­sted, halfe codled, scandalous, and temerarious vociferations and frantick ragings, rather than [Page 363] prayers and devotions, that the people of God are continually in danger of thereby. Toge­ther with that which is so much the more to bee deplo­red, by how much the lesse it is deplored and considered of, The turning out of the daily publick prayer every where for the most part out of the Church, setled by Gods owne Institution and Commandment anciently in the Church of the Iewes, and com­mended unto us in the Church Christian, by the authenticall precedent and example of the Apostles and Apostolicall men, In the second of the Acts and 16 Verse, of whom it is said there, That they continued daily with one accord in the Temple, [Page 364]and breaking bread from house to house, did eate their meat with gladnesse and singlenesse of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people: and by the excellent fruit thereof, set down there also in the last words of that Chapter: And the Lord added daily unto the Church such as should be saved. When wee consider these things, and how the Currents of Gods mercies are growne low and dry unto us, since we left drawing with these Buc­kets, of our dayly prayers and supplications, in the Wells of Salvation. How God hath for­saken us, and cast us off, since we have forsaken and cast off him and his service.

And when we adde unto these [Page 365]thoughts, how the ancient and profitable Discipline of Christian fasting and humiliation is abomi­nated and rejected: and in stead thereof Iezebels bloudy and cruell Fasts, for the destruction of poore Naboth, and the surprizall of his Vineyard, substituted in their rooms; not to the reconciling, but to the further provoking of the Almighty, as we may too easily perceive by the wretched re­turns thereof that we continu­ally receive: whereby the Lord seems to answer us, as he did the children of Israel, in the 58 ^th of Isaiah; Wherefore have we fasted say they & thou seest not; wherfore have we afflicted our soules, and thou takest no knowledge? Would you know the reason? heare [Page 369]then what God saith at the fifth Verse; Behold yee fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickednesse, &c. Whilst we fasted in earnest, and fasted in unity, and fasted in obe­dience, and fasted in Charity, how wonderfully hath the Lord heretofore answered us in this City of London, and in other places of this Kingdome? how hath God yeelded himselfe to be bound by us as it were hand and foot, to bee disarmed by us of his Weapons of Destruction, to be overcome by us unto mercy and compassion? How speedily, how hastily, how wonderfully, have the Plagues and the Pesti­lences fled from the faces of our sincere and Christian humilia­tions [Page 367]and devotions? And how have we thereby as it were up­on a suddaine ravished the sword out of the hand of the destroy­ing Angel, or caused him to put it up into the sheath? But now since wee have set up our factious Fasts, and our smiting Fasts, instead of true Christian Fasts, How empty have we re­turned? What continuall re­pulses have wee received? How hath the Throne of Graee been shut up from our praiers? How have our miseries and desolati­ons been confirmed, and sealed, and multiplyed upon us? though we have repeated them so often, though they have been performed with such outward strictnesse and solemnity, [Page 368]though wee have roared like Beares, and mourned sore, like Doves; yet we look for judgment, but there is none, for salvation, but it is farre from us. Iudgment is turned away backward, and ju­stice standeth afarre off, for truth is fallen in the street, and e­quity cannot enter. Yea truth faileth, and hee that departeth from evill maketh himselfe a prey. Though wee bellow and lowe like Oxes; yet still the Yoake of our Transgressions is bound by the hand of the Almighty. Our wounds still wranckle, and fester, and there is no healing for us. When we thinke upon these things, are not our Bow­els turned within us? What stormes and tempests of sighes [Page 369]and teares should bee raised hereby from our hearts, were we not over-whelmed more in our carnall security, than in so great a depth of affliction & miserie? How justly may we bee ready to cry out with the Psalmist [...], Ps. 42.7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy Water-spouts, Thy waves and thy billows are gone over us?

How are wee beggered and broken by these losses? How is the trade of our heavenly Mer­chandise, and of our spirituall Trafficke decayed and intercep­ted? How are we ship-wrackt and splitted in pieces like the Ship wherein St. Paul was, in the 27 ^th of the Acts, at the fortieth Verse, by the encoun­ter [Page 370]of the two Seas that have met together against us, the Seas of the divine indignation, and of our owne divisions and confusions. How is our totter'd Vessell runne a ground? The fore-part, that part of the Church which is right and orthodoxe, sticketh fast, as it were, and re­maineth unmoveable, being re­strained from the free exercise of that truth and worship which they professe, (and yet God be blessed that they yet sticke fast too unto their prin­ciples, and hold so well toge­ther, in so great a storme.) But the hinder part, you know what I meane, that is broken with the violence of the waves, into in­numerable pieces, into a thou­sand [Page 371] fancies, and foolish imagi­nations, into a multitude of strange and monstrous Factions, and Sects, and Heresies, and Blasphemous opinions, and Dia­bolicall Enthusiasmes, and the Souldiers Counsell is to kill the Prisoners, (it may bee feared) lest any of them should swim out and escape. VVhere shall we finde a Centurion that is wil­ling to save a Paul? Some indeed (and too many) cast themselves forth into the Sea, forsaking the Communion of this poore distres­sed Church: Some into the Sea of Rome, by falling away unto the Idolatry and superstition of popery, so much the more to be blamed, for deserting the Truth in its affliction; a cleare discovery, [Page 372]that they were never sincere and hearty friends unto it; other­wise sure they would not have left it in its distresse, when it stood most in need of their comfort and reliefe. I pray God make them ashamed of their base and dishonourable Apostacy. And others have cast themselves out on the other side, into a­nother Sea, a red Sea full of in­constant waves and raging sur­ges, and dreadfull Monsters, amongst whom the Leviathan taketh his pastime. But too few of these, I feare will ever get unto the Land. Yet some may perhaps on the Boards of re­pentance, which is called tabula post naufragium, (which God grant them) and on the bro­ken [Page 373]pieces of the Shippe.

And to adde more yet unto all this misery, in all these stormes, The Pilot, under Christ and his Spirit, of the ancient government is cast out; and every unskilful Mariner, and capricious lay-Elder, children of a Geneva sedition, viros è sangui­ne natos, and therefore sit instru­ments for that businesse they have to do, to seed and nourish the wombe from whence they sprung; These, on the one side, and on the other side some that are worse than these, whom I scarce know what to call, are striving for the sterne, whilst the Vessell goes to ruine; and to all the rest of those strange symptomes of the phrensie and [Page 374] franticke madnesse of the people of this Land. This is added, That they are so foolish as to bee perswaded, That the Government established by the Apostle of Christ himselfe, and warranted by the analogy that it heareth unto that which was established by God himselfe in the Church of the Iewes, the wisedome and equi­ty of the order whereof doth still prescribe unto us, though that that was typicall, and pro­per unto the Jewish Nation, and the legall Ministery is va­nished; That this government (I say) is antichristian, as if there had never beene any true Discipline in the Church of God untill Calvins time, Of which wee may truely say, [Page 375] aetatem non habet, It is not yet at age to answer for it selfe, much lesse to be a fit Guardian for Gods people. But this is the sad fruit of the miscarriages and corruptions of those, (I mean of some of those) to whom that high trust of Government in the Church of God was com­mitted, who were more puffed up with the state & dignity, than they were affected with the charge and duty of their places, which they left too freely unto the mismannage of their inferi­our Officers, who looking after gaine more than godlinesse shall I say? Nay looking after gain in despight of godlinesse, in op­position to godlinesse, sowed those tares whilst they slept, [Page 376]who should have looked over them, which have since borne confusion and destruction to this Church and Nation. I wish with all my heart I could have beene silent in this, for God knowes I delight not in the trade of Cham: But my de­signe is Humiliation, and therein I must not bee partiall; and therefore give mee leave to say as one of the honestest of the Adversaries of the Truth that ever I met with to my knowledge hath said before me in another cáse: Si vero haec cul­pain Ecclesiae quoque speculatores derivatur, ipsi viderint, ut Christi judici olim suum offici­um excusent, in talibus.-nos in antiqua Ecclesiae nostrae seu pri­ma [Page 377]saecula respicimus, & illa ipsa contra insurgentes haeretistas defendimus; tolerantes interim cum dolore incommoda praesentia, Vt pote quae mutare non opis no­strae sit: and I hope I may say something more truely than he did; pug no pro veritate Eccle­siae primae nullius novae sectae odio, multò minus ut pseudo-ca­tholicis obsequar, qurbus ut non scribo it a precor ut cum sectis resi­piont, illae nimirum ab haeretismo hae ab abusu. I desire to contend for the truth of the Primitive Church, without any rancour a­gainst any side, much lesse with any compliance with those that are Pseudo-Catholiques. Vnto whom as I write not (saith hee) and yet I confesse I do, to them [Page 378]and all, and as I write unto them, so I pray that they may re­pent together with the Sectaries and Seditious; as these from their Heresies, Blasphemies, and ungod­ly designes; so they from their a buses and miscarriages. In the meane time for those that are as hee also speaketh, acti suo quo­dam spiritu ita antecclesiastico ut nihil Ecclesiasticum illis placeat, sed sordeant omnia quae Schisma­tica, & transfug is aut horibus nu­per inventa non sunt. That are hurried on by their owne An­teeclesiasticall spirit (And sure an Antecclesiasticall Spirit is an Antichristian Spirit, for Christ and the Church are one, 1 Cor. 12.12.) so that they can away with nothing that is Ec­clesiasticall, [Page 379]but account all things sordid and vile that are not schis­maticall, and invented by those that are forsakers of the Church. For these I say, I humbly de­sire of God, that hee would ei­ther open their eyes, and convert their hearts, or else put a palsie into their hands, that they may not enforce others to subscribe unto their follies and wicked­nesse.

And thus you have seene a sad prospect of some of the calamitous changes that have befalne this poore destitute and forsaken Church, which are as so many crooked lines, yet meeting in this center, if we may call that a Center wherein there is no rest, even in the generall [Page 380]decay of true Piety and Religi­on, which is degenerated into a strange and horrid Chaos of Divisions and Distractions, of Quarrels & Contentions, where­by the sincerity of faith is cor­rupted, the flames of Christian love and charity cooled, the opera­tions of a godly and Christian life abolished and neglected; Conscience dethroned and deposed, and carnall interest got up into its roome, which hath arraigned and condemned not onely the actions, but the very rules of vertue and holinesse, and in stead of the true spirituall and heavenly wis­dome, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easie to bee in­treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without [Page 381]hypocrisie: That is intruded un­der the name thereof, which is the B [...]ood of envy and strife, and the wombe of confusion and every evill worke, which the Apostle tells us is Earthly, Sensuall, De­vilish; and in stead of that which was heretofore the glory of the ancient Christians, which made the very Heathens fall into admiration of them with an Ecce quàm se invicem diligunt? quam pro se invicem mori parati sunt? Behold how they love one another, how they are ready to dye one for another, They might now more justly fall in­to an astonishment at the inhu­manity and Barbarisme that is amongst us, against one ano­ther, with an Ece quàm se invi­cem [Page 382]oderint quàm se invicem in­ter ficere parati sunt? Behold how they hate one another? how they are ready to kill and to destroy one another? Thus the fruitlesse and roten Vine is become the most sor­did and uselesse of all trees. And according to the saying, that Corruptio optimi pessima, The cor­ruption and degeneration of Chri­stianity hath proved worse in too many than Turcisme or Heathe­nisme it selfe, as the best Wine makes the sharpest Vinegar; those cruelties and injustices being acted among us, yea pro­fessedly and openly performed and justified, which even Eth­nicks and Mahometans would be ashamed to bee suspected of. And how shall this reproach and [Page 383]ignominy of the Name of Christ, and the profession of the Gospell be answered for?

