A SERMON PREACHED AT THE PVBLIQVE FAST the eighth of March, in St MARIES OXFORD, BEFORE The Great Assembly of the Members OF THE HONOVR-ABLE house OF COMMONS There Assembled.  
By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS L. Bishop of OSSORY:  

And published by their special Command.   JOHN 14.6. 
I am the way, the truth, and the life.  
Oxford, Printed by Henry Hall. 1644.   

Die Sabbati nono Martii. 1643.  
ORdered that Master Bodvell and Master Watkins give the Bishop of Ossory thankes, and desire him to Print his Sermon.  
Noah Bridges.   

THE ONELY WAY TO PRESERVE LIFE.  AMOS 5.6. 
seek the Lord, and you shall live.  
LIght is the first-borne of all the distinguished Creatures; the first word, 
The excellency of the light.  that the eternal word, after so many ages of silence uttered forth, was, Let there be light; 
Gen. 1.3.  light that giveth life to all colours, that is the mother of all beauties, which hath no positive contrary in nature, which maketh all things manifest, to the detestation of all evil, and the crowning of every good, and which is a creature so beloved of the Creator, that he calleth himself by this name, saying, {αβγδ}; 
1. John. 1.5.  and he makes it the most worthy associate of truth, when he saith, sand forth thy light and thy truth: therefore light is a jewel, 
Psal. 43.3.  not to be valued by the judgement of man.  
And yet the fight, by which we partake of all the benefits of the light, and without which the light will avail us nothing, nor yield us any comfort, as good old Toby sheweth, saying, Quale gaudium est mihi qui in tenebris sedeo? is but one sense, and but scarce the fifth part of the happiness of the sensitive creature; a small thing, in respect of that most invaluable good, which is termed life, 
Life, how precious.  and which is of more worth to every living creature, then is all the world; for the father of lies spake truth herein, 
Job 2.4.  though to a lying end, That skin for skin, and all that ever a man hath, he will give for his life.  
Therefore, as the greatest threatening that God laid upon Adam, to deter him from Rebellion, and to detain him within the compass of his obedience, 
Gen. 2.17.  was, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death; so the greatest blessing that he promiseth to any man for all his service, is life, or to live, as The just shall live by faith. 
Hab. 2.4.  Which sheweth how detestable, beyond my ability of expression, 
The bloodthirsty, how detestable.  are those blood thirsty men, that so maliciously and wickedly do hunt after the life of man, and do  shed the blood of so many innocents; no ways like that good God, which made not death, nor desireth the death of any sinner, much less the destruction of the righteous; nor yet like Alexander, that knew not God, yet knew this, that when his mother Olympias, that was a bloody woman, lay hard upon him, to kill a certain innocent person, and to that end said often to him, that she carried him 9 moneths in her womb, therefore he had no reason to deny her; answered her most wisely, 
Am. Marcellin. l. 14. c. 10.  Good mother ask for that, some other reward and recompense, because the life of man is so dear, that no benefit can countervail it, and the unjust taking of it away is so heinous, that it is impossible for any mortal man to make satisfaction for so great an offence.  
What shall we say then to those {αβγδ}, 
march. 3.7.  that when their own most gracious King doth so often solicit for peace, do still make them ready for battle, and have taken away the lives of so many thousands of men? truly, if they are not {αβγδ}, 
Theff. 2.3.  yet certainly they are the sons of Apollyon, the children of the destrayer, 
Death, how terrible.  that without speedy repentance can receive no better reward then damnation.  
But as life is the sweetest and the most excellent of all things that are in this world, 
Aristot, Ethic. l. 3. c. 6.  so death( saith the Philosopher) est omnium terribilium terribilissimum; because this bringeth our yeares to an end, finisheth our dayes, and puts a period to all our joys; and though there is but one way of life for all men, and that one alike to all, to come naked out of their mothers womb; 
Job. 1.21.  yet, as the Poet saith, 
mill modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat.  
Statius Thebald. l. 9.  There are a thousand ways to bring any one of us unto his death.  
And here the Prophet threateneth death unto the people of Israel many ways; 
The Israelites how threatened. Ovid de Trist.  
Quocunque aspiciunt, nihil est nisi pontus& ather.  For, the city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred, 
Vers. 3.  and that which went out by an hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel, that is, as Remigius and Hugo say, the Israelites shall be so plagued by the Assyrians, 
Reg. 18.10.  as well in the three yeares siege of Samaria, as also before and after the same, by the sword, famine, and the pestilence, which, Sicut unda sequitur undam, do ever follow like Jobs messengers, one in the heel of another, the sword always bringing famine, and the famine producing pestilence, so that almost all shall be consumed, and scarce ten of a hundred shall be left. And as the spirit of God saith unto Esayas, go, tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not. Then said the Prophet, Lord, how long? 
Esay 6.10.  and he answered, until the Cities be wasted without Inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the Land be utterly desolate; 
England, how threatened, and how miserable we are.  So now this distressed, though formerly most happy kingdom, is threatened to be scourged in like manner; with the worst of warres, famines, and pestilences. 
Prasentémque viris intendunt omnia mortem.  And as the Poet saith, all that we do see, say, we are appointed to be destroyed, and destined unto death; when as S. Bernard saith, Quos fugere seimus, ad quos nescimus; we know whom we would shun, but we scarce know where or to whom we may fly to be safe and secured of our lives; for as jeremy saith, 
Lament. 5.8, 9.  Servants have ruled over us, and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand; We get our bread with the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness: and therefore, as our Prophet saith, Wailing is in all streets, they say in all highways, alas, 
Amos 5.16.  alas, and they call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.  
Yet seeing the sword is the sword of the Lord, 
Esay ●4. 5, 6. 2. Reg 8.1. Amos 4.10.  and it is the Lord that calleth for famine, and the pestilence is the scourge of God, which he sendeth amongst us, as our Prohet saith;& that God never draweth his sword, 
How God dealeth with his people.  and throweth away the scabbard, as if he never meant to put it up again; never sends a famine, but in that famine he can feed the young Ravens that call upon him, and satisfy the hungry with good things; and never poureth out any plague, but that in the greatest infection he can preserve his servants, 
Psal. 91.7.  that although a thousand should fall besides them, and ten thousand at their right hand, yet it shall not come nigh them; and never sendeth any temptation, but if the salt be not our own, 
1. Cor. 10.13  he doth with the temptation make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it; because he, being {αβγδ}, the father of mercies, 
Cor. 1.3.  and the God of all comfort, to them that fear him, as well as the God of justice to render vengeance to them that offend him, hath the suppling oil of mercy, as well as the sharp wine of justice to power into the wounds of every penitent sinner; therefore our Prophet here joineth to the lamentation for Israel, an exhortation to repentance; and though he threateneth death for our sins, yet he setteth down an antidote, whereby we might, if we would, preserve our life; 
Physitians, how useful.  and though I confess the Physitians are very useful, and to be honoured, as the Scripture speaketh, to be sought after, especially in the times of ficknesse and mortality; yet I am sure that neither Hippocrates, nor Galen, nor all the school of Salerne, the whole college of Physitians shall ever be able to proscribe a potion, so precious and so powerful to preserve your life, as I shall declare unto you; for God, which is truth itself, hath said it, seek the Lord, and you shall live; wherein I desire you to observe, 

1. 
Two parts of the Text.  A Precept; the best work that you can do, seek the Lord.  
2. A Promise; the best reward that you can desire, And you shall live.    
1. 
The Precept, twofold.  In the Precept you may see there are two words, and so two parts.  

1. seek, which is the act, that all men do;  
2. The Lord, which is the object of our seeking, wherein most men fail.   
1. The word seek doth presuppose that we have lost, or be without the Lord; and so we have indeed, we lost paradise, 
The act.  we lost God, we lost our selves, and our own souls, and are become like lost sheep without a shepherd; and therefore we have great reason to seek, and to seek diligontly, 
Luke. 19.10.  till we find {αβγδ}, what we lost. And  
The loss of God is nothing else but the withdrawing of his love, 
The loss of God, what it is.  and the with holding of the influences of his favour from us, like the parting of the sun from our horrison, whereby darkness followeth; and so all miseries and mischiefs, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest, warres, famines, plagues and all evils, must be the lot of them that lost the love of God, 
Two things considerable.  but then you must consider.  

1. The cause for which the Lord departeth from us. 
The cause why the Lord departeth from us, is sin.   
2. The means whereby we suffer him to be detained from us.   
1. The cause that driveth away God from us, is sin; for by this Adam lost him, and as the Prophet sheweth, this makes the separation betwixt God and all the children of Adam: for your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hide his face from you that he will not hear, saith Esayas; Cap. 59.2. and you may see this truth further cleared and proved in 
Lament. 3.39. Psal. 5.5. Ezech. 18.4. Rom. 6.23. James 1.15. . And it is no marvel that sin should make such a separation betwixt God and us, if we consider the nature of God, and of sin, for  
God testifieth of himself that he is holy; 
Levit. 11.44.  and there is as much difference betwixt holinesse and sin, as is betwixt the clearest light and the blackness of darkness; for holinesse is of such a resplendent excellency, that the very enemies of it, the profanest Atheists, that neither fear God nor regard men, yet will they nill they, 
Why-sinne sepetates us from God. The nature of holinesse, how excellent.  they cannot choose but approve it in others, though they reject it from themselves; because as Seneca saith, Virtus in omnium animol lumen suum immittit ut qui non sequuntur eam, videant tamen; virtue and goodness do so shine among all men, that they which use it not, which love it not, yet cannot choose but see it, yea and confess it too, to be most admirable and excellent in itself; for what adulterer is so impure, but that his conscience will tell him, especially at some time or other, that chastity is better then his sensuality? What drunkard is so besotted, but that his heart will tell him, especially when he is sober, that sobriety is better then surfeiting and drunkenness? or what swearer is so far past all grace, that his own soul will not tell him, and sometimes compel his tongue to confess it, that to say indeed is far better then by his hideous oaths to loose that God which made him, 
The nature of sin, how excerable.  and heaped his blessings upon him?  
On the other side, sin and filthiness are such ugly monsters that the very followers and practisers thereof cannot choose but condemn them and hate them in others, though they do love and follow the same themselves: yea as Saint Aug. saith, they that are filthy themselves, 
Aug. de Civit. l. 14. c. 18. Chrysost. in Ephes. o. 4.  will call their own Jeudnesse filthiness, and though they love it, yet they will not dare to profess it. And all this Saint Chrysastome expresseth most elegantly, saying, {αβγδ}. which in effect is, that holinesse is such a thing, that the very enemies thereof cannot choose but admire it, and wickedness is such a thing, that the very lovers thereof cannot choose but condemn it; therefore it is no wonder that God, which is holinesse itself inabstracte, should hate all those that work wickedness.  
Yet you must observe that as every offence divorceth not man and wife; 
All sins not alike.  so all sins do not alike separate the love of God from us; for there be some sins that do but anger him, so that he onely chides us, or most gently corrects us, not in his indignation, nor as the Prophet saith, in his heavy displeasure, but in love for the amendment of the sinner; and there be other sins, that do so highly provoke him, that he doth utterly for sake us, to execute his wrath and vengeance upon the sinner, for the honour of himself and the destruction of the other, as the Lord saith, J will get me honour upon Pharaoh, that is, in his destruction, and therefore though we ought to take heed of all sins, yet more especially of these; because they are more odious unto God, and more pernicious unto ourselves.  
And here I find three sins set down of this kind, whereby these Israelites lost the Lord; and they are 

