A SERMON Preached in the Cathedral Church OF ROCHESTER, On the 29 th'. of May, 1684. BEING The Anniversary of His Most Sacred Majesty's Birth, and happy Restauration to these his undoubted Realms and Dominions. By JOHN CLERKE; Late Fellow of All-Souls College, and Proctor of the University of Oxford. Now Rector of Ulcomb, and Haristsham, in the County of Kent. Published at the Request of that Corporation. Caesaris alma dies— Longa precor, Pylioque veni numerosior aevo, Semper & hoc vultu, vel meliore nite. Mart. Lib. 4. Ep. 1. LONDON, Printed for George Downes, at the Three Flower de Lyss', over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleetstreet. 1684. To the Right Worshipful, the MAYOR, RECORDER, ALDERMEN, and COMMON COUNCIL of the City of ROCHESTER. Worthy Sirs, FIrst in your Cathedral Church to have recommended, and afterwards, in a more solemn manner, to have dedicated a Persuasive to a cheerful Obedience to those lawful Governors, whom God alone has thought fit to place over you of that so Ancient and truly Loyal City; may seem, upon a transient View, to argue the Preacher and Publisher of such a Discourse, to have been so far transported, by a too fervent Zeal for the defence of his most just Cause; as to have overlooked his LORD and MASTER'S Observation: namely, that, They Mar. 2. 17. that are whole have no need of the Physician, but they that are sick. And therefore a brief Treatise on such a Point as this, had been much more properly delivered in the Pulpit, much more seasonably presented from the Press, to some other Corporation; which has, peradventure, of late been afraid to do that which is Evil against their Supreme Magistrate; only because they have happily found him not to have borne the Sword of Justice in vain. But since that Remark of our Blessed Saviour does in no wise dehort from following the Son of Sirach's wholesome Advice; viz. to use Ecclus. 18. 19 Physic or ever we be sick: to meet even the remotest Symptoms of those more slowly approaching Diseases, which tend to the dissolution of those earthly Houses, our Souls at present inhabit. Let therefore what hath been said upon this Subject, be interpreted according to the true meaning thereof: i. e. Not so much for a Confirmation, as a happy Continuation; but chief for a deserved Commendation of your firm, unshaken Allegiance to the Crown; and of your Exemplary Obedience to the Church, as now by Law established. And that too at such a time, when so many of your Sister-Societies did but too plainly demonstrate; That the true Faith, they ought then to have born to their Sovereign, his lawful Heirs and Successors, was only supported by the easily yielding Ground; and built upon that most deceitful Sandy Foundation of a mistaken Interest. Wherefore, may the design of this Essay be understood to be (what really it is) a sincere, hearty, though weak Endeavour; That You, who now stand so secure, may take heed lest hereafter you fall. That You, who are now planted a noble Vine, Jer. 2. 21. wholly a right Seed, may not in time to come be turned into the degenerate Plant of a strange Vine. So prayeth, Your Servant for Jesus sake, John Clerk. 1 Cor. 10. 10. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. THis Chapter contains a Catalogue of those numerous transgressions, which the Children of Israel were found guilty of before the Lord their God. In which account, my Text brings in that Cardinal Sin of murmuring against their Rulers, of repining against God's heavenly Dispensations, in governing all the Nations upon Earth, according to his Divine Will and Pleasure. For the Words have a particular reference to Korah, and his rebellious Accomplices; who insolently accused the man Moses, a Person of eminent meekness, even above all the men which were upon Num. 12. 3. the face of the Earth; for haughtily aspiring to make himself altogether a Prince over them in Num. 16. 13. Temporal matters: and for constituting his Brother Aaron High Priest, and so consequently making him Chief in all Spiritual affairs. Whereupon the disaffected Party gather themselves together in Tumults; and tell these two Pillars, Upholders of the most immediate Theocracy Josephus lib. contr. Appion. ever known on this side Heaven, plainly to their faces; That in truth, they took too much upon them, seeing all the Congregation were holy every one Num. 16. 