Three Sermons preache● at the Collegiate Church in MANCHESTER.  
The first, on Psal. 122. ver. 6. July 8. 1640. the public Fast day: showing the misery of war, with our fears and hopes and means of Prevention.  
The second, on 2 Thes. 2.15. November 5. 1638. Discovering the Man of sin, with his delusions, abominations and desolations.  
The third, on Genesis 49. ver. 5.6, 7. November 5. 1639. Laying open the Perjuries, Treacheries, Treasons, the murders, Massacres, Cruelties, of Rome-Christian.  
By Richard Heyricke, warden of the said college.  
LONDON, Printed by T. B. for L. Fawn, and are to be sold at the sign of the Parat, in Paul's churchyard 1641.   

TO THE RIGHT Honourable, the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament, now ASSEMBLED.  
VEspatian the Emperor, sent to ELVIDIUS PRISCUS, a Senator of ROME, charging him not to appear in the Senate; If he did to speak no otherwise than what he would have him, to whom he returned; As a Senator, it was fit he should be there, and being there, he would freely speak his conscience; The Emperor replied, if he did, he should die for it: He answered, he never said he was immortal; do what you will, i will do what i ought. It is in your power unjustly to put me to death: It is in my power to die constantly.  
It is your royal privilege, Your persons are under his majesty's sacred protection, your liberty of speaking, granted to be without interruption, Awake, 
Psal. 108 1.  your glory, do ye yourselves awake right early; Let your hearts be fixed, fixed in the Lord, as the Poles of Heaven, and the centre of the earth, Let righteousness, be your Parliament Robes, let judgement be your Crown and Diadem, 
Job 29.14.  let causes at your great tribunal he heard to speak, not persons; That the blessing of three perishing kingdoms may come upon you.  
I was but lately removed into these parts, and one of special note forewarned me, I should be Crucified, as CHRIST was betwixt two thieves; The Papist, the Puritan. The Papist, like the railing and Blaspheming thief, soon discovered himself. They swarm, and are terrible, the show of their countenance witnesseth against them; 
Psal. 91.6.  Like destruction, they show themselves at noonday: The Puritan (if it be not only a name, without an existence) is worthy your wisdom, to tell us who he is; It may be, for fear of crucifying, with the good thief he is stolen into Paradise; the name is of Vast, and amongst many of Odious signification: Papists do charge the Church of England with the heresy of Puritanism: King James, by Bellarmine, metamorphosed into his chaplain, was said to be a Puritan; The English Parliament is called a puritanical Parliament. The university of Oxford, the strength of Puritanism. Bristol speaks out. All Protestants in ENGLAND are Puritans, Protestants at large, such as are Ambitious of the credit, not of the truth of their holy profession; Heathens in lives, Christians in faith; They reproach civil moral infidels with that name: They pharisaical Professors; They powerful CHRISTIANS.  
Yea, of late I have also heard them much branded with the name, that would not yield up their souls, and their Consciences, to the chair of Bishops, with their estates, Liberties, and Lives, to the will of their Superiors. The name is very large and very reproachful: A Bishop affirmed he could as easily fetch one off from the guilt of Felony, as from the imputation of Puritanism; My humble motion is, make us all Puritans, or to leave no Puritan amongst us.  
There are walls of partition, (when those that were of God's Institution, became enmity, Eph. 2.14. CHRIST laid them as flat, as the Walls of Jericho, with Jericho's curse upon them.) Be pleased to batter down these walls, lay the Canons in the face of them, and Jerusalem's curse upon them; Let not one stone be left upon another: At the first of the Reformation they were, though not necessary, yet, lawful, our Reformers were modest and moderate; They would not unnecessarily offend the weak Romanist, GOD had a People amongst them, the waters of BABYLON were ebbing: But now since the Sea of ROME, like the waters of JORDAN, begin to swell, and overflow the banks, since the great River TIBER flows apace, since the Papists are emboldened, and hardened in their idolatry and Superstition, since the strong, as well as the weak Protestant, are grieved and vexed with them, and there are indeed too many false Apostles, that earnestly contend for them, and with a strong and mighty hand obtrude them upon us. Take unto yourselves the zeal of Our LORD and SAVIOUR; The Evangelist records, he twice purged the Temple: The multitude of offenders, the might and malice of the observers, the danger of the action, nor the peril of the consequence stays his hand. The King of Scythia slew Anacharsis the Philosopher, for the worshipping the mother of the God's, after the Athenian manner; If the Plague of leprosy could not be cleansed, by taking away a few stones out of the house, but the leprosy would return again, than the house, the Timber, 
Lev. 14.43, 45.  the mortar must down: when Ceremonies become scandalous, they are to be abolished.  
These Sermons suit well with two of the greatest works, the kingdom expects from you; They breathe enmity to Rome, Peace amongst ourselves, Preached when the times ran Counter to both; The man of sin of late years hath revived amongst us, (it may be a lightning before death,) Popery hath multiplied abundantly. In Lancashire it hath superabounded above an Hyperbole: The mass hath outfaced our Christian meetings, Jesuites have jeered our Ministers, confronted and abused authority.  
MANCHESTER, the Goshen (accounted) in this Egypt, is of late years, darkened with the blackness of it, some of our prime men in dignity, authority, power, have revolted to them; Their example commands many, Great men have their followers, of their Vices, as of their persons, and when they please to be Idolatrous, their children, servants, tenants, their poor kindred, and Jdolizing Neighbours, will to the mass with them. One special cause of this increase of Popery, is the vastness, and the greatness of many Parishes, preferred to the trust of such, that add Church unto Church, themselves residing at neither, or if they are with their people, they are non resident in the midst of them, yea too often when they are in the Pulpit; These Mother-Churches have many daughters, seven, eight, nine chapels, subject to them, to which belongs no certain, or no competent maintenance; Hence ignorance and profaneness, desolate places, full of doleful Creatures, Ziim and Ochim: 
Isa. 13.21  King James in his piety and wisdom, appointed 4. Lancashire Preachers, to perfect his work: Let every Golden Candlestick have his Lamp burning and shining in it: devils could not stand before the gospel; therefore Popery shall be consumed by it. 
2 Thes. 2.8.   
I had served in these parts, the same time that PAUL did at Athens, and my spirit was troubled to hear and see, the superstition; Hence, I ventured (with danger enough) to preach these Sermons; may they strengthen your hands in that great work you are about; 
Ezra 6.14.  it would be the glory of this latter age, could there such a sheet be let down to the Church, 
Acts 10.11.  as there was in vision to Peter, that the difference of clean and unclean may be taken away, such a golden sceptre reached out that all may be subdued unto it, and embrace it; O what an honour would it be to the present, and a blessing to the future age, that a consent of Doctrine and discipline might be confirmed by you, that we that profess one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one GOD and Father of all under one King, may be one Church; That a Trinity of kingdoms, may be a Church in unity. Pardon my presumption if my zeal for the public peace, points at the means; A royal Convocation, rightly constituted unto which all the kingdoms may send their Clarks would facilitate the business, (It would add much to the glory of it, and be a crown unto his crown who accounts it the most glorious in all his crown to be worthy of that Title, Defender of the Faith, if from all the reformed churches, some may be invited, if not to vote, yet at least to assist.  
The reason wherefore general, national, provincial counsels, have in this last Century been so fatal, and therefore by some of singular eminency been disclaimed, as a meet means for the settling of peace, is because the greatest part have their standing Votes, who will ever maintain a strong party for themselves; Is it equal that archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Arch-Deacons, Chapter men, should of course, and by reason of their dignities have their places & their suffrages, when but two Clerks are elected by the choice of the clergy; May the Election of the Clarks for the Convocation be as free as yours for the Parliament, and in some proportion unto it, i doubt not but we should be as happy in our Canons, as we are in your Statutes.  
There hath been strange batteries made upon our Religion, the thirty nine Articles are challenged by the Harlot, Papists and Arminians claim them as theirs, the book of Homilies are disclaimed, unheard of violation hath been offered to the second, to the fourth commandments, Preaching is cried down, Preachers discountenanced. The Sacraments have been defiled, the people of the Lord have been made to abhor the offering of the Lord, press and Pulpit have vomited forth corrupt and undigested matters. Augustus made a bonfire of all such books, that corrupted the Roman ethnic Religion, it would be your wisdom to make a diligent search for all apocryphal books, heretical, Popish, Semi-pelagian Pamphlets, slanderous Libels, and impertinent writings, and to sacrifice them to Vulcan. We pray for great things to be done by you, we have open our mouths wide to the Lord we have heard of great things of you: 
Ps. 81.10  the Lord prosper you to an happy, and blessed conclusion, for a glorious reformation of Church and commonwealth; The Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, he upon whose shoulder the government lies; 
Isa. 9.6, 7  increase your government and peace, order you and stablish you with judgement, and justice, henceforth for ever: the zeal of the Lord of HOSTS, perform this.  
Your Honours in all sincerity service and duty, Richard Heyricke.   

The first SERMON.  PSAL. 122. ver. 6. 
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  
NOne can speak more punctually in the commendation of peace, than they that have been long harrowed with war, David, a man of war, in his younger days, he slew a Lion, he killed a bear, he overcame Goliath, that uncircumcised Philistim, that defied the Host of Israel, in his riper years he conquered the Canaanites, the Amorites, the rest of those heathenish Nations, he had seven years' war with the house of Saul, war with his rebellious subjects, with his treacherous, 
● Chro. 22.8.  traitorous son, God witnesseth that he had shed blood abundantly, that he had made great wars, in his latter days he had a breathing time of peace, in which respite and Interim, he prepares to build God an house, he rejoiceth in his preparation, and prays for the prosperity of it, and encourageth others to pray,  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 
Jerusalem, either the City Jerusalem, the Metropolis, the chief city, the royal City, the City of the great King, the London of the kingdom of Israel, wherein the Thrones of judgement, the Courts of justice, Westminster Hall was, wherein the thrones of the house of David his Court, his palace, his house, his Mansion, White-Hall was, Or Jerusalem, taken for the Temple in Jerusalem, the house of the Lord, the place whither the Tribes went up, the Tribes of the Lord, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. And so by a figure for the Church of God, the Temple in Jerusalem was a type of it, Or Jerusalem, taken for the whole kingdom, it being the chief member of the kingdom, the Chamber of the kingdom, the stomach of that body politic, which receives all the nourishment, the foreign merchandise, and disperseth them abroad to every member, take Jerusalem in the first sense, in the strict and literal acception of the word, for the city Jerusalem, for the London of that kingdom, Then pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for the City London, that there may be no destroying plague, no evil disease, no infectious sickness, no dissensions, no divisions, no commotions, no rising of lawless Creatures, no rebellions, no Treasons, Pray that the foreigners and strangers that are in the city, the malcontent, and desperate heard, the Canaanites that dwell among them, the French, the Papists may not disturb their peace, and prosperity, pray that David and Jerusalem, the King and the City, may accord together, that the Thrones of judgement, and the Thrones of the house of David, Westminster-Hall, and Whitehall, may be Thrones of justice, of honour and glory, take Jerusalem in the second acception, in a sense not so restrained, for the Temple in Jerusalem, for the house of the Lord, for the Church of God, and then pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for peace in the Church, pray that there may be no heresy, no heretical doctrine, no erroneous Articles of Religion, no Trent determinations, no Socinian blasphemies, no Arminian quiddities, no Antinomian wickednesses, pray that there may be no schism, no separation, no wall of partition, no heathenish customs, no Samaritan rites, no Idolatrous superstitions, no Popish ceremonies, no Canons to Batter and terrify the consciences of God's people, pray that the whole clergy may be of one spirit, not divided, not distracted not torn in pieces, that one part may not speak prosperity in the ears of the King, to send him to Ramoth-Gilead to die there, and that the other part may not humour and flatter the people to stubbornness and disobedience, pray that the Church may be as Jerusalem, a city compact together to which the people of the Lord may go up without offence, without trouble.  
The Temple in Jerusalem was built by Solomon a King of peace, in a time of peace, there was no instrument of Iron, no tool of the workman heard in the rearing of it, Christ the Prince of peace, his Disciples the children of peace, quiet fishermen, not hollowing hunters, and whooping Faulkoners: may the Church be as the Temple Jerusalem, as the school of Christ, a city, a house of peace: take Jerusalem in in the third sense, in the largest acception of the word, for the whole kingdom of Israel, of which Jerusalem was the head city; and than pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for peace in the kingdom, pray that there may be no homebred conspiracies, none left of the house of Saul, to wage war with the house of David, no discontented Sheba to blow the Trumpet of sedition and rebellion, no flattering Absalon to steal away the hearts of the King's people, no gallant Adonijah, to make a strong party against Solomon, no Achitophel Politician to give pernicious counsel against David, pray that there may be no revolting in the kingdom that neither Edom nor Libnah, 
2 Chro. 21.10.  no kingdom nor Country, no city, nor town, nor person may fall from their allegiance to the King, Pray that there may be no foreign enemy, no Syrian, no Assyrian, no Egyptian, no Roman, no Turk, no Saracen, no Italian, no Spaniard, no Dutch, no French, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for all the kingdoms that pertain to the King of Jerusalem, for all the Countries, Cities and towns in these kingdoms, for the Church in the kingdom, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the city, the Church, the kingdom, Peace is taken in as large a sense as prosperity, it comprehends all blessings, in the womb of it, I shall principally take it, in the strictest sense, and Jerusalem in the largest, and then the duty is, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that there may be no war in the kingdom, war is only sweet to them that are ignorant of it, Our kingdom hath enjoyed a longer time of peace, than some kingdoms have, of being, Our age hath not been roused with the barking of uncouth-Wolves, the midnight drum hath not frighted our sleeps, the sounding trumpet hath not deafed our ears, our beacons have not been fired, our ships arrested, our walls manned, our towns have not been ransacked, our houses ruined, our women ravished, our infants dashed against the stones, we have not sowed and the stranger reaped, we have not built, and the enemy possessed, we have not been confounded with strange languages, but peace hath been within our walls, and plenteousness within our dwellings, Peace, the daughter of the gospel of peace, plenty, the daughter of Peace, Peace the glory of Heaven, the joy of the whole world.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 
IN the prosecution of which, I will show you the misery of war, the great danger that we are in of having war, the hopes that remain to escape it, I begin with the first.  
First, consider the misery of war, The sword is one of God's four sore judgements, whereby he layeth waste and maketh desolate the greatest kingdoms, 
Ier. 15.3.  And I will appoint over them four kinds (saith the Lord) the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the Heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. For thus saith the Lord, 
Ezek. 14.21.  how much more when I send my four sore judgements upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome Beast, and the Pestilence, to cut off from it man and Beast? Where you may be pleased to observe, the sword is not only one of the four, but the first of the four; the most devouring, the most destroying, God usually sendeth none of these judgements, but when his patience is much wounded, when his royal Indignation is kindled, when his justice is forced, when his mercy hath no more to say. God hath a store house, a rich treasury, a magazine of judgements, there are all Instruments of death, and blood, sickness to death, and sicknesses not to death, Agues and fevers and consumptions, and these God usually sends before the destroying Pestilence, God hath his staff, and his Rod, his Bow and his arrows, with these he corrects the sons of men, before he draws his sword, his sword furbished and glittering, to make a sore destruction, Jupiter throws not at first his dreadful Thunderbolts, The heavens usually grow dark and black, the clouds gather together, the rain falls, the lightning breaketh forth, the sword, the famine, the noisome beast, and the Pestilence, they are in the darkest, in the most inward room of the Castle and Tower, which God never opens till he be hard put to it, till his lesser judgements are despised: see the method of God's proceedings, 
Lev. 26.18, 28.  he will proceed from few to many, from less to greater, he will punish us seven times more for our sins, when the four winds break loose, when any of these four judgements come, than God is angry indeed; of these four judgements, the sword; the famine, the pestilence, and noisome beasts, the sword is the worst of the four, that which God reserveth till the last, as the greatest witness of his displeasure, and the swiftest messenger for our destruction: any one of these four, brings fear and trembling, horror and terror, paleness and death: if the pestilence, which is but God's Arrow, if that be let off of the string, though in any part of the kingdom, the Arrow that flies in the dark, that usually poisons most in the dark corners of the land, amongst the poorest sort of people, yet what a fear it strikes into the body of the whole kingdom; if but one city be infected, what flying out of the city, what watch and ward, what strict examination and doings of all that come from that city, every one being like Cain, afraid of every one that meet them lest they should kill them, runagates upon the face of the earth, Remember the fear that surprised you, when GOD shot this Arrow but into one house of this town, when it fetched the heartblood but from a few, what flying, what posting away, yourselves, your households? my Brethren, if the plague be so terrible, what will the sword be, that comes after the plague, more fierce, more terrible, by how much the mercies of man, are less than the mercies of God, yea when the sword comes the rest of these four judgements attend on it, The plague may come alone, and the famine may come alone, and noisome beasts may come alone, these oftentimes come before the sword, if possible, to prevent it, but when they cannot do the work, the sword will then contemn the rod, 
Eze 21.10  set at nought what ever the former judgements have done, it will come furbished and sharpened, and this black guard of pestilence, famine, noisome beasts, will be at the heels of it, The sword lays men dead in the fields, it ruins towns and houses, it leaves the fields unplowed, unharrowed, unsowed, hence famine grows grievous, that kills whom the sword escapes, the noisome stinch of the dead begets plagues, that and the famine together poisonous beasts, travel over those parts of Germany where the sword hath raged, and tell me if the plague, the famine and the pestilence, if one of these plagues be so terrible, what will they all be, when they are confederate and joined in one, when the sword comes there will be no escape, for he that flies the one shall be overtaken with the other, The sword is one of God's four last judgements, the last of the four, that which hath the rest attending on it.  
