Zions Memento and Gods Alarm

SOme passages in my Sermon have reference to a little treatise, which I lately published about Socinianism: in that book you will meet with much Latin which is not translated, yet if you turn over but the first four or five leaves, you may without the help of Latin, if you read attentively, pick out the scope of the book; some quotations were scholastical, and would not bear English, some are full of blasphemies, others there are that will seem superfluous to any but a scholar, who delights to know every circumstance. Be pleased to read the book, the Sermon, and Epistle, believe and obey the Scriptures, and prepare for Martyrdom, we know not how soon we may be called to seal the truth with our dearest blood; lend the Author thy patience and thy prayers.

A SERMON PREACHED AT THE late Fast, before the Commons House of PARLIAMENT.

B Ehold two Nations, two manner of peodle struggling in the bowels of this Text and Kingdom, Jacob and Esan, Zion and Babylon. Now the Kingdom lies groaning in its throws and pangs, in its agony and bloody-sweat; let us fall into a devout agony and penitent sweat, if we cannot sweat blood let us sweat tears, let every pore of our body be a weeping eye, a crying, a praying mouth, to beg a safe delivery for our laboring Mother, who travails in the anguish of her spirit. Let us entreat God to comfort England, as he did Rebekah, Genes. 25. 23. And the Lord said unto her, Two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels: O let us pray that either Babylon may be separated, expelled out of the bowels of Zion, or Zion delivered out of Babylon.

When the poor Jews were prisoners in Babylon, by the rivers of Babylon there they sat down and wept, and wept amain, when they remembered Zion, Psal. 137. 1. Oh for Jeremiah's tears, and Jeremiah's spirit, that we might write another book of Lamentations, to bewail the miserable security of this present age! Zion sits down by the rivers of Babylon, the waters of strife, and rivers of Confusion, and shall there be no fountain in our Head, or Heart; no penitent streams flowing from our eyes? The God of heaven make this marble sweat, that we may not keep a Mock-fast today, with dry eyes and hard hearts.

Come, let us blow off the ashes from our zeal, let us enflame our hearts with sad but servant devotion: Sure if, as Heraclitus dreamt, our soul were but an Exhalation, the heat of our devotion would melt it into one indivisible tear: Our soul would be its own tear, and we might well weep out our eyes and souls together on this day of tears. Oh let us remember to join Zecharies zeal with Jeremiah's tears, let us lie upon our faces today, but up, up tomorrow; the Prophet cries Ho, Ho, in the verse before my Text, to awaken and enflame your zeal and indignation against Babylon. Come, • pread abroad like the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord: Deliver thyself, O Zion, &c.

In the words observe Zion's bondage, and Zion's deliverance: Zion's Memento, and God's Alarm. Zion's Memento, to put her in mind of her sad condition, she was yet in the house of Bondage, like Galba's wit she had but a foul habitation, an ill seat, and worse neighbors: Zion that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. But that's not all, it is not a bare gentle Memento, in a still voice; Heus, heus, divinum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hark, hark, God himself sounds an Alarm. Zion's fast asleep, she snorts again, and therefore the Prophet lifts up his voice, and cries, So Ho, O Zion awake, awake, rouse up thyself out of thy secure pleasing dream: Thy soul is asleep, awake, quicken thy spirits, put on strength O Zion, put forth thy strength, use all possible diligence for thy redemption and Deliverance. Deliver thyself O Zion, &c.

The Text at first glance presents these two Propositions to our serious consideration.

1. It is sometimes the hard lot of Zion to dwell with the daughter of Babylon: This point is so clear that I need not explain or confirm it, we'l let that pass, and hasten to the second.

2. Zion must take all fair opportunities, and use all lawful means to deliver herself from Babylon: I desire to spend my strength upon this Doctrine.

Give me leave to open the point a little: Come, let us walk the Round and survey the bounds of Zion, and the bounds of Babylon. By Zion the Prophet means the people of God, whose hearts were set on Zion, because God had of old set up his Ordinances there, and made them a gracious promise, That they should return thither again, and enjoy him once more in the Beauty, the Glory of Holiness. There were two Mounts which did belong to Jerusalem, Mount Moriah, and Mount Zion; the Temple was built upon Mount Zion, and therefore Zion was the Mount of Holiness, and as it were the Throne of God here below, thither did the people flock, Micah 4. 2. Come, let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord —for the Law shall go forth of Zion: behold Zion is the Mountain of the Lord. But we must consider further, that besides the Jewish Zion, there is a Christian Zion spoken of in the Prophets; and this very place of Micah which I have cited, points at the Christian Zion, a Church consisting of all Nations, Gentiles as well as Jews; be pleased to peruse the words. But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the Mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the Mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it: and many Nations shall come and say, Let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord, verse 1. 2. That this is clearly meant of the Christian Zion, besides the evidence of the words themselves, the last verse of the former Chapter, the third Chapter of Micah, doth sufficiently declare: for the Jewish Zion, Zion in the letter, was to be plowed as a field, and the Mountain of that House was to be left as desolate as the high-places of the Forest. Moreover this Prophesy was to be fulfilled in the last days, Micah 4. 1. Finally, the Law shall go forth of Zion, saith the Prophet Micah, to the Jews the Law came forth of Sinai, but to the Christian Church consisting of Jews and Gentiles, the Law came forth of Zion when the Spirit was plentifully poured down upon some of all Nations at Jerusalem, Acts 2. and therefore not Rome, but the Church which was gathered at Jerusalem (if any Church) was the Metropolitan or mother Church, and younger Churches were the daughters of that Evangelical Zion: For we are not come to the Mount that burnt with fire, Heb. 12. 18. but unto Mount Zion, Verse 22. The Apostle doth expound this Allegory more fully, Galat. 4. 24. Which things, saith he, are an Allegory; for these are two covenants, (or testaments) the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage, the other then is from Mount Zion, which tendeth to freedom, a covenant of Grace, the spirit of grace and holiness which is more plentifully poured out upon the Christian Zion, makes us precious sons of Zion, free-men indeed. You see the Bounds of Zion.

