THE MAGISTRATES portraiture Drawn from the WORD, AND Preached in a SERMON at stow-market in Suffolk, upon August, the 20. 1656. before the Election of Parliament-men for the same County.  On Isaiah 1.26. the former part. 
And I will restore thy Judges as at first, and thy Counsellors as at the beginning.  
By WILLIAM Gurnall, M. A. of Eman Coll. now Pastor of the Church of Christ in Lavenham. Suffolk.  
LONDON, Printed for Ralph Smith, at the Bible in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange. 1656.   

THE MAGISTRATES portraiture Drawn from the WORD.  ISAIAH 1.26. the former part. 
And I will restore thy Judges as at first and by counsellors as at the beginning.  
IF we consider the great wickedness of the people, to whom this holy Prophet was sent, we may wonder that God suffered so rare a Jewel, to hang so long on such a disobedient care, as theirs was; that he lent his Prophet so long to a people that made him and his message no more welcome. But again, if we consider how long heaven indulged them, this incomparable mercy, and calculate the long race of his Prophetical course, we have reason to wonder as much, though he found them so bad, that yet he left them no better. Stones wear with long dropping, but these relent not under sixty years preaching, and more of this holy man, (for so long the line of his ministry was stretched) they were wicked enough in Uzziah and Jotham's reign, when he first ascended the stage of prophecy, but by Manasses his time, (in which he died, and that by a violent and bloody death, (as Story tells us) being sawn asunder) they were wicked to some tune. It was now full water at Jerusalem, yea, the whole land becomes sea, covered with idolatry, oppression, and the work of sin, which might have been expected anywhere, rather than among a people so divinely taught. But weeds grow nowhere so rank, as in fat soil; we may know enough of this wretched people, if we read this chapter, which like a true glass, will give us the feature of that people, as it looked in the prophet's time; and I wish with all my soul, we could not see a cast of our own Nations countenance in their face.  
First, they were a people sermon-proof. They had heard away their hearing ear, and 'tis a sad deafness, and hardly cured, which is got in hearing of Sermons; how far they were gone in this we may guess by the Prophets strange Apostrophe, ver. 2. Hear O Heavens, and give ear O earth, for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. Take the words how you will, they speak them a people past council, and instruction; if by Heaven and Earth you will have the Continents of both meant, then by speaking to these is intimated, he had as good speak to the inanimate creatures, as to them. That Preacher surely thinks his people bade indeed, who directs his speech to the seats they sit on, and pillars they lean to, Hear, O ye seats, and harken O ye pillars. If for the inhabitants, Angels and men, who dwell in these, still he reproaches their obstinacy. It shows the Father can work little on his child within doors, when he comes into the open street, and proclaims his rebellion to all the world.  
Secondly, as they were Sermon, so Affliction-proof, they were so mad on their lusts, that rather than not have them, they would swim through their own blood to them; heavy judgements were on them, but no physic wrought kindly on them: God was weary of smiting, but not they of finning; therefore we find him making his moan as a Physician, who hath run through the whole Art of physic to do his Patient good, but finds him grow worse under his hand, and therefore at last speaks of giving him over, ver. 3. Why should ye be stricken any more, the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint? If affliction would do you good, you have had enough of that; I have beat you till I have not left you one sound part, from head to heel, and yet you will run after your lusts, while your blood runs after your heels.  
Thirdly, in a word, they were impudent in their hypocrisy; at the very same time that they acted all their abominations, they kept up a gaudy Pageant of Religion, they spared for no cost in the multitude of their sacrifices, but appeared great zealots in the Temple, which the Prophet, ver. 11. protests against, as the worst part of all their wickedness. Indeed spiritual wickedness carries in it the very spirits of wickedness.  
And all this is not charged upon some petty party, and inconsiderable faction in the Nation, which had not been so much, but the indictment is laid against the whole Nation, ver. 3. Israel doth not know, ver. 4. Ah sinful Nation. The whole head and heart were as sick of sin, as they were of suffering. 'Tis sad when all the house are down together, or those that are well, not enough to look to the sick. There were indeed some gracious ones in that degenerate age, but so few, that their Religion, like a pint of wine in a ton of water, could hardly be tasted amidst such a multitude of ungodly ones.  
Now as it is in the diseases of the body, when a general distemper hath invaded the whole (as in a fever or the like,) there is commonly some one principal part, whose disorder affects all the rest, which a wise Physician bestows his chiefest skill to find out, as most conducing to the cure: so here, the sad distemper which the Jewish Nation lay under, both in regard of sin and misery, is observed by the Prophet in a great measure, to have proceeded from one principal rank, and order of men among them, and that was their Rulers and Magistrates, ver. 22, 23. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water, thy Princes are rebellious. Therefore the Lord levels his threatenings at their breast, in an especial manner, ver. 24. Therefore, saith the Lord, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries. That as they had the greatest hand in the sin, so they should have the deepest draught in the judgement. No sins lie heavier on God's stomach, and make him more heartsick, then theirs who stand in high and public place of Rule and Government. But lest the godly should be discouraged at the calamities denounced against them, (for they could not but know, it would be a sad day with the whole Land, when God should make such an overturning of the great ones in it; the storm of God's vengeance seldom falls so upon Princes and Rulers, but that the people are taken in the shower, and share with them in their sufferings.) To fortify therefore the hearts of these few godly ones, he opens his design of mercy which he had towards them, even in the captivity coming upon them, ver. 25. I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin; where he compares their captivity to a furnace, themselves to silver, the ungodly among them especially (Magistrates that were such) to dross and tin, and himself to the Refiner, and that his design is not to consume, but purge them from this dross that did allay and debase them, and when he had done this (so as that wicked generation were once worn out) than he would provide better for them; faithful Magistrates in the room of the ungodly ones removed, ver. 26. which are the words of the Text, And I will restore thy Judges as at the first, &c.  
So that those words are as a lump of sugar after a bitter draught, given to this poor people, to take away that unpleasing farewell, which the threatening of a captivity might leave on their thoughts.  
Where by the way observe, God's love and tender care over the godly in evil times, when his wrath is in its greatest career against the wicked, even than his thoughts of mercy are full at work in his heart for his people, he is carving a mercy for them out of the same Providence, in which he deals out vengeance to the ungodly; God can blow hot and cold, wrath and mercy to his enemies at the same breath; yea, he contents not himself with this purpose of love to his people, but also he must acquaint them with it, that though they could not be put in present possession of the promise, yet they might be kept in possession of themselves, and by patience be enabled more comfortably to expect the performance of it. No such sweet companion to go with the Saints to a prison, as a Promise. The bed of affliction of itself is hard, now to prevent their tossing and tumbling in it, through anguish of their present sorrow, he lays this soft pillow of the Promise under their head; I will restore. And  
The words are a Promise, wherein observe  
First, the Person promising, I will restore, &c.  
