A SERMON, TENDING To set forth the Right Use of the DISASTERS that befall our ARMIES.  
PREACHED Before the Honourable Houses of Parliament, at a Fast specially set apart upon Occasion of that which befell the Army in the West.  
In Margaret's Westminster, Sept. 12. Anno 1644.  
BY Matthew Newcomen, Minister of the Gospel at Dedham in Essex.  JUDG. 20.26. 
Then all the children of Israel, and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until Even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.  1 SAM. 14.58. 
And Saul said, Draw ye near hither all the Chief of the people: and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day.  1 SAM. 26.19. 
And David said unto the King, If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be th●y before the Lord.  
LONDON, Printed by George Miller for Christopher Meredith at the Sign of the Crane in Paul's Churchyard. 1644.   

Die Veneris, 13. Septembr. 1644.  
IT is this day ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament, That Sir Thomas Cheek do return the Thanks of this House unto Master Newcomen, for the great pains he took in his Sermon yesterday, being a particular day of Humiliation: and also Sir Robert Harley to do the like to Master Coleman, and to desire them to print their Sermons, And it is ordered, That none shall presume to print their Sermons without leave under their hand writing.  
H. Elsing Cler. Parl. D. Com.  
I do appoint Christopher Meredith to print this Sermon,  
MATTH. NEWCOMEN.   

TO THE HONOURABLE The Houses of PARLIAMENT.  
THe publishing of this Sermon (what ever the preaching of it was) may seem (Right Honourable) as unseasonable as that Consolatory Embassy the Trojans sent to the Emperor Tiberius upon the death of his son Drusus, 
Sueton. in Tiberio.  which came so extremely late, that the Emperor, to requite their kindness, tells them, That as they were sorry for the death of his son, so was he for the death of their Hector; implying that they were both equally forgotten. Possibly that sad Accident in the West, which first ministered occasion for the preaching of this Sermon, is so too, and then quorsum haec? if at all, why not sooner? if not sooner, why now? I might plead many things in mine own excuse, why not sooner? My avocations & employments since the preaching of this Sermon have been so many, that had I been most desirous of obeying your Command for the printing of it; I could scarce sooner have accomplished it, but I must confess my desire was that this unworthy piece (the conception of so few hours) might never have outlived the hour in which it was delivered, except (by the blessing of God) in the hearts of those that heard it. But then why now? why at all made public? God is my Record, the only reason that extorts this from me at this time is, because we are still encompassed with the Evidences of that Displeasure, which in the West began to break out upon us, which makes me fear, that some of that heart-searching, sin-discovering, heart-humbling, Covenant-acting work which God then called us to, hath on some hand or other been neglected. We whom God hath made Seers to his people must not shut our eyes, 
Ez●k. 33. ●3. etc.  and refuse to see what God reveals, nor lay our hands upon our mouths, and fear to declare what we see. And certainly you have it from the mouth of more than one or two, or a few of those that preach before you, that God is very sore displeased still. There are manifest signs of God's displeasure against a Nation, such as every eye that beholds them, may read wrath and indignation in them. And there are secret intimations of God's displeasure, 
〈◊〉 oculi 〈…〉 ex●on● 〈◊〉, hippocras ●amen quo ●●ram Dei indi ●nt, cognoscuntur. Ma●●. loc. come.  which though they be visible in themselves yet few know how to interpret them, and to collect the displeasure of God from them. The sword is a manifest sign of God's wrath against the Nation. job 19.29. Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement. But besides this, there are Characters, though all cannot read them, of God's indignation against his own people in this Kingdom, against those that have appeared & engaged themselves for him. There is, that saith, When God is angry with a people, 
Lesle: de Perfectionibus Divinis, li. 13. c. 10.  and intends to dash them in pieces, he leaves them sine animo, sine concilio, etc. without heart, without Council, without strength, without fit Commanders; so involved with difficulties foreign and domestic, they know not how possibly to extricate themselves. If one give good counsel, presently another by captious arguments overthrows it, & those that should judge of both, have not light enough to discern, which is for the public safety and which destructive. If any opportunity of Service be presented, either there is no notice taken of it, or to save a little charges, it is neglected, or none knows how to improve it. Dangers imminent, are either not fore-seen, or slighted: Traitors creep in, that discover their Counsels to their enemies. There are jealousies & factions among their great men, in favour whereof, one studies to cross the designs and successes of the other, though the Public be undone by it. The Treasury is wasted in needless expenses; the soldiers mutiny and are seditious, and when they have plundered a Country, must have as much given them to forbear plundering as would maintain a war. Finally, while all seek their own profit, & no man's heart is upon the Public good, all runs to ruin. On the contrary, the enemies whom God intends to punish that people by, though they be far more wicked and ungodly, yet they prosper, their courage, their strength increases; they take opportune counsels, they know how to improve & pursue advantages; there is great concord among their Leaders; no man seeks to undermine & overthrow another; no man blends his own private quarrels with the Public Cause. In a word, all things succeed as if God favoured their cause, & directed their counsels, when yet their cause is unjust, and their intentions wicked, and there is nothing further from their heart then God.  
But this Discourse you need not, much less any Application of it, who are apprehensive of this already, and have therefore set yourselves very lately to seek the Lord, and Atonement with him, by Fasting and Humiliation, in such away as never Parliament did before you. That God who hath put it into your hearts thus to seek him, 
In the East i● Lincolns-inn Chapel, kept Decemb. 18.  grant that you and we may find such fruit & success thereof in yourselves, Counsels, Armies, as this poor Church and Nation, after so many days of mourning, may once take up that song of praise, Isai. 12.1. O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, yet thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. This is the Prayer of  
Your Honour's most unworthy, yet faithful and sincere Servant MATTH. NEWCOMEN.   

A Sermon preached before both Houses of Parliament at their extraordinary solemn Fast, Sept. 12. 1644.  JOSHUA 7.10, 11. 
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?  
Israel hath sinned, and hath also transgressed my Covenant which I commanded them.  
The Introduction. HOw well this Text suits this Day, this Assembly, and the Occasion of it; I persuade myself there is none here but upon the first reading understands. The Lord grant that the handling of these words may be as profitable, as the Scripture itself is seasonable.  
In the former verses of this Chapter you have a sad story, to which ours is this day parallel, I had almost said in too great a measure; but I lay my hand upon my mouth, because thou Lord hast done it, who doth all things in measure;  
But in the Story of this Chapter you may read our 

Calamity, &  
Duty.    
In the fifth verse you have a people, God's people, Israel, smitten, scattered, trodden down; before their enemies, Gods enemies. That's our Calamity.  
In the sixth, seventh, and eighth verses you have Joshua and the Elders expressing a pious sense of this breach that God had made upon them. The Multitude possibly might miscarry under this hand of God; they might fall into their accustomed discontents, or sink under discouragements, as it is said ver. 5. The hearts of the people melted, and became as water. But as for Joshua and the Elders, Men of more Noble and Religious spirits, their demeanour is gracious, and humble, and holy, And Joshua rend his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face (he and the Elders of Israel with him, ver. 6.) and pours out his heart before the Lord in words expressing a sorrow too big for any words to express, ver. 8. Oh Lord what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? as if he had said: Lord, this is the saddest thing, the saddest Token of thy displeasure! The thoughts of it amaze, overwhelm me: I know not what to say: O Lord! what shall I say? O that we had such a grieved and burdened heart as Joshua had when he spoke these words! Surely this is our Duty, to have our hearts filled with the sense of that hand of God that is gone out against us: and in the sense thereof to abase ourselves before the Lord. To the performance of this Duty we are met this day, the Lord help us in it; yet that's not all: there is a further Duty God calls for at our hands; and that the words of my Text lead us to: 
The sense of the words.  And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, etc.  

Our English expression, Get thee up, sounds more harsh than either the Original or other Translations, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Illud quid hoc tis prostratus jaces infaciem tuan? non est objurgantis, au● precandi Ritum illum reprehendentis: quo ritu Christus ipse usus est: sed jamdudum se paratum esse significantis ad opitulandum. Ma●us ad locum. Non est ignorantis, aut inquirentis, aut arguentis vox ista, sed insinuantis, quod non sufficit supplicare, sed alio opus esse Remedio. Cajetan. ad locum. q. d. Surge: Noli te diutius affligere; Scio quid velis, faciamque ut scias quid facto sit opus ad cladem, à tuis acceptam resarciendam. Ego enim cor tuum contritum, & humiliatum, despicere nequeo, sed benignè aspicerè à meâ pietate quasi cogor. C. à Lapide ad locum.  Which words are not words of Inquirie, God doth not demand of Joshua the reason why he lay at his feet in this sad posture; Joshua had given him an account of that already in his Prayer. And God knew it even before he prayed. Nor are they words of Rebuke and Increpation. But rather words of Advice and Direction; God doth here as it were with a hand of Grace and Mercy lift up Joshua from the earth where he lay grovelling, and saith thus, Arise, Joshua, afflict thyself no longer, I know what thy Desire is, and I will let thee know what thy Duty is, there is somewhat to be done which yet thou thinkest not on; Get thee up, Joshua, wherefore liest thou on thy face? Israel hath sinned.  
In the words you may please to observe something that God took notice of in Joshua: 
The Division.  and something that God gave notice of to Joshua.  
The thing that God took notice of in Joshua was the Deep sense he had of the hand of God against Israel in the late disaster that befell their Army: under which he lay confounded, astonished at the feet of God. This in the first words. The Lord said unto Joshua, Arise, wherefore liest thou upon thy face?  
The thing which God gave notice of to Joshua was the sin that Israel had committed which was the Cause of this Disaster. Israel hath sinned, and hath also transgressed my Covenant which I commanded them.  
Observe. 1 
with The Proof.  From the first of these I commend this to your Observation. That when a Disaster befalls the Armies of Israel, it well becomes a generous Gracious heart to be deeply affected with it.  
