GREAT BRITAIN'S RESVRrection: Or the Parliaments passing Bell. BY WAY OF PSALMODY, AGAINST the triumphing of the Papists, in their seven Psalms. And in imitation of the song of the three Nobles of Israel, delivered out of the fiery Oven of Babel. By William Hubbard, Chaplain to the King's Majesty, in his highness Tower of London. Hos. 14.10. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? and prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are righteous, and the just shall walk 〈◊〉 them: but the wicked shall fall therein. Seen and allowed. AT LONDON, Printed by T. C. for Arthur johnson, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the white Horse. 1606. To the right Worshipful, Sir William Waade Knight, Lieutenant to his Majesty, in his highness Tower of London: Grace and favour with God and man, be multiplied in jesus Christ. I H●●● made bold (right Worshipful) to dedicate this Hymn and general sacrifice of compunction and thanksgiving, to your name and memory, both as a tendering of my particular office to you and yours principally: and because God hath made you so general a man for the common good, being so learned, religious, and habitually prudent from the chief school of high wisdom in our estate, the board of his majesties most honourable privy Counsel, and a most sufficient servant of King and Country in this place: whereupon I begin to conceive strong hope, that the Lord hath sent you amongst us, not only for these dear and present times of this new generation of gun▪ powder men in this place, in which your dexterity and service is apparent to all, but to be valued of them who are able to give it his due weight & poise, without diminishing any grain of such a mineral better than gold: Tower ministery. but for establishing also the Church and government here unto posterity, which hath been the sin of omission in many before you: and now needeth some Zerubabel, or Nehemia, Zach▪ 4.7.10. Noh. 13.4.7.8. a restorer after so many exigents, as it hath been driven unto in the ministries of the same, being driven out of their possessions, and old endowments, in the midst of gold and silver, jewels and Plate, as Tantalus in the miast of water, wanting water: where rather the support should be certain and liberal for God's honour, and the Kings, for the attendance of such an one, as both may inform the officers and servants there, and inhabitants beside, to the number well-nigh of 400. communicants (aggregated thither, and escaping scot and lot else where, who enjoy all divine rights for themselves and their families at the Ministers hands, and as though their souls were worth nothing, or free of heaven, Pro. 3.9. honour the Lord with no part of their substance) and may at times also by moderate dropping of his words upon the Prisoners, Ezech 21.2. rather than at or a little before their death (for their error came not in a moment, Conference with prisoners. nor is Christian regeneration ripened but by degrees) instruct the contrary minded with patience, as the ample saith: trying whether God will give them repentance at any time to know the truth, 2. Tim. 2.24.25.26. that they may come to amendment out of the snare of the devil, of whom they are held to do his will▪ which place of scripture I confess I have long time much made of. In which kind my poor labours have not been in vain in the Lord, both to the reclaiming of divers, and to the discovery of matter beneficial to the estate: which I think some of their honours have not forgot, glorfied be the name of him that hath his chair in heaven, and teacheth the heart. In all which ripe and sweet fruits of your faith, In veni lateritiam: reliqui marmoream. that you may increase with the mighty increases of God, my hearty prayer is, that so you may be eminent daily in this your whole so careful a charge and employment, in this royal Castle, the key of the kingdom: that you make that marble, which you found brick: that that which was planted with wild figs, you may establish with Cedars: finally, so to wade through this whole cumbersome & uncertain sea full of many new monsters, as that you may have an Olive branch still in your hand, & with an uncorrupt mind lift up your head to the head of all with holy ovation, saying. I have run my full race: 2. Tim. 4.7.8. I have fought a good fight: I have kept myself in the faith, and others: Clavum et clipeum tenui. Amen. Your Worships in his best offices and services ●or the Church, William Hubbard. To the devout and Christian Reader. A Foundation and direction of expressing my thoughts, by way of Psalm, hath been the Apostles holy canon and sanction: Col. 3. 1●. Let the word of Christ dwelled in you plenteously in all wisdom▪ teaching and admonishing your own selves in Psalms and Hymns, Why this treatise by way of Psalm. and spiritual songs. And I find that our Lord and Master jesus Christ, after he had kept his passover with his disciples, and washed their feet after supper: Ioh 13.2. Math. 26.30. and instituted & performed the sacrament in an excellent sermon or sermocination reaching from john, cha. 13 31. through the whole 14.15.16. chapters, with a prayer annexed, containing the whole 17. chap. he thought not this heavenly feast and banquer, sufficiently furnished, unless he closed up their spiritual stomach with a Psalm, as some precious marm●let● For so saith the scripture: When they had sung a Psalm, Math 26.2. they went out into the mount of Olives. A most Christian exercise, and too much neglected among professors. Others in great variety of invention in verse & prose, in Latin and English, in sermon & otherwise, have traveled in this argument laudably and fruitfully: some memorably even by the voice of a doleful Pyramid demolished in France, craving restitution in noble great Britain: yea the Theatre and English Roscius himself hath portrayed this work of God, and set it aloft, tanquam in arce Phidiae, as it were in the turret of the famous carver Phidias, to the view of all men. But I took this course, the rather, because I observe the friends of the Romish pioneers, to have had a secret seavenfold Psalmody, as a claudestinarie orison from hand to hand, in which they solace themselves with strange notes, and tunes, and ditties, and hopes of news: Select sentences out of the Popish new Psalter. In their 4. Psalm. as in an insolent Paean, triumphing before hand, for a jubilee & golden day at hand. I will set down some of their words, because the book is not in many hands. And I by a good friend came by the most of it. Of innocent King Edward, thus they speak: England, ah ungrateful England, forgot the living God, and felt the curse of having a child to her King. Of our late Queen, of thrice blessed memory, thus they seem to say: The nobility to their own utter extirpation shamefully forsook their Bishops, without assistance. Of our noble Sovereign they seem thus: Alas, O Lord: that thou hast suffered a parching wind to blow from the North: Which made the boughs of thy planting to wither, and the flourish thereof to decay: And yet as it were recomforting themselves, thus they seem to prophecy. In a moment canst thou crush her bones, and lay her pride in the dust: And: The earth is infected with the wickedness of the Inhabitants, and crieth unto thee for vengeance: And possibly would swallow them as it did Ch●re and his company: were it not for thine elect sake: Revenging fire of Sodom and Gomor might be justly feared: And: Confirm the heart of those thy labourers: endue them with strength from above, and give success unto their endeavours: Again: Embolden our hearts with courage, to concur with them freely in furthering thy service. And in another place: Confirm your hearts in hope, for your redemption is not far off. In their second Psalm. The year of visitation draweth to an end: and jubilation is at hand: And: jerusalem shall be built up again: and the second glory thereof, shall be greater than the first. And: Righteousness shall prosper, and infidelity shall be plucked up by the roots. God will arise as from a long slumber, & establish again the ark of his sanctification. And: The root which hath waxen old under ground, man shoot up again as a fresh plant by the river side: False error shall vanish as smoke: And they which saw it, shall say: Where is it become? Just judgement & holy laws shall be restored, etc. Again: His tabernacle he will spread again; and dwell amongst us as in times past. And: Sacred songs shall break their long silence, the lamp of our Lord shall be 〈◊〉. And: The resemblance of heaven shall be renewed, the resemblance of hell shall be destroyed. England shall be called a happy Realm, a blessed Country, a religious people. Those which knew the former glory of Religion, shall lift up their hands for joy, to see it returned again. Those that never saw it shall be strucken with admitation: wishing that they had sooner known the truth: condemning their fathers which forsook it. Men shall say of it, one to another: here is indeed the house of God, and the gate of heaven. How great diversity is between truth and falsehood, devout solemnities, and counterfeit ceremonies? From the East point to the West, men shall confess their errors. They which thought themselves wisest, shall say they knew nothing: Gladly shall people walk in their ancient steps of truth and equity, etc. The Prince of peace will break the exactors rod. etc. No longer will he dissemble the oppression of his people▪ He is bend to revenge their cause. The daughters of Babylon shall be cast down: and in the dust lament their ruin. Proud heresy shall strike her sail: and groan as a beast crushed under a cart wheel. Again: The omnipotent hath sworn to make her stoop: and that he will abase her haughtiness. Again: The memory of novelties shall perish with a crack: as a ruinous house falling to the ground. And: He will come as a flame that bursteth out beyond the surnace. His fury shall fly forth as thunder: and pitch on their tops that malign him. Again: A second Cyrus hath he stirred up: confirming his Sceptre for the good of his people. He shall likewise bring the Infants of Zion from all quarters of their banishment: joyfully shall they return from foreign lands. And those Countries, where now they harbour, shall find succour in this I'll for their necessities. Again: The tempestuous night being passed: a perpetual day shall be our comfort. His truth, his justice, his Priests, his sacrifice shall be no more taken away. I have been the larger: that the reader might see, & observe the Papists expectation out of their own many words without equivocation. But Mutatis mutandis the prophecy shall be inverted upon themselves: as is in part already: Magnified be the name of God therefore. Now for this my method, as it were a litany or procession: and a kind of spiritual preambulation through the whole England, as men do to keep their bounds: so we to see in particular and general how much we are bound to God: Exod. 15. ●ud. 5. we have excellent precedents to omit Miriams' song, and Deborah's, which both stand upon the resolution into particulars: but in David, himself more notably: David the sweet singer of Israel, the king of singers, first Psal. 136. which used to be sung of the Levites in the temple: 1. Chro. 16.41. In which Psalm as it were by a logical or theological predicament, he beginning with the great works of GOD in general, he after divideth his thoughts into the works of creation, and administration: Odê Epae●●ticos, ê antistrophos. Why repetition. Presidents of particular recapitulation, and a burden of words in songs of thanksgiving See also Psalm. 