Secondly, the mercy promised, Judge as at the first, and counsellors as at the beginning.  
Thirdly, the time and manner, when and how performed, wrapped up in the word, And; which stands in the front of the Text, pointing to the preceding words, They indeed tell us when and how God will do this for them. I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away thy tin. Then follows the Promise in the Text, which comes in as a consequent of that great National calamity to come upon them in the Babylonish captivity. So that though the birth would be joyous, yet before this Promise could be delivered, many a sad pain and bitter throw should precede. The people of God have usually their hardest labours of their greatest mercies. So have Churches and Nations their greatest Reformations, raised out of their greatest Confusions. Indeed, as a vessel of silver, (to which God compares Judah) that is tempered of much drossy matter, and much battered and cracked, can never be refined and made fashionable, without melting and new casting. So God lets them know, they were grown so corrupt and nought, that they needed a hot and lasting fire to burn up their dross, that their Nation might he cast into a new mould, so new, that the very form of Government was to be changed.  
First, of the Person promising, I will restore; In which observe, how in promising to give Judges and counsellors, he owns this order of Magistracy as lawful, yea, claims it as his Ordinance. Whence note.  
Doct. Magistracy is an Order and Office, which God himself sets up, yea, which he will have up in his Church, when in its best purity, as here he speaks of a time of more Reformation then ordinary. In that time he will restore. Here is Divinity stamped upon the face of it. 'Tis called indeed an Ordinance of man, 1 Pet. 2.13. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, not as if it were man's invention: for all Powers are of God, but because 'tis discharged by men, and intended for man's good. And truly it is so distasteful to the ungodly world, because it lays their lusts in chains, and so torments them before their time, that if God had not been in this bush (so oft on fire) it had been consumed before this. There has been old tugging to pluck this plant up, but being of God's planting, it stands too sure for man's hand to root up.  
We may use the same Argument to prove the Divinity of Magistracy, which sometime we do the Divinity of Scripture, viz. the strange preservation of it in all the revolutions and changes that have come over the head of times, by wars, and the confusions that accompany them. Some have indeed thrown off their governors, but never could a Government, as soon almost as one is off, another is in the saddle; yea, so connatural it is to the principles and notions of man's mind, that a Government is found, where no Scripture is found to teach it.  
Use 1 First, then let us bless God for a Government, as though it should be none of the best. It is a very bad Government indeed, that is worse than none at all. Where there is a Magistracy some may be oppressed and wronged under it, but none can be righted where there is none. If might be right, then right will be wrong, and better poor people should sit under a scratching bramble, then have no hedge at all to shelter them from wind and weather, storms I mean of popular fury. The Persians had a custom, that when their Prince died, some days (five as I remember) of misrule, were indulged the people, in which they might do what they would without control, that by the rapines and outrages, which might well be thought would be committed therein, they might be brought in love the more with the Person and Government of their succeeding Prince. It is a sad way I confess, but a sure one, to know the happiness of a Government, by experimenting the confusion of an Anarchy.  
Use 2 Secondly, what shall we think of those who would take the sword from the Magistrates side, though girded to it by God's own hand? that call Magistracy itself to the bar to show its Commission? This is no new Sect, we find it one Article in the indictment of those seducers, Jude 8. They did despise Dominion, and speak evil of Dignity; Mark, not the persons did so much displease them, as the office itself; and it had been well for the Churches of Christ, if this error had died with the first Broachers of it; some Anabaptists of later times, have declared themselves heirs to this spirit of confusion and disorder; Among other positions of this Sect in Transilvania, published one thousand five hundred sixty and eight, I find this one, openly vouched by them, that 'tis a mark of Antichrist to have in their Church Kings, Princes, and the sword of the Magistrate, which Christ (say they) can no way allow in his Church; And I wish the sea, which runs betwixt that land and ours, had been able to keep this error from setting foot on English ground. But is Magistracy such an uncircumcised thing, that it must be shut out of the pale of the Church? Is it an office fitted and formed for Heathens, and not Christians? Truly, than I should choose to live rather among Heathens than Christians. But how an those read the Scripture and not blush? were the Saints at Rome Heathens or Christians? and doth the Apostle bring any such news to them, doth he see them out of the Magistrates precincts? No, He is the Minister of God to them for good; and he tells them they must needs be subject, (though then the Magistrate was no friend to the Church) and that not only for wrath, to save his skin from man's wrath, but for conscience sake, to save their souls from God, Rom. 13.4, 5. They cannot father their brat upon the Scripture; No, 'tis a misshapen brat conceived in the womb of ignorance, and begot by pride, and it will appear so by the two principles, which are the very seed, of which this error is formed; and they are,  
First, a liberty which they fancy Christ hath given them, to which, subjection under Magistracy (forsooth) is inconsistent; what will not a strong imagination find in the Scripture? even that which was never writ, if it hath but a strong desire it should be so to back it. A liberty that never came into his mind to give a strange liberty that leads to licentiousness, and ends in bondage. True liberty is to choose good, and reject evil, and this Magistracy is erected to defend thee in doing, Rom. 13. Rulers are not a terror to good works.  
Secondly, a perfection that they dream of, which lifts them up so high, that now they need not the ministry of the Magistracy to keep them within bounds. The Magistrate is an avenger (say they) to execute wrath to them that do evil, but Saints, who are led by the Spirit, dare not do thus Well, suppose them so holy as they would seem, yet do they not live among those that are wicked? (I am sure they think and speak bad enough of all besides their own tribe,) and do they not need the Magistrates help, that they may be defended in the exercise of holiness? The Saints do not find the world so kind, as that they should need dismiss their guard, before they get safe to Heaven. But what horrible pride is this, to pretend to such a conduct of the Spirit, as to be privileged from sin? the Apostles that were of as high a form in the spirit's school, I trow, as the best in the Anabaptiss bunch, are willing to be branded themselves for loud liars, if they should pretend to such a perfection. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, 1 John 1.8. But the Churches of Christ have had too much experience of many of the Anabaptiss, to give them their hands to be such great Saints; No, no, 'tis not their perfection that lifts them up above Magistracy, but their lusts that make them not able to bear the Magistrates power. Those Scholars are the first that would burn their Master's rod, who have most need of it. I am sure this sort of men have shown, they need Magistracy as much as others. And some of them, those I mean at Munster in Germany convinced the world, (for all their loud cries against Magistracy at first) that they liked the Magistrates seat well enough, when they could once come to set themselves in it. If God intend mercy for England, this Anti-Magistratical spirit shall not prevail; If we be too good to live under Magistrates, God's Vicegerents, we are too bad to live under God's own care and Government. The Hebrews have a Proverb, Migrandum est ex eo loco, in quo Rex non timetur. We had best make haste from that place where the King is not feared, as if some heavy judgement impended that place where Magistrates are despised; and it were a sin that could not long stay for its guerdion and reward. I am sure those fanatic spirits in Germany found the warrant of vengeance sent from God against them, endorsed with speed.  