3. of them, and the Lord was alike among them. Whence they proceeded to demand that uncivil question, Wherefore then did these two Brethren arrogantly lift up themselves above the Congregation of the Lord? Thus do we find, that in all Ages before and from the Jewish times, even down to our own later unhappy days of utter confusion and ineffable misery, the Trumpet never yet sounded an Alarm for battle; but the goodly pretences, the specious pleas made use of to excite the unthinking Multitude, to animate the ignorant Rabble (which, like those sixscore thousand persons of Nineveh, cannot discern between their right Ionas 4. 12. hand and their left) evermore were, and evermore will be those false suggestions, that their Rulers take away from them their Property and Liberty, their Religion and freedom of Conscience. Wherefore since the blessed Apostle tells us in the following words of my Text, That all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and Ver. 11. they were further written and delivered down unto posterity for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come; whose lot it is, as persons born out of due time, to wear out a troublesome life in these last and worst of days; Let us, I say, therefore endeavour to grow wise upon other persons cost. Let us, having taken a serious view in private of those stupendous Judgements showed upon those Mutineers; how suddenly those malcontents perished and came to a fearful end, unanimously resolve Rebellion to 1 Sam. 15. 23. be in truth (according to the Scripture comparison made thereof) as the sin of Witchcraft. Let us accost those Sons of men, who (in the phrase of the Psalmist) are set on fire: that resolvedly Psal. 57 4. continued restless, as those noxious aspiring flames, which first incensed them, until they have, like those, consumed whatsoever is high and great above them: that most obstinately persevere by their daily practices and nightly Studies, to cause unhappy divisions amongst us, in the words St. Paul does his foolish Galatians, Gal. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. namely, who hath bewitched you? Who, by the Hellish power of magic Fascination has so far infatuated you, so strangely deprived you of that natural reason you were born into the World with, as to make you so erroneously prefer Changes and War, before Establishment and Peace? In the ensuing Discourse I shall endeavour to show: 1. That in these later times of Usurpation, Liberty and Property, Religion and Freedom of Conscience were most unjustly taken away from the oppressed Inhabitants of these three then wretched Kingdoms. 2. That God has been pleased in a most wonderful manner to restore unto us of these ravaged Nations, together with our King, our Liberty and Property, our Religion and Freedom of Conscience, in the highest degree of perfection. 3. That notwithstanding this, an ungrateful murmuring against the Government is still the English, as it was then the Israelitish Sin, which cries aloud to Heaven for Vengeance. And then 4. And Lastly, I shall draw a practical Conclusion from the foregoing matter, and so dismiss you. Of these in their order; and First, That in these later times of Usurpation, Liberty and Property, Religion and Freedom of Conscience were most unjustly taken away from the oppressed Inhabitants of these three then wretched Kingdoms. It cannot indeed be denied by any ingenuous person, but that (contrary to the Roman Observation) Silent Leges inter arma. Cic. Orat. pro Milone. at the same time when the shriller sound of the Trumpet, the noise of Horses, and the noise of a great Host pierced our Father's tender ears, Justice, however, was heard to utter her still small voice in our Streets, whilst (in the words of the Psalmist) the Throne of Iniquity, which then bore Psal. 94. 20. the Sovereign Sway, framed all their Mischief by a Law. For whosoever shall compare the Trial of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, before Pontius Pilat's first High Court of Justice, with the Arraignment of our late most barbarously murdered King, before John Bradshaw's second, shall find them to differ no more, than a faithful Copy from its Original. The blind rage of the Populace, the insufferable insolence of the Soldiery, the mock-shew of Equity; but especially the notorious Corruption of both their Judges, in condemning two innocent Persons, in whom they could find no fault; in suffering them alike to be destroyed only by a pretended Law; nay, and by a further abetting their Deaths by an unknown Law, do make their conditions exactly parallel, and I had almost said, alike in Sufferings, alike in Innocence. But to proceed, As it fared with Him, who sat upon the Throne, even so did it far with him, Ecclus. 