And if this were the full summe of all our miseries, there were cause enough for us even to melt our hearts in tears of lamentation, though wee were never so entire and un­maimed in outward and tem­porall blessings; Though wee swamme in the midst of plenty; Though our outward Peace ran as heretofore smoothly like a calme and cleare River; though the reputation or honour of our Nation were never so splendid and unstained in the eyes of men; though the outward frame of Government were ne­ver so orderly and excellently [Page 384]composed and setled, and our liberties secured never so much unto us; all this would be but splendida miseria, a splendid kinde of misery and happines, being destitute of the Crowne and true glory of them all, which is the prosperity of Re­ligion and the Church of God: for as one speaketh in the per­son of the European Church; Quanti ista sunt si comparent ur cum illis aeternis benefici [...]s, nam quid si frugibus, si mercibus a­bundarem, si viis a latrocinio, maribus a pyraticâ liberatis pace perfruerer, opulentiae matre. Quid si magnificis aedificiis, bonis legi­bus, probis moribus, ingenuis ar­tibus exornarer, & in terrâ care­rem sanâ fide, puro cultu, viz. [Page 385]precibus, incorruptis Domini Sa­cramentis, quibus mihi solatium vivae Gloria mortuae solo Christi merito communicetur. Quid (inquam) illa mihi terrena bene­ficia prodessen [...]o mnia, hisce caele­stibus destitutae? si hic beata vi­verem ad tempus, & post misera perirem in aeternum? What are all these temporall things, if they bee compared with eternall bles­sings? What would it profit us to abound with the fruits of the earth and merchandise; to have our high wayes free from the danger of Robbers; the Seas from the per­rill of Pyrats; to enjoy outward peace the mother of plenty; to dwell in stately Edifices; Nay what would it bee for us to have good Lawes, civill manners, and to bee [Page 386]adorned with liberall Sciences, if with all these, wee be destitute of sound faith, pure worship, holy prayers, undepraved Sacraments? whereby comfort in life, and glory when we are dead, is communica­ted unto us, by the sole merit of Christ? what I say would all these terrene benefits advantage us, be­ing deprived of these heavenly blessings? What behocfe would it be unto us, to live happily for a time here, and to bee miserable for ever hereafter? If we be exclu­ded from the end, what shall we be bettered by enjoying the meanes? How-ever our carna­lity hath blinded us, it will one day be found true what the fore-said Author hath, that, nan Ecclesia propter rempublicā, [Page 387]sed respublica proter Ecclesiam. The Church is not for the Com­mon-wealth, but the Common-wealth for the Church. The pro­sperity of the Civill state is lost, or in vaine, if the whol­some constitution of the Church be ruined. Nay he goes further, Dicam amplius, saith hee, & verè, non Ecclesia propter mundum, sed mundus propter Ec­clesiam. The Church is not for the world, but the world for the Church. The prosperity and health of Religion is the foun­dation of all other blessings. Ruere Ecclesia non potest, as hee goes on, quin codem respublica labefactata motu concìdat. The Church cannot fall to ruine, but the Common-wealth must bee sha­ken [Page 388]with it; and so indeed wee have found it: For in the con­cussion of our Religion and our spirituall blessings, what outward blessing is there that is left unmaymed, undissipa­ted?

First, for our outward peace, which is upon the matter the summe of all; whither is it va­nished? is there so much as a shadow of it left amongst us?

The time was, when we were the Palace of Peace, the habita­tion of tranquility and con­cord; The harmony whereof making a perpetuall musicke and melody in this nation, made us the envy of other people, & them too much our scorne, who should have beene our pitty: [Page 389]It was once with us in this Realme like a long faire calme and Sun-shiny day, like a plea­sant and gentle gale of winde, not buffeting us with rough or injurious gusts, but stroking us with amarous and pleasing Aires. The Current of our houres and dayes was like a streame of milke running in a Channell of the most polished Ivory, upon which we sayled up and down with pleasure and de­light, freed from those jarring and discordant bussles and en­counters wherewith our neigh­bour nations were continually molested. The curled waves waiting round about our Iland, as an armed Guard set by the order of the Almighty for our [Page 390]safety, and attending as speedy posts and ready Messengers, and swift Charriots, to runne upon our errands unto forraign Nations, and to convay our traffique unto them, and their riches unto us. We sate quiet­ly then every one under his own Vine, and under his owne Fig­tree; No rude and Barbarous Souldier beating open our doores to plunder us of our e­states, or to hurry us unto pri­son, or unto death; No firing of our houses, or Cities; No wasting of our Fields or Vine­yards; No tearing away of the poore oppressed Husband from the bosome of his affrighted Wife at mid-night; Noopen ravishing of Women, and [Page 391]murdering them when that was done; No common massacring of them and their poore inno­cent children to bee heard of. No fields or meddowes dyed with the dismall Scarlet of Chri­stian Gore; nor Furrowes made fat with the bloud of the slaine. The terrifying sound of the warlike Trumpet, that made the Prophets Bowels to moove within him, and payned him at the very heart, Ier. 4.19. was once a stranger in our land. The Travailet might goe on in the high-waies, without being puz­led with that amazing question, Who are you for? not to bee an­swered without the hazard of his life. No capitall crime then to be for God and the King. [Page 392]No carrying of a pious and gracious Prince by violence & treachery from one prison unto another; nor forcing of poore Orthodox Ministers, for dis­charging their consciences out of their Churches or Pulpits, unto the Gaols. The profitable Plough went on cheerefully in the Countrey, and the Hus­bandman was not then faine to put out the eyes of his Horses, to save the lamenesse of his Teeme. The gainfull Trade of the City brought in the rich returnes of the Merchant and Artificer without interrupti­on. Each man knew what was his owne, and possessed what he had gained with his labour. It was not a crime then to be rich, [Page 393]nor a badge of honesty to bee poore, nor a piece of malignancy to bee faithfull and loyall. The certaine and knowne Lawes of the Kingdome were the limits and bounds of the private and publicke interest, and were not demolished by the perpetuall and daily battery of Ordinan­ces. Then we were like an health full body, wherein the bu­mours and qualities keeping their due proportions with one another, Breake not the preservative League of nature. Then we were like an entire for­tresse, strengthned by the cement of solid unity, against the assaults of invading enemies. Then we were like a well walled City without breach, yeelding [Page 394]security to the inhabitāts ther­of, and defying the attempts of the most potent adversaries. Then we were like a Beautifull Body, wherein the parts being fitted with an amiable pro­portion unto one another, with out Convulsions, Distortions, or Dislocations, and contribu­ting joyntly unto the generall comlinesse, by the tribute of their particular features, en­joyed the mutuall sweetnesse of one another, under the splendor of a royall and Princely head, from whom they received life, and orderly motion under God: The severall faculties, exerci­sing their proper and vitall o­perations, to the good and pre­servation of the whole; and [Page 395]answering the visible musicke of the outward beauty with a­nother more active, and intelle­ctuall harmony.

Then we were like a specious and well-composed Building, e­rected upon the foundation of solid, well-framed, and well-established constitutions, and covered with the Golden roofe of a glorious Monarchy, the one to support it, and the other to protect it: and the Corner­stones thereof were all of U­nity.

We were like the Scythidns Sheffe of Speares or Arowes bound up together, which nei­ther Spaine nor France could breake, nor all the force of sor­raigne enemies burst, untill [Page 396]the devill, and our owne pride and faction, broke the Band a­sunder, and so robbed us at once both of our unity and strength, and rendered us a prey to a more contemptible people than either.

We were once like a sound and untoitered Vessell, sailing up­on the Main, in a pleasant and faire season.

But now alas! Quantum distamus ab illis? How are wee changed from what wee were? The health of our body langui­sheth, through the Warres and Quarrells of the contrary hu­mours and qualities. The strength of our Fortresse is broken and demolished by breaches and divisions. The Walls of our [Page 397] City are Battered and beaten downe by the Hellish Engines of our bitter strifes and con­tentions. The foundations of our building are cast downe, and the golden roofe thereof is bro­ken up, and hath left us open to the stormes and tempests, to per­petuall ruine and confusion; and the cement of peace being broken and dissolved, the parts of our Edifice moulder away from one another; and in stead of a faire structure we are become a heap. Our sheffe of Arrowes are di­vided from one another. Our poore Vessell is become tottered and broken, splitted upon the Rocks of our owne Discords, & beaten with the surges and bil­lowes of these unhappy divisi­ons [Page 398]which are still amongst us. So that wee are now become like the Ship wherein the Dis­sciples were in the eighth of Matth. The stormes are risen upon us, and wee are even cove­vered and overwhelmed with the waves, and too few there are that will wake our Iesus by their earnest and hearty prayers and supplications, that hee may re­buke these Windes and these Seas, and restore us unto a calme. The judgement of the Midianites and of the Philistines is fallen upon us: Wee goe on madly, Beating one another, that our e­nemies may make a prey of us all. The flames of our intestine Broyles have seized upon us, and we are wasted and consumed in [Page 399]the raging heat thereof. Thus is our peace vanished and gone.

And when Peace is gone, li­berty is not like to stay behinde. Heretofore wee enjoyed the happy freedome of Subjects and of Christians; no Bonds for the most part upon the Body of this Nation, but the Golden Chaines of those wholsome Lawes which were framed by the Authority of his Majesty, with the gene­rall consent of the people of the Land, in the representative Body thereof, which were unto us Chaines rather of Ornament than Slavery, and did not so much limit as preserve our Free­dome; nor restraine us from u­sing it so much as others from hurting it; for though the [Page 400]blindnesse of our minds, toge­ther with the inordinatenesse of our affections, hath heretofore so bew itched us, that wee could not see our owne happinesse. Yet me-thinks by this time our sad Experience, which is the Mi­stresse of Fooles, may informe us, that the Power and preroga­tive of the Magistrate, and the ready subjection of the people therunto, is the surest guard of the liberty of the people, under God. The removall and violation whereof, hath not rendred us as wee soolishly dream't, so much masters of our selves, as those that promised it us, abso­lute Tyrants at their pleasure over us, and us the Vassals un­to their irregular and unsatiable [Page 401]appetites, who having ravished the Sword out of the lawfull Magistrates hand, and gotten too much of the strength of the Kingdome into their owne, use them both, after all their faire protestations and pollicitations to the contrary, to compell the poore abused people of the Land, to prostrate their Estates, Possessions, and their personall services to the maintainance of that bondage which they have brought upon them, and to the strengthning of that intolle­rable yoke which they have for­ced upon their necks; and it were well yet that they had got­ten but so much wisedome into so sad a bargaine, as to discover and acknowledge their folly, [Page 402]and how at length to seeke a re­medy thereof, by endeavouring the restitution of Law and Monarchy; that they would but now at length see the palpable difference, betweene one Lord, and many; betweene one graci­ous and pious King, and thirty thousand Tyrants, whose varie­ty of designes and inclinations, renders the obedience of the people as perplexed and impossi­ble, as the rigorousnesse of their Commands, and infinity as it were of their exactions, makes the burden oft their oppression intollerable.

And whilst we mistooke A­narchy for Liberty, wee have found that true that was spoken by an accute Politician of this [Page 403]nation; Qui propter libertatem suam omnia agit arbitrio suo, propter libertatem alienam om­nia patitur arbitrio alieno. Hee that for want of a lawfull Government, by reason of his owne Liberty is left to doe all things at his owne Will; By reason of the liberty of others is exposed to suffer all things at their Will.

But wee would not bee per­swaded of these Truths, not yet will wee, though wee have bought the knowledge of them so deare. Wee would not be­lieve we were free enough in our possessions or persons, untill by dismissing those guards which the Law and the excellent Go­vernment of this nation had [Page 404]set upon them, we had set o­thers free to enslave them both at their owne wills; as the whole Kingdome hath found by many heavy evidences. Thus whilst they vvould not live in an or­derly subjection to their Superi­ours for their good and preservation, it is most just in God to make them live in villany under their equalls and inferiours, to their ruine and destruction. And now what is become of our Liberty? surely there is scarce any other Liberty now left us, but such a liberty as the poore Sheep have that are deprived of the Shep­herd, and are free to be devou­red by every ravenous and sa­vage beast. We tooke our fold for a prison, our Castle of defence [Page 405]for a Dungeon, our Guardian for a Iaylor, and our Security for Restraint. We have broken down these Fences, and now we rejoice much in our liberty. Such a kinde of liberty indeed as the Lord threatned to the people, Ierem. 34.17. wherewith he re­warded their Oppression of their Brethren.

A Liberty to the Sword, and to the Famine, and to the Pesti­lence.

A Liberty to the Oppressour, and to the Plunderer, and to the Thiefe.

A Liberty to the Murderer, and to the Waster, and to the Devourer.

Liberty to Desolation, and li­berty to destruction.

Heretofore no man could bee deprived of his estate, or ejected from his possessions, without a legall triall, accor­ding to the knowne and establi­shed Lawes of the Kingdome.

No man could be adjudg­ed unto death, but according to the same established Lawes, and that upon evidence and conviction, by the triall of 12. men.

It was then no usuall course to imprison men at pleasure, without any crimes laid unto their charge, nor to keep them in prison six or seven yeares to­gether, without affording them a hearing and tryall, being de­sired.

If there were some miscarria­ges [Page 407]of this Nature in the Go­vernment heretofore, yet they were but rare, like Comets and wonders: (as there are some ex­travagances even in the worke of nature it selfe; and must be expected sometimes in the best Government by reason of the in­firmities of men, the miscarria­ges of Instruments, the fallacies and deceitfulnesse of Representa­tions, and the manifold difficul­ties and impediments of Govern­ment, which hath been too little considered heretofore, and should have beene cured with medicines, and not worse Ma­ladies; But now our Estates are ravished from us by vio­lence, by those new orders of Theeves, called Committy-men [Page 408]and Sequestrators, without so much as any Charge objected a­gainst some of us. And if others have had some Charge laid a­gainst them; yet how often have they beene charged with their Duties in stead of Crimes, and condemned, not for breaking, but for observing the Lawes of God, and of the Land, and that without any due hearing, or any the least shew of any legal Con­viction? witnesse those nume­rous multitudes of Loyall and Orthodox Ministers, that have been whifled out of their livings and charges, by the illegall storms of a Committee-tempest, upon no other ground but a sic volo sic jubeo; or because their Con­sciences would not stretch unto [Page 409] disloyalty upon the tenter-hooks of their oppression; and that with­out so much as a forme of any legitimate triall and eviction.