Use 3 Thirdly, Is Magistracy an Order of God's erecting? a word then to you (worthy Gentlemen) into whose lap the lot of this day's choice shall fall; Decline not the place for fear or ease. If God gives you a Commission, you need not fear to act; you are but under-Officers, and of all Cowards, he is the worst that dares not follow, when God leads him on. Go in this thy might (saith God to Gideon) have not I sent thee? Judges 6.14. God's Word was his Warrant, and God's Warrant was his Protection. Frederick Duke of Saxony, when he had read Luther's book, put out in Vindication of the divine Authority of Magistracy against the Anabaptiss, lift up his hands to heaven, and blessed God, that he lived to see the place of Magistracy, wherein he stood, so clearly proved from Scripture evidence, to be a place wherein he might with a good conscience act, so as to please God therein. The Magistrates office we see is honourable, because 'tis of God, yet sometimes it goes a-begging, but 'tis a certain sign of calamitous times, when good and worthy Patriots are loath to appear on the stage of Government. Kings, Palaces, and Senate-houses do not use to stand long empty, or are hard to be let, except some evil spirit from the troubles of the times haunt them, and then indeed it is no wonder to hear it said, as in that deplored time of Judah's declining-state, Esay 3.7. I will not be a healer, make me not a Ruler of the people; If the Physician will not take the Patient in hand, 'tis to be feared, he thinks the disease too far gone, and he shall have little credit in the business, if he hap to miscarry under his hand. Indeed State Physicians, though never so faithful, can hardly escape blame, if they do not the cure. The multitude judge the Pilot good or bad, as the voyage he makes, is gainful or losing to the Owners. But I hope you have learned not to judge yourselves by others thoughts, Nemo miser sensu alieno, no man is miserable by what others think of him; If you be not willing to give up your own name to be sacrificed by the multitude, there is little hope of being a Saviour to your country. Christ could not have saved man, if he had stood upon saving his Name among men, he was willing to do them good, though he was thought and spoken all to nought by them for his pains.  
Do your duty, and leave the issue to God; I confess, 'tis a blustering time, but sometime mariners find fair weather at sea, when they launch out in a storm. That God hath the wind in his fist that sends you to sea, and if a storm meet you in your work, Christ can soon be with you in it, and save you from it. God is not more seen in sea tempests, than he is in land-stormes, confusions, I mean, of States and Nations. He that stills the noise of the seas, doth the tumult of the people, Psal. 65.7. They are there, and may well be put together. Well, whatever comes of it, it will be more honourable and safe for you (when called) to be found in Parliament, endeavouring to heal the bleeding wounds of the Nation, though to your private hazard, then saving your own skins whole at home. Is it not sad, that a poor woman in travel should die for want of help, because 'tis midnight when she calls, and her neighbours, loath to break their rests, or come out in the cold to save her life? England is now in travel, and calls you to her labour; take heed that the ghost of your ruined Nation doth not haunt you to your graves, for denying your help. I confess, 'tis like to speed the worse with the poor Land, because of some unhappy disappointments in former Assemblies; 'tis with England, as with a woman that hath oft called her women, but her pains have gone over and nothing to be done, which makes her want help when she hath most need of it; But who knows that now the full time is not come for a birth? God only keeps reckoning for States-deliverances, better go twenty times, when called re infectâ, then thy place once found empty, when the work indeed comes to be done.  
Secondly, as God by this Promise of giving Judges as at the first, and counsellors as at the beginning, owns this order and state of Magistracy, so he lays claim to the disposure of persons that bear this office, I will restore, &c. It implies, that he had a hand in taking away those holy governors which ruled them in the first and better times for their sins; and ordering worse in their rooms, as a plague for those sins; and that now he will fill the Magistrates Seat again with faithful Judges and counsellors like their first. Note hence,  
Doct. That not only the office of Magistracy is of God's erecting, but the persons also in the place of Magistracy, (whether good or bad) are of God's appointing. When the Magistrates place is to be filled, though it be but in a private Corporation, what plotting and siding is there, every one to lift up a head for his own faction? And I wish there were not too much of this crowded into the great Assembly of this day, wherein most (it is to be feared) come rather to serve a party, yea, some particular person with their suffrages, than God and their country; well, plot what you can, Heaven will carry it from you all, you (with all the bustle and pother that is made) are but the fly upon the wheel, 'tis the wheel of Providence, not you, that determines the issue of this day's meeting. Matches are made in heaven between Magistrates and people; when they voted for Christ to die, and Barabbas to live, they did but make up the work, that God had cut out to their hand; choose well or ill, you cannot deny God his casting voice. When the ten tribes made a rent from the house of David, it is said indeed Hosea 84. They have set up Kings, and not by me; they have made Princes, and I knew it not; that is, they asked not God's leave, they were not by him, that is, not by his approbation, Princes that he knew not, that is, not by their acquainting him, they took not God into their council, and if God could have known it no known it no way, else he should have been wholly ignorant of the matter, yet God tells them, he gave them these very Kings and Princes, Hosea 13.11. God's secret Providence had the ordering of the matter, while they please their own lust, they fulfilled God's council wrath, who by their own wicked choice intended to plague them for their former sin.  