1. Idolatry against God. v. 5.& 26.  
2. Injustice towards men v. 7.& 11.  
3. Contempt of the priest, whereby they became hatesull both to God and man, v. 10.   Which were 3 deadly sins; as I shall show you in their order.  
1. Idolatry is a sin most heinous and most odious unto God; I know few or none so pestiferous; for though atheism is a fearful sin, to be without a God in the world, without him, without whom we cannot live, we cannot move, 
Exod. 14.17.  we cannot have our being; Yet atheism seemeth not so ugly a Monster, and so detestable unto God, as idolatry is; and though the profanation of Gods Holy Name is a transcendent sin; yet this seems not to ascend so high into Gods displeasure as idolatry doth; For in the first precept which is against atheism, 
The three fearful sins of the Israelites. 1. Their idolatry.  he doth but say without any threatening, thou shalt have none other Gods but me; and in the third precept which forbiddeth all vain swearing, he doth but say, I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain; but in the second precept, where he prohibiteth idolatry, he seems to search for words and to coin phrases to express his hatred to this sin, against which he expandeth his fury to a mighty reach, saying, 
Idolatry how hatefell to God.  I am a jealous God, that do visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, as if idolaters onely were the chiefest haters and the greatest enemies of almighty God; and therefore most justly hated by God; and no marvel; for as Plutarch saith, he had rather men should think there was never such a man in the world as Plutarch, then to say he was so savage and so cruel, as to kill and eat his dearest friends and children; ita satius est nulles Deas credere, quám Deos noxios: So it is better to think there are no Gods then to believe them to be such as thyself art, as the Prophet speaketh; or like Jupiter, Saturne, and the rest of the gentle Gods, that were murderers, adulterers, and such like wicked Gods: Gods not worthy to be men. So it is better to do no service unto God, then to do that which is so exceedingly contumelious unto the deity; because that service which is so injurious unto God, and so derogatory to his honour, is most acceptable unto the devil; as the Israelites, mistaking the true service, and thinking they sacrificed unto God, did indeed offer their sons and daughters unto devils, 
Psal. 106.36.  as the Psalmist speaketh. such is the nature of idolatry; So that indeed we can never please the devil better, nor show ourselves faithfuller servants unto him, then when we do thus displease our God, and show ourselves so perfidious unto His majesty.  
And yet it is wonderful to consider how apt and prove the Children of Israel were to fall and to wallow in this monstrous sin of idolatry: 
How prove the Israelites were to fall into idolatry.  for no sooner were they come out of Egypt, but they must worship God in the shape of a golden calf, so they turned the glory of the incorruptible God, into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay; and no sooner was any good man dead that had planted the true Religion amongst them, but presently they supplanted the same by their idolatry; And this our Prophet sheweth at large in this Chapter, as  
1. 
v. 26. 1 in the passage to Canaan when they worshipped Molot  To observe the order of their committing it, and not of the Prophets setting of it down, when he saith, you have born the tabernacle of your Moloc; that is, in the wilderness, when Moses was talking with God on mount Sinai, as S. jerome and Rupertus think; or rather, as Ribera thinketh, when they committed fornication with the daughters of Moab that were the next adjoining neighbours unto the Ammonites, whose god this Moloc was; and you have born Chiun, your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves; or as S. Stephen reads it out of the Septuagint, the star of your god Remphan, 
Rhemphan who he was.  or Rephan, as others red it, which Giraldus takes to be Hercules, Ribera thinks him to be Jupiter; but S. Hieron, Remigius add Beda, take it for the star of Venus, which going before the sun in the morning was called Lucifer, and following the sun at night was called Hesperus, and was worshipped by the Syrians, as the queen of Heaven; and as Servius, upon that verse of Virgil.  
Errantesque Deos agitataque numina Trojae, observeth how the Gentiles carried their outolarie gods with them, 
Gen. 31.34.  as Rachel did her fathers idols, whithersoever they went: so the Israelites in imitation of them, carried these images in the tabernacle after a most solemn and a pompous manner.  
2. The Prophet sheweth their idolatry, 
2 in their settled Land.  when he forbids them to seek Bethel, and to enter into Gilgal, or to pass into Beersheba; because these places Bethel and Gilgal towards the north, and Beersheba southward, 
2 Reg. 23.8. 1 Reg. 12.29.  were the uttermost parts and borders of the holy land, where Jeroboam did set up his golden Calves.  
And the Children of Israel were such calves, 
The reasons why the children of Israel were always ready to worship their calves.  that all the holy Prophets and the godly Kings, could never withdraw them from the Idolatrous service of these claves; and the reasons thereof you may gather out of the Text.  

1. Because they were such gods as gave them ease and liberty.  
2. Because they were calves.  
3. Because they were golden calves.  
4. Because they had wooden Priests; no better then their gods: For   
1. Jeroboam said, 
Reason  it is too much for you to go to jerusalem, that is, too much cost, and too much pains; for he knew the people would like very well of that Religion which would give them most ease, and prove least chargeable unto them; as men had rather sit to hear, then kneel to pray, and to give a small stipend to their poor Lecturer, then pay the tenth of all their increase unto their learned pastor; but this liberty overthrew all their piety.  
2. He made 2 calves, though their can be but one God, 
Reason  not onely to imitate their former practise in the wilderness, and their usual worship in Egypt, because he knew men would be easily seduced to their old wont, but especially to enlarge their liberty, to let them serve God as they list, which is very pleasing to flesh and blood; because the calves were such gods, as did not much care what service was done unto them; yet  
3. He set up golden calves, to make a glorious show, 
Reason  because the veriest hypocrites in the world would fain seem to do all for the honour of God, and the preservation of the true Religion, pulchra lavernâ, 
Juven. S. 16  da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumque videri, when as indeed it is but like their god, a calf, though of gold, yet dead without life, without sense; and such is the Religion of all Hypocrites, a much less and a senseless Religion; let them pretend what they please. and  
4. 
Reason  That they might sleep in their sins, and never wake, they must have priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi, that is, of the regular ministers and conformable clergy, but those that were fittest for such libertines, as being neither able for their learning to know God, to teach his truth and confute errors, nor daring for their baseness to contradict the people in any of all their wicked ways; for Jeroboam knew that learned men, and men of worth, would never adore such calves, though they were made of gold; nor yet humour their people in their ease idleness and idolatry; therefore when men would change their Religion, they must change their priests, even as Christ did when he translated the Jewish service into the Christian Religion, he changed the order of the priesthood, 
Heb. 7.12.  saith the Apostle; so when we would overthrow the true religion, and make way for libertines, we must cast out the true priests, and with Jeroboam take for them the basest of the people, children of base men, viler then the earth, as job speaketh, 
c. 30.8.  which can neither consute heresy, nor hinder idolatry among their flocks.  
But what saith the Text? 
1 Reg. 12.30.  this became a sin, an indelible sin to all Israel, that caused them to be lead into perpetual captivity, and to loose their everliving God, because they served these golden calves, 
ver. 27.  and were lead by these wooden priests; for fo the Prophet setteth down, therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is the God of Hostes, and it was such an everlasting stain to Jeroboam, 
1 Reg. 14.16. &c. 15.30.  that it is his indelible epithet, carbone notabilis atro, Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin.  
And it were well if this sin reached no farther then the children of Israel; for indeed such is the nature of all men, apt and prove to device services unto God as they list; every one will be independent, and serve God as he pleaseth; and all such devised service is nothing else but idolatry, 
Col. 2.23.  saith the Apostle: And therefore S. John writing unto Christians, concludes his Epistle with little children, keep yourselves from idols, 
1 John 5.21.  which is worth our observation; because they might( as many do) make an idol of many things; of their pulpit, of their Preachers, of their Altars, and of the most consecrated bread in the Eucharist, when, as the church of Rome doth it to this very day, they transubstantiate the same to become corpus domini, and do orally eat that with their teeth, which the Scripture teacheth us to eat sacramentally by faith; which very drctrine of transubstantiation,& thereupon the adoration of their host,& the asportation of it, as the Israelites did their Moloe, I fear, if it be rightly discussed, will prove to be little less then idolatry; for as I will not reject that truth, which the devil uttered, thou art Jesus the son of the most high God, 
M. 5.7.  nor refuse the 4 Gospels, and the 3 Creeds, of the Apostles, the Nicen and Athanasian, because the Pope useth them, but will believe all the truth that the Church of Rome believeth, and therein join with them the right hand of fellowship; so I will hate the errors, and detest the idolatry of any Church that committeth it;  
And therefore, 
How the prim. Christians were landered.  though as the Christians of the Primitive Church were most falsely traduced, and charged to be the causes of all the calamities, dearths, wars, sedition, and all the other evils that happened unto the Heathens,( which indeed themselves were the sole causes of, because they would not become Christians) and therefore persecuted the Church of Christ, and in all their counsels had none other conclusions but Christianos ad leones, let us throw away these Christians to the lions, to the fires and to the waters; so now the enemies of the truth say, we are Papists, and idolatrous, and the causes of all these calamities that are fallen upon this land; 
How we are now slandered.  and there fore let them be deprived, degraded, and destroyed; yet in very dead we are so far from those points, which jewel, Cranmer, Latimer and the rest of those holy Martyrs, and godly reformers concluded to be Popish and Idolatrous, that as we have hitherto most learnedly refuted them, so we are most constantly resolved to oppugn them while we live, and rather to loose our lives, then to depart from the true protestant faith, and to embrace the idolatry of any Church in the World: and you must know, that as the Philosopher saith, non quia affirmatur, aut negatur, res erit, vel non erit, things are not so& so, because they are reported to be such; as gold is not copper, because an ignorant artist affirmeth it, nor copper gold, because the like ignoramus avoucheth it; so a wicked man is not good, nor Res bells loyal, because flatterers commend them; neither is a good man wicked, nor faithful Subjects malignants, nor true protestants, Popish, because the slanderers traduce them; as Christ was neither a drunkard, nor a glutton, though the Jews accused him of both; 
Mat. 11.19.  and we are neither Papists nor Popish, though as the Apostle saith in the like case, we are slanderously reported to be such, 
Rom. 38.  but things ought to be affirmed to be as they are indeed, and men ought to judge righteous judgements; and then you might see, and so be assured, we are so far from Popery, that as I said before, we lay on them little less crime, then idolatry.  
And seeing {αβγδ} is derived ab {αβγδ} video, we see it may be derived farther and brought nearer to our selves, then the Church of Rome; 
Hieron. in Jerem c. 32.& Aug. l. de vera veligione. Col. 3.5.  for so men may as S. Hierom saith, erect an idol in their own brains, as the worlding makes his gold to be his god; the heretics and separatists make an idol of their false Religion: the precise Hypocrite makes an idol of his dissembled purity: and the very Rebels make an idol of their seducers and leaders, and their own most obstinate opinions: and all these, and the like, do offer up idolatrous sacrifices upon the altar of their own folly; and therefore well might S. John say, keep yourselves from idols; because the children of the Church, when they leave their true leaders, and take blind guides, may soon fall and be filled with idolatry. And seeing we have so many such rebellious Idolaters amongst us, if there be any idolaters in the world, is it any wonder that God should so abundantly power out his indignation upon us? or that he should not visit for these things, 
Ierem. 5.9.  and be avenged on such a nation as this?  
2 Injustice was the other sin, whereby the Israelites lost the Lord, when as the Prophet saith, 
vers. 7. The 2 sin of the Israelites. Injustice.  they turned judgement into wormwood, and left off righteousness in the earth. wherein you may observe 2 things in the iniquity of this people.  

