A PROCLAMATION TO THE KING; In a Sermon preached the 15. of June, 1647. Before His Majesty, and the head of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army.  
Out of Jonah, ch. 3. v 7, 8. And he caused it to be proclaimed, &c.  
By Francis James, Preacher of Gods Word.  Esay 51.1. 
son of Man lift up thy voice like a Trumpet.  

Published by his Majesties special Command.   
Printed at London by John Hammond, 1647.   

TO THE majesty OF royal KING CHARLES, GREAT BRITTAINES MONARCH.  
Dread sovereign,  
WHat your gracious majesty hath practised of Humiliation( the subject of this work) is not unknown to your people; how full and frequent in Divine Supplications, joined with many singular Attestations, to compose your subjects with godly and universal Reformation both in Church and State: And now also, because it was your Majesties special Command, after the delivery hereof, that this Sermon should be published; therefore, according to duty, it is here presented to your royal hand. Notwithstanding this small Paper be in itself means and worthless; yet as Artaxerxes from a grateful mind received a Cup of could water, where a better Present could not be had; so your Majesties known candour will entertain and cherish this Mite, and by indulgent Princely acceptation add worth unto it. The King of Niniveh here bespeaks you ( Gracious Sir) and as his, so may your practise of piety keep off Judgements from this Age also; and as Niniveh at the Command of her King turned to Repentance, so may these your realms do the like, obeying God and his Vice-gerent.  
This unfeignedly wisheth he, who in all words and works desireth to writ and speak such things whereby himself and all the House of GOD may be saved; desiring also, that your Majesties soul may bee ever bound up in the Bundle of Life, and kept from wicked assasination, that after a long and happy Fruition of your kingdom here, you may be translated into a more glorious one hereafter.  
Your Majesties most loyal, humble, 
 obedient Orator, and Subject, 
 Francis James.   

A Proclamation to the King.  Jonah, 3 chap. vers. 7, 8. 
And he caused it to be proclaimed, &c.  
A Serious Sack-cloth duty of Fasting and Mourning is here enjoined in my Text, from no less authority then the royal Proclamation of Ninivehs King. The occasion of it is taken primarily from Ninivehs horrible& crying transgressions, for Niniveh was, Urbs tam plena vitiis quàm divitiis, a city as sinful as rich: secondly, from the due consideration of the severe denunciation of Gods awful judgements against her for her transgressions: thirdly, from the Commission of Jonah, c. 1. v. 2. Arise, go to Niniveh, cry against it, as an ambassador extraordinary to give drowsy Niniveh, out of her profound sleep of sin, an alarum, to awake unto righteousness, 1 Cor. 15.34. to shake off stupidity, senselessness, and security: for be cried our, Adhuc quadraginta, &c. Yet forty dayes, and Niniveh shall be destroyed, chap. 3. v. 4. {αβγδ}. Oh, but this is {αβγδ}, The son of Truth, and therefore must be believed. And in the fifth verse see the effect he wrought; For the people of Niniveh believed God, and proclaimed a Fast, and put on sack-cloth, from the greatest of them to the least, yea, the King himself: for in the verse before my Text, word came unto him, and he arese from his Throne, and he laid his rob from him, and covered him with sack-cloth, and sat in ashes. You see the example: not the royal. Throne exempts the King from this duty; the voice of Humiliation calls unto him, not unlike that in Jere. 13.18. Say unto the King and Queen, Humble yourselves, sit down, for your Principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory. No marvel if he be troubled at this voice, as Herod was, and all Jerusalem with him, at the Birth of our Saviour, Math. 2.8. No wonder if his knees smite together, as Belshazzars did at the hand-writing against him on the wall.  
The use you shall make from hence is, learn to hear& give ear, and be not proud, learn to fear him who ought to be feared, who is great amongst the Gods; when he denounceth wrath, when his judgements are abroad, learn righteousness, O inhabitants of the earth. learn to heat, and fear, and tremble, and to do no more so wickedly; give glory unto God by confession of sins, before your feet stumble upon the dark Mountaines, and while you look for light he turn it into the shadow of death,& make it gross darkensse, 13. Jer. 15, 16. learn to believe& make use of Gods awful threatened judgements, as well as his gracious promises; I know our corrupt natures are more inclinable to harken to the latter then the former, for we delight in them; they are a pleasant cordial, but the other are bitter, though wholesome, pills to swallow down: but Oh, let faith be set on work on both subjects: Let the legal denunciations be received and believed, as well as the Evangelicall promises: doth God denounce judgements? He delighteth in the soul that trembles at his words: does he call for humiliation? he takes pleasure in the soul that walks humbly with his God. And this is the duty and practise of Piety here in my Text: For the King caused it to let Proclaimed thorough Niniveh, and published by the Decree of him and his Nobles, saying, Let neither man nor hest, Herd nor Flock, taste any thing &c. but let man and beast be covered with Sack-cloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. In the composition of which words, there are principally observable three ingredients.  