Let us now take a view of Babylon. I need not say anything of Babylon in Egypt, my Text points me to Babylon in Assyria; the Scriptures mention a third Babylon, and in my Application the times will call upon me by Analogy and proportion to speak much of this third Babylon, which is a Mystical Babylon, the Romish Babylon; and yet I think we need not travail so far as Rome to find out Babylon: did you never hear of an English Babylon in Ireland, and an Irish Babylon in England, and a Romish Babylon even in Scotland? Is there not a Babylon in the North, and another in the West? a Babylon almost in every City, town and parish? nay if we are impartial in the search, we shall certainly find some Malignant lusts, some brats of Babylon in our own bosom: you see the bounds of Babylon.

I shall begin with the Jewish Zion, and show you what reason this Zion had to deliver herself from the Assyrian Babylon.

1. The first Reason is, because God had so often called upon Zion to separate from Babylon: the people were First, awakened by Jeremiah's prophecy. Secondly, they were encouraged by Cyrus his Proclamation: you may find both put together, Ezra 1. 1. Now in the first year of Cyrus King of Persia (that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled) the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia that he made Proclamation, &c. There was a threesold Call, a call from God, a call from the Prophet, and a call from the King; and the Lord who stirred up the spirit of Jeremy, and the spirit of Cyrus, did stir up the spirit of his people to answer this call, and depart from Babylon; for upon this Proclamation divers of the children of the Captivity went up to Jerusalem under the conduct of their General Z • rubbabel, as you may read, Ezra 2. 1, 2. Now these are the Children of the Province, that went up out of the Captivity of those which had been carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, everyone unto his City, which came with Zerubbabel, &c. Thirdly, the Governors & people were quickened to this great duty of forsaking Babylon, and building Zion by the ministry of the Prophet Haggai, and about two months after by the Prophet Zechariah. Ezra 5. 1. Hag. 1. 1. Zech. 1. 1. They both prophesied in the second year of Darius, Haggai in the sixth month, & Zechariah in the eight month. But it seems too many of the people upon some Carnal discouragements were unwilling to go to Jerusalem which was now but an heap of old rubbish and dead ashes, nay some were as willing to stay in Babylon as Lots sons-in-law to • tay in Sodom. God therefore gave them another Call yet in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, and then many went up from Babylon upon the motion of Ezra the scribe: Ezra 7. 6, 7, 8. ver. But there were many lingerers behind yet, and our longsuffering God who is rich in patience did vouchsafe another Call yet, about thirteen years after in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, • or about that time Nehemiah began to stir, as you may read, Nehem. 2. 1. You see here is Call upon Call; this may suffice for the first Reason; because nothing but obedience to the Call of God can declare us to be the true Church of God.

My second reason is taken from the Terminus à Quo, the place from whence they were called, Babylon; or the daughters of Babylon, the City of Babylon was the Metropolis or mother Citty, the adjoining towns and villages are called the daughters of Babylon, because they followed the ill example of the City, they were nursed up in all manner of Babylonish Idolatry and Impiety; Some of the people that belonged to Zion did certainly loiter too long in these towns and villages, and therefore the Prophet calls upon them in my Text. Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with Babylon, with the daughters of Babylon that are as bad as their mother. Babylon is, in the language of Augustine, The City of the Devil; and was it fit that the people of God should lie loitering in the City of the Devil? Babylon was the Malignant Church, the Sinke of Sin, the stall of Beasts, the Throne of Idols, the Temple of Devils, and mother of confusion. No place more infamous for their pride and tyranny, their cruelty and Idolatry; well might Zion be weary of such a loathsome prison, and noisome dungeon, which could not but be offensive by its stench and darkness, even as Babylon the great is the Habitation of Devils, the Strong hold of foul spirits, Rev. 18. 2.

