TO engage you all as one man, to rise up at once in your might, for the preservation and defence, as­well of your selves, as of your City, against that whirlewind of cruelty and blood, which rends and teares the Kingdom in pieces where it falls. You shall do well to consider; That your selves in particular, and this your City, are the great hatred and wrath and indignation of these men: What they have done unto others, whether great or small, in waies of hostility, violence and blood, throughout the Land, they have done it chiefly in relation to you and your ruine; all the Moun­taines they have cast downe, and the valleys they have fild up, have bin to prepare themselves away to you and your City. They have practised in cruelty hitherto, and train'd up their right hand in blood, that by that time they come to you, they may be Butchers by occuppation: they have taught their right hand terrible things against others, that their right hand might teach them terrible things against you: they have forc'd a disposition of cruelty upon themselves, to practise cruell things upon others, that so by custom it might become naturall to them, by that time they shall come to doe execution upon you. They have tempred a cup, the mixture whereof is red and they powre out hereof daily, but you are their wicked ones that must be made to wring out the draggs thereof, & to drinke them up. The rods wherewith they chastise your Bre­thren elsewhere favourers of the same cause with you, will (you must looke) be turned into Scorpions when they come to you: and if Cheshire and Shropshire and other parts of the Land have bin punished seven-fold, London (doubtlesse) shall be punished seventy times seven fold if they shall enter and possesse the Gates thereof. These heights and depths of their rage and fury against you and your City are demonstrable upon these 5 grounds.

First, That purity of Religion, which is a scourge in their [Page 2] sides, and thornes in their eyes, hath its Throne amongst you. That generation, which is the great abhorring of their soules, I meane the generation of the righteous, of men and women feareing God, which are in other places by tens and by fifties are with you by hundreds and by thousands, your gleanings of them are better then the Vintage of other places; your City is a Sanctuary unto them, and place of refuge from all their quarters: you are looked upon as the great friend, and favourers and protectors of them: You and your City have been the great Bullwark against those Prelaticall invasions, wherewith the Kingdom was so sorely infested and an­noyed of late, and wherewith the truth and purity of Religion professed in it, was in danger of being turned upside downe, Had not this City of yours bin a morsell too big for them to swallow, had it not stuck so long in their Throates as it did: the whole Kingdom would have gon down merrily without any straining; but now this sticking in their throat as it did, hath caused them to vomit and cast up what they had devoured otherwise. And this (doubtlesse) is one maine ground and cause of their advancing and heightening themselves in malice, and purposes of revenge against you: you are the principall shield and Buckler of that Religion which they labour to destroy and roote up root and branch, not out of the Land only, but out of the whole world, if it were in their power.

Secondly, You and your City are look'd upon, as the chiefe protection and safeguard of that Honourable Assembly and Court of Parliament, and those worthy Members thereof who have not prevaricated, or turned head upno the Kingdome, and the great trust reposed in them but stand by the cause they have undertaken against all the fierie encounters and oppositions both of men and Divells. These being the men, whose blood must be the ransome of these Sonnes of Belial, if ever they be redeemed out of the hand of death and condemnation, which they have drawne upon their heads by those desperate courses they have run, and you being the men (as they judge and herein judge not much amisse) that chiefe­ly stand between them and their ransome, and will not suffer them to drink that blood that should heale them: You can expect none other but that that Spirit of malice and blood which posses­seth them, should rage and roare against you more then others, and that the furnace of their indignation shall be het seven times hot­ter then ordinary for your burning; when men are bent and have any strong desires to offer violence or doe mischiefe unto others, and are opposed in the execution of their desires herein, it is com­monly [Page 3] found, that they double the strength of their desires to doe mischiefe to those that oppose them in such a way, above the de­sires they had of doing mischiefe to those others. Thus the men of Soaom, having an [...] to offer violence to those two men (as they supposed them to be) that were come to Lots House, and Lot interposing himselfe to prevent and inner the execution of those evill intentions, they threatned him, that they would deale worse with him, then they would with them, Gen. 19. 9. and the reason hereof is plaine; because men seldom desire any thing with so great a desire, as they do not to be opposed or hindred in the prosecution of their desires: They can more willingly quit their desires of many things which yet please them, freely and of themselves, then they can indure strongly to be opposed and interrupted in the satisfaction of them: This then is another reason, why you should be the height of their malice and revenge.