1. solemn and strict Humiliation; Let man &c.  
2. solemn and devout Supplication; Cry mightily &c.  
3. Vuniversall and real Reformation; Every one turn &c.   
Of these in their order. For the first, it is apparent, here is fasting and mourning not onely enjoined, but joined together, suitable unto that in Joel 2.12. Thus saith the Lord, turn you even to me, with fasting, weeping, and mourning: For want of this duty, God not onely discountenanceth the stubborn Jews, but also reproved them, Isay 22. v. 12, 13. when he faith, The Lord did call to weeping and mourning, and baldness, and girding with sack-cloth, but behold joy and gladness, slaying of Oxen, and killing of sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine; let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die, &c. surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord of Hosts. Sack-cloth itself, a rigid garment, is here called for also in my Text, as an expressive emblem and symptom of inward compunction and hearty sorrow. It was, it seems, the usual and ceremonial habit of mourners in those times under the Law; they made themselves bald, they sat in ashes, or put ashes on their heads in the eastern Countries, and they rent their garments; but we under the Gospel are more spiritual, we press not the outward adumbration or shadow, so much as the inward substance and materialitie: To us the word is, Rent your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God. I see, Beloved, no garments torn this day, nay, rather with grief of heart I see apparel in men and women more gorgeous then befits the dust and ashes of this sack-cloth-humbling solemnity: Oh, that the hidden man of the heart were gay also: Oh, that by a godly and sincere Reformation every one of you would demonstrate, that you strive to adorn the Gospel of our blessed Saviour more then yourselves. Sack-cloth, and fasting and mourning, though not meritorious, you see are not disallowed, are not disannulled: nay, the beasts themselves ought nor to go scotfree, but partake with the people in the outward duties of fasting, &c. I mean, such kind of humiliation as they were capable of. These sensible expressions, here in my Text, extended even unto them; the rather, that man, who is endowed both with a sensitive& reasonable faculty, may perceive the odiousness& heinousness of his prevarications with his God, which draws not only o● himself, but on the beast also such evident humiliation. A good man is merciful to his beast, saith the wisest of Kings: though the wicked( as Jon●… speaks, c. 2.8.) forsake their own mercies, yet ●… e think, they ought not to be so rigorously unjust, as to pull away pity from the unreasonable creature, and forfeit clemency due to beasts. Oh, that our compassion to them, as well as to ourselves, could make us consider what we have done! By what hath been delivered( Beloved) you may perceive how punctual the Holy-Ghost, the Pen-man of the Scriptures, is in this Doctrine of Humiliation; in fasting, in weeping, and mourning, it becometh the godly to be humble; and truly it hath ever been their constant practise in all Ages: for this, turn to 1 Sam. 7.2. When the Ark of God abode in Kiriathiearim twenty yeares, all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord, and they turned unto the Lord with all their hearts, and put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only, v. 3. And they drew water, and fasted on that day, v. 4. And in the book of Judges, after the people had grievously sinned, and the Angel rebuked them at Bochim, in the second chapter, and 4. and 5. verses, it is set down punctually that they wept: For it came to pass, when the Angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lift up their voice and wept, and they called the name of that place Bochim. The good King Josiah, when he caused the Law to be red before him( at the hearing whereof his heart melted) appointed a solemn Fast to be kept. In the book of Esther, Mardochai and Esther, and her Maidens, continued in fasting, and supplication, and sack-cloth, three whole dayes together, to turn away the wrath of God, and defeat the cruel conspiracy of Haman, who had plotted the national destruction of all the Jews. Nehemiah, when he began the building of the Temple, laid the foundation with a solemn Fast. Ezra sanctified the people, at the reading of the Law, with the like humiliation.  