1. Generally among all the vulgar sort.  
2. Particularly among the very judges and Princes of the Land. 
Ierem. 5.1.    
1. The common people left off righteousness, 
Generally  and dealt most unjustly one with another, oppressing the poor, afflicting the just, and filling themselves with thefts, robberies and all other kinds of unrighteousness, 
The praise of Justice. Pro. 25.5. Prov. 14.34. Theog. p. 431.  sins able to overthrow the whole earth, and to destroy all the society of mankind; for justice establisheth the thrones of Kings, it exalteth a nation, it is the sister of peace, the mother of prosperity, the preserver of amity, and as Theognis saith.  
{αβγδ}: And on the other fide injury and oppression, as Solomon saith, 
Eccles, 7.7.  is able to make a wise man mad, and injustice is the destroyer of peace, the producer of war, and the bringer of whole cities, kingdoms and Nations to confusion; for as S. Aug. saith, quid sunt regna, remota justitia, nisi magna latrocinia? what are kingdoms, if you take away justice, but as our cities are now in most parts of our Land, the Dens of thieves, 
Micah. 6.13.  that enrich themselves with the treasures of wickedness, and are clad with the spoils of the poor? and how is it possible that men should live one by another, cum vivitur ex rapto? when Pillaging and Plundering shall become our common trade, and the great mens strength shall become the Law of justice? and yet this is not all, 
Particularly  for  
2. As the Prophet Esay saith, their Princes, that is, 
Esay 1.23.  their chief Lords, were rebellious and companions of thieves; and their judges their Sanhedrim, and great council of State afflicted the just, as our Prophet saith, and took bribes, 
vers. 12. Jerem. 5.5.  and turned aside the poor in the gate from their right; and what a lamentable thing is this, when the poor, the fatherless, and the widows that are oppressed shall come unto the gods to seek relief, and they shall find them like Devils? to add sorrows unto their afflictions, and to make the remedy far worse than the disease, when a man shall spend more in getting his right, then his right is worth, or when as the Prophet saith, the judgement shall be turned into wormwood; which is now with us, as it was with them, the very State of this kingdom; for when His Majesty called a Parliament, the highest Court of Justice in our Land, I may say of it, as the Lord saith of Israel, when he looked for grapes, it brought forth wild grapes: when we expected justice, behold we found oppression and wrong, yea, such oppressions, such injustice, and such crnelty we found among these Judges and Princes of Israel, as cannot be paralleled among the worst of Pagans; so that now indeed they have turned judgement into wormwood; 
Dioscorides lib 3. Apellus in Isagogico. Iudgement turned to wormevvood a ways 1 way.  which by reason of its exceeding bitterness made the french proverb fort comme àloyne ou absynte, and made the greek comicks to call it {αβγδ}, that is, impotable.  
And judgement may be turned into wormwood 2 special ways.  
1. When it is done, as it was upon Naboth, without any colour of right, without any cause, and in the highest degree of injustice, with the greatest measure of iniquity: as when Aristides was banished out of Athens, justus, quia justus, and the Christians were persecuted and murdered, onely quia Christiani; and the Bishops are now hated of many men, onely because they are Bishops, that is enough, though we can find none other cause in them worthy of death, or of bonds. And this is indeed absynthio amarius, bitterer than wormwood, and is done by none but by the sons of Belial; 
jer. 5.9.  and shall I not visit for these things?  
2. 
2 way  When it is done as Sulpitius Gallus did with his wife, because she walked abroad without her vail, or as the Elder Cato did often deal with offenders, and P. Aemilius did with Rutilius, inslict a punishment for a just fault, but in the highest degree of severity; for though sometimes severity may and ought to be used, ut multitudinis furores compescantur,& atrocia flagitia puniantur, that the fury of the wild unruly multitude may be refrained, and heinous offences, as Treasons and Rebellions and the like intolerable sins, may by the punishment of some be prevented in others; for so we find that whole towns have been burnt to ashes, and famous Cities have been utterly destroyed for the tumults and rebellions of undutiful and disloyal Citizens; yet in other cases, 
Lib. 19 in fine.  as M. Cicero saith in Marcellinus, when it was in my power either to condemn, or to absolve, ignoscendi non puniendi quaerebam causas, I did rather search out the means to save them, then look after the causes to punish them; or as Alphonsus, being advised by some of his followers, ut ne nìmium lenis erga suos esset, that he should not be too gentle towards his people, lest they might bring him into contempt, answered more graciously, 
Good men are naturally clement.  that he was rather to take heed, ne nimia severitas conciliet invidiam, lest too much severity should beget him hatred: so I believe it is the nature of the best men to be least severe, as holding it the better course to offend on the safer side, and rather mercifully to remit somewhat of the punishment that is due, then rigorously to add any thing more then is just; because mercy rejoiceth against judgement, and it is hardly believed that the son of severity can be a good child of the God of clemency, because as the Poet saith,— Sola deos aequat clementia nobis: 
Claud. excess of seventy condemned by God. Ames 1.4, 5.  And the Scripture reproveth the excess of cruelty towards the greatest enemies of Gods Church; for the Lord threateneth to break the bars of Damascus, and to sand a fire into the house of hazael, and to devour the palaces of Bonhadad; and why will the Lord do all this? but because they-were not satisfied with the subjection of the Gileadites, but when they had vanquished them, they shewed themselves so merciless, that to satisfy their wrath upon them, 
Vers. 34.  they thrashed them with thrashing instruments of iron: And so the Lord threateneth the Moabites, that he would sand a fire upon Moab, which should devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab should die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the Trumpet; 
Amos 2, 2, 3.  and he would cut off the Judge from the midst thereof, and would slay all the Princes thereof with him: And why would the Lord do all this unto the Moabites? but because they were not satisfied with the spoils of the Edomites, but like merciless wretches, triumphing in the miseries of miserable men, they were so enraged against them, that like bruit beasts, which were voided of all humanity, 
Reg. 3.27.  they burnt the bones of the King of Edom into lime; for it is not acceptable unto the Lord, that any man should insult over his enemies in the day of their destruction, nor speak proudly in the time of their distress: and therefore we must examine quo animo, as well as quo supplicio, we do punish the greatest transgressors; because God oftentimes is offended with the manner of that punishment, whereof in respect of the matter he himself is the author.  
And yet, as in judgements and punishments you must qualify your own affections, to do all without bitterness; so you must look to the quality of the offendor; for the same censure is not to be imposed, nor the same punishment to be inflicted on him that sinneth through infirmity, and upon another that opposeth authority, and sinneth through obstinacy; upon him that is seduced to rebellion, and upon the seducers and leaders of the more simplo Rebels: 
All sins not alike, not the same sins committed alike.  for though all sins deserve punishment, yet all sins are not alike, neither do all commit the same sins alike; but some sins are more contracted and more private, and others are more public and more spreading; and therefore far more dangerous then the other, because such sinners, & peccant& docent peccare: and therefore God ordereth his judgements according to the offences; sins of infirmity he punisheth with pitty, and mixeth his punishments with clemency, but upon horrible sins he layeth terrible punishments, 
Micah 5.15.  and as he saith in Micha, He will execute vengeance in his anger; so when the Jews were grown incorrigible, he saith, 
Jerem. 21.7.  He will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their life, and they shall smite them with the edge of the sword, and shall not spare them, nor have pitty, nor have mercy upon them: and such a sin is murder, and the shedding of innocent blood, whereof the Lord saith, 
Deut. 19.13. 21. 〈…〉 de Ezech. 3.17, 18.  Thine eye shall not pitty him, but life shall go for life. And such a sin is the sin of Rebellion, which is as the sin of Witchcraft, and spreadeth itself like a Gangrene, and infecteth many millions of men; and therefore the resisting of authority deserveth more severity and less clemency, then any sin, as you may see it in the punishment of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, who in the judgement of God himself deserved no less then to be consumed with fire from Heaven, 
Rebellion, how horrible a sin.  or to be sent down quick to Hell; which in the judgement of Optatus, is so fearful and unparalleled a vengeance, showing the transcendent odiousness of rebellion, that the like cannot be found since the creation of the world: because rebelling against lawful authority is no less then sighting against the divine majesty; and therefore the most holy Saints of the Primitive Church, that were most innocent in all their lives, would notwithstanding suffer the most cruel death, rather then they would resist this ordinance of God; or otherwise, if they had so impudently reviled their Heathen Judges, and so rebelliously resisted their persecuting Kings, as you see many have done of late against the most gracious Princes, the Church had never canonised them for godly Martyrs, but had registered them among the most wicked Malefactors.  
3. 
The third sin of the Israelites. Vers. 10.  Contempt of the Priest was the last but not the least sin whereby the Israelites lost the Lord, when they hated him that rebuked in the gate, and abhorred him that spake uprightly, that is, the Prophet or Preacher, saith Cornelius à Lapide; because the Jews had their Tribunals and Judgements in the gates of their Cities, as Moses sheweth: and therefore Jeremy, Amos, 
Deut. 21.19.  and the rest of Gods servants sate also in the gates, as you may see 
Jerem. 17 19. Esdras l. 2. c. 8. , to rebuk the wrong judgements, as S. jerome and Lyra note; and to speak uprightly, that is, Perfectum& sanctum sermonem, a perfect and a just judgement, as the Septuagint and Symmachus render it; and this the people hated and abhorred; which is the height of all iniquity, to reject the Prophet, and to exclude his counsel from our judgements: 
Sinners that reject their Teachers and Pastors, are incurable.  for as the Gout is the shane of the physician, because he cannot cure it, so this is the plague of the soul, and a sin that is incurable; for though a man commits many and great sins, and leads a very dissolute life; yet if he will dutifully harken unto counsel, and patiently bear with his rebukes, there is great hope of his amendment; but as the diseased that is deadly sick, and yet like Harpaste, that would not be persuaded that she was blind, though she could see no more then a millstone, will not believe that he is sick, and cannot endure the sight of his physician, runs on a place to death without any hope of life; so the Iudges that hate the Prophets company, and abhor the assistance of the Priests in their judgements, as the Israelites now did, and that sinner who doth hate his teacher, and shuns the society of him that seeks to save his soul, have little sign of grace, and as little hope of eternal life; and therefore the Scripture describing the deadly estate of the most desperate sinners, such as with Abab had sold themselves to work wickedness, 
Hosea. 4 4  saith, they are like those that contend with their priests, of whom there is little hope and less good to be expected any ways; for is it possible that a blind man should find his way, when he beats away his leader? or that a child should thrive, when he bites and beats away his nurse that gives him suck? So it is impossible that they should do well which hate the light, or that they should ever learn any good, which abhor the teachers of all godliness.  
Geminianus tells us, 
Gemin. de calo. l. 1. c. 22. Job. 9.9. The Preachers like the Hyades.  that the Ministers of Gods word are like the Hyades, whereof job speaketh;  
1. Because the Hyades or Pleiades, as we translate them, are watery stars, so alled from their effects; the word Hyades of {αβγδ} signifying nothing else but rain; So the Preachers power out the showers of heavenly doctrine upon the barren ground of our souls, to make them fruitful, even as Moses saith, My doctrine shall drop as the raina, 
Deut. 32.2.  and my speech shall distil as the due.  
2. Because that as when the Pleiades do arise, the dayes lengthen, the sun is hotter, and the earth produceth more plentiful fruits; so by the preaching of Gods word, the light of truth is increased, the heat of christian love and charity is kindled, and the holy fruit of all good works is increased: Therefore if the Preachers be as the rain to make us fruitful, as the light to direct our ways, as our fathers to instruct us, and as the Angells of God to bring us into heaven, as the Scripture testifieth that they are, then I beseech you tell me, what holy fruit, what heavenly light, or what Christian good can be in them, that despise their teachers, and expel their fathers from their societies?  
Yet this was the sin of the Israelites, and I fear, we cannot free ourselves from it: for how have they been used since the beginning of this Parliament? was not he most cried up, that cried most against the Church and Church-men? and men of no note became famous in the House by making invective speeches against the Bishops; 
{αβγδ}. 1. Cor. 4.13.  and he was deemed most eloquent that was most bitter against them; and how have they been handled ever since? voted out of all their means, and not any thing left them to buy them bread: graviora morte; and being thus made 
Heb. 11.38. and 37.  as the filth of the world, and the off: scouring of all things unto this day, as the Apostle speaketh: they are either cast with joseph into the dungeon, or driven to wander in deserts and in mountaines, and in dens and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; And I may say of some of them with Jeremy, they that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets, they that were clad in scarlet embrace dunghills, they sigh and seek bread, and have given their pleasant things for meate to relieve their souls. And shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, 
Jerem. 5.9. Lament. c. 4.5. et c. 1. 11.  and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Yes, saith our Prophet: and for these things the Israelites lost the Lord: and we may fear he hath left us for the same faults.  
2. The means or ways by which we depart from God and so loose the Lord, are very many; I will onely name unto you 
The ways where by God is lost from us.  these three, whereby Joseph lost our Saviour in jerusalem; and they are, 