Secondly the misery that war brings is of that nature, that the spirit of ingenuous and free born men (of which we are, if any nation under heaven be) can the least brook it, of any judgement, go (saith God to Gad, 
2 Sam. 24.12.  David's seer) and say unto David, thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things, choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee: It was a favour that God vouchsafed unto David, that he never did (as I read of) to any beside, that he should choose the rod, David had offended, there was some rank blood in his veins, GOD must let him blood, or he must die, and better he must lose his corruption, than GOD lose him; purge him God will, but whether with Pills, or with Potions, or with some chemical preparations, David hath the choice, choose thee one of them: there was three evils proposed unto him, three of the greatest evils, three of those four evils which God usually reserves to the last, to extremity, David must choose one, and by this he was sure, he should not be afflicted with all, I am in a great strait, he was much troubled, terrified, affrighted, 
Verse 14.  wherever he should make his choice, misery would follow his election; the least of the three judgements was plague enough, yet he resolves, Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, (for his mercies are great) and let me not fall into the hand of man, It is uncertain what judgement DAVID made choice of, whether the plague or the famine, 'tis certain he would not have the sword, he had rather have any judgement then to fly before his enemies, Indeed of all judgements it is the judgement of judgements, I may call it the plague of plagues, which an ingenuous people can least stoop to. Job the mirror, the miracle of patience, 
Job 30 1, 8.  showed as much impatience in this temptation as in any, I am in derision with them that are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock, yea whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, &c. they were children of fools, children of base men, they were viler than the earth, they made me their song: peruse Habacuk the first, from the fifth verse to the eleventh, Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marveilously, for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe though it be told you. For lo I raise up the Chaldeans that bitter and hasty. Nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs, they are terrible and dreadful, their judgement and their dignity shall proceed of themselves Their horses also are swifter than the Leopards, and are more fierce than the evening Wolves, and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far, and shall flee as the Eagle that hasteth to eat, They shall come all for violence, their faces shall sup up as the East wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand, And they shall scoff at the Kings, and the Princes shall be a scorn unto them, they shall deride every strong hold, for they shall heap dust and take it. Bring these home to your own doors, suppose that Nation of the Spaniard, which the English have had cause to have had in the greatest detestation, and abomination, that insolent and proud Nation, that they were at this present marching into the town, with their Colours flying, their drums beating, their Trumpets sounding, suppose their soldiers, the rubbish, the scum, the filth of the Nation, were to ransack and rifle your houses, or at least to be but billeted among you, how could your spirits brook it, to see them sit and command whilst you wait and attend, to see them embrace your wives, kill your servants, beat your children, break open your Chists, take away what ever is precious in your eyes; you that are now so high and lofty, so tender, and impatient of the least injury, that cannot pass by any offence, of your neighbours, of your equals, of your superiors, what if your servants, your apprentices, your drudges, should rise against you, yea what if they, that your servants, your Prentices, your drudges would hate to have any service from, those that are pressed out of your streets, whom your charity formerly relieved, those whom your moneys clothed, who while they were amongst you, would have been glad, with your dogs to have gathered the crumbs that fell from your Table, if they should return, and rule and command among you, if they should with Briers and thorns whip you every morning, if they should take your clothes from your backs, and tear your skin from your flesh, if they should lie with your daughters before your faces, and commit all villainy, and after all should fire your town, should lead you captive away, should make you horses for their carriages, o the miseries of war! what nature could stoop unto it?  
Thirdly, this judgement, of all judgements, God is the most backwards, the most unwilling to bring upon his people, this shows the greatness of it, physicians will try all means, before they will cut off, they will let blood, prescribe Pills and Potions, Sed si convaluerit malum, & ignis adhibetur & ferrum. The sword is the last thing that God will use, yea God seems to be afraid to use it, and therefore he defers it from day to day, from year to year. They that are troubled with the Stone, they will hardly be brought to be cut for it, they will endure much first, they will try several physicians, several experiments, they will send for the Surgeon, and they will reason with him, they will see his knife, they will enlarge their discourses, they will send them away again and again, and they will send for them again, and for other Surgeons, they are scarce drawn to it, 
Deut. 32.26, 27.  see the same of God. I said I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men, Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this, God loves not to afflict any, he afflicts none willingly from the heart, affliction is a strange work to him, If necessity urgeth, he doth it with the rods of men for their amendment, he will but correct them, not destroy them, he is not hasty to cut off a member, 'tis the last, that which he is the loathest to use, yea God seldom or never useth this plague, this judgement, but he presently repents him of it, and avengeth the blood shed upon them that shed it, read at your leisure, 2 Chron. 28. ver. 9 isaiah 10. verse 12. Rev. 6. ver. 6.  
Lastly, see some aggravating circumstances of this judgement, men are ever made the instruments of war, and therefore this judgement is greater than that immediately comes from GOD, those instruments of cruelty, the less they have of reason, the more unreasonable, the more fierce in their cruelties, hence the mercies of man are cruelty in respect of God, the cruelties of beasts far worse than the rage of man, the war of Inanimate creatures, more raging than that of the beast, The Lion, the tiger know their bounds better than the fire, the water, yet the depravation of the more eminent and excellent, is worse than the mere negation in the other: when patience is abused in GOD it turns into the heaviest fury, the least spark of his hell, is greater than the greatest fire on earth: when men lose their reason, they are more mad than the beast that never had it; bloody minded men are the Instruments of this punishment, and of them, the most strong and stout and lusty, the most irreligious, licentious, and violent persons, the most base, sordid and dunghill people; again in war no man can be master of his own, where ever the soldiers pass, their hands are birdlime, like the griping Griffin they seize upon all, The Danites rob Micah, 
judges 18.16.  and Micah's voice must not be heard, lest when he cries for his goods, he loseth his life, war exhausts the Treasures of the Land, there will be many borrowers that never will pay again, thieves and Robbers, The King's Exchequer shall want money, the Chamber of the kingdom shall be without supply, than the Subject shall be made poor, no trading, much spending, Subsidies, fifteens, Taxes, privy seals, ship-monies, provision moneys, Conduct money, a thousand ways to empty private purses, In war men die many deaths, here lies one without an arm, a leg, Trampled under the Horses feet, none regards their cries, their lamentations, The drums, the Trumpets drown their voices: In war multitudes are led Captive, tortured and tormented, made vassals and slaves; By war strangers and enemies invade our possessions, possess our houses and lands, deprive us of our rights, liberties and inheritances, by war unnatural slaughters are committed, oftentimes the father fighteth against the son, and the son against the father, more blood is shed in war than any other way: when GOD intends to destroy a stock, a Country, a kingdom, he sendeth war: by war might often prevails against right, the worser part, the stronger, the ruins and desolations of war last long, after a few months, the next year, may supply the defacings of the plague, of famine; but many years, many ages to repair the loss by war. You see the misery of war; As you would escape the fury of it, pray for the continuance of our peace,  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 
Secondly, consider the great danger we are in, of losing our peace, of falling into the misery of war; GOD deals fairly in the administration and execution of his justice, Surely the Lord will do nothing but he will reveal his secret to his servants the Prophets, 
Amos 3.7.  seldom or never doth God bring general judgements upon a people but he gives fair warning, he strikes not unawares; You have heard of late sad presages, signs and forerunners of destructions, I will not tread that path again; The sword is the plague we now fear, God hath given us some warning, the sword hangs over our heads, God hath been long whetting his sword, he hath blown his Trumpet to the Battle, he hath discharged his warning pieces, he hath charged his murdering pieces.  
First, lay to heart that God hath already visited us with all other plagues and judgements, yea he hath gone them over again and again: how often hath the Land groaned under the plague; what dearths and scarcities have we had: what secret and wasting judgements have been consuming of us? GOD hath run through his armoury, his Treasury, Castles, Towers, Magazens, he hath tried all the rest of his judgements to see if they will bring us to Repentance, so that none remains but the sword: hath not GOD visited us with the plague, with plague after plague, with dearth and famine, hath he not made the heaven's brass, and the earth Iron? hath he not let loose the four winds of the earth, which have overthrown ships and houses? hath there not been fearful earthquakes, thundering and lightning, strange divisions, dissensions, mutinies, fearful sad things amongst us? What remains for God yet to do? if all this will not do the work, but that he sends the sword, the last, the worst of all, See Amos 4. verse 6. and so on.  
I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your Cities, 
Verse 6.  yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord.  
I have withholden the rain from you, 
Verse 7.  yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord.  

Verse 9  I have smitten you with blasting and mil-dew, yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord.  

Verse 10.  I have sent among you the Pestilence, yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord.  

Verse 11.  I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord.  
He speaks after the manner of men in whom just indignation stops the passage of further speech, The greatness of his wrath wants words to express itself.  

Verse 12.  And because I will come, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel, God will come like a man of war, prepare to meet the Lord; See if thou be able to stand against him with his sword drawn, furbished and sharpened, ready to make a sore destruction, God hath gone over other judgements again and again, therefore we may well fear the sword is now coming.  
Secondly, God hath sent the sword amongst other nations, we hitherto (like Gideon's fleece) have been dry, when all the earth about us hath been drenched with blood; the sword hath been in Bohemia, in the Palatinate, in Denmark; in Germany, in France, in Holland. The Cloud hitherto hath been violently carried from us, and hath emptied itself in other parts; The sword hath been filled with blood and hath been made fat with fatness, drunk with blood: when the angel of the Lord with his drawn sword had visited other places of the kingdom, at last he came and stood over Jerusalem: when God hath gone through other Lands, and countries, through other kingdoms and Churches, he will then sheathe his sword upon us. The judges they are now in their Circuit, they have their Commission from the King, to go from one County to another, the judges before they have done they will come in their Circuit to us, we must have our Assizes, God hath given his sword a Commission, it hath been many years in the circuit, 'tis now come near unto us: The sword cannot be quiet, See Jeremy 47.6, 7. O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest and be still; How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against ASKELON, and against the seashore? there hath he appointed it.  
The sword hath been long unsheathed, and hath gone in triumph over all the world, besides, how can it be quiet, till it come among us? See what danger we are in, the sword hath been in other parts.  
Thirdly, consider war hath been at our very doors, we have not only heard of it with our ears, but our eyes have seen the smoke, the fire of it hath touched our bodies, the enemy hath been as near us as David to Saul when he cut off the lap of his garment. The last year was not the enemy strong upon our coast, a Potent, a powerful, a malicious enemy? I question not the end of their coming, God and they know it, but was not the war at our gates, did not the States, and the Spaniards, fight before our eyes when we stood still and looked on? God might have joined them together against England. But he made their sword drunk in the blood one of another, as the lacedaemonians made their servants, and slaves drunk, that we might see it, and fear. Again was not the Trumpet the last year blown, was not a general made choice of, lieutenants, colonels, captains, and all officers, were there not many horse and foot, they that went voluntary, and they that were pressed? did not the King go himself, in person, set up his royal standards, lie in the eye, in the sight of the enemy, surely the sword was then drawn, the knife was at the throat, the men of war were prepared for the fight, there was great expense of men, time and money, yet than the Lord delivered us, he returned the King back again, and we had peace, David was in great danger when Saul and his men of war encompassed him about, yet than GOD brought Saul back again, Jerusalem was straightly besieged by the Chaldeans, 
Ier. 37.5.  yet God hasted them away, war was at the backdoor.  
Lastly, consider the war is now begun, the sword hath begun to eat and drink our flesh and blood, now is the time that Kings go forth unto war, Our preparations are far greater, our hope of preservation far less, relapse is the most dangerous; The second wrath is seldom appeased, God is now engaged in the war, the means of deliverance became vain and empty, there hath been risings and rebellions in the chief city of the kingdom, the Ordinances of war are in print amongst us, the men of war are gathered together, we wait daily to hear of some bloody encounter, of some fearful Stratagem, of some devilish damnable Massacre, some horrid and dreadful Tragedy; 
Mat. 16.3.  The Pharisees were weather-wise, it will be foul weather to day, the sky is red and lowering, they could discern the face of the sky, but they could not discern the signs of the times, cast up your eyes and you shall see a Cloud coming from the Sea, black and dreadful, covering the face of the heaven; harken a little, and you shall hear a sound of abundance of rain, yea the drops begin to fall upon your faces, stand still and be quiet, and you may behold the approach of the enemy, the horror, the terror they bring with it, certainly he that sees not that there is but one step betwixt him and death, that we are all but dead men, he is either blind or stark mad; for the Sword is drawn, war is fully prepared, War is ready.  
Thirdly, consider what possibility there is yet of escape, what probability, what hope, what comfort remains; Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Jacob was almost desperate, the famine was sore in the Land; Joseph was not, Simeon was not, they were taking away Benjamin also. The chief governor of Egypt, he spoke roughly to them, he imprisoned them as spies, he conjures them that they should not see his face without their brother Benjamin, Jacob was resolved he should not go, his sons would not go without him, the famine increased upon them, something therefore Jacob must do, 
Gen. 43.11  If it must be so now (saith he) do thus, take of the best fruits of the Land in your vessels, and bring the man a present, a little Rosen, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts and Almonds, and take double money in your hand, and the money that was brought again in your sacks mouths, carry it again in your hands, lest it were some oversight, Take also your Brother and arise, and go again to the man; And God Almighty give you mercy in the sight of the man, that he may deliver you your other Brother and Benjamin, &c. There is the same beam of light and comfort left to us as was to Jacob, there lies a necessity upon us, it must be so, we must down into Egypt, there is yet a little balm in Gilead, we must take double money, increase our prayers to God, we must pray, God Almighty give us mercy, &c. David was exceedingly distressed when the Amalekites burned Ziklag, and had carried their wives and all that they had, captive, when all his people were disheartened and discouraged, when they lift up their voices and wept, when they mutined against David, and spoke of Stoning of him, yet than David encouraged himself in the Lord, there is yet this left, 
1 Sam. 30.8.  how ever we are sore distressed, yet we may encourage ourselves in the Lord, we may inquire of the Lord; Consider therefore (to encourage you to this duty) this leading mercy that God hath vouchsafed unto us, this liberty and opportunity, that God hath given unto us, this price that God hath put into our hands, that the whole kingdom may yet appear before God, and cry unto GOD: my Brethren, this is not a little mercy. In the Prophet Malachy's time, when the state of God's Church and people was as desperate as now, both in respect of sin, and in respect of judgement, 
Mal. 3.16.  they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another; It was a privilege, they might have such free access, such communion, such fellowship together, the times have been, when the people of God have fled into the wilderness, into the deserts, into dens and caves, when they could not meet to fast and pray, without great danger of distraction, of discovering, of presenting, of imprisoning. The last year I heard it often whispered in the ear, and secretly muttered, that the kingdom should prepare to war, and that God should not be called in to the war, that there was no prayer, no fast enjoined, this made some to fear, lest God would join against us; See (my brethren) the King, to whom alone it belongs to proclaim public Fasts, hath in his piety to GOD proclaimed a day of humbling our souls, and of reconciling ourselves to God, this promiseth some good unto us, it is an argument, that we are prisoners of hope, when the enemy doth parley with us: there is some sign of yielding, when there is liberty of parley: God doth never reason with them for whom he hath no mercy; he reasoned with Adam and Eve, he did not with the Serpent. God cannot be angry with the prayers of his people, he is then angry indeed when he forbids his people to pray, when he takes away their hearts from prayer, when he denies them liberty to pray, when they are restrained from prayer, but when GOD calls them to pray, when he commands them to pray, when he stirs up a whole kingdom to pray, when he makes those men, that have prayers in abomination, and the people of God for their praying in abomination also, to countenance prayer, to join with the people of GOD in prayer, to be of one heart with them, O what a glimpse of mercy is this, certainly there is hope, whilst there is but one praying Christian, amongst us, whilst any one that hath a public spirit, whilst Moses prays, the enemy cannot prevail, whilst Luther lived, the Duke of Saxony could not be conquered, yea there is hope, if there were not one praying Christian in the midst of us, if there be any of another kingdom, that pray for us. Abraham, that was a very stranger to Sodom and Gomorrah, prevailed far with God, for them, his prayer saved his nephew Lot, his Wife and daughters: we have a multitude of prayerful Christians, that pray daily for us, that are not amongst us: all the reformed Churches abroad, especially our friends and kindred, that are lately separated from us in Holland, in New England: Yea let me appeal unto yourselves, have not most of you, as Daniel did, in your Chambers fasted and prayed? have you not in your families, have not the men fasted apart, and the women apart? hath there not been private notice given, as Esther to Mordecai, Mordecai to the Jews in Shusan? Yea that which crowns all, is there not now a Proclamation gone forth, through all Countries, to command every one, Church and chapel, to fast? my brethren, a little encourage yourselves in the Lord; The God of Israel is a merciful God, we cannot come with halters about our necks, but he will have mercy on us. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah will not trample upon the yielding pray. The Comforter will comfort whom he hath convinced, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement: Let me speak comfortably unto you then, in the words of Manoa's wife unto him, when he was much afflicted; Surely we shall die (saith he) because we have seen God, No (saith she judges 13.23. 
judge 13.23 ) if the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would now have told us any such.  