118. in the beginning. he goeth from the heavens to the earth: he particularizeth in the great lights the sun and the moon. In the works of administration he exemplifieth in the Lords destroying Egypt's first borne: in bringing Israel out thence: in cutting sea into two parts: in bringing Israel through the midst: and not at the shore and in some shallow place: In overthrowing Pharaoh and his host there: In leading this people through the Desert: In smiting great kings for their sakes: particularly Sihon and Og: in giving his people their land: in remembering not their misery only, but in feeding all flesh. The burden of all which to every verse is: The mercy of the Lord endureth for ever. That is to say: God's mercy appeared not then only and in those particulars, but for ever: And that these particulars were staking down, that they had had God's mercy from time to time, and might be sure of it for ever: even as Esay the Prophet saith: Hear, Esay, 55. and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you: the sure mercies of David: What is this else, but you shall be as sure of my love as ever David was: And in a nearer example, A ●. precedent. Psal. 148. he rangeth and marshalleth the creatures in order, with redoubling the same words: praise him all ye his Angels: praise him all his armies: praise him sun and moon: praise him heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens, let them praise, etc. praise ye the Lord from the earth, Dragons, depths, fire, hail, snow, vapours, winds, mountains, hills, beasts, creeping things, and feathered fowls, Kings and all nations, Princes, and all judges of the earth: young men and maids: old men and children: Let them praise the name of the Lord, etc. and why all these? For the particular mercy (saith David) in exalting the horn of his people. Even as Esay on the other side in the impenitency of the people contesteth heaven and earth: Esay. 1.2. attesteth Ox and Ass against Israel's ingratitude. And hence no doubt was deduced the canticle of the three children, though apocryphas, The song of the three children: O all ye works of the Lord, etc. yet very ancient, and inserted for the worthiness of it into the liturgy of the Church of England. Where the three great noble men and rulers of thy Provinces themselves personally stand forth, and beginning from the general works of God, descend to specials: in heaven to Angels, sun & moon: and pass along the clouds in their spirits, to showers, winds, fire, heat, winter, summer, dews, and frosts, ice & snow: and knock at the door of every creature in the earth: mountains, green things, wells, seas, floods, whales; fowls, beasts, particularly summoning men: more particularly Israel: among them the Lords Priests and servants: the souls of the righteous: and humble men that walk with God, and endure any thing or every thing for him: O'A●aria, Azaria & M●●ael: do you praise the 〈…〉 the Lord. and by name they call upon themselves: As though all the creatures were obtested to help them to praise God, & to acknowledge this Creator and preserver of them: and that they who had the chief deliverance, though men of care, knowledge, and understanding in all learning and wisdom, yet were unsufficient without worlds of help. Dan. 1.17. & 2.17.18. Therefore as God presented all the creatures before Adam their Lord & owner under God: and at another time all the creatures of the earth before Noah, Gen. 2, 19.20. & 7.14. their preserver under the same God: And as Landlords have their tenants to show their poll, and to pay head silver to their Lords in their Courts yearly: And as seamen scaping shipwreck, offer vows, jonas 1, 16. and hang up tables of deliverance: so have I endeavoured by these holy examples, and the like to present in all humble duty all degrees and estates before this Lord their preserver, with crowns of salvation on their heads, palms of victory in their hands, Psalms of thanksgiving in their mouths. For when the funeral men of Rome tolled our last knel among themselves: To the Parliaments passing Bell. so certainly that they thought all the Physicians of great Britain could do her no good: and that God himself had forsaken her: saying, now the Protestant shall die, & his name perish: did not the Lord of life cause the bell to stay on a sudden: Psal. 41.5. and hath he not spirited her again with a fresh life, Great Britain's Resurrection. Heb. 11.19. and made her the daughter of a joyful resurrection. As it is said of Isaac, that Abraham after a sort received him from the dead, when he was so near unto death and yet delivered. My meaning was to stir up all our spirits, mine own and others, and to keep us somewhat waking, least security the bane of all should creep in. For if right use be made of this: what doth let but we may write: Aeterna Britannia magna: wherein no doubt a princely and honourable monument from this Senate in a festivity ordained for ever to be kept (which shall be like a marble pillar, with a real, Parliament holy day. and compendious inscription of the matter and occasion engraven walled about, and a keeper of it as of other monuments for all to visit) to God's glory and increase of our faith and repentance, shall revive our anniversary thankfulness to all posterity. And me thinks I observe a new edge upon many lovers of religion since, Rom. 10.19. 1. Sam. 5.4. Vt ingulent homines sargunt de nocte latrones: ut temet serves non expergiscere? thieves rise by night to kill: and thou to save thyself by waking haste no will. when they see God hath so provoked them by a foolish and idolatrous people desperately zealous for the setting of Dagon, that thereby with greater inflamed hearts the friends of Zion labour to resetle the ark of God upon our centre for ever. In which for my part I cannot but praise God for the fervour and ardent spirit of the most honourable and zealous lower house, like the spirit of famous Martin Luther, and a fiery conglobation in their holy and devout dispositions in many notable propositions, and yet also give God most hearty thanks for the grave, moderate, and mature considerations of the most honourable & high part of the upper house, as the sage spirit of melancthon, and a refrigerative constellation: whose operations and influences shall by God's grace have heavenly and mighty effects very beneficial to the public good in due time, and their sweet aspect and loving respect unto one another, and to the whole by their happy and peaceable conjunction shall profit, upon further occasions that which is behind of their faith, wisdom, and zeal, which shall be the better effected, if we could all go one way. For I perceive in many cases, as the Lamprey and serpent engender, so some professors so named (for I except the grave, humble, modest, and fatherly, whom I know many) and the Papist with diverse ends join to debase him, that without respect of factions in his honest simplicity and plainness, opposeth himself to two extremes: Aristotle li. 1, eth. ca 6. Great was the light of wisdom, that shined in the Gentiles: He that will preserve truth, must not only confute other men's opinions, but his own. And would to God all sides could learn of the fountain of wisdom, not to do any thing for displeasure against any supposed tars, Math. 13. as to pluck up wheat: and all sides so to deny themselves and their own name, that we might think it no disgrace, but good devotion to say in a common voice: Thy name be sanctified, Math. 6. O Lord, whatsoever become of our name. And here I most humbly desire as in this last passage, so in the whole process the friendly christian and charitable construction & indulgence of all men: wherein any thing by omission or addition is mistaken, which in such variety of degrees to sort every one with their proper attributes and offices is easy for a contemplative man, labouring according to this place & my function, to be a remembrancer among many: knowing that as in a race though men run swiftly of themselves, yet the clapping of hands of other observers, & of them that blow the trumpets, addeth a new courage and vigour to them. The sum of my desire is: Cantic. 4.2. that all our people of great Britain hereafter may be like one flock of sheep, as the holy Ghost speaketh: as in good order come up from their washing: a peculiar people abundant and zealous of good works: every one bearing twins and none barren among them: Tit. 1.14. 2. Cor. 5.11. that our Church knowing, the terror of the Lord, hereby as Christ speaketh, may be purged, and bring forth more fruit; that it may grow as the Lily, and have roots of Lebanon: Ios. 15.2.3. that she may look forth from her sleep, Hos. 14.5, 6, 7.8.9. as the morning fair as the moon, pure as the sun, terrible as an army with banners, that all the world may confess: what nation is so great unto whom God cometh so near in all that we need, Cantic. 6.9. even before we call upon him: What nation so great, Deut 47. Esa. 65.24. that hath ordinances and laws so wise and so righteous, as they have set out in this their day. Amen. April. 29. 1606. Faults escaped. SEction 1, line last, for reseveth. read, and reserveth. sec▪ 5, l. 9, read sulphurous, ibid. li. 23, read hath for have, sec: 6, in margin, for ornatumque, read ornatum, 16, d, for a deo, read ad eos, sec: 16, li, 14, read leprous, sec. 19, li. 9, read wheels, sec: 21. li, 15, for hours, read hoardes, sec▪ N. li. 16, Gotham, sec: 22, li. 23, at this sign * left out: who meant to have the incustodie: and 25. read volies, sec: 25, li. 9, f. 1 Fsaac also, Isaac alone, sec. 29, li. 17, Parliaments petition, and li. 58.10, 11, etc. sec▪ 30, li. 30. read praise, sec. 32, third page, for chests, read clefts sec. 33. li. 4. read train and 2. p. all dimensions. sec 39 page. 2. in fine: read marvel. Sec. 11. after the word practise: also all the 〈◊〉▪ Academia: scholars and children of the famous King's school of Westminster, who like the male children of Israel by this Italian Pharaoh, had like to have been consumed in a deluge of fire, and as the innocent Babes of Bethlehem to be slain by the Romish Herod, in despite of young Christ amongst us. The Author is named Habbard for Hubbocke, without direction indeed, but not without providence, as being the ancient and rightful title of the family: though he refuseth neither. ❧ Great Britain's Resurrection. O Thou mighty james, King of great Britain, France, and Ireland: whom GOD hath advanced so peaceably to so many united Kingdoms, upon so variable a change, without any sensible alteration, to the admiration of all the world: and seemed to have rooted thine estate, by blissful and much royal issue: by amity of Foreign Princes, by great love & loyalty of subjects: that it was thought not able to be removed: (thou Lord of thy only goodness, Psal. 30, 7. hadst made his rock to stand so strong) and yet in one moment GOD hiding his face, all had like to have been dissolved with one blast of powder, if the same merciful God had not withheld the breath of his wrath: Esa. 30.33. which is a river of brimstone, to kindle this Topheth, a pit prepared of old, a place deep and large, the burning thereof is fierce fire, and much wood: do thou according to thy excellent and rare Princely learning & judgement (whereof Kingdoms, Vniversites, 2, King. 10.28 and Foreign Ambassadors, are witnesses) with zeal as jehu, root Baal out of Israel by one act: open the window of the Parliament as joash his window, at the counsel of Elizeus: 2. King 13. in the end. Smite the Syrians not twice or thrice, but six times, until thou hast utterly consumed them: bless thou the Lord with all princely offices of piety and justice, more and more to the saving and comfort of all thy people. Psal. 144.10. Acknowledge that it is tree that giveth deliverance to Kings, rescueth the anointed his servant: praise him and magnify him for ever. O Thou most gracious Queen Anne, who hast forsaken thine own Country & native soil, and come into foreign parts to partake in all thy youth & beauty, the same lot with thy Regal Lord: behold how when the daughter of England did homage unto thee, Psal. 45.14. with all the rich before thy face with presents: and thou goest out in all honour and singleness of heart, to behold and rejoice in the solemnity of so great an estate, which God had so miraculously cast into your lap without your hands: when these unmerciful butchers of Rome hardening their hearts, meant to have buried thee in one grave with thy royal husband, or rather torn in pieces: (I abhor to speak it) without all burial (which was afforded to King's daughters, though never so evil:) even than thy life was dear and precious in the eyes of the Lord, 2. King 9.34. and his tender care was over thee: do thou therefore bless the Lord, and serve him more & more with one heart jointly, with this thy princely Lord and husband: praise him and magnify him for ever. O Thou most noble Prince Henry, the staff of thy Father's strength, and the prime hope of these imperial diadems: whose innocent life these blood-thirsty Babylonians longed for, equally with thy Princely Fathers: to destroy root, and branch: Deut. 22.6. and fruit, parent, and child in one day: to kill dam and young in one nest: Exod. 23.9. to extinguish present and future: as it were seething tender Kids in mother's milk, against Law of GOD and nature: Lam. 3.27. Do thou still bear the yoke of the Lord in all steadiness and steadfastness as most comfortably thou dost to all our joy: in these first fruits of thy days: Remember still thy Creator in the days of thy youth: Eccles. 