The 3d. Reason is taken from the Terminus ad Quem, the place unto which they were called, unto Jerusalem, unto Zion. Every motion takes its denomination from its Terminus ad Quem, but here even the Travailers themselves who were to move take their Title from that Place unto which they moved. The people are called Zion, because they were called forth to go to Zion. Deliver thyself O Zion. Zion was a place beloved of God, and all his people, the people were in love with Zion with respect to God's Election, institution, Promise, Blessing. God had chosen that place for his Seat of special Residence, and did there exhibit himself to his people by a visible presence. Moreover God had by a special Institution recorded his name, and set up his ordinances in Zion, and therefore the Temple was to be built again on that mountain; the Jews were confined to a certain place, to Zion; Some parts of public worship were so appropriated to that place, that they were to be performed there, and nowhere else: Deut. 12. 13, 14. Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest, but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of the Tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee: The particular offerings are more distinctly specified in the 11. verse of the same Chapter: Your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord. Finally, God had promised a blessing to all them who came up to Zion, to worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness: At first there was a general promise given, Exo 20. 24. In all places where I record my Name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. But when God had chosen Jerusalem for the Seat of Royalty, the place of Justice, and Zion as the Mountain of Holiness, and place of public Worship, then all the Tribes were to go to Jerusalem for Justice, and to Zion to sacrifice, Psal. 122. 4, 5. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. For there are set Thrones of Judgment, the Thrones of the house of David. The poor people had long been deprived of the benefit of Justice, and the liberty of Religion; but now God had promised by his Prophet Zechariah that their Common-wealth should be settled, their Church established, their City and Temple both new built, Zech. 1. 16, 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies, my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of Hosts: my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad, and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. The first Temple was as glorious as Art and cost could make it: but God who hath gold and silver, heaven and earth at his disposing, had passed his word to them, that he would shake heaven and earth, sea and land, and fill the latter house with the glory of the Lord Jesus, who is the desire and glory of all Nationa, Haggai 2. from the 6. verse to the 9. Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake all Nations, and the desire of all Nations shall come, and I will fill this House with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts: the silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts: the glory of this latter House shall be greater then of the former, &c. The Prophet you see had good reason to invite them to new Jerusalem here below, a kind of heaven upon earth, to Zion the habitation of Justice, and mount of Holiness, the praise of the Jews, the glory of the Gentiles, the House of God, and Type of Heaven.

Fourthly, God had now removed all rubs, he had opened the Kings heart and the prison doors, if they would be active it was in their own power to deliver themselves, and therefore the Prophet calls upon them to use their power, and to take that fair opportunity which was offered for their deliverance, and their glory, Deliver thyself, O Zion: Why Zion, wilt thou be a Felo de Se? thy shackles are knocked off, the Po • ts are open, the Commission is now sealed; come, be not cruel to thyself: what wilt thou be thine own tormentor, thine own prisoner? Before the seventy years were expired, thou wast detained in Babylon, thou wast a prisoner there, but now thy time is out, and therefore if thou stayest longer yet, thou are not a Prisoner, but a dweller in Babylon. Deliver thyself O Zion, that [dwellest] in Babylon: There's the Emphasis and strength of the Prophets exhortation.