Again consider what great things, fasting and praying have done, the prayers of one man, of one family, of one city, of one kingdom, God is the same GOD as ever, the father of mercy, the God of compassion: we are not confirmed, because he changeth not: fasting and prayer have prevailed, why not still? Call to mind the memorable things recorded in the book of God, especially that of Mordecai, and the city of Shushan, of Ezra and his company, look into the book of God, and tell me if you can find one good or bad, that ever fasted and prayed, and God had not respect unto it, Jehosaphat when the Moabites and Ammonites a great host came against them, ready to swallow them up, yet he prevailed; call to mind ecclesiastical History, in Marcus Aurelius time, and Theodosius time, that thundering Legion, when the Christians prayer obtained an admirable victory; That of Luther and the Church, when the devil brought in the covenants, call to mind what you yourselves have obtained by fasting and prayer, I could tell you of some singular things that have fallen within mine own knowledge, wonderful things hath the public fasting-prayers of our Church obtained of God. Nay more to encourage you, look into your own town, when God sent that infectious disease of the small Pox, when scarce there was one house (as in Egypt) wherein there was not one dead, when you fasted and prayed, how soon did the Lord remove that plague, an Army of men cannot stand against a man of prayer, much less against an Army of prayers; Surely (my Brethren) it is the prayers of the Church that hath kept off judgements to this day, we have had many Jonah's sent amongst us, crying, yet forty days and England shall be destroyed: We have had days and months and years, past over our heads, yet no sword, when (saith the scoffing worldling) is the promise of his coming, the prophet's prophecy wind, yea Jonah was angry with himself, what's the matter, God hath threatened so much, and we have felt so little; did Jonah preach a lie in the name of the Lord? No Niniveh repented, and GOD repented, Nineveh fasted and prayed, and God was entreated; They have been the repentings, the fastings, the prayers of the people, that have kept off the sword to this day, God is the same God; his compassions never fail: If we pray, God will hear; See how Solomon consecrated his Temple, he prayed, 
1 Kings 8.44, 45.  that when the people should go out to battle against their enemy, and should pray unto the Lord toward the way of the city, and toward the house which he had built; That then God would hear in Heaven their prayer and their supplication, and judge their cause, the turning towards the Temple was a turning to God, Christ was the Temple; turn to Christ in prayer, and the enemy shall not prevail.  
Secondly, consider (as a further encouragement to pray for peace) the enemies whom we expect will engage us with war, and they are either foreign enemies, of other kingdoms, of other language, of another Religion, or they that are under the same King with us, of the same faith and Religion; Be they Spaniard, or French, or any of the Romish Religion, they are not more our enemies then Gods, and the war is not ours, but Gods, God hath said it, they shall fall before us, and he will avenge the blood they have shed. The Saints under the Altar have a long time cried, how long? the time cannot be far of, but that the Kings of the earth shall gather themselves together, they shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, 
Rev. 17.16  and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire.  
Babylon must fall, Babylon must fall, yet I cannot say, but for a time they may prevail, they may stand, though we in our persons fall, yet this I say confidently, though we should fall, our cause shall stand: And God will raise up them after us that will avenge all the blood shed by them; Hannibal, when he was but nine years old, vowed himself a perpetual enemy to the Empire of Rome; The war of Rome Christian runs Retrograde to the war of Rome ethnic: though they had often the worst in the present battles, yet they were ever conquerors at last; when as Rome Christian, though they sometimes pevaile for the present, yet they shall never conquer, our wars with them, are as the wars with the Children of Israel, when they traveled into the land of Canaan, sometimes they turned their backs before the enemy, but they were sure to conquer at last; Our ship may by storms and Tempests, be beaten and torn, be as the ship in which Christ and his Disciples were tossed and in danger, but 'tis sure at last to arrive safe at the haven: my brethren, God may make the Papists whips and scourges, he may make them as thorns in our eyes, as pricks in our sides, Joshua and Israel may turn their backs before the enemies, the Papists may have their long-waited for day, which may for the present be to us as that day we read of in Joel; 
Joel 2.2.  A day of darkness and of gloominess, as days of clouds and of thick darkness, a day fearful, as our day of doom, as our day of judgement: yet it shall not be our day of doom, nor our day of judgement, the sun shall not go down in a Cloud, when our day is over, their night shall begin, blackness of darkness shall cover them, the sun shall never rise again, they shall have an eternal night, they are greater sinners than we, and when God begins he will make an end, my brethren, we need not over much fear what Atheists and Papists can do; 
isaiah 10.12.  what hell or Rome, what the devil or Spaniard, there may come an hour of temptation, an hour of darkness; Satan may cast some of us into prison, we may have Tribulation ten days, but he that shall come, will come and will not tarry: Our deliverer, our Saviour will raise up a mighty salvation for us; Pharaoh may oppress for a time, but we shall after a while see the Egyptians drowned in the red Sea; They are God's enemies, and we shall see the salvation of the Lord.  
Are they against whom we must fight, under the same King, of the same religion, they cannot but be as desirous of peace as we ourselves, we cannot fight against them as against enemies, nor can they fight against us; The King solemnly protests and declares to the world, be wageth not war against them, his arms are open to embrace them: What ever blood he draws from them, he counts it as blood from his own veins, the kingdom is not forward for war, God is called to umpire the cause, Therefore,  Pray, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 
You have seen the misery of war, the probability of a present war, the possibility of escaping of it, O then pray for peace, which brings me to a use of exhortation further to press this duty upon you.  
First, be seriously affected with it, before you pray, lay the war to your heart, think of it when you rise in the morning, and when you go to bed at night; Let the Trumpet that sounds to this war, be as the Trumpet that sounded in the ear of Saint Jerome, that where ever he went, or what ever he did, he heard the sound of it; It is recorded of Ignatius, that when he was dead, the name of Jesus was found engraven in his heart in letters of Gold; Of Saint Francis, that the marks and prints of Christ crucified were upon his hands and feet. Queen Mary said when she was dead, they should find Calais writ on her heart; And 'tis said when Sardis was lost, that every dinner one cried, Remember they have taken Sardis, have deep thoughts (my Brethren) concerning this war, because of the Divisions of Reuben, there are great thoughts of heart.  
O lay it near to your hearts, sleep with it, wake with it, eat and drink with it, set it ever before your eyes, unless you are truly affected with it, you can never pray effectually for it: Remember the affection of David, 
Psalm. 137.5.  If I forget thee 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; Take to heart what Hezekiah did, when war was threatened, he rent his clothes, he covered himself with Sackcloth; 
Isai. 37.1, 3.  This day is a day of trouble, and of Rebuke and blasphemy, call to remembrance what Uriah did, a soldier, he would not go to his house; nor lie with his wife, nor eat of the King's provision, whilst the ark, and Israel, and Judah dwelled in Tents, Nabuchadnezzar, that heathenish King, 
2 Sam. 11.11.  when he set his heart to deliver Daniel and could not, he returned sad to his palace, he passed away the night fasting he would have no Instrument of music brought before him, his sleep went away from him, he arose early in the morning, and hasted to the den of Lions, 
Dan. 6.18.  O ye Priests of the Lord, remember old Eli, when war was at the gates, his heart trembled, for the ark of GOD, he watched at the door, the lamp did not go out all night, the news that the ark was taken, struck him to the heart, Phinea's wife felt the loss of the ark, more than the travel of her child, certainly (my brethren) they are neither faithful to God their King nor country, that are not affected with this war, that do not pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 
isaiah 22.12.  This day God calls to weeping and mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; They that will not this day fight the battles of the Lord with their prayers, they shall be cursed of the Lord; 
Iudg. 5.23.  Curse ye Meroz, because they came not to help the Lord against the mighty; If the enemy should break in upon us, than you would weep and mourn; cry and howl, a grievous shrike should be heard among you. Then, o my son Isaac! and o my Father Abraham! weep and mourn, that the enemy may not come, do as Jehoshaphat did.  
Secondly, be not afflicted nor affected for a day only, though you begin your sorrow to day, do not end it to day, a woman is not long conceiving, she is long breeding, she is not long bringing forth, she is long training up; Sow the seed of sorrows to day, and watch over it, and water it every day, weep day after day for Jerusalem: 
isaiah 58.5.  Is it such a fast that I have chosen, that a manshould afflict his soul for a day, and to bow down his head, as a bulrush, and to lie down in sackecloath ashes? Wilt thou call this a fasting, or an acceptable day to the LORD? O (my Brethren) Let this day be but the beginning of your sorrows; Let GOD and the whole World see that you are become sorrowful mourners indeed: ESTHER fasted three days, DANIEL three weeks, the people of ISRAEL in their Captivity seventy years, abate while the Pestilence, the war lasteth, somewhat of your pleasures, of your profits, you know what God said of Miriam, 
Numb. 12.14.  if her father had but spit in her face, should she not have been ashamed seven days; If God was never so little Angry with us, we should fast seven days, much more now he hath plagued us with his greatest plagues; Mephibosheth neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the King departed, until he came again in peace; till God and the King return in peace, 
2 Sam. 19.24.  do as Mephibosheth did, set one hour apart every day for prayer, one day more in the week, eat less, drink, less, sleep less, put on your mourning apparel, lay by your feasting, your banqueting, let your laughter be turned into weeping, your joy into mourning, water your Couch with tears.  
Incite, and exhort, and encourage one another to pray. David doth not only pray himself, but he commands others to pray.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 
The word is in the plural number, than they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. The more prayers, the more power: we have at this day a great gale of prayers at our back; Noah Daniel, and Job: The prayers of Noah alone preserved himself and his family, Daniel returned the captivity, Job prevailed for his friends; if these severally could do so much with God, what can they all do joined together? If one favourite can prevail with the King, how can he be denied, when all the Court, when the counsel, when the King's Children, when the Queen joins with him? get what stock of prayers you can, pray yourselves, call in others to pray; Let the Husband pray with the wife, the wife with her maids; The Parent with the Children, let one neighbour provoke another. An Army of men cannot stand against an Army of prayers: One praying town can overcome a fighting kingdom, make your party strong by prayers.  
Fourthly, in this your day of prayer vow reformation to God: if any thing will prevail with God, prayer and reformation will do; Indeed you should have reformed the evil of your ways before this day of prayer; Reformation should go before Humiliation: The King of Nineveh when he sent forth the Proclamation for the fast, he sent it forth for reformation also: the times have been when reformation would not serve the turn; There may so much guilt lie upon a kingdom that no reformation shall privilege the kingdom. 
2 Kings 23.26, 27.   
There can be no preservation without Reformation, though reformation will not always do the work, yet the work can never be done without it; It is the condition that GOD ever requires, that which his servant's covenant for with GOD, that which encourageth them to pray; This ever leaves a possibility, a hope, a may be: Therefore now (saith the Prophet Joel, turn ye to me with all your heart, 
Joel 2.14.  who knows if he will return and repent? break off your sins saith Daniel, by, righteousness it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. Reformation must go along with prayer, 
Dan. 4.27.  Wash you, make you clean, take away the evil of your doings, 
isaiah 1.16.  cease to do evil; reform the abuses, the sins of the place, the drunkenness, the idleness, the whoring, the swearing, reform the sins of your houses, the want of Prayer, of Catechising, your personal sins, your covetousness, your pride, your oppression, break off your sins, God may have mercy.  
Lastly, pray and rest comforted in your prayer, quiet your spirits what you can, fear not their fear, show that you can do what the wicked cannot do, you can Anchor your souls upon God. Admirable was the deportment and carriage of poor afflicted Hannah, when she had poured forth her soul unto God, she went home and did eat, and looked no more sad; 
1 Sam. 1.18.  It was a good resolution of a wicked man, yet a good general in the field. Be of good courage and let us behave ourselves valiantly, for our people and the Cities of our God, and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight, 
1 Chro. 19.13.  Jacob was resolved, after he had used the means; If it must be so, If I am bereaved, I am bereaved. Esther was at a point, go I will, if I perish, I perish, I cannot foretell you of certainty what this day may bring forth; what answer we shall have of our prayers, but I can say this confidently, and promise you in the name of the Lord, they that pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper, either in the public prosperity of Jerusalem, or in their own particular person, or in the prosperity of their posterity. The Children that are not yet borne may bless you for this day. Pray then, O pray, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for the city, for the Church, for the kingdom.   

The second SERMON.  2 Thess. 2.15. 
Therefore (Brethren) stand fast:  
GReat deliverances ought to be celebrated with solemn remembrances, national deliverances with national remembrances. When God delivered the Nation of the Jews from that intended Parisian Massacre, Mordecai proclaimed the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar to be kept holy, that they should make them days of feasting and joy. It is recorded of the Jews, 
Hest 9.20.  that on these days, when they read the book of Esther, as often as mention is made of their enemy and adversary wicked Haman, so often they express their inward indignation by some external angry passion, they stamp with their feet upon the ground, they knock their hands, they threaten with their frown, they thunder with their words.  
This day, this fifth day of November, a day for ever to be remembered by the English Nation, GOD delivered, God immediately and miraculously delivered, our Religion, our King, our Queen, our Prince and Princess, the Senate and council of this Kingdom, the judges, the Knights, the Burgesses, the whole house of Convocation, the monuments of our forefathers, the records of the kingdom, in a word, the whole kingdom, from that diabolical, monstrous, unparalleled gunpowder Treason; This day our High Court of Parliament hath enacted, (and may that Act be as the Act of the Medes and Persians that altars not, may it stand as the sun and moon for ever) that this day should be kept holy, that we celebrate this day with a joyful triumph, with new Cantica Canticorum: with whole new sets of songs, with preaching, with feasting, and sending gifts one unto another, with ringing of bells, with making of bonfires, with sounding Trumpets, with thundering of Ordnances, with all outward expressions of joy: That so God may see our thankfulness, that people from the Pulpit may hear of their deliverance, that children in the streets may understand the salvation of the Lord: that strangers abroad may know the barbarousness of the Plot, the Religion of the Traitors, the blood-thirstiness of Papists; Horret animus, believe me I cannot think on the horror of the Treason, but my spirit is moved within me, my indignation is stirred, as often as the very mention of the name Papist is made, of such Papists that adhere to the Pope of Rome as to their head, Italian, Spanish, jesuited, Gunpowder Papists; I could be angry and sin not, I could stamp, knock, bend my brow, and thunder (were it lawful) I could take up the execration of David, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, and my right hand forget her cunning, when I forget the deliverance of this Day.  
That therefore you may for ever remember, and stand fast to the gospel received, and not be tempted to that damning Religion, I have made choice to speak in the words of the Apostle,  Therefore (Brethren) stand fast. 
IN which words you have a duty enjoined, Stand, fast.  
Secondly, the reason enforcing, in the illative word; Therefore.  
The Apostle, the Doctor of the Gentiles exhorted the believing Thessalonians to stand fast, and the more to move them calls them, Brethren, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a brother, is derived of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, uterus, a womb, brethren being properly, uterus, the fruit of one womb; The Apostle and the Thessalonians were not brethren in nature, but brethren in grace, & sanctior est copula cordium, quam corporum: This compellation carries much affection with it, and imports thus much, that he tendered the believing Thessalonians as his mother's womb, or his own bowels, even as his brethren, therefore he gives them this necessary exhortation in all brotherly love and earnestness,  Stand fast: 
The reasons that enforce it, are employed in this word, Therefore, Therefore? Wherefore? Two Reasons may be gathered from the coherence of these words.  
First, the Apostle tells them, there will be an apostasy, a falling away; Therefore stand fast. Of which apostasy you may read from the third verse to the thirteenth verse.  
Secondly, he remembers them of God's mercy to them in bringing them to the knowledge of the gospel, from the thirteenth verse to the fifteenth;  Therefore (Brethren) stand fast. 
These are the Reasons to enforce this duty, and of these in their order plainly.  