I say, when a Disaster befalls the Armies of Israel, for this here it was not a Discomfiture, it was but a Disaster: a Party of about three thousand beaten, ver. 4. and about six and thirty men slain in the fight, and in the Chase, ver. 5. What's that in an Army of six hundred thousand men of war? That was Israel's Number at their last Muster. Numb. 26.51. Some Nimrod, some Cyclops would have thought this an inconsiderable loss, a blow not worth the taking notice of. But Joshua, though as gallant and daring a spirit as any the Earth had, he thinks not so: he thinks that this calls him and the rest of the Elders of Israel (what ever others do) to rend their Clothes, and put dust upon their heads, and in the mournfullest plight that may be to pour out their Prayers and Tears before the Lord: O Lord! what shall I say?  
So when the Children of Israel were smitten before Benjamin, though that was not such a discomfiture, but they were able to rally themselves again, and renew the fight a second and third time, and at length got the victory by fine force; yet All the people went up and wept before the Lord. Judg. 20. Once and a second time, and the second time they wept and fasted until Even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings unto the Lord. ver. 26. This a Disaster will work.  
But a Rout, a Discomfiture? what an Impression that will make in a Gracious holy heart, see in that mournful Story 1 Sam. 4. where you shall see how the Tidings of Israel's discomfiture and slaughter broke the heart of Reverend and Honourable Eli. There comes a Messenger from the Army with very sad Tidings. ver. 17. Israel is fled before the Philistims, and there hath been also a great slaughter: and thy two sons Hophni and Phineas are slain: and the Ark of God is taken. Every Incisum of this Message gives a stab, a wound to his gracious heart; and no sooner is the story ended, but his life is ended too. Israel is fled before the Philistims; there's One wound. And there hath been a great slaughter among the people; there's a second wound. And thy two sons Hophni and Phineas are slain; there's a third wound. And the Ark of the Lord is taken; there's a fourth, a Death's wound that dispatcheth him. He can now live no longer: It came to pass when he made mention of the Ark of God, he fell from off the seat backward. I could incline to think that the 
a 
Pramaereris magnitudine obtenebratus senior cecidit de sell iuxta Januam & contrium est dorsancius. Chrysos. Inquiri potest utrum Nuntius de captivitate Arcae fuit adaequata Causa mort● Eli. ita ut ill● audito repeni● in●●riit, & postea cecidi●, & cervices freg●ri●, an potius, etc. ●rior modus mihi non videtur imprebabilis Mendoza ad locum. ●●d●lile est ipsum sic voluisse mori. Ma●●.  
Non crepta vita, 〈◊〉 mori ei videtur. Cicero.   fall of Israel had broke his heart, before the fall from his seat broke his Neck, and killed him as much or more than his own fall. Good man unhappy in his Government, unhappy in his sons, happy only in this that he died with grief for the Israel and Ark of God: so deeply was his tender gracious heart affected with the disaster of Israel's Army.  
Reasons. First, some proportion of such like affection might well become every tender and gracious heart in such occasions. First, Because every gracious heart, (and indeed every generous heart, every man that hath not the heart of an Atheist in him) knows, that when a disaster befalls the Israel of God in their Armies, it is a sign that God is displeased with his people. Every disaster that befalls their Armies, is a check, a frown, a rebuke from God, a token of his displeasure, and therefore a gracious heart cannot stand under it: This is it perplexeth Joshua here. Alas the death of 36. men it had been nothing: The slaughter of 36000. it had been nothing, had their Army yet had the favour of God upon them. But God is angry; Joshuah's tender heart can feel it in this lighter stroke as well as if the blow had been heavier, God is angry, therefore Israel cannot stand before their enemy, therefore Joshua cannot stand before the Lord, but falls at his feet saying, o Lord what shall I say unto thee? And whom would not this become? whom would not this become? when God shows himself angry with his people, to show themselves deeply sensible of it, to  themselves with trembling and with mourning, whom would it not become? I am sure it would become us this day, the Lord help us so to do.  
Secondly, When any disaster befalls the Armies of Israel, it well becomes a generous gracious heart to be deeply affected with it; because disasters in the Armies of Israel are of very sad consequence. This Joshua had his eye upon, and this his heart was affected with, as you may see, ver. 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the Land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth; and what wilt thou do to thy great Name. There are two things mentioned as the sad consequence of this disaster. First, The increase of rage and courage against the Israel of God that this would occason to their enemies. The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the Land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from off the earth. One disaster will make those to whom Israel was before terrible, resume new courage, and enter into new confederacies, and nothing will now satisfy but utter extirpation; cutting off the name of Israel from the earth. In this respect; it well becomes a generous gracious heart, as he tenders the good and welfare of the Israel of God, to be deeply affected with such disasters.  
Thirdly, And as such disasters increase the rage of the enemies against the Israel of God, so against the God of Israel himself: this is intimated in the last words of the ninth verse, and what wilt thou do unto thy great Name? as if Joshua had said. Lord, though our name were cut off from the earth for ever it were no matter; But o the reproach, the scorn that these uncircumcised ones will cast upon thy great and dreadful Name! o to hear the enemies insulting, where is your God that brought you up out of the Land of Egypt, where are all those mighty wonders which he wrought at the Red Sea and in the Land of Ham, etc. Joshuah knew that these would be the dare, this the language of the enemies, and his gracious heart cannot bear it: o what wilt thou do to thy great Name? If then in the disasters of an Army, we may see that God is provoked, and foresee that the glory of God and the safety of his people is much endangered; we may conclude, It well becomes a generous gracious heart to be much affected with such disasters.  
Application of it. The Application of this Truth is easy. It may let you see, Right Honourable and Beloved, how well this mourning praying posture into which you have cast yourselves this day becomes you, 
For Information.  and how fit it is, that though the whole body of this people cannot upon so short a warning (and some it may be will not) yet that You who are to England as the 
* Senes Israel intelligit judices Magni Sign. drii quibus praecrat eo tempore josua. Deus. ad difficil. Loca josuae.  Elders were to Israel, the Governors and Representers of the whole Nation, should for yourselves and for the Nation whom you represent, in this solemn manner to testify your humble and deep sense of the hand of God upon his people in that disaster that hath befallen our Army in the West. God hath smitten our Army; shall not we smite our hearts? our Army is broken: will not a broken heart now become us? Our Forces are brought low; shall not we endeavour that our hearts may be so too? If her father had spit in her face (saith God to Moses concerning Miriam, Num. 12.15.) should she not be ashamed seven days? o how many days would it become us to bear the shame of that rebuke that God hath given us. Thou hast cast off and put us to shame, and goest not forth with our Armies: Thou makest us to turn our back from the enemies, and they that hate us spoil for themselves, was the sorrowful complaint of the Church of old, Psal. 44 9, 10. and may be ours this day. The Lord help us to bear this indignation in a right manner, and to mourn aright under it.  
So fare as my poor observation enables me to judge, This is the saddest rebuke that God hath given us since the first beginning of this action: and therefore calls for as sad hearts this day as ever we brought with us into the presence of our God. Sure I am that what ever there was in this disaster which befell the Army of Israel, that might be matter of grief and consternation to Joshua and Israel's Elders, the same is in this disaster that hath befallen us, and calls for the like affection in men of Noble, generous, gracious spirits, such as you are.  
1. Did Joshua plainly see the anger of the Lord in their disaster? we may (if we be not blind) see the same in ours much more. The wound, the breach that God hath made upon us by this disaster, is deeper, wider. Theirs was but the loss of 36. Men, Ours the dissipation of a Brave, Gallant, hopeful Army: An Army that was sent out with solemn fasting and prayer, and since they came to be in the straits wherein they unhappily miscarried, were solemnly again sought of God by fasting and prayer: And yet this Army lost; and lost in a week of fasting and prayer, that hath used to be a week of deliverances, victories, mercies: Can you think of this, and not think God angry? even with our prayers as well as with our Armies; And can we think God angry, and not fall at his feet every one of us with Joshua, and cry o Lord what shall I say unto thee?  
2. Were there any circumstances accompanying this disaster, that might make it yet more grievous unto Joshua and the Elders? and do not the same circumstances accompany ours? It was indeed 
* Omnia subita videntur majora. Cicer. Praecogitati mali molli● ictus venit. Senec.  an unexpected blow, a blow that Joshua did neither fear nor foresee; this made it the heavyer. 1. Joshua knew the Cause he managed by the sword was good: God owned it and warranted him in the prosecution of it. 2. He had lately received a testimony of God's favour towards it before the walls of Jericho. 3. And this was the first time that ever the Armies of Israel under the conduct of Joshua, turned their backs before their enemies. This makes him amazed, it is such a thing as never was before: o Lord what shall I say (saith he) when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? And that 4. A despised enemy, an enemy that upon good advice they thought not fit to engage their whole strength upon; but only send out a party, ver. 3. Let not all the people go up, but let about a two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai, but let not all the people labour thither, for they are but few. Now for Israel to fall in such a Cause, at such a time, before such an enemy, all this concurres to make the measure of Joshuah's grief and consternation the more full, o Lord what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? And do not all these circumstances meet in ours, to make our disaster equal unto theirs? o that the senoe of it might be as equal! was not this a blow unexpected? Did not 1. The goodness of our Cause (wherein we have not only the witness of our own consciences, and the witness of Neighbour Churches, 
Scotland, Zealand, Helvetia, etc. in their Letters to the Assembly of Divines.  but the witness of God himself with us.) Did not 2. That accent and much to be remembered testimony of God's favour towards us in it by that great and glorious victory given us before the walls of York, make us hope for a good issue of this Expedition into the West. And 3. Is not this the first time that ever your Army under the Conduct of his Excellency turned their backs or became a spoil unto the Enemy? And was not the Enemy (I mean the adverse Army) despised in our eyes? It is not long since they did nothing but flit and sculke; their whole strength being shrunk up into some Numbers of Horse, and now they had drawn together a Body of Foot: did we not look upon them all as an inconsiderable Rabble rather than an Army? forced men, raw Soldiers, not worth the engaging all your Powers upon: I fear it was our fault Politically, (I do not say our sin Theologically) to undervalue the Powers of our Enemies so fare. But all this makes our disaster the sadder, and should make our sense of it the deeper, for such an Army, in such a Cause to be given up to such an Enemy, and at such a time as this is, when if God had blest us, in all probability, we might have seen a speedy and happy end of these calamitous wars, o Lord what shall I say?  