The Use of this Point is to stir up the Christian Zion, all true Protestants, to deliver themselves from Antichristian Babylon, from the Babylonish army, & the Babylonish Church. The I • wish Zion had a miraculous deliverance from the Assyrian Babylon; though God be the Lord of Hosts and hath all armies at his command, yet Zion was to be delivered not by might or by the power of an Army, but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts, by the Immediate hand of God, Zech. 4. 6. But I do not find that Christian Zion shall be delivered upon such easy terms from Antichristian Babylon, do not • latter yourselves with vain hopes, our deliverance will cost blood. 1. This is clear to any man that hath studied the book of the Revelation, & what upon prayer & study God hath revealed by the clear Texts of the Revelation, I will this day deliver unto you though I were sure to die S. John's death, or to be banished into S. John's Island. The God of heaven give us a further Revelation of this Revelation, that it may be interpreted by the same Spirit by which it was written. S. John▪ tells me that the Spirits of Devils shall go forth to the Kings of the earth, & of the whole world, to gather them to Armageddon, to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, Rev. 16. 14. 16. Secondly I know it is a great while yet to that great battle, yet the Spirits will be Scouting out long before. And sure these Spirits have been at work of late in Ireland, England, & Scotland too; the Babylonians are active, & must the precious sons of Zion be merely Passive? No, they must all List themselves under the King of Kings, whose vesture will be dipt in Anti-Christian blood: For as S. John shows that the whore, the beast, the false Prophet, the Kings of the earth, and the Devil join forces and gather their armies together; So will the Omnipotent Lamb, whose name is the Word of God, judge in righteousness and make war, Rev. 19. 11. He will overthrow the spiritual Jurisdiction of Anti-Christ by his Word and Spirit, by that sharp sword which goes out of his mouth. ver. 15. the consciences of men shall be so convinced by the powerful preaching of the Gospel, that Anti-Christ shall no longer sit as God in the Temple of God, in the * consciences of men, which are the peculiar Temple of God; and for this reason the Anti-Christian faction doth so violently oppose all powerful preaching. But then for the Temporal dominion of Anti-Christ: Jesus Christ hath prepared a Rod of Iron, which shall break in pieces all his usurped power, and dominion, like an earthen vessel, because he hath his power from earth, and not by any ordinance from Heaven; Christ will come and over-rule him with a Rod of Iron, and tread the Wine press of the fierceness & wrath of Almighty God, Rev. 19. 15. and in that day of wrath Christ will have an army in the field, Rev. 19. 19. And I saw the Beast, and the Kings of the Earth, & their armies gathered together, to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his Army. Behold the Noble Army of the Lord • esus! and observe further, that it is such an Army as is stirred up to fight from Scripture motives, not from Politique consideratious, and therefore it is added in the 21. ver. That their bodies were slain with that sword which proceeded out of the mouth of Christ: & yet it was a bodily slaughter, for it follows, all the Fowls were filled with their flesh: and no marvel if these soldiers were encouraged to fight up-Scripture-motives, if you consider what kind of soldiers they are who do the deed; Men Chosen and Faithful. For when the Kings of the earth have given their power to the Beast, these choice-soldiers will be so faithful to the King of Kings, as to oppose the Beast, though armed with King-like power. So S. John, These [Kings] have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the Beast; These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of Lord's, and King of Kings, and they that are with him are Called, and Chosen, and Faithful. Rev. 17. 13, 14. You see the faithful people make no scruple at all of fighting against the Beast, though their enemies were like enough to say, that by fighting against the Beast, they did rebel against their own Kings, who had given their power, and strength unto the Beast. Mark what that Text saith, they were called to this service, chosen and picked out on purpose, & therefore they had not been faithful had they deserted the Cause, and refused the service. Nay they are encouraged to war by a promise of victory, and therefore are resolved to fight against the Beast, though he come armed with the power and strength of ten Kings, so S. John. I could now tell you a long story of the King of Spain, & another of the King of France; but the times call upon me to speak plain and home, and yet I will not speak Treason neither. To what end should we waste time about a discourse of Hull, and the Militia? Come speak to the point. If a King of the Protestant Profession should give his strength and power to his Queen a Papist, and she give it to the Iefuits, to the Beast, it is neither Rebellion nor Treason to fight for the King, to recover his power out of the hand of the Beast; I say, for the King, that the power being regained may be settled upon the Kings Royal person, and posterity; and then it is to be hoped that the King & they will take warning and beware how they trust out their power another time. We are engaged to fight against the Anti-Christian faction by our very Baptism: Vocati sumus ad hanc Militiam Dei vivi iam tunc cum in Sacramenti verba respondimus, as Tertullian to the Martyrs.

But the Socinians and Anabaptists so much complained of, do here cast in a scruple: We Christians, say they, are called to faith & charity, and therefore it doth not become us to go to war. It is true, Christians are called to faith, and therefore to descend the faith, they must contend earnestly for the faith, and be valiant for the truth. The Apostle reckons acts of valor amongst acts of faith: Through faith they waxed valiant in fight, &c. Much more is it an act of faith to be valiant in the defense of the faith, an act of Justice and Religion; so Augustine.

And if you talk of charity, consider that of the Author, Omnes, omnium charitates Patria complectitur, Cic. off. l. 1. give me leave to say, Christus complectitur. That is not true charity which will not consist with faith: Be charitable to thine own soul, and the Church of God: Love thy Country, thy Religion, and thy Savior better then thy estate, thy life, thy friends: be out of charity with the Whore and the Beast, they are fitter objects of thy hatred, then of thy charity; nay we must hate the Whore, and burn her flesh; there is no mercy to be shown to this Whore, she will never be quiet till she is burnt. It concerns the Governors of Zion, who are as the Angels of the Lord, to thrust in their sickle into the Romish vineyard, & cut down vine, and grapes, and all, because it is the Vine of earth, it is not the Vine of heaven, all the Antichristian clusters must be gathered together, and thrown into thegreat Wine-press of the wrath of God: and when once the Wine-press comes to be trodden, believe it blood will spring up to the very Horse-bridles, for the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs, Revel. 14. 19, 20. This prophecy hath reference to that great slaughter which shall be made, Revel. 19. when the Lord Jesus shall come to tread the Wine-press, verse. 15. You may guess further yet at the greatness of the slaughter, by the invitation of the fowls of heaven to supper, at the latter end of the day; Come, gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, verse 16. You may read the bill of fare in the 18. verse, Come ye fowls of heaven, Come, eat the flesh of Kings, and the flesh of Captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of Horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. This Prophesy shall not be fulfilled till the pouring out of the last vial, for this is the last blow it will prove a bloody and a fatal Day; for the seventh Angel pours out his vial, and cries the deed is done, 'tis finished when all the Babylonian troops shall be gathered to Armageddon. the destruction of troops, as the word imports. The Beast shall receive many a wound before, but this blow shall dispatch him, he shall never hold up his head more. Deliver thyself, then O Zion. Christ is the great Deliverer, but though Christ be Principal, we must be Instrumental in this great work of our own deliverance. Deliver [thyself,] O Zion; and if thou canst not be delivered without fighting, fight for thy deliverance.