40. 3, 5. that was humbled in Earth and Ashes, Wrath and Envy, Trouble and unquietness, fear of Death, and Anger, and Strife were made the common portion of Truth and Fidelity: Whilst those partial Determiners of Causes (to use the Prophet's words) smote the great Houses with Breaches, and the little Amos 6. 11. Houses with Clefts. The Princes and People, the Potentates and Peasants, in proportion to their respective Estates, were equally damnified and oppressed. Then was the time, when the Loyal Party having a matter against another, durst not go to Law 1 Cor. 6. 1, 7. before the . Then was the Apostle's Injunction easily observed by all good men, rather to take wrong, rather to suffer themselves to be defrauded by their false Brethren, who were for them; or their traitorous Enemies, who were openly against them, than to bring in their legal Defence, and implead them before those Heathen Tribunals. Then, in Short, was Judgement turned into Wormwood; then did they leave off righteousness in the Earth. Whilst they exercised the most tyrannical, high, arbitrary Government over the Lives, Liberties and Properties of the English, Scotch and Irish Nations, ever yet read or heard of amongst us. Whilst Volumes will not contain the Murders, Rapines, Oppressions, Sequestrations, Decimations, Imprisonments, and whatsoever else can be thought of, that was cruel, unjust, and (as that great Apostle of those more modern Gentiles words it) might be taken for an effect of their power, Hobbs. Leviat. p. 56. or a cause of their pleasure. But to leave this Humane Court, and to enter into that Divine one, the Church. Where, behold, in our Cathedrals (those places of God's standing Worship) where we used to be most religiously delighted with the grateful melody, and harmonious noise of Praises and Thanksgivings unto God, the Fountain and Foundation of all our Bliss: We then (instead thereof) most wretchedly heard the contrary baleful Notes, the ill-boding voices of those melancholy Birds mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah: The Cormorant Isa. 34. 11. and the Bittern, which possessed those Places; the Owl also and the Raven which alone dwelled in them. Those that lifted up the Axes before upon the Psal. 74. 5, 6. thick Trees (the Psalmist tells us) were renowned as such, who intended to bring a thing to an holy perfection: but, lo! then they broke down all the carved work of the Sanctuary with Axes and Hammers. It pitied us to see the Stones of our ruined Zion lying in the dust; it grieved us indeed to behold this Abomination of Desolation standing where it ought not. It afflicted us to view (in the words of Hosea) the Thorn and the Thistle coming up, flourishing Hos. 10. 8. and full blown upon our Altars: where the Mystical Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ were usually beheld, and received with a most awful Reverence. If then our Emanuel, our God with us, had vouchsafed to have bowed the Heavens, to have come down and visited that stubborn, stiffnecked Generation of men, which so often in their hypocritical babble invoked him by the name of Lord, Lord: He would have found a much like, but more unhallowed Reception upon such a second Advent, than he did upon his first. For those Enemies of his Cross made even his Father's House become a lively Representation of that crowded Inn, where there was no room; where he suffered himself, at his Incarnation, to be necessitated to make a Stable his consecrated Temple, and a Manger his Holy of Holies, wherein to lodge his shrouded Divinity. They most sacrilegiously made those Church-Lands, dedicated unto God for the maintenance of a religious and learned Clergy, to become the Wages of their Iniquity. They were then guilty of Jeroboam's evil way, they made the lowest of the 1 King. 13. 33. People Priests of the High Places: whereupon it naturally followed, that their Priest taught for Hire, Mic. 3. 