And here I may take occasion( for promoting this duty) not onely to lay open the nature of this humbling, but the necessity of it also. The necessity is drawn from a three-fold reason: the first reason is, because God almighty often calls for this duty, as you may read Joel. 2.12. and in divers other places, too long to rehearse: for as there is a voice in every sin to call for judgement, so there is a voice in every judgement calling for repentance and Humiliation, see for this in Micah 6 Chap. 8.9. He hath shewed thee O man what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God? the Lords voice crieth unto the city, and the Man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the Rod, and who hath appoynted it.  
God willeth us to walk humbly and hear the rod of his controversy. God strikes upon the stony rock of our hearts by his judgements and mercies, as with Moses his rod, that the Waters of Repentant tears many gush forth; and in the 8 of Deut. when God musters up the forces of his dealings with the people, and makes an inventory of them, is comes all to this Issue, That he might humble thee( O Jsrael) and prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end. Deut. 8.16.  
The second reason that necessitates this duty is, because Humiliation onely hath the promise of a blessing annexed unto it; St. Peter admonisheth us, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in his due time.  
To this purpose also belongs that memorable place in 26 of Levit. verse 40 and 44. If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers, with their trespass which they have trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me &c. If then their uncircumcised hearts bee humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my Covenent with Jacob, with Jsaac, and with Abraham, and remember the Land.  
'tis evident God gives Grace and Favour to the humble. And in the Prophet Jeremy when God pronounceth judgements, yet thus he saith to the humble: If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, then will I repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them, Jeremy 18.8. Do you expect examples to confirm this Doctrine? Behold them marshalld in a full body, 1 Kings 21. verse 27.19. 2 Chron. 12.6.7. 2 Chron. 34.27.28. First in the example of Ahab, for after he had rent his clothes, and fasted, and lay in Sack cloath &c. Elijah denouncing judgements, God grants a reprieve of those judgements. Seest thou( saith God) how Ahab humbleth himself, &c. I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his sons days will I bring it, 1 Kings 21.27.29. Next in Rehoboam: for, when Shemajah had  told him and his two Princes, that God had left him in the hand of Shishak King of Egypt; in the 7 verse, when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the Lord said, I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some Deliverance, and my wrath shall not bee powered out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. 2 Chron. 12.6.7. In Manasses, he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers, by the innocent felony of prayer and supplication he knocks off the Fetters of his Captivity in Babylon,& makes a Gaole delivery of himself: Almighty God signing his Dimittis, and bringing him again to his kingdom. 2 Chron. 33.13. Lastly, of Josiah thus speaks God, Because thy heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself before thy God, when thou heardst his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. Behold I will gather thee to thy fathers and to thy grave in peace, &c. 2 Chron. 34.27.28.  
Next a third reason was, because Humiliation disposeth the soul with good previous dispositions for mercy, puts it in a posture and capacity to receive the loving kindness of the Lord, and truly this is manifest by a certain place of the Prophet Esay, in his 66 chap. the first and second verses. God shows he is not delighted in magnificent structures, against the Jews, that gloried in the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, like their successors that boasted they had Abraham to their Father: God points them to another Temple, the Temple of the Holy Ghost in an humble heart. For thus saith God: Where is the House that you build unto me, &c. But to this man will look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit &c. Esa. 66.1, 2. God hath these two notable Mansion houses, the highest Heavens, and the humblest heart to dwell in; humility is the receptacle of his Excellency; God intends good things for them that are humble. In the 8 of Deut. 16. he tells the Israelites, he humbled them to do them good in the latter end. And so our Saviour having exhorted his servants to bee lowly, at the last concludes they shall find rest unto their souls, Mat. 11.28. Truly the meek are filled with good things, when the rich and proud in opinion are sent empty away. For God setteth himself as in battle array {αβγδ}, for so the word signifies, a military term, against the proud, but gives grace to the humble. If wee would then that God should meet us in a way of mercy, prepare to meet him in poverty and sincerity of spirit.  
Thus much for the necessity. Now for the nature of this humbling which consists in 5 principal thing●… A godly scrutiny or search after sin, a Hue and Cry. 2 Godly shane for sin. 3. Godly sorrow. 4 Confession of heart and mouth. 5 A judging of ourselves. I will pass them over cursorily.  