Our Bodies are hurryed away to Iayles and Prisons, without so much as any Cause declared, or a Summons premised to come in to our Answer, or the least Colour of Law to countenance it; and both these clearely against the Petition of Right, and the great Charter of Eng­land.

When some have been kept for divers years, and have never so much as heard, either why, or wherefore; but only to satis­fie the pleasures of our new Lords.

The lives of the honest and [Page 410]loyall people of the land have beene sacrificed to the lust of cruelty and oppression by arbitra­ry Sentence, and without any re­gular proceeding, for commit­ting Duties against their un­godly Designes, for offences a­gainst no law either of God or man, that allotted any capitall punishment thereunto, but such as were made by an invalid pow­er, and that after the Facts con­mitted: which if allowed, who can tell what to doe, or when hee does well or ill? or who can be secure of his life? Witnesse the bloud that yet still cryes and speaks no better things it may bee feared, than the bloud of Abel, of Strafford, Laud, of Yeomans and Bowcher, [Page 411]of Tomkins and Chaloner, and many others in Coole bloud, and deliberately massacred; besides those many thousands destroy­ed by the lawlesse sword of Re­bellion: And witnesse that bloud now lately shed, not by Lawes, but by false glosses up­on the Lawes rather, the bloud of loyall Captaine BURLY. And that this mischiefe may be secured if possible from all remedy, it is become an high offence so much as to aske the Restitution of our freedome; witnesse the barbarous massa­cring of the late Surrey Peti­tioners at Westminster. And what freedome is left, where wee may not so much as petiti­on for our freedome? Or what [Page 412]security remaines unto any ei­ther of life or liberty under them who take away mens lives but for asking their Li­berties?

But what doe we talke of the Liberty of Subjects? looke upon your King: Yea let mee say unto you in Pilat's words unto the Jewes, but in a better sense, and with a better affe­ction: Behold your King, and see the very Grave and Tombe of your Liberty in his base and unworthy Captivity and Bon­dage. The Lord grant it a resurrection by his speedy delive­rance and restitution. But this is a subject both for the horrid impiety of the Actors, and the Glorious and Christian patience [Page 413]of the Royall Sufferer, now made nothing but a Royall slave by their wickednesse, too full of Emphasis for mee to venture it upon the poverty of my Pen, in that haste that I am in. Con­sider it, and let it divide your hearts at once into an abomi­nation of their wickednesse, an admiration of his courage and to­lerancy, and a lamentation of your owne wretchednesse and slaverie. The Crowne whereof is the Cap­tivity of the Crowne, and your gracious King: for though it bee true indeed that this is the just reward of the unthankfull murmurings and discontents of the people, who were weary of their owne happinesse, and have thereby betrayed themselves to [Page 414]misery and ruine; and of that too much fondnesse of outward and mistaken liberty, which whilst wee held at too great a rate, and preferred inordinately before Peace, and greater bles­sings, and esteeming it above that true liberty and freedome of spirit, which consisteth in an in­genuons and unservile Dominion over our selves, our passions, and affections, which if we had not betrayed in our selves, no man could have taken from us, it be­ing such as a noble & Christian heart may enjoy in the greatest outward slavery and bondage, in the closest Prisons, & the deep­est Dungeons, and under the ty­ranny of the most wicked op­pressors. Yet the visible foun­taine [Page 415]of this Calamity is the de­solation of just and lawfull Go­vernment amongst us.

And I need not labour much to tell you of the sad impaire­ments, and dissolutions of that amongst us. You have the sad spectacle thereof daily and hourely before your eyes.

You may yet remember the time, though it hath had a long interruption, when the Crown of Majesty was the Ornament of this Nation, and upon that glory was a defence; when agra­cious and pious King was the Crowne of his Crowne, and with the vertues and Clemency of his Person, adorned the greatnesse and dignity of his office: When the Throne and the Scepter of lawful [Page 416]and just power, armed as it were with coelestiall lightning, and strengthned with the sinew of the Divine authority, from whence it was orderly derived and received, as a Ray of that maje­sty and Authority which is in God himselfe, summoning the Consciences of men unto obedi­ence in the vertue and force of the divine Ordinance, yeelded protection unto the lives and li­berties of the People, security un­to Religion and divine worship, solidity unto the Peace and Vnity of this Church and nation, and was like a Cherubim and a fla­ming sword against the invasi­ons of Violence, Injustice, and Oppression.

Iustice was dispensed in the [Page 417] right Channells, being derived from the proper Fountaine; the Lawes, which are it were the life-bloud of a nation, ranne free­ly without such obstructions they now meet with through all the veines and vessels of this lody, and yeelded unto each Member its equall and just sup­ply, at least in so good a mea­sure and manner as was suffici­ent to preserve the Body in good liking and prosperity; and though the secret Briberies and partiabities of some inferiour instruments of Government, caused some smaller distem­pers in this kinde, yet they were such as might have had easie cures, and did not at all de­stroy the constitution of the body.

Wee were governed by au­thenticall and certaine Rules, and were not subject unto Mush­rome Ordinances; those abortive issues of the wombe of Sedition, those unformed lumps, and dead motions of a diseased and dropsie state, begotten by no legitimate Father, but by the Incubus of a rebellious people and Army.

There was then no professed and ordinary infliction of pu­nishments without any offen­ces going before them, no of­fences then without their prece­dent Lawes, to give the lye to the Blessed Apostles, who tell us that [...], That sinne is the transgression of the Law, 1 Iohn 3.4. And againe, By the Law is the knowledge of sinne, [Page 419]Rom. 3.20. And againe, where no law is there is notransgression. Rom. 4.15.

Then Iustice was administred in the right method, there went a faire hearing before cndemna­tion, and the sentence of the law was the Vsher to Execution.

It was managed by the right and genuine instruments, enabled by authentical Commissions from the supreame Magistrate, the force and vertue whereof was like a lively sap dispensed from the Royall Root into those seve­rall Branches of Government, which made them beare the fruits of Peace, and lustice, and safety to the people.

The motion of Rule, was like a naturall motion, derived from [Page 420]the head unto the members, by those legall Officers which were as the Nerves and Sinewes of this body, propagated from thence into the severall Regions and parts thereof.

And the Scales and weights and the mensures of justice were the same unto all sorts, with­out any open or professed inequa­lity, when the eyes of the Iudges were fixed not on the Persons, but their Causes, without such diversification of the sacred & inviolable rules of right, as now, according to the severall inclinations of parties and in­terests. There was not then as now one measure for a Cavalier, to yeeld him nothing, though his case bee never so cleare and [Page 421]just, and another for a Parlia­menteer, to yeeld any thing he will stand for, though his pre­tences and colours bee never so weake. Men were not then wracked and goard between the two horns of that unreasonable Dilemma, nor crushed to peeces in the presse of that Pharaohtick and unconscionable oppression, under which the poore loyall party, many of them suffer at this day, (and many more would suffer, were it not for the mercy of some good men, that they have to deale with, and such whose hearts God hath made tender towards them in these hard times) to bee laid open, to have all their debts exacted with all severity by [Page 422]their Creditors, and in the mean time to be utterly disab­led for the recovery of their owne, or the enjoyment of their estates; Whereby they should be furnished to pay that which is required of them; which is much worse than to require men to make Bricke without straw. It was not so with us heretofore.

But now, the Ornament and Defence of the Royall Crowne is cast downe; and that gracious and pious Prince that adorned it, is now sent away from the Throne of his Majesty, to bee the ornament of a Iaile or Prison; of whom wee may say more truely than he of Socrates, Ca­rolus carcerem intravit ignomi­niam [Page 423]loco detracturus; King Charles by being so long a Priso­ner, hath taken away the ignorminy and reproach of imprisonment; and I might perhaps be pardo­ned, if I should say that it may be lookt upon hereafter rather as a reward than as a punishment; and truly it may bee considered by those that are the Authors thereof, that it is no good way of Reformation, to bring the Prisons into too much credit, unlesse they meane to set up their owne trade by it, and to encourage men to rob, and steale, and to murder, on purpose that they may have the reward of a Iayle or Prison. But to goe on, now in stead of a just and legall Authority, that aw­full Bond that layes hold upon [Page 424]the very soule, an illegall and usurped power is set up, which a rectified Conscience so farre dis­claimes, that it accounts it a sin to submit unto it, and there is like to be little peace or setled order in that rule, where obedience it selfe is a transgression. Strength and outward force may prevaile for a while, and make slaves mor than subjects of a people; it may binde their carkasses, but it is Authority that rules the heart, and that is none where it is not just. The great comfort and encouragement of every duty unto man, is when it strikes through them unto God. This is it that doth at once secure, and sanctifie and sweeten our performances. Where Intrusion and usurpation [Page 425]is, there all these are wanting unto the soule. What hope then is there that an usurped Dominion, should either reco­ver or maintaine a setled con­cord in this Nation, where it is opposed by so many branch­es of just Interests against it, and cannot in any likelihood be held up but by great oppressions of the people, which must needs make the yoake thereof too irkesome to bee borne either with long Peace, or Pati­ence.

The Laws of the Kingdome are obstructed and intercepted, those true conceptions are stifled and destroyed by the adulterate superfaetations of Ordinances. The Great and once awfull and [Page 426] venerable Court of Parliament, that was the wombe of our wholsome Laws, is degenerated into Factions, and become the Seminary of Sedition; and in­stead of being the great Coun­sell of the King, is become his enemy; and whilst that which was ordained for the Physick of the Kingdome, is enforced up­on us for a perpetuall Diet (as it usually falls out) it is become mortall unto the body, and in stead of curing hath multiply­ed our Maladies. Punishments are inflicted without mercy, not onely for no offences, but for acts of righteousnesse. Transgressions are made without any Laws forbidding them; more than the corrupted rules [Page 427]of some mens unsanctified Consciences.

The method of Iustice and Go­vernment is confounded; and instead of the lawfull Officers and Instruments of Govern­ment, they being removed, Changelings are thrust into their places, without any le­gall or authenticall delegation from the fountaine of Iustice and Authority, whose want of Com­mission, poisons their administra­tions, and whilst they execute one murderer, they commit a­nother therein.

A stone and a stone, and an Ephah and an Epha, are become too perpetuall an abomination to the Lord in this notion, and in this ruine and devastation of [Page 428]Government, All the Duties both to God and man, both of the first and the second Table, of piety towards him, and justice and charity to our Neighbours, of chastity, temperance, and Christi­an sobriety in our selves, how are they fallen and trampled under foot? and indeed how should it be otherwise? when the hedge of the vineyard is broken down, what beast of the field, or wilde Boar of the Forrest can w [...]nt an admittance to forrage & waste it? When the foundations of the Earth are out of course, what hope is there of any sound­nesse or integrity to bee left? The Sunne is scarce more neces­sary to the world, than a lawfull and setled government is to a peo­ple; [Page 429]And if the Sunne be Eclip­sed it is held to bee the fore­runner of sad Eclipses of our in­feriour Comforts: and so wee have found the Eclipse of our Politick Sunne in the State.

And lastly for our Honour and reputation; Alas! How should that stay, when all these are gone? It is a blessing, which if it bee true, is but the splen­dour of other perfections; and therefore when they are va­nished, it must likely runne after them: Or if it stay behinde, it is but a shad­dow in shead of light. What Credit is to rich men, or Riches, such is Honour or Reputation to other Excel­lencies. And wee may here [Page 430]remember the old Verse:

When wealth and riches take their journey, credit useth not to remaine at home. And since Peace, Liberty, and the nurse of both and of all other blessings, Government, have left us, our re­putation is become but a fading flower.