11. and their Prophets divined for Money. From thence, we had preached up unto us, for sound, and (as the Cant than was) Soulsaving Doctrine, blasphemous Socinianism, wild Enthusiasm, disguised Popery, which gave execrable Indulgences and Absolutions to men, not to perform their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, they had so often taken: by virtue whereof (as good Christians and Subjects) they and their Posterity were obliged to bear true Faith and Trust to their lawful Sovereign; and so far as in them lay, to defend that Protestant Church and Faith, of which our Royal Martyr died Head and most true Defender. Wherefore, I shall choose to conclude this first Proposition, with the Remark of a Person worthily honoured for his eminent Loyalty and Learning. We, like the revolting Subjects of Spain, Sir Robert Filmer. fought against our Liege Lord for Taxes and Religion; and proved alike prosperous Rebels: whilst we, as they, brought home from the bloody Fields of Battle, the same fortunate Trophies of our Victory; namely more Taxes than any Nation under the Heavens: and all the Religions of the World besides. And so, in the second place, I come to show, That God has been pleased in a most wonderful manner to restore unto us of these ravaged Nations, together with our King, our Liberty and Property, our Religion and Freedom of Conscience, in the highest degree of Perfection. Our Fathers (like the plagued Egyptians, described in the Book of Wisdom) were shut up in Wisd. 17. 2. their own Houses, and confined by their usurping Governors from maintaining (the sweetest comfort of Humane Life) Society with their Friends: being made Prisoners of Darkness, fettered with the Bonds of a long Night. Whilst they could be permitted See the Act, Anno 1649. Chap. 72. on the Weekday to travel but little further than the Jewish Sabbath days Journey. But now (praised be God) the day is broke, and those black affrighting shadows are fled away. The most illustrious day now shines upon us, our Calendars ever yet recorded. A Day at first graced by the sacred light of a Noon-tide Star added to that of the Sun. A Day which the Lord himself has made marvellous in our eyes, for the most auspicious Birth and Return of his Gracious Majesty, the Breath of our Nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord. A Lam. 4. 20. Day, that, next to the Nativity of our blessed Saviour, aught in all Ages to be solemnised with the most grateful Doxologies of Glory to God in the highest; for so miraculously sending Peace on this our share of the Earth: and so graciously showing his good Will towards us, a lost, ruined part of Mankind: For so mercifully compassing us about with Songs of Deliverance: For so compassionately vouchsafing us a second inferior sort of Redemption from our temporal and spiritual Thraldom; a second lower kind of Restauration unto all our forfeited (through Sin) humane and divine happiness. For how does Judgement now run down as Waters, Amos 5. 24. and Righteousness as a mighty Stream! Pure and undisturbed, as that flowing River, which gushed forth from the twice smitten Rock, opened by the divine hand of Moses. Num. 20. 11. Now the sincere and upright Judges of our Land impartially render to all, their deuce; to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, with an undaunted Loyalty; to God, and his Holy Church, the things that are God's, with pure Religion; to all the King's Subjects the things that belong to them with an even indifferency. We now again walk in the House of God as Friends; which not long since had been made a graceless Den of Thiefs: whilst it was defiled with Horses, and polluted with those far uncleaner Beasts, their Riders: who plainly, and without a Metaphor, made the Church of Christ here on earth to be truly Militant, and terrible as an Army Cant. 6. 4. with Banners; forgetting that meekness of Wisdom, which guided our first Reformers in settling that pure, peaceable, Protestant Religion, which this day happily has restored to us. In our Cathedral Service (whether in the Body, or out of the Body, we cannot tell; being caught up, 2 Cor. 12. 2. as it were, with S. Paul, to the third Heaven) we now join with those ten thousand times ten thousand, Rev. 5. 11, 13. and thousands of thousands of Angelical ministering Spirits, in a full Chorus, to sing Psalms and Hymns of Blessing, and Honour, and Glory, and Power unto him that sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. But to advance yet farther to that most holy ground, where the Communion Table is by public Authority most properly placed: and here no Protestant Spectator (unless falsely so called) but but must from the bottom of his heart acknowledge; that we alone give unto the Lord the Glory Psal. 29. 