For the first duty assure yourselves God expects it from you, and he finds fault with the absence of it. look into the 8 of Jere. the 6. Where God imputeth their horrible impenitency in a great measure to their careless examining themselves, for there no man saith what evil have I done? Sure the very Heathen will rise up in judgement against such for so Phocyllides, {αβγδ}; that is, every day he would call himself to account, what good duties he omitted, what evil deeds he committed. Good God! how generally we come short of this? O that we did keep Catalogues of our darling sins in writing; and spread them before us when wee go to prayer to pray against them and humble our souls: as godly Mr. Bradford was daily wont to do. There are many idle Diurnalls fly abroad, but this would bee the best diurnal of all and most profitable. O if we did but take notice of the special passages of sins since but the last Fast, to be humbled for them. David saith, Psal. 4. Commune with your own selves, and Paul, examine yourselves if you bee in the faith. 1 Cor. Next is godly shane. Upon strict search having found the plague of our hearts, let our faces gather blackness and bee covered with confusion. Take unto ourselves the good words of Ezra cap. 9.6. O my God, I am ashamed and blushy to lift up my face to thee my God: for our Iniquities are increased over our heads, and our trespass is grown up into the Heavens. With the Publican dare not to lift up our eyes to Heaven, Luke 18 ver. 13.  
In the Third place marches godly sorrow. that works sal●●tion {αβγδ} as Chrysost. Hom. 1 in Lazarum. Sit down by the rivers of Babylon, your sins, and weep abundantly and hearty for your own and for others sins, Draw water unto the Lord in Mispeh, make yourselves ●… ibeonites, in this respect, for the house of the Lord. Davids example is imitable for himself in Psal. 6.& 51. and also for others sins, Psa. 119. Rivers run down my eyes, because men keep not thy Laws. So did also that worthy Martyr Mr. Bradford, in whose eyes Tears were seen to keep continual Randezvouze for the sins of the age, he would not go to Heaven with dry eyes though in a fiery Chariot. Oh how few are thus effected now! Men can weep for losses of purse, not soul or conscience: they can weep true warm tears for the former, but few and those deceitful crocodile tears for the latter. The good God open the fountain and depths of our hearts and eyes, that the other fountain, for the house of David, may bee opened unto us to purge all uncleanness, Zach. 13.1. Mary Magdalen washed Christs feet with her tears, and Peter after sin went out from wicked Companions and wept bitterly, Luke 22.62. In the fourth take up confession, Levit. 13.45. We are unclean, and Psal. 51. In sin hath my Mother, &c. And here aclowledge, and confess to God not in general but particular also; bewail original and actual filth, national sins, fore fathers sins, thy other mens sins, family sins, others sins, for which Lots righteous soul was daily vexed; 2 Pet●… 2.7.8. Fifthly and lastly condemn we our own selves, confessing God is righteous, we unrighteous; take the example of the penitent thief upon the cross in so doing; take ye example of Nehemiah, Thou art just O Lord in all that is brought upon us, thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly, Nehe. 9.33. We can never be fitted for accepting of mercy, till we can pass sentence against ourselves, that it is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed, Lamen. 3.22. O pray against corruptions to keep the body of sin under, that it may not reign Rom. 6.28. And thus I come to my next part, Devout Supplication, which indeed is the magnetic chain that ties Heaven& Earth together, the sweet Dialogue of a soul with God. Cry mightily saith the Text, or as the Sep●uagint hath it {αβγδ}, uncessantly, vigorously, The Apostle hath it proy continually; that is to be always so affencted as that we may bee in continual posture for that duty, having our souls in good condition of Grace always stored, like a good magazine, with ammunition inexhanstible of holy meditations: Our Saviour Christ himself trod in this stop, for as Paul witnesseth, he offered up with strong cries and tears in the dayes of his flesh, prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him, and was heard in that he feared, Heb. 5.7. Nay, he continued a whole night in prayer before his passion, he calleth Gods House the House of Prayer, to inculcate this heavenly gift into us, Solomon at the dedication of the Temple makes prayer a sovereign Balsam against all calamitous accidents of life, to give ease to all distresses; for thus faith he: If there be famine, or war, or pestilence, or mildew &c. when thy people stretch forth their hands to thee in this place, then hear thou from heaven the place of thy holiness &c. 2 Chron. Prayer wrestles with God Jacob. like. It challenges him with his word and promises, look down from Heaven the habitation of thy glory and holinesse, where is thy zeal, thy strength, and the sounding of thy bowels, and thy everlasting mercies. Nay, it puts confidence in God, as if it should say, I know in whom I have believed, for so it follows, doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham bee ignorant of us and Jsrael