We were once the Glory, who are now the shame, the scorne, and reproach of other na­tions. Our brightnesse is clou­ded, our splendour is obscured. Wee whose name heretofore for comlinesse and beauty in Re­ligion, [Page 431]made Rome to blush as it were in all her pride, to see Truth in this Church, like a Diamond richly set in the gold of excellent Order and decency, to out-shine all that sophisticall lustre of their gawdy and glaring superstition. We whose fame for Valour and Prowesse hath heretofore put such Agues in­to the greatest of our bordering Kingdomes, whose renowne for learning and knowledge in the Liberall Sciences, and in the Lawes Divine and Humane, made us so much the Athens and Academy of the World. We? Ah! what a Wee are wee now become? How are wee made the mocking-stock of our Ad­versaries? ROME laughs at [Page 432]us, to see our grave and come­ly Matron (for such was our Church) spoiled of her decent and seemely ornaments, and cloathed in the garments of madnesse, and in the ragges of Confusion and desolation; To be­hold that precious Gemme of holy truth which we embraced, rent out of the Gold, and cast under foot into the Dung-hill; To see our field that bore such fruitfull Crops, and our Val­leyes that stood so thicke with Corne, that they did even laugh and sing, even with the good Corne of wholsome and sound Doctrines, to bee overgrowne now with the Thornes and Bri­ars of Hereticall opinions, and mad Factions and Divisions. [Page 433]There, there say they, so would we have it, whilst the Calamities of our Church are their game and pastime, and as once it was said of Tire in her ruine. Is. 23.7. so wee may conceive them crying out scornfully against us, Is this your Ioyous City? and is this the temple of truth and holinesse? Is this the For­tresse of the divine. Oracles? the great Castle and Champion of the reformed Religion? See now what is become of their Refor­mation? where now is that ex­cellent building which they had set up? Oh how bravely it burnes and consumes in the flamer of those fires which themselves have kindled in it? Oh what sport it is to see it? [Page 434]How it warmes us, how it re­vives us! Thus they delight themselves with our phrensies, and strengthen themselves by our confusions and desolations. But Lord how long shall the wick­ed, how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and speake hard things? and the workers of iniquity hoast themselves? Lord looke upon our reproach and ignominy, and restore us for thy mercies sake: Let not them that are our enemies wrongfully rejoyce over us, neither let them winke with their eyes, that hate us without a cause. They have opened their mouth wide against us, and have said Aha, Aha, our eye hath seene it. This thou hast seene, O [Page 435]Lord, keepe not silence, O Lord be not farre from us. Stirre up thy selfe, and awake to our judgment, even to our cause, our God and our Lord.

Our bordering Nations that heretofore feared us, and ho­noured us, how doe they now dispise, or pitty us? whilst our samed Valour and Prowesse, is degenerated into treachery and basenesse; and the glorious noon of our Learning and Knowledge is overspread with a cloud of stu­pidity and ignorance?

And all these losses are ac­companied with many other, with decay in trade, of husbandry, and what not?

But I have done with this long and sad contemplation of [Page 436]our miseries, although I doubt not but your daily observati­ons, and the perpetuall sense of that variety of pressures that are upon us, may informe you that I have left many sores un­touched. But thus farre I have endeavoured to shew you the streames of our evills; and now I come to discover the fountain of them. I have hitherto set before you some symptomes of our maladies; it remaines now that I should lay open the root of them, that so we may pro­ceed unto the cures and reme­dies. And here I have a world of matter before me: But I have been too prodigall of my paper already, and therefore dare not lanch out into these [Page 437]deeps. Besides that, necessity is urgent upon mee in divers re­spects for a conclusion.

Take therefore for that which is behinde these severall Theses.

The first is this; That the generall fountaine of all these our miseries and caldmities, are the generall Corruptions, Backe­slidings, and Pollutions that are a­mongst us in this Nation.

The Assertion is evident.

1. Because sinne is the causa sine qua non, The cause without which there is no affliction. There was never any but one that was punished without sin, and that was Christ, and even he was punished for sinne.

This might further appeare [Page 438]from the goodnesse of God, who can meditate no evill to his poore creatures, made after his owne Image, if not engaged thereto in justice. God was all love and mercy, till sinne kindled a flame of fury and wrath in him, and yet that is a flame of love too; for it is his very love unto goodnesse that incenseth him a­gainst sinne. No cause in God without sinne; no cause in the creature without sinne. Affli­ction commeth not forth of the Dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the Ground. Job 5.6.

2. From the nature and use of afflictions, as they are either punishments, or chastisements, or trialls.

Were there no sinne, there [Page 439]would bee no Punishments.

Were there no Diseases, there needed no medicines. Where there are no errours, there need no corrections.

Where there are no falsificati­ons, ther eis no use of trialls. If there were no corrupt money, or base Metalls, the Touch­stone might bee throwne a­way.

3. From the cleare expressions of the Scripture.

1. Those that place the foun­taine of our Destructions, and our Calamities in our selves. Hos. 13.9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe, but in me is thine helpe.

2. Those that more plainely lay the charge upon our sinnes, [Page 440] Psalme 107.17. Fooles because of their transgressions; and be­cause of their sinnes are afflicted. See Ier. 2.19. and a multitude of other places.

3. Those wherein God threa­tens affliction, all which threat­nings are either explicitely, or implicitely brought in by sins. See Deut. 28, &c.

4. Those wherein we find the people of God acknowledging sin as the root of their Calamities, as Psalme 38.3. There is no sound­nesse in my flesh, because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sinne. Where we have the descent and pedigree as it were of afflictions and judgements set before us. The first root is sinne; that en­kindleth [Page 441]Gods anger, and that breakes forth into judgments, &c. God is the first cause of all good and blessing. But the Devill and our corruptions are before him in the production of evill, and the curse. Hee is the Au­thor indeed of these two, and the first cause of all that is good, and of being in them; but as they are evill, they are first from Satan and sinne. For God sends afflictions not as an in­stituter of nature, but rather as a revenging Iudge, or as a healing Physician &c. Therefore this is opus alienum, the first spring of this motion is in some sense not in God; that is to say, in regard of the evill that is therein.

[Page 442] 5. Those wherein the spirit argues from calamities to repen­tance and reformation; as a meanes of removall, ubi nega­tio est causa negationis, ibi affir­matio est causa affirmationis.

6. Those places, where wee finde Gods practice herein re­corded.

It was for the sinne of Adam, that he was cast out of Paradise, made subject to the Curse, to death and damnation, and that the crea­ture was cursed as his utensils and furniture, Gen. 3.

It was for the bloudy sinne of Caine, that hee was cursed from the earth, and made a fugitive, and a vagahond, a Rogue upon the face thereof. Gen. 4.

It was for the generall corrup­tions, [Page 443]and depravations of the old World, that it was destroyed by the wrath of God in the Deluge: First, the fountaines of the deepe were broken up, in a floud of their hellish sinnes and impieties, and then the windowes of heaven were opened to overwhelm them with a Deluge of Destruction, and so Abyssus Abyssum invocat, one deepe calleth another. See Gen. 7.11.

There was a Fire of horrid and unnaturall lusts, blowne up and nourished by those fuellers of Lust, Pride, and fulnesse of Bread, and abundance of idlenesse in Sodom, &c. before the fire from heaven came downe and consumed them unto ashes, &c. Gen. 19. Ezek. 16.49.

And from such and many other places we may conclude, That it is from our sins, our great, our horrid, our crying, our natio­nall sinnes, our universall corrup­tions, and desertions of God, that these great Evills are be­fallen us in the Church and State.

Especially from our hay nous contempt of the Gospell, and of the divine worship and ordi­nances, and the prophanations of his House and Service.

And for the contempt of that Government which he hath set o­ver us, and the violating the Authority of Christ, from whom it is derived. A sin that is indeed the wombe of univer­sall Corruption and Confusion; and however it may be painted [Page 445]over with false colours and pre­tences, invented by worldly and depraved mindes, to deceive themselves and others withall, yet it will appeare one day in its owne Colours, when those that have brought forth and nursed this mouster, will (if they repent not) bee afraid to looke upon it, &c.

For these high despights done unto Gods holy and gra­cious ordinances; and for those generall and nationall sinnes of Perjury, Sacrilege, Extortion, Prophanation: for those Adulte­ries and beastly pollutions that have over-flowed amongst us; and an innumerable company of other sins, are these sad and heavy messengers sent unto us.

For the Injustice, Bribery, Partiality, Carelessenesse, and Cowardise of the Magistrates.

For the Ambition, Covetous­nesse, Idlenesse, Luxury, Contenti­ousness, Vain glory, Pusillanimity, Temporizing, Treachery, False­hearte [...]nesse, and Scandalousnesse of too many of us of the Mi­nistery.

For the betraying of In­nocency and Justice in the Lawyers, their Pleadings a­gainst the truth, and selling the righteous for a paire of shooes.

For the loosenesse, the Blasphe­mies and horrid execrations, the open and professed drunkennes & lust, & utter contempt of God and the duties of piety on the one side.

For the Pride, the Faction, [Page 447]the Hypocrisie, the uncharitable­nesse, the bloudy crueity and op­pression, the Disobedience and Rebellion, the disorderly walking, the Perjuries and secret corrup­tions of another side.

For the Atheisme and irre­ligion that is on all sides.

For the Falshood and inju­stice of the Trades-men, and o­thers in their dealings and con­tracts; their false lights, false waights, and measures, and other deceipts, whereby they make a trade of injustice.

For the murmurings and un­thankfulnes, & face-grindings, & Tithe-stealings of the Husband men, Corne-masters, and others.

For the Pride and impudent shamelessenesse, and wantonnesse, [Page 448]and vanity of the Women of our age and nation, openly profes­sed and written before the eyes of all men as it were, in the scandalous and unseemly naked­nesse of their Bodies, and in those Witchcrafts of Sathan, those hellish Characters and Charmes wherewith their faces are bepatched and bespotted; those Diagrams of the Devill, upon which hee reads infernall Iectures of Lust, unto the li­bidinous and luxurious youth, and other people.

For the dissolution of all or­der, and rules, and relations. a­mongst us. For the harshnesse and untendernesse of some Hus­bands to their wives, and the foolish and indiscreet fondnesse of others.

For the stubbornnesse, and disobedience, unreverence, and uncompliancy of Wives unto their Husbands: And for the unfaith. fulnesse of both one toward ano­ther, against those sacred bonds of Marriage, and that holy Or­dinance of God.

For the carelessenesse of Pa­rents of their children, especial­ly in respect of their spirituall good, neglecting to bring them up in the feare and in the nurture of the Lord, and in the instruction of salvation; their heathenish cruelty unto the soules of their progeny, who can be content to damne their owne for them to get them a temporall inheritance here by their appressions and in­justices, but take no care to [Page 450]provide either for them or themselves, in respect of their eternall inheritance in heaven; Too cleare an evidence of their heathenish hearts, however they may bee in the profession of Christianity.

For the disobedience and un­dutifulnesse of Children to their Parents: The Viper that is be­gotten even of that corruption of their Parents, The Scorpion of their owne breeding and bosome, whereby God justly punisheth them for their carelessenes of their Children, making a wicked and rebellious sonne oftentimes to be the scourge of carelesse and irreli­gious Parents.

For the Injustice of Masters, and their unmercifulnesse. And [Page 451]for the stubbornnesse, negligence, unfaithfulnesse, eye-service; the undutifull insolencies, and the filching Roberies, Tale-bearing, and treacheries of Servants.

For these, and for that [...], that swarme and mis­celany, that Augean stable of all sorts of corruptions, where­with this Land of ours doth stinke in the Nostrills of the Al­mighty, together with that luke­warmenesse that is in the best of us, which hath made him ready to abominate us, as wee may justly feare, and to spue us out of his mouth. For these things the land mourneth, and yet how few are there that give them­selves to godly mourning for the land? Yea all our sinnes have [Page 452]a share in this sad businesse, e­very man must accuse himself.

And as these are the mothers and the wombes, so they are the nurses of our miseries; the hin­derers and impediments of our relief and remedy.

These are the windes that blast our prayers, and our fastings, and turne them into sinne; so that they become a meanes not to the abatement of our miseries, but to the increasing of the heap of our iniquities: and what a wretched case is that Pati­ent in, in whom all the Physick that is administred takes part with the disease, and the remedies them­selves become new Maladies.

This is our sad condition; so that wee may conclude this [Page 453]point with that of the Pro­phet, Is. 59.1, 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned, that it can­not seve, neither is his eare hea­vy that it cannot heare. But our iniquities have seperated be­tweene us and our God, and our sinnes have hid his face from us.

These, even our sinnes are the fountaines of our Calami­ties, perditio tua ex te, thy de­struction is from thy selfe, is Gods voice unto England now, as well as to Israel heretofore.

Thus wee see our diseases in the stream and in the fountain, in the symptomes and in the roots; and indeed the Fountain is much more bitter than the streame, the roots much more [Page 454] poisonous and deadly than the branches; our sinnes are our greatest miseries and judgments.

But is there no balme in Gile­ad? Is there no Physician there? Hath the Lord that wounded us no healing for us?

Yes, There is a Physician that can heale us; and it is but one, and that is God. There is a Balme that can cure us, and this is but one neither; and thats his mercy.