2. due unto his Name, and worship the Lord in the right beauty of Holiness. Whilst we alike decline the Whorish Gawdry of Babylon, the Idolatrous Pageantry of the Church of Rome, on the one hand; and the slovenly, clownish, and (in truth) irreverent behaviour of the Fanatic Dissenters on the other. We enjoy the most absolute form of the Hierarchy to be found upon earth: a Monarchical Government of Bishops in our Church; where our lawful Sovereign (the only true Vicegerent of Jesus Christ, that supreme Bishop of our Souls) presides over us in all sacred spiritual matters. And by the gracious encouragement of this our King, the Churches Royal nursing Father, it comes to pass; that many of those, who serve at her Altars, are the Sons of Nobles: most of them, at least descended from reputable Parentage. We have public set Forms of Prayer; to the end, that neither Priest nor People should be rash with their mouths, or let their hearts be hasty to utter any unpremeditated thing before God. The modest Compilers of our Liturgy having minded us, that God is in Heaven, and Omniscient; vain Man upon Earth, and born ignorant of the ways of the Lord, and unskilful in the word of Righteousness; and therefore prudently direct us to let our words be few and chosen. It is our Church alone, which holds no pious Frauds, maintains no holy Cheats. It is she alone that can defy all the studied wit and malice of her Adversaries, to show any political Article or Canon of her Establishment, whereby it may be proved that any of her true Sons can cry out (with Demetrius) and say, Sirs, ye know that by Act. 19 25, 28. this craft we have our Wealth; therefore, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. No, it is only her Teachers, when they instruct their respective Congregations, who cannot be persuaded to suppose that Gain is Godliness: but with an ardent Zeal demonstrate, that they seek not theirs, but them; that they covet not their Possessions, but their Salvation. She obliges her Proselytes to stand to no Principles, but those which in express words are manifest in the Scriptures; or else by undeniable consequence may be deduced thence. The unfeigned meaning of which Texts, she most candidly refers to those impartial Commentators, those greatest Lovers and most competent Judges of the Divine Truth; namely, the uncorrupted Councils, and genuine Works of those ancient Fathers, who came nearest our Blessed Saviour (the first Author, and last Finisher of our Faith) as well in Holiness as time. She most indulgently, and like a true Mother, obliges her Children to the performance of no Duty, which has not the power of God's Law in the first place, and of the King's Law in the second; a Divine as well as Humane Sanction, to enforce the practice thereof. Her Discipline, in short, is most sincerely Primitive, and her Doctrine most truly Apostolical. 'Tis she alone that completely answers the description made in the Canticles of the Spouse of Christ, She is all fair, there is no spot in her. Cant. 4. 7. Thus hath God been pleased to look upon his people; and magnify his Mercy in restoring to us our Prince, and together with him, our Religion, Laws and Liberties, to our unspeakable present and future Comfort. A happiness, that, before we enjoyed it, was almost above our Faith as well as Sight: and therefore, now we do enjoy it, should be commemorated with a most exalted thankfulness. For now has the Lord given Isa. 14. 3. us Rest from our Sorrows, and from our Fears, and from the hard Bondage wherein we were made to serve. This is that we should all learn to do, to praise Psal. 107. 8. the Lord for his Goodness, and for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men: learn to fear God first, and then honour his Anointed, who draws us to Obedience no otherwise than with the Cords of Hos. 11. 4. a Man, and with the Bands of Love. Legum idcirco omnes servi sumus, ut liberi esse possimus. Cic. Orat. pro. A. Cluentio. But though our Duty be so easy, as that Liberty shall be the purchase of our Obedience; and (as the Orator says) in being subject to the Laws, we shall find the greatest freedom; yet will not many amongst us be persuaded hereunto: but on the contrary, disturb the Peace and Quiet of these Nations, by their endless Jealousies and Murmur, Which brings me to the third Proposition; namely, That notwithstanding the misery we were in, and the happiness we are restored to, an ungrateful Murmuring against the Government is still the English, as it was then the Israelitish