Use Are Magistrates good or bad sent of God? see the way how to obtain a good choice this day, that is, by plying hard the throne of grace, if we have faithful Magistrates, they must be of God's sending, I will restore, and no Key like prayer to open God's heart. God rules the world by the lusts of his enemies, and by the prayers of his Saints; he by disappointing the one, and stirring up, as also graciously answering the other, accomplisheth his own ends in the affairs of the word. The Egyptians policies, and Israel's prayers, helped on the ruin of the one and deliverance of the other; when Israel groaned under the bondage of Pharaoh, the Lord hears their cry, and saves them by the hand of Moses, it was worth their groaning to get such a change, a Moses that carried them tenderly on his shoulder, for a Pharaoh the cruelly rid on their backs. Prayer moves the great wheel of the Clock, that sets all the rest a going. Persuade God, and he will persuade man; Jacob was afraid of Esau, and makes God his friend, and God made Esau his friend; He that could give Saul another spirit, and so altered the property of the man, that before he is aware he shall prophesy with the Prophets; he can alter those purposes which men had in their hearts when they came forth this day, and make them Vote for those they little thought on, he can make profane ones cast their suffrages into the lap of those that are godly; and truly if it were not so, I should wonder how a faithful, godly Parliament-man could be chosen in England, where the heap carries it. It hath been a custom in former times among us, for letters to come thick from Court, when Parliaments were to be chosen, to towns and Corporations, which had almost the effect of a Mandamus. To be sure, God can send into the bosoms of men his secret messages, which shall awe their consciences, Gen. 31.29. It is in the power of my hand (said Laban to Jacob,) to do you hurt, but the God of your fathers spoke unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed, &c. Poor man! in his power? when God had tied his hands behind him, yea, sealed up his mouth, that he could not speak a word but what God formed for him: Hath not God thus met some of you on your way, overpowering your hearts against your former thoughts? If he hath not met with you as you come, to bind up your hand from writing for an unworthy person, you may expect to meet him as you go home, sometime or other upon a sadder-errand. Better Cain had met God before he gave the bloody blow, to have stayed his hand from striking it, than afterward to meet him with that dismal Question, O what hast thou done! O it will pierce thy heart like a Dagger, when God shall ask another day, What hast thou done in giving thy voice for such as will help to ruin, not to heal the land? Thou art the Murderer of thy country, and its blood I will require at thy hands. So much of the first Branch, the Person promising; the second follows, the mercy promised, Judges as at the first, and counsellors as at the beginning.  
Three Questions may here be propounded, why Judges and counsellors are here promised, and not Kings and Princes? why the Promise double both Judges and counsellors? And lastly, why Judges as at the first?  
First, Why Judges and counsellors, and not Kings and Princes?  
Because this Promise had a particular respect to a time, when their Government was not to be Monarchical, (viz.) after their return from captivity, when this Promise took place in Nehemiah, Ezra, Zerubbabel, and other faithful Judges, that after them ruled the Jewish State; where I pray observe, Note. That it matters not so much what kind of Government a people live under, as what kind of governors. Let the Government be what it will, if the persons be nought in whose hands it is, all will be nought: The Jews saw happy days under Kingly Government, when the Kings were gracious and wise, and happy under Judges and counsellors, (such as Moses, Joshua, Zerubbabel,) though with less worldly splendour, and they saw as miserable days, under both Kings and Judges, being under the former delivered up into the hand of the Assyrian and Babylonian; and by the factions of the latter betrayed at last into the hand of the Roman power: the sword of Government cuts as the hand is that holds it.  
Quest. Secondly, Why runs the Promise double, both Judges and counsellors?  
Answ. Because these by a Synecdoche comprehend whole Magistracy. Two things concur to complete a Government; wisdom to make wholesome laws, and Advice for the good of the People; and faithfulness with courage to execute these laws; for the first, here are counsellors to advise and form laws; for the second, here are Judges to inform and put life into these laws by execution; counsellors without Judges, are as a head without a hand; Judges without counsellors, a hand without a head.  
Q. Thirdly, But why Judges as at the first?  
A. To imply their present degeneracy from the primitive constitution, when first formed into a commonwealth by Moses, or after in a kingdom by David; where by the way we see, Note. The best constituted Governments are prone in time to degenerate. The nearer the Spring, the clearer the water: the farther the stream runs from its first source, the more muddy it is and troubled. And indeed as of States, so 'tis of Churches, purest at first planting, like Apples, fair and sound when first plucked from the tree, but in time speck and rot; The world we live in is a muggish and rafty air, the best things soonest decay in it: hence it is that God brings such revolutions upon Nations and Churches, one change is productive of another; First, they change in purity, and grow corrupt; Then God changes their peace and prosperity; yea, sometimes of their very form and visible constitution.  
But we shall wave the points those considerations would afford us, and take up one Conclusion, which ariseth from the Subject matter of the Promise in general, and 'tis this.  
Doct. That faithful Magistrates are a choice blessing to a Nation. I will restore Judges as at the first, &c. None of God's gifts are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, giftlesse gifts; it is worth the having what God thinks is worth the promising; yea, when he gives a people faithful governors, he makes account he gives them a mercy not of the least magnitude.  
First, observe on what design God makes this Promise, which speaks it a choice mercy; and that is to quiet and compose their thoughts in the expectation of their captivity hastening upon them, and to make them the more willingly to leave their own land, upon this account, that when they return, they should gain this by all their sufferings, to have Judges as at the first, as if this were a recompense adequate to all their losses and troubles. It must needs be some great thing that a man offers, to make a man willing to have his arm cut off, or endure some great torment. God gives this Promise, to make them patiently bear the calamities which their long captivity will bring with it, and therefore is a great mercy.  
Again, observe how this is promised, not as a single mercy, but as a mercy that hath many in the womb of it; a mercy representative of all the good he had in his thoughts to bestow upon them; he makes choice of this, as the fittest Interpreter of his large heart, as that which might best assure them of his love towards them. I will restore Judges as at the first, it is as much as if he had said, I will restore all manner of blessings into your bosom; Indeed as Magistrates are, so we may expect things will go in a Nation: There is no one place where we may stand at greater advantage to see what God intends for a people (good or evil) then by observing what Rulers and governors, his Providence orders out to them. The very Heathens signified thus much by their custom, who in erecting the statues of their Magistrates by fountains, did imply, that from them issued out the good or evil of a people. Two ways it goes ill or well with a Nation.  
First, when Religion and righteousness stand or fall. Without those, Nations are but forests of wild beasts, where the stronger devour the weaker. As the Magistrate is, so are these lift up or cast down; no sooner here in the text is Religion and righteousness set down in the chair of Government, but we find the influence of it among the people, I will restore thy Judges as at the first, &c. than it follows, Afterward thou shalt be called a City of righteousness, a faithful City. So soon doth the City learn to write, after the Copy which the Court sets her. The Septuagint upon that place, psalm 24.7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, &c. read thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, &c. Lift up the Gates, O ye Princes. The Gate leads the way to the City, and the Magistrate hath the command of the Gate, as he opens or shuts the Gate, so is Religion entertained or shut out of a Nation, in the public Profession of it. Therefore the open idolatry of a Nation is laid by God himself at the Magistrates door, Mich, 1.5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the House of Israel. Now mark the next words, What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? That is, what is the Spring of all this idolatry, and other abominations of these two kingdoms? Is it not the two chief Cities, and Princes Courts kept there? Read Scripture-Story, and you shall find Religion flourished and faded among the Jews, as their Magistrates were good or bad. When Moses by death let fall his leading staff, and there was a godly Joshua to take it up, it yet went well with Religion. When Joshua went off the stage, and there were but any of those faithful Elders left, who shared with him in the Government to hold the helm, Religion was safe, but when they were gathered to their fathers, and none to come into their place, and fill up the breach, than all went to wrack in Church and State, as we find, Judges 2.11. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim.  