God hath wounded us for our sinnes; And it is hee onely that can heale us. Hee can doe it, for he is omnipotent, and can do all things; he hath omnipotent mer­cy, as well as omnipotent justice; yea if there be, or could be a­ny difference in his Attributes, [Page 455]his mercy would seeme to have the better of it, and to bee the stronger of the two. He pulleth downe, and buildeth up; and it is as easie with him to raise, as to demolish: Hee en̄creaseth the Nations and destroieth them: Hee enlargeth the Nations, and straightneth them againe, Job 12.23. If he cut off, or shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him? Hee that made the World out of nothing, by his meere word, can by the same word restore us from all that nothing, that misery and confusion whereinto we are fallen. Though we are dead and dry like the bones in the Valley, Ezek. 37.1, 2. yet he can make these bones live; he can make a noise, and a sha­king [Page 456]for recovery, as well as he hath made a noise and a shaking heretofore for ruine. Hee can put us into an healthfull ague, as well as he hath done into a sickly and destructive one; Hee can make them come together again bone unto his bone, by repairing the breaches and divisions in the Church and State, which is as it were the skin and the covering; He can make the sinewes and the flesh to come upon them, by re­storing the Lawes, which are as it were the sinews of the State, and by re-setling the order and freedome of trades, and vocations therein, which are as it were the Muscles and Fillings of this body; He can cover them againe with skinne, by re-enfor­cing [Page 457]the Government, which is as it were the skinne and the co­vering of a nation under God, to keep all safe within, and to pre­serve it from outward violence, even with the fair and beautiful skinne of a Royall Monarchy, wherewith this Nation was once so amiable. Yea, hee can raise up the spirit of true Pro­phesie, and make the quickning winde of his holy Spirit, to breath upon the dead members of this Church, that they may live, by the restoring of the purity and freedome of his Ordinances, and the infusion of his graces. Yea, though a people bee even dead and buried, and even ready to stinke in the Grave with La­zarus; though they be dissolved [Page 458]into durt, nay into a very no­thing: yet hee can open their graves, and cause them to come forth out of their graves, and recreate them out of their dust, and of their nothing make them a better something than ever they were; more glorious in their resurrection, than they e­ver were in their former consti­tution. Hee that shall doe this for the world at the latter day, can doe the like for us or any other decayed parts thereof e­very day.

He that commanded the stormes and the tempests, and the unruly Waves and Billowes of the Sea, in the midst of their highest Quarrels and Contentions, and with one small word reconciled them [Page 459]into a suddaine Calme, can as easily quiet the stormes and the tempests, the unruly surges and billowes of mens mindes and affe­ctions amongst us, and can turn all our divisions into a pleasant calme of Christian Charity in the Church, and civill concord and unity in the State.

Hee hath medicines for the most desperate diseases, hee hath remedies for all our sicknesses, his Word is the [...], that can cure them all.

He can doe it; That is com­fortable: and yet this will not I feare bring us unto him. It is too true, that wee too seldome goe to God but out of starke need, as long as wee can finde any sha­dowes to skulke under in the [Page 460]creature; we rarely thinke of laying hold upon the substance which is in God; few there bee that make him their choice: If we flye to him, it is commonly for a Refuge; Till we be convinced of the emptinesse and helplessenesse of outward aides, we are for the most part strangers unto God. We must therefore be further instructed, that as God is able to helpe us; so there is none else able; that there is no possibility of obtaining a true and soled recove­ry from our miseries and decayes, but from him. And this is a truth so cleare and evident, that it is the monstrous blindnesse of our corruption that wee doe not see it.

It is established upon three [Page 461] firme foundations: First, upon Naturall Reason. Secondly, up­on the irrefragable evidence of Scripture. Thirdly, upon Com­mon experience.

First, it is a principle writ­ten upon our hearts in the Cha­tact [...] of reason.

Which reacheth us that God being thesest couse, as the essen­ces of the Creatnres, so all their motions are dependant upon him, as they cannot be, so they cannot worke without him: All their motions are swayed and over-ruled by him, so that the creatures can give no helpe but by his commission; they are all empty Channels, unlesse they bee filled unto us by the streames of his goodnesse. If he [Page 462]give not the Word of helpe and health unto them, all that they can doe will rather harme us than relieve us. His power and goodnesse is the sinew and the strength of them all: Therefore if God bee not present unto us in them with that, they will all prove but Broken Reedes.

Secondly, the Scripture is full of this Doctrine: there we find this principle acknow­ledged by the King of Israel, in the Discipline of the Famine whereby that Lecture was im­printed on him as it seemes, 2 Kings 6.27. If the Lord doe not helpe thee, whence shall I helpe thee? out of the Barne floore, or out of the Wine-presse? But [Page 463]what he could not see perhaps but in the time of that actuall failing of the creature, The Spirit of God teacheth us to acknowledge in its greatest ful­nesse, and that what ever promi­ses it makes, it can performe no­thing without God.

First, it is set downe in the generall rule, Iames 1.17. Every good gift, and every per­fect gift is from above, and com­meth downe from the Father of lights, &c. The blessings that are administred unto us by the Creatures, are but as so many rayes of light convayed unto us from that Father of lights by them; If hee intercept his in­fluence, they are nothing but darknesse and misery: and if all [Page 464] good is from him, there can bee no good obtained without him. He is all-sufficient without the creature, but they are altoget her insufficient, yea deficient without God; without him all their wise­dome is dotage, all their plots and contrivances are madnesse, all their strength is weaknesse, all their fidelity is treachery, and all their riches is extreame beg­gery. Nay they are so far from being helps unto us, that they prove many times our greatest impediments, like Sauls Ar­mour unto David, 1 Sam. 17.38, 39. Therefore God tells Ge­deon, Judges 7.2. The people that are with thee are too many for mee to give the Midianites into their hands. And there you [Page 465]may see Gods reason too, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me saying, mine owne hand hath saved me. Observe Gods dea­ling in the progresse of that story, and profit by it, it may afford us excellent matter for our meditation.

And see what is recorded concerning Vzziah, 2 Chron. 26.14, 15. Hee was marvel­lously helped till hee was strong: But when hee was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destru­ction, &c.

You may stand and admire the working of this principle in another way upon our gra­cious King at this time, whilst hee had Armies and much out­ward strength, he came downe; [Page 466]for indeed their wickednesse rendred them unworthy to bee a Guard for so pious a Prince, and much more to bee the instru­ments of Gods mercy to him and to his people. But since he hath beene stripped of all those outward helpes, how wonder­fully hath God beene seene in the Mount? So that his Motto may be like that of Saint Paul, When I am weak then am I strong. Insomuch, that I must confesse that I am almost afraid of his recruiting Armies, lest by their irregular violences, and their former impieties, and mis­carriages, they prove to the interruption of the gracious work that God hath begunne for him, and his poore people. I beseech [Page 467]God give them grace to beware of it. But I hope their former mis­carriages will in struct them that they may not make themselves guilty of a double ruine.

This conclusion is yet fur­ther confirmed, Job 9.12, 13. Behold hee taketh away, who can hinder him, and who will say un­to him, What dost thou? If God will not withdraw his Anger, the proud helpers doe stoop under him.

But generalls are too wide to chaine [...] our unruly thoughts and affections for the most part.

The Lord therefore de­scends to particulars for our in­struction, to shew us that there is no kinde of reliefe that can be had without him; there is no me­dicine [Page 468]in all the creatures to cure us of the smallest evill, in any kinde, unlesse the Lord enrich them and make them beneficiall to us by his goodnesse.

1. There is no defence with­out him; for the shields of the earth belong unto the Lord. Psal. 47.9.

2. No safety or victory in the greatest strength of Armies without him: Without me (saith God) they shall bow downe under the Prisoners, and fall under the slaine, Isa. 10.4.

Whilst the people of Ieru­salem were disarmed of God, it was to no purpose for them to fend to Egypt for helpe. For though yee had smitten the whole. Army of the Caldeans tha fight against [Page 469]you, and there remained but woun­ded men among them, yet should they arise up every one in his tent, and burne this City, Jerem. 37.10. But if the Lord once en­gage himselfe in the businesse, nothing can stand against a people. Zachariah 9.12, 13, 14. Turne yee to the strong hold yee prisoners of hope, (that strong hold I conceive is the strength of God) even to day doe I de­clare that I will render double un­to thee: When I have bent Iudah for me, filled the Bow with Eph­raim, and raised up thy sonnes oh Zion against thy sonnes ô Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man: Then the Lord shall bee seen over them, and his Arrow shall goe forth as the lightning, [Page 470]and the Lord God shall blow the Trumpet, and shall goe with whirlwindes of the South: Then the Lord shall defend them, and the Lord God shall save them. See Verse 15, 16. An excel­lent place, a rich Mine of Me­ditation.

3. There is no wisedome nor counsell without him, Job 5.12, 13, 14. Hee disappointeth the de­vices of the crafty: He taketh the wise in their owne craftinesse: They meet with darknesse in the day-time, and grope in the noone­day as in the night.

Prov. 21.30. There is no wisedome nor understanding, nor counsell against the Lord. And whatsoever is without God is a­gainst him.

No Associations can do good without him. See Isaiah 8.9, 10.

Walls and Fortifications are to no purpose, Isaiah 22.8, 9, 10, &c.

The sounds of Rams hornes shall be as good as the Batteries of the greatest Rams, or the shot of the greatest Cannon against Hiericho, if the Lords strength be not the cement of the stones thereof. Iosh. 6.20.

There is no nourishing vertue in the creatures without him. Matth. 4.4. Man shall not live by bread onely, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

There is no Security, no Pros­perity; no successe in any Action, [Page 472]any Operation, or Enterprize, without the blessing of the Lord.

Except the Lord build the House, they labour in vaine that build it. Except the Lord keepe the City, the Watch-man waketh but in vain, &c. Psalme 127.

What seemes to be attribu­ted unto Chance, Eccles. 9.11. being spoken as is thought in the person of a carnall man, (perhaps to convince such an one from his owne principles) is without doubt the prero­gative of God, who is equally the great Master both of contingent and regular events; for there is nothing contingent in regard of the first cause; The race is not to the swift, nor the battell to the strong, nor yet bread to [Page 473]the wise, &c. Eccl. 9.11.

There is no peace nor indeed any good to bee had but from him, Isaiah 45.7. I forme the light, and create darknesse, I make peace and create evill, I the Lord doe all these things.

The Scripture flowes with this kind of instruction.

And the voyce of Reason and Scripture is subscribed by Ex­perience.

The experiments are innu­merable that History affords to this purpose.

We need goe no farther than to those evidences which have been given us in our late mis­carriages.

Wee see our Wisedome hath forsaken us, and the contrivan­ces [Page 474]of our great Counsellors have proved plots of destruction, our policies have served but to improve our miseries, to cheate us farther and farther into the power of Mischiefe and Desolati­on. On the one side, our graci­ous King, the glory of our strength under God, is imprisoned, and he that should helpe us, is not able to helpe himselfe: God hath suffered so good a King to fall into such a condition, perhaps to teach us this lesson that I am now pressing upon you, I pray God we may learne it quickly for his sake. Our Armies, though they were strong and powerfull, and had the great comfort and encouragement of a righteous Cause; yet through miscarri­age [Page 475]in the mannaging thereof, and for want of engaging God with them in the work; yea through their dis-ingaging of him by their wickednesse and horrid im­pieties, they have beene defeated and brought to nothing. I pray God this may be remembred here­after.

On the other side, the Armies in which so many have trusted, and which they have beene at such cost to set up and main­taine, instead of helping them, have become their Oppressours; the edge of their Swords hath been turned toward themselves, and their own force threatneth them with ruine.

The Money and Wealth of the City and Kingdome hath pur­chased [Page 476]chased us no deliverance at all, but hath rather served for the hire of our calamities.

All the Pillars on which we have leaned are broken, as it were, on all sides; and we have no Foundation left us to rest our selves upon, on earth.

Oh then now let us learne from all this, that there is no helpe but in God. If wee have our recovery we must have it from heaven, and from his hand. No Drug will helpe us but Manus Christi.

If wee ever have Peace we must have it from him. Hee is the Prince of peace, and the God of peace.

Though the whole World should conspire to doe us good [Page 477]and to relieve us; yet if the Lord come not in to the worke it will be in vaine.

Let us therefore learne wis­dome by our former follies, and doe not now relapse into your old errours againe.

There is much gaping af­ter helpe from this and from that, from the Scots, and from the Welch, and from I know not whom; and indeed these may be instrumentall helpes, and it will be wonderfull in God to make them so. But all these will de­ceive us, unlesse God be brought in for us; unlesse he be with us, as good they were all against us; They will neither prove faithfull unlesse God hold them, nor helpfull unlesse God strengthen and prosper them.

Let us look upon them there­fore as the returning glimpses of Gods mercy unto us, as his proffers and invitations, to make us seek unto him: But let us take heed that we place not our hope in them, nor in any creature. It is the common Dilemma of hu­mane folly and perversenesse, that where no outward help appeareth it is apt to despaire of help from God; and we will trust him no farther than we can see him in the meanes: but they that are of this mind, if they truely search into their condition, will finde perhaps, that they trust not in God, but in the meanes.

And againe, when outward help doth begin to shew it selfe, we are presently too apt to forget our [Page 479]dependance upon God, and to with­draw our expectations from him, and to set up that meanes for an I­doll in his Throne, by placing our hope and confidence therein.

I pray God deliver us from both these extreames; and teach us in all the varieties and changes of humane things to keepe our selves unmoveably fixed upon this Rocke; That our help commeth from the Lord which made heaven and earth. Psal. 21.2.

But it is a great question that comes in the fourth place, and would require more space than I have allowed mee to resolve it fully. What course may be ta­ken to engage God on our side, and to obtaine help and relief from him.