Sin, which cries aloud to Heaven for Vengeance. The English Man will answer his opprobrious, but too sadly true Character; that he never knows when he is well. Then only will he make a true estimate of his happiness, when it is too late; when, for his high Ingratitude towards his Divine and Humane Donors, he most justly becomes deprived thereof. He is born with an innate sullen Principle of Discontent, which directly interferes with that inward Quiet, that sedate Serenity of Mind, which alone is able to yield that true Peace and Satisfaction, which all the Affluence, which all the good things of this World besides cannot afford. Yea, he will continue like the troubled Sea, when it cannot rest: He will, like those disturbed Waters, be casting up Mire and Dirt: He will, like those raging Waves, be evermore foaming out his own shame, by despising Dominion, and speak-Evil of Dignities. He will not cease bringing false railing Accusations against the established Government under which he lives; until he has effectually made his Teeth to prove Spears and Arrows, and his Tongue a sharp Sword, wherewith to destroy his lawful Sovereign, and Fellow-Subjects. For, whence else have proceeded those two late equally detestable Hellish Plots, of the Jesuits, and Jesuited Protestants; of Simeon and Levi, who are Brethren, who have the same Instruments of Cruelty in both their Habitations? From whence else have arose those contumelious Reproaches, whereby the blasphemous Rabshakehs of our Age, with the pestilential Breath of their Mouths, have in vain endeavoured to blast the verdant flourishing honour of the most just Bench, and most Orthodox Pulpit, this Nation could perhaps ever yet in any Age glory of? But the English Men will prove themselves Hebrews of the Hebrews; descended, as it were, on both sides from those murmuring Israelites my Text relates to. For how do they remember their past Affliction and Misery? the Wormwood and Gall, they so Lam. 3. 19 lately fed upon? Why, most truly like that unthankful people, they have their Souls dried away, Num. 11. 6. because they have nothing else but this Manna, this Angel's Food before their Eyes to nourish them. For otherwise how comes it to pass, That they will forsake the true Fountain of living Waters, the Church of England, which not long since their Souls seemed to pant after; and perversely hue them out Cisterns, broken Cisterns, that can hold no Water, unless corrupted and poisoned. What other Reason can be assigned, That when the Fathers of our time are asked by their Children for the Bread of Life, they will give them (but at best) an insipid Stone, in which there is no delight or nourishment, either to Body or Soul; That when they ask for a Fish, they (contrary to our Saviour's Remark) give them a Serpent: and when an Egg, a Scorpion? When, as new born Babes, they desire the sincere Milk of the Word, they send them in their tender years, to suck in those deadly envenomed Principles, that are but too commonly prated up in Conventicles; those Seminaries of Murmuring, and Nurseries of Rebellion? And when they desire the strong Meat of the Gospel, that they may grow thereby unto perfect Men, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; they (instead thereof) actually engage their unstable minds in Leagues, Covenants and Associations against the King's sacred Person, his serene and happy Government. These are the mischievous methods these Men take to beguile unwary Souls; these the accursed Theorems they lay down to their Proselytes. But whenever they put them in practice, they will (without a speedy Repentance, and God's great Mercy) most assuredly find Misery and Destruction to be the Reward of their Unrighteousness. For though they may chance to escape the stroke of Justice here, yet, Behold, the Lord cometh (saith St. Judas) with ten thousands of his Saints, to execute Jud. v. 14, 15, 16. Judgement upon all such as are Murmurers, Complainers, walking after their own Lusts, and whose mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. But, Fourthly, and lastly, I shall now draw a practical Conclusion from the foregoing Matter, and so dismiss you. It is my wish, and I shall make it my endeavour, to end like a true Samaritan; and pour in healing Oil and Wine: to do my little part in binding up those green Wounds, under which some part of our miserable Nation most wilfully at present languishes. Our blessed Saviour, although Truth itself in the Abstract, when