Secondly, it goes well or ill with a people, as the outward peace and prosperity fares, and this opens or shuts as the Magistrates are. The Queen of Sheba without a Spirit of Prophecy, was able to see happy days coming on the Jews from the piety and wisdom she observed in their Prince, 2 Chron. 9.8. Because thy God loved Israel to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee King over them to do Judgement and Justice. So the wickedness of the Kings of the ten Tribes, after their rent from the house of David, (for 'tis observed, not a good one is to be found of the whole pack, though some less evil than other) is by the Spirit of God interpreted, to proceed from his displeasure and purposes of wrath, that he had taken up against them, to break and ruin them, Hosea 13.11. I gave thee a King in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Which is spoken (if you observe the place) not of Saul, but of the ten Tribes after their rent from Judah; and not of a particular person, but of the whole succession of Kings from Jeroboam to the last, under whom their captivity found them. God gave them in wrath, that is, such as were sit instruments to be a plague to them, and execute God's wrath upon them; and when he took any of them away, it was to make room for a worse, till by degrees the Nation (as a morsel prepared for a foreign enemy) dropped into the Assyrians mouth, and was devoured by them. The whole Series of the Jewish Chronicle will confirm this, that when God intended mercy to them, he gave them faithful Magistrates; when wrath and judgement, he opened the door for it, by taking them out of the way. Josiah, who came to the throne in all ill time, and found it deep in arrears with God, yea, under an arrest from God, for the abominations of former times, and the people, at present, not much amended, being kept in rather by his royal Sanction, than their own inclination, for 'tis said, he made them stand to the Covenant.  
Which implies, they would soon have fallen to idolatry, and their own ways, had not he shored them up by his authority; yet this holy man's zeal for God and Religion, doing as much as he could, tantâ faecê populi, reprieved them, and was their bail to keep them out of prison, as long as he was above ground; but no sooner his head laid in the dust, and his wicked children in the throne, but God calls for his debt, and would stay no longer.  
use. Are faithful Magistrates such a choice blessing? Then in the fear of God, be serious, and consider the weight of that work, about which from all quarters of this County you are met this day. God forbid, that I should think any of you came with so wicked a mind, as to do this Nation, the place of your Nativity, a mischief; yet let me tell you, that if you did owe a spite to the peace and happiness thereof, I know no way like this, wherein you could pay it to the full, by choosing unfaithful counsellors. David, when he meant to curse God's enemy and his to purpose, one thing he wished him, was, that God would set a wicked man over him, Psal. 109.6. one that would make no conscience to oppress him, and tyrannically lord it over him; yea, God himself puts it among his dreadful curses, Levit. 26.17. I will set my face against you, and those that hate you shall reign over you. I shall lay but four Arguments before you, to persuade you to a conscientious care in your present business.  
First, consider they are great things that you trust them with, whom you choose to sit in the great Senate of the Nation; you trust them with your purse, and I am sure most of you account that something, whatever you think of other things; you will know him well, to whom you will give the Key of your chest, where your money lies. You trust them with your liberties and lives, and those your purses have paid soundly for; yea, with your Religion, without which the other are not worth the taking up. In one word, with all that is dear to you as English men, as Christians, you put that power into their hands, which if they be not the more faithful, they may turn like a cannon upon your own breasts, and so you most truly become felo de se, guilty of your own miseries; and let me tell you, those sorrows have a peculiar bitterness in them above all other, which are not imposed on us, but chosen by us. Better an enemy should come in and turn us by force of arms, out of possession of these, than we send those that shall Vote us out of them, partly because of the little pity we shall deserve, or can reasonably expect from others, when they shall see the rod with which we are whipped was of our own gathering; as also because of the inward guilt which will add a further stinging consideration than all this to our sorrows, and deprive us of those comforts which the conscience of doing our duty would help us to, in the greatest calamities that otherwise could befall us. He that is accessary to the burning down of his house, by the negligence of a drunken person, whom he trusted to watch and keep it, hath more reason to be troubled, than he that hath it consumed by a fire from heaven, or some other inevitable Povidence. O Sirs, there are less matters than these, in which you would be very choice and curious; if you were to choose a Nurse for your child, you would look for one of a healthful constitution and good disposition, you would weigh and taste her milk whether good or no; You are now to choose Nurses for three Nations, so Magistrates are called in Scripture, Nursing Fathers and Mothers; You are to choose these in a time of these Nations languishing, as the only means under God, (so thought by the best Physicians among us,) to recover the consumptive state of this great body; and will you send any to such a place and work, before you know what milk they have given in their private capacities in the country? If you were to choose a Shield, should it be one that would let the arrow come through it, to pierce you to the heart? Magistrates are the Shields of the earth. You value the life of the Nation little, that will put a Shield into its hand you have not well tried; I am sure, David threw away Armour, though it were a Kings, because he had not tried it; in a word, if you were but to choose a Shepherd, or a Herdsman, any should not serve your turn. Pharaoh a King thought it not beneath his care, though in so low a business, Gen. 47.6. If thou knowest any man, saith he to Joseph, of activity amongst thy brethren, make them rulers over my cattle; you are to choose such, as are not to go before beasts, but to lead in and out the Lord's people and flock.  
Secondly, consider your voices and suffrages are not your own, to bestow them where you list, to gratify this friend, or that party withal. No, if you do, you give what is not your own. What Jehoshaphat said to his Judges, I may with a little alteration apply to you that are electors this day, 2 Chron. 19.6. Take heed what you do, for ye choose not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the choice. He is with you to observe who you give your hand for, and why you give it. There is one more that takes hands, than you see. When Bishop Latimer heard a pen going behind the hanging, as he was upon examination before the Queen's council, it made him more watchful what he said; and shall not God's pen, that walks behind the Tent, where thou settest thy hand, make thee conscientious. 'Tis God we have to do with in this matter, he is the Supreme Lord of Nations; all Magistrates are his under-Officers, and hold their place of him, and are to do faithful service for him. Moses, 'tis said, was faithful as a servant, Heb. 3.5. Now, of what dangerous consequence is it for a people, to choose one into an office, that is a traitor to his Prince? This thou dost, when thou settest thy hand for an unfaithful person. Magistrates are said to be taken into God's throne, 2 Chro. 9.8. Now, darest thou set God's enemy in God's throne? what is this, but to set up a Standard against God, and declare to the world thou wouldest shake off his Government. This day the temper of this Nation will be discovered, no way that I know like this to feel how its pulse beats; and for my own part, as this solemn National act shall appear, I cannot look upon it otherwise, then as our owning or disowning God, to be our God, to rule over us; and if the Nation do but vouch God to be their God, by a godly choice, I shall not bury my hopes for our future happiness; God comes in mercy many times before he is sent for; but he departs not to carry away his mercy from a people, till they give him leave to go, yea, drive him away; and oh, how unhappy art thou, O England, if thou mayst still have thy God, and will not?  