1. Consider that Rome is Babylon; St. John never speaks one good word of Rome, quite throughout the book of the Revelation; he calls it Egypt, or Sodom, or Babylon, the throne of the Beast, the strong-hold of foul-spirits, the habitation of Devils. Rome was once the Spouse of Christ, but behold, she is not only turned an whore, but the mother of Harlots, and fornications, the Metropolis of Apostasy, and mystery of Iniquity, the great whore, Revel. 17. 1. a blasphemous whore in the third verse, a whore in purple, verse the fourth, an impudent whore, that hath her beastliness written, not only upon her Cell, but upon her Forehead, verse the fifth, a drunken whore, a bloody whore, in the sixth verse, I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints, with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus. We need not run to Antiquity to ask their opinion, what whore, and what beast this is, or where this whore dwells; St. John speaks so plain, that the Jesuits themselves are forced to confess that this whore was to domineer at Rome: It is the City which is built upon seven Hills, which had had so many governments, five of which were fallen before St. John writ this Book, Kings, Consuls, Tribunes, Decemvirs, Dictatours; one remains still saith St. John, namely the government of Emperors, and the other, that of Popes, was not then come. And that we might be sure not to mistake, St. John tells us, that it is the great City which reigned over the Kings of the earth in his time, Revel. 17. 18.

2. Consider who is the General, or the Commander in Chief, of the Babylonian Army; St. John hath set him forth like a God of the world, with Titles enough, the Serpent, the Dragon, the Angel of the bottomless-pit, for 'tis he, that gives all the orders and directions to Antichrist: He advises him to lay claim to a Power which belongs not to him. Irenaeus long since hath clearly shewn that the Beast with two horns, and the False Prophet, are but one and the same Beast: Learned M ^r . Mede hath shewn that the Beast with ten horns, doth signify the Secular Power of ten Kingdoms, who by the impious subtlety of the Dragon, combine together to make a Body, a Romish Common-wealth; the Beast with two Horns is, as you use to call it, the Ecclesiastical Power. The ten Kings, or Kingdoms, were to make up but one Beast of burden, for the Whore to ride upon; that is, they all join together to support the Whore, and therefore these ten Horns are all placed upon the seventh Head, that is, they strengthen the last government, the Popish government. Now as the great Dragon did manage the whole business, whilst that Heathenism was supported by the power of the Roman Emperors, as St. John shows in the twelfth Chapter of the Revelation; so doth the Dragon over-rule the whole business in the time of the Antichristian Popes, as St. John shows in the thirteenth Chapter; for the Dragon gave the Beast his Power, and his Seat, and great Authority, Revel. 13. 3. and they worshipped the Dragon, who gave power to the Beast, verse the fourth, and therefore the Beast is said to ascend out of the bottomless▪ pit, Revel. 17. 8. If you look upon the Pope as Bishop of Rome, so he came up out of the earth, his Ordination was not from heaven; but if you look upon him as Pope, as Universal Bishop, & a Temporal Monarch, a King even of kings, we say he had 〈◊〉 blacker Institution, he ascended out of the bottomless-pit. Take it thus then, Satan had his Seat in Heathen Rome, but he hath his Throne in Popish Rome; ever since the Roman Court hath had the confidence to call itself the Catholic Church, it hath offered more violence, and done more mischief to the true Church of Christ, then ever was done by the Roman Empire; and therefore as the 7. trumpets did sound an Alarm against the Roman Empire; so the 7. vials are all to be poured out upon the Popish Empire, the Anti-Christian State.