he found he could not gain Belief to his Doctrine amongst the hardened Scribes and Pharisees; condescended so low as to refer them unto Moses and the Prophets: and tells them, they were they which testified of him. St. Paul condescended yet lower; when he disputed with his Heathen Auditors, whilst he only refers Aratus. Menander. Epimenides. them unto their own Poets, to find a Confirmation of his Arguments. But I will stoop to the lowest method of Reasoning: whilst I shall only refer those turbulent Spirits, who refuse to be convinced from the Holy Bible, the Oracles of God, that they ought to possess their Souls, not only in patience, but in thankfulness too, to an impartial perusal of those brief Weekly Memoirs, which are Authentic Abridgements of our present Modern History. And then I dare challenge the boldest of them to deny if they can, That God has not in a most gracious manner been pleased to appear to us of these Fortunate Islands, under his kinder Titles, The God of Peace and of Order: whilst at the same time he has been known to all the Nations round about us, as well Christian as Infidel, under his more terrible Names of The Lord of Hosts, The God of Forces, The Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in Battle. That whilst we have been breaking our Swords into Ploughshares, and our Spears into Pruning Hooks: whilst We have been making those Instruments of death, serviceable towards bringing forth the Fruits of the Earth; our Neighbours have not in a most hostile manner been turning them upon each others Breasts, even till their Blood has been poured out as the Dust, and their Flesh as the Dung. Whilst we have securely eaten every Man of his own Vine, and every one of his Figtree; and drank every one the Waters of his own Cistern: They have (on the contrary) sowed, but not reaped; and trod Mic. 6. 15. the Olives, but have not anointed themselves with Oil; and pressed those Grapes which make the sweet Wine, but have not drank Wine. Whilst We enjoy the quiet possession of our Estates in our own times, and probably may leave them so to our Posterity after us; They have had their Enemies without number encamped against them, to destroy the Increase of the Earth: And Armies as Grasshoppers for Multitude entering into their Land to devour it. So that Strangers have been filled with their Wealth, and their Labours have been in the Houses of Strangers. Whilst God has been pleased mercifully to crown our Years with his Goodness, and to cause the Clouds continually to drop down Fatness; yea, to drop even upon the barren Dwellings of the Wilderness. Whilst our Hills have rejoiced on every side, our Pastures have been clothed with Flocks, and our Valleys covered over with Corn: Their Fields have been turned into Aceldamas, made fertile only by the flowing Streams of Humane Blood; and no other Voice heard therein, but the dismal howl, and sorrowful Groans of the most miserably expiring Slaughtered. Whilst we have been clothed in soft Raiment, and been gorgeously appparelled; whilst we have lived delicately, and been pampered with all the various parts of Luxury: Their Fields have been covered with dead Corpse, their Garments rolled in Blood: and those Bodies that survived the common Misery, have been exposed to the scorching heat of the Sun by day, and the i'll benumbing Cold of the Moon by night. So that though they were invulnerable, by all the Weapons form against them in this cruel Warfare; yet have they not been Armour-proof against those keener Arrows of Exile, Famine and Despair. Whilst our most gracious Moses wears himself away with anxious Cares how to procure all Welfare to his bounden Subjects; and, as if he were not by a figure, but in a literal sense, the Father of his Country, carries us in his Bosom, as a nursing Num. 11. 