Thirdly, consider the solemn Obligation that lies upon us, by a National Covenant, (famous through the Christian world, and we infamous for the breach of it,) to promote, and procure with our utmost endeavours the Reformation of the Land. God hath, I believe, most of your hands to show for this, and darest thou who hast bound thyself in such a Covenant, give thy voice for an unworthy man to sit in Parliament, whom thy conscience, (if thou wouldest have patience to hear it,) will tell thee, he will never be the man that will help on that work with any Vote of his, yea, that is an enemy to it, and fears it more than desires it? if thou hast got the mastery of thy conscience, so far as to do this bold act, let me tell thee what thou dost; thou comest this day to declare in the face of all the country, yea, before God, men, and Angels, that thou art a forsworn wretch; and if thou gettest this brand upon thy forehead once, go where thou wilt, thou draggest a chain after thee, that will bind thee over to the fearful expectation of God's wrath; that (come it sooner or later) will take hold on thee. And now tell me, hadst thou not better have been asleep in thy bed, yea, sick in thy bed, yea, dead in thy grave, then to have come hither to do so unhappy a day's work? Oh, think when thou goest this day to give thy suffrage for any that thou didst see the Covenant with thy hand at it spread before thee; durst thou then venture, to blot out what there thou hast wrote, by a wicked and unworthy choice? Suppose one should put himself under an oath of friendship, to promote the good and welfare of another, to his utmost power, (as Jonathan to David) and this his friend, to whom he is thus engaged, falling sick, should trust him to bring a Physician to him, and he should fetch a murderer to poison him, or an empiric which by his ignorance should kill him (which comes to all one) Oh, how would his oath rot upon his conscience? This thou dost, only with this aggravation, thou dost it to a Nation, he to a private person; before therefore thou subscribest, spend one thought more upon the matter. Consider, thou standest at the greatest advantage of paying thy vows, and performing thy Covenant this day, that thou mayest in all thy life; possibly, before the three years for a Parliament come about, thou mayest be summoned into another world, to give an account, how thou bestowedst thy voice now; or if alive, thou mayest be reserved to see a poor Nation helped to its ruin by thy hand and such as thou art.  
Fourthly, consider the greatest hopes our enemies have is to ruin us by our own counsels: The time hath been, the plot was to blow up our Parliaments, now they labour to blow us up by our Parliaments; to make our Parliaments, I mean, blow us up by their destructive counsels, and a Nation cannot die of a worse death, then to be ruined by their Saviours, and how near we have been undoing by some of them, 'tis so late, I think, I need not help your memories.  
Quest. But you will say, Who is the man fit for our suffrage?  
Answ. A hard Question, who fit for such a place, among such a people, and at such a time, a Question, I hope you have been asking yourselves, and others, wiser than the Preacher, before you came hither; It were impudence for me to undertake a resolution, yet I shall not be too bold, if I lay a few Scripture lines together, which will make up an excellent portraiture of a Parliament-man, though, I fear, we must abate something of the beauty which will appear in the face of it, if we choose any this day. The face is seldom so fair as the picture. I am sure you will find it impossible to meet with any among the sons of men, whose graces are so orient and unsullied, as to answer the Magistrates face, as it is drawn by the Holy Spirits curious pencil in the Word. And therefore your care is to come as near the pattern, as the imperfections of the best among you will permit. You may see on a piece of clay, that hath been pressed with a curious cut seal, its true stamp, though so ragged, as will tell you, 'tis clay, not gold like the seal. So there are some among us (I doubt not) on whom you may find those Magistratical endowments and graces, that are engraved by the Spirit of God on the seal of the Word, yet so as their imperfections will tell us that they are printed upon frail flesh and blood.  
First, inquire for the fear of God in those you choose. This is writ with so large a character in Scripture upon the Magistrates forehead, and is so principal a letter in his Name, that it cannot be well spelled without it, Exod. 18.21. Moses bids them provide such men as fear God; Magistrates are called gods, because none among the sons of men represent his Power and majesty like them; by stamping authority upon a wicked man, what do you but present the beautiful face of God to the world in a broken glass, and give them by his ill-favoured countenance, an occasion of setting up unworthy thoughts of God in their hearts, as if he were like him who is set in his place? Some Kings have commanded, that none should carve this portraiture in any meaner metal than gold; And is it not pity that God's Image should be stamped upon a person of base metal? as every ungodly man is, how much soever his name swells in riches and honours in the world's stile; Antiochus called a vile person, Dan. 11.21. The poorest Saint he persecuted, was a star, and he as vile as dirt, even while he stamped them under his foot of pride. He that puts a wicked man in place willingly, would, if he could, pull a righteous God out of place. We had need look for the fear of God in those we choose into Government, the more because they are so far above the fear of any else, and if they have not the fear of God to keep them right no wonder if they miscarry: When Joseph would persuade his brethren they should have honest dealing with him, see what pawn he gives them, Gen. 42 18 This do, for I fear God. Indeed his power was so great, that if the fear of God had not given law to his conscience, he had them at such advantage, that he might have revenged himself upon them for their unkindness, yea, cruelty to him without laying his own safety to stake at all from man; The governors that went before Nehemiah, wanting this, nothing could keep them from oppression, whereas good Nehemiah himself, had no other cord but this to tie his hands, Nehemiah 5.15. But so did not I, because of the fear of the Lord.  