Reas. 1.  And first, Therefore stand fast; because there will be an apostasy, and a falling away; That there will be an apostasy and a falling away, all must, all do confess, our times and the times of our forefathers are sad witnesses of the accomplishment of this Prophecy. The Apostle speaks it in express terms, there must be an apostasy and a falling away first; That this captain Apostate (whom the Apostle v. 3. calls the man of sin, and doth so exactly describe) is the same with the Antichrist of whom Saint John writes in his Epistle, and the false Prophet you read of in the Revelation, for aught I know we have unanimous consent. But who this man of sin is, the Antichrist, the false Prophet, there's the difference; Not to spend much time in the searching out thereof, or in answering to this quaere; The Fathers are not competent judges in this particular: The Papists themselves, those pretended adorers of them, yet in this leave them and refuse them, 
Dan. 12.9.  Daniel tells us that the Prophecy is sealed to the end, Saint Austen saith ingenuously, that concerning this chapter he could not understand the meaning of it; To the Fathers these Prophecies were riddles and dark sayings, yet by that glimmering light they had, the mystery of iniquity beginning in the Apostles time, they could, they did point out the time, the place, and some the person. The Fathers could not tell who this man of sin was; Our adversaries of the Church of Rome will not tell us, they labour to free the Pope from it rather than to fasten it upon any other; And while they labour to build new Babel, Lord how are they confounded! The Rhemists confess that Rome is the place, yea Bellarmine, Ribera, and others say, certainly Rome is the seat; The sun shines clear as at noonday, they can, but will not see; I could muster whole Armies of the reformed Churches, produce a cloud of witnesses, empanel many grand-juries, of our own learned men, that readily will answer to this quaere: the Papacy is this apostasy, the Pope this man of sin, the Antichrist the false Prophet: the time would fail me to bring forth King David and all his worthies, King James, the Bishops, and Professors and learned men of that learned age, all which plainly and freely confess and answer that the Papacy is this apostasy, the Pope this man of sin, the Antichrist, the false Prophet; In this particular I may truly say of that King of scholars, what the servants of King David said, he is worth ten thousand: how plainly hath he published to the whole world, and sent it abroad to the Emperor, to Christian Kings and Princes, wherein he hath declared his opinion concerning this thing, how plainly in his paraphrase upon the Revelation in his meditation upon the twentieth Chapter; in his apology to Kings and Princes; For my part I will walk under the protection of this great King, and follow the steps of those learned men, backed with the authority of the book of Homilies, and take it for granted indeed which cannot reasonably be denied, it may easily be made good that the Papacy is this apostasy, the Pope this man of sin, the Antichrist the false Prophet; Then my exhortation to you, is the same with Paul to his Thessalonians. Therefore (Brethren) stand fast, that you be not entangled and drawn away to Popery. If Saint Paul thought it necessary in his time, when the mystery of iniquity began to work, and the man of sin was not revealed, when the Cockatrice eggs were not hatched, and the Pope had no being in the world, to exhort the believing Thessalonians to stand fast, that they might not be drawn away with that falling away, how necessary is it for us, and at this time seasonable for me to exhort you (beloved) now that the mystery of Iniquity is strongly working and the man of sin clearly revealed now that the Pope is regnant in full power and strength, to exhort you in the words of the Apostle.  Therefore (Brethren) stand fast. 
First, consider if you stand not fast indeed, you may be drawn away to Popery.  
Secondly consider, It's a dangerous thing to be drawn away to Popery.  
First, you may easily be drawn away: The Papacy is an alluring, enticing, tempting, bewitching Religion. Sir Walter Raleigh knew what he said, and he spoke truth when he said it, that were he to choose a Religion for licentious liberty and lasciviousness, he would choose the Popish Religion; No Religion under Heaven so consonant, so congruous, so suitable, so agreeable to corrupted nature, to flesh and blood, as the Religion of the Church of Rome; see I beseech you what the spirit of God faith of it in the seventeenth of the Revelations and the first, and so forth to the sixth verse, you must have patience that I may read the words to you.  
And there came one of the seven Angels which had the seven Vials, and talked with me, saying, come hither I will show unto thee the judgement of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication, & the Inhabiters of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication, so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of Blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls having a golden cup in her handful of Abominations and filthiness of her fornication, and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and the abominations of the Earth, and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus, and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration.  
That by the great whore, that by Babylon here spoken of, Rome is understood, the Romanists themselves do freely confess, the Rhemists do not peremptorily but faintly deny it, they distinguish indeed of Babylon in Rome, and the Church in Rome, they tell us Saint Ambrose, Tertullian, Jerome, these confess it, I could add some more ancient, Bellarmine freely acknowledgeth it; Indeed they say Saint John speaketh of Rome ethnic, not of Rome Christian; Rome under the persecuting Emperor, not of Rome under the Christian Pope: It is enough, they confess that Babylon is Rome, and Rome the seat of Antichrist, and we all know Saint John writes a Prophecy, not a History; he tell us what should be, not what then was, and if Saint John spoke of Rome, it must necessarily follow, that he spoke of Rome as now it is, not of Rome as then it was; of Rome Christian, not Rome ethnic; of Rome under the Pope, not under the Emperor.  
Thus you see Rome is compared to a Whore, to a great whore that sits upon many waters, rules many nations, who made the Kings of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication, that is clothed in Scarlet, Purple, Gold, Silver, precious stones and the like, and now mark how easy a thing it is to be seduced, enticed, bewitched by the Church of Rome, what an alluring, enticing, tempting Religion it is, you see it is compared to a Whore, to a great Whore, to the chiefest of whores, to the mother of Harlots, she hath in her hand a viol of Gould full of abominations; You that are not acquainted with the Arts and Crafts and subtleties of Whores, read what Solomon saith, 
Pro. 7.10.  who was the wisest of men, yet shamefully befooled by them; A thousand women took hold of him, and of them all he professed he found not one good: he spoke much of them because he was much abused by them, and knew much by them, as in other places, so in the seventh of the Proverbs: The Whore there spoken of makes Religion her pretext, uses much art, flattery, and impudence; This great Whore, that bewitcheth the souls of men, she pretends Religion, Saint John saith, She had in her hand a golden Cup, though in that Cup was abundance of abomination, yet the Cup was of Gold. There are in the Church of Rome many singular, excellent, and admirable truths and things which as a golden cup she holds forth; She hath the Scripture, the Sacraments, the Articles of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the ten commandments, many excellent things, whatsoever the Church of Rome holds with the Church of England is pure silver and pure gold: All that she adores besides, is at the best hay and stubble, yea much poison, and abominations, Saint Paul saith, verse the fourth, the man of sin sits in the Temple of God, not in that material Temple, which was at Jerusalem, (a fond conceit of some of the Ancients) The Papists themselves how willing soever they are to embrace any thing that may take it from Rome, yet they themselves refuse it, 
Dan. 9 and the last.  that Temple (Daniel saith) shall never be restored; Christ saith, not one stone shall be left upon another, and History reports, that when they went about to build that Temple again, GOD from heaven by fire destroyed it; But in the Temple of God, that's the man of sin, that sits in the Church of God, the most eminent of all the Churches of God, where God had a great people, and whence God gathered his people; Antichrist though he be an Adversary and the adversary Saint Paul speaks of, the greatest adversary that ever the Church had, yet notwithstanding is no open professed adversary, as the Turk and Jew, but a secret, close, mysterious adversary, that sits in the Temple of God.  
In that Temple, see what beauty and glory to dazzle the eye, and to charm the mind of the beholder; This great Whore is not only arrayed in gold and silver, Scarlet, Purple, and precious stones, as a woman may be, and therefore is called a woman also, but hath the attire of an Harlot, wanton, lascivious attire, a superstitious and Idolatrous dress; look into their Churches and see, not only the beauty and glory of them, as a woman may have, but a superstitious, Idolatrous dress, as their Images, Crucifixes, Altars, Crosses, and burning Tapers, all set forth lively to sight; look into their service and see what pomp and glory and outward state, What rich Robes, what Mucsicke, what singing, what sweet and burning Incense, and the like. The Temple in Jerusalem was not more glorious in outward pomp, more gloriously arrayed, there were not more sacrifices and ceremonies, than there are in the Church of Rome at this day; It was necessary to be so at Jerusalem, God would have it so, the people were a carnal people, mere children in understanding, God led them as a Nurse by the hand, pleased them with carnal objects, with glorious buildings, with multitude of significant Ceremonies, with terrene and earthly delights, God did it to this end, that he might woo and invite them to his service. The Church was then in its Infancy; but now the Church is grown near unto perfection, in it's last age, therefore they are not now necessary, God's people how are a spiritual people; The Church of Rome useth now, what Jerusalem did then, what then God commanded now he forbids, what then he blessed now he curses; To draw them to superstition and Idolatry, both which are ever beautiful and specious, full of pomp and ceremony.  
Secondly, in the Papacy there is nothing hard nor difficult, nothing which a mere carnal man, which a voluptuous person, a very Epicure and Libertine cannot easily digest; All the Religion of the Church of Rome is like the Religion of the Scribes and Pharisees, the true fathers of them, a very outward Religion, an empty Casket, a dead and naked carcase, what is Popery but a painted outside: Their Church prayers they do not understand, their private prayers they measure by weight, their Repentance and confession, it is in some small penance, their faith is the faith of the Church, they live not by their own faith; Their Obedience is to the Pope, not to God; They have their pardons, their indulgences, their Purgatory, their supererogations; and I know not what, no sin that they can commit, but the Pope will pardon, no sin that they would commit, but the Pope can dispense withal, no matter how long they have lived in sin, in any sin, though the sin against the HOLY GHOST; yet extreme unction at the last will salve all: I know they make a great cry, and clamour; and tell us, as the Priests of Baal▪ they cut themselves with Knives and lancers till the blood gush out, they tell us of their frequent fastings, of their often watchings, of their bloody whippings, of their long Pilgrimages, their Rigorous discipline, their voluntary poverty, their simple obedience, their Massacring the body, their lying in the dust, and endangering of their lives, and a great deal more and could answer all these with the first of isaiah: Who hath required these things at your hand, what are these their sacrifices? trifles, nothing in comparison of that great work God doth require: were all these true, real and not feigned, did they the same things indeed which they seem to do, were there no juggling nor no delusion, nor mitigation, nor dispensation, yet all these and more in the extremity and height, were nothing to the crucifying of the flesh with the affections of it, to the mortifying of earthly members, sins as dear as the bodily members, to the killing of the old man, to the breaking of the heart, to the wounding of the soul, to the spiritual observation of the Law, and to the belief in Christ Jesus; what is it for a man to give the first borne of his body for the sin of his soul? to give his goods to the poor, and his body to be burned to save his soul? Yea what is it to lie in their Inquisition, their Purgatory, in hell a thousand years, and to purchase Christ by this? all this were nothing, what the servants of Naaman said, My Father, If the Prophet had commanded thee a greater thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much more, when he saith, Wash and be clean; If the Pope command greater things to purchase Heaven, would they not do it, how much more these small things? There's nothing hard in the Church of Rome, which a mere carnal man, a voluptuous Epicure, a Libertine cannot easily digest.  
Thirdly, in the Papacy there are many Arts, and Crafts, and subtleties and devices to deceive and entice people withal; Saint Paul saith, verse 9 that the man of sin his coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying miracles, and the like; Antichrist hath his hooks, his snares, his begins, his temptations and delusions, suitable to every complexion and condition of man or woman; If he sees any Ambitious, he tempts them, as his father did our Saviour Christ, when he showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, great preferments and dignities there are in the Church of Rome, more preferments and greater than are in the true Church of God: nor are they sparing to promise to give them: Adam's sin cleaves to all Adam's sons, we would be above, this is a pestilent bait, and by this they draw many scholars from us; If they meet with any covetous, they have their silver and golden Balls, the golden wedge and Babylonish garment, they will shower gold into their laps, and by this they draw merchants and Tradesmen from us; If they meet with any credulous and superstitious, they have their signs and wonders and lying miracles. I know no Religion extant in the world, that challenges wonders and miracles but the Religion of the Church of Rome: they object against us, and upbraid us with it, that we have no wonders and miracles, they have, much good may it do them. Antichrist comes in all deceiveableness of unrighteousness with signs and lying wonders to deceive them that perish; If they meet with any fearful by nature, and scrupulous of hell, they have their apparitions and visions, make them hear scriekings and howlings, preach nothing but horror and terror, hell, death and damnation; If they meet with any sick, they excercise their charms and spells, and can and do cast out devils through the power of the devil. If they meet with any constant in Religion, they have their torments, their tortures, their purgatories, their hell, their Inquisition; Satan (saith one) doth not always appear in one and the same fashion, but hath as many several changes, as Proteus among the Poets: At Listra he appears like a comedian, as if a scene of Plautus were to be presented upon the Stage, at Antioch like a Jesuite with traditions in his mouth. At Athens he sallies out like a Philosopher; At Ephesus like an Artificer in his Apron: And as Satan, so the eldest son of Satan, so in the manner, with signs and lying wonders, he hath his profound Plots, his lying and subtle devices, his wiles and stratagems, to deceive them that are steadfast: It's easy to be drawn away, then  Stand fast: 
Lastly, in the Papacy, consider the agents the instruments, Rome's factors, the great Whores panders are crafty to inveigle and betray me to their Religion, they are crafty, subtle, base and impudent. Read how the spirit of God describes them in the ninth of the Revelations and the first verse, and so forward.  
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from Heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit, and there arose the smoke of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the Pit, and there came out of the smoke, Locusts upon the Earth, and unto them was given power, as the Scorpions of the earth have power, and it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads, and to them was commanded that they should not kill them, but that they should be vexed five months, and that their pain should be as the pain that cometh of a Scorpion when he hath stang a man: therefore in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them: and the form of the Locusts was like unto horses prepared to battle, and on their heads were as it were Crowns like unto gold, and their faces were like the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of Lions, and they had Habergeons as the Habergeons of Iron.  
The Papists themselves confess, that there by the star fallen from Heaven is meant the master of some great error and heresy, and by the Locusts that arise out of the earth, the reachers of those heresies, that go about to infect the people of God. The Rhemists say, this star fallen from Heaven is such as Arius, Luther and Calvin was; The Star that shall lead me to the light of this star that is fallen from Heaven, shall be that fixed star now in Heaven, KING James. King's have a special interest in the book of the Revelation; And God hath made them of great use there to bring down the man of sin: Then it may well stand with the wisdom of God to reveal the meaning to them: And of all Kings, I hear of none that hath taken that pains in the Revelation as King James; This star (saith he) is the Pope who was once in the kingdom of Heaven, as a glorious bright star in Heaven above, who had an eminent place in an eminent Church of God; The Locusts that infect the air, are that innumerable multitude and diverse orders of ecclesiastical persons, as friars, monks, Priests, Cardinals, Jesuites, and I know not whom, who bring as much destruction upon all sorts of men, as Locusts to the grass, and tender herb; As Locusts come by swarms, and overspread the whole earth, so these fill the whole earth with their Insinuations; The shape of them is like unto Horses, prepared to battle, to signify that their form of practice and policy shall be so worldly wise, that they shall want nothing pertaining to the setting forth of their intents, no more than a horse of service, which is curiously barbed, fitted and prepared for the fight; They had on their heads, crowns of Gold, they pretend great holiness, none more than that ecclesiastical order, even as the Elders, because of their true holiness, had crowns of Gold, so they, because of their pretended holiness, have crowns of Gold also. They have the faces of men, they come with the faces, and Reasonings of men; sophistical Arguments, subtle Philosophy, which Saint Paul calls vain Philosophy; The hair of women: As the hair of women is a special part of their beauty to deceive men, so they have Arts and Crafts, to draw men to their Religion; They have habergeons of Iron: to show they are backed with authority, and the like. I could go on further, they are many and crafty, full of power, have crowns of Gold, the heads and faces of men, the hair of women, all alluring, tempting, enticing and bewitching: those that in this place are called Locusts, in the sixteenth of the Revelation and the 13. are called frogs: frogs indeed, like those frogs that came into the houses and bedchambers of Pharaoh King of Egypt, and of his servants, and all his people, no place nor person free: they are the sublimate, and the transcendent Instruments of deceit, they come out of the mouth of the Dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false Prophet; The very spirit of the devil, active, powerful, strong and stirring, full of delusion to deceive men.  
Brethren, you see what reason you have to stand fast, that you be not by any drawn back again to Popery.  
Secondly, consider, it's a dangerous thing to be drawn away to Popery. I say, consider the danger that attends all them, that are drawn away. All Papists, in that sense that I speak of Papists, for I do not speak of all that may be Popishly affected, or incline to some Popish opinions, but such Papists as derive their name from Papa, the Pope, that hold him to be the head of the Church, that subscribe to the counsel of Trent, all Italianated, jesuited Papists, they are Traitors to the King under whom they live, heretics, Infidels and Atheists, in continual danger of temporal destruction, and at last sure of eternal damnation.  
First, all sorts of Papists are Traitors to the King under whom they live; Not to prove this by an Induction of particulars from those many Treasons that have been committed in this Land, when was there any Treason, since the beginning of Reformation, or scarce before, but they were the Contrivers, Plotters, Actors, at least the favourers and Abettors of it? Was not Sumervile, Parrey, Babington and his complices Papists? was not Lopez and his Abettors Papists? was not Campion and Parsons Papists? were not the Gunpowder Traitors Papists; was not Catesby, Winter and Persey, was not Digby, rookewood and Tresham, was not that Incarnate devil Guido Fawkes, were they not all Papists? Nor yet to prove them Traitors, because the Law of the Land makes them Traitors, which hath enacted, that all those Priests and Jesuites that come into the Land are Traitors, all that bring Agnus Dei, that maintain the Pope's supremacy above the Kings, and labour to draw obedience from the King, and persuade to Rome, are Traitors. But I will prove it from the principles and maxims of their own Religion, that show necessarily all such Papists must be traitors in that kingdom where they live; All Religions may perhaps have some that are Traitors in it, but no Religion under Heaven (set aside the Religion of the Church of Rome) doth necessitate and compel men to be Traitors; They have a maxim among them, I find it in Bellarmine, that Kings have not their immediate power from God, but from the people, yet so that the people transfer their power into the person of the King, yet keep habitually in themselves, which they may make a principle for traitors: It's said of all that the Pope may excommunicate Kings, and Kings standing so may be deposed, and those that go about to infect the people, the people ought to rise up against them, and that it is not only a lawful, but a necessary and a meritorious work; The English Papists (saith a jesuited English Priest) are well to be excused for not rising against their King, because they want power; had they power to their will, the King should either obey the Pope, or else they would not obey the King.  