1. Negligent security.  
2. Ignorant blindness.  
3. Obstinate opinion.    
1. joseph went with Christ into the Temple, but through negligence to look after him, he went homeward without him, so the neglect to seek God, is the onely way to loose God; because as Saint Gregory saith, quem tentationis certamen superare non valuit, saepe securitas deserius stravit.  
2. Joseph knew not that Christ was left behind him; and so many men know not that they are without the Lord, being like the inhabitants of Egypt that reap the benefits of Nilus, but are ignorant of the fountain from whence it springs; because they are ignorant of their faith and of their own most desperate condition, while they have more care of the evidence of their lands, then they have of the assurance of their salvation.  
3. Joseph thought that Christ was gone before with their friends, and thereby he was deceived; so many men loose the Lord b● their false persuasions; for Arjus thought he found Christ when he denied his deity. Saint Paul thought he did God good service when he persecuted the Saints of God; and so many men, as those seditious Preachers and Brownists about London, and many other parts of this kingdom do think, perhaps, they teach the truth of God, when as God knoweth, they teach the people nothing else but the most desperate and damnable doctrine of devills, 
Rom. 13.  when they persuade them to resist the ordinance of God, which commandeth every soul to submit itself unto the higher powers, and that is the King, as Saint Peter testifieth; 
1. Pet. 2.13.  and so by these false thoughts they do utterly loose the true God, and shall finally loose themselves unless they do speedily change their minds; and therefore as the Emperour Antoninus was wont to say in another case, so I say in this, ejice opinionem, si vis salvus esse, cast away such false opinions and believe the truth, rely not on your selves nor on your lying leaders, but as our Prophet saith, seek the Lord, and you shall live. And so much for the causes and the ways by which we loose the Lord.  
Now when the Lord is lost, 
What we ought to do, when we have lost God. Gen. 2.  the onely remedy that we have is to seek him; but alas beloved, is it in our power to find him, or have we any ability to seek him? can the lost sheep find her shepherd, or could Adam ever seek after God, if God had not sought after him, and called him, Adam, where art thou? I must answer like Athanaus riddle, a man and no man, with a ston and no ston, killed a bide and no bide, that sate upon a three and no three; that is, an Eunuch with a pummy killed a bat upon a fennel; so I say, it is, and it is not: for if you speak of a man unregenerate, and as yet destitute of Gods grace, he can no more seek for grace then dead Lazarus could raise himself out of his grave; because the Apostle affirmeth all to be, {αβγδ}, dead in trespasses and sins: 
Ephes. 1.2.  and our Saviour saith, Without me you can do nothing: 
John 15.5. {αβγδ}. Prosper de lib. arbit.  and Prosper calleth the grace of God Creatricem bonorum in nobis, the Creator of all the good that is in us, according to that saying of the Apostle, {αβγδ}, wee are his workmanship, {αβγδ}, created in Christ Jesus: and you know that a creation is from nothing.  
But when the Lord hath quickened our dead spirits, and mollisied our hard hearts, then he looketh that we should not be, quasi dormientes quasi non volentes, as men asleep and negligent of our own good, but that we should diligently seek the way, and finding the same, to walk therein: 
Ephes. 2.10.  for this exhortation to seek the Lord, and our Saviours invitation, to come unto him, and the like, do sufficiently evince, 
Matth. 11.28.  that in all Christians God worketh not sicut in lapidibus insensatis, as in senseless stones, or in creatures that have no reason, as Saint Augustine speaketh, but in men that have a freedom of will to follow after those things which do pertain unto salvation; 
Aug in epist. 89. quast. 2.  Quia liberum arbitrium non ideo tollitur quia juvatur, said ideo juvatur quia non tollitur; because our free will is not taken away, because it is helped, but it is therefore helped because it is not taken away, as the same S. Augustine speaketh. And Fulgentius hath the like saying, l. 2. De veritate praedest.  
And therefore seeing the devil can neither forcibly compel us to any evil, nor violently detain us from any good, 
How the devil enticeth us, and cannot compel us to sin.  but onely by the proposal of seducing objects, and by the subtly obscuring the beauty of the perfect good, to 'allure us unto the one, and to withdraw us from the other, we ought to arm ourselves with a resolution to follow the counsel of the Prophet, to seek the Lord, that we might live, and not die; for Why will you die, O ye Inhabitants of England?  
But in this our inquisition and search after God, 
four things to be cohlidered in our search for God.  we ought carefully to consider of these 4 particulars. 