Thirdly, They know that you and your City are the Parents (as it were) that have begotten and brought forth all that opposi­tion which hath appeared elsewhere, or been raised against them and their proceedings in the Land: that it hath bin your zeale, in raising men and armes and moneys, that hath provoked multitudes in the Land to doe likewise. They look upon others as partly passive in that very activenesse wherein they have declared themselves a­gainst them, & so make them (it's like) an allowance accordingly in their hatred and thoughts of revenge against them. But upon you they look not onely as merely active against them out of an inward principle of your owne, but as actuating and animating others also. And therefore what they deduct from, or abate in their hatred to­wards these, they will adde to their hatred and malice against you: you must looke to pay for your selves and for your Children too. Men use to be more mercifull to those that are drawn by others to practise evill against them, in case they come under their power, then to those that provoke and whet them on to doe it. God him­self laid a heavier punishment upon Eve, then he did upon Adan, be­cause she was the temptresse, and partly by her example, partly by her solicitation wrought upon his infirmitie, and drew him into part and fellowship with her in the sinne. Your righteousnesse, is their sinne.

Fourthly you are the great remora & barre in the way of their pro­ceedings you seperate between them & their desires, between them & their so dearely beloved ends: there is a contrary gale blowes so strong and stiff from your quar [...]er that, they cannot make he port or Haven, that they have been bound for this long time; You are [Page 4] they that multiply their sorrowes, and increase their paines in bringing forth: you make them buy their gold at a dearer rate, then they are willing and had hope to have bought it: you keep them still in the sweat of their brows, wheras they had hoped before this, to have bin eating their bread. You are to them as Moracats sitting in the Gate was to Haman, all his honour and greatnes and favour with the King, did not availe him, hee was not himselfe for all his great enjoyments because Mordacai was not yet brought under, to likc the dust at his feet: so all the successe that these men have in other parts of the Land, their plundering of this town and of that, all the rapine and spoile they have made, all the prey & booty they have taken their seizing upon this man & upon that, in a word, all that they have done or have hope to doe otherwise, will give them little satisfaction, will not make them fat, so long as you and your City are in peace, and able to withstand them. And therefore as Haman hated Mordicei more then all the nation of the Jewes besides, and sought the ruine and destruction of these only or chiefly by way of subordination and reference to his (as appeares by the Story) for he had no quarrell to them, but for Mordicais sake, and upon occasion of that offence given by him. Even so (doubtles) those men of wickednesse we speak of burne in hatred and desires of revenge against you, more then they doe against all other places in the Land besides: and what outrages and insolencies of violence they practise elsewhere is chiefly to accommodate and strengthen their hand, and to be subservient unto them for the rapine and ru­ine of you and your Citie. Their plundering and pillaging and spoyling in other places, is but the tuneing of their instruments, the plundering and pillaging of you, would be playing out of their song or dittie: were it not for you, they might have all things according to their hearts desire: they might eate those apples their soules so much lust after, they might feed fat upon the sweet bread of Ro­mish superstitions and Doctrines. They might have Organs and Altars, Cringings and Crouchings, they might have Copes and Surplisses, Wafers and Tapers Crucifixes and Crosses, Pilgrimages and Pictures, with all the accourements, and the whole prophane glory of the Romish Sinagogue. Were it not for you, they might have Lucifer put againe into Heaven, and Angels of light thrown downe into Hell instead of him; Prelates I meane restored to their former thrones and dignities and faithfull Ministers of the Gospell the great troublers of the Israell of the Divel, troden and trampled on like clay and mire in the streets: they might were it not for you have every man of them a doore open: which leadeth to his hearts desire. They that desired to live loosely; might do it without pay­ing [Page 5] any tribute of being checked or reproved for it: and so they that had a mind to live prophanely, to oppresse, to tyrannize, to be drunk­en to be uncleane, &c. they might have gon roundly to Hell every man his way no man asking them why do you so, which (indeed) is the sum of all happinesse that these men desire or seeke after. Wher­as you and your Citie not being made their footstoole, they can­not get up into those thrones; the summer fruits that their soules so much lust after, do not ripen because of the cold aire that breaths upon them from your City. So that it is no marveile, if the spoile and ruine of your City, be the first borne of all the designes of their rage and crueltys You are the heire that stand betweene them and the inheritance, if they can kill you, the inheritance shall be theirs.