12. ●● and never forget this Preserver in all the days of thine age: bless thou the Lord, in all thy princely family, as holy and zealous young josias, praise him and magnify him for ever. O Ye Honourable Counsellors, and Potentates, who turn the wheel of estate under our Sovereign: against whom such wicked counsel was devised to destroy you all before the mighty throne of our King: & to defeat us of counsel, not reparable in a long time: which yet is the only comfort in distress: (so great was the indignation of the Lord towards us, Psal. 18.7. ●. Psal. 29.1. at whose nostrils are kindled hailstones and coals of fire: but that the Angel of the everlasting counsel did interpose himself) * In the book of public thanks: The K. 2. speech in Parliament. My L. of Salis. at the arraign and in his answer to the Pamphlet. as you the Sons of the mighty, have given this glory to God: & do freely confess that all this saving health was from him alone: that GOD did all as a friend that doth a pleasure, which his friend knoweth not, until he feel the comfort of it, that it is done: (for notwithstanding the noble virtues and vigilancy of Abner, and undoubted fidelity of all the King's servants, 1. Sam. 26.16. round about him, on the right hand & on the left, pot & spear had been taken from the King's head: Gal. 1.16. Pro. 20.18. Apoc. 4.10. Ark and Sceptre from us in one hour:) do you more and more consult with God in this and all other deliberations, and not with flesh & blood: that his statutes may be your Counsellors: That he may establish all your thoughts by his counsel: long may you live in all grace and honour, according to your great place and trust: do you as the 24. Elders, fall down, and throw down your crowns, of wisdom, intelligence, policy, vigillancie, government, before him that liveth for ever: bless ye the Lord, praise him and magnify him for ever. O Ye reverend Bishops and Prelates, the venerable Governors of the Church of Christ, Apoc. 1.20. as the Angels and Precedents of the seven Churches of England among us: the gravities and presence of Superiors in the Church, have been regarded of the profane & barbarous tyrants of the earth, and bloody Soldiers: Alexander the great at the sight of jaddus the high Priest, * As Percy, understanding the B. of Saint David's to be sick. 1. Pet 2, 25. job. 21.16. spared jerusalem: and yet of these Sulphurous hellhounds, you were more eagerly sought after to the fire, & they rued if any of you should be away: do you honour this Lord the great Bishop of our souls, with further care & love to all the sheep and Lambs committed to your charge: And with all your power do ye exalt the standard of his glorious Gospel, in all places of your Commissions: have in your fatherly wisdoms as much patience as you can to your inferior brethren of the Ministry (notwithstanding some of their intemperate exulcerations) for the common service of the gospel sake: their places and times cannot reach to the maturity of experience, which your wisdoms hath attained: behold also, they are keen against an enemy: Phil. 3.15.16. whom though difference have divided by names of discord, yet the enemy would have made no difference of slaughter of you both: bear as you may with their improvidencie, till God reveal further unto them: (which moderation time hath bred in many: & is not profiting in wisdom and judgement, a part of our growing to the ripe age and stature of jesus Christ;) that whereunto we are come, we may proceed by one rule, even to mind one thing which is necessary: Luk. 10.42. Do you stand in the gap in your pastoral & sage wisdoms and zeal, to turn away the Lords wrath, which yet is not ceased: bless you the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye Nobleses and Peers of the Realm, the pillars of our estate, and flowers of the King's Coronet: Behold now the day of the Lord of Hosts, Esa. 2.12.13. Cant. 3.7. was to be upon every thing that was exalted: upon all the Cedars of Lebanon: upon all the Oaks of Bashan: and upon all the high mountains: and upon all the hills that are lifted up: upon every high town, every strong wall, even upon all the strong men that are about the bed of Solomon, all the valiant of Israel, who handle the sword and are expert in war, and upon every one, that hath his sword upon his thigh for any fear: Esa. 2.12.13. Cantic, 3.7. these, even yourselves, the cruel instruments of Nabuchadnazzer of Rome, would have consumed as the three renowned rulers of the Provinces, Dan. 3.19.21. Sidrach, Misach, and Abednego, in one fiery Oven, heated to the seventh degree, in your habits, * Livy dec. 1. l. 1. Senes triumphales consulates, qui curules gesterant magistratus, ●t in fortunae pristinae honorum. que aut virtutis insignibus morerentur, augustissima vest vestiti in medio aedium in eburneis sellis sedere: Galli haud secus quam venerabundi intuebantur sedentes viros praeter ornatum que habitumque humano augustiorem, maiestate etiam, quam vultus gravitasque oris pre se ferebat dijs fimillimos: ad eo ●●luti simul●chra versi stabant, etc. robes, coats, and shoes, as they were, as the Scripture noteth: and yet the Infidel galls under Brennus, reverenced the faces and vestures of the Fathers of the Senate in the capitol of heathen Rome: Behold the Lords great deliverance over you: his holy Angels among you, so that no smell of fire upon your garments, nor a hair of your heads singed: do you therefore and your posterity, and all your retinue: Bless the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O You grave judges and Fathers of the Law, and Sages of the Land, whose doom was so near without all course of judgement, and trial of Law: which you afford to the meanest creature, and most grievous offender: do you put on justice as a robe: Let equity be a covering as a Crown: break the power of the oppressor, and let the innocent go free: that justice may not be as Wormwood, nor judgement as gall: but truth may run down as a mighty stream every where: Do you bless the Lord, the chief judge of the world, who hath delivered you from so great & sudden a judgement: Bless him, I say, in all your Courts, in all your benches, proceedings, Assizes, and Sessions: praise him and magnify him for ever. O You the learned and prudent Masters of the Law and Chancery: the Secretaries and Clerks of estate, attendants in this honourable place by your offices, who were to be in the same net of destruction: now that your soul is escaped, as a bird the net broken, Psal. 147.7. the fowlers taken and your soul delivered: Do you tremble and serve this great God, and King, and your Country, with all good care & sound conscience, as before the Court of conscience in heaven in greater degrees: Fulmen petit culmen. The thunder strikes the higher. (for if his wrath had been kindled a little, what could great and high place & presence do good:) behold the thunder smiteth the tallest tops? Do you therefore fear this great GOD, break out into voices and vows of laud and thanksgiving: bless you the Lord, praise him and magnify him for ever. O You worthy Knights and Burgesses, who represent the bodies of the several Countries & Shires of our Nation: Sir Th. Smith de Rep. Aug. and were to be a short ransom for a small Interim with your bodies, for the bodies of the Countries, who looked when their turn came to be devoured also: * As Ulysses of Polyphemus: when the rest were devoured before h●m. Heb. 12.29. Be you faithful between them, who commit their welfare unto you and this God: who though he be a consuming fire, and your house was as a burnt sacrifice, Leuit. 6.9. soaking upon the fire almost to the last night: yet he hath not burnt it, nor touched our estate, as brittle and combustible as the fiery bush in the Desert: Exod. 3.2.3. but gloriously showed himself in the midst of you for your safety, as in the vision to Moses. Wherefore put off your shoes as he did: lay aside all earthly tread awry in love of yourselves, & your own pelf: Gal: 2.14. go not with a splay foot to the Gospel of peace: and if indeed you seek the Lord with all your hearts in the propagation of the Gospel, by a preaching ministery through the Land: as I am persuaded very many do: then stick not some of you to return the impropriations in your own power back again to the Church, as some honourably have done heretofore: H.E. of Hunt. Sir Fr. K. M. Aldersey, etc. and others offered to do the like in your very own house of Parliament: and some with their money hath purchased some of them to the Church: and were they not the ancient patrimony of Christ? Did not Queen Mary in her dark days and ways give example? See Acts of Parlia. and by act of Parliament make restitution of the appropriations annexed to the Crown? It well becometh the zealous this day, some to stand forth, as Zaccheus after so long detinue: Luc. 19.9. Seeing this day salvation is come unto their whole and particular houses, and they become the sons of Abraham, Gen. 22.10.11 all of them as Isaac saved from the knife, by an angelical hand, to deliver possession of the Lords inheritances: some to offer liberally, as Araunah the jebusite, did like a King, as is recorded to the shame of Christians: 2 Sam. 24.23. Some as Nehemiah, Neh. 5.8.10.11 to depart from their own for some time to redeem the Church's portion back again, as he & his servants did forbear the purchasing of lands for themselves, to supply public wants: Others not stick to abolish diminutive rates, and unequal disproportionate compositions, whereof peradventure many have stolen upon the Church: and to reduce the tithes to their primitive uncorrupt kind, or among you to take some effectual way in the variety of your high and exercised wisdoms, for a liberal maintenance of a preaching Ministry (without which the discourses of it, are clouds and claps of thunder, without the sweet dews and drops of early and later rain:) and indeed a rich sacrifice of those sorts upon this return of you all, from the gulf of such a death, would be an undeniable constat of your zeal and piety to all posterities, and an acceptable performance of a holy vow to him, who hath spared you all, & taken nothing from you. And so in the name of God go on with all your courage, zeal, obedience, and fidelity to GOD and man: bless you the Lord, praise him, and magnify him▪ for ever. O Ye eloquent and skilful Sergeants, and Counsellors at the Law, the Professors and exercents in this faculty: pleaders and agents, and all the men of Law▪ whosoever in these adjacent Courts, together with all the Scribes. Notaries and Protonotaries Attorneys, and all other appendents and dependents, in so great a Muster in your ranks and Companies, that plain and quiet men marvel how there can be employments for so great an Army: who all are intended to keep peace among Subjects; among whom yet many, Ose. 4.8. jer. 5. 