First, let mee entreat you all to bee firmly fixed upon this, and to let it seize upon your af­fections as well as your judge­ments, that if ever we be relieved it must be God that must relieve us.

And then take in this conclu­sion for your direction:

That there is no way to obtain help and deliverance from God, but by Humiliation, Repentance, and faithfull Prayer unto him.

This onely will doe it, and this will doe it.

I must divide, and be briefe.

I shall premise only this pre­monition: I deny not but God may grant outward deliveran­ces, & outward blessings where they are not sought of him in [Page 481]this way, for divers ends that are knowne unto his heavenly wisdome. He doth sometimes take off judgements from the wicked, that he may render them so much the more unex­cusable, and sometimes to give them the reward of some out­ward Services, and sometimes for the sake of the righteous that live amongst them; as God made an offer to Abraham of sparing Sodom, if there had been Ten Righteous in the City: and sometimes that by them he may correct and chastise his chil­dren; sometimes to make room for some greater Judgements, as Isa. 14.29. That the Serpents root may bring forth a Cockatrice; and sometimes to leave men to [Page 482]themselves, and to give them over as in a desperate condition: as a Physitian withdrawes himself from the administration of Physick when hee findes the Disease invincible unto the meanes: So God speakes of Israel, Isa. 1.5. Why should you be stricken any more? ye will re­volt more and more. As the Husbandman gives over the Ploughing and the Harrowing of that ground that will not by all his Husbandry be reclaimed from barrennesse, and Weeds. And I beseech God deliver us from such a deliverance. We ought to pray unto God that he will not withdraw his Cor­rections from us untill he hath [...]one the work of Grace upon us.

But my meaning is this: First, That we have no way to engage God unto deliverance, no way for us assuredly to ob­taine it at his hands, but by that Course that I have pre­scribed: And secondly, That God useth not to give a merci­full, and a comfortable delive­rance unto any but those that seeke unto him in that way. It is a fearefull thing when God removes his Iudgements before we remove our Sins; when the case is with us as Reverend Gildas in his Epistle recordeth it of the Brittaines, not to their comfort but their terrour, A while ceased (saith he) the at­tempts of our enemies, but yet not ceased the wickednesse of our [Page 484]Countrymen, our Foes lest our People, but our People lest not their Iniquities; and this was no good presage, and I pray God it prove not our case. There is cause enough for us to tremble at the very thought of the departures of Calamities from us, if we consider how lit­tle they have wrought upon us.

But to the purpose, Take it in these foure Branches.

First, there is no obtaining of mercy and favour from God, which is the Fountaine of all our comfortable and true bles­sings and deliverances, but by Humiliation for sin past. Se­condly, Repentance, or Conver­sion from sin unto God. Third- Prayer. And fourthly, Faith, [Page 485]which must present them all unto God in Christ.

And all these in their effica­cy depend upon one another; No Conversion without Humi­liation, no Prayer without Repen­tance, no effectuall Prayer or Repentance without Faith.

First, no reconciling of God, nor obtaining of his favour and mercy, without humiliati­on for sin past.

See how God threatens the people of the Jewes for want of this, Ier. 44.10, 11, &c. They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my Law, nor in my Statutes that I set before you, and before your Fathers; what followes? Therefore [Page 486]saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, behold I will set my face against you for evill, and to cut off all Iudah, &c.

See Isa. 22.12, 13. And ma­ny other places, where God layes the cause of the continu­ance and encrease of his fury upon the want of this. And if we search the whole Scripture, and the History of Gods dea­lings with the severall people of the world, we shall never find that God was ever reconci­led to any without this. And God is no Changeling, He is uniforme in his Actions, He is the same God still as he was then, hates Sin as much now as ever he did, nothing can re­concile him unto Sin; The Bloud [Page 487]of Christ could not reconcile him unto Sin, though it recon­ciled him unto Sinners; and therefore as long as we are at peace with Sin, and at peace with our selves in Sin, there is no peace to be had with God: His answer will be to all our Petitions for peace like that Answer of Iehu unto Ioram, 2 Kings 9.22. Is it peace Iehu? (saith he) And hee answered, What peace so long as the whore­domes of thy mother Iezabell and her witchcrafts are so many? Such hath the Answer of God beene a long time unto this Nation, and such will it ever be untill we are humbled un­der his hand for our Sins. It is our peace that hinders our peace, [Page 488]the dead and dull peace of our security, that hinders the peace of unity; our peace with our Sinnes hinders our peace with God; we have had indeed feig­ned Humiliations, Iezebels Fasts, But we have not been exercised in true Humiliation and Fast­ing, and therefore we returne without a blessing; we have often indeed moved the questi­on as it were unto God, but he hath answered us as Iehu did him in a manner, in his effectu­all and operative word, in the continuance and encrease of our afflictions, What peace, as long as the Impieties, and Iniqui­ties of England are so many, and there is so little humiliation for them? It is the very proper [Page 489]and immediate end for which God sends affliction, that hee may make Sin bitter unto us, that that bitternesse may pro­duce a sanctified griefe, &c. See Ier. 2.19. and 4.18.

Indeed there can be no peace with God without Humiliati­on for sin, because without this can be no Repentance or Con­version from Sin, for this is the Prologue and the Vsher unto Repentance. It is as it were the wombe, or rather the travell and labour of the soule whereby Repentance is brought forth. 2 Cor. 7.10. For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation, not to be repented of.

So that no Humiliation, no Repentance or Conversion; for [Page 490]that I conceive the Apostle there meanes by [...], as he there differenceth it from godly sorrow. It is the change of the heart which is Conversion: And as without Humiliation there is no Repentance, so without Re­pentance or Conversion there is no Reconciliation to God, and so no mercifull, no true and com­fortable deliverance to be obtai­ned.

That is the second Thesis, or proposition, That there is none to be had without Conversion.

Sin in the foule is like Ionah in the Ship, untill the rebelli­ous Prophet be cast out, the storme will not cease: And unlesse this Rebell of Sin be cast out of the soule by a true [Page 491]and serious Conversion unto God, a forsaking of all our sins, and cleaving unto God, the stormes of his fury and indig­nation will be up against us, and if we heare them or feele them not, it is because we are in a dead sleep; yea, we are then many times in greatest danger of them when we feele them least. This tempest is oft most violent when it appeares a Calme, and it is a great affliction to be without affliction.

What should I stand to prove this? The Scripture is every where almost embroyde­red with this Doctrine; take a place or two for the present.

See how God threatens not only the continuance, but the [Page 492]multiplication of Judgements upon Israel? Amos 4. What a Chaine of calamities he makes for them, and what a heavy weight of judgement hee han­geth at the end of it, from the 6. unto the 13. verse, I have given you cleannesse of teeth in all your Cities, and want of bread in all your places, yet have you not returned unto me saith the Lord. &c? There the Lord deales with them as they use to do with unruly Prisoners, hangs first the Irons of one affliction upon them, and when those will not tame them, then he hangs more and more upon them, and if none will do, at last he brings them to execution; So there he sent [Page 493] Famine upon them, to make them return, but they would not turne: Then he sends Drowth after the Famine, and Blasting and Mildew and the Palmer­worme after the Drowth, and the Pestilence after these, and the Sword with the Pestilence, and the Fire after the Sword, as so many Messengers one after another, to fetch home those Prodigalls to their Fa­thers house; but when none of these will doe, he threatens them with a Judgement with­out a name as it were, Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel: and because I will doe thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel. If you have a desire to know what this Judgement is, [Page 494]I conceive you may find it in the next chapter, there the Pro­phet is singing as it were the Dirge, and celebrating the sad funerall of Israel, Chap. 9.1, 2. Heare ye this word which I take up against you, even a Lamentati­on, oh house of Israel. The virgin of Israel is fallen, she shall no more arise, she is forsaken upon her Land, there is none to raise her up: Let this impenitent and secure Nation of ours reade this and tremble; And let them reade what the Psalmist saith, Psal. 7.12. If a man will not turne he will whet his sword.

And what a Commentary our blessed Saviour makes up­on the slaughter of the Galile­ans, and of those upon whom [Page 495]the Tower in Siloam fell, Luk. 13. and the same glosse will hold upon all those sad Rubricks of Bloud and ruine that have be­fallen others before us in this Nation; and upon all other black and mournfull stories of Gods Judgements that are recorded of our owne people or others. The waters of the old world; The fire of Sodom and Gomorrah; The desolations of Ie­rusalem; The ruines of Babylon; The late devastations of poore Germany, and Ireland; And the destructions that have befallen so many thousands in this King­dome; They all seeme to cry out unto us in that voice of our Saviour there, Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish: [Page 496]Ye shall all perish as well as they, though perhaps not in the same manner; if ye escape affliction here, ye shall be paid to the full with all arreares and interest in eternall damnation hereafter.

It is the method of mercy, first to remove sin, and then to remove judgement: Conversi­on is put before healing, Isa. 6.10. Lest they see with their eyes, and heare with their cares, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Observe the order, first there is Illumi­nation, then Conversion, then healing of affliction. Ier. 30.17. I will restore health unto thee, and I will heale thee of thy wounds. First, health from sin, and then [Page 497]health from affliction. See Isa. 19.22. and 57.18, 19, 20, 21.

God must needs hate us, as long as we are in love with sin.

An impenitent and uncon­verted heart is shut out from Gods favour, and from his mercy; It must needs be so, for he is shut out from Prayer: Prayer is the Key wherewith God hath appointed us to open the treasures of mercy unto us. Now as there is no Repentance or Conversion from sin without Humiliation for sin: So there is no Prayer, I meane no accepta­ble Prayer without Repentance. We are so far from any assu­rance of receiving, that God doth not admit us to be Petiti­oners [Page 498]without it. See Isa. 1.11. 12, 13, 15, 16. Ier. 7.8. The Sa­crifice of the wicked is an abomi­mination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his de­light: Prov. 15.8. See Prov. 28.9. Psal. 66.18. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not heare me. It is in vaine for us to cry unto God as long as we continue in our sins, and at enmity with God; that blasts all our Petitions, Ier. 30.15. Why cryest thou for thine affli­ction? (saith God to Israel) Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquities, because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee,

These two must indeed help forwards one another, we must [Page 499] Repent, that we may pray, and we must Pray, that we may Repent. As our body warmes our cloaths, and our cloaths preserve the heate of our bodies; If there were no warmth in our bodies, our cloaths would not warme us; Cloathe a cold Carkasse ne­ver so much, it will not make it warme: so unlesse we repent, Prayer will doe us no good. Now Prayer is the meanes that God hath ordained for us to obtaine help at his hand by, Aske and it shall be given you, seeke and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you: Mat. 7.7. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorifie me. Psal. 50 15. If we will not aske deliverance [Page 500]we are like to go without it; All our fighting and warring will do no good: Iames 4.2. Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtaine, ye fight and warre, yet ye have not, because ye aske not.

Prayer is the Bucket of the Soule whereby wee are to draw water out of the wells of Sal­vation; the Chaine whereby we are to bind God, as Moses seems to have done, Exod. 32.10. Let me alone (saith God to Moses) that my wrath may waxe hot against them, and that I may con­sume them in a moment; As if God could not consume if Moses would Pray. These are the su­rest weapons against our Ene­mies; Ioshua cannot prevaile [Page 501]in the Field, unlesse Moses hands be lift up upon the Mount. These are the Armes and Sinewes of a Christian, whereby he is to wrestle with God like Iacob, and to wrest the blessing out of his hands; Haec vis Deo grata est, saith Ter­tullian, God loves to be thus overcome by his People; This is the Mathooke whereby we must digge into the Golden Mines of Gods blessings; we must aske if we meane to have.