Papists are traitors.  
Secondly, Papists are heretics, Infidels and Atheists, not to speak of their innumerable multitude of lesser errors, called venial sins, yet notwithstanding the number of them may help to drown the ship of Rome, nor yet to speak of their grosser tenants, not yet confirmed in the Church of Rome, but disputed in their schools, there are some heretical errors maintained among some, so grossly heretical, that whosoever holds them, must necessarily be an heretic, infidel and Atheist; Such is their Image worship, their Altar worship; their cross worship, their Saint worship, their angel worship, their relic worship and the like, such is justification by works, works of supererogation, but above all, the transcendent heresy, the head of heresies, that the Pope is the head of the Church, above the Scriptures, above Synods, above counsels, that he cannot err, is so heretical, that whosoever holds it in Radice, in fundamento, denies all the Articles of the faith, denies the book of God, and by necessary consequence denies GOD himself: for whosoever they are that build any thing on a false foundation, if the foundation falls, all the building falls with it. Saint Paul tells us, that the man of sin, sits in the Temple of God as God, and exalts himself above all that's called God, above all Kings and Princes, to whom God imparts some part of his power and name, above all Synods and counsels, yea he shows himself as God, for he advances himself above God, he will dispense with the moral Law, bless where GOD doth curse, and curse where God doth bless, no Law, nothing shall bind him, this wicked one, (called so verse the eight, the Greek word signifies properly this lawless one, for so indeed the Pope is a lawless person whom no law of God nor man is able to bind,) he dispenseth with solemn oaths, the surest tye betwixt man and man: that exact and well composed oath of Allegiance, they make it a Samson's Cord; To hold the Pope to be the head of the Church, is more incongruous and improper, more blasphemous and derogatory against Christ, then if a man should make an excellent Image of exquisite and exact form, delineated in all the points to the life, with neck and shoulders, with arms and hands, with thighs and legs, and should place thereon a Gorgon's head of an hideous and monstrous shape. That Image in Daniel was more uniform that had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass legs, of Iron, and feet part of Iron, and part of Clay, then to have the legs and thighs of Gold, and the head of Clay; This is so heretical and damnable, that whosoever holds it must necessarily be a heretic, infidel and Atheist.  
Thirdly, Papists are in continual danger of temporal destruction. The Pope's Parasites, Rome's builders, give the same glorious titles, Attributes and Eulogium, to the City of Rome, that once the Prophets of God did to Jerusalem, calling it the Holy City, the City of the great King, the joy of the whole earth, the Queen of Nations, the everlasting, the eternal city, and yet Rome must down, Babylon shall fall, the spirit of God speaks plain enough, read the whole eighteenth of the Revelations at your leisure, he that reads it may understand, for the Text you see is plain enough, it must down.  
Rome must down by the sword, Popery must down by the word; Rome first, Popery after; Those ten Kings that cleave unto her shall at the last make War against her, Rome shall down, Popery shall lose its strength, though not its being, till the coming of Christ; I will not determine the set time when Rome shall down, I have read the Conjectures of many, yet all agree, the time cannot be long, but Rome must down; At the first coming of our Saviour Christ when there was a general expectation of him, the Jews did not know the particular time, the year, the month, the day, there is at this day in the Church of God a general expectation of some change, though we cannot particularly tell the time, the year, the month the day, it may be the time is now at hand, the Trumpet is sounding to battle; it may be present with ourselves, of uncertain things we can speak but uncertainly, I subscribe to them rather that conceive the year to be one thousand six hundred sixty and six though upon other grounds; 'tis plain, Satan shall be tied up a 1000 years, six hundred sixty six years is the number of the Beast, Antichrist shall so long reign, these two together make the just number, besides look into the Latin Alphabet, the tongue that Rome useth, and the numeral letters make up this number: But this we can certainly say, Rome must down, Rome shall fall, Rome in the Revelation is set down by the name of Sodom, Gomorrah and spiritual Jerusalem, Rome equals their sins, and shall bear their plagues, God calls his people to come out of her, that they be not partakers of her sins, and of her plagues: Rome must fall, and Papists are in continual danger of temporal destruction.  
Lastly, all Papists (in that sense that I say Papists) are sure of eternal damnation, I may not speak peace, where God speaks no Peace: When Jehoram said to Jehu, what peace Jehu? he answered, what peace as long as the witchcrafts and whoredoms of thy mother Jesabell remain? What peace can I speak to Rome, while the spiritual whoredoms and witchcrafts of the Church of Rome remain among them? Saul lost his kingdom for sparing Agag: And God may dam me, for aught I know, if I refuse to damn them. They are but false Prophets Balaam-like, that bless where God doth curse; God preaches damnation to them, I may not preach salvation. In the third verse of this Chapter, Antichrist the man of sin is called the son of perdition, and he is so indeed, both actively and passively: he is damned himself, and is the cause of the damnation of others. The spirit is plain in the 10, 11, and 12. verses, he shall work in them that perish, and for this cause God gave them up to strong delusions to believe lies, that all that receive not the truth in the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness, might be damned: See in the twentieth of the Revelations and the tenth verse, what the end of them is, where all they must go, into the lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone: They that write professedly of this question, whether a Papist can be saved or no, distinguish of times, places and persons, first of times, since the Reformation, and before the Reformation: at those times of ignorance God did connive; Then men would have seen and could not, the Sun did not then shine, our forefathers might be saved in that Ignorance; But God commands every one to seek after knowledge, the Sun shines clear enough, Papists may see and will not, God gives them over to affected ignorance: he that will be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Again they distinguish of places, where the light of the gospel hath shined, and where it hath not shined: in some places the gospel shines very bright and very clear, as in some parts of France and Germany, and (blessed be God) in England; In some places is darkness, they have the word rarely preached to them, God will not be merciful to those Papists where the light of the gospel shines as clear as may be, and yet they remain in darkness.  
Lastly, they distinguish of persons. It's confessed of all, that a learned English Apostate Papist, cannot be saved. God hath preached damnation to them, so must we; Now you see the danger of being Papists, they are Traitors to the King under whom they live, heretics, Infidels, and Atheists, in continual danger of temporal destruction, and at last sure of eternal damnation.  
And you see the first Reason why we should stand fast, because there will be an apostasy, a falling away to Popery, the second follows more briefly.  
Secondly, Therefore stand fast, 
Reas. 2.  because of God's great mercy in bringing the gospel among you, as the Apostle infers this exhortation from the thirteen and fourteen verses, those immediately before the Text. Consider (beloved) what a blessing it is, that God hath brought the gospel into this Land, and miraculously preserved this gospel.  
First, consider what a blessing God hath brought among us, this glorious gospel, the greatest blessing that ever God brought into any nation under heaven. Were the Land as the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah was before its destruction, were it as Eden before the curse, as the Garden of God, as Paradise, were all our merchants as Nobles, our Nobles as Princes, our Princes as Emperors, were Silver and Gold as it was in the days of Solomon, were our houses like Salomon's house, our Churches like his Temple, were the foundations of our Cities, the Gates, the walls, all of pearls and precious stones, as we read of the new Jerusalem, yet (beloved) what were all this, if we had no sun to enlighten us and shine upon us? What good would all this do us? Light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to see the sun, that sweetens all, the want of it embitters all, Deut. 4.7, 8. For what nation is there so great that hath Statutes and judgements so righteous, as this I set before you this day? What Nation is so great as this Nation, that hath such righteous judgements? Mark, the righteousness of GOD to a people makes a Nation great, and God is ever near the people where the gospel is, Righteous judgements and righteous Statutes makes a Nation great, and we have righteous judgements and righteous Statutes, therefore a great Nation.  
See the curse of that people from whom God takes the gospel, and then tell me what a blessing it is to have the gospel; It's necessary (saith the Apostle) that the gospel should be first preached to you: but since you have refused life and salvation; lo henceforth we turn to the Gentiles; Everlasting life and the gospel go together: Salvation is of the Gentiles: Salvation and the gospel go together: the kingdom of GOD shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation that will bring forth better fruits. Mark, the kingdom of GOD and the Gospel go together; and if that kingdom be once taken away, than all the kingdoms of the world, crowns and sceptres heaped together cannot comfort that people. Beloved, God hath brought the gospel among you, the greatest blessing:  Therefore Stand fast: 
Secondly, consider how and when God brought the gospel to us, England was a Land of darkness: popery, Superstition and Idolatry mightily prevailed among us, what nation almost under Heaven more Barbarous, Idolatrous, heathenish, superstitious, than the English Nation: Insomuch that one calls it the Pope's ass, because of those Antichristian taxations and burdens laid on us, and for those many Rebellions, Treasons and seditions, our King was proverbially called the King of devils, yet in the time of the greatest darkness of Popery and Ignorance God brought this gospel, though not as the sun at noon day, yet as the Sun in the morning, that shines more and more to the perfect day.  
Lastly, consider God hath preserved this gospel among us in great peace and in great plenty by weak means.  
I must begin (because the time is past) with that blessed Queen of ever blessed memory, Queen Elizabeth, who though she was of the weaker sex, and daughter to a great King, in the reign of her sister Queen Mary, a poor prisoner shut fast in the Tower, tossed from place to place, in continual danger of her life, attended with bloody disposed men, often destined to death, yet God bound up her soul in the bundle of life, and set her in the Throne, and great things God did by her: through her, Religion was restored to its Primitive purity; she refined the corrupt coin, restored the royal navy, succoured the Scots against the French, the French Protestants against the Papists, and both of them against Spain; she defended Belgium against the whole Armies of Spain, she commanded the whole Ocean, kept continual war with the Beast; The roaring Bulls and damned Treasons that came from Rome, were but as arrows of Reed thrown against a Brazen wall; she brought Spain low, conquered his invincible Armado, escaped thousands of Treasons, after a long and blessed reign died in her bed in peace; She left her Religion and her kingdom in peace, and purity to her successor.  
What Clouds of blood hung in the air, what threatenings and denunciations of war, what dismal days did the Papists prophecy of, when the Oriental star did set in the West; Yet God brought a star from the North, KING James came to the crown, and no dog did open his mouth to bark against it: he continued what she had begun, perfected what she did leave, he newly translated the Bible, a great and glorious work, perfected our Liturgy, gave the greatest blow to the man of sin of all that went before him; GOD preserved his days very long, like S: this day speaks Articulately enough, and with a loud voice concerning his and our preservation, from the Gunpowder-Treason: never treason so bloodily intended; so secretly and closely carried so near to be executed, so damnably undertaken, so admirably defeated, as the Gunpowder Treason; Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy Name be praise, O Lord: Brethren, you see what Reason you have to stand fast: because of the gospel, the greatest blessing, which God hath brought in by weak means, and preserved in great power: This for the Reasons enforcing this duty, I must speak a word of the duty, which that you may do, briefly,  Stand fast: 
First, do not foster nor nourish any secret hid sin, or corruption in your bosom; 
2 Tim. 3.6  It's prophesied of the last times, that they that are led away with error will first be led away with their own lusts, none but such whom God hates (saith Solomon) will God suffer to fall into the hands of a whorish woman, and God hates none but them that love their sin: Let me tell you, one lust nourished in the soul, will bring a man to hell, to the devil; One lust maintained, will bring a man to Rome, to the Pope; It was a good advice that one gives young Christians, that they should begin at the latter end of Saint Paul's Epistles, a corrupt life can never have a sound judgement, beware of nourishing the least sin, beware of covetousness, beware of pride, beware of lukewarmness, beware of every sin. The Pope is called the man of sin in this Chapter, and whosoever allow themselves in any sin, are in danger (being hard put to it) to adhere to the man of sin.  
Secondly, have no converse, no acquaintance, no familiarity, no friendship, have nothing to do with Papists, depart from them, that ye be not partakers in their sins, they are of an infectious nature, and a man cannot touch pitch and not be defiled by it. See what a special charge God gives the people in the 7. of Deuteronomy from the first verse to the sixth; Have nothing to do with the Nations among whom ye come, have no acquaintance, make no league, no covenants, no marriages with them, and there's a moral Reason annexed that concerns us as much as them; for they will turn you away from following me: And there you see what GOD charges them, To cut down their groves, break down their Images and the like; I cannot but commend herein the policy of our Adversaries of the Church of Rome: That will not suffer one Lutheran, nor Calvinist, nor any of the reformed Religion to be within their power, but upon the least suspicion, he must into the Inquisition. What's the reason that the Pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy if a Papist marry a Protestant, and yet here they will dispense with them; I pity those that have Papists lying in their bosoms, those Children that have popish Parents, those servants that have popish Masters, those Tenants that have Popish landlords, those poor neighbours that have great Popish friends, Beloved, stand fast, have nothing to do with Popery in any kind whatsoever.  
Thirdly, read none of their books, trust none of their miracles, believe none of their Legend, preserve none of their relics, keep none of their Images.  
You may see what a strict charge God gives the Nazarites, he forbids them wine, that they should drink nothing that comes of the Vine; 
Num 6.3. & 4.  The best of the Kings of Judah are branded for leaving the groves: in the beginning of Reformation, when the King seized upon the abbeys and Monasteries, it was both policy and wisdom in time not only to seize upon their goods, but to demolish their houses, to ruin their buildings, to lay desolate their places, for Ziim and Ohim, had they continued, those Locusts and frogs would have filled their places again.  
In Italy and Spain there is not one book of Protestant writers suffered among them, they have their Index Expurgatorius to wipe out what ever may savour of true Religion, Nay as a wise and learned Traveller saith, the books of Bellarmine are very rare to be found among them, because he quotes the Arguments of the Protestants in them, learn wisdom from them, have nothing to do with what they have.  
Fourthly, pray mightily to GOD that God will uphold and strengthen you with the right hand of his power, that you may stand fast, CHRIST tells Peter he prayed for him, that his faith might not at all fail; If CHRIST prayed for Peter, Lord what great need have we to pray for ourselves, that our faith may not fail? you may (Beloved) be tempted yet above your strength, there may yet come a time of trial, and an hour of temptation, you have not yet resisted unto blood, yet you have lived in a land of peace and safety, you have not been scared with the barking of uncouth Wolves, Priests and Jesuites have been banished from among us, and long may they be banished, once they were banished from France, thither they returned again, the times may come about so, that they may return to us again; O you that would stand fast, pray, pray mightily to God, Barnabas was drawn away, for aught I know the temptation may be so great, that we may be drawn away; Then do as Jehosaphat did, when that great Army came against him, cry mightily to GOD that you may stand fast.  
Lastly, would you stand fast? Receive the truth in the Love of it. Because they would not receive the truth in the love of it, God gave them up to strong delusions; I say, receive the truth in the love of it. You hear many Sermons, you have the book of God in your hand, much peaching; It is not enough to have the word of God in your heads, but you must have it in your hearts. 
Heb. 11.  We read of the Fathers, that they received the promise afar of, the word is emphatical, they leapt at the promise, received it with great joy; O let the word sink deep into your hearts, be well grounded in Religion: It is better there, then swimming in the brain, many poor ignorant men, by this have kept close to the truth, when many great scholars have proved Apostates, receive the truth in the love of it; Thus much for the duty, have patience for one word of exhortation.  