27.2●. it must needs be live of the sins of the people: as a cage is full of birds, so are their chambers full of deceit. Thereby they are become great, and waxen rich: they are waxen fat and shining, and though they do not justly, yet they prosper: whose heat of contention to multiply strifes and Clients: pluralities and tot-quots of Cases and Causes: that it seemeth to resemble the troublesome knots of the old Popish schoolmen, to make things more pletted, perplexed, and intricate: and yet thereby they heap up money and fees, which delivereth not in the day of wrath, but enkindleth it rather: now that you are all delivered from destruction, which was so near unto you also in the very tents and pitched fields of your variance, ●ob. 29.16. and in that place, that is witness of all your integrity: whether you sought out the cause diligently as holy job did, Pro. to buy the truth, and sell it not; or otherwise of your untrustiness: wrest not the Law: accustom not to speak against your conscience: Rom. 7.12.14 take heed it be not said of some of you: as in another sense: the Law is holy, and just, and good, but I am sold under sin: even every one that so often plead at so many bars: remember this great bar and tribunal seat to which you were to come, not so prepared, as else you would: extol this mighty GOD of your deliverance: let godliness be your chiefest gain, and the right and peace your greatest joy: 1. Tim. 6.6. bless you the Lord in all your take and speakings: endighting and counsailing: complain and defending: praise him, and magnify him for ever. O You Gentry and Yeomanrie, the fry of this Nation, and seed of succeeding ages: ye Students at the Law, and other novices and punies under your grand Benchers, and most grave Seniors: that assemble to hear, and observe the experience and maturity of the ancient, and to furnish yourselves for future time: who had like to have been oppressed in your minorities, and in the very great hall and common school of your practice, and at the feet of them that teach you: but that the Lord protested for sinful England as for great Niniveh: to save six score thousand alive, that knew not the right hand from the left; ●onas, 4, 11. Esa, 65, 8. to preserve you as a cluster of Grapes, hopeful of wine: of which one saith, destroy it not: there is a blessing in it: Do you therefore laud this Lord, who is your God from your youth, and let him be your God unto your age: bless you the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye Suitors and Clients, and Solicitors of the Law, who are enraged in stomach and disquietness: in revenge and covetousness, Gal. 5, 15. to eat up one another: and travail far, and oft to consume your times and families: Psal. 120.4. and blow the coals of juniper upon one another, facing and defacing yourselves mutually to maintain these fires: behold the day of the Lord upon you: like Plaintiff, like Defendant: like giver, like taker: like Clients like pleader: Esa. 24. ●. one Beasom of destruction to sweep away all that hunt their brethren with a net, and lay snares to catch men: but that God is more patient to us all, jer. 5.16. than we are to one another: who did suddenly blow the retreat from this great slaughter: else a man of you had not been left alive: therefore fear this Lord, the God of peace, and love, and comfort: Phil. 4.5. let your placability be known unto all men: the Lord is at hand: bless thou the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye servants and followers of the Nobles and Gentry, and others in this great assembly of Parliament, and full Term: Consider your service to almighty God, what it hath been heretofore: and your faithfulness to men; Eph. 6.5.6. 1. Cor. 7.23. let it not be in eye service, but in singleness of heart: you are bought with a price, hereafter be servants not only of men, but of this God; who hath delivered you from this common lot of misery: bless I say, and curse not: deliver yourselves from the common condemnation: fashion not yourselves according to the world, in the profaneness of too many Servitors, Rom. 12.2. misspending time and life: forgetting God and religion: remember the judgement of old: not a servant of Noah or Lot, saved in the waterish and fiery destruction of their times, Gen. 7.23. & 19.20. and yet you preserved at this time: therefore bless you the Lord your preserver, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O You inhabitants and sojourners in the ancient City of Westminster, with all the confines and skirts of the liberties thereof, or in any reach, whether this whirlwind of God's wrath should have reached by land or by water: Behold you also were the children of death: job. 1.19, and your houses appointed to desolation, as the houses of jobs children: by a strong wind, on a sudden: even peradventure whilst you were eating and drinking, & taking money: Exod. 33.8. therefore rise up in your degrees, and worship as the Israelites, every man at his tent door: bless you also the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O All you open and secret Papists and Catholics (for so you will be called) that were to be assembled in and near the Parliament, whose heads and bodies if they had been gathered together upon this massacre, and laid on heaps, as all the seventy sons of Achab at the Court gates of King jehu: 2. King. 10 7▪ 9 2. Sam. 3, 28. it was clear who had done it: David and his Kingdom had been guiltless before the Lord for ever: your brethren and fellows had done it: acknowledge them the scholars of Pope Hildebrand, who when Henry the third the Emperor, used to pray in S. Mary's Church in mount Aventine, hired one to lay great stones on the beams to let them fall on the emperors head, which he hasting to accomplish, a huge stone drew him down, and crushed himself to pieces. They also would have caused you to have passed through the fire, as a sacrifice to Moloch: 2. King. 23.10. ●enno card. in vit. and have used you as Moabites. They would have made you their martyrs, before your time: you should have been licked up in the common flame: Come you therefore out of Babylon; Lo how she rewardeth her children, like the harlot mother, 2. Cor. 6.17. 1. King. 3 19 who in Salomon's days over-laid her own child to death, and yet would have the live children of the true and natural mother in her keeping. Touch no unclean thing: do you try the spirits hereby, 1. joh. 4.1. and judge them to be ravening wolves: Math. 7.15. know them by these ripe fruits of red and scarlet sins, of horrible, and unnatural, and universal murder: and join with us now at last in the sincere profession of God's word alone, which God hath defended in your eyes, and experience, so oft of old, and now freshly: do you now come out of the fire with fear, and make a perfect vow as Naaman, jud. ver. 27. to offer to no other God, and to bless the Lord God of the Protestants; even the God of Paul, 2. King. 5.17. Act 27, 37. for whose sake God spared two hundred seventy and six in the same ship, to praise him, and magnify him for ever. O You stately buildings and Edifices of Antiquity, whose seats were set for judgement: whether all the heads of the tribes ascend, and other nobles and elders of this Realm for common causes of old: together with the princely Oratories and Chapels, and Churches of devotion, and for the inauguration and investiture of the Kings and Queens of this Realm: who have long stood in peace on your bases: and been unmovable in so many alterations of Princes, Nations & times: and yet now one stone was not to be left upon another, if they might have had their will: Math: 24, 2. P●al. 137, 7. Leuit. 14.45. Crying down with it, down with it, even to the ground: abhorring not the men only, but the place also as a leaporous house, and vowing to make it waste as a wilderness: do you consider, and be not inanimate and altogether mute, Rome 8.19, 20. but as the creature that lifteth up his head for the day of redemption, spirited with a feeling of your preserver: that they which visit your monuments, & come to see your ornaments; may go about you, Psal. 48.12. as of old about Zion, and tell her Towers, mark well her bulwarks, and consider her walls: and see not a stone moved, Psal. 102.14. Psal. 7. or a piece of timber shaken: GOD hath taken pleasure in the stones of your foundations, and hath had pity on the dust thereof: as for your enemies he hath trod down their life in the earth, and laid their honour in the dust. Do you stand and continue to tell posterity, as a steadfast and speaking pillar to admonish the members of that body, all that come under your roof hereafter, there to intend him only that delivered them: Esa. 10 1, 2, 3. and not to tempt this jealous God by any sinister decree: whose wrath had like to have vomited us up, a lukewarm nation, Apoc. 3, 15, 16. Math: 3, 12. Zeph. 2.2. neither hot nor cold out of his mouth: and who had his fan in his hand, to have burnt us up a people not worthy to be beloved, as chaff in one day: so that all may with tears & fears, accusing & judging ourselves, get us to our God right humbly: and learn here above all places, especially of estate, with voices, suffrages, and decrees of holiness & justice, to bless this Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye ancient monuments and Tombs of the dead, the sepulchres of the famous founders of this common wealth, the noble Kings, Queens and Worthies of this Realm: whom many have visited with joy and honour: whose bones, and bodies, and sacred memories have rested in peace a long time, notwithstanding the uproars of Kingdoms, mutinies of people, turmoils of civil wars, and mighty earthquakes: and yet should now have been digged out of your honourable graves, and have had your parts rend up with this blast, as malefactors in a new execution: and dislodged out of your honourable houses of rest: your corpses disturbed, and your ashes scattered by this Pluto's and hellish confusion of Babel, and terrible earthquake ploughing up all before them, and making furrows in the hard rocks: do you therefore lift up your heads, Math 27.52.53 and rise up as the bodies of the righteous out of the dust, at the death of Christ: and bless this Lord, who letteth you rest the rest of your time, even a little time, Apoc. 6.11: expecting a joyful and speedy resurrection with all the Saints of God, and all your people succeeding you together, to praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye Rolls, and Charters, and ancient Registers and Records of Courts of estate, containing the decrees of the wisdom of the ancient, and the rules of justice and equity between man and man: which all should have been shriveled together in the fire of the Lords jealousy: like as at the dissolution of the whole world, when the elements melt with heat, 2. Pet. 3.10. and heaven itself vanisheth as a scroll: and the works of the earth are to be burnt with fire: do you flourish and revive out of your places, not to be entanglements and encumbrances, or tedious tarriers, with dilatory pleas, respiting the cause, or respecting the face of any: that all men that have to do with you, may more bless God that loveth peace and equity, and is a God of order, 1. Cor. 14.33. and not of confusion, that there remains evidence of truth, and that the land marks are not removed, as the Devil would have had it: Deut 27.17. and therefore be the more inflamed, in all honest and true dealing to praise God, and magnify him for ever. O You Chariots of the mighty, and Coaches, and Caroches of the great men of our state, jud. 5.10. together with the white Steeds and Palfreys, 2 King. 9. 2●. Psal. 33.17. that run as the horses of jehu: who had perished in the same deluge of fiery destruction: or been stoned or pressed to death with your masters and owners. A horse had been a vain thing to save a man: the glory of outlandish Coursers: the neighings of horses, and the pride of the rattling of the wheel had vanished: do you who as creatures, are subject to vanity, Rom. 8.19.20. until the revelation of the sons of God be; and your deliverance from the bondage of corruption: acknowledge in your degrees, that the judgement of the Lord is like a great deep: he saveth man and beast: Let man and beast therefore, Psal. 36.6. bless this Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Thou glorious and triple Court of great Britain, and all you brave gallants of each of the princely households: you high and tender Ladies & honourable virgins: see how God pitied your sex and softness of education: and all ye servants of so great a Monarch, Queen, and Prince, with all their train and retinue: Consider the danger to be passed before you heard of it: where had been all your beauty, honour, grace, approachment, jollity, and bravery, if this plot had taken effect: do you all learn to love the Courts of the Lords house, counting one day better spent there, Psal. 84.10. than any in the tabernacles and chambers of ungodliness: wish there rather to peep in at the door, than otherwise to have free ingress into the privy chambers of Princes: Alas, what could the bed chambers, the withdrawing chambers, and privy chambers of Princes have availed you: 1. King. 22.25 jer. 9.21.22. when you should have run from chamber to chamber, to hide you yourselves: and yet no chamber could have hid you, when the foundations of the earth had been discovered: when as no bar could have shut out destruction: death would have scaled every wall, and climbed in at every window: Isa. 28.17.18.19.20. judgement had been laid to the rule, and righteousness to the balance: this thick hail, pell-mell would have swept away every vain confidence, and this breaking in of a fiery sea, had overflowed the secret places: every covenant with death should have been disannulled: the agreement with hell could not stand: this scourge should have run over, and have passed through: all should have been trod down by it: when it passed over, it should have taken you away: and it should have passed every morning, and in the day, and in the night: and there should have been only fear, as Esay speaketh: every bed should have been too strait, that it could not suffice, and every covering too narrow, that none could wrap himself, but that this mantel of woe had enfolded every one: do you therefore fear and tremble, and worship with holy worship, this GOD, that hath made fast the bars of these gates: and blessed all within them from this curse so near unto you: Psal. 147.13.14. let there be a new heaven and a new earth among you: Esa 65.17. & 66.22. Apoc. 21 1.2. make a solemn vow to have clean hands hereafter, and to banish so dear corruption from the regal palace, especially in Church matters: be free spirited: embrace ingenuity and plainness: abandon shifts, gloss, and flattery: 1. Thes. 4.6. Psal. 15.2. (for the Lord is the avenger of these things:) Speak the truth every man from his heart: pity the attendance of suitors with speedy dispatch: that remedies be not worse than diseases: (for a lingering sickness is worse than a timely death:) finally, promote God's glory, not your own ambition, with all your means and access: make not sad the heart of the righteous; Ezech. 