Thirdly, Were there any consequences that did fall in upon the thoughts of Joshua as aggravations of Israel's disaster and his grief. Consider if the same consequences do not fall in here. Did Joshua fear not with a Panic but with a rational, prudential fear, a fear becoming a man of wisdom and resolution? Did Joshua thus fear, that the Nations (who not long before trembled at the thoughts of Israel, Josh. 5.1.) would now resume their courage and join their strengths together for the utter extirpation of the Israel of God? And have not we cause to fear the like? It is not long since the outstretched Arm of God at York struck a trembling into the hearts of our enemies, that they began to say as Exod. 13.25. Let us flee from the face of this people, for the Lord fighteth for them. And many of the malignant enemies of the Kingdom began to think of making their peace, and made at least feigned submission. But now, you are wise enough to think what flocking together there will be of Papists and Malignants: what gathering together into bodies: what an Army, or rather how many armies you may quickly have against you of English, Irish, Popish, and others (if the overruling Providence of God prevent it not as here) whose Rage will be satisfied with nothing less than the Cutting off our Name from the earth. If not the Name of England, yet the Name of Parliament, the Name of Protestant Religion, etc.  
Possibly some may say, What if they do strengthen themselves, and multiply their Armies: thanks be to God we have yet Armies as many and as considerable as any they have: we have so many thousand in the North; and so many thousand yet in the West; and so many thousand advancing from the North into the West. And what then? might not Joshua have said as much as this? he had six hundred thousand fight men in his Camp still; and what if all the Inhabitants of the land come against them? they are enough are they not to deal with them; yea, but Joshua saw that God was angry, he went not forth with their Armies: and Joshua knew that if his 600000 Men were 600000 Millions, if God continue still angry with them, they should all fall before their enemies: we talk of thousands, were our thousands multiplied into Millions, if God frown still upon our Armies, as he now gins to do, we are but bread for our enemies. Believe it, it is a sign of a carnal heart, that would shift off this stroke of God, and is loath to lie under the sense of it, to comfort itself, at such a time as this is, in our remaining Armies. If God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers stoop under him. Job 9.13. If we will not believe this, God will make us feel it. Joshua had men of war enough to have comforted himself in, but he could not, durst not do it.  
Fourthly, did Joshua fear that this Disaster would give occasion to the proud heathen to blaspheme the Name of the God of Israel? therefore he saith, What wilt thou do to thy great Name? And may not we fear the same upon this of our Army? Nay, do we not know it? how have they heretofore? how often have they as with a sword pierced the hearts of God's people, 
Witness Bristol and Bolton, etc.  while they say daily in their reproach, Where is now your God? Psal. 42.10. Where is now your God? your God to whom you have prayed? before whom you have wept & fasted? of whom you have made your boast, Where is now your God? Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear. Open thine eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of thine enemies, whereby they reproach the living God. Isai. 37.13.  

〈…〉  But, O Brethren, shall not all this affect our hearts? shall not all this cause us to lie in the dust before the Lord, seriously and sincerely humbled under him and mourning before him? Oh that I could find this disposition in myself O that I could behold it in you, especially in you Parliament men! O that I could see your Eyes speaking the sense which your hearts have of this sad hand of God upon us, even in Tears. Believe it, Right Honourable, it would become you, nay, it is your duty. O that I might obtain it from you, or obtain it at the hand of God for you!  
O Parliament Tears are precious Tears: would you drop but every man a Tear this day before the Lord for England, O what a Balm might it be for this bleeding Kingdom: I tell you, Brethren, it is more to that great God, before whom you stand, and whose face you desire to seek this day, to see you Parliament men, to see you unfeignedly judging yourselves, sitting in the dust at his feet, giving him glory in all his righteous deal with you; Mourning under this frown that he hath cast upon you, it is more to God to see you doing this, then to see some thousands of others in such a Posture. Are not you as all the Tribes of England? is not all England epitomised, contracted in you? If you be humbled, All England is humbled, virtually, eminently. If Joshua and the Elders be humbled, it is as if all Israel were humbled; if Rehoboam and the Princes of Judah be humbled, it is as if all Judah had been humbled. God will grant some deliverance, and things shall go well in Judah, 2 Chron. 12.6, 7, 12.  
It hath often been the Prayer of some of your Remembrancers at the throne of Grace, upon our days of Humiliation: that whatever God do with private Congregations: yet that in this place and upon your hearts there might be a mighty Presence and Effusion of the spirit of Humiliation; the same is my desire and prayer this day: O that God would humble us all, every soul of us: but if not all, if there be any of us whom God for our personal sins will leave to the hardness and dedolency of our hearts this day; yet the Lord be merciful unto you, and unto us all in you; That your hearts may be as gideon's fleece moistened with a dew from Heaven, though we round about you should be dry, (which yet to us would be exceeding sad.) But somewhat it would comfort us concerning England, would the Lord please to humble you. Now the Lord humble you: The Lord affect your hearts with his dealing: the Lord cast you down at his feet with Joshua; that with a hand of mercy he may lift you up as he did Joshua, and say, Arise, wherefore liest thou upon thy face?  
Thirdly, for Reproof. But if there be any Man here (especially any Parliament man) to whom it were more fit to say as the Master of the ship did to Jonah. Up sleeper, and call upon thy God, if so be that God will think on us, that we perish not: then as here God to Joshua; Arise, wherefore liest thou upon thy face? If there be any man here that upon such a Day and such an Occasion as this is, hath an unstirred and unawakened heart within him. (And I fear there are too many such, I seldom come in a Fast into any Congregation where it is discernible by the face and garb of the Assembly, that they are in a duty of Fasting and Mourning. Our monthly Fasts are degenerated into most loathsome Formalities, into less than a formality, less than an outside, than an appearance of Fasting and Mourning. But) that Man that can be so this day hath a heart more Atheistical than the very Heathens had. 
Inops Senatus auxilii humani ad Deos populum & vota convertit, lussi cum conjugibus ac liberis supplicatum ire pacemque exposcere ●●cûm: omnia delubra imp●ent, Stratae passim Matres crinib● Templa verrentes veniam irarum coelestium exposcunt. Liv. lib. 3.  He that reads the Roman Story will find how they upon such like occasions as is this day presented unto us, kept solemn days of Supplications, and with what throngs of men, women, and children their Temples were filled! how sad and mournful their demeanour was! how their Ladies and Matrons rolled themselves in the dust and swept the very pavements of their Idoll-Temples with the hair of their heads! o how fare are many amongst us from any such affection, consternation? I cannot but fear that there is a great deal more Atheism, and a great deal less sense Irarum Coelestium, of the Anger of a God against us in the Calamities now lying upon us, than was in those very Heathens. O that their Days of Supplication may never rise up in Judgement against ours to condemn them! The Lord humble every Soul of us that hath not yet been humbled: (Even this alone is sufficient Cause why we should now be humbled, because in all our Days of Humiliation we have been unhumbled hitherto many of us:) The Lord so humble every one of us by the mighty working of his own blessed Spirit, that he may please to take notice of his own work in us as he did here in Joshua, and say, Arise, wherefore liest thou upon thy face?  
I have done with That which God took notice of in Joshua. But before I pass to That which God gave notice of to Joshua. Let me entreat you to take notice of something in God, from God; taking notice of something in Joshua, 
 and that is God's tender and gracious regard to a humbled mourning heart.  
No sooner doth Joshua here humble himself but God presently takes notice of him, speaks comfortably to him. Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Lord what is man that thou art thus mindful of him? that no sooner can a poor sinner in humbleness of soul cast himself to the earth, but the great God reacheth his hand from Heaven to raise him up again. Lord what is man that thou shouldest thus magnify him, and set thine heart upon him? If the glorious Majesty of our God abase himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven. Psal. 113.6. o than what a Condescension is it in our God to behold a Man, a worm abased upon earth. But Joshua was no ordinary man. Joshua was a Saint, a Friend, a Son of God. A man of such rare and matchless Piety as in all the thousands of Israel, nay, in all the world, there was scarce such another man. But One that we read of (if One) in his Days that was to be compared to him. No wonder if when such a man be humbled God takes notice of him. But will God regard the Humiliations of other Men, Men that are not of such rare and extraordinary holiness, when they are humbled will God take notice of them? I will give you but two instances more to consider of, for the proof and illustration of this point, and judge by them.  
My first Instance is of Rehoboam, who certainly was none of the best men: nay, as fare as we can take his Character by all that Scripture speaks of him first and last, he was a very bad man. For it is said of him in the 2 Chron. 12.1. that he forsook the Law of the Lord, he and all Israel with him. And if you would know what was the degree and measure of their wickedness, how fare he and his people had forsaken the Law of the Lord; look in 1 Kings 14.22, 23, 24. and read what their wickedness was. And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also Sodomites in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the Children of Israel. These sins within a very few years after Rehoboams coming to the Crown had made them ripe for the judgement of the sword: for so 2 Chron. 12.2. In the fifth year of Rehoboam King of Judah, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord. The terror of this invasion is such as Rehoboam and his Princes cannot but humble themselves, Whereupon the Princes of Israel, and the King humbled themselves, and they said, The Lord is righteous. ver. 6. Now doth the Lord despise their Humiliations, because they had been an idolatrous, unclean, wretched people? No read and wonder at the goodness of our God towards humbled sinners, ver. 7. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves; (so then God took notice of this even in these) the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves, therefore I will not destroy them, but I will give them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem, by the hand of Shishak. And because God would have us take good notice of this his respect unto their Humiliations, the holy Ghost mentions it again in the 12. verse. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned away from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well. God did not only deliver him out of his present danger, but prospered all the affairs of his Kingdom in his hand; and yet certainly he (even after this his Humiliation) none of the best men, as we may collect from that Censure which after this the Lord leaves of him. ver. 14. And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.  