12. Father beareth the sucking Child: Whilst He seems to be wrought upon only by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by his Natural Affection; and like an indulgent Parent, thinks his Children ought not to lay up for him, but he for his Children: Whilst (I say) he has of late exempted us from paying the most customary Taxes usually granted him over and above his Annual standing Revenue, the most necessary support of his Crown and Dignity. Our Neighbours all the while have most arbitrarily been forced to raise almost infinite Sums of Contribution Money, for the Maintenance of their Usurping Tyrants; and so brought upon themselves and their Posterity, in good sad earnest (what our late Murmurers vainly but suspected) perpetual Slavery. Whilst We enjoy the free Exercise of a most pure and undefiled Religion; whilst our Mother, the Church, is permitted (without any interruption) freely to receive her Sons and Daughters into her Arms, and to gather her Children as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings; (though many of them are so rebellious as to despise so tender a Proposal; and rather choose to expose themselves to those ravenous Birds of Prey, her Adversaries:) The People round about us are sent to sing the Songs of the Lord in a strange Land; and have no other Rule left them to walk by, but that hard one to Flesh and Blood; namely, When they are persecuted in one City, to fly unto another. Mat. 10. 2●. Nay, and in those places, where the true Religion is not yet wholly extirpated, the Professors of it are in perpetual danger, even whilst they are performing her most holy Rites, to be themselves offered up as Holocausts; and with the surprised Galileans, to have their Blood mingled with Luk. 13. 1. their Sacrifices. Whilst we have been particularly privileged with calm Halcyon days; whilst we have been in a most peculiar manner blessed with the Genuine Fruits of the Dovelike Spirit; to wit, Love, Joy, Gal. 5. 22. Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, and Goodness: On the other side, Snares, Fire and Brimstone, Psal. 11. 17. Storm and Tempest have been the dis-relishing Portion of their Cup. And may the overruling Providence of God most graciously forbid their being forced ever to wring out the dregs thereof, and drink them. For that, at present, within are Fears, although without there are not actual Fightings amongst them. They are troubled with Formidable Rumours of Wars, and have but too great reason to fear their speedy breaking out into open Hostility. Their only sad hopes, alas! are, that, though the thing revealed be true, yet the time appointed may be long. Thus has God visited others with Judgement, and us with Mercy. And We trust, that as he has lately in an eminent manner, so he will still vouchsafe to abate the pride, assuage the malice, and confound the devices of our Enemies, of whatsoever Party or Persuasion. Our Souls having escaped, even as caught Birds, out of the Snare of their entrapping Fowlers: The Snares having been in a miraculous manner broken, and thereby a most signal Deliverance wrought for us. And now that God (the Almighty Governor of the World) hath done these great things for us, beyond what he has done for other Nations, it should engage Us to a most hearty Thankfulness for the same. Let us therefore offer Heb. 13. 15. the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually, that is, the Fruit of our Lips, giving thanks to his Name. This would silence all our Complaints, quiet our Murmur, and drive away our Fears; especially now we are so throughly convinced by plain demonstration, that the Lord is on our side, he taketh our part, and fighteth for us. Away then with groundless Jealousies, and imaginary Fears! When God is our Helper, our Defence, even a Tower of Strength to his Servants against all their Enemies. Shall we still all these happy signs of his Love, he has showed among us? Shall we (out of Mockery to his Almighty Power) create to ourselves, out of nothing, unreasonable Discontents and Murmur? This is (like Envy itself) for us to weep, because Vixque lacrymas, quia nil lacrymabile cernit. Ovid. Met. l. 2. we can see nothing justly deplorable: To draw up the Sluices, and open the Floodgates of our Tears; because we can meet with no true reason of Complaining in our Streets. Let us then no longer nauseate, and ungratefully surfeit upon our lasting Prosperity; and, like Polycrates, wilfully fling our Rings into the River, that according to the blind Dictates of Humane Nature (which incline us to love Variety) we, with him, may obtain an unsavoury taste of Adversity. Let us no more provoke the Lord by a foolish Longing after Change and Novelty: but resolve to be contented with that Lot and Portion, his merciful Providence hath assigned to us: Ever humbly acknowledging his multiplied Mercy, and his peculiar Care over us; a Nation, even like Israel itself, for whom the Lord has wrought Marvels, Exod. 34. 10. such as have not been done in all the Earth. A Nation, saved by the Lord, the Shield of our Help, and Deut. 33. 29. the Sword of our Excellency. FINIS.