13.22. Psal. 16.3. but give grace and honour to the Saints, and them that excel in virtue: so bless you this Lord, as you look for his blessing, and fear his curse: praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Thou famous City of London, of old called Augusta, and Empress of the land, Holinshed. pa. 104. & 247. e●▪ Polid. & pa. 731 and chamber of the Kings and Queens of England, the head and mother of the Cities of the land: the nursery of religion and fidelity: the storehouse of the good Subjects: and the nest of the wealth of the realm: and therefore the more maligned of the Enemy, whose elders are as Barons and Chapmen, Esa. 23.8. the nobles of the earth, whose peace they so much envied, whose strength and loyalty they feared: whose wealth the fingers of many insatiable cormorants, itched to be meddling with: intending no doubt all merciless rapine, dishonour, and villainies, not to be named, towards thee. How should thy hidden and secret hours have been sought out, Ob●d. ●. 6. and thy treasures searched at full▪ Remember what Gotham a Priest, and predecessor of these imagined against thee: * Simonides in Tully. 2. de orat. cum obtritos humare vellent neque possent inter noscere: ex eo quod meminisset quo ●o●um loco quisque cubuisset, demonstrator uniuscuiusque sepeliendi fuit. Simonides when as some would have buried them that were overlaid in the dust upon the fall of a house, & could not discern them: thereby that he had remembered in what place every man sat: he was able to give direction for the burial of every one in his degree. did he not towards his death wish fire & brimstone upon thee from heaven, which these were setting from hell? thou shouldest have been (if not sacked) yet so cumbered with fears & fresh encounters at home, and news of slaughters abroad, wars and rumours of wars, that thou couldst scarce seek out the bodies of the dead to gather the Princes and Nobles out of the dust and rubbish: do thou betime repent of thy prodigality, deliciousness, and wantonness, thy covetousness, and hypocrisy, and every other sin: pray for sound judgement, to discern true and wholesome doctrine: and beware of humours: learn to honour with a perfect heart, with all thy peace, plenty, and strength, this Lord that keepeth thee (the only watchman of the City: whose eye never winketh nor is weary, for he that keepeth Israel, neither slumbereth nor sleepeth) bless thou the Lord: praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Thou famous Cittadle, the royal Castle of the Tower of London, the first footing of Coronation of the Kings and Queens of this land, and the possession taking, and earnest of the rest of the Dominions belonging to this Kingdom: a faithful and sufficient, and speedy servant at hand, to thy sovereign and Country, a friend to their friends: and an enemy to their enemies: a vowed companion, and comfortable neighbour to the honourable City of London, the sinews and joints of our warlike provision, and commander of peace: the fear of the rebellious: the aim of the enemy's eye: the expectation and care of all true subjects: how shouldest thou have been used sore against thy will against thy dearest friends? the mischievous designs against thee, the most wise, prudent, Sir. W. Wade. and religious Governor within thee: The industrious and vigilant officers and attendants there: (whose surprising they devoured in their first hopes) he knoweth best who is thy Fort and Tower: Pro. 18.10. Psal. 61.3. Psal. 31.2.3. Psal. 63.19. whose name is a strong Tower, and delivered us before our dead hearts could run unto him: who brought the prey unto thy lap, and took captivity captive, and gave them into thy custody: * Be thou like the Tower of David, as it were the ●eck o estate, built for defence with all thy thousand shields, and all the targets of the strong men that hang therein: the Tower of Lebanon that looketh to Damasoo. do thou and all thy Ministers instruments store & furniture with triumphs and trophies, with voties and peals of joy & thanksgiving, bless this great Lord thy keeper, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye Towns and Countries, who tasted of the headless skirmishes, & suddainnes of the brutish fury of these enemies of Zion, and the haters of the peace of jerusalem, the very same fatal time by their desperate insurrection among you, above all other shires and places: do you (I say) as sons likewise of the resurrection, * Warwick sh. Worcester sh. Stafford shire. Ezech 16.6. unto whom the Lord said, in your blood line: you saw the enemy, but felt no harm: their letter prophesied safety in the Country, but against their wills: do you therefore bless this great God, that blesseth you the more for Balaams' cursing; Ios. ●4. 10. Grant, Percy, Gates by, and the ●. wright's, Tressam, Gar●●ts man. Oue●. who scattered their forces, diminished their power: and so quickly quelled them in causing their own power to brand them in the faces, and all their purposes to be defeated without any great pursuit, and some of them to perish in the very act of their own sin; some to languish with grief, others to kill themselves: and all their mischief to return upon their own heads: bless you again and again this Lord: praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye Ministers and special servants of the Lord: the Prophets of Israel, and feeders of the sheep of the Lords pasture; Apoc. 9.3. whom these smoky locusts of the bottomless pit, these ravenous Wolves greedy of the prey, most abhorred: to place their own Baal's Priests, and all the sacrificers of the Groves and hill-altars in your rooms, and so to devour the Lords inheritance: your safety & ministration they envied; your families they vowed to shame and misery: Apoc. 15.3. your persons to certain and more cruel destruction above others, by a special marshal at arms, appointed utterly to extirpate you: Let your Harp be in your hand, and Psalms of Moses and David, and the lamb in your mouths: rejoice over her all you Prophets & Apostles: Apoc. 18.20. Deut. 33.8. for God hath done your judgement on her: Let urim & Thummim be for ever with you: Exod. 32.27. gird the sword of the spirit about you, to destroy all spiritual and corporal Idolatry: think it not now a time to strive for compliments, and to enforce odious exasperations, & antichristian comparisons against the reverend Fathers, when as you lee your souls and their souls, & the soul of religion itself is sought after: making less of your lives, then of the least of their ceremonies, Rom. 8, 30. having as little conscience to kill you all, as to slay a sheep: behold the scope of Divinity is a large field, Christ crucified is a spacious argument; urge that, and walk in that, and forbear other impertinents: See you not that the resolution of our state hateth Antichrist, with a perfect hatred, this 48. years, and is therefore hated unreconcilably, as being in itself the most evangelical monarchy in the world, and a sanctuary of refuge for all the professors in the earth under her shadow: let this whet your courages, and set an edge on your zeal; and teach you spiritual discretion, to go with one shoulder to ruinate Babel, and not be divided in yourselves in your several stations: Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently: ●er. 49 10. Let your voices and spirits declare in all the congregations, that the Lord himself is a Champion for the house of Aaron: Psal. 115.10. a defender of the tribe of Levi: and that he holdeth all the stars of all our Churches in his own right-hand: and that his mercy to that function endureth for ever: Celebrate you the Lord of the harvest, so benign and gracious unto you: and remember him that said, Luk. occupy till I come▪ and so much the more, because the enemy is so busy: Let the house of Aaron then, and all the tribe of Leni, bless this Lord, their special Lord and Master, and patron: praise him, and magnify him for ever. O All ye lovers of the Gospel, and faithful professors of Christ's holy religion in this Kingdom: who next after magistracy and ministery, were most hated, noted, and observed, and appointed to cruel butchery & massacre: your families to be singled out to pillage & dishonour, of whichsome of them peradventure they had surveyed, taking notice of their number & strength, and to have been sacrificed not as Isaac also, but as Abraham also, even the father and children, Apoc. 13. and the very servants at the foot of the hill: how would not Rome have bragged over you as a Lady and Conqueress: who shall not fear the beast, and worship his image, or take his mark in his forehead or right hand: But the Lord caused the knife to stay, that was so near the throat, and made the Ram that pushed at you, to be taken in the thicket of his own devices: Math. 10.16. and to be a ransom for the innocent Lambs of his flock: be wise hereafter, as serpents, think not they have done. Beware the dog that barketh not: who said, they shall not know, N●h▪ 4.11. nor see until we come into the midst of them, and slay them: do you bless and honour this God of your life and belief: adorn his glorious Gospel in yourselves and families so much the more: praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye wealthy & fat ones of the world, who have gathered silver as dust, and gold as stones: that have grace and place, 2. King: 10.27 favours and honours above others, Manors, and demeans, and children, and call the lands and houses by your names: that have ships and shops, and storehouses, and warehouses, Psal. 17.14. ●. 49, 11. Luk. 12, 20. and wealth laid up for many years: Lo in one moment your soul gone, & whose should all these have been? how quickly should all have been turned, returned, and overturned, Ezech. 