But it must be a right Pray­er, a faithfull Prayer; nothing acceptable to God without Faith; Neither Contrition, nor Con­version, not Supplication, can be prevalent, unlesse they be all offered up, and presented by faith; [Page 502]Without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. 11.6. See the excellent scale of the Apostle, Rom. 10.13, 14. First he pla­ceth Prayer at the very top of blessing, Whosoever shall call up­on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But then marke how Prayer gets up, how it climes unto Gods Treasury, How shall they call on him on whom they have not beleeved? and how shall they beleeve on him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they heare without a Preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? Faith is the Ladder of Iacob, or rather Christ is the Ladder, and Faith is the hands and feet whereby the Angels of our Prayers get up unto God, [Page 503]and procure the Angels of his blessings to descend down again upon us; As Saint Iames spea­keth of Wisdome, so we may say of every blessing: of peace, of deliverance, of all: If any man lacke them, let him aske of God, who giveth unto all men liberally, and upbraydeth not, and they shall be given him, to wit as farre as it is a gift: as farre as it is fit and convenient for Gods glory, for the good of the Church, and for his owne good. But then marke, Let him aske in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the Sea, driven with the wind and tossed: As the wave is lifted up toward heaven but falleth down again presently without [Page 504]attaining unto it, so is the mo­tion of a man towards God in Prayer without faith. Let not that man thinke that he shall re­ceive anything of the Lord, that is to say, he can promise him­selfe nothing by such a Prayer. Note every thinking to obtain by Prayer is not Faith, there is a confidence which is an im­pudent presumption, that is not it. That we mistake not, note the Acts of Faith and its Object, and its ground; First, we must beleeve that God is, an Atheist cannot pray. Secondly, we must beleeve that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seeke him, an Epicure cannot pray. To this latter it is ne­cessary first to beleeve Gods wis­dome, [Page 505]that he knows our wants. Secondly, His power, that he is able to relieve us. But many there be that are wise enough, and able enough, that have no good will; Therefore we must in the third place beleeve that God hath a good will towards us to do it. But how can we beleeve that, when we are all in our selves sinners, and his enemies, have nothing in us to engage his love or his good will, but are full of provocations to his wrath? It is necessary there­fore in the fourth place that Faith lay hold upon the reconcili­ation betweene God and us in Christ Iesus; we must therefore beleeve that Christ hath satisfied for our sins, and justified us by his [Page 506]obedience; And that God hath opened unto us his Exchequer, his Office of mercy in Christ; that he hath given Christ to dye for us, and doth accept us in Christ, and for Christs death and righteousnesse sake; and that we being accepted, and reconciled by Christ, our Services, our Offe­rings, our Prayers, our Prayses, and all, are accepted in and for him, as God accepted Abell and his Offering. The ground of all this is Gods truth in his promise, in the Scriptures: we must be­leeve this to be Gods Word, and that offers it selfe unto our faith in a multitude of Argu­ments; In the Prophecies fulfil­led, In the spirituality and puri­ty of the doctrin, In the perfection [Page 507]thereof for all persons, and cal­lings, and cases; In the weake­nesse, and the simplicity of the Instruments, whereby the work is declared not to be of them, but of God: For as is the man so is his strength; no Agent can work above its faculty; simple men could not possibly of their owne store produce such won­derfull wisdome; they could not have that wisdome from Sa­than; the wisdome is too pure, and they were too holy, and too honest; therefore either from good Angels, or from God: If from good Angels, they must needs have it from God, other­wise they were false in presen­ting it as his, & then they should not be Angels but Devils; if [Page 508]must therefore be from God, and then it will follow that it must be immediately from God by inspiration and illuminati­on of the Spirit, at least in the greatest part of it, (though some were by the ministration of Angels, Gal. 3.19. Heb. 2.2.) Because it witnesseth so of it selfe, 1 Tim. 3.16. This is con­firmed by the wonderfull unity & agreement of so various and se­verall Authors in severall times and places, and by the very seem­ing differences, which will shew it to be no packt & contrived uni­ty. By the impartiality of Scrip­ture, & the different waies there­of from the impostures of humane policy, setting down the grosse slips and fals of the eminentest [Page 509]instruments and professors of that truth, which humane poli­cy would never have done; by the very height and mysteriousnes of the Doctrine. Tertull de Carn. Christ. Credibile est, quia ineptum est, certū est, qui a impossibile est.

By these and many other Ar­guments, faith is engaged to be­leeve it to be Gods word, and then the promises to be his pro­mises, we must then necessarily believe them to be true; for truth is a perfection, which the perfectest being which is God cannot want. So then Faith must beleeve the Promises. The summe of all is in Christ, for all the Promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Iesus.

Faith layes hold first upon the Promises of Christ, that we [Page 510]are reconciled unto God by Christ, and so have accesse to him, & that his eare is at our command (be it spoken with reverence) in Christ; and that though we are Sinners, yet he is our Advocate, and the Propitiation for our sins, Faith first must lay hold upon Christ, fly to Christ, seize upon Christ by adherence, and rol­ling our selves upon him for our peace with God and Salvation, embracing him and his merits and righteousnesse, as the only and the sure meanes thereof; And then we may and must be­leeve that God is ready to do all things for us, that we shall aske of him in the name, and by the Mediation of Christ, building upon that Promise of [Page 511]Christ, Ioh. 16.23. And that of the Apostle, Rom. 8.32. He that spared not his owne Son, but gave him up to dye for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? This we must be­leeve God is willing to do for Christs sake for us, seeking it of him in Christ, in his good time, and in such measure and manner as shall be best pleasing to him, and most for his glory, the true good of the whole Body of the Church, and the true good of that member that asketh of him: Not that we are bound to be­leeve that we shall receive eve­ry particular thing that wee aske of God, for God doth sometimes deny out of mercy, (Though we should keep our [Page 512]selves as close as we can unto the Promise in our Prayers, and then we may be sure to speed well) But That God doth lend a gracious eare to our Peti­tions, we comming to him in Christ, and by Christ (wee must looke to that;) And that he will give such returnes unto them as he shall know to be best. Much more might be said, and profitably said too in this Sub­ject; But if it please God I may have another occasion to en­large upon these. This is suf­ficient I hope here to shew the necessity of Faith to make Prayer and all duties accepta­ble to God. He that comes without faith comes without Christ, and then he is not like [Page 513]to speed: for as Ioseph said to his Brethren concerning Ben­jamin, so God unto us, Except we bring Christ Iesus with us, we shall not see his face. He is the great Master of requests, from whose hand God receives all our Petitions; He is our Advo­cate; He is our high Priest by whom we are to offer up all our spirituall Sacrifices, the Sa­crifices of a broken spirit in humi­liation, Psalm. 51.17. The Sa­crifices of righteousnesse in Con­version from the wayes of sinne to the waies of righteousnesse, Psalm. 4.5. The Sacrifice or Incense of Prayer, Psal. 141.2. He is the Priest, and he is the Temple, and he is the Altar, and he is the Sacrifice of all our [Page 514] Sacrifices, that propitiateth God to us and them all, and his merit is the Incense that perfumeth our Prayers and all other our Offerings. See Revel. 8.3. and therefore it must be faithfull Prayer.

But I have done with this Point, only give me leave now to present my hearty and hum­ble request unto all the people of these distressed Nations, that they will now at length leave doting upon things that cannot help, and depend no lon­ger upon earthly and transitory aides, after so many miscaria­ges of our carnall confidence, whereby God hath knockt our fingers, as it were, to make us lose our holt from those false [Page 515]dependances, and that they will now betake themselves speedi­ly and earnestly unto God. By these waies which are here pre­scribed. I forbid you not, nei­ther doth God forbid, but doth both permit and require that that you should make use of all honest and lawfull outward succours, which he in his good providence shall administer unto us, for God will not have us to be idle beggars; And it is a good rule that I have read somewhere, [...]. David must go forth with his Army against the Philistines at the hearing of the sound of going in the tops of the Mulbery trees; Though that were the signe that God gave [Page 516]him of his going before him to smite them, 1 Chron. 14.15. It is the honour that God is plea­sed to do us, to make us serve him with our endeavours in the gracious workes of his mercies towards us. There is a time indeed when God bids a people stand still and see the sal­vation of the Lord: But that is usually when meanes is not to be had: and God hath been won­derfull in this unto his Maje­stie, and the suffering Party of this Kingdom of late, if we have eyes to observe it; But where meanes are offered, they must not be neglected lest we despise the providence of the Almighty. It is not for us to put God to miracles, nor to cast our selves [Page 517]downe from the Pinacle of the Temple, in a bold presumpti­on of his sending of Angels to support us, when we may have the benefit of a paire of staires to help us downe; that is none of our waies wherein God hath promised us protection, Psalm. 91.11. The devill knew this well enough it is like, and ther­fore it was perhaps that he mangled that verse of Scrip­ture in the temptation of our Saviour, Matth. 4.6. God in the barren wildernesse made the Clouds the barne or granary of the people as it were, and sent them Manna from heaven, and turned the Rocke into a Ri­ver in that dry and thirsty Land: But when they came in­to [Page 518]the Land of Canaan where there was Corne in the Land, those miraculous granaries of heaven were shut up; neither do we reade of any melting Rock about Iordan. Our blessed Sa­viour in those wonderfull mi­racles of the Loaves, though he was as well able to create as to multiply, yet he despised not the few Loaves and Fishes that were to be had, nor would he suffer the fragments to be lost; we ought to be good husbands and thrifty of Gods power and providence, and not think to lavish it away in wonders when we please. Whatsoever we aske at Gods hand we must endeavour to procure too by the use of Gods meanes, other­wise we deny our selves what we [Page 519]aske of him, and he offers unto us; When thou askest grace use the meanes of grace; If thou desirest to be freed from sin, avoid occa­sions and temptations, otherwise thou temptest both God and the Devill to, and there is no great need of that. If we aske bread at Gods hands we must la­bour for it too with our owne, lest God subscribe the rule of the Apostle unto us, He that will not labour let him not eate. The reason why we faile so much in our Petitions, is not because God is hard unto us, but because we are hard unto our selves: Therefore remember we are bound in con­science to use all lawfull meanes for our deliverance, and to blesse that God that shall afford us any. [Page 520]Stirre up your selves therefore in the name of God, up and be doing in all just and honoura­ble waies for the deliverance of our gracious King, and our distressed Country, from those great oppressions and persecutions that are exercised against them, and do not through sloath and Co­wardise make your selves answe­rable unto God for all those trai­terous cruelties that are practised upon the Lords Annointed, and for your owne ruine and destructi­on; But take heed of trusting in the meanes, or in your selves, but in God only; And let it be your principall and first care to engage him on our side, and then we need not care who is against us. Away then speedily unto him [Page 521]every one of you, with hearts tru­ly humbled for your sins past: with sincere and serious resolutions of a­mendment of life, with earnest and fervent Prayer and Supplica­tion unto our Almighty helper, at the Throne of Grace, offering up our selves and our requests unto him in the true faith of Christ Iesus, that the Lord may now looke toward us againe with a favourable eye: And that he may apply the Balsomes of his hea­venly mercies unto the rankled and gangrened wounds of these bleeding and languishing Nati­ons. Consider the miscries of your Picus and Gracious Prince. Consider the growing desolati­ons of your Countries. Consider the most wretched devastations [Page 522]of Truth, Religion, and the Church of God. Cast an eye up­on those clouds that are yet ga­thered about us, upon those far­ther judgements that threaten us. Call to mind the mournefull and sad condition of your Cities, of your Families, and the ruine that hangs over your selves, your Wives, your Children. Remem­ber the streames and the rivers of the Bloud of your Friends and Countrimen. Let all those distractions and confusions that have overspread these Nations come before your eyes; And apply your selves with all earnest impor­tunity to the God of mercy for re­liefe. Your King calls for it, your Country calls for it, your poore disheveled mother the [Page 523] Church calls for it; The regard of your our owne lives, your Li­berties, your Safety, your Religi­on, of your Honour and Reputa­tion calls for it. Your sins and all our sins have kindled these flames, let your penitent teares, and earnest and faithfull Pray­ers endeavour to quench them. The anger of the Lord incensed by our iniquities is the root of all these miseries, let us seeke to appease his anger by the incense of our fervent devotions. God is a powerfull God, and is able to helpe us; He is a mercifull God, and willing to relieve and suc­cour all those that turne unto him with penitent hearts, The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, yea unto all such as call [Page 524]upon him faithfully Methinkes we may heare him clucking us unto him, as A Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings, that he may hide us there; oh let us runne unto him! Me thinks we may see him spreading out his armes, and stretching out his hands unto us, as he did once unto Israel, that he may reach us unto himselfe, and embrace us in our returne; oh let us not stand out against his mercy to our owne ruine! When the Prodigall child in the Parable returned, how ready was the good father to go forth and meete him? how did he fall upon his necke, and kissed him? Oh let us then feed no longer upon the Huskes with the Swine, upon the [Page 525] empty shells of created helpes by relying upon them, but let us go to our Father, our heavenly Father, our mercifull Father, and say unto him in the bitter­nesse of our soules, and the compunction of our spirits, Father we have sinned against heaven and against thee, and are no more worthy to be called thy Children. Let us now at length lay aside our strifes, our divisions, our wicked, and foolish, and fran­tick, and worldly contentions, about shadows, and trifles, and impertinences, And let us all joyne together to quench the fires that are kindled in our hou­ses about our eares. Consider how long God hath waited for this; He hath been seven yeares [Page 526]now upon the matter preaching this Lecture unto us. It hath lost many thousands of lives to teach it us. Oh let us now learn it then, and practice it, lest we answer for all that bloud that hath been shed. Take heed you weary not out the patience of the Al­mighty, but let his long suffe­ring leade you to repentance, lest his despised mercy be turned into the greater fury, and you be made to pay a heavy interest, for all his for bearance, in eternall destructi­on. Oh delay not the time, lest the Decree of utter subversion come forth against us and there be no remedy. We must seek to him if ever we be relieved, let us do it quickly that we may be speedily relieved; let us do it [Page 527] quickly lest it be too late; away with procrastinations, Illud mo­dò & modò non habet modum; There is no end of our anons, & too morrowes, if we yeeld unto our Tempter, and our corrupt hearts. Seeke the Lord whilst he may be found, call upon him whilst he is neere. Plough up your fallow ground, for it is time to seeke the Lord. Oh make haste, for the day declineth, the shadows of the Eve­ning are stretched out, the Mor­ning commeth and also the Night, if you will returne, returne, come.