Secondly, inquire for wisdom and ability of parts, for the work to which you choose them, Exod. 18.21. Provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God; All that fear God are not able men; Every godly man doth not carry a counsellors head on his shoulders; there are some so holy, that in regard of their Prayers and the Power of godliness in their lives▪ may be said to be Saviours, (I am sure the Nation had drowned, had not they helped to hold its chin above water) but if they were called to Parliament-work, they might for want of wisdom and a governing spirit be in danger of proving destroyers of it; and is it not pity, that they who do such service to the public in their private capacities should be called from praying for, to ruining of the Nation? Every good Christian could not make a good Minister: the Apostle speaks of a special gift, besides grace in common with others, that belongs to them, they must be apt to teach. So a senator must be apt to advise and counsel, without this all is insufficient, because he wants that which should enable him to reach the end of his place. A knife, though it hath a sheath of gold, & a haft of diamond, yet if it hath no edge, it is not a good knife, it may be good to sell and make money of, but not to cut. Look therefore for men of wisdom; you will not put a suit to make, no, not a shoe to mend, merely because he is an honest godly man, you desire something of the trade in the man, or else you may be pinched for it, and go uneasy. But, oh you will say, if honest honest men, they will do no hurt, you mean, I suppose, not willingly, for else they may do much; That physic in a dangerous disease, which doth not good, doth hurt, because that might have been given which should have done good. The distempers of the Nation at this time are many, and those complicated, it will employ the skill of a college of as wise State-Physicians as ever sat within those walls to find out a remedy; And I am of his judgement, Si pereundum, inter peritissimos pereamus, if we must die, let it be under the hand of the ablest Physicians, for therein we shall be least accessory to our own ruin.  
Thirdly, inquire whether they be sound in the faith, and that upon a double account.  
First, consider the care of keeping Religion pure in a Nation, is part of the Christian Magistrates charge, and not the least The Kings of Israel were commanded to keep by them the Book of the Law▪ that they might learn to fear the Lord, and keep all the words of this Law, Deut. 17, 18. which was not meant only personally (that was to be the endeavour of every private Israelite) but as a Ruler to see the Law of God kept, and the true Religion there commanded, preserved in their Kingdom. Hence we find those Kings sharply reproved, that did either set up, or connive at idolatry in their reign; and those commended who removed the Monuments of idolatry, and restored the Worship of God to its purity. Thus we find of Hezekiah, the most famous Reformer of them all, a large testimony is given by God to him, for his zeal therein; That he cleaved to the Lord, and kept his Commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And truly, if it were the Magistrates work then, it continues to be so now, except we can find that Christ hath retrenched their power in matters of Religion, which he hath not: the observation is good that Dr. Rivet quotes out of Augustine. If we would resolve the Question, what the Magistrates power is in matters of Religion, we must observe those times rather, when the Magistrate was a member of the Church; as in the Jewish Church he was, than when an open enemy to the Church, as in Christ's and the Apostles time; There is no danger, saith that Reverend author, to allow the Magistrate now as much power, as God then approved of. Well, is Religion the Magistrates care? then for the Lord's sake, and religion's sake, choose not such as are corrupt and rotten in their principles, except you have a mind to diffuse the infection presently over the whole Land. The plague of this spiritual leprosy is spreading too fast already in the body of the Nations. God keep it from among our Rulers, if it takes the head once, we may then pronounce the whole Land unclean.  
Secondly, consider at what door our ruin is like to come in upon us. Truly, it is easier to foretell this, than it is to shut it. They say of the hectic fever, at first 'tis easily cured, but hardly known; afterward easily known, but hardly cured. The evils which now threaten us most, might with more facility have been at first prevented, could they have been as easily known; but now, Alas! they have got that strength, that though they are easily known, yet hardly cured. Many of those errors, which at first appeared innocent things, grow now more formidable, because they come to their complexion, and we see what they are like to resolve into, and that truly is no less than Popery itself, which the Merchants of Rome have these late years brought over from thence by wholesale, and parceled it out to the several Sects, Anabaptists, Seekers, Quakers, &c. in the Nation, as their petty Chapmen, to retail it for them, and put off some one point, and some another, as their trade lies here and there in the Land; so that as it is observed of those diseases, Pox, Purples and Malignant fevers, when they abound, 'tis a sign the plague is not far off, their malignity being soon heightened unto the Pestilence: so 'tis to be feared, these errors are forerunners of Popery, in which they will end, except some help come timely from the Magistrate, to spoil the Pope's Market among us.  
Fourthly, look for men of courage and resolution. Men of low spirits are borne to serve, not to rule. It is well if they will follow, never expect they will lead on in a time of danger; there are some may be blown like glasses, into any shape, with the flattering or threatening breath of others. A coward cannot be a good Christian; much less a good Magistrate, such a one will be won with a nut, and lost with an apple. Solomon's throne of ivory was supported by Lions; innocence and integrity cannot be preserved in magistracy without courage. It was base fear made Pilate cruel to Christ, to save his sorry stake that he had in Caesar's hand. The man had no mind to shed innocent blood, therefore sought how he might release him, but when he heard the Jews cry out, If thou lettest this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend, the very wind of this bullet killed the man's heart, and makes him steer a clean contrary course, John 19.12, 13. When Pilate therefore heard that saying (that now quoted) he brought Jesus forth and sat in the judgement seat, and basely proceeded to an unrighteous sentence against his conscience. Magistrates are great blessings (saith one) modo audeant, quae sentiunt; if they dare do their conscience. Choose men that dare be righteous, only I wish we were wise to distinguish betwixt an humble boldness in a good cause, and a proud stoutness in any cause, be it wright or wrong. That courage is of the right metal, which like steel, will bend, but not like lead, stand bent; some men if they be once engaged, will basely be bent and bowed into partiality.  
Fifthly, find out men that will make it their business to attend on the public affairs of the Nation. It is said of Job, 
Job. 29.14.  he put on Righteousness, and it clothed him, he could as easily forget to put on his clothes in a morning, when he arose, as to do his work as a Magistrate. It were a sad thing that we should pitch upon any, who when they are chose, should sleep out their time in the Country, or feast and juncket it away in the City, not caring whether the Nation sink or swim. Nonresidence is as bad in a Mgistrate, as in a Minister, they are God's Ministers, as well as Preachers; so saith Paul, Rom. 13.6. For they are God's Ministers attending continually upon this very thing. O, then 'tis well, when the Magistrate attends to it, doth, hoc agere; where should the tradesman be but in his shop? and where a Parliament-man, but where his work lies in the house; they are not worthy of the honour, that are weary of the labour, which goes with the Office. Why doth the head wear the crown, and hath the honour of the whole man put upon it, but because it is lean with taking care for the whole body? The faithful Magistrate is said to bear the burden of the people; 
Ex. 18.22.  away with those that will shift all the burden off their own, unto other shoulders, that like to be carried upon the people's shoulders on an Election-day, and to hear themselves cried up with the applause of the country, but do not like to carry the burden of their country's affairs, either in their head, or heart, that have no ears to hear the cry of the oppressed, when they come to them for relief.  