1. To find out the cause, why he left us.  
2. To go to the place, where he resideth.  
3. To know the time, when he may be found.  
4. To understand the manner, how we are to seek him,   For,  
1. 
To know the cause why God left us. Psal. 147.14.  God was amongst us as in the holy place of Sinai, and then Kings with their Armies did slay, and were discomfited, and we of his household divided the spoil; and then God sent a gracious rain upon his inheritance, and refreshed it when it was weary, and powred his benefits upon us; he made peace in all our borders, and filled us with the flower of wheat, and he blessed us so, that we were even envied for our happiness; but now he hath for saken us, 
Job 19.11.  and hideth his face from us, and goeth not forth with our Armies, 
Cap. 6.4.  but he hath kindled his wrath against us, and counted us as one of his enemies; he hath made his arrows drunk in our blood, and his terrors do set themselves in array against us, so that now we are a by word among the Heathens, and our enemies laugh us to scorn.  
Therefore as the good physician first searcheth out the cause of the disease, and then prepareth a potion for the cure; and as Joshua, when God turned away from the children of Israel, and delivered them up into the hands of their enemies, never left searching, 
Joshua 7.18.  till he found out the accursed thing, that was the cause of their destruction; 
●. Sam. 21.1.  and David also, when there was a famine three yeares, year after year, enquired of the Lord, what should be the cause thereof; so we must inquire and search out the cause why the Lord hath overthrown all our hedges, 
We have committed the same sins, and more sins, and more heinously then the Israelites did.  and given us as a spoil unto our neighbours. And herein as Demodacus said of the Milesians, they were no fools, but they did the same things that fools did: so I say, we are no Israelites, but I fear we have committed the same sins as the Israelites did, idolatry, injustice, and contempt of our teachers: nay, have we not added unto these sacrilege, perjury, drunkenness luxury, and all kind of uncleanness? yea, have we not made injustice, and perjury and sacrilege, and contempt of the Ministers, and rebellion against the ordinance of God, and many other sins that formerly were but personal sins, now to become national, when they are committed, continued, and maintained by the representatives of the whole kingdom? and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this, saith the Lord? 
Vers. 19.  yes, saith our Prophet, woe shall be to them that desire the day of the Lord, for it is darkness and not light, and it shall be as if a man did flee from a Lion, and a bear met him: that is, to escape the least, and to fall into the greater punishment; because the Lion is a more noble enemy then the bear, when as the Poet saith, 
Parcere prostratis scit nobilis ira Leonis.  But the bear is a most ravenous raging Beast, 
Hosea 5.12.14.  that will tear us all to pieces; so it is to escape the sword and to die by famine, to provide against famine and to be destroyed by the pestilence, which shall follow one another so long as we continue in our sins; and the wrath of the Lord shall not be turned away, but his hand will be stretched out still: As in Levit. 26. after many plagues he addeth, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins. And therefore if you would turn away the wrath of God, you must turn away from these sins that have provoked him to wrath; Quia sublata causa tollitur effectus. And then  
2. If you would find the Lord, 
The place where God may be found.  you must go to the place where he resideth; for though Enter praesenter Deus est ubique potenter, in respect of his omnipotent essence, the spirit of the Lord silleth all places: If we climb up into Heaven he is there, if we go down to Hell he is there also; and as the schools say, he is Supra coelos non elatus, subter terram non depressus, intra mundum non inclusus, extra mundum non exclusus: yet in respect of his favourable presence, 
How God filleth all places.  he is not to be found in every place; for if you seek the righteous God among unrighteous men, the faithful God among lying perjurers, as the Grecians sought for heal in Troy, when she was with Proteus in Egypt, we shall be sure to miss him; because the holy spirit of discipline slayeth from deceit, and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin; and therefore the place is to be considered where we must seek him: and that is principally 

1. The Church of Christ, among the faithful. 
God is found 1. Inthe Church among the faithful.  And  
2. The holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles.    
1. As Joseph and Mary when they lost Christ, found him not in the ways among their friends and acquaintance, but in the Temple among the Doctors; so we shall find him, not in the factious confederacies of private Conventicles, but in the public assemblies of Gods holy Church, 
Psal. 26.8.  which is the place where his honour dwelleth: not among Perjurers, liars, Rebels, and the like, but among the faithful, and among those that fear the Lord; for The Lord is with them that fear him, and that put their trust in his mercy, and with such he may be found.  
And therefore if you would find the Lord, you must not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, 
Psal. 1 1.  nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful; you must have nothing to do with the stool or seat of wickedness, which imagineth mischief, and doth countenance their wickedness by a Law; but where you see the righteous gathering themselves in the name of Christ, and joining their forces in the fear of God, there is the Lord in the midst of them, even as himself hath promised; 
Levit. 26 12.  I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.  
2. 
In the holy Scriptures.  As we may find the Lord in the Church of the righteous, so we may find him in the holy Scriptures; not in the Turkes Alcoron, nor in the Popes Canon, nor in mans tradition, nor in any like unwritten verities, which are the muddy inventions of distracted brains, and the idle vanities of seduced souls; we sand you to no such places to seek the Lord, whatsoever the malice of our adversaries saith of us; but we direct you to the pure Word of God, 
John 17.17. John 5.39. Aug. Confess. l. 11. c. 2. 2. Tim. 3.13. Hieron, in ep. ad Demetrad.  {αβγδ}, for thy Word is truth, and the Scriptures {αβγδ}, testify of me, saith our Saviour; and therefore Deliciae meae scripturae tuae, thy Scriptures are my delights, saith S. Augustine; and the reason is rendered by S. jerome; because they are able( as the Apostle saith) to make us wise unto salvation; and all wisdom without this is but mere foolishnesle; for, Quid prodest esse peritum& periturum? what will it boot a man to be wise unto perdition, to be subtle to play the rebel, to be a crasty traitor, 
Aug. quo sup.  and to go to Hell with a great deal of wit and learning, as S. Augustine speaketh?  
Therefore though you should be constrained to dwell with Meshec, 
Psal. 120 4, 5.  and to have your habitation among the tents of Cedar, among the Egyptians or Babylonians, among them that are enemies unto peace, as God knows how son any of us may be taken by such enemies: yet if we leave them, and take the holy Scriptures, there we shall have the Lord to be our companion, though we should be shut up with jeremy in the dungeon. But  
3. For the time of seeking God, 
The time when God may be found.  you must remember that the Prophet bids us seek the Lord while he may be found; and many men seek salvation, in medio gehennae quae operata est in medio terrae; and therefore mistaking their time they miss to find it; for God allowed us no time to seek him, but the time present, during this life, and no other time; and you know the first aphorism of Hippocrates is, that Ars longa, vita brevis, Art is long, and our life is short; yea, so short, 
Seneca de brevitate vita, c. 1.  that as Seneca saith, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and others, quarreled with nature for giving beasts and plants so long an age, 
Psal. 90.10.  and to man so short a time, which as the Prophet saith, is but a span long, a dream, a thought, a nothing; so soon passeth our time away, and we are gone. And yet it is strange to see, how men do spend that little time which they have to live, aut nihil agendo, aut malè agendo, either in doing nothing, or that evil which is indeed far worse then nothing; for though you see no man willing to part with his money, yet you may find how lavish every man is of his time, which is more precious then all wealth: And Seneca tells us of divers men in his time, 
Seneca de brevit. vit. cap. 12.  that spent every day an hour or two in the Barbers shop, to cut down those hairs that grew the night before, and were more curious of their locks then they were careful of the Common-wealth; and others worse then these, spend their time in game, drinking, and oppressing their poor neighbours; and they are very loathe to consider, how vainly and how wickedly they do wast their dayes: for he that hath desired with ambition, conquered with insolency, cozened with subtlety, plundered with covetousness, and mis-spent all by prodigality, must needs be afraid to review those things, which must needs make him ashamed; or if these men have so much grace to look back to see what they have mis-spent, before they have spent all, then shall you hear them say, that if they were young again, they would change their course, and seek the Lord, that they might live, and not loose their lves in following after lying vanities; but alas that cannot be; for as Plato saith, {αβγδ}, time and tide stay for no man, and as the Poet saith, nec quae preteriit horaredire potest, that which is past cannot be recalled again; and Seneca saith, that the greatest Poet that ever was tells us, our happiest dayes do pass from us first,  
And therefore I say to you young men, 
Eccls. 12.1.  remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth, and as Tymothy had known the Scriptures, 
2 Tim. 3.15.  {αβγδ}, and was nursed up in the fear of the Lord, so do you; for what will it avail you to compose your speech according to the rules of lily, and the rhetoric of Cicero, and not to have your lives answerable to the rules of charity and the precepts of the holy Scriptures? to learn out of Aristotle the nature of the creatures, and to remain ignorant of the will of the creator? and to have learned that whereby you may live richly here for a while, and to neglect that whereby you may live happily hereafter for ever? And I say to you old men that nunquam seraest ad paenitendum via, it is never too late to repent if you can but truly repent; for he that requireth your first fruits refuseth not your last age; 
Ps. 95.  And I say to you all, to day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for now is the time acceptable, now is the day of Salvation;& semper nocuit differre vocatis.  
But though we ought at all times in all places to seek the Lord, 
When we ought most especially to seek the Lord.  yet there are some times wherein we ought more especially& more earnestly to seek after him, then at all other times; and those are the times of troubles and adversities, when God scourgeth us for losing him; 
Ps. 50.15. Mat. 11.28.  for so God biddeth us, call upon me in the time of trouble; and Christ saith, come unto me all you that travel and are heavy Laden; and so the brethren of Joseph sought unto God in their troubles, 
jonas 1.5.7.  and the Mariners that transported Jonas, though but heathens, yet will they call every man upon his God, 
Mat. 8.25.  when the Sea was ready to swallow them up; and the Disciples being in the like danger came crying unto Christ, and said, {αβγδ}, Lord save us, we perish; and they that will not seek the Lord in their distress will never seeek him; 
Ps. 83 16.  for the Prophet speaking of the wicked, saith, fill their faces with shane, 
Esay 1.5  that they may seek thy name: and of them that will not then seek him, the Lord saith, why should ye be strike any more? as if he said, you are now past all hope, when your afflictions cannot make you seek the Lord, but that you will revolt more and more, and prove like Pharaoh, that the more the Lord plagued him, 
Exc. c. 8. c. 9. c. 10.  the more he hardened his own heart.  
And therefore seeing the Lord hath now bent his bow like an enemy, and set us as a mark for the arrow, he hath set our necks under persecution, and turned our songs into mournings, and our happy and long continued Peace into cruel Warres: though heretofore we have past our time in vanities, and have neglected to seek the Lord: yet if we have any grace, let us now seek unto the Lord, and say with the Prophet, O Lord, wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, 
Lam. 5.23.21.  and forsake us so long a time? turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned, renew our dayes as of old. and  
4. For the manner how we ought to seek the Lord, it must be. 
The manner how we ought to seek the Lord. 1 Totally with all parts 1 of our bodies. 1 Cor. 6.20.   

1. Totally with all our parts.  
2. Carefully with all diligence.   
1. Withall our parts of body and soul, externally and internally, with outward profession and with inward obedience. for  
1. Externally we are to glorify God in our body, that is, with our members, with bended kneese, with our eyes lifted up to Heaven, and with our tongues praising God and confessing our own sins; 
Rom. 3.4. James 4.2.  that God may be justified in his sayings and clear when we are judged, otherwise, as many ask and receive not, because they ask amiss, that is, aut praeter verbum aut non propter verbum, either not according to Gods will or not for Christ his sake: so many men do seek and find not, because they seek amiss, either too proudly or too remissly, 
Our outward seeking consisteth chiefly so 3 points.  or some way else otherwise then they ought to seek; and therefore that you may not miss to find, I beseech you mark how you may seek a right, as other godly men have done; and that is briefly.  