My next Instance shall be of a Man who was so fare from having any thing of Piety at all in him, that he was a man of the most transcendent Impiety that ever any (almost) was. King Ahab is the man: Do but remember what the holy Ghost saith of him. It is said 1 Kings 16.30. That Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him, and ver. 33. he did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger, than all the Kings of Israel that were before him. and in 1 Kings 21.25. But there was none like to Ahab, etc. None of all that went before him or came after him like to him in wickedness. There were twenty Kings in Israel from the time that the ten Tribes revolted from the house of David, to the time that God removed them out of his sight. Of these twenty Kings there was only One good, Jehu. And yet his Integrity may be doubted too. But the other nineteen were all wicked, and yet not One among them all to be compared to Ahab. But there was none like unto Ahab. An Oppressor he was, and a murderer, and an idolater, and a persecuter of that holy Truth which God had plentifully revealed to him by his Prophets, and powerfully confirmed to him by miracles, and mercifully sought to endear to him by many gracious deliverances. There were not such Prophets in Israel in any King's days as were in his: Nor such miracles wrought as in his: Nor had any King more glorious Victories and Deliverances, and Providences manifested towards him than he had: and therefore in all likelihood he was an obstinate sinner, and as some think very near the sin against the holy Ghost. This is that King Ahab against whom God by his servant Elijah thunders dreadful things, 1 Kings 21.20, 21, 22, 23, 24. The very hearing whereof something breaks the pride of his heart, ver. 27. And it came to pass that when Ahab heard those words, he rend his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. But will God regard it? cares God for Ahab? Truly we should have been ready to think, that if such a wretch as Ahab should not only have rend his clothes, but have rend his flesh, his heart: should he not only have fasted, but have starved, not only have shed Tears, but Blood; all this should never have prevailed with God to relent any thing at all towards him; or reverse one Tittle of the wrath denounced against him, we would have thought so; had not God left the contrary upon record in his holy word; to teach us, That his thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways. Therefore the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because Ahab humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days. Let all the earth now keep silence before the Lord; and after so manifest a proof of God's regard to Humiliation, even in an Ahab, let sinful dust and ashes never murmur more, nor dare to say, What profit is it that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? Mal. 3.14.  
Application. Now what shall we say to this? Shall England that hath more Struggle in her womb then Rebekah had, say as she, If it be thus, why am I thus? If it be thus, as we have heard, that God doth vouchsafe so gracious a tender regard unto the Humiliations of his people, Why am I thus? Why am I yet after so many Days of monthly, and other occasional Humiliations, a Stage of war, a Field of Blood? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? or hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Is his Mercy clean gone, or doth his Promise fail for evermore? Hath not the Lord promised 2 Chron. 7.14. If my People, which is called by my Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then will I hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their Land. And again Levit. 26.42, 43. etc. If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their forefathers, etc. and if than their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember the land. Now what shall we say? hath God forgotten to be gracious? was God gracious not only to Joshua and the Elders when they humbled themselves; but to Rehoboam and his Princes when they humbled themselves: Nay, even to Ahab when he humbled himself; and will not the Lord be gracious unto us? Hath God promised that if his people humble themselves, and pray, and seek his face, he will forgive, and heal, and doth his Promise now fail? God forbidden we should thus think or speak! the failing is on our part, not on Gods: we fail in that which God hath made these Promises; and usually bears this Tender regard unto: We are not humbled, we are not humbled; we are not humbled. After two years of extraordinary judgements, and three years of extraordinary Means and Days of Humiliation, we remain an unhumbled people: where can we find the Evidences of such a Humiliation as was here in Joshua? or such as was in Rehoboam? or such as was in Ahab? or such as was in Nineveh? Oh England, thou hast destroyed thyself, thou hast destroyed thyself, even with a double destruction: Thou hast destroyed thyself Once by thy sins, thy ancient idolatries and persecutions: Thy late Apostasies, Superstitions, Oppositions to the Power of godliness, hating to be reform, etc. these have called the destroying sword, upon thee. Thou hast destroyed thyself by these a first time. And a second time thou hast destroyed thyself by thy unhumblednesse and impenitency under the present judgement; Thy sins began, thy not being humbled perfects thy destruction. I am as confident as confidence itself can make me (for I have Scripture for it) that if England were humbled, England should be healed. God would say unto his sword that now devours, Return unto thy place, Rest and be still. Nay, though All England were not humbled, yet if King and Parliament were but humbled, the Breach between King and Parliament (yea between God and the King, between God and the Kingdom) should be healed. God would be reconciled to King, Parliament, and Kingdom, and God would reconcile King, Parliament and Kingdom one unto another, if King and Parliament were but humbled: and things should yet go well in England. That Example of Rehoboam and the Princes of Judah induceth me thus to think: Nay, if the Parliament were but humbled, if you Lords and Gentlemen were but humbled, I durst promise that things should yet go well in England. God would prosper your Counsels, your Armies, things should succeed in all according to your mind, if you were humbled according to the mind of God. This sad blow whereby God hath called you to his foot this day (even in your own understandings) speaks thus much, that God would have you, even you be more humbled then yet you have been; The Lord sanctify it, and bless it, that it may produce such and such a measure of Humiliation in you, and in us all, as that for time to come our gracious God be no more enforced to use such severe ways to break our hearts and humble us.  
I come now to that which God gave notice of to Joshua, in these words, Israel hath sinned, and hath also transgressed my Covenant: wherein you may please to consider, first, the thing that God gives Joshua notice of. Secondly, the Manner, how God gives Joshua notice of it.  
The thing that God gives Joshua notice of is Sin: 
Haec Thesis Israel deliquit sic quasi per gradus amplificatur graviter deliquit Israel, nam quod nuper jusseramnon observarant, fecerunt enim nonnullas reliquas res quas perdidisse oportuit, & quod gravius est non reliquat modo fecerunt, sed sibi usurparint, tum quod majus est flagitium surtine usurparunt ad haec mendaciis insuper ●allere conati sunt. Denique quod malorum est extremum obsirmarunt animum rebus subtractis in suum suppellectilem relatis. Mas. in loc.  Israel had sinned. The Manner of Gods giving Joshua notice of it, is first by way of gradation. God first in the general tells him, Israel hath sinned. Then secondly, descends a little nearer to the Nature of the sin, And they have also transgressed my Covenant: And then thirdly instances the particular sin, And they have taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen. Then fourthly follow the aggravations of the sin, And they have dissembled also, and they have put it even amongst their own Stuff.  
Or, if you please, you may consider in the words: ¹ Gods Charge against Israel: and ² the Amplification of it. The Charge itself is this, Israel hath sinned. The Amplification is in several particulars. First, their sin was a breach of Covenant, They have also transgressed my Covenant. Secondly, this breach of Covenant was in an accursed thing, For they have taken of the accursed thing. Thirdly, this breach of Covenant in the accursed thing it was a Theft, And they have also stolen. Fourthly, they have added Lying to their Theft, They have also dissembled. Fifthly, they have so fare hardened themselves in their sin that they think I will never call them to account for it; And they have put it even among their own stuff.  
Several Observations may these words afford us, as,  
There is no sin so secretly committed, nor so closely carried, but God seethe and knows it.  
Not one eye among the hundred thousands of Israel had discovered achan's Theft, the conveyance was so close; yet the eye of God saw it. Observe. 3 No darkness of Night, no shadow of Death: 
Psal. 139.1, 2, 3, 4. etc. ad v. 14.  no depth of hell, or of the deceitful heart of Man can cover any thing from the Allseeing eye of God. The darkness and the light to him are both alike. Psal. 139.12. Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more than the hearts of the sons of men? 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Paten●ia, Beza.  Prov. 15.11. There is not any Creature that is not manifest in his sight. 
Aperta. Vulg. Manifesta. Trens. Resupinata. Er. Per medium dissecta. Parçus. Per Anatomiā dissecta. Illy●●.  But all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Heb. 4.13. The smoothest closest hypocrite doth but dance in a Net; he may deceive himself, God he cannot deceive. Our secret sins are in the light of his countenance. Psal. 90.8.  
Applic. 1 Now would we consider this, this day, how might it humble us? how would it fill every heart with trembling and every face with shame, to consider that the God with whom we have t is day to do knows all our sins, our secret sins, our darkness sins, our midnight sins, our Closet sins, our Curtain sins, our Bosom sins; All things are naked and open to this ●od: would we seriously consider this, how would it help to humble us for sins past?  
And would we remember this, how might it preserve us from sinning for time to come, could we when temptations are upon us, remember, That when we have sinned, we cannot hid it from the righteous God? how would it make us Stand in awe, and not sin? Can men find a veil to cast before the Eyes of God, a Mask to blind the Allseeing Eye of God, a Curtain that might hid them from the sight of God; Then might they sinne without fear. But if we can be no where, nor do nothing but before God's Allseeing eye; then again, I say, Stand in awe, and sin not. The Heathen could say, Maxima debetur pueris reverentia siquid turpe paras.— The presence of a child should keep a man from filthiness. There are some sins which he that hath not put off Man and native modesty, would be loath the eye of a Child of five years old should see him in them. Might not the sight and knowledge of the great God be a more powerful means of Restraint, if men would remember it. That Man that can think thus, If I commit this sin, The great God, The Righteous Judge of all the world will see and know it; and yet can dare to sin: That man is more impudent in sinning then was Absalon when he spread a Tent upon the Top of the house, and went in into his Father's wives in the sight of all Israel and of the Sun.  
But especially what a Preservative would the remembrance of this Truth be from that detestable and too too common sin of Hypocrisy. O the thoughts of this, That there is no sin so secret or close, but God can and will find it out! o how would it make us in all Simplicity and Godly Sincerity, study to approve ourselves unto God. Abhorring to do Gods work for our own ends, as Jehu did. For God will find it out, though men cannot; and will charge it home, which is the next thing you may observe out of this part of the Text.  
Observe. 4 That where God comes once to charge sin, 
Vo●ula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etiam quae sapi●s hoc loco iteratur, auxeses continuas significat, ut Hebraeis quoque videtur. Masius. ad loc. Exaggerate causam quae poterat levis videri. Pellicanus. Cri●. en exaggerate particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae toties repetitur. Calv.  he will charge it home in all the degrees and aggravations of it. So here, Israel hath sinned, and which is worse, they have transgressed my Covenant: and yet worse, they have even taken of the accursed thing: and worse yet, they have also stolen: and worse still, they have also dissembled, and they have put it even among the Stuff. According to this form God draws up a Charge and Indictment against David, 2 Sam. 12.7, 8. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee King over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, And I gave thee thy Master's house, and thy Master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Vriah the Hittite with the sword: and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. How sorely doth God charge this sin upon his Dearest Favourite, King David in the depth of its bloody Horror, twice telling him, Thou hast killed, Thou hast slain. In the Height of its Rebellion against God, Thou hast despised the Commandment of the Lord. In the fullness of that violence it offered to all the mercies of God. I anointed thee, and I delivered thee, and I gave thee; and wherefore hast thou despised, & c? It may be long ere God comes to make this charge; But when he doth he will do it to purpose, Psal. 50 21. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence: and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thee.  