aclowledge us not, thou O Lord art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting, Jsay 63.15.16. Prayer is not only Scala Coeli, Jacobs ladder, but( as one saith) the Saints Bethesda, when they step into it they are cured. Psal. 3 at the 4. David professeth, when I cried to the Lord with my voice, the Lord heard me out of his holy Hill. Mark the experimental happy success the holy man found to his Petitions, surely he might well take up that true maxim, God is a God that heareth prayer and a present help in the needful time of trouble. Hezekia verifies it too, for having mourned like a Dove in the affliction of his soul, at last he breaks forth: The Lord is ready to save, therefore wee will sing our songs all the dayes of our life, Isay 38.20. For this shall every one that is godly make his prayer unto thee in an acceptable time, saith the Psalmist: God heareth his saints when they cry mightily unto him either with vocal or cordial prayer onely. For cordial supplication, he said unto Moses, let me alone, why criest thou unto me? And for vocal in David in the forementioned 3 Psal. 4. Afflictions and judgements make the servants of God cry. The Ninivites to cry mightily here in my text. Extremity of misery is the Saints highest opportunity to prayer. It is hard if wee cannot find to fall on our knees when we are ready to be leveld with the ground,& our honor laid in the dust: It is a fearful condition when God shall lay visitations and judgements on us to bring us to him, and wee shall choose to blaspheme him in the midst of our torments, and to curse God and die rather than to repent: when God shall chastise us with the chastisements of Israel, and wee turn them into the plagues of egypt; the corrections of sons, into the destruction of enemies. The men of Ninive shall rise up in judgement in the last day against them that are backward in this humiliation, for they repented and sat down in sackloath and ashes at the preaching of Jonah. Nihil miserius miser is s●s● non miserantibus, 'tis fearful to be in a state of miserable and yet stubborn insensibility. O that the men of England would follow that godly counsel of a dying Martyr, repent O England, repent; and amend their ways and their doings that they may dwell in this place, Jeremi. 7.3. ver. That so that phoenix off spring might spring up, which is my next particular, Reformation. That every one would turn from his evil ways &c. Generally wee are corrupted and therefore there is need of a general renovation, generally born the sons and daughters of iniquity, but we were not contented with that, but have made ourselves galley slaves unto it: according to our crimes wee have had general sorrows and have pledged one another in this Cup, the sword which wee feared hath overtaken us Jeremi. 42.16. without have been fightings, within fears, so that like Pashur we have run from chamber to chamber, and yet the storm something past, with Gallio wee have cared for none of these things, but have still remained incorrigible and unreformed, In the rebellion of our uncircumcised hearts we have taken courses contrary unto God, even as God in punishments hath taken courses contrary unto us, as Salvian tells us, miseri fuim us pariter& luxurios●, even under the cross we are wicked. Generally we fight not the good fight of faith, 1 Tim. 6. but the evil combat of lusts that war in our Members: we yield to sin and satan, and will not bee Reformadoes under the. captain of our salvation Jesus Christ; with foolish Glancus {αβγδ}, we choose the armour of the Prince of darkness, before the armor of light from the Father of Lights.  
Gods ordinance for his Militia is despised put on the armour of God &c. Ephes. cap. 6. ver. ●1. In this universal deluge of wickedness what more necessary than universal reformation? The good God sand forth Nehem abs& Zerebabels, before whom all the mountaines of sin may be laid level. That national, personal, and family sins, deceivable lusts, and sins that go with a high hand may be taken notice of, crimson sins, and all that so easily beset us may be purged: idolatry, profaneness, coverousnesse, scorn of the means of grace, scorn of the word and professors, and stifeneckednes under gods hand may be reformed: hear I beseech you Gods bill of complaint as it is registered Jere. 23.10, 11, 12. The land is full of adulterers, because of swearing, the land mourneth &c. Both priest and prophet are profane. Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways, in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.  
Would we avoid judgements? O think what is more necessary then Reformation. Now it is a rule in Philosophy, propositiones necessariae debent esse universales, necessary propositions ought to be general and universal. Let me persuade you then generally and impartially to set yourselves about this duty; put it not off from one to another, nor from day to day, it is the business of this day, Opus diet in dei suo, it is a word spoken in season, O let it be as apple of gold in pictures of silver; finally let the general counfell of the Apostles general Epistle, confirm this general duty, Drath night to God, and he will draw night to you, Cleanse your hands ye sinners, and purify your hearts ye double minded, Jam. 4.8.  
FINIS.