1. 
Humbling ourselves.  Humiliando corpus: by humbling our bodies.  
2. Confitendo peccata, confessing our sins.  
3. Orando Deum, praying to God. For   
1. look upon the Saints of the former times, and see how they humbled themselves when they sought the Lord; 
2 Reg. 22.11.19. Ps. 51.17. 2 Chron. 12.7. Judges 20.26. 2 Chron 7.11.  for when Sennacherib sent Rabshecah against jerusalem, Hezechiah rent his clothes and covered himself with Sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. When Josias heard the curses of the Law against the transgressors thereof, his heart was tender, saith the Text, and he humbled himself and rent his clothes, and wept before the Lord; and so did Ahab though but an Hypocrite, and the King of Ninive though but an Heathen, and all that sought the Lord aright, humbled themselves before the Lord: and to testify the trueness of their humiliation they rent their clothes, they put on Sackcloth, they besprinkled themselves with ashes, they went barefoot, and they fasted from all meat, & a licitis abstinuerunt, quia concupierunt illicita. For though a beggar may be proud in his rags, and another may be bumbled in scarlet, yet quia per exteriora cognoscuntur interiora, and our habits and actions should svit with the times and occasions, as we put on wedding garments and our mourning weeds, when the times do call for such: so it is not fit to come with proud hearts, vain habits, wanton looks and patched faces, 
Ps. 35.13.  when we come fasting and to be humbled for our sins, for this is not to humble ourselves with fasting, as the Prophet speaketh.  
2. 
Confessing our sin. Lam. 3, 42. Bat. 1.15.16. &c. 2.12. Dan. 6.5.& 8.& Ezra. 9.6.  We must consesse our sins and aclowledge our own unrighteosnesse. We have transgressed and Rebelled, saith the Prophet jeremy; and Baruch setteth down the form of the confession that we should make, saying, to the Lord our God belongeth righteousness, but to us the confusion of faces, to our Kings, and to our Princes, and to our Priests, and to our Prophets, and to our Fathers, for we have sinned before the Lord, we have done ungodly, we have dealt unrighteousty in all thine ordinances: and the Prophet Daniel maketh the very same coniession; and so David, when God sent the Plague among his people, confessed his own sins, saying, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: 
2 Sam. 24.17.  and the reason of this is rendered by Solomon, he that hideth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh the same shall find mercy. 
Prov, 18.13.   
And therefore I do confess the sins of the Clergy, we have not discharged our duties as we ought to do; and I would say a great deal more of the highest order of our calling, 
Gen. 3.12. 1 Sam. 15.21.  but that a great deal more than is true is said by others: for we will not excuse ourselves: but as the Poet saith of women.  
Parcite paucarum diffundere crimen in omnes.  
Blame not all because some are lewd, so I say of the Bishops and Clergy: let every horse bear his own burden, let them that transgress, if you know any such, be severely punished, and as their lives should be more holy, so let the punishment of the offenders be the more exemplary, and let that Judas that will betray his master have the reward of Judas: but as Christ cashiered not all the Apostles, because Judas was a traitor, and Peter a denier of his master: so should not we destroy the calling, or as Abraham saith, destroy the righteous with the wicked, because some of them in your opinion may be unworthy of that calling: for this would be culpam flagitio fugare, to drive away sin by a greater sin, & verte●e domum, in stead of verrore domum, to destroy the house, when they should but sweep the house.  
And as the Priests so must the people confess their sins if they would find the Lord, for it will not serve our turn to recriminate, to do as Adam did, lay the fault upon the woman, or as Saul did, to post over his fault unto the people: it is not the way to find the Lord, to lay all the blame upon the Parliament,& to make the Rebels the sole causes of our miseries: for though they cannot be excused for their wickedness, yet you may be assured we suffer all this that is come upon us for our own sins, though not for the sin of Rebellion, yet for other odious sins, that, have provoked God to stir up these Rebels to punish us; and as the Prophet saith, erravimus cumpatribus, so it may be, we might, if we would confess the truth, say erravimus cum fratribus, we have in some sort committed the same sins with them; for sins may be committed divers ways, 
Sins may be committed divers ways.  as 1 by acting it, 2 by commanding it, as David did Joab to kill Urias. 3 by counseling how to do it, as Baalam did Balac to entangle Israel; 4 by consenting to it, 
Ps. 50.8.  as David speaketh; when thou sawest a thief thou consentedst unto him, and hast been partaker with the adulterer; 5 by delighting to see it done, 
Rom. 1.32.  as S. Paul saith, to have pleasure in them that sin. 6 by our silence, conniving and not hindering sin to be committed, when it lieth in our power, and it is our duty so to do; for qui non vetat peccare cum posset, jubet; and if any of you that are here, have or had your hearts at London in any of these ways, the Holy Ghost will tell you, though thou hast not denied my faith, 
Revel. 2.14. or a few things  when thou dwellest even where Satans Seat is, yet {αβγδ} I have somewhat against thee; because thou shouldst have nothing to do, no compliance at all with the stool of wickedness, 
Ps 94 20 For in all this I speak not of Popish and ●uricular confession to the Priest.  which frameth mischief by a Law: and therefore repent, and be not ashamed to confess your sins to God, if you would find the Lord. and  
3. We must make our humble and our fervent Prayers to God, that he would forgive us our sins, and be entreated for us, and reconciled unto us for his mercies sake, and for his son Jesus Christ his sake; Lord have mercy upon us, and forgive us burr sins, 
Fervent prayers.  for this was the practise of all the Saints of God, in all their calamities, as you may see, 
Numb. 14.19.  when the Israelites murmured against Moses,& God would have utterly destroyed them for it, Moses prayed unto the Lord, and said, Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people, 
2 Chron. 32.20.  according to the greatness of thy mercy; so when Sen●ach●ri●… came against jerusalem, Hezechia the King and Isaiah the Prophet prayed, and cried to heaven: and his prayer is set down, 2 reg. 19.15. and when the Moabites and Ammonites, in a huge multitude, came against Jehosaphat, he set himself to seek the Lord, saith the Text, and proclaimed a East throughout all Juda, and made an excellent prayer to God, 2 Chron. 20.6. usque advers. 13. which I desire you to red and observe it well; so Daniel after he had made confession of the sins of the people makes an earnest and most fervent Prayer to God for the remission of their sins; so David saith unto God; look upon mine adversities and miseries and forgive me all my sins: and Christ biddeth us to ask, 
Dan. 9.16. usque ad 20. ve.  and we should have; Mat. 7.7.  
And if we thus unfeignedly confess our sins, 
Ps. 25.17.  and fervently beg pardon, and constantly forsake our sins, God is faithful,( saith the Apostle) that is, faithful, because he promised, 
1 John 1.9.  to forgive us our sins.  
2, As we are to seek the Lord externally, with all the parts of our bodies, so we are to seek him internally, 
With all the faculties of our souls.  with all the faculties of our soul; and as David concludes this manner to his son Solomon, it must be with a perfect heart, and a willing mind, 
1 Chron. 28.9.  for otherwise to seek the Lord with outward profession, and not with inward obedience is but mere hypocrisy, like the Religion of the Jews, that were ever handling of holy things, but without ceiling, and drew near unto God with their mouths, and honoured him with their lips, 
Esay 29.13.  when they called upon him, and prayed unto him, but removed their hearts far from him: and therefore God abhorred their devotion and said, I hate, I despise your feast dayes, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies, 
Amos 5.21.22& Esay 1.11.  though you offer me burnt offerings& your meat offerings, I will not accept them, neither will I regard the peace-offlerings of your fat Beasts, and as the Lord saith in Jerem. when they fast, I will not hear their cry, and when they offer burnt offiering and oblation, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence: 
Jer. 14.12  because this outward profession is none otherwise then a shadow that is something in show but nothing in substance, or like Zeuxis and Parhasius pictures, 
Outward profession what it is like.  whereof Zeuxis deceived the birds with his counterfeit grapes, and Parhasius deceived his fellow painter with the picture of a sheet.  
But let not us deceive ourselves with a sheet or a shadow of holinesse, and think that currant which is but counterfeit: for we must seek the Lord with all our hearts, or otherwise, if we offer Sacrifice with cain, and pray with the pharisee, and fast with the Jews to strife and debate, or with the Rebels to plunder and murder, 
Esay 58.4.  and hear as many Sermons as the precisest Hypocrite, and yet forsake not our sins, and obey not Gods ordinance, to submit ourselves to the higher powers, but rebel against Gods anointed, we may with Esaw hunt for a blessing, but catch a curse, and seek the Lord for mercy, but find him in his justice: 
Luke 13.27.  when he shall say unto us, {αβγδ}, I know you not whence you are, depart from me all ye that work iniquity.  
2. 
We are to seek the Lord most diligently  As we are to seek the Lord totally, with all the parts both of our bodies and of our souls; so we are to seekhim, not frigidè, coldly and carelessly, but with all diligence, as the woman that lost her groat lighted a candle, 
Luk: 15.8.  and swept the house, and sought diligently till she found it; and therefore S. Chrysost. writing upon these words of the Apostle, work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling, saith, he doth not barely use the simplo word {αβγδ}, 
Philip. ●. 12.  work it out, but he saith, {αβγδ} that is, as the Father doth interpret it, {αβγδ}, accurately, precisely, and with a great deal of care& study; even as S. Paul saith the 12 tribes served God, {αβγδ}; instantly( saith our translation) day and night; 
Act. 26.7.  and surely not without great cause; for as in the civill polity, salus populi est suprema lex, the safety of King and People is principally to be regarded; so in the life of a Christian, hoc est unum necessarium, this ought to be our chiefest care, to seek the Lord; for as Seneca saith of Philosophy, sieve aliquid habes, o jam Philosophare, sieve nihil, hoc prius quaere quàm quidquam; so much better may I say with the Prophet, whether thou hast somewhat or nothing; yet seek the Lord before thou seekest any thing.  
2. 
The object of our seeking the Lord.  The object of our seeking is the Lord: a Subject much farther exceeding the former, then the celestial globe is larger then the center of this earth: and therefore he might easily be found, if he were but carefully sought: for Jupiter est quodcunque vides.— and the Spirit of the Lord filleth all places, being not far from every one of us, 
Act. 17.28.  seeing as the Apostle saith, in him we live, and move, and have our being: how then can we miss to find him, without whom we cannot choose but loose ourselves?  
But such is our misery, that we seek him not; for as the swine do eat the acorns, yet never look up to the three from whence they fall: so do we deal with the blessings of God: we gather them, and yet are ignorant of him, and do sacrifice with the Athenians {αβγδ} and therefore we thank him not because we know him not, and we know him not, because we seek him not: but many of us seek our Lady, and not the Lord, 
What men do seek after.  and pray to her and offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, more and better then to the Lord of heaven: others seek to neither Lord nor Lady, but to their servants,( that here on earth are commonly prouder then their Masters) to the Saints and Angells: others mounting not their thought any higher then the earth, do onely seek for the things of this world, quaerenda pecunia primum; some for riches, some for honours, and some for revenge, which is the worst some of all; and others seek knots in a bulrush, great doubts in needles points; for I will not touch on those overwise men, 
How many men search for trifles.  that seek to find out the deepest Mysteries of Gods secrets, in his absolute decrees and unsearchable ways of election and reprobation, and the like; but of those lighter heads, that bestow their search about things of nothing, as the grecians did beat their brains to find out how many rowers Ulysses ship had, and whether the Iliads or the Odysses were first written; so we must know whether the ancient Monks wore their cloaks short like the French, or down to the heels like the Spaniards, or whether Saint Augustine wore a white garment upon his black clothes, or a black cheimer upon a lawn surplice; and a thousand such like points and ceremonies that are like the spiders web, which will make no garment for them; or like the banquet of a sick mans dream, that will not satisfy their hungry souls, and are raised up by the devil, to this onely end, that while we seek after these fruitless things, that may hurt us much, but avail us little, that may best be spared and ought least to be disputed, we might leave off to seek the Lord, and those things that do necessary pertain unto salvation.  
But in universalibus latet error, 
What it is to seek the Lord  general things are often dark, and every one saith that he seeks the Lord, but that either he maketh darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him with dark waters and thick clouds to cover him; 
V. 14. V. Psal. 37.27.  or else dwelleth in the light that no man can attain unto it; otherwise, God forbid, that you should imagine, saith every man, that we do not seek the Lord. Therefore to take away this curtain, to unveil this glorious face, and to let you see, that few of us do seek the Lord, whatsoever we say, the Prophet tells us plainly, that to seek the Lord is to seek good, and not evil or, as he explaineth it further in the immediate verse. 15. it is to hate the evil and love the good, and to establish judgement in the gate; and this the Prophet. David said long before, eschew evil, and do good, and dwell for evermore.  
Besides, God is truth and God is justice; therefore you must seek the truth, 
Psal. 85.11.82.  and you must do justice; for When truth shall flourish out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven, then the Lord will show loving kindness, he will speak peace unto his people, and our land shall give her increase; but while our land flows with lies, and the father of lies rewards the liars, and spreads them abroad to uphold robberies, oppressions, and rebellions; the Lord will not speak peace unto us; because righteousness and peace have kissed each other; and therefore though we should be never so desirous of peace, and to procure peace, be contented, it should be done upon unrighteous terms, it may be with the ruin of the Church; yet it cannot be; 
None can make peace but God. Jerem. 25.29. Psal. 46.9.  because it is not in the power of any man, no not of the King himself to conclude a peace, when God proclaimeth war; for as he calleth for a sword upon the inhabitants of a land, so it is he, and he alone, that maketh warres to cease in all the world, he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and burneth the Chariots in the fire, and without him it cannot be done; at you may see, jer, 47.6. And I fear( and I pray God it be but my fear) that as the wrath of God was never appeased, for the innocent blood of the Gibeonites, that Saul most unjustly spilled, until it was revenged by blood upon the house of Saul, so the innocent blond, that hath been spilled in this kingdom, can never be expiated, until an atonement be made by blood; because that without blood there is no remission, that is, of blood, unless they do with Manasses wipe a way the streams of blood, with the streams of most penitent tears; for he that sheddeth mans blond, that is, illegally, by man shall his blood be  shed, that is, judiciarily, by the Magistrate, saith God in the old Test: and all they that take the sword, that is, without due authority, shall perish by the sword, that is, by just authority, saith our Saviour Christ in the New Testament; and therefore if your peace may not be had with truth and according unto justice, gird you with your swords upon your thighs, O you mighty men of valour, and let the right hand of the most highest teach you terrible things, until as our Prophet speaketh, judgement shall run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream, that is, smoothly without any manner of opposition, as Montanus and Vatablus render it: 
v. 24.  Set God and his truth all ways before your eyes, and labour for that peace, which may stand with the peace of conscience, and with your peace with God; or otherwise you may purchase a worldly peace at too dear a rate, it may be with the loss of your souls; when God shall say unto you, as he doth unto the Jews; Shall not I visit for these things? as if he said, you indeed for your peace and prosperities sake, for fear of danger and in hope of rest, may be contented to wink at all these sins that have provoked me to wrath, and perhaps to sell my truth and suffer my service to be abused, and my servants to be destroyed, that you may live in peace: but do you think that I am such a one as yourselves, or that I will suffer all these things to go unrevenged? no, no, saith the Prophet, the Lord is known to execute judgement, and he will be judge himself; he will kindle the fire, and none shall quench it.  
And therefore noble and religious Gentlemen, that love your God better then the world, and his eternal honour better then your own temporal happiness, love peace and ensue it, but let it be with the truth and with justice; let the story of the worthy Maccabees be set before your eyes, that rather then they would chànge their religion, or inffer the service of God any ways to be impaired, and their ecclesiastical government to be in any thing changed, they sold their peace with the loss of their lives, which is their everlasting praise; and here I do profess, I do most hearty wish for peace, and would think myself most happy to see peace established, as of old; but rather then I should see it with the ruin of the Church, with a Presbyterian discipline, that new-sprung out-landish weed of mans invention, and no plant of Gods plantation, I beseech All mighty God, that I may beg my bread and seek it in desolate places, that my blood may be poured like water upon the ground, and the remainder of my yeares may be cut off from the land of the living; so much do I desire to embrace mine own misery, rather then to see the Churches infelicity, and the service of God so much vilisied. And I am confident, that all my brethren the Bishops and Prelates will say with Jonas, Si propter nos haec tempestas, 
If we alone be the cause of all this storm, and if our persons by any thing, that could be done to us, could appease these distractions, and procure the peace of the Church and State, do what you will to us, Non multum nos movebit.  if you see just cause, cast us all into the sea, so you save the ship of Christ, preserve the Church, rent not the garment of Christ, devour not the revenues of the Clergy, and destroy not the government that was established by the Apostles, and continued to Gods glory and the gaining of so many thousand souls to Christ, from his being on earth to this very day; because the dishonour that must infallibly redound to God, and the detriment that must fall to the Church of Christ, by the abolishing of Episcopacy, troubleth us a great deal more, then any loss that can happen unto ourselves; for did we see the same government, with the same power, as it ought to be, settled on any other persons; though ourselves were degraded,( how justly we would leave the censure unto God,) you should never hear me speak much thereof.  
So you see what it is to seek the Lord, not his essence which is incomprehensible, but to do his will and to obey his commandements which is most acceptable unto him, as to love him, to pray unto him, 
What we ought to do to live.  to rely upon him, and to do towards all men, that which is just and righteous in his sight. Or to set down all in a word, do as the Lord directs you, and you shall live; and that is, 