Applic. I prosecute the proof of this no further. In one word, let it teach us, if it be possible, to prevent Gods charging sin upon us; which certainly if it be so full cannot but be very dreadful. Now it is possible, There is a way whereby we may prevent it, and that is by charging our sins home upon ourselves. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord, 1 Cor. 11.32. So if we would accuse ourselves, indite ourselves, we should not be accused, indicted, of the Lord; if we would charge sin upon ourselves, God would not charge our sins upon us; if we would remember them, God would forget them; if we would set them this day before our faces, God would cast them this day behind his back: Therefore let us accuse, indite, charge, jud e ourselves, that we may be cleared, acquitted, released, absolved of the Lord.  
But to come to something that we may fix upon, Israel hath sinned, saith God: both rendering the Reason why Israel was smitten, and directing Joshua to what he would have done. Israel hath sinned. Whence observe,  
Observe. 5 That God would have his People, in all the Disasters that befall their Armies, take notice of their own sins.  
Up, Joshua, wherefore liest thou upon thy face? What dost thou weeping and breaking thy heart? There is other work for thee to do: Israel hath sinned, go find out that.  
You know this was that which God instructed his people in long before: that nothing should ever cause their Armies to miscarry but their own sins, so Levit. 26.14, 17. If you will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these Commandments, I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: and ver. 36. upon them that are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies, and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them etc. so Deut. 28.15, 25. If thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to do all that I command thee, the Lord will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies, thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. And in all experience the people of Israel found it so; They never were worsted in their battles, but when they had sinned against their God. Israel from the time of their coming up out of Egypt had been but once put to the worse before their enemies, till this Time: and the Story of that you have Numb. 14. ult. The Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelled in the hill, and smote them and discomfited them even unto Hormah. But the reason of this you may collect from the former verses, Israel had sinned. And all along the whole Story of the Bible you shall constantly find it thus, when Israel was faithful with their God, they ruled with their God and prospered in their wars whithersoever they went. Nay, even Balaam himself could tell, that while Israel kept themselves from sin, God would keep them from mischief in their Army. The Devil himself should not hurt them. Numb. 23.21, 23. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor hath he seen perverseness in Israel. 
Vide Drus. ad diff loc Numer. & Ainsworth ad locum, & Weems upon the Moral Law. part. 1.  The true meaning of which Scripture (what ever sense the Antinomians would put upon it in favour of their opinion, That God seethe no sin in his people) is this. That at this time when Balaak hired Balaam to curse Jacob and defy Israel, there was no Peccatum flagrans, no sin lying upon the Congregation flaming in the eye of God, or stinking in his Nostrils, that might provoke his wrath against them, or cause him to suffer any calamity to befall them: therefore ver. 23. saith he, Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any Divination against Israel. No, it is in vain for men and devils to plot mischief against the Armies of God's people, when there is no sin among them to pull that mischief upon them. All our Disasters of this kind they are the fruits of our own sins, and God would have us look upon them as so: God would have his people in the Disasters that befall their Armies to take notice of their own sins. And that,  
Reason 1 First, that they may hereby be preserved from Atheism, and Apostasy from God: from thinking either that there is no God, or that the God whom they have commended their cause unto is a God that cannot, will not secure them; a thing that the Nature of man is very subject to; you may remember what is said of King Ahaz, 2 Chron. 28.23. Ahaz sacrificed to the Gods of Damascus which smote him, and said, because the Gods of the Kings of Syria help them, therefore I will sacrifice unto their Gods, that they may help me also. There is a Root of this Atheism and Impiety in the heart of every man. And such as God doth not teach to read the cause of their defeats in themselves, are ready to think the enemy's cause, Religion, God to be the better. Now that his people may be preserved from this, God will have them know that their sin is the cause of their Disasters.  
And secondly, God will have them take notice of this, that they may with the more quietness submit to these dispensations of God, and say, The Lord is righteous. That they may not murmur, repine, nor be too querulous at such a time as this: therefore the Lord saith to us, as it is jer. 4.18. Thy way and thy do have procured this unto thee, this is thy wickedness: and as it is again Ezek. 14.23. Ye shall know that I have not done without cause all this that I have done, saith the Lord. That our hearts and mouths may justify God, God will have us know that our sins are the cause of our Disasters. It is not enough to Take notice of the stroke and Mourn for that: But we must Take notice of the sin, and mourn for that. Up, joshua, wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Israel hath sinned.  
Application. In the first place, This may serve to fill our faces this day with shame before the Lord; would our God have us in all the Disasters that befall our Armies take notice of our own sins? Ah Lord! when did we do thus? Is this the first time that God hath frowned upon our Armies? No, no: who hath not heard of the disappointment at the Vises, where a glorious victory slipped out of our hands when we were almost possessed of it. The loss of Bristol, The raising of the Siege at Newarke. I know the mention of these things may expose us to the scorn of our enemies; And let them scorn us, so we may give glory to our God. But have we in these disasters taken notice of our sins as the Causes of them? Nothing less. Men that are not led by Principles of Judgement and Conscience, but by success; that do not own the cause for itself, they upon such Providences as these are ready to desert it, and take over to the enemies. And others are ready to impute it to Cowardice or carelessness, or falsehood or treachery, to something or other in those who are the instruments of managing the business, as if there were not those sins among us that might provoke the Lord to cross the endeavours of the most able and faithful Instruments, as if we could all say with that Roman Emperor, 
Antoninus Philosophus: ut refert ●u●at. Gallican A●●dro Gassio.  Non sic Deos coluimus, aut sic vivimus, ut ille nos vinceret. We have not so served God, nor do we so live as that such an enemy should overcome us. We still cry out of Treachery, Treachery, and accuse others. But O how few are the men that upon such occasions as these enter into their Chambers, and there between God and their souls inquire and say, What have I done?   nemo in sese tentat descendere, Nemo? 
Pecl.  
The Lord harkened and heard, but no man spoke aright. No man repent him of his evil deeds, saying, What have I done? There is indeed an opinion, That Believers, the Children of God ought not to think that their sins have any influence into the Judgements that are upon a people. A soul perverting, a Land destroying opinion it is: The Lord preserve us from it. I am sure David was not of this opinion: Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly, saith David, 2 Sam. 24. when Israel was consumed by the Pestilence, and the Spirit saith expressly 2 Chron. 32.25. That for the sin of Hezekiah, and for the pride of his heart came wrath upon him and upon all jerusalem▪ And yet David was a Believer and a Child of God. Hezekiah was a Believer and a Child of God. If Hezekiah to his former pride that brought wrath upon Jerusalem, had added this further pride to think that his sin had not at all provoked that wrath, because He was a Believer, a justified Person, o what a provocation would that have been; The Lord deliver all his people from such pride of heart: it is too bad out of a slightness and carelessness of spirit not to take notice of our sins in our Disasters: But when this proceeds from an opinion, from a fixed Principle of Judgement and Reason. This makes it much worse.  
In the second place, Is it the will of God that his people should take notice of their sins in the disasters of their armies? Then I beseech you, let us labour to do this will of God: and as before I called you to take notice of the Blow, to be sensible of that, so let me now call you to take notice of the sin, and the Lord help us that we may be sensible of that.  
The Lord speaks to us in this Disaster as he did here to Joshua: Israel hath sinned. But who shall give us a particular discovery of the sin or sins that are the cause of this Disaster? we cannot go and as Joshua did here, or as Saul did, 1 Sam. 14.38. cast the lot that we may know and see where this sin hath been. Who is the prudent man that knoweth this, and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth? Jer. 9.12. Oh that we could discover it. It is a Discovery that might more advantage England then the Discovery of as much Treasure as is in both the Indies. It might be the saving of the rest of our Armies, of the Cause, and therein of All. What may we think the sin, the cause of this Disaster to be? I will tell you what we may not think it to be. We may not, we must not think that there is sin in the foundation of the Action. That the Ground and cause of the war is unjust and sinful, because of this Disaster: no more than Ioshua's here, or the Benjamites, judg. 20. no though God should frown yet further upon us, and break us with breach upon breach. We must yet say as the Church, Psal. 44.17, 18, 19 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, nor dealt falsely in thy Covenant. Our heart is not turned back: neither have our steps declined from thy way. Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons, and covered us with the shadow of Death. Never repent that we have embarked ourselves in the quarrel; for the sin lies not in the cause itself. But where then? I profess sincerely I cannot tell you where: if I could I durst not be so unfaithful to God, to your souls, to the Kingdom, as to conceal it: All that I can say is, That as God in this his Providence hath frowned upon not only our Armies, but the Parliament, the City, and the whole well-affected Party both Ministers and People, so All have sinned: and possibly all our sins have an influence into this calamity that is now upon us. And therefore let All of us, Parliament-men, Commanders, Soldiers, Citizens, Ministers, People, All of us, o let us search ourselves, and inquire in our several Orbs and Activities what our ways have been, that so, if possible, we may find out what and where this sin is.  
There is a spirit in man which is as the Candle of the Lord searching the innermost parts of the belly, Prov. 20.27. that consulted with will discover hidden things. Now therefore every one of you consult your own spirits.  