Must we stand fast to the gospel, 
use of Exhortation.  that we be not drawn away to Popepery? suffer (men and Brethren) a word of Exhortation: You that are Magistrates of the Land, you that are Ministers, yea all the people of God. Among other Reasons, some give this Reason for one; why Samuel went throughout the Land every year in circuit, to see if he could find out any Idols of the Gentiles, that they had hid, or any graven Image or carved work; Our judges in their Courts, and Bishops in their Visitations give in charge, for diligent inquiry, what Recusant Papists, or popishly affected there are; We have singular, excellent, good laws, for the preservation of the purity of Religion, and to keep under Popery; whence then is it (men and brethren) that Popery so far prevails this day, that Popery so much increases among us; I beseech you that are armed with Authority, go to the utmost of your authority, you that have power to punish, punish; to indict, indict; to present, present: let not Papists rest in peace, in safety, in security by you; If the chiefest and greatest men of a Parish be Papists, their children, their servants, their attendants, their Tenants, their poor neighbours, their rich kindred and friends, are all in danger by them. My Lord, will have his followers as well of his vices, as of his person; If he leaves his friend at the church-door, he turns not back without his Attendants: If his honour please to be Idolatrous, they will wait on him to mass; You that keep back the sword from doing justice, when God calls for it, you may yourselves die by the sword of God, and the blood of all that Parish through your neglect, shall lie upon your heads, Crudelitas pro Christo, pietas est; cruelty for Christ is godliness. You to whom the sword of the spirit is committed, draw forth that sword; Lift up your voice like a Trumpet, Cry aloud and spare not; Tell the Papists of their transgressions, and the Church of Rome of her Abominations: Warn the People of God to fly from them, lest they be partakers of their sins, and of their plagues, Exhort them to stand fast, to the gospel already received, discover the nakedness of the one, and show the beauty of the other: The angel of the Church of Ephesus is commended for his labour and patience, and for that he could not bear with them that were evil, but tried them that said, they were Apostles, and were not, and hated the Nicolaitans, which GOD also hates; Let this be our crown and our Glory, that if any perish, they perish not through our default; O let not false shepherds, thieves and wolves be more painful; Let not Jesuits compass Sea and Land, to make one Proselyte, of their own Religion, which when they have done, they make him seavenfold more the child of the devil than themselves; Let them not come with their lives in their hands, with the hazard of their blood, to pervert them committed to our charge, and ourselves sit silent, but let us lift up our voices in season, and out of season: And let them know, there are Prophets among them, and if the people will not be charmed, send them to God with this Inscription on their foreheads; Noluerunt incantari: They will not be charmed; Let us to our power save our own souls and them that hear us.  
Lastly, you the people of God, stand fast, to the gospel, if an angel from Heaven preach any other doctrine, let him be accursed; O search the Scripture throughly: It was the speech of a dying Archbishop of this Province, one of the last that ever he spoke to his chaplain, I have said much, and writ much, and read much, and preached much; Yet in all the book of God, I do not find the least ground for Popery. Saint Paul withstood Peter to his face, and gave him no place, no not for an hour; O withstand Peter of Rome, who can challenge nothing of Peter's, but that title which Christ once gave him, Satan, and that fact, in denying his Master; I say, withstand him to his face and give him not place, no not for an hour. I can never sufficiently admire and wonder at the speech of blessed Luther, who (though he was very earnest to have the Communion administered in both kinds, contrary to the Doctrine and custom of the Church of Rome,) yet he professes, if the Pope (as Pope) commanded him to receive in both kinds, he would but receive in one kind: It's a general rule among the best, that what the Pope commands as Pope, though it be good or indifferent, as to pray, to read, to lift up an eye, a hand, to wear black or white, a lace, a model, to drop a Bead, as the Pope commanding it; It is a receiving the mark of the beast, a yielding ourselves the vassals of Satan, and an implicit denying the faith of Christ; So extremely venomous is the poison that lies at the root of that fundamental heresy, which they have laid at the very rock and foundation of their faith, so dangerous and pernicious it is to harken to the Pope.  
The renowned Martyrs in Queen Mary's days, would show no reverence to the commissioners from the Pope, and let me tell you there are many things in the Church of Rome that may be, that are decent to be used in the Church of God, some things there are at this day in practice in the Church of Rome, that were in use in that Church when it was not Antichristian, in the times of the Primitive Bishops and blessed Martyrs; Some things used, that are not yet commanded by the Pope as Pope: what ever we use with the Church of Rome, we use it, as commanded by another power, not because commanded by the Pope, so that what we do, is to be accounted an Act of obedience, what they do is to be condemned, because commanded by the Pope; be wise as Serpents, Innocent as Doves, rightly distinguish of times, places, and persons, so shall you not endanger your own souls, nor disobey them that are over you, nor scandal them that live with you.  
Lastly, must we stand fast? Let us give thanks to our Lord God, that we stood fast to this day; It is very meet, and our duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to thee, o Lord, holy father, but chiefly for the deliverance of this day, from that unparalleled matchless, damnable Gunpowder Treason. Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and all the glorious company of heaven, we laud and magnify the name of God and say,  
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbath, glory be to God on high.  
O all ye works of the Lord, praise ye the Lord, bless him and magnify him for ever.  
O all ye Angels of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise him and magnify him for ever.  
O all ye Children of men, bless ye the Lord, praise him and magnify him for ever.  
O all ye Priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise him and magnify him for ever.  
O all ye servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise him and magnify him for ever.  
O all ye Kings and Emperors, all people and Princes, all judges, young men and maids, old men and babes, praise ye the name of the Lord, for his name is only excellent, his glory is above the Earth and Heaven, he hath exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his Saints, even the people of England, a people near unto him, praise the Lord; happy are we, who are like unto us? saved by the Lord, the shield of our help, and the sword of our excellency. The eternal God is our Refuge, and underneath him, are the everlasting arms, he hath saved us, and if we trust in him, he will save us, from this time forth and for evermore, blessed be the God of our salvation, and let all the People say, Amen.  
FINIS.   

The third SERMON.  GEN. 49. 5, 6. and 7. verses. 
Simeon and Levi are Brethren, Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul come not thou into their secret, into their assembly mine honour be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will, they digged a wall, cursed be their anger for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.  
THis Chapter contains the last Will and Testament of the Patriarch Jacob, made on his death bed, and it consists of two parts.  
First, the Legacy and portion that he bequeathes to his children.  
Secondly, his care concerning his burial, together with the manner of his death.  
My Text is part of the first part, and contains that part and portion that appertains to Simeon and Levi, wherein be pleased to consider with me two generals.  
First, their sin.  
Secondly, their censure.  
Their sin in the fifth and part of the sixth verses.  
Their censure in part of the sixth and seventh verses.  
Their sin was murder, amplified and aggravated,  
First, by their mutual consent and agreement in sin, Simeon and Levi are brethren. Junius saith on the Text, Jacob doth not call them brethren, because they were so in nature, but because they were brethren in the murder.  
Secondly, their sin is aggravated and amplified, from the manner of their acting and perpetrating it, they did it wilfully, revengefully, in their anger they slew a man, in their self-will they digged a wall.  
Thirdly, from the extension the measure and degree, their anger was fierce, their wrath was cruel.  
Their censure, that also is aggravated,  
First, by the person that adjudgeth them, it was their father.  
Secondly, from the circumstance of time when he did it, when he was on his death bed.  
Thirdly, from the manner how, he did it,  
First, with indignation and detestation, denying any further protection to them; O my soul come not into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united.  
Secondly, with malediction, and execration, cursed be their anger, it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel.  
Lastly, with a prophetical prediction, what should become of them, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel, Of these in their order briefly.  
Revenge is a base and cowardly passion, proceeding from a weak, effeminate abject mind, unworthy the breast of men, much more of men of God: thunder, hail and tempest, and the rest of those fearful motions that we have in the air here below neither trouble nor hurt celestial bodies, anger rests in the bosom of fools; but revenge to kill, argues wicked weakness, and savage cruelty, murdering revenge indeed ends the quarrel, but wounds the reputation: he strikes safely, but villainously and dishonourably that strikes and kills: And this was the sin of Simeon and Levi. The story is well known: if any be ignorant of it, read it at better leisure in Gen. 34.25.  
Their bloody massacre will appear more horrid, if you be pleased to consider with me these aggravating circumstances, some are in the text, the rest in the story. I must make choice of some, I cannot travel through all.  
First, in their anger they slew a man, Thargum Jerusalem reads it, Kings and Rulers, Hamor and Sechem, the chief of them murdered, was the King and Prince of the Country; He that kills a man, strikes at God's Image, he that kills a King strikes at his sovereignty. King's are God's, though not by participation of nature, yet of name and power; They that conspire against Kings, they fight against God; Thou shalt not (saith the God of these Gods) revile the Gods of thy people. God imparts his own name to them, that they might have his own safety. King's are living and breathing Images of God: it is against the Law of nations, against the Law of nature, against the royal Law of God, to kill, to smite, to touch a King, yea to revile him, or in our secret Chambers to think evil against him; The greater was the sin of Simeon and Levi; In their Anger they slew a man, a King; This is the first aggravation.  
Secondly, Innocents are not to be punished with the guilty, 
Ezek. 18.3  As I live (saith God) this Proverb shall be used no more in Israel, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.  

Gen. 18 25  far be it from thee (saith Abraham) to destroy the righteous with the wicked: even heathen Abimelech could plead, 
Gen. 20.4.  wilt thou destroy a Righteous Nation? shall one man sin, and the whole City perish? I have sinned, but these sheep, 
2 Sam. 24.17.  what have they done? If Hamor and Sechem had been worthy of death, what had the rest of the city done? what had their wives, their children, their servants, their horses, their cattle, their oxen done? The Greek, Beza, and many others read it, in the plural number, slew men, and digged down walls, overthrew their house, or (as in the Margin) houghed the Oxen in pieces. This is the second Aggravation.  
Thirdly, there ought to be a proportion betwixt the punishment and the offence: though all sins are mortal, yet all are not equal: we are so far Catholic, that we are not stoical: lesser sins are not to be punished with the great censures of the law, anger in heart is not so evil as Raca in the frown, or fool in the mouth: the person against whom, as well as the person that offends, aggravates the sin; That word which is spoken against a private man will but bear an action, against a Lord of the council is Scandalum magnatum, against the King, Treason, against God, blasphemy: sin and judgement have their Climaxes: simple fornication was not to be punished with death, but with marriage or a Dowry, Sechem was guilty of no more, yet they killed him; This was the third aggravation.  
Fourthly, Ministers of justice ought not rashly to proceed in judgement. God hath proclaimed himself; and would have the Gods of the earth to take notice of it, that he is slow to wrath, ready to forgive; Our Law forbids all men trading in blood to bear the sword of Government, Vespasian sighed and groaned, at just execution: Nero wished he could not write, when he was to sign a condemnation, Queen Elizabeth (next to the holy Scriptures) prefers (as the best piece) Seneca his book of clemency; Our Gracious King (you have often heard it,) proclaimed how backward he is to unsheathe the sword, even as to draw blood from his own veins; If punishment must follow, revenge may not; a member may not be cut off without sighs and tears; softly, deliberately must men execute judgement: the greater was the sin of Simeon and Levi, that in their anger slew a man, and in their self-will digged down a wall, this is the fourth aggravation.  
Fifthly, to do as we would be done unto is the standing Law of God and Emperors, oaths and covenants are to be sacred and inviolably kept: Shall he prosper (saith God) shall he break the covenant and be delivered? 
Ezec. 17.15  Thou Jesus (saith Amurath the great Turk) if thou be a God, as they say thou art, Revenge the treachery of thy servants. Covenants and agreements ought to be most simple and most naked; Hamor and Sechem were at Truce with Israel, at Peace: not only in covenant with them, but in covenant with God, they were proselytes in Religion, they dealt sincerely and truly, the greater was the sin of Simeon and Levi, that dealt treacherously and falsely. This was the fifth Aggravation.  
Lastly, Religion ought to be the surest bond: men that profess Religion, that countenance their doings by Religion, ought (especially to them that are without) to be most Religious, just and exact, that the name of God be not blasphemed, that the holy profession be not evil spoken of. Simeon and Levi were visible members of the Church militant, they themselves professed Religion, and undertook all the Treaty in the way of Religion, the more Irreligious their treachery, and perfidious their cruelty, this is the sixth and last aggravation.  
Collect these all together (my brethren) Their sin was murder, they shed the sacred blood of Kings, they murdered Innocents, they deemed them above their offence, they delight in punishing, they break oaths and covenants, and they did all this under a pretence of Religion; Laborat Annalium fides. After ages would never have believed this, if God's sacred Annals, the History of this book had not recorded it: you have seen the sin of Simeon and Levi, more briefly see their censure.  

The second general.  Cursed be their Anger: sometimes we shall have the holy man David, cursing, not only men's passions, (as Jacob his sons here) but also their persons, but then his curses are Indefinite, or conditional, or prophetical: either he names not the man, or intends it if God intend it so; or his curses are rather predictions, than male-dictions: Non tam vota, quam vaticinia. God appointed six Tribes to curse, as well as six to bless, Moses the meekest man in all the earth was mediator of the condemning Law, Saint Paul that was compounded of affection, yet pronounced the greatest curse in the Book of God; men's persons ought not so to be had in admiration, that their wickedness pass without condemnation: In Courts of justice men's causes (not their persons) should speak. Jacob looks not on his son's cruelty with a father's indulgent lenity, but with a frowning Austerity: whom GOD curses, Jacob will not bless, cursed be their anger.  
This censure will aggravate their sin, if you consider these circumstances.  
First, The parent's curse (saith the wiseman) roots out the foundation of a child: God's curse usually goes along with theirs. Noah cursed Cham, and the Canaanites were cursed of God. Saint Austen tells us of a Mother cursing her ten Children, that immediately from Heaven they were shattered in pieces; Camerarius relates of one cursed by his father, that presently by a miracle he was fastened to the ground, of a second devoured by Serpents, of a third torn by devils; sad and dreadful examples, a fearful document to Parents to take heed how they rashly curse their children, and for children how they provoke their Parents. Parents are not easily moved to curse their children, especially if they be religious parents, men fearing God, and yet Jacob (Simeon and Levi's father, holy Jacob) curses, but it is their anger, not them; their passions, not their persons, cursed be their anger: this is the first aggravation.  
Secondly, the words of dying men, are living oracles, than men speak most affectionately, and their words pierce most deeply. Jacob at this time was on his death bed, his sons crave his blessing, he loves them, but hates their sins; as his soul at first gave no consent, so his tongue now shall give no approbation to it: at first he reproves them, but having more liberty he detests it; He was presently to appear, before God's tribunal, so he calls them to his.  
Thirdly, an honest heart doth not only not act wickedness, but abhors it: Jacob as he was no Counsellor to the offence, so he would be no Patron to the offenders, O my soul come not into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united: Jacob as before he protested against it, so now he disclaims it.  
Fourthly, it's the curse that follows the Jews to this day, to be a scattered people on the face of the earth: division will follow unity in sin: Simeon and Levi brethren in evil, therefore Jacob makes them strangers in dwelling, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel: Simeon had no entire inheritance, Levi no certain. Thus you have seen their sin, and their censure.  
But what's this to us, (Will you say) or what's this to the business of this day; Have patience and this shall give more light, and be more welcome to you, considering that Jacob in thus speaking is our spokesman. Brightman speaking of the seven Churches saith, they were typical of the Churches of the Gentiles, to the coming of Christ. I should be too singular if I did say, this history were typical, and did set forth the tragedy for this day. I will not undertake to give an interpretation, but I will promise, and yourselves shall see an exact application in all the particulars, be pleased therefore once more to have recourse to the words of the Text, and with a little variation of names and time, read it thus, Jesuites and jesuited Papists, are Brethren, Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly mine Honour be not thou united, for in their Anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall, cursed be their Anger for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel. God divide them from the son of our Jacob, and scatter them from our English Israel.  
I will follow the same method that I did before, I will show you the sin of these and their censure, and that, aggravated with the same circumstances as that of Simeon and Levi.  