1. To do your own best endeavours to preserve your lives. and yet  
2. refer the preservation of your lives onely unto God.    
1. In the time of peace and prosperity, 
To do our, best to preserve our own lives; 1 In the time of peace.  the best way for us to preserve our life is to serve God; for if you honour your father and mother, your dayes shall be long in the land, saith the Lord himself; and so the keeping of his other precepts is the preservation of our lives. But the bloodthirsty and deceitful man shall not live out half his dayes: and so the drunkard, 
Psal. 55.23.  the luxurious and the malicious shall by their sins diminish their yeares; because sin is that sharp Atropos which cutteth off the thread of mans life, and the great Epitomiser which abbreviates all things unto us; as it wasteth our wealth, it destroyeth our health, it consineth our liberty, it shorteneth our dayes, and to sum all in one catastrophe, it brings us all into our graves: when as Trajan said unto Valens, it sends victory unto our enemies, 
Niceph. l. 11. c. 3.  and destroyeth us sooner then our enemies. and therefore as you love your life, so you must hare your sin,& as the Heathens clipped the wings of victory lest it should fly away from them unto their enemies; So we must clip our sins, or else victory will fly unto our enemies.  
2. 
In the time of dangers.  In the time of dangers, warres, plagues or any other distress, we are commanded by God to do our best to preserve our lives; for it is not enough for us to say, the Lord will save us, but we must do our best to save ourselves; So the Mariners that carried jonas prayed unto their Gods, and yet rowed their best to preserve their lives; So Ichosaphat, Ezechias and josias when the armies of their enemies came against them, did put their whole trust in Gods assistance, and relied upon his help for their deliverance; yet they prepared the instruments of war, they fortified their Cities, and gathered all the strength of men that they could make to withstand the violence of their foes; and we must do the like, when we are inthe like danger; for though the Scripture bids us, cast our care upon God; yet it bids us not to cast away our care, or to be without care, but to have a care, and the best care that we can take to preserve our lives from the danger of the enemy, to raise men and money, and as Salomon saith, to prepare the horse for the day of battle. and then  
2. When the horse is prepared, 
To rely wholly upon God.  and we have endeavoured our best, we must refer our lives onely unto God; it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth, but as the Prophet saith, salvation belongeth unto the Lord; for it is he that giveth victory in the battle, and it is he that saveth our life from destruction; for as his help will not preserve us without our care; so all our care cannot save us without his help; but when both these go together, then we may be sure that our care and endeavour with his favour and assistance will so preserve us that we shall live.  
Therefore when we loose and are put to the worst, we should not be dejected, whichis the fault of too many of us, but we should say with King Davia, I will yet trust in God, which is the help of my countenance and my God; and when we gain and get the better of our enemies, we should not be puffed up with pride,& diminish the praise of God, who gave us the better, which is the fault of as many more, that ascribe too much unto themselves and to little to Gods goodness: but, as the Poet saith of Pompey, so much more should we say, that are Christians.  
— Non me videre superbum  
Prospera fatorum, nec fractum adversa videbunt.  
Or as Menivensis saith of King Alfred,  
Si modo victor-erat ad crastina bella pavebat,  
Si modo victus erat ad crastina bella parabat.  
So should we do, in all fortunes go on, eodem vultus tenore, and in all our actions rely on God, and refer ourselves wholly unto him: and doing so, we shall be sure to live.  
1. Because he hath promised us, that if we thus seek him according to his will, we shall live according as we desire; and he is not as man that he should lie, nor as the son of man that he should change his mind, but he is yea and amen, he is truth itself; and therefore sicut verus est in retributione malorum, it a veràx est in promissione bonorum, as he is most certain in the puntshment of the wicked, so he is as certain in his promise to the godly,  
2. Because he is willing to save us, and therefore crieth unto us, why will ye die? why will ye die: o ye house of Israel? For as I live saith the Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner; and it is worth our observation to consider how pathetically and how feelingly he speaketh to this purpose: o that my people would have harkened unto me, for if Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have put down their enemies, 
Ps. 81.14, 15 16.  and turned my hand against their adversaries; the haters of the Lord should have been found liars, but their time should have endured for ever.  
3. Because he is able both to perform his promise, and to satisfy our desires: which our Prophet sheweth at large, saying, seek him that maketh the seven stars, and Orion, and turneth the shadow of dèath into the morning, 
vc. 8.  and maketh the day dark with night, that calleth for the waters of the Sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: that is, as S. Hieron. 
fortificare debiles.  sheweth, seek him that is the creator of all things, that is mighty to save, and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth, to strengthen the spoyled, as Vatab. and Arias say: or as Aquila turns it, 
vc. 9.  subridere potentiam potentium, to scorn the strength of the mighty, and to destroy the destroyer.  
And therefore if God be with us, though we be weak and our enemies strong, we few and they many, yet we need not fear them: because we rely not upon our own strength, but upon the assistance of our God, qui dividit contritionem supper fortitudinem, which casteth abundance of destructions upon the mighty, as the Septuagint render the words of the Prophet; and though we be simplo, and our enemies subtle and crafty, full of all politic devices, to raise men and to get money, and to unite their strength by wicked covenants, oaths and associations: yet we need not fear, because we rely not upon our own wit, but upon the wisdom of God, 
1 Col. 1.19.  which can destroy the wisdom of the wise, and cast away the understanding of the prudent, 
Prov. 21.30.  and turn the counsel of achitophel to his own destruction: & non est concilium contra eum: and therefore, 
Exod. 14.13.  O my bel. br. seek the Lord, and fear not, but, as Moses saith, stand still, that is, constant in your resolution, 
1 Sam. 14.6. 2 Chron. 14.11.  for the service of your God and the King, and behold the salvation of the Lord which he will show unto you this day, or at this time: ●or there is no restraint unto the Lord to save by many or by few, as both Jonathan and Asa testify.  
2. 
The promise.  The promise( as I  told you at first) is the best of all desires, you shall live; the former part was like the toilsome labour of the inhabitants of Persepolis, when they cut the wood with their axes; but this latter is like the feast that Cyrus made unto them, when they had finished their Labours: durus labour, 
justin. l. 1. hist.  said merces dulcis, though the labour is hard, yet the reward is sweet; and it never troubles us, to take great pains, where we shall be well paid, but to labour all night with the Apostles, and to catch nothing, durus est hic sermo, this is a hard saying, 
How ill some masters reward their servants.  after a hard labour; but it is not so in Gods service: for, though in following the lusts of the flesh, and the vanities of this World, excessit medicina modum, the reward that the devil gives us, shall be a great deal sorer then all the pains we have taken in his service: 
Val. Max. l. 9. c. 3. Curtius h●st l. 3.  for he deals with us, as Alexander did with clytus, Calisthenes and other of his chiefest Captaines; or as Darius did with Eudemus, to expose him unto death, when he forsook his own native Country and dedicated his whole life to his command; yet in the service of Christ it is far otherwise: 
How abundantly Christ rewardeth his setvants.  whatsoever a man doth for him he shall be rewarded a hundred fold, and though he gives but a cup of could water for his sake, yet for this, he shall not loose his reward; And there fore this should encourage us to seek the Lord, because our reward doth so far exceed our work.  
But let us consider the nature of this promise, 
Mar. 10.42.  thou shalt live; that is, live long, live well, and live for ever. for  
1. 
The seekers of God small live long. Ps 37.2.  Though the blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes, and the ungodly shall be soon cut down like the grass, gemit sub pondere tellus, when the earth is weary to bear them on it; yet if we seek the Lord, our daies shall be long in the Land, which the Lord our God giveth us, and though the pestilence, that walketh in darkness, and the arrow that flieth in the noon day do threaten our death at every hour, 
Ps 91.6.  yet when a thousand shall fall besides us, and ten thousand on our right hand, it shall not come nigh us: such is the reward of serving God.  
2. They shall not onely live, 
They shall live well.  for a miserable life is not so good as a happy death, but they shall live well and happily while they live; for surely it shall go well with the righteous, 
Esay 3.10.  saith the Prophet, and King David saith, the Lions may want and suffer hunger, 
Ps. 34.10.  but they that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good, and the reason is rendered by the Apostle, 
1 Tim. 4.8.  because godliness hath the promise both of this life and of the life to come. and  
3, If we eschew evil and do good, 
They shall live for ever. Ps. 37.27.  we shall live for evermore,& gloriosum imperium sine fine dabit, and God will give us a kingdom without ending; And therefore seeing this promise is so plentiful, it is worth our labour that we should seeeke the Lord.  
But here, it may be some will demand how doth he perform his promise? for, did not the Prophets, the Apostles and all the Martyrs of the Primitive Church seek the Lord, and believe in Christ with all their hearts; and yet was not Zachary stoned, in the courts of the house of the Lord? Micheas killed by Joram? Amos knocked in the head with a club? 
How they that sought the Lord were used in this world.  Esay sawed in pieces by Manasses? John Baptist beheaded? S. Stephen stoned? James killed? S. Paul beheaded? S. Peter crucified? S. Thomas killed with a Javelin? S. mark burned? and what shall I say of simeon, Polycarpus, Justinus, Attalus, Marcella, Apolloniae, 
Alii ferrro perempti, alii patibulo cruciati. Euseb. Ec. hist  and abundance more of holy Saints, whereof alii flammis exusti, some were burned, others beheaded, and all deprived of their life for seeking the Lord and confessing Christ; And for any happy life the servants of God do led, doth not S. 
2 Tim 3.12. Act. 20.23.  Paul say that all which will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution; and afflictions do wait for them in every place? and when the ungodly flourish like a green bay three, 
Ps. 37.36. Luke 16.  clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and fare deliciously every day; the poor Saints even in their bonds are glad toeat ashes as it were bread, and to mingle their drink with weeping?  
I confess this hath been ever a sore objection that disheartened many men, and made King Davids feet wellnigh to slip; but if I shall obtain your patience to stay with me a little in Gods sanctuary, I shall soon untie this Gordian knot, or so cut it to pieces, that it can no ways be any hindrance to our progress. for  
1. 
Seneca de brevit vita c. 8.  Seneca proveth; that long life consisteth not in the great number of yeares, but in virtuous actions; and the wise man saith, an underfiled life is the old age; for God esteemeth of notime but what we spend in his service; and therefore they that lived 100 years in pleasures have but lost all their time, 
All time lost thans not spent in Gods service  and been as dead all that time which they lived; and those holy Saints that were cut off in the midst of their dayes, have lived longer, because they spent their whole time in Gods service; the other lost their time, and lost their life, as Titus was wont to say, diem perdidi, I lost the day, wherein I did no good, and these have gained every hour. and  
2. 
afflictions not so esteemed by the Saints as they are by the worldings.  Whatsoever afflictions the Saints do suffer, we must not account them so great miseries unto them, as the world takes them; for the Philosopher tells us, that quicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modum recipientis; and they esteem them not as the world doth; but they count them, as the fatherly chastisements of Gods love, and not any arguments of Gods hatred, and as as the Poet saith, 
How God sweeteneth the afflictions of his servants.  
Una eadenque manus vulnus opemque tulit.  the same hand, which laid on their stripes will heal their sores.  
1. By giving 
tertul in apolog●….  them that invincible gift of patience; which doth more enrage their tormenting persecutors, then themselves are in suffering torments.  
2. By filling 
H●… ip. 4.11.  them with true content, that is, in any estate to be contented; which is far better then to abound with wealth, and to want this heavenly gift; for he is most rich that desires nothing, and he is best pleased, that is never discontented. and  
3. 
James 1 2. Rom. 8.31. V. 37.  By making them to rejoice in tribulation and to account it all joy, when they fall into divers temptations; a strange thing, that they should rejoice in that which the world doth most fear; yet such is the case of the righteous, that neither life, nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor any other thing shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus; but they abound in want, they are content in Prison, they rejoice in death and in all things they are more then conquerors for his sake that loved them.  
And therefore to conclude, let us seek the Lord and we shall live, and we shall be happy; because he nover faileth them that seek him; but he will hear their prayers and will help them, so that they need fear neither the scarlet gowns, nor the sharpest swords, neither their dissembling friends, nor their greatest enemies; for that God is with them in Prison, as with Joseph; in the Sea, as with Jonas; in the fire, as with the 3 Children; and in all places, to preserve them, from all evil here, and to bring them to all happiness hereafter, to live forever, though Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be all praise and dominion for ever and ever, AMEN.  
jehovae liberatori  
FINIS.   