And first, you that are Members of the Honourable Houses of Parliament (for I must speak to you; God and yourselves have called me hither this day, to what end if not to speak to you.) Oh how do I fear lest some sins of yours may have a great influence into this Disaster that is now upon us; This I am sure of, Parliament sins, and sins of Parliament men are great Provocations. Look how much honour God hath put upon every One of you singly more than upon others of your Rank that are not Members of this Honourable Body; and look how much more honour God hath put upon you jointly as a Parliament more than upon other Parliaments, so much the greater is your Engagement unto God; and if you sinne it is so much the greater Provocation: o that you would ever remember it, Was there ever Parliament that had so many Prayers, Deliverances, Wonders waiting upon it as you? Was there ever Parliament that had God so near unto them in all things? o such a Parliament should as (Caesar said sometimes of his wife) be free not only à culpâ, sed & à suspitione. In the Name of jesus Christ, whose Minister I am, and to whom I must give account of the discharge of this day's service, I beseech you (Right Honourable) let this hand of God, (under which you are met to humble yourselves this day,) cause every one of you seriously and impartially to review your ways (not as men but as Parliament-men) commune every one with your own hearts and say, What have I done? How have I discharged the trust that God and man have committed to me? o remember God and man have entrusted you with that which is dearest to them both. God hath entrusted you with his Gospel, with his Glory, with the affairs of the Kingdom of his Son, with the welfare of that Church which he hath purchased with his own Blood. Men have entrusted you with their Estates, Liberties, Lives: o that these things were written upon the walls of the Houses where you daily sit: as over the gate of the Senate house in Rome was written, Ne quid Respublica detrimenti capiat. Let the Commonwealth receive no damage. But your care must be not only for Commonwealth, but for the Church and Religion to; both are committed to your Trust. But o that you would inquire this day how you have discharged this Trust. Every man reflect upon himself and say, Am I the man that have been cold and lukewarm in matters of Religion, that have retarded businesses of Reformation. That have said, It is not yet time to Build the Lords house. If we settle any thing in matters of Religion, we shall be loser's by it? Am I the man that am afraid to hear of Government or Discipline, lest it should give check to some lust or opinion of mine? Am I the man that have made use of the Power and Interest God hath given me in Parliament, to turn aside the right of a man, to subvert a man in his cause; to oppress the righteous cause of an enemy, or advance the unrighteous cause of a friend: To obstruct or pervert that course of strict and impartial Justice, which God and man call for the execution of? Am I the man that have driven my own designs in public service; that have made it my work to seek great things for myself, at such a time as this, when God seems to be taking down what he had built up, and plucking up what he had planted, and shouldest thou seek great things for thyself? Jer. 45. Am I the man, & c? Pardon me, Beloved, if I mention these particulars: your very friends that Love you, Honour you, Pray for you, that have it in their hearts to live and to die with you, cannot but mourn to see your proceed in Religion and justice so foreslowed, though where the fault is, we know not o that you would inquire among yourselves this day. Again and again in the bowels of jesus Christ, I humbly beseech you, Search, Search and try your ways. o if there should be any corruption, any perverseness, any rottenness, any selfe-end, any ungodly design in any of you, God will search it out, if you will not: your sin will find out you, if you will not find out it. I say unto you from God as Moses did to those of Israel. Numb. 32.23. Be sure your sin will find you out. And remember, I beseech you, what the Spirit of God saith, Eccles. 9.18. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good. The Wisdom of a Parliament is better than the weapons of an Army, and may do much good; but one sinner may destroy it all, and may make the Counsels of a Parliament, and the weapons of war in the hand of the gallantest Army in the world miscarry. Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity. Josh. 22.20. o Better thou hadst never known Parliament, then to sit in Parliament, and by thy sin destroy all the good that a Poor Bleeding Kingdom, that THREE Poor Bleeding Kingdoms might reap by it.  
Were I to speak to our Soldiery this day, I would be as earnest with them that they would search themselves. I would turn them to that Scripture Deut. 23.9. When thine host goeth forth against thine enemy, then keep thee from every wicked thing. For (ver. 14.) the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy Camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee: therefore shall thy camp be holy, that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. I would ask our Soldiers how they have kept this Commandment of the Lord. I would say to them as the Prophet Oded did to the Army of Israel: 2 Chron. 28.10. Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God. Nay, I would dare to say, There are. And therefore in the Name of Jesus Christ would charge them every one to consult their own Consciences, and say, What have I done? Is it my drunkenness, or my blasphemy, my uncleanness, my rapine, my violence, my oppressing the Godly and well-affected party, for whom I pretend to fight: (these Pests our Armies are too full of) is it my etc. that is the cause of this Displeasure, this disuster?  
Yea, I would speak to our Commanders, and bid them say to their own hearts, Is it my doing the work of the Lord negligently, Jer. 48.10. is it my height of spirit, my ambition, my standing upon Punctilios, my preferring my own interest and honour before the good of an Army, of a Kingdom, etc. o that men of brave Heroic spirits, Christians should not be able to deny themselves in point of honour or interest, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Herodot. in Vran.  or personal wrong or difference, for a Public good, as much as heathens. How memorable is that of Themistocles and Aristides, who forgetting old grudges and injuries could in a time of common danger join their Counsels and forces together against the common enemy. It is time now, saith Aristides, to lay by other contentions, and contend now who should do most good to his Native Country. But of all, the spirit of that Roman Fabius justly called Maximus was most admirable, who being advanced to a place of highest dignity and command, to be Dictator of the City of Rome, (an office of absolute and unlimited Power) met with the most unworthy and undeserved affronts and discouragements, and overcame them with the greatest constancy to his employments and counsels and faithfulness to his Cause and country that ever (almost) man did. 
Liv li. 2●. c. 18.  Minutius the master of the horse (the next man in command to himself,) first clancularly traducing him in the army for a heavy slothful man, a man of no courage or activity, only because he was not so precipitate and rash to put all to a push as he would have him. 
Cap. 14.  Then after daring publicly in the head of the Army to declaim against him, and make a speech tending to no other end but to put the army into a mutiny. In Rome the people are filled with prejudice against him by letters and rumours from the Army. Metilius one of the Tribunes of the people makes a bitter invective against him in a solemn and public audience. 
Cap. 25.  The Senate (the Parliament as it were) of Rome whereof himself was a member will scarce hear him with patience make his own defence. In conclusion things are brought to that pass, that the Dictator is tantùm non, put out of office. But contrary to all former Precedent they make a Law that Minutius shall have equal command with him, 
Cap. 27.  and the supreme command to be equally shared between them both. Accordingly the Legions are divided, Fabius hath one half and Minutius the other horse and foot. Some man (nay, almost any man) would have fling down his sword, abandoned the service, let such an indiscreet, such an ingrate people sink or swim. But saith the Historian, qua animi gravitate criminantes se ad populum tulerat eadem & populi in se saevientis injuriam tulit. Nay, within a little while after when Minutius and the party under his command had like to have been all cut off by Hannibal, he (not listening to what Envy, or what Revenge might dictate to him) came in to their relief presently, and not only rescued them, but by that courtesy reduced Minutius to his obedience again; the man is as willing to resign his command as ever he was ambitious to take it up. Truly these glorious sparklings of something humano majus, even in heathens, of selfe-deniall, of faithfulness, of Zeal for a public good, swallowing up all other interests of Faction, Honour, Priority, Power. These things even in heathens, make me blush, wonder, tremble. Si faciunt hoc Ethnici ut fama sua nomen extendant, 
Dan.  quid agendum est Christianis ut in coelesti sibi gloriâ sedes acquirant? If Heathens will do thus much for a Bubble of vainglory upon Earth: what should Christians do for a Crown of Glory in Heaven?  
Or were I to speak this day to the Ministry of England that are rightly affected to the glory of God and the Public good: I would entreat them to consider with me, whether we may not fear that some of our former sins in the matter of God's Day and Worship may at this time come in remembrance before the Lord (especially seeing we have been no more humbled for them?) and whether our present divisions and dissensions, and the undue managing of them may not have an influence into our present calamities? I remember in the beginning of the first Reformation there fell an unhappy difference between Luther and Zuinglius, and their followers, which was managed with a great deal of bitterness, and remains to this day uncomposed. And both parties smarted under the sword of the common enemy the longer, it is probable for their disagreement among themselves. The Lord grant it fall not out so to us. O that we could all of us both Ministers and people remember that vehement obtestation of the Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 1.10. Now I beseech you brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement. Oh that at least the advantage that redounds to our enemies and disadvantage to ourselves from these our differences, might compose them for us. And that we would imitate Basil and Eusebius, who perceiving the common adversary the Arrians, to improve a difference which was between them to the prejudice of the Orthodox Churches, were soon reconciled: and employed their united strengths against those enemies. But I digress too fare: to return therefore to my present Auditory.  
You that stand here before the Lord this day (Men and Brethren) I beseech you every one ask your own Consciences, and say, What have I done? what sin is it of mine that hath awakened this hand of God against us?  
Is it my unsensibleness of the indignation of the Lord in this civil destructive war? Is it my pride, my luxury, my eating flesh, my drinking wine, my clothing myself with scarlet, my walking with an outstretched neck at such a time as this, when the Lord calls to weeping, and mourning, and baldness, and girding with sackcloth every day? Believe it, brethren, it is a great provocation in the eyes of our God to behold so much bravery and joviality as he sees every day in this great City at such a time as this, when he is making his sword drunk with the blood of our slain. There are three Texts of Scripture, Oh that all the children of pride and vanity would but study them, Ezek. 21.9.10. A sword, a sword it is sharpened, and also furbished. It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished, that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? Isai. 22.12, 13. And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth. And behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and kill sheep, eating flesh, and dinking wine. Isai. 3. 16-25, 26. Moreover, the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet. Therefore thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. Little do our Ladies think that their Gallantry (which that third of Isaiah gives an Inventory of) may make our mighty men fall in the war, and our strongest Cities sit upon the ground.  
But, say again: Is it my trusting to an arm of flesh, my putting confidence in the Gallantry of our Army (and ah Lord! in this thing, the Lord be merciful to us, who almost can plead Not guilty) that hath made this Arm of flesh to whither? Is it my neglect of Prayer? Am I the man that when I heard our Army was in straits; nay, when his Excellency sent to desire Prayers, my wretched heart would not lift up one Prayer: Nay, if it were to do again, if One Prayer would save the Army, save the Kingdom, I could not do it? Am I the man that have with those perverse Israelites despised the pleasant Land, the Land of desires, as it is Psal. 106.24. When Israel was in Egypt there was nothing they desired more than the Land of Canaan; when they were come out of Egypt, and were upon the borders of that Land, than they despised it, and wished themselves in Egypt again. o that it were not so with us: It is not long since a Parliament, an Assembly of Godly Divines, the Reformation of the Church in Doctrine, Worship, and Discipline was the desire of all the well-affected in the Nation. But now the Parliament— the Assembly of Divines despised. The Reformation (which we are now even upon the borders of) in Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, despised. Men wish themselves in Egypt again. And had rather be under Prelatical Bondage then under a Government most conform to the Word, and to the Government of other Reformed Churches. No Reformation of Religion now: now nothing will satisfy some but a Toleration of all Religions and all Opinions. Church Government, Discipline is to some a fiction, to others Tyranny and Persecution. Ah Brethren this is a Provocation, and will be a Provocation, for this God may turn us into the wilderness again.  