But especially let me be­speake you, my beloved Bre­thren, and fellow sufferers, unto whom I desire to empty out my soule in this Exhortation. You that are the Loyall people [Page 528]of the Land, whom God hath so long disciplined under the yoke of the oppression of your enemies; Let not all that pruning, and dig­ging about you prove in vaine, lest he breake out at length against you in a farre greater judge­ment. Oh despise not the corre­ction of the Lord, nor cast his re­proofes behind your back; deceive not your selves with vaine hopes; Trust not to the righteousnesse of your cause: Alas have we for­gotten so soone how our wic­kednesse hath betrayed it once al­ready? And Sin is as great a Trai­tour still as ever. Ioshua and Is­rael had a good cause, and a good Commission even from God him­selfe, and had received great pledges of the Almighties [Page 527]favour; The Sea divides asunder to give them passage, and what was a Wall unto them, was a Se­pulchre unto their enemies; The Mountaines skipped like Ramms, and the little Hills like young Sheepe, as it were, before them; The Walls of Iericho fall down at the noise of them, and instead of being a fence for their Adversa­ries, become a pavement unto them. These, and a thousand more favours God had done for them; and yet though their cause was never so good, and their Commission never so authenticall, and though all these priviledges were bestowed upon them, yet we know what one Achan did amongst them. See the Story, Ioshuah 7. Alas my Brethren, [Page 528] how many Achans are there amongst us! we may even trem­ble to thinke on it. I love you too well to flatter you in this. Israel was Gods people, and Midi­an was his Enemy, and yet when the Children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord, the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven yeares. Let your owne sad experience make you wise; you see whither your Sins have brought you and your Cause, and your gracious King. Take heed you runne not againe into the same errour for which you have already suffered so much, and do actually suffer. God hath put you to the Triall once againe whether you will re­ceive mercy or no, by making new [Page 529]offers of deliverance unto you; let not your sins now stand in the way to divert his mercies from you. Do not run away from God by your iniquities, when he is com­ming toward you in his goodnesse. Oh I beseech you be humbled; be reformed; let us have no more of your Oaths and Blasphemies, and horrid Execrations; Your Dam­mees, and your Sinke-mees; I feare there are some of your num­ber now cursing & banning in Hell for it, for all their Loyalty, and their righteous Cause; and how shall they escape, thinke we, that love damnation so well as to pray for it? It is the monster and prodigy of Corruption, that the Devill should so besot any soule.

Let us have no more of your swinish Drunkennes, nor your ri­otous revellings, nor your brutish Lusts.

No more of your contemning of God, and his Truth, and his Worship, of his Ministers, and his Ordinances: You see God will not be contemned; I pray you consider it hereafter, lest if you miscarry againe you miscarry without recovery, and your King, and the Church, and these whole Nations fall with you: Oh en­deavour I beseech you to make amends for former miscarriages.

Do not thinke you can do any thing without God: leave him out of he businesse no more.

Trust not to the Scots; Trust not to the Welch; though I hope [Page 531]they will prove faithfull; Trust not to your strength, your forces, your friends; Trust not to the people; All these will come to nought without God; Trust in God, take him along with you in all your waies; Consult with him in his Word, let him be President of your Councels of Warre, and take the rules of Iustice and Piety from him. Since there must be yet more Warre, remember this.

Bethinke your selves of your former sins, and forsake them; Enter into a true, and a holy Covenant with God, (you cannot thinke I meane the solemne League and Covenant) but enter into a Covenant of righte­ousnesse, of holinesse and obedi­ence with God; dedicate and [Page 532]cōsecrate your selves unto him, and then the Lord will be with you; Be carefull to feare God, as well as honour the King; yea let the feare of God be the bond of your obedience to his Annointed, else it is worth nothing; we must submit to the King for the Lords sake: and then we must needs submit to the Lord for his owne sake. If you be Traytors to your God, you will be likewise to your King: You know my meaning, your impieties and vile cour­ses have betrayed him once al­ready; I speake not of you all, no, God forbid I should wrong that happy combination of Loyalty and Religion, that hath shined in so many of you so gloriously, I acknowledge [Page 533]it, I honor it, I rejoyce to think of it, I could even kisse the dust of their feet: But let me beseech them to encrease more and more. And for others, I beseech them to take better Courses; I be­seech them for their owne sake, for their soules sake, for their lives sake, for their distressed and pious Kings sake, for their Countries sake, for the poore tot­tered and forsaken Churches sake, yea for Gods sake. If beseeching will not do, But oh that it would! If not, I must take the boldnesse to require them, to command them in the name of God, The great, and glorious, and terrible Lord God: In the name of Christ Iesus, (we have power to do it) In that name at [Page 534]which the Devils tremble; To conjure them, As they will an­swer at the dreadfull day of judge­ment for all the misery that may befall their King; The ruine and destruction that may yet farther befall their Country; for the dis­honour of righteousnesse, and the miscarriage of that holy Cause which they have to mannage; for the reproach of Religion and the Truth, and the countenance of wickednesse and falshood, and the utter devastation of this Church which may follow upon it: That they give themselves to Hu­miliation and Repentance, and to the practice of faithfull and earnest Prayer and Supplication to God. The God of heaven worke it upon you all, and [Page 535]make this poore, and plaine, but very friendly advise, accep­table unto you my deare friends and Brethren, and fel­low sufferers, that you may re­ceive it as a message sent unto you from God for your good: I might say much more, and multiply arguments, but I must not.

There remaineth yet one thing to make my building an­swerable to my platforme, to speake some few words of di­rection for the right perfor­mance of these workes, and I have done, they must be but a few, the Lord supply what shall be wanting.

1. In generall to all.

1. Let us all set upon a serious [Page 536]search and triall of our hearts and waies, according to that advice of the Prophet in the like case, Lam. 3.39, 40.

Let us take the survey of our former thoughts, of our Words, and of our Actions.

Of the substance, of the cir­cumstances, and aggravations of our sins, of our omissions, com­missions, and repetitions of the same sins.

Of our failings in the end of our obedience, in not ayming at Gods glory in our perfor­mances, but rather sacrificing to our owne glory, and to our worldly and wicked purposes, which hath polluted our best Actions.

Of our failing in the rule of obedience.

In the matter, and in the manner, and in the measure, &c. Let us examine our selves, and judge our selves, not by the customes of the world, nor by the opinions of men, nor by the humours of the times, nor by the corrupt imaginations and partiall affections of our own hearts: But setting our selves before the tribunall, and at the Barre of our Consciences, as be­fore the tribunall of God; Let us sift our selves by the Law of God, and consider wherein we have failed, either in matter of piety towards God, or in mat­ter of Iustice and charity to one another, or in matter of Sobriety, and Purity, and Chastity, in our selves; Trying our soules, and [Page 538]putting Interrogatories to our consciences how we have lived in respect of every severall Commandement.

And when we have found out our sins, let us condemne and judge our selves for them, ac­knowledging them unto God with compunction of Spirit, considering what a glorious and powerfull, and what a gratious and mercifull God we have offen­ded: What a tender Saviour we have dishonoured; what a holy Law we have transgressed; what precious soules we have endange­red; what a glorious inheritance we have forfeited; what horrour of hell and eternall damnation we have deserved; what reproach we have brought upon the name [Page 549]of Christ, and upon the professi­on of the Gospell, and what ruine and destruction we have provoked hereby upon our selves and others, upon the King, the Church, and the Commonwealth, &c.

Secondly, Let this set us up­on a loathing of sin, and of our silves for sin, after the patterne of holy Iob. Iob 42.6.

Thirdly, Let this put us up­on our slight from sin. And up­on the pursuit of righteousnesse. Seeking unto God for pardon for what is past, with hope in his mercy toward us in Christ Iesus, and imploring the graci­ous assistance of his holy spirit for the time to come, that we may be able to resist sinne, and to cleave unto him in holinesse.

Fourthly, Let us set our selves upon the diligent and con­scionable use of the meanes of grace, in reading the Scriptures, and meditating frequently on them; Hearing the word with reverence and godly feare; & examining all our thoughts, words, and actions thereby, keeping this resolution as an unreversible fixed Law in our hearts, not to allow our selves in any thing that is displeasing to God, though it bring never so much pleasure, or profit, or seem­ing honour with it; withall we must exercise our selves in the pious and frequent receiving of the Sacrament, the neglect whereof, as it may be well su­spected to be one of the great [Page 541]floudgates of iniquity and im­piety amongst us, so the resto­ring of the Christian and fre­quent use, with the due admi­nistration thereof, would like­ly be a great meanes to recover holinesse amongst us.

Fifthly, we must apply our selves to some honest businesse, and some good employments, ( Idlenesse being the great har­binger of sin, the devill being like a great and exacting Lord of a mannour, laying claime to all the woste,) and to a Christian watchfulnesse over our selves, prudently avoyding the occasi­ons of sin, and endeavouring to foresee, and provide against temp­tations. It would be very help­full I conceive, every Evening [Page 542]to make even with God (the Eng­lish word Evening me thinkes may put us in mind of it, and perhaps that may be the reason of the name,) by turning Py­thagorases rule into Christiani­ty: Examining our selves al­waies before we sleep concern­ing our thoughts and demea­nour that day, with some such questions as the Philosophers verse doth imply, [...]; Where I have been? What I have done? What duties I should have done that day and have omitted. And seeking pardon and grace for the future, and strengthen­ing our selves against our sins with holy resolutions. And if every morning we would be­thinke [Page 543]our selves what temptations we may fall into that day, and if we can, contrive prudently the avoydance of them: if not, to desire Gods helpe, and the grace of his Spirit to arme us against them.

Sixthly, It will behove us to bend our selves most against those sinnes unto which we are most en­clined, and against our master­sinnes.

Seventhly, To be wary of our Society, and as much as we may to avoid evill Company, and to associate our selves with those that are good; evill communication corrupts good manners.

Eighthly, To meditate often of the presence of God, who is with us every where, seeing all [Page 544]our most secret thoughts, hea­ring our most whispering words, and observing all our most private actions, See Psal. 139. and meditate upon it. To contemplate of the houre of death, the frailty of life, the vani­ty of the world, the profitablenesse of righteousnesse, having the pro­mises of this life, and that which is to come; of the all-sufficiency of God and Christ, of the day of Iudgement, of the joyes of heaven, and the paines of hell; of eternity, and above all, of Gods love toward us in Christ Iesus: of his Passion, Resurrection, Ascension; of his Kingdome, Priesthood, and Glo­ry; and of the glorious patternes of his holy life.

Ninthly, Be frequent and [Page 545]fervent in Suppplications to God for the King, and his Family, the Church, the Kingdoms, for the obtaining of a remedy to our mi­series and desolations, with sub­mission to his Will, and regard unto his glory. And let all be offered up with a firme faith in Christ Jesus, resting upon Gods mercy toward us in him.

For a helpe unto these Duties, I do not undertake to prescribe any thing in this kind in parti­cular; but if I might without offence give my advice, I would advise all good Christians that wish well to the King, & Church, and Kingdom, to give themselves to a private weekly Fast, once a weeke at the least during these [Page 546]miseries, to be employed in earnest Supplication to God for pardon of the sins, and the removall of his judgements, from the King, and his people, and these Nations, and for the obtaining of grace and holinesse, and in other holy du­ties, agreeable thereunto.

Now for the Loyall Party in particular, I have only thus much to say.

1. To intreat them to get ho­nest, pious, & able Ministers a­mongst them, that may instruct them, and guide them in the waies of God, and assist them with prayer and Supplication.

2. That they make it their principall care to set up Religion in their Camps, and to keep up a pious discipline amongst the [Page 547]Souldiers, in case they shall have more to do in that way.

3. That they take heed of vi­olence and revengefull thoughts, which may engage God against them; and that they meditate not cruelty or retaliation: But that their endeavours be fixed upon the honour of God, and di­rected to the good of the King, and the Church and Kingdome, with a resolution to be regulated and guided by his Majestie, as they ought, and not to take upon them to be the carvers of their owne reparations, nor seeking to returne evill for evill, for the private injuries they have re­ceived, but observing that gol­den rule, of the Apostle, Let your moderation be known unto all [Page 548]men, that they may not by their fury and violence both dis­please God, and overturne the businesse they shall have to mannage; but that by their meeknesse, and patience, and Chri­stian carriage, they may stop the reviling mouths of their ad­versaries, and shew themselves to be sincere Christians, as well as Loyall Subjects. The Lord of strength, and wisdome, and grace, and mercy, Arme us with his Strength, direct us by his Wis­dome, sanctifie us with his Grace, and Crowne us with his Mercy, Through him who is the Lord of all Power, and Wisdome, and Grace, and Mercy, even Christ Iesus our Lord, Amen.