3. Consider that where the Pope and his Agents prevail by a Babylonian Army, there they do constantly exercise a Babylonian Tyranny. When the people were so mad as to prefer Caesar before Christ, God gave them into the hand of the Roman Emperor, and he tyrannized over them, and God would not deliver them; just as he threatened beforehand by his Prophet Zechariah, 11. 6. I will deliver the men, everyone into his neighbors hand, and into the hand of his King, and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand will I not deliver them. The Emperor did smite the land indeed, but the Pope of Rome will tyrannize far worse then the Emperor. If ever God for our sins sell us into the hand of that Man of sin, he will not only tyrannize over our bodies and estates, but over our consciences too: If ever he enter England with his tripple-crown, with his sword in one hand, and his keys in the other, he will tyrannize like a Pope, he will curtall our Creed, and yet enlarge it: I believe in the holy Catholic Church, that is, as they interpret it too often, in the Pope; that must be our only Creed, and we shall find that a large one. We must swear obedience to the Popes Commands, they say, that vow of obedience is implied in their Baptism, and therefore they name the Trinity but for fashion sake, and do indeed baptize their children in the name of Antichrist. Now if the Popes Commands are in force, and the Commands of God dispensed with, the Commands of the Pope will soon justle out the Commands of God. You know the Pope hath by the Plenitude of his power struck out the second Commandment, and by the same authority he may when he please, strike out the first Commandment, and by consequent all the rest; and then he may make a new Preface, and a new Decalogue, if that number will content him, he may say as the Extravagant saith, that he himself [is the Lord our God,] who desires to bring us into the land of Egypt, the house of bondage (he should do well to put in that) where we shall have no other God but the Pope, for he exalts himself above all that is called God; but we may have as many Images, and Idols as we please, and so take the Name of our God in vain; we must keep all the Saints days, and then we shall not be at leisure to keep the Lord's-day; you know the Popes Agents here in England, about four years ago, did not only dispense with the people for observing the Lord's-day, but enjoin them to profane it: you know their Doctrine about Aequivocation, and Fornication; they do too often count Murder meritorious, a Doctrine which doth well become the mouth of that purple whore, who is drunk with the blood of Saints. St. John hath drawn this Monster to the life; you may guess how the Pope will tyrannize by the very picture of the Beast, Revel. 13. 2. No one beast hath ill qualities enough to furnish the Pope, and therefore he borrows something from the Leopard, and something from the Bear, and something from the Lyon, besides what he hath from the Dragon; this Antichristian Monarch hath all the tyrannizing qualities of three of those Monarchies which the Prophet Daniel hath described; the Leopard was the type of the Graecian, the Bear of the Persian, the Lyon of the Babylonian Monarchy; it is observable that he hath the Mouth of a Lyon, a Babylonian mouth, he will plead for Babylon, he will send forth such Edicts as Nebuchadnezzar did, they shall be burnt alive who will not worship the Image which he hath set up: You see he hath the mouth of a Lyon, nay the mouth of a Dragon, for though he pretends that he is the servant of servants, (and the curse of Cham indeed is a fit title for him) nay though he say he is Christ's Vicar, and hath two horns like a Lamb, yet he speaks like a Dragon, Revel. 13. 11. What say you then, brethren, shall we run into the paw of this Bear, into the mouth of this Lyon, this Dragon, who is as great a tyrant as the Grecians, Persians, Babylonians, put them all together? nay he comes in the power of the Dragon, of the Devil himself, and therefore he will not only tyrann • ze as an Emperor, but as a Devil. Deliver thyself, O Zion, from the Babylonian Army, that thou mayest never groan under the iron yoke of Babylonian tyranny.

4. Consider that the men of Europe are most given to admire the Babylonian Beast, and to submit unto him; All the world, saith St. John, wondered after the Beast, Revel. 13. 3. this was the Europaean world; take heed ye men of Europe, do not wonder after the Beast, for fear you worship him, for so it follows in the very next verse; first they wondered, and then they worshipped: be not terrified with the strength and provisions of the Babylonian Army; if any man be stricken with fear and admiration both at once, and cry out with those admirers, and worshippers of the Beast, Revel. 13. 4. Who is like unto the Beast, who is able to make war with him? let him take these following Encouragements, and then he shall see, that there is one that is able to make war with the Beast.

1. My first way of Encouragement is to remove your discouragements, and to affright you out of all your fears; you are afraid of the threats and rage of the Babylonian Party. I will fright you more, Christ doth out-threaten Antichrist, therefore if you will be affrighted, fear Christ most, the wrath of God, and the effects of his wrath, his punishments, are far more terrible then any that can be inflicted by the Babylonian Army: read the fourteenth Chapter of the Revelation, the ninth and following verses: If any man worship the Beast, and his Image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his [hand,] observe that, though by his forehead he may seem a Neuter, yet if he have the Mark in his hand, and work closely under-board for Antichrist, that man shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation, and • e shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy Angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the Beaest, and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name. What think you now? have not they who comply with Antichrist, greater discouragements then they that oppose him? had not a man better adventure up to the very mouth of a Cannon, then be tormented with the fire of He •• , or the wrath of God? Let the fear of God preserve thee from all false fears. Timor Dei efficit ut caetera non timeantur. Fear not them that kill the body, but fear him who can cast thy soul and body into Hell, yea fear him. Dost thou not believe a Resurrection? why then dost thou fear them that kill the body? show me an army that can keep my body from rising, or my soul from ascending, & I will be afraid of them.

My second Encouragement is taken from God's dealing with Babylon of old. I shall not tell you any long stories out of Xenophon, Herodotus, or the rest, about the taking of Babylon, but content myself with what I find in Scripture.