Fiftly and lastly, you and your City are looked upon as the great Magazine of wealth, riches, & treasure in the Kingdom: the garden of the Hesperides, where the trees grow that beare the golden apples, is known to be compassed about with the walls of your City. Now the love of these men is so above measure excessive to your Silver and gold, their soules cleave so to it, that except you will give it them into their bosomes quietly, and in a way of peace, they must needs, though with the extreamest perill and hazard of their owne lives, attempt yours, for your moneys sake. This wine of yours looks so red and pleasantly in the glasse upon them; that their hearts are inflamed with it: yea the zeale of it hath so farre eat them up that they cannot live without it; you must give it them, you must let them have it one way or other, or else they die. And therfore their resolution to make the adventure howsoever upon you, may well be like that of the foure Lepers (2 King. 7. 5.) to adventure themselves into the camp of the Aramites; If they sate still, or if they went into the Citie, they were certainely dead: and if they went amongst the Aramites, if the worst came to the worst, they could but die; but by making the attempt they might possibly live; so that desperate Generation we speak of, being not able to live, not knowing how to doe, how to subsist without the spoile of your Ci­tie, and the possession of your treasure looking upon themselves as dead men without it, may in a way of ordinary discourse and rea­son, come to this issue in point of resolution against you, to make the attempt and venture upon you howsoever, if they shall miscary inmaking the attempt, they were but dead men if they shall sit still and make no attempt upon you, they were but dead men neither: and this was more certainly death, then the other, in making the attempt they might (haply) prosper and so live, you have this pas­sage, 2 Chron. 14. 14. that Asa and his men spoiled all the Cities of [Page 6] the Ethiopians, for this reason, because their was much in them: And they spoiled all the Cities (saith the text) for there was exceeding much spoile in them. The aboundance of wealth and treasure in them, was the reason why they were plundered and ransack'd and destroyed. Plenty of silver and gold are of dangerous consequence and influ­ence, to advance the courage and resolutions of enemies; to turne weak men into strong, and cowards and such as are fearefull other­wise, into men of valour and resolution. So that now this is ano­ther reason very considerable, why you and your Cities above all other persons or places in the Kingdome should be predestinated to spoile and ruine in these mens councels, intentions and decrees: be­cause in other places they can but gleane; but here they know they shall have a full harvest.

Now then, it being a thing so apparent and evident upon these reasons (and many more possible of like importance might be added) that you and your City are principally intended for the great sacri­fice to be offered upon the service of the rage, malice, hatred and cruelty of these men, doth it not concerne you in speciall manner; more then all the Kingdome besides, to looke about you, and quit your selves like men, yea and more then like men (if it were possible) to cast if it were your whole substance into the treasurie of your preservation and peace? Let any thing you shall keep back of what is in your power to do or give for the advancement of the great ser­vice that hath been recomended unto you, every time you see it or thinke upon it, be as an omen or presage unto you, of the losse and spoile of your City, if you shall still detaine it. You know that wheras ordinarily men use to cut or clip their haire with sheeres or sissers, in some diseases which are dangerous and violent, they shave it close with a razor preferring baldnesse and nakednesse for a time, before losse of life. In like manner, though moderation and sobri­ety of expence bee the commendation of wise men at other times; yet cases of exigencie alter the rule, and make any thing lesse then what men are able to doe with their utmost might, extremity of weaknesse and misprision. Nothing lesse then all things, is like to doe any thing.