It were an endless task to enumerate the rest of the particular sins that possibly the people of this City and this Kingdom may be guilty of: and that God may have his Eye and Hand upon in this Rebuke that he hath given us. And therefore I must not prosecute this any further. Only again, I beseech you all, Lords, Gentlemen, Soldiers, Ministers, Men, Women, Every one of you say to yourselves, Sure we have sinned. Israel hath sinned; and every one of you ask your own Consciences, saying, What have I done? And let us all in the fear of God make it one part of this days Supplications, that God would please to show us where this sin is, and say with Job, Chap. 10.2. Show us wherefore thou contendest with us.  
And if you please to take but one view more of the Text, God may please to show us something more than we yet see. Israel hath sinned, (saith the Lord) and they have also transgressed my Covenant; wherein the Lord lets Joshua understand, that as sin in general, so in particular breach of Covenant was the cause of the disaster, Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my Covenant. Whence I commend this to your observation;  
That the violation of the Covenant of God is such a sin as will make Israel turn their back before their Enemies.  
I do not intent a large discourse about violation of Covenant, to set out the odious & provoking nature of that sin. I shall only briefly do two things. First, I shall show how a Covenant may be called the Covenant of God. Secondly, I shall prove that the breach of any Covenant that may be so called, is such a sin as will make Israel turn their backs before their Enemies. For the first of these; How a Covenant may be called a Covenant of God. For of such a Covenant the Text speaks; They have transgressed My Covenant: and so the Doctrine, the violation of the Covenant of God, etc. Now a Covenant may be said to be a Covenant of God, two ways. 1 Either per modum obligationis: or 2. Per modum attestationis.  
First, per modum obligationis, when we do directly and immediately engage and bind ourselves unto God, when God is the Party covenanted with, as in our Sacramental Covenants, and in all Covenants purely Religious both for matter and manner.  
Or else a Covenant may be said to be the Covenant of God, per modum attestationis, when a Covenant (though made between two equal parties) is yet made in the Name of God, and in the Sight of God; God is called to be a witness to it, and an avenger of the Breach of it. So in that Covenant that Laban made between himself and jacob. Gen. 31.44. Come let us make a Covenant, I and thou, and mark what he saith after this Covenant, ver. 50. God is a witness between me and thee: Such a Covenant as this, wherein the Obligation is unto Man, made in the Name of God, God counts his own, no less than a Covenant, the Obligation whereof is immediately to himself: so you find Ezek. 17. the Covenant which the King of judah had made with the King of Babylon, God calls his Oath and his Covenant, ver. 19 Mine Oath that he hath despised, and my Covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his head. Now the Doctrine comprehends both these, and tells us that the violation of the Covenant of God, (that is of a Covenant either made directly and immediately with God; or made with others in the name and in the sight of God) is such a sin, as will make Israel turn their back before their Enemies.  
For the proof of this (which is the second thing I have to do) besides the Text before us, I shall only bring a Text or two, look in the 78. Psal. ver. 9, 10. you shall read there, the children of Ephraim being harnessed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle: They kept not the Covenant of God. The Children of Ephraim were daring men, courageous men, mighty men of valour: for so we read of them in Scripture. The children of Ephraim, being Armed, that is with defensive Arms: it may be as completely armed as that giant of Gath, that had a helmet of brass, and a shield of brass and greaveses of brass; Armed they were: and carrying bows: furnished with offensive arms that could eminus ferire, reach their Enemies at the best advantage at distance. The children of Ephraim being thus armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle; what ailed thee o Ephraim that thou wert afraid? what ailed thee o Ephraim that thou fleddest backward? They kept not the Covenant of God. There, there's the reason, had they kept the Covenant of God, God would have kept them; but they kept not the Covenant of God, and therefore it was not their Bow nor Harness that could keep them: being armed, and carrying bows they turned back in the day of Battle: They kept not the Covenant of God.  
So Ezek. 17.11. jehoiakim King of judah had made a Covenant with the King of Babylon to be his Tributary, afterwards reputes him; breaks his Covenant with the King of Babylon, sends to Egypt for horses and much people, and a mighty Army. Now saith God, shall he prosper? shall he escape that doth these things? shall he break Covenant and be delivered? verse. 15. No: Pharaoh and all his mighty Army shall do him no good: They shall all fall by the sword, and they that remain of him shall be scattered towards all winds, ver. 21. His breach of Covenant shall break his army, were it never so mighty, and make it be as dust before the winds, So jer. 34. The Princes and people of judah had made a Covenant, (ver. 15.) that at the end of seven years they would every man let his brother an Hebrew that had been sold unto him go free, according to the law of God in that case, Exod. 21.2. Deut. 15.12. yet afterwards they violated this Covenant, and caused their servants whom they had set free, to return again to their service: therefore thus saith the Lord, ver. 18. I will give the men that have transgressed my Covenant, which have not performed the words of the Covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof. I will even give them into the hand of their Enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life. See the proper punishment of breach of Covenant, is giving up to the lust and will of bloodthirsty Enemies.  
To these stories recorded in Sacred writ, I shall add but one of latter times, the memorable story of the famous battle of Varna, 
●●ales ●●lefior●. Chr●●. Carton. Lib. 15.  fought Nou. 10. 1444. between Amarath the sixth, Emperor of the Turks, and Vladislaus King of Hungary, one of the gallantest Soldiers the Christian world them had: which Vladislaus having made a solemn League or Covenant of peace, with the Turk, 
Knolls his Turkish haste ●y.  was afterwards persuaded by julian the Pope's Legate to violate that League, and make war upon the borders of the Turkish Territories; whereupon the Turk raiseth a mighty Army, takes the field: they join battle, the first Skirmishes seem to promise victory to the Christians; the Turks were even almost put to flight: when Amurath plucks out of his bosom the writing, wherein the late League was comprehended, and holding it aloft in his hand, with eyes cast up to Heaven, saith thus; Behold thou crucified Christ, this is the League thy people in thy name made with me, and now have violated without cause: If thou be a God, as they say thou art, show thy power, and pour out thy wrath upon this perjured people. Dictum, factum, God did justice upon the Appeal of an Enemy a Turk, who in his very appeal spoke Blasphemy: yet God will do him justice; presently the battle turns, and it proved a very bloody fatal day to the Christian Army; the King and many of their chief Commanders slain, the whole army routed, a great part of that Country lost; nothing the cause of all this, more than breach of Covenant. The Violation of the Covenant of God is such a sin as will bring disaster upon any Army under Heaven.  
Now to apply this to ourselves.  
I am sure you have not forgotten, for it is not yet a full year since you did with your hands lifted up to the most high, even in this place, Swear a SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, in a most solemn and religious manner. I may say to you, as joshua did unto the people, when they had renewed their Covenant with God, joshua 24.27. Behold these stones are a witness unto you, that you have made a Solemn Covenant with God, as ever people made. Sure you have not forgotten it. I am sure God hath not; God remembreth it, God hath remembered it in mercy all this year hitherto: and now God seems to begin to remember it in judgement. Me thinks this stroke of God upon us so near that time Twelvemonth, wherein we took the Covenant, seems to speak as if God intended once a year to require an account of this Covenant at the hand of England. o that we could call ourselves to account this day. The jews have a proverb, Non est paena super Israelem in qua non sit unci● vituli. There is no punishment upon Israel, in which there is not one ounce of the Golden Calf, meaning thus; That was such a transgression, as it is in God's remembrance, every time he plague's them, and hath some influence into every calamity that falls upon them. In like manner we may say, Non est poena super Angliam in qua non sit uncia Foederis. We fall under no punishment, but there is an ounce of our Covenant in it. I beseech you please to review a little, some of the chief Articles of that Covenant, and see how we have observed it.  
In the first, we engage ourselves sincerely, really and constantly to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in England and Ireland, in Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and Government, according to the Word of God, and the Pattern of the best Reformed Churches. A blessed and glorious work, which as it hath the first place in our Covenant, so challengeth and deserveth the first and chief in our hearts. But what hath been done in this great work since the Covenant was taken? It is that God and man inquire after: What hath the Assembly done? what hath the Parliament done in the Reformation of Religion? When will some Order be settled for the Worship of God? When will the Government of the Church be established according to the Word of God? I fear, God takes it very grievously, that since we have made a Covenant for Reformation, we have spent now a year, & done so little in it.  
We have covenanted in like manner, without respect of Persons, to endeavour the Extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, Superstition, Schism, profaneness, and what ever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness. And blessed be God for the extirpation of Popery, Prelacy and Superstition, much hath been done. But (I know not by what unhappiness it is, but) so it is that this last year since we all covenanted to endeavour to our utmost (without respect of Persons) to endeavour the extirpation of Heresy and Schism; Heresy and Schism have increased upon us more than ever. We are grown beyond Arminianism, Brownism, Anabaptism, we are come (I mean many among us) to downright Libertinism. There are two opinions, which if encouraged, (& they are encouraged, if connived at) will open a door to Turkism, judaisme, Atheism, Polytheisme, any monster of opinion. The one is, That every man is to be left to the Liberty of his own Religion, an opinion contended for by the bloody tenets, John Baptist, Liberty of Conscience, and the like Pamphlets: An opinion most pernicious and destructive, as to the souls of men, so to the Commonweal of the Kingdom. 
Gerhard 〈◊〉. come. de Magistratu. § 199.  Libertas illa quidlibet credendi (saith Gerhard) nihil aliud est quam libertas errandi, etc. That Liberty of believing what men will (or of holding what faith they please) is no other than a Liberty of erring, and of erring in a matter that concerns the Eternal Salvation of the Soul, wherein to err cannot but be most dangerous and destructive; and therefore (saith he) as it cannot be safe for sheep to be left alone to wander in mountains and deserts, and graze in what pastures they please: Lest they fall upon some unwholesome herb, or become a prey to the Wolf: And as it cannot be safe to leave a Ship to itself to be driven by the winds and waves without any guide or Steerage, lest it dash itself against the Rocks: So it cannot be safe for Magistrates to leave people to a Liberty of being of what Faith and what Religion they please; Lest being carried away from the true Faith and Religion, they become a prey to destruction. Nor is any thing almost more destructive to a State or Commonweal. Praecipuum Concordiae vinculum est Religionis similitudo & de cultibus Divinis Consensio. Likeness of Religion, and agreement in the Worship of God is the strongest Bond of Concord. 