25.27. in an hour therefore let thy teach you not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God: to treasure up religion, 1. Tim: 6, 17. Math. 6, 17. not pelf: to confess all to be transitory: learn hence the contempt of the world: Luk. 21.34 and to be provided, that the day of the Lord come not as a snare upon you: Luk. 16.9. make friends of unrighteous Ma●●●● in this life, that you may be received into better tabernacles: yield it to be true, the world passeth, 1, Pet. 1.23.24.25. and the jollity thereof, and all flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof is as the flower of the field: only the word of God, and them that are begotten by it, 1. joh. 2, 17. abide for ever: do you therefore hereafter in all your graces and places, countenance, & maintenance, wealth and store, for this so great patience towards you: bless this Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye that take pleasure in pleasure, (though to God's displeasure) and in your own voluptuousness, in drinking away the health of body and soul, in gain, stealth, and robbery, in ambition, injustice, oppression, or any other wickedness, and all the impenitent: learn a parable of the fig tree: you that write or speak parables, let them take one from our Parliament and state: therefore if it be so much pleasure and honour to take pleasure to be joined in affection with the creature, know is far greater honour and pleasure for the creature to be joined with the Creator, who is bless for ever. Learn in all your pleasures and contentments, to remember this Lord, who speaketh suddenly of a parliament, jer. 18.7. a kingdom, a nation, a city, a town, a family, a man, a woman to pluck up, to root out, to destroy, as suddenly as the Potter dasheth in pieces, Prou. 1, 25. Rom. 2.4.5. a vessel of clay: despise not counsel: refuse not instruction: neglect not the riches of God's bountifulness, and long suffering, which loveth not to take you tardy, and at advantage, to undo you in the Act of your sins, 2, Pet. 3.9. but leadeth you to repentance: harden not therefore your hearts, nor heap not up wrath against the day of wrath, and the declaration of the just judgement of God, who will reward every one according to his works, put not off from day to day: for you know not how, nor when, nor by what means he cometh: and when he cometh, he cometh as a whirlwind, and laugheth at the destruction of the ungodly: Pro. 1, 26, 27. Be sober therefore and watch: bless you the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye desperate & refractory malcontents, and irreligious Atheists, that looked for a troublous time to fish in, as in middle waters: for a mist and smoky time to go unespied, as false thieves: being ready and yawning to make haste to the pray: Lo the prey is plucked out of your teeth: Psal. 58.1. know that there is a God that judgeth the earth: and hath means to deliver his from temptation in the very flames, as he did Lot in Sodom: 2. Pet. 2.9. that the wicked shall not have their wills on them, nor one of their bones be broken: and that the stones are at league with them; Psal. 34.20. job. 5, 2, 3. Psal. 11.6.7. but upon the ungodly he reigneth snares, fire, and brimstone, storms, and tempests, as thick as hail, this shall be their portion: even hence learn to bend yourselves to some lawful calling, and be content with your estate, and thereby to bless the Lord: Luk. 3, 14. praise him, and magnify him for ever. O You hard hearted Papists, and indurate hypocrites, 1, Tim. 4.2. whose consciences are seated with hot irons, to make the commandment of God of none effect, whereas he strictly forbade murder: to establish your own traditions, which you call the catholic religion, you spare no blood: where are your brags of ●8? of the late Queen's death of happy memory, and of this infernal tragedy? where are your hallowed altars to be erected in Paul's? Their words & confessions. the threatenings against our bibles? promising of marriages to your friends, and sharing offices and honours as you would? Where are your seven Psalms to pray for prosperity, when that crack should have been? your letter's exhortatory, praying until that fatal Tuesday: then totnam to be turned French? Apoc. 16, 5.14, 18. your public prayers beyond seas in general, for success to the catholic parliament, petition of blood? Shall not the angel of the fire protest against you? Lord thou art just, which art, which waist, and is holy, because thou hast judged these things: for they shed the blood of the Saints, and Prophets (and had still an unsatiable dropsy upon them, thirsting after more) and therefore hast thou given them blood to drink: for they are worthy: and another Angel answer by alternation: even so Lord God almighty, true & righteous are thy judgements: Be still once at length, take Gamaliels' wholesome counsel: be no more fighters against God: Act. 5, 38. consider whether this counsel be of God: Act. 9, 5. take Christ's own counsel: Kick not against the prick: Remember S. Peter's words: Let none suffer as a murderer, testify and bear witness against us: you mislike our parliament and proceeding, and what a manner of one should yours have been: should not your parliament have been as a mighty strong wind rending mountains, & tearing rocks, or as a fearful earthquake or flaming fire: and yet the Lord not with you: though you bragged as Rabsakeh: are we come up without the Lord, who hath conducted us, 1, King, 19, 11. and concurred with us to this very place to destroy it? 2, King. 58, 25. 1, Pet. 4, 15. yea the Lord said unto us: Go up against this parliament, and destroy the land: whereas our parliaments have been in a still voice unto you only to have you still: without any disposition to disquiet you▪ without that very necessity of our lives (God pardon us for it) by some new overt action, and restless practice of yours, drive us to make law afterlaw, which yet were slackly executed by us: See O you seduced souls: is this their alms, prayers, hospitality, fasting, good works: who persecuteth now? who is the Lamb, and who the Wolf? the old proverb shall cease: Punica fides: and Papistica fides shall come in place: Carthage of old was: now Rome is broke forth: Is this your petition, catholic? Is not this tolere, non tolerare: not toleration of religion, but killing of the men: See God's hand against you, be still at length, and know that the blood thirsty shall not live out half their days: Psal. open your eyes to see the mysteries of Antichrist fulfilled, and sore plagues in these days poured upon them that worship the beast; Apoc. 16.2. lay it to your hearts: how as Pharaoh he oppresseth you with sore work to undo you and yours, how many families of Dukes, Earls, Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen, he hath made desolate, making some of them pioneers, and labouring men in story and clay: forsake him by so many warnings, so many of you as belong to the Lord▪ as for the rest, he that is ignorant, let him be ignorant still: he that is obstinate, Apoc. 22.11. 1, Cor. 14, 3●. let him be obstinate still: fulfil the measure of your condemnation: let your profession be a snare, a net, Rom. 2●, 8. and a stumbling block, for a recompense unto you: let their eyes be darkened, and bow down their backs always▪ If our Gospel be hid, 2, Cor. 4.3. it is hid unto them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded their eyes, lest the light of the glorious Gospel, which is the Image of God, should shine unto them: and yet know, Exod. 14, 17. Psal. 110.2. that God who got honour of Pharaoh and all his host, who hath foiled you so oft, will reign in the midst of his enemies: Esa. 1, 24. he will ease himself of his adversaries, and be avenged of them that hate him the will be exalted in justice over you, and sanctified in judgement, even Abimelech shall confess that God is with Isaac, Gen. 26.27. Psal, 58.11. whom he before drive a way: yea the nations shall say: there is a fruit for the righteous, and a God that judgeth the world: Esa, 6, 3: the whole earth shall be filled with his glory, he will be blessed, and praised, and magnified forever. O Ye helpless and succourless people, women and children, old men & Infants, young men and maids: Artificers and Tradesmen, Farmers, Husbandmen, and feeders of cattle, all that till the ground: and all you that love peace and honest fruition of your own: gather yourselves, blow a Trumpet in Zion: joel. 2, 15, 16. gather the elders, assemble the children and sucklings: let the Bridegroom come forth of his chamber, and the Bride out of her closet: and see the work of the Lord, how he hath delivered you from ransacking, rifling, and miserable impoverishment, and destruction. Behold, was not the Angel come out of the temple of heaven already with a sharp sickle: Apoc. 14, 17. and had not the other Angel, that had power over the fire, called unto him with a loud cry, though we as deaf Adders heard it not: thrust in the sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the Vineyards, of great Britain (for her grapes are ripe, that they may be cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God, to be trodden in every Town, Hamlet, and City:) but that the Lord repented him, and yet we do not repent us: Seek you the Lord therefore, in all your labours, trades, grounds, fields, cattle, callings, and degrees: preserve God's fear: promote his glory: confess him to be a Father to the fatherless, husband to the widow, and a deliverer of the simple and harmless of the earth: job. 1.5. and set yourselves henceforth (as job, in his family, so you in yours) to offer sacrifices of prayers and psalms to the Lord, according to the number of you all, lest there be sin found in your trades & dealings: some sins of lying, cozening, swearing, false measures, or weights: or some corruption of vice in you, or your children, & servants: as fatherly job suspected and feared his own house: pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into his harvest: pray and pay duly, Math. 9, 3●. that God may have his right, and bless you the Lord every way, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Thou entire and whole Court of Parliament, the highest hill of our land: Lectis●ernium institiae: caput publici consilij. The spread bed of justice: and head of public counsel. Psal. 101.1. the open theatre of all our actions: the Senate house of grand estate: the chiefest counsel of imperial law: and the sanctuary of highest appeal, and decision among subjects: the marrow of wisdom, and crystal confluence of clergy, nobility, and gentry: the centre of understanding, and riches of experience from all sides: sing for ever a song of judgement and mercy unto our God, as one man together: they intended no place in the first place, but this place of Parliament: no persons but Parliament men to destruction: in other judgements, as plague, famine, war, the meaner sort oftener go to wrack, but here they shot at the fairest flock together: Luk 13, 1. As Pilate mingled blood and sacrifices together, so they (O horrible indignity) meant to mingle blood and dust together, and to make mortar of the choicest blood in our land, Apoc. 8.8. to build their Babel with. Babylon I say, meant to make that worthy house as the mountain set on fire and tumbled into the sea, like an Ae●●a spit-fire, Ezech. 24.3.4. flaming gobbets of fire upon her own friends and children: to make it as a pot, as Ezechiel speaketh: having cut you as flesh to the pot, to seethe every good morsel therein: to make that reverend place, a very shambles, josephus. having got, as Herod all the nobles of jury into one Amphetheater, to run and stream with the finest & purest blood: Ezech. 22.19. to make it as a melting house, as the same Prophet threateneth: to new found our Church and Commonwealth: to make our Princes and noblemen of Zion, Lam. 4, 2. who wear fine gold, to be esteemed as earthen potshards: the founder and metal men of Rome, esteemed you all no better than lead, iron, & brass: and put you all in one furnace: ye the Lord himself seemed to have barreled up wrath against you, Ezech. 22: 19 as they had barreled powder: as though he had directed them to begin at no place but there first, Ezech. 9, 6. as he said once, begin at my sanctuary, and at my ancient men which were before the house; so here begin at my parliament: as though the Lord meant to make that grave place, like Kibrah-Hattanah, Psal. 78.31: Num. 11, 34. the graves of lust: that whilst the word was yet in your mouths, the wrath of God to come upon them: to slay the strongest of them, to smite down the chosen men in Israel, as though the Lord had appointed a sacrifice in the place, and a great slaughter, Esa, 34, 5, 6, 7. as in Bozra of old: the earth to be drunken with blood, and the dust to be made fat: even a sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, Ezech. 39.17, 18 with many dishes of the blood of the valiant, and blood of the great ones: like the Lords great supper in the Revelation, Apoc. 19, 17, 18 for all the birds to come unto it: but the Lord hath spared his own people, and poured out the blood of our enemies, and lifted up their carcases for every bird to peck on: and behold, you all are as a brand not touched by the fire: Ezech. 