Sixthly, men of Healing spirits; that will make it their study, to make up the breaches that are among us, and not make them wider; though the war be done, and sword put up, yet the minds of men are not come to their right temper; the fever is hardly quenched in men's spirits, which must be, before all is well; as long as those embers are kept burning in the bosom, there is danger of breaking out into a flame. Suppose a man be shot with a bullet, he may be cured of his wound, yet die of a fever his wound put him into: If you can find any that have more compassion towards this divided Nation than others, especially whose bowels work more tenderly over God's people in the Land, and their unbrotherly contentions, who are for expedients, how to compromise those differences, those are the men fit for such a time as this; He is the chirurgeon, that hath not only a lion's heart, but a Lady's hand, to dress the wounds of the Nation gently. We are like a man that hath lain long, and grown so weak, that the same strong physic which might have cured him at first, when nature was in heart, would now kill him out of hand.  
Seventhly, men of interest in your country, by place and estate. I pray, take me, as I mean; I desire not you should choose by this single character, but take it in conjunction with the rest; to choose merely for estate, is too like the Israelites folly, who set up a golden calf in Moses room. But let not parts and grace, receive any prejudice through envy, because they are inamelled with riches, and dwell in a great house. It is noted as a sign of a declining State, when the money, and coin of a Nation is embased, or less than was wont; when the metal is not so pure, nor the piece so weighty, when for gold, and silver, there is brass, leaden, or leathern, as sometime it hath been. The Spirit of God compates Magistrates to one of the purest of metals, as silver; And surely, it shows a people are going down the hill of honour, when the places of Magistracy that use to be filled with the chief heads of the Country, come to be of the ignoble floor; indeed, when either Magistrate or Minister are of the lowest of the people, to use the Scripture phrase; that Church and State, their day is in the afternoon; and thanks be to God, there is not such a dearth of Gentry, but some may be found, able to do God, and their Country service.  
Lastly, let your eye be on such as are faithful to the Ministers, and ministry of the Gospel; I confess, I was under a temptation to have drowned this in silence, knowing with what disadvantage I shall speak on this subject; many will think me but selvish in this, and only too kind to my own Tribe; but to know that, you must be content to wait for the great day, when the world shall know, why I speak for, and others against the ministry; I am not therefore afraid or ashamed again to press this. Inquire for men that are faithful friends to the ministry. It hath been resolved long since in the Pope's Conclave, that the surest and speediest way to cheat England of her Religion, and Gospel, is to divide the people from their Ministers, and that they hold still of the same mind; we see by their rigorous endeavour, to pursue this one thing, as if they had laid aside all other plots, and shipped their whole adventure in this one bottom; hence so many bitter invectives printed against the faithful Ministers of Christ, their Persons, and Office; and railing Rabshekahs's sent about the Land, who whatever their text is, to be sure make this their Sermon, to throw dirt upon the Ministers face; to turn the hearts of the children from their spiritual Fathers, by rendering them as base and filthy to their hearers, as the dirt under their feet, and have they not prevailed far herein? when many thousands in the Land are made Prosylites to them; yea, when some have ventured in Parliament itself, to heave both at the maintenance, and office of the ministry; and can you think him worthy of the Magistrates seat, that would not allow you a Minister in the Pulpit? Oh my brethren, know the ministry hath the same Authority to show for their calling, the Magistrate hath; the same God that gave Moses, gave Aaron; it is said he led his people by the hands of Moses and Aaron. The same hand that planted one Olive-tree, on the one side of the bowl, to wit, Zerubbabel the Magistrate, did plant Joshua, the Minister, on the other, and both to drop their oil, to feed the same lamp of God's Church; the great blessings have been given in by a concurrence of both, as we see in Reformations of the Jewish Church under several Kings. I have heard that Queen Elizabeth, coming her progress into this our County of Suffolk, when she observed that the Gentlemen of the County, who came out to meet her, had every one his Minister by his side, said, Now I have learned why my County of Suffolk is so well governed, it is because the Magistrates and Ministers go together. Indeed they are the two legs on which a Church and State stand. He that would saw off the one, cannot mean well to the other; an Anti-ministerial spirit, is an Anti-magistratical spirit; the Pulpit guards the throne; Be persuaded to take that away, and you give the Magistrates enemies room to fetch a full blow at them; as the Duke of Somerset in King Edward the sixth's days, by consenting to his brother's death, make way for his own, by the same axe and hand.  
I have no more by way of council for you, as to the transaction of this day. But my dear friends, think not you have done all your duty to God and your afflicted country by a Vote or suffrage, but labour to crown the work of this day with these things.  
First, follow those you shall choose with your prayers. Our Lord Jesus, when he sent his disciples to sea, he went into a mountain to pray for them; he knew a storm was coming towards them, and they would have need of his help; Truly, you send these Gentlemen, whoever they shall be, to sea; and God grant it may not be a winter-voyage. Oh, help them to as much strength as you can for their work, & no strength like that which is got from Heaven; indeed the whole success of that great assembly must drop from thence. The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them, Pro. 20.12. Neither of these can be spared if this Parliament ends well, they must have a seeing eye, to see what counsel and advice is both wholesome and seasonable; and the people must have a hearing ear, to submit to the laws there concluded on, and the Lord makes even both of these.  
Secondly, take heed you do not obstruct your prayers for them, nor their counsels, for you and the poor Nation by your sins; Go home, repent, and reform, and that in earnest, or else all will be nought for all your praying. Sin is like a deaf stone, which I have heard to be in Scotland, that one standing at one end, cannot hear what another saith standing at the other end. If your sins get between your prayers, and God you pray to, he cannot hear of that ear you would have him; If you do not reform, lay no fault on the Parliament, though no good comes of their meeting. A careless Patient disgraceth a good Physician; Samuel's council to Israel shall be mine to you with the change of a word; fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he hath done for you, but if you continue still to do wickedly, you shall be consumed, you and your Parliament.  
Thirdly, in doing your duty torment not yourselves with care, concerning the issue of this Parliament, or the great revolutions of these times; God hath eased us of this burden, had we but faith to take his kindness, who bids us cast our burden upon the Lord; why should we go sweating under that load, which God is willing to take off our shoulders? Though God looks we should sow and plough, pray and use the means; yet he will never charge it upon us, if a happy harvest crownes not our labour. In the Parable of the man fallen among thieves and wounded, the Host was not commanded by Christ to undertake to cure him, but to take care of him: Leave the curing of the Nations wounds to God, a happy people you will be, if found to have taken so much care of your poor Nation, as to discharge the duty of your place, which you owe to God and it.  
FINIS.