First than Simeon and Levi in their anger they slew a man, a King; The lives of Kings are sacred, therefore those doctrines, the most remote consequences whereof will maintain killing of Kings are to be abhorred among us. But as for the doctrine of Jesuites, and jesuited Papists, their Tenets and and principles stick point blank to this killing of Kings, and in this, their cruelty is far worse, than that of Simeon and Levi. Simeon and Levi did once kill a King: though, de facto, they did it, yet they did it but once, and their Religion condemned it, and their father Jacob cursed it: But it is the Religion of the Church of Rome, and the constant practice of the Jesuites to do it not only once, but often, yea their Religion maintains it, and in some cases makes it meritorious; yea the Pope their father allows it, countenances and blesses it; you were once taught to say on the service of this day, that their Religion is Rebellion, and their faith faction, it is now altered; And I have reason enough to believe there's sufficient Reason of State for it, though I see none; I hope I shall make it easily appear to you, that the Religion of the Church of Rome maintains killing of Kings. Bellarmine in his Letter to Blackwell the archpriest of England makes this rhetorical flourish, did ever any Pope from the Infancy of the Church at any time command any King (though heathenish) to be killed, or approve the Act, after it was done; Therefore (saith he) why shall the King of England fear that, that never any Christian King in the Christian world did ever, or hath cause to fear? boldly spoken, and as a Cardinal Jesuite: Let Bellarmine answer Bellarmine, and throw blushing in his own face. I have the rather made choice of him, because he is their Coripheus, and few of them (I believe) deny what he affirms, yea I have him to show, if any denies what I say to you, in his fifth book De Roman. Pontific. 7. cap. he saith plainly, Non licet Christianis, &c. It is not lawful for Christians to tolerate a Heathenish, infidel, heretical King, yea (saith he) it pertains to the Pope alone to judge if the King be so or no, he saith also in the same place, if any sheep become a Wolf, any Christian Prince become a heretic, and labours to withdraw his subjects, than the Pope ought to expel them, excommunicate them, drive them away from their kingdom, and discharge their subjects of obedience; And he gives this Reason (and I beseech you mark it) why the Christians in the Primitive times did not thus proceed against Nero, Caligula, Dioclesian, Julian the Apostate, Valerian, and the rest of those monsters (God's plagues to the Church) because they wanted force, So that by the doctrine of Bellarmine, if Christian Kings are once heretics, by the Pope they may be excommunicated, deposed and deprived, and experience shows, it necessarily follows they must be murdered. The same Bellarmine in his fift book sixth chapter speaks out; The Pope may change kingdoms, and take them from one, and give them to another, and gives this Reason, else (saith he) Kings may pervert their people, experience showing, that as the King is, so is the kingdom, Instancing in Jeroboam, Constantine, Constance, Julian, King Henry the eight, King Edward the sixt, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth; All whose kingdoms changed with their Kings; He affirms this to be a Catholic Doctrine, and to prove it, brings in the Verdict, of Twenty Italians, fourteen French, nine Germans, seven English and Scots, nineteen Spaniards, all these prime Authors, yea the Priests and Jesuites the great fomentors of those damnable Treasons against Queen Elizabeth, give up father Bellarmine for their chiefest authority, for their Oracle: you see Bellarmine speaks plain, he saith enough, yet not all, I must tell you, Bellarmine is modest to others that come after him, though he saith somewhat, yet they much more; He maintained indeed against Aquinas, that Kings are not to be murdered, though they are heretics, except they labour to make their people so too, and maintains against others that except the Pope have excommunicated and accursed them, subjects are not to rise against their King. But others, Mariana, and the rest of that black Guard speak out, people are to rise against their King, and though the Pope neglects his duty, they are not to neglect theirs, he advises rather to poison their chair, Incarnate devils! yea the very vow that the Jesuites take will necessarily infer this consequence, therefore it's not the opinion of a few alone, but the whole order must avouch it, I will not say every Jesuite and Papist (de facto) is not loyal and dutiful to their Prince, I will say, all their Loyalty depends on the Pope's pleasure; And what a rotten thread this is to hang so sharp a pointed sword in, over the head of Kings, what loyal heart doth not tremble to think of it? After a solemn profession that they believe the Pope's absolute authority over all, as the Vicar of Christ, they make this vow to do whatsoever the Pope or the general of the order shall command them, immediately without any Tergiversation, disputation, or excuse at all, and to go wheresoever he shall command them, whether to the Turks, Infidels, and Indians, or heretics and schismatics among the Christians; yea they are bound to believe that no error, impiety, injustice can come from the Pope, but that all is Religion, zeal, Devotion, Equity and Truth; My Brethren, do not these men commit themselves soul and body to the Pope, do not they give themselves not to believe their own senses, their own Reason, judgement and understanding; And do they not vow to go, to come, to do, to say, to execute upon all persons, and against all persons, whatsoever he shall command them and if this be true, what hope, what safety, what means of refuge have Christian Kings and Princes but the Pope's pleasure, when these, the slaves of the Pope, (for so the Jesuites call themselves) which care not for their own lives, be masters of the Kings; And yet (saith Bellarmine) was it ever heard, or read, or did the Pope approve the fact after it was done, if the Pope doth not allow of the killing of Kings and Princes, wherefore (I pray you) doth he not set some severe Censure, and with a fearful frown cry down those jesuitical books of Mariana and the rest, that not only approves, but commends King-killing service; Wherefore doth his holiness suffer at Rome even under his nose, those Jesuites that had the chiefest hand in Treasons, to be pictured in books like Martyrs, and superstitious worship by the common people to be done to them: And those two Kings in France (both murdered by Jesuites) why did not his holiness testify to the Christian world his apprehension of so great misfortune, which all Europe had cause to lament, why hath not his holiness made a Law, and a decree against killing of Kings and Princes, whereby they may enjoy more safety; Let not words be credited when deeds speak so loud, King James in his answer to this fla●●ting lie, brings a full jury of witnesses; And Bellarmine himself in his eight Chapter, twelve several examples to prove the lawfulness, that Kings may be deposed by the people. I will keep at home, and only tell you how the Pope proceeded against our King John, Queen Elizabeth, King James: Innocentius the first, he first interdicted the kingdom, excommunicated the King, cursed his person, animated his subjects against him, gave his kingdom to the King of France, at last when the King somewhat relented and submitted to him, he forced him to resign his crown and kingdom to Pandolphus his Legate, who kept it three days, and after gave it him, and made him tributary for his own kingdom.  
That Bull of Pope Clement sent out against Queen Elizabeth is infamously and notoriously known, whereby after much railing and blaspheming of her sacred person, he curses all that adhere unto her; This Bull he sends into England, fastened it on one of Saint Paul's Gates, Sanders in his writings maintained it. Bristol in his Motives, approved it, some of the Nobility and many of the Gentry were said to execute it: From this fountain all those bitter streams of cursed water flowed out, damnable Treasons against her person. But to pass all other, the Treason intended this day, speaks loud enough, occasioned by Popish Religion, attempted by Popish Catholics, encouraged by Popish Doctors, maintained and blessed by the Pope himself; I say, the Pope himself, for when father Garnet desired to know the Pope's Resolution concerning the bloody Tragedy, Catesby presently resolved him; The Pope (saith he) that commanded our endeavours to hinder his coming in, is willing enough we should throw him out.  
I know this Anniversary remembrance of this great deliverance, troubles the hearts of tender Jesuites and Papists, some in Print condemn it, and say that the treason of the Powder Traitors, aught to be buried in the grave of the offenders, and not to be imputed to their Religion, some impudently now begin to deny it, and some with black mouths labour to fasten it on the Puritans, God rebuke them; 'tis no new thing (my brethren) to disavow that which took no effect: But had this damnable Treason been executed, it would not have wanted Patrons highly to have maintained it. When that Parricide killed Henry the third King of France, did not the Pope in full consistory of his Cardinals make a glorious relation of it, comparing the Asacinat to Eleazar and Judeth, forbidding all Masses and dirges to be said for the soul of the King? Is not his picture completely set up in the Jesuites college: over the Altar, with Angels protecting and crowning him? I could at large relate the manner of the Jesuites proceedings, how they raise the spirits, and steel the resolutions of others, whom they set apart to this King-killing service. I am sorry for the Christian Name, that such damnable positions should be published among heathen nations, to the disgrace of Christendom; The apocryphal book of Judeth the Pope receives into the Canon, it may be for this reason, because it commends this Act of Simeon and Levi which Jacob curses: There wants not Jesuits to apologise for, and justify the powder Treason. Saint Paul calls the Pope (for on him I fastened it this day Twelve month) the man of sin, that exalts himself above all that is called God: some there are that exalt his holiness above God himself, but he himself and all that adhere to him, exalt him above all that is called God, above Kings and Emperors. The Pope makes himself good sport with the crowns of Kings, Kings and Emperors are his servants and Vassals, they hold his stirrup, lead his horse, go before him in a kind of procession; The Pope at his pleasure tramples upon their necks, he crownes and uncrownes them with his foot, he makes them wait bare foot at his gate, he excommunicates them, arms their subjects against them, gives their kingdoms to others, discharges their subjects of obedience to them, they poison them at the Sacrament, stab them in their Coaches, murder them in their Courts, they make themselves fat with the blood of Kings. O might those Kings, those ten Kings spoken of in the Revelations 17.16. (amongst whom some there are that name the King of England, and the King of France to be there spoken of,) O may they hate the whore, make her naked and desolate, eat her flesh and burn her with fire! Simeon and Levi killed a KING, that's the first thing.  
Secondly, Simeon and Levi, Massacred Innocents, it's a ruled case among the Jesuites, where the Catholic cause may be advanced, there the murdering of a few Innocents, though hundreds and thousands is not to be stood upon. When Garnet was questioned by Catesby, whether with a safe conscience they might proceed with the Powder project, because in blowing up the Parliament house they should kill some of their own Religion, he quickly replied, such as this was not to be stood upon; And this Eudemon with great earnestness defends, and it hath been the constant practice of the Jesuites, to this day; I must now lead you into Golgotha, a field of dead men's bones, a field very ample and large, as that to which God brought Ezechiel, 
Eze. 37.  I am bold to affirm unto you, that the ten persecutions of the Heathen Emperors of Rome, never put to death so many nor with that cruelty as the power of the Bishop of Rome, Instruments of Cruelty indeed are in their habitations. In their anger they kill men, ruin Cities, Countries, nations full of men; The heathenish persecution was long and bitter, but as for Catholic persecution, it is more tedious, more bitter, more cruel. Pope Theodorus, Bishop of Rome, when the second time he excommunicated Pyrrhus Patriarch of Constantinople, he mixed some of the consecrated Cup with ink, wherewith he wrote the sentence of the curse, a new unusual form of cursing, not heard of before. Something the Jesuites have added to former persecutions to make them more bitter and fierce: this man of sin Saint Paul calls the son of perdition, and so he is, both Active and Passive. Genitives, put for Adjectives, add to their signification, son of perdition, because he destroys most, Saint John calls him Apollyon, a destroyer; He saith they make themselves drunk with the blood of the Saints: To speak of the Murders, Massacres, Treacheries, Cruelties of the Papists, it is so large a field, that entering into it, I know not where to begin, nor where to end. I could (my Brethren) show you a Sea of blood, flowing from the Sea of Rome, like to the Sea Ezechiel speaks of, 
Eze. 47.3.  which was at the first to the ankles, then to the knees, then to the loins deeper, and deeper; If I should raze them by the blood, I should soon tire myself, and your Attention. I spur to relate their horrible cruelties and treacheries, against the Albigenses, and Waldenses, the Cities of Merindoll and Cabriers; The History is in English, and worth your reading, I will not tell you what cruelty they have done in Germany, nor speak of that damnable Massacre in France, I will not be your Pilot to wa●t you unto the Indians, where the Christian Romans have killed more Pagans, then ever pagan's killed Christians; only take notice of one speech, the Duke of Alba said, who confessed in cold blood, that in six years' government of the Netherlands he had put to death of the reformed Christians merely in the cause of Religion, eighteen thousand; in thirty years after the Jesuites rose, I find nine hundred thousand Protestants, murdered in Christendom, in a short time one hundred thousand in France, I could desire to enlarge myself in declaring of the monstrous cruelty of the Inquisition, 'Tis a matchless, intolerable, unsufferable persecution, an invention found in hell, and used still by hellish furies; Give me leave I beseech you, to recite one example of our own fellow subjects, by that judge of the rest. Lithgow a Scot having attained King James his Letters for his commendation, for his safe travel through the world, he passes through the greatest parts of the known world, amongst Turks, Pagans, Infidels, Jews; He traveled through forests, Wildernesses, and deserts, he met with thieves and murderers, Lions, bears, and tigers, yet came off safe: But as he passed through Spain in the city of Maligo, on a sudden he was surprised by nine Sergeants, who fast grappled him about the throat that he could not speak, violently snatched him away, carried him before the governor, who first offered to him (as he called it) that tyrannical oath, to answer to whatsoever they should ask Him, they strip him naked of his clothes, robbed him of his money, put him into a Dungeon without any light at all, with great fetters and shackles on his legs, fed him many days with a little musty bread and cold water, they starved him, wounded him; In ten hours he received seaventy several torments, at last all the Lords Inquisitors commanded him to receive eleven strangling torments at midnight, and to be burnt body and bones to ashes, though they had nothing against him but suspicion of Religion, contrary to the peace then agreed upon, that none should come into the Inquisition: And yet after this, God wonderfully delivered him, he was brought on his bed to our King, wounded and broken, who made this relation to the face of Gundimor the Spanish ambassador.  
My Brethren, if the monster of this day, which was brought to the birth, could the devil have forced it forth; O what massacring, murdering and butchering of Innocents would there have been, besides the Massacre and murder of the day, wherein the King, and Queen, the Prince, the sacred house of Parliament, and all that dwelled thereabouts, had been destroyed: who can conceive the sad and bloody consequences of it; The sword would not only have passed through Westminster, London and the Regions about, but all the Country and kingdom should have felt the fury of it, yea Children unborn should have been smothered with the smoke of it; When the Sicilians Massacred the French, their fury was so great, that they did not only not leave one French man among them, but ripped up all their own women that were with child by the French, that not one drop of French blood might remain among them.  
When that great dissension in Italy, and those factious names of Gibilines' and Guelphs came up, one adhering to the Emperor, the other to the Pope; When the Gibilines called in a third to assist them, promising their goods, they having obtained the victory fell a Rifling of both without distinction, being charged with breach of promise, they replied, yourselves are Gibilines and shall be safe, but your goods are Griffiths'. I make no question but the English Papists that now complain of Salomon's yoke, if ever the French, Spanish or Italian should come victoriously among us (which God forbid) they would find Rehoboam's burden, all their goods should be English, if not they themselves; Archbishop Cranmer, was not he burned though he recanted? My sword (saith the Duke of Parma) knows no difference; In the troublesome reign of King John, when the traitorous and rebellious Nobles called in the French, and joined with them against their King; You may remember what Viscount Melun (troubled in Conscience upon his death bed) told the Lords, affirming it upon his salvation, that jews and sixteen Lords, had taken an oath, that if ever the Crown were set on his head he would condemn to perpetual exile and utterly extirpate all their kindred that adhered to him, as Traitors to their own sovereign; when the proud Spaniards exercised those Tyrannies in the Netherlands, they first pretended the maintenance of the Romish Religion, yet they spared not to deprive very many Catholics and ecclesiastical persons of their Liberties and privileges, and the chiefest that was executed of the Nobility, was that valiant Count Egmund, that most zealously was effected to their Religion, yet most cruelly tormented: examples are infinite, but I hasten to the third aggravation.  
Thirdly, Simeon and Levi punished them above their offence, nothing is more ordinary in the writings of the Jesuites, than this, that heretics can never be enough punished; One complains of that bloody duke of Alva, that he made the Netherlands worse by showing too much mercy, from Spanish mercy, Lord deliver us. Arist. saith; There ought to be a geometrical proportion betwixt the punishment and the offence, lesser offences are not to be punished with the great censures of the Law. Doctor Burges preaching before King James, relates a story of Pollio's Wife, that commanded her Butler to be hanged for breaking of a glass; The Emperor passing by, stayed the execution, and said the sight of the gallows was enough for such an offence, and to prevent the like, commanded all glasses to be broken; its Tyranny, bloody cruelty to punish every sinwith death. When men exercise great censures for small offences; It is (as one said) to kill a fly upon a man's forehead with a great Beetle: The Papists will allow venial sins against God, but all are mortal against their Pope; There's no command of the moral Law, but they can dispense with it, but none of their ceremonial Law, disobedience to Parents, Murders, Treasons, Treachery, Adultery, Incest, Theft, sacrilege, Lying, Perjury, are all pardoned, but nothing against him. Let God say they, look to the breach of his own Law, we will look to ours.  
Austin put to death 1200. Monks of Bangor because they differed something from him in the liturgy and service; It's a sign of a trifling Age, when the fathers of the Church trouble the peace of the Church for trifles, when they excommunicate one another for tithing Mint and cumin; As the Eastern and Western Churches about the keeping of Easter; What great offence did Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, and the Bishop of Caesarea commit, when they laid their hands upon Origen, so highly to offend the Bishop of Alexandria? it argues usually bloody times when easy offences are punished with death. Pope Innocentius in words thundered out against Grosted that good Bishop of Lincoln, because he denied to prefer an Italian Boy commended to him by his holiness, he swore he would hurl him to such confusion, as to make him a fable, a gazing stock and a wonder to the world; But he thundered indeed that cashiered one of his Officers, because he kept not the leg of a peacock, blasphemously saying, God banished Adam out of Paradise for an Apple, and may not I his Vicar for a peacock's leg. To excommunicate Kings and Princes, to interdict kingdoms, to raise motions and commotions, to send out crosadoes against Christians as against Turks, because in every thing they conform not to the Pope, what greater injustice, tyranny and oppression; To raise one kingdom against another, to give one to another, what greater tyranny and cruelty: What had our King and State deserved of the Gunpowder-Traitors that they should reward it with so great cruelty? They were not put to death, as we were in Queen Mary's days: our State had not erected an Inquisition like that of Spain. It hath been the constant attestation of our Princes and States, that not one Papist hath suffered in the cause of Religion; They enjoyed their possessions, their liberties, their titles of honour, they were admitted near to the King's person, had the protection of our laws, no violence was offered to them, English Papists (saith one) are more pontificial than the Spanish or French: That is, more false, treacherous, traitorous, bloody and cruel. So that when the Romish Religion was in place among us, there were more invasions and Rebellions then ever since, that it became proverbial of our King and kingdom, that our King was the King of devils; Now since the purity of the gospel among us, all Rebellions and Commotions have been of the Popish faction, I am sure the conspirators of this day were bloody Papists. One said to Q. Elizabeth, commending Seneca's book of clemency, and saying it had done her much good, yea (saith he) but it hath done your subjects much hurt. You know not what Powder-Treason, may be hatching in Rome, nor what Invincible Armado preparing in Spain, nor what Incarnate devil, and desperately resolved Jesuite, with murder in his heart, may be lurking in some secret corner of the kingdom. I know while the devil is in hell, and the Pope in Rome, and the King of Spain aspiring to be universal King as the Pope universal Bishop, while the Jesuites are suffered in England, and the English are reformed, there will not want Plots to confound us all; O they are active spirits, fiery Gunpowder Traitors: A French Papist made this Apostrophe to Henry the fourth King of France; Great Prince (saith he) Your majesty need not fear the treason of the Jesuites, for you are protected by the particular care and extraordinary favour of GOD, which overshadows you, and makes you redoubtable to all your enemies. But Sir (saith he) what hopes or means of safety or refuge to posterity, when the Rat is in the bag, when the Serpent is in the bosom, the powder in the pistol, Jesuites (saith he) that are sworn servants to the Pope, can never be true subjects to their Prince, they exempt themselves, from obedience, and avouch the same of all clergy men, to make their party the more strong, yet poor Prince, after a little while had the Jesuites knife in his heart. God preserve our King, and he that brought him from Spain to the admiration of many, that he might preserve him a blessing to this age, preserve him from the power and cruelty of Spain: yet as a privy Counsellor spoke of Q. Elizabeth concerning the Papists, he never went to bed but awaked with fear, lest he should hear of her death by Treason, nor never Rose in the morning but expected the same ere night; So we may be sure of this where ever occasion is offered, how ever for the present they may strive to appear good subjects, traitors will be ever traitors, ready to vent their Treason, the least occasion shall be enough to kill Kings and blow up Parliaments; This is the third Aggravation.  