1. God did dry up Euphrates, a river so deep and swift, that the Babylonians laughed at all the attempts of any enemy that should go about to take their City, and yet Babylon was soon taken, when God did but say to the deep, Be dry, Isai. 44. 27. God did plead the cause of Zion, and dry up the sea of Babylon, and all the springs. Ierem. 51. 36. And will not God plead the cause of his Evangelical Zion? will he not dry up the Euphrates, the Sea of Rome, and all her springs? Yes surely, God doth intend to dry up the Romish Euphrates, Revel. 16. 12. The River is not now so deep, it doth not overflow the banks so far as it hath done of late days; we have gained much ground from the Romish-sea. Let us look to our Banks, and keep what we have gained.

2. God did give up the Babylonians to luxury, drunkenness, security; I will make them drunken that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, saith the Lord, Jerem. 〈◊〉 . 39. The people of Babylon were drunk, and asleep, and left the gates open, Isai. 45. 1.

3. God did break thorough all their Fortifications, and make all those gates, and bars which were fast, fly open, to make way for Cyrus, Isai. 45. 2.

4. God did discover all the hid treasure, and secret wealth of Babylon, Isai. 45. 3.

Finally, God did speak terror to the hearts of the Babylonians, their hands did faint, their hearts did melt, their faces were like a pale trembling flame, which rises now, and anon it falls, and at last goes away in a smoke; so I understand that place, Isai. 13. 8. Their faces shall be as the faces of the flames.

It is certain, that God loves his Evangelical Zion as well as he loved the Jewish Zion, and he hates the Romish Babylon more then ever he hated the Assyrian Babylon: let us then depend upon the love and power of God, the promises of the Gospel, the wisdom and fidelity of Christ, for the destruction of Romish Babylon. The time will not permit me to speak distinctly of those several Heads: Yet take a third Encouragement.

3. All the People of God are called upon to deal with this Romish Babylon as she hath dealt with them. Reward her, evē as she rewarded you; nay higher yet, double unto her double, according to her works: in the Cup which she hath filled, fill to her double, Revel. • 8. 6. Babylon was wont to cast out Zion, let Zion now cast out Babylon; the base sons of Babylon banished some precious sons of Zion as far as America, and when they had done, they scoffed at them as if they were Barbarians, because banished into a rude Barbarous Country, they might better have said as Salvian did of old, Barbaros istos fecit nostra barbaries. Come then, let us deal as justly with the Babylonians as they have dealt cruelly with us, let Papists have as little encouragement to stay in England, as strict Protestants have had; let those men of iron entrails, and brazen bowels, who are Spaniardized and Italianated, I mean Jesuited, go live in Spain or Italy, such Monsters are not fit for our Climate. You are Physicians to the State, and these are Purging times, let all Malignant Humours be purged out of the Ecclesiastical, and Politique Body. O let the Excrements be expelled, the vital, and integral preserved in health and strength. But if there be any who out of simplicity have wondered after the Beast, and are now probably reduced and credibly penitent, such may be spared in hope: yet it will not be amiss to give them a little Physique to prevent a Relapse.

4. Christ is stronger then Antichrist; Oh let us depend upon his love to his Brethren, his Members, his Church, his Spouse. God will in due time make his enemies know that his Church hath an husband which will maintain her cause, & avenge her quarrel. The effectual power, and watchful providence of Jesus Christ, is constantly employed for his Churches good; the seven Horns of the Lamb are stronger then the ten horns of the Beast. S. John doth describe Christ by the Similitude of a Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, to note his power, and providence, Rev,. 5. 6. Though the Beast hath ten horns, yet he wants these seven eyes, these seven spirits. Now the Lamb with seven eyes will discover all the plots, & projects of the enemy, all the Arcana Belli, and Arcana Imperii too. What though the Dragō assist the Beast, be of good comfort, Christ hath overcome the Devil, he hath broke the Serpents Head, and that is the reason that the Politicians wits are so often cracked, and that they delude themselves with such feverish conceits, and brain-sick inventions. The strength of a City was usually in the gates, and there they commonly sat in Council, but Christ hath promised that Hell gates, that is, the Power and Policy of Hell, shall never prevail against his beloved Church. Christ hath this same cracked-brain Serpent in a chain, he can rebuke him, or trample on him. The three troublers of Zion, the Beast, the false Prophet, and the Devil, shall be all three tormented together in Hell forever and ever. Rev. 20. 10. And at the battle of the great day of God Almighty the Beast and the false Prophet shall be both taken, and thrown alive into the lake which burns with fire, and brimstone, Rev. 19. 20. So let all thine enemies, all thy implacable and incorrigible enemies perish O Lord. I shall close up this point with the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she hath sinned against the Lord—take vengeance upon her, as she hath done do unto her, Ier. 50. 14, 15.

Hitherto we have considered the Babylonians as gathered into an Army, and I have shown what encouragements we have to fight against them. I must now look upon them as gathered into a Church, and show you what reason we have to separate from them; this point is very pertinent to the Text, and times and therefore give me leave to insist upon it. Flee from the Land of the North, saith the Lord in the verse before my Text, Babylon stood North from Jerusalem, and therefore Flee from the Land of the North is as much as if he had said, Flee from Babylon, deliver thyself O Zion that dwellest in Babylon, dwell there no longer, but deliver thyself by a Separation. The Prophet Jeremiah will make the Call full and complete. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul, be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance. ver. 6. yea the vengeance of his temple. ver. 11. Now that we have the same Call from Heaven to depart from Romish Babylon, is most evident, Rev. 18. 4. And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, Come out of her my people: and that for these two reasons, they are both specified in the Text, the 1 ^t . is, That ye be not partakers of their sins, the 2 ^d . That ye receive not of her plagues.