Bucholc in Chronol.  Nor is there any thing that doth more unite the Minds of men than the same opinions of God, and Communion in sacred things. On the contrary, Diversity of Religion disjoynts and distracts the minds of men, and is the Seminary of perpetual hatreds, jealousies, seditions, wars, if any thing in the world be, and in a little time, either a Schism in the State begets a Schism in the Church, or a Schism in the Church begets a Schism in the State. That is, either Religion and the Church is prejudiced by Civil Contentions, or Church controversies and disputes about opinions break out into cruel wars. 
Quod à nobis avertat Deus!  Men will at last take up swords and spears in stead of Pens: and defend by Arms what they cannot do by Arguments. Nor do we want Examples that tell us, that Bella sacra are managed with more enraged minds then common wars are. 
Gualth. in Luc. cap. 10.  For (as another saith) Constat nulla esse atrociora odia, etc. It is apparent that no hatred is so cruel, no dissension so bitter, as that which ariseth from difference in Religion. For such is the Power of Religion, that it possesseth the whole man, and if once it degenerate into superstition, doth so inflame men's minds against those of the contrary party, as they not only hate them, but are even mad against them, etc. And the more we have been sometimes united in Religion and the ways of God, the greater will the mischief be that this Diversity, shall I say, or Universality of Religions and opinions pleaded for by some will lay us under. 
Philip. Cawer. in oper. sacris. cap. 92.  For Odia acerbiora & immortalia inter eos existere solent qui in fide & Religione conjunctissimis animis fuere, etc. The bitterest and most immortal hatred is usually between those that have sometimes been of the most concordant minds in Faith and Religion; and afterwards begin to differ: for nothing doth more alienate the minds of men quam similis vel dispar Religio.  
Once for all, it is the Preservation and Reformation of Religion which you have covenanted to endeavour, and not a Liberty of opinion, that will consist with neither. It is the Extirpation of Heresy and Schism that you have covenanted: which if to be connived at, why doth the Apostle Paul reprove the Corinthians for their Schisms so much? and why doth our Lord Jesus commend the Angel of the Church of Ephesus for trying those which said they were Apostles, and were not? And why is the Angel of the Church of Thyatira reproved for suffering that woman Jezabel, who called herself a Prophetess, to teach and seduce. If once we come to this that any man be suffered to teach what he pleaseth, to seduce whom he lists, to be of what Faith, or Religion seems good in his own eyes, farewell Covenant, farewell Reformed Religion, farewell the Peace and Glory of England. If that day once come. But you (Right Honourable) I hope better things of you, though I thus speak. I hope while you live and sit in Parliament this shall never be. 
Greg. Tholoz●●de Repub. lib. 8.  Fieri nec solet nec potest, ut quit Deum sincerè & ex toto corde diligat, qui diversas Religiones simul fovere desiderat: certissimum enim ost neutram credere qui contrarias admittit. It is not usual, nay, it is not possible that they which love God sincerely should desire to cherish differing Religions: for it is most certain, he that admits contrary Religions believes neither of them.  
There is a second dangerous opinion (give me leave in the name not only of all the Ministers of Christ in England, but of all the Ministers that Christ hath in the world to complain of it, it is this) That there is no Jus Divinum upon the Calling of the Ministry. To this purpose there was a Pamphlet lately put forth, bearing the Name of the compassionate Samaritane, that under pretence of pouring Wine and Oil upon the wounded Anabaptists, (as he fancies them) pours the venom of Dragons and the gall of Asps not only upon the Assembly (who yet are to no other end an Assembly then that they may be serviceable to God and you in the things of Jesus Christ) nor only upon the Ministry of the Church of England, for than I had held my peace at this time; but upon the whole Ministry of Christ through the world; and would make that Sacred and Tremend Function to be as mere an Imposture, as very a mystery of iniquity, as arrant a juggle as the Papacy itself. I shall not need tell you what Anvil this was forged upon, nor that the Principles of Anabaptism are as destructive to the Magistracy as they are to the Ministry. All that I say is this, the Lord make you mindful of your Covenant, and wise and able to apply apt and seasonable Remedies to these growing evils before they be incurable.  
We have covenanted against profaneness too. But what hath been done against? True it is you have made pious Ordinances for the strict Observation of the Lords Day, and days of solemn Humiliation. But for want of a strict course prescribed, for the bringing of such as shall yet dare to profane these days to severe and exemplary punishment, not only in the Country, but here in the City, and before your eyes, Sabbaths and Fasts are as much contemned as ever. It would be worthy of your second thoughts, what further course to take for the better sanctifying of those Days. As also for the stopping of that Rage of all manner of profaneness that in these lose and arbitrary times breaks in as a flood upon us: and no wonder; Perverse opinions, and perverse manners always walk hand in hand together. 
Buchol. in Chronol.  O●●nibus seculis Doctrinae coelestis corruptionem comitatur pu●●●u morum corruptela: quae tandem Regnis ultima fata attrahit. Common corruption of manners hath ever attended corruption of Doctrine; and this at length brings desolation upon a Kingdom. We live in a strange age for licentiousness of opinion, and as strange for licentiousness of living; There was a thing done not many days since, not fare from this place, I think the like was hardly ever done before in England, or in the Christian world, I mean that scandalous abominable— I know not what to call it, I doubt not but you know what I mean; how fare your wisdoms will think fit to take notice of it, and inquire after it, I know not. But certainly it was such an affront to the Justice of God, such a dare to the power of his wrath now burning against us; such a scorn to the whole Nobility, Gentry, and Parliament of England, as both your own Honour and Gods call upon you to show your just indignation against it: Had some young Gallants in Rome (while heathen) played such a Trick the Censores morum would have at least degraded them.  
We have Covenanted, to bring Incendiaries, Malignants and evil instruments to punishment. Since this Covenant, God hath delivered many of yours, and the Kingdom's chief Enemies into your hands. I will not inquire what justice you have done upon them; That may upon some prudential considerations be deferred possibly. But whether it be right in the sight of God, that his and the Kingdom's Enemies, when God hath shut them up in your hand, should not only have their Lives and their Ease, but their lusts, their sins indulged them, and (which is the common complaint) in your prisons Swear, and Drink, and Gluttonize, and be as jovial, and as filthy, as in their own Garrisons: whither this be right or no, consider. Some possiby are ready to say to you, 
Petr. Nicol. Gelstroup.  as that poor smith in Thuring did to the Landt-grave of that Country (who was more mild than was for his people's good) Duresce, Duresce, o infoelix Landtgravie, etc. I know there aught to be in those, into whose hands God hath put the sword, a contemperature of Severity and clemency. The sword of justice must be furbished with the Oil of Mercy; yet there are cases in which severity ought to cast the scale. I know not what to think of that saying of Tully: Simo clementes esse voluerimus, 
Cicero Epist. ad Brutum.  nunquam ●●●erunt Bella civilia: yet there is a great deal of reason in that which one speaks in confirmation of it, 
Zevecotius in Observatis Politi●is. cap. 14.  Paena Lenior majorem peccandi occasionem suggerit etc. a slight punishment doth but tempt men to wickedness, while all men hope they may escape, and never be discovered: or if they be, they know before hand they shall go away with it pretty cheap. Therefore saith the same writer, Laudo Venetos apud ques unicum publicae pecuniae denarium intervertisse, non infame solum est, sed & Capital. Consilia & decreta patrum revelasse quempiam rarò auditum est, semper graviter punitum.  
We have all Covenanted for ourselves, and all that are under our power, both in Public & in Private, in all duties we own to God and man, to amend our Lives, and each to go before other, in the example of a Real Reformation: had we kept this Covenant, o what Saints should we have been: all our families would have been as so many Churches: England would by this time have been the Holy Island: we had not now been fasting, and weeping, and mourning, but rejoicing, and singing, & praising. But, I beseech you Beloved, tell me, is there that Evidence of Personal and Family Reformation, that such a Covenant as this did seem to promise? Look upon the Families of Lords, Gentlemen, Citizens, where is such a Reformation as this Covenant binds us to? Me thinks in all these particulars, It is too too evident that we have transgressed our Covenant. We have sinned, and transgressed our Covenant. The Lord help us to lay this sin to heart. There is indeed a double violation of Covenants: the one through wilfulness, this I hope you are free from. The other through unmindfulness; This may be chargeable upon Gods own Servants, They were not mindful of his Covenant, saith the Psalmist. Now even this is cause of Humiliation to us. I remember the Day wherein we took the Covenant together in this place, was like the Day of laying the foundation of the second Temple. A Day of shouting, & a Day of weeping. A Day of joy, and a Day of trembling. A Day of joy and shouting, to see Parliament, Ministers, People, so willingly offer to join themselves in Covenant to the Lord; 'twas such a Day as England never saw before: and yet withal a Day of Trembling & Weeping. The Lord knows there was many a gracious heart trembled that day, for fear we should transgress the Covenant we then made. And now, behold, your eyes see, even yours; we have done so in too great a measure. O what should our Weeping, and Trembling be before the Lord this Day. O let every one of us take up a Lamentation and cry with Ezra: O my God, I am ashamed, & confounded, and blush to lift up my face unto thee, o my God. Behold, we are before thee in our sins and trespasses: and cannot stand before thee because of this. O let us be humbled for our Covenant breaches past, and if we would not have God go on to break and blast our Armies, let us not only renew our Covenants (which is a part of the work of this day) but let us be mindful of and faithful to our Covenants; or never look to have God more with our Armies. The Lord tells Joshua plainly in the 12. verse of this Chap. Neither will I be with you any more, till you have destroyed the accursed thing from among you. Breach of Covenant is an accursed thing. It is a polluting of the great and dreadful Name of the Lord our God. The Lord our God is a jealous God. We cannot expect he should be any more with us, while such a provocation is among us.  
FINIS.