Fourthly, Simeon and Levi, in their anger they slew a man, in their self-will they digged down a wall; Their anger was fierce, their wrath was cruel Salvian asketh, What? so great wickedness in the Christian Religion? that for this cause Parents curse their children, and children their Parents? No anger so fierce, nor rage so cruel, as that against sincere professors, I cannot but admire at the devilish rage of the Church of Rome, against us, they esteem all the reformed Churches no better than Turks, Jews and Infidels, nay worse, for they admit these to dwell in the midst of them.  
Blasphemers, murderers, witches, perjured persons, traitors, they can dispense with, they account us dogs, worthy nothing but racks, torture, torment, worthy cruel death, and beastly burial, they will not allow us a place in their purgatory, but send us to Hell, yea those damned Hypocrites, the Lords Inquisitors (the very Nero's and Caligula's of the Age) say, they show too much lenity to such dogs as we are. Theodosius in his hot Rage caused 7000. of Thessalonica cruelly to be put to death; for which cause Ambrose excommunicated him, and he relenting made this Law, that execution should not soon follow sentence, but thirty days should pass between them; They have not the reason of men, but the rage of Lions, the Venym of Serpents and devils, that are hasty to shed blood. It was a cruel wish of Caligula, that wished all Rome had but one neck, that he might cut it off at one blow, and the King of Spain that wished all the Netherlands a Sea; My brethren, there is no rage, wrath nor malice, like to the wrath of Rome, I cannot enlarge myself in every particular; No piety to God, no justice to Innocents, no pity to their friends, no loyalty to their sovereign, nothing is able to keep them in, Rome's babylonical furnace is seven times hotter, their rage and superstition (like two impetuous torrents,) bear down all respects before them, but that rage is most hellish, which in peace storms and thunders, which brings me to the fift Aggravation.  
The fifth circumstance that aggravated the sin is that they falsified their words, they broke their covenants. The Papists teach that no faith is to be kept with Infidels, heretics, oaths and agreements, aught to be sacred, and kept among all nations, Heathens will not infringe their oaths, when once the name of their God is upon them, for the terror of that God; Therefore the Heathen ambassadors of Rome, chose rather voluntarily to return and be tortured to death then perjured: When one of them equivocated to save his life, the Senate put him to death. But the Rome Christian not only practise, but teach that men may, men must break, and the Pope can dispense with the breaking of the oath. The council of Constance determined this in the case of John Hus and Jerom of Prague, whom they illegally burnt though they had promised safety, saying, no faith was to be kept with heretics. This made the friends of Luther so unwilling to let him go to worms, though his resolution was unalterable, I go (saith he) in the name of God and of Jesus Christ, though as many devils were in Worms as there be tiles on the houses, I would go. And indeed it was the same Jesus Christ preserved him, for Baal's Priests there would have him put to death, and had not the plain opposition of jews Elector Palatine prevailed with the noble disposition of Charles the ninth, they had burnt him also.  
Good God that they that have the faces of men, the Intellect of Angels, the profession of Christians, the Repute of learning, so great a name through the whole world, yet notwithstanding maintain such devilish, atheistical and damnable positions, contrary to all human society, to the shame of Christians, to the ignominy and reproach of Christ Jesus, Saint Paul in the 2 Thessalonians 2. calls him the lawless man, no law can bind him, no covenants, no agreements; When the Cardinals meet to choose a Pope in the Conclave, they make a vow, whosoever is chosen Pope he shall swear to such Articles as they make, And Sleydan saith the Pope is no sooner chosen, but he breaks them all, and checks their insolences, as if they went about to limit his power to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth; The Christian Religion never suffered so great a scandal and loss, as when Julian the Legate dispensed with the oath which Vladislaus made to Amurath the Turk. The cause (saith Sir Walter Raleigh) of the cruel war forty years betwixt the Netherlands and the King of Spain, which cost one hundred Millions of money, and the lives of four hundred thousand of men, is dispensing with the oath the King of Spain took; I'll instance in one to which a second cannot be added, Henry the second, Emperor, and Paschall the Pope, made an agreement, for further testimony of their Reconciliation, and for more security the Pope doth administer the Sacrament with these words; Take this pledge of my true love and our unfeigned reconciliation, let him be divided from Jesus Christ, and have no part in his kingdom who first breaks covenant, yet the very next year with the consent of his Cardinals he broke this oath, when oaths and Covenants are like Samson's cords, not able to bind, what safety can there be in the world? Some Jesuites laugh at the zeal of our King and State, in making the oath of Allegiance, and say it's to bind silly Foxes, and is easily broken, and say the Pope can dispense with the oath, one saith the oath is void, and holds it sin for a Papist, to perform his word to a Protestant, I make no wonder that some Papists take the oath, I wonder that any refuse it, when the Pope can dispense with it, and deal with them as he did with the French King, give him leave to take an oath, and then promised to dispense with the breaking of it; what certainty or security can Kings have, when such damnable tenants are broached in the world, that oaths are not to be kept with heretics, and they are heretics whom the Pope will have so; This is the fifth Aggravation.  
Sixtly, Simeon and Levi coloured their revenge and cruelty, under a cloak and mask of religion: Religion ought not to be a Bond of iniquity, yet under Religion in the Church of Rome all iniquity (especially Rebellions, treasons, Perjury,) justifies itself, They make the cause of Religion to descend to the execrable Acts of the murdering of Princes, Butchering of Innocents, firing of States, no men more pretend and boast of perfection, and the holiness of their meditations, than the Jesuites do, yet this platform is heathenish, tyrannical, and able to set Aretine, Lucian, Machiavelli and the devil himself to school. I want words to express that pestilent project of the Popes, coloured under a pretence of Religion, for the recovery of the holy Land; For two hundred years together they made the flower and chivalry of Christendom to fall by Millions in the foolish Conquest of Jerusalem; They sent Christian Princes far from their own kingdoms, to invest themselves into them: never any Nation so heathenish, and barbarous and devilish, whose Religion maintained Murder, Treason, Treacheries, Perjuries. In every Religion and State have been some such found, but none whose Religion hath maintained them as the Religion of Rome doth. Fawkes had nothing to charge the State withal, but that Religion prompted him to this Treason; When Ravilliac murdered Henry the fourth King of France, being tortured to know his encouragers to it, he sent them to the Sermons made by the Jesuites in Lent. They that read Bellarmine, Suarez, Eudeman, Becanus, Emanuel Say, shall easily perceive their Religion teaches Rebellion, Treason; That Act of Jehu in proclaiming a solemn service to Baal, and then murdering of them, and that of Constantine, commanding all his chief officers to worship the Idol, and then cashiering them, wants more subtle Patrons to maintain it, then either my Religion, or my reason can reach to: Religion needs not to be shrouded under the Cloak of policy. That great Diana of Rome they have lifted up to so high a strain that they equal him to God, and say there is no appeal from him to God, God and he are of one and the same consistory; He can determine against the Law of Nations, against the Law of nature, against the Law of God. Yea that his power and actions are no way to be disputed of; That is the cause of causes, and the just cause of all: O, I am weary of the Blasphemy and cruelty of the Church of Rome, their Blasphemies are so innumerable, their tyranny so execrable, their cruelty so unsupportable, their delusions so heathenish, their perjuries so devilish, that the like was never in any state: Murders, Treacheries, Treasons are there in their proper place, they are no sins in Rome, or at least but venial sins, easily dispensed with by the Pope, rebellions and Treasons, Massacring, and butchering of Innocents, Draco's laws and Spanish inquisitors, insupportable wrath and inveterate rage, perjuries and breaking Covenants, these are the Religion of the Church of Rome; It was once in the English Liturgy (King Henry the eighth put it in, Queen Mary put it out,) That we should pray that our Kingdom should be delivered from sedition, tyranny, and conspiracy of the Pope, we may do it still, (at least in private prayers,) from the treasons, treachery, perjury of the Church of Rome, from the rage, malice and cruelty, from the Religion of the Church of Rome, from Jesuites and jesuited Papists, Good Lord deliver us.  
And thus I have done with the first general, the sin of Jesuites and jesuited Papists; It now only remains to speak of the second, their censure.  
Their censure, shall I smite them (my Brethren?) Jacob you hear would not spare his own sons though in the same house with him, though they ate the same bread, drank of the same Cup, were of the same faith, though what they did, they did it in revenge of the wrong done to their sister, shall we then spare them? No, I must follow Jacob still, O my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united: cursed be their anger for it was cruel, and their wrath for it was fierce: God divide them from the son of our Jacob, and scatter them from our English Israel.  
O my soul, come not into their secret: we must neither with heart nor tongue, affection nor action, neither in word nor deed, no (my Brethren) not so much as in thought nor look, show any countenance to Popish Cruelty, their treasons, murders, perjuries, and the rest of that Heathenish cruelty; It hath been the desire of many, the endeavour of some, to work a reconciliation betwixt the Church of Rome and us, Franciscus de sancta clara, whose book of reconciliation hath been 23. times printed, I have read it, and I will say of it, that the discourse doth more confirm me, that it's impossible to make a reconciliation betwixt them, indeed there may be such a form of confession drawn up in terms that both sides may subscribe to, but then the terms shall be so Ambiguous, that at the next opening of the sore (the skin being but healed over before) the breach will be more deadly; A Botch is never cured as long as the core remains, excrements will grow on a dead body while the humour lasts: Arius presented the Emperor Constantine, with such a form of confession, that when the Orthodox read it, they conceived it for their side, and the Arians for theirs. The quarrel betwixt Rome and us is not like Caesar and Pompey, which should be chief, but like that betwixt Rome and Carthage which should not be: if Rome prevail we shall not stand; and if we prevail, they should not stay long, Bellar. saith plainly, the controversy betwixt them and us is whether the Church of God consist or no, or be shattered in pieces. A learned man of our Church, yet very moderate too, conceives it impossible that ever there should be reconciliation betwixt them. Therefore (saith he) if these reconcilers were the wisest men under heaven and should live to the world's end, they would be brought to their wit's end, before they could accomplish this works end, to make a reconciliation, betwixt Rome and us: you know who printed it long ago, no peace with Rome, that King of Preachers, so called by the King of scholars, said plainly, The Northern and Southern Poles may sooner meet in one, than a Reconciliation betwixt the Church of Rome and us. I could bring in the testimony of many Reverend men of our Clergy: if nothing else, yet, this is enough to free them from being limbs of Antichrist, in regard that a reconciliation is impossible, and if there can be no reconciliation, I trust the reformed Churches will ever scorn to accept a dispensation, and the piety and policy of our Christian state to admit a toleration among us.  
Come out of Babylon, is the voice from Heaven, come out in affection, come out in person, separate far from them, say with Jacob, o my soul, come not into their secret: unto their assembly, mine honour be thou not united; But what? is this enough to abhor future agreement with them, to deny them approbation to their deeds? Jacob goes further, and we must follow him, cursed be their anger for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel; One saith, Babylon's brats, must not be dandled on the lap, but dashed against the Stones: Another, painted Jezabel the whore of Rome, must be thrown out at the windows, to be trodden under foot of horses; Another, Rome is like a Nettle, stings them that handle it softly; A fourth saith, they are like unto bells, never well tuned, till they be well hanged; Only I say, as Jacob saith, Simeon and Levi made themselves stink among the Nations, and one day the Nations will consume them and their house. I would not (my brethren) blow the Trumpet to this war; Let Rome founded in blood, propagate her Religion in blood: I have otherwise learned Christ Jesus, the King of peace.  
I hate the person of no Papist under heaven, I know God hath a great people among them, else he would never say, come out of Babylon, yea Countries, Nations and kingdoms that now adhere to the beast shall hate the Whore; I see Jesuits themselves may be converted, I dare not hate them, nor so love their persons as to spare their wickedness: cursed be their anger for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel: cursed be the Religion that causes rebellion, Treason, murdering of Innocents, treachery, perjury; The worst I will do against them, is to pray, God divide them from the son of Jacob, and scatter them from our English Israel.  
This was the last part of the censure, Jacob poured on his sons, and it was not to be accomplished till they came into the land of Canaan: my brethren, we have a certain prophecy, God will divide them from his Church, but we must wait till we come near the land of Canaan: what ever fair face Rome hath, yet her eyes are sparkling Basilisks: that whore of Babylon, her breath is the breath of Vipers, her voice is as the voice of the Hyena, that cries, as the Crocodile to deceive and destroy us: They are the best that are furthest separate both in affection and person; we must come out of Babylon: would God we could send them into Babylon, Bellarmine tells us out of Theodoret: That the boys of Samosatenea (playing at tennis-ball in the midst of the market) did solemnly cast it into the fire, because it had but touched the foot of the ass whereon Lucius the Heretical Bishop rod; And we read in the Spanish History of the zealously superstitious Biscans, who were busied many days in scraping up the dust, trod upon by the horse, whereupon a certain Bishop rode, that accompanied the Emperor Ferdinando, and threw it (as a thing infected) into the Sea; The Jews once every year burned all the Leaven, that was in their houses, they swept the house clean, and searched every corner, and cursed what was left. Moses saith to the people of Israel, coming into the land, take heed that you make no covenant with the people of the land, no, cut down their groves, and stamp their Images in pieces. Esay and jeremy are very earnest with God's people to come out of Babylon. S. Paul would not have believers to bear the Yoke with unbelievers, nor Saint John, to say good night to an obstinate heretic. Bellarmine saith; The Catholics will not suffer any that seem to favour Lutherans in the least degree, they have their flies and familiars, Priests oaths and Inquisitions to discover good Protestants. O then that our pursuivants, Paritors, churchwardens, Constables, judges, justices, Consistories, High Commission, Courts of justice, that they would discover all these bloody Papists and send them to Rome again. I am no enemy of theirs to wish them where they would be, there they are in soul, I would they were there in body; there they are in Affection, I would they were there in person.  
I have now done with my Text and with the Application also, and yet remains some little of my Sermon behind: you have heard (my Brethren) Simeon and Levi fit parallels of Jesuites and jesuited Papists: as face answers face in a glass, so the cruelty of the one, answers the cruelty of the other; Simeon and Levi in cruelty against Hamor and Shechem & the rest of the city, will be typical for the Tragedy of this day; I see little difference, but now in one thing, in the last thing, in the conclusion of all, (with which I will conclude my Sermon) O they differ altogether; They as their resolution was fierce, so their execution was cruel: they did not only mere and consult, plot, and contrive, and combine themselves in one, but they did accomplish, and finish, and perfect their intention. The last Act was tragical and bloody; But as for ours, God frustrated all their preparations, and that, when it was but late, there was not many sands to run in the glass, not many strokes to strike at the clock, not one Tide to pass the Bridge, it was late last night, that God discovered it, and this morning it should have been executed; The knife was at the throat, the dagger at the breast, the powder in the barrel, the Match burning in the hand, there was the villain ready to give fire: But God delivered us, and they perished in their Treason, and let their memories perish with them.  
But behold the servants of the Lord, the King, the Queen, and that sacred Senate walking loose in the midst of the fire, on whose bodies the fire had no power, their raiment was not changed, nor was the smell or touch of fire upon them at all; o tell it in Gath publish it in the Streets of Ascalon, that the enemies of the English Nation, may be ashamed and confounded at their cruelty; Let Popish Factors, Spanish Merchants blunder out blasphemously and say, GOD is the GOD of England: Tell it to your Children, and to your children's Children; Let the fifth of NOVEMBER be for ever kept holy in the English Nation: O let the heaven's echo out praises to God, let there be all outward signs of joy; Let our Bells ring, to drown the noise of the thundering skies: Let fires flame to darken the light of the sun; Let our Organs and Singers lift up their voices, that it may be heard and echoed by Angels and Saints: Let all that hath a tongue and breath praise the Lord.  
I conclude with Paul, 2 Cor. 1.9, 10. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in GOD which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom also we trust, that he will yet deliver us. *⁎*  
FINIS.