How the Rebels dealt with the Bishop while he was Preaching this Sermon.  
WHile Archimedes was very studious in the framing of his mathematical proportions, the enemy, saith the historian, was sacking the town and pulling him out of his house, or ready to pull down his House about his egres: and not much unlike; that very day, the 8th of March, when I was, as Religious as I could, I am sure, with an unfeigned heart, Preaching this very Sermon in S. Maries, the Rebels out of Northampton, seized upon my House, took away all my goods and Cattle, and as I am informed by a letter from a faithful Preacher, the Committee concluded to sequester all my Estate, and all that I purchased for my Wife and Children by the indefatigable pains of 17 years service, in an honourable house, to the use of the Parliament; so that now the poor Bishop of Ossory, 
Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charibdim;   
Or as Lucian saith, shunning the smoke( of the Irish insurrection, that onely withheld all that they should pay unto him) he fell into the fire( of the English Rebellion, that thus took all that he had from him;) for which I pray God to forgive them; it doth no ways trouble me, when I know, that he, which lent me all, may justly sand whom he will to fetch all away from me; and I do profess before my God; if I had all the Rebels Estate, yet I should freely without the least dispute, leave it, loose it, and part with it, rather then I would take their wicked covenant, prove disloyal unto my King, depart an inch from the truth of God, or any. ways desile my conscience for any worldly wealth; and I do hearty thank my God, that he hath given me this resolution, to rejoice more in the sincerity of this my Profession, then any ways to grieve at my losses, afflictions or persecutions: and therefore the taking away of my Estate moves me to nothing else, but to pray to God to give them grace to repent them of their sins committed against God, and their Rebellion against their King, whom God hath commanded them to honour and to obey: so I leave them, that left nothing besides Loyalty to his King and fidelity to his God, unto their orator, still remaining,  
Gr. Ossory.  
Though the Lord slay me, yet will I trust in him, saith holy Job; and though the pretended Parliament, should rob me to my very shirt; yet will I both Preach and writ and pray against their wickedness; this will I do, so help one God, who is my God, in whom I trust. Amen