39 ●. Zach. 3.2. He threatened to take up huge and mighty stones, but would not let one of them be cast at you: he laid fuel, but would not let it kindle: He filled the pot, but would not let it seeth, nor any morsel be divided to put within it: He brought the sacrifice to the horns of the altar, but would not slay it: but gave your enemies into your hand: And in the same place divided their heads and quarters, where they meant to have rend in pieces yours: GOD hath scattered the bones of them that besieged thee: jud. 7, 25. Apoc. 3.9. he hath slain Orob and Zeb in their own rock and wine press: and herein is the Scripture fulfilled: I will make thy enemies come to worship before thee, Psal. 33.5. and they shall know that I love thee: take full warning at such a caveat, as one body, why the Lord seemed to come to your pavilion, and why he knocked at your door: And in particular, let every soul among you look to the reckoning that GOD hath with you: 3, Sam. 7, 9 2, Sam. 6, 12: cast about as David with Nathan concerning the temple: And at another time in the imperial assembly for reducing the Ark, when something had been forgotten before: follow on and proceed with the Lord, In the letter. that they may be Prophets against themselves: God and man by your concurrence to punish the wickedness of this time: (and what wickedness hath any age or chronicle observed greater?) that they may receive a blow in parliament in deed, and yet no stirring afore hand on our part: Apoc. 2, 20. and that they may see none hurt them, but themselves: Consider that these are nont old, outworn, and overgrown Papists: but bred in our time, & under our improvidence (God impute it not unto us) take full order that jesabel be permitted to teach and seduce no more: deal faithfully between GOD and his people, lest a worse thing come unto us: behold God provoketh you on pain of your lives: the Country reposeth trust in you, the Churches depend on you: and the eyes of all the world are upon you, to see the fruit of your wisdom in thorough orders for your own safeties & God's glory: else we shall be as a reproach among all nations, and as a ship of fools in a calm sea and sound bark, and no enemy to board us, to miscarry in the haven, by not providing for a tempest aforehand, with this inscription over us: Thy destruction is of thyself, O England. Be this spoken to no dishonour of so grave a Senate, that hath made so worthy proceedings already: but to stir up all to pray▪ that God may inspire effectually, that neither friend may miss any comfort, nor enemy have hope, or cause to joy: Surely GOD that offered to make a great nation of one Moses, Exod. 32.10. is able to raise up parliament men of stones: and indeed did not the beams, and timber, Abac. 2.11. and stones of the parliament threaten wrath: Seek therefore the Lord with a perfect heart, set up a Pyramid to thy God, and a pillar of memory as Abraham did: That God hath been seen on your mount: Gen. ●2. 14. erect a new monument where they would have destroyed all the old monuments: as Nebuchadnezar, make and publish general decrees, make the signs known abroad, that the high God hath done unto thee, Dan. 3.32. that there is no other God that can deliver ye, as our God: as the dedication of a special holy day for this purpose declareth already: have war with Amalech for ever, remember the Lords charge: forget not: forget not. Deut. 25.19. Apoc. 18.6. And as another scripture directeth: Reward Babylon double into her bosom: remember him that saith: Take us the little Foxes. And again: Cant. 2.15. Psal. 137.8. Blessed shall he be that taketh the children of Babylon and dasheth them against the stones: take order that all flesh in all our dominions, Luk. 3.6. by the preaching of his word, may see the salvation of this God: that children unborn may seek the God of their Fathers, and all of us in your behalfs, for so wise, zealous, and provident Counsel, Psal. as the oracle of God, may bless the Lord God, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Thou whole Kingdom of England, thou careless daughter, that livedst at ease, and dwelled in security as Laish, now this eight and forty years: judg. 1●. 7. 1. Thess. 5, 3. when thou saidst within thyself, Peace, peace, strength, strength, amity, amity, unity, unity, lenity, lenity: Lo a snare as sudden as the travel of a woman: the Lord came against thee: the true God stole upon thee as a thief: loss of children and widowhood, should have come upon thee in one day: Apoc. 16, 15. the portion of Babel in her perfection: the morning thereof thou shouldest not have known: Apoc. 18.8. Esa. 47.9. In the Q. declaration. 1662. Apoc. 14. thou wast as near to havoc, as thy sister of France, on the other side of the water: upon whom came an inundation of blood, as it were to the horses bridles, to destroy an hundredth thousand at one time: the walls and roof of Dagon fell down upon Philistines 3000: jud. 16.27. 1, King. 20.30. the buildings of four whole Cities of Sodom oppressed their owners: one wall falleth upon 27000. of Syrians: Ierichoes walls come tumbling down: but England's are spared. Thou art let go as a scape got, or living sparrow, Leuit. 14.52.53. from the death in hand: thou hast not lost not one man in all thy Tribes: do thou therefore exalt, Psal. 144.14. set up, and bless this thy God that loveth thee dearly: by prolonging thy peace in thy borders, and preventing this crying and complaining in thy streets: else hadst thou been, yea and shalt be a woeful spectacle of misery, & an incomparable example of calamity to all the world: should not thy times have been as in the days of Noah? some taken eating, some drinking, some in marrying: and knew nothing till the flood of vengeance came? as in the days of Lot: some building, some planting, some buying, some selling, and the fire disturbed all their works? Math. 24.58.61. ver. 40.16.17.18. Luk: 17, 28. as in the day of jerusalem: some taken flying: of two in the field one hit, the other scaping▪ some in the house, not suffered to come down: others abroad not suffered to set any thing out of the house▪ some taken in the Inn as Moses: some near the gardens, Exod. 4, 25. Num. 22.24. Num. 25.14. jud. 9 as Balaam: some in the tents of whoring, as Zimri and Cost: some as Abimelech, having come near the door to have his brain broken with a stone: some taken lying in receiving bribes as Gehezi: 2. King. 5.26. Act. 5. Dan. 4.52. some robbing the Church, as Ananias and Zaphira: some walking in the Tarasses as Nebuchadnezar: some drinking with concubines, as Balthasar, etc. Lord how many hearts had been discovered? how many hypocrites dismaked? faint and frail men laid open: some weak would have proved strong? some strong, would have proved weak: the reputed faithful, might have been unfaithful: the trusty, might have become treacherous: men taken to be quiet, might have been outrageous: many that make fair weather, would have been glad of this storm: they that seem content with their own, would have taken part in the common spoil: how many private quarrels would have been revenged under public visors? how many that seem Protestants, would have appeared Papists how many wise would have proved foolish; and at their wit's end? how would the base have presumed against the honourable: Esa. 3.5. Amos, 3, 11. the young against the aged: who could have been sure of life or goods, or wife, or child, one hour? what house not rifled? what virgin not ravished? what wife not deflowered? every Town and Country should have been filled with woe and lamentation, and astonishment: Winter houses & Summer houses had been demolished: the great houses smitten with breaches, the little with chests, as Amos speaketh. It should have been a day of darkness and blackness, none like it from the beginning, joel. 2, 2. neither any more such to the years of many generations: the land before it as the garden of Eden, after it a devouring wilderness. And surely it parliament shall take all course for safety, that possibly the highest reach and extent of man's wisdom can compass, yet if we be not reconciled to GOD, Apoc▪, 19.29. and return with all our heart: It we be not zealous to amend: lo he standeth still at the door and knocketh, our safety is no safety, and our resore is but a reprivall to a greater assizes: 〈◊〉 England therefore say unto her God: job. 42.5, 6. heretofore I have heard of thee by the hearing of the care, but now mine eye seeth nearer than ever, therefore I abhor myself in dust and ushes: Let the enemy never have his hope, that the iniquity of England is fulfilled. Porerierius in Gen. 15. Let England, seeing she is new borne, be a new creature: Let England say, the mercy of God to it endureth for ever: and that her deliverance surpasseth all the deliverances of God's first borne Israel: let her proclaim to all people: Come and see, Psal. 66.6. and hear, what GOD hath done for me and my children: help me all ye nations: and join with me to bless this Lord, to praise him, & to magnify him for ever. O You the right honourable Commissioners, and other the worshipful, employed, in examining this triane, and in digging up this hidden grave, like the Trojan horse among the Gentiles, of all villainy: you see & ken further in this sed of mischief, than any other eye: Psal. 107.24. you see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in these deep devices: further than is fit for every one to know, and which time will more reveal and make bare and naked: Heaven is high, earth is deep, and the heart of the King who can find out? Pro. 25.3. you see the dungeon of traitorous hearts: and have pierced into the bottomless hell of Popish and jesuitical practice, by their own books, writings, and confessions: you see the labyrinth of their windings & turnings, and all the false doors of equivocating souls, more intricate, than their hiding chambers, in their coverts, and dens, and secret lurking places: you see the power of the Lord to confound them, whilst we imagined no ill his wisdom to let them run on till they should be out of breath: like a good Chirurgeon, not to lance the wound, till it grew to a head, and the botch ripe, to break with too much bily matter: Psal. 9.15, 16. you see the justice of the Lord, who hath made himself known by executing judgement, they are sunken down in the pit, that they made: in the net that they hid, is their foot taken: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands * O meditate and mark. Higgaion Selah: you see the mercy of God triumphing over all his works: arguing and disputing in his love, concerning us: How shall I deliver thee up, O little England? How shall I deliver thee, Ose. 11.8.9. O great Britain? how shall I make thee as Admal? how shall I set thee as Zeboim: mine heart is turned within me: my repentings are rolled together: I will not execute the fierceness of any wrath, I will not return to destroy: I am God and not man, the holy one in the midst of thee: behold, I would have fined thee, Esa. 48.8, 9.10. but not as silver: yea, I have saved thee out of this fiery furnace of affliction, for mine own sake, for mine own sake have I done it: for my name's sake have I deferred my wrath: for my praise have I refrained from thee, that I cut thee not off: you therefore that see more (as the cunning eye in pictures, the skilful ear in music discerneth more than the vulgar sort:) you that see the length, the breadth, the depth, the height, & at the dimensions of Gods works here above others: rise up higher in your spirits: by their subtlety, right honourable, be more and more wise as serpents, for the state, and to preserve honourable plainness in the simplicity of Doves, in holy conversation for your soul's health: and for blessing of your policy: so bless you this Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Thou noble Lord, that high Montegle of honourable descent, Dan. 5.5.25. and ancient renowned house, predestinate above all other, to be a most happy instrument of thy sovereign and Country's safety: consider and ponder according to thy ingenuous honour and right loyal wisdom, this great work of God, in the very fingers of that man's hand, that was author of the letter: the writing proved to be like the writing upon the plaster of the wall, in the Palace of King Balthasar, when he thought all sure: and yet that night he lost kingdom and life: Mene, Tekel, Vpharsin: Mene, God hath numbered and finished you: Tekel, thou art weighed in the balance, and found too light: Pare●: thy kingdom and plot divided and scattered, and given to thine enemies: the letter, made love and nature work toward thee alone, whose very fountain and springs were stopped up, and shut close to all others: and yet out of that ground, their blinded hearts & infatuated minds might have gathered, that if blood or alliance, or any other respect ought to have moved them to have bowels and feeling towards thee, it might have led others to have had tenderness towards others also of their friends: yea, even to all England the common parents of us all: and to every son & daughter of the same: Rom. 1.22. but that seeming to be wise, they became fools: Prou. and the scripture must be true: the mercies of the wicked are unmerciful: their bowels the seat of mercy, are cruel: if they that are evil, can give good things to their friends, Math. 7.9 10.11 not stones but bread, not scorpions but fishes: how much more shall not our heavenly Father, who made all, even pity all, and love the images of his own creation, the works of his own hands? who hath better right to every one of us, than any friend hath to his friend in any bond of nature: for he hath made of one blood, even all mankind, Act. 17, 26. to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath assigned the bounds of their habitation: we are all the generation of God: in him we live, we move, and have our being: Do thou wisely consider, the Lords love to thee, and observe prudently withal, their leaden rule of their false love: for no good patriore can abide himself to be loved, when his Country is hated: observe the wisdom of God, to produce out of common hatred, particular love: out of particular love, general safety in his mighty power: notwithstanding, vows, oaths, and sacraments of secrecy to set our sworn enemies to indight for our good: to make their fingers write peace, whose hearts hatched war: to order in his wise dispensation, such a spirit of zeal and caution in you: do thou reverence this great God, in a true sense & sound spirit of discerning spirits, that hath honoured thee with so great service: suggested and gave grace to make the best use of it (as they prophesied in another meaning) namely, to be a great saviour to Prince & Country: and yet remembering what a holy father said: Marry the great instrument of all Christians good: she was more blessed by believing Christ, then by bearing him: by receiving him in her heart by faith, then by conceiving him in her womb: do you my good Lord, make this a means to increase your faith, and resolution of conscience in the best manner: bless you the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Thou mighty King and Queen, Prince, and Duke, Counsellors, Prelates, Peers, judges, Lawyers, and Gentry, and generally all the Subjects of this land and estate, whose heads stood upon one neck, to be stricken off at one blow, whose bodies were in one ship of venture, within an inch board of drowning, and within a step of death, or rather on the top of a mast, a horrible and hideous tempest growing, all our Pilat's, and Mariners, and cunning sea men a sleep, and we saw it not: recognise with me, in Queen Mary's days they burned many, but at many stakes, but here they meant to burn us all at one stake: Documare ad cadem. amongst the Romans they put the tenth man only to death in a general provocation, here nothing would serve but a general slaughter, even the abomination of desolation, over so many sacred persons, and so holy a place: Let all them then that thus should have died together, learn holy fervency of their enemies, to strive for the common faith, to give honour and obedience to whom it is due: Care and defence, to whom it appertains: let all them in union of spirit, and the holy communion of Saints, with an indissoluble knot of truth, peace, concord, common comfort and society: live, and love, and die together in an holy association in the quarrel of the Gospel, and defiance to Babylon, in the maintenance of one God, one Christ, one spirit, one faith, one truth, one baptism, one communion, one King, one people, that so living and dying together, we may with one heart and hand, one faith and truth, one mind and mouth, ever bless one Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O All you Churches of the Lord in any part of the world, that call upon the name of the Lord in truth, for whose confirmation of your love & faith, the Lord of hosts hath so mightily pleaded among us, that maketh their pens to write health, who otherwise wished their lances to work us death, to show that he walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, Apoc. 1.13. all whose territories and tents they hated deadly as us, professing their wills & skill, an eager desire to let some of them blood again, as they did heretofore in France, being cunning to destroy: be you the more rooted in your holy faith: resolved with all constancy in your religion, and established in your spirits, to serve so provident a God in one uniform profession of truth with us, for which God hath given so glorious a sentence, that all variance set aside, God may persuade japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem, Gen. 9.27. Apoc. 20. ●. 9. and Canaan to be servant to them both: and cast ourselves into a perfect knot of love, to make defence against Gog and Magog, that gather themselves from the four corners of the earth, to compass about the tents of the Saints and the beloved City, that so as one flock we may acknowledge one shepherd: and uncessantly bless him, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye mighty Lords & Emperors of the world, even all the ten horns and ten Kings of the earth, the Kings I say, who are kin and brothers to one another, & all you worthy Counsellors, who have fulfilled Gods will in upholding the City on seven hills so long, Apoc. 17.16.17 better than her own hills could uphold her: and now, God putteth in your hearts by this warning what you are to look for, if you please not this scarlet woman, as some of your most ennobled aucestors & progenitors, have tasted in all your quarters, with the loss of their dearest lives & best kingdoms: she sitteth in Vatican, and with her vaticinies and prophecies, sendeth you and yours from the Castle of S. Angelo to death, as the Alastor and destroyer of the world: She keepeth her latitat in her laterane, living a shadowed life, and setteth others to that work to which she putteth not her finger: wherefore stir up your heroical spirits, prepare yourselves to fulfil the rest of God's mystery prophesied before, that ten Kings should join in one consent against this whore of Babel, who committeth states together, to kill one another for her: Proclaim a sacred war against her, to show your holy hatred of her; that Zion may rise, & Babylon may fall, Apoc. 1●, 11. and her smoke may rise up more and more: do you begin to bless this Lord, who hath showed by this example to all the world, that he specially loveth the lives of Kings & Princes, and Counsellors of estate: and therefore do you your uttermost (and what cannot Kings do) to set forth the laws of this King of Kings in all your Realms: show yourselves to be Kings and free men, not in bondage to any, but restorers of the world, according to your great power: can you have a better time and occasion? see the stirring and ready affections of many Kings, Potentates, and States, to concur with you: bless this Lord GOD, of whom you hold your crowns, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O Ye holy Angels and celestial creatures, that excel in strength, whereas we are weak: Psal. 103, 20. you that fulfil his commandments, and hearken perfectly unto the voice of his words: whereas we upon earth are all short, you that pitched your tents about the parliament house, and all our tabernacles, Psal. 34, 7. that looked so faithfully and lovingly to your charge, so that no foot did stumble at any stone: bless you this Lord forus, and with us, in all your heavenly queers, Psal. 91, 11, 12. praise him, and magnify him for ever. O All you people of the word, jews, and Christians, Turks, and Infidels, civil, and Barbarians: Indians, and Cannibals, friends and enemies whatsoever: consider I pray you in all your Countries & generations, whether any like horrible, unnatural, and execrable thing ever were: where neither the dread of the God of life, nor duty to a sacred King, nor the tenderness of a gracious Queen, nor the sweetness and golden hope of a young Prince, nor authority of Counsellors of estate: nor reverence of prelate's, nor honour of nobility, nor gravity of judges, nor respect of the flower of their own Country: nor consideration of the face of the aged, nor any hope of the young ones, nor pity of the innocent, nor compassion to the harmless multitude, nor love to their own affectionate in the same religion, nor bowels of nature to their own Country: nor rule of scripture to think of heavens Country: nor relenting of conscience in themselves in so many months of leisure, to work any remorse, but the more hardening, nor piety to the memories of the dead, nor awe to any living, what opinion the world should have of such incendiaries: nor fear of any to revenge it: nor care of posterity, to confound men's estates and rights, by destroying their deeds & writings in the fire: nor thought of justice to let men have a lawful trial: nor abhorring of cruelty in the multitudes of the slain: nor barbarousness in the manner of death, or rather in so many manners of death, burning, drowning, stoning, beheading, quartering, pressing: nor touch to the rueful scriching and howling, of the maimed, bruised, wounded, & not slain outright: nor charity to send men to hell, as they thought, without time to ask mercy: nor forecast of peril to them and theirs, if they should be discovered: nor any thing in heaven, earth, or hell: this world, or the world to come, could move them, some being of great birth and wealth, some of zeal and professed religion, some of the priesthood of the Roman faith, and all naturally of this Country and nation, but that they complotted, contrived, put in practice to their uttermost power, the most devilish murder, butchery, and massacre, that ever Satan hatched from the beginning of the world, from the shedding of the blood of Abel the righteous: at which we that scaped admire, and adore him that saved us: they that hear it are amazed, & astonished: and can scarcely believe that any such thing was, but that it is apparent as the sun in the firmaments which all nations do now ring of, and is ready for every Chronicle, as the new manuel of the world, both in attempt and deliverance, to show the odiousness of bloody and wolvish Rome: and the sovereignty and fatherly love of God to mankind, and especially to the English nation & protestant Churches there: Do you therefore, O all you people, tribes, kindreds, and nations of the world, and all ye works of the Lord in all places of his dominion, Psal. 103.22. Psal. 150.5. do you I say, speak good of the name of the Lord: let every one that hath faith, let every one that hath breath and common feeling, and sense of humanity, and loveth the lives of men in the common affection to mankind: glorify GOD, that loveth to save many people alive, and hence learn to abhor the Abadon, the Apollyon, and Romish destroyer: Apoc. 9 and to honour this God of our life, who holdeth all their souls in life, let them bless this Lord in their Countries and Regions, praise him, and magnify him for ever. O All you people that hear me this day, or shall read any part of this sacrifice of thanksgiving: be stirred up hereby the more, to lift up your hearts unto God, to extol his name, exalt his glory, and found out his praise in all places, and upon all óccasions: especially to celebrate him for the riches of his mercy, in the defence of the Gospel in our protestant Churches: O my soul, and all that is within me, and all that belongeth unto me, Psal. 203.1, 22. bless thou not only in word and writing, but in deed and truth, this holy name of the great defender of our precious faith: praise him, & magnify him, not now alone, but continually, and for ever & ever: Amen, Amen. hallelujah. FINIS.