1. Be not Partakers of her sins, especially those sins which corrupt the worship of God, or faith of Christians, do not join with her in that Grand sin, for which S. John calls her Whore so often, the sin of Idolatry; it is such an unreasonable sin, that a sober and rational man would be ashamed to be overtaken with, as the Prophet Jeremy observes, Cap. 51. 7. Babylon is a golden Cup in the Lord's hand, it hath made all the earth Drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the Nations are Mad: drunken and mad, or else they would never commit Idolatry. S. John in like manner points at the Romish Harlot, the great Whore of Babylon, and bids us observe the golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness, in the 17. Chapter of the Revel. ver. 4. and those that drink of this amorous Cup, full of enchantments, are bewitched and drunk, or else they would never worship the Beast, and the Devil, as it is plain they do, Rev. 13. 4. I hope I need not spend time in dissuading any here present, from worshipping the Devil and the Beast.

2. Another sin there is with which the Great whore doth usually poison her daughters, and her lovers, 'tis Heresy, a kind of Catholic Heresy, all the Heretics almost that ever were, have emptied their back ditches into the Sea of Rome, that receives all the filth of former ages; but of all their Heresies, there is none more dangerous then that of expecting Justification, & salvation, for the merit of their own works. Learned M ^r Mede observes, that Rome had played the whore a great while before God gave her up to believe this lie. But now, saith he, by the just judgment of God, she hath received that Recōpence of her error which was meet: God for herpertinacious contempt of the preaching of the witnesses, hath by giving her up to this Heresy, as it were turned her out of Paradise (that's his meaning) lest she should eat of the tree of life & live forever. The Papists repeat the Apostles Creed, but they do not believe it in the Apostles meaning. Now it is evident that a new sense doth make a new Creed. But they are not so modest as to content themselves with this grand corruption, though weak delusion, for they have added new Articles of faith to our old Creed, they have composed a Trent-Creed, and they will not admit any man into their Communion, who believes the Apostles Creed, unless he will believe this Trent-Creed. Consider that the private fancies of a domineering Faction were Canonized with a Curse, in the Conventicle of Trent, and inserted into the Creed by Pope Pius the fourth. And Stapleton tells us plainly, that the Trent Council had power to make a Proposition an Article of faith, Etiamsi non confirmetur ne probabili testimonio Scripturarum. I need not then say anymore in this weighty point. For the truth is, our Creed is the Creed of Zion, and theirs the Creed of Babylon, their Creed is Roman, and ours Catholic. The greatest Article in their account, which they add to the Creed, concerns the Supremacy of the Pope, Subesse Romano Pontifici est de necessitate salutis; we must build our faith upon the Popes Infallibility, and believe that he is the Foundation▪ the Head, and Husband of the Catholic Church; we know not how to pardon this blasphemy, or to hold this Head, unless we depose Christ, and set up Antichrist, who if he had nothing else to hinder him, but the frailty and corruption of his nature, all the world knows that he cannot sustain, quicken, save the Church, and therefore is not the Foundation, Head, or Husband of the Catholic Church, but the Head of the Malignant Church, the Whore that rides the Beast, the great Antichrist, Rome's God, and the Devils Vicar. Nay the Pope hath proceeded higher yet, he hath given us a new Bible too, nay the Popes have given us more then one, we must take one from Sixtus, and another from Clement, two Bibles which do not agree with the Original, or with one another; the Papists are puzzled which of these translations should be received: whether they should adventure to be cursed by Sixtus, if they receive Clement's translation, or to be cursed by Clement, for receiving Sixtus his translatiō. I am not at leisure to say anything of the Rhemish translation, or their Notes: I could give you many other reasons why you should separate from Rome, but these may suffice, if you will not Apostatise, and commit folly with her, you cannot possibly communicate with her, unless you will build upon a new Foundation, the Popes Infallibility, or the Jesuits Prudentiall Motives; in a word, you cannot be admitted into the Roman Communion▪ unless you will have a new Bible, a new Creed, a new Religion, a new Head of the Church, that is in plain English▪ unless you will pul down Christ, & set up Antichrist in the Throne of Jesus Christ: & if you yield to that, all the plagues in this brook will light upon you; I need say no more of the 2 ^d . reason. But stay, if we should separate from the Antichristian faction, here in England, we may be guilty of a grievous Schism, for our separation will be grounded, as they say, upon the judgment, or rather opinion of a few English Divines in a kind of National Assembly, and our Antichristian men challenge all the world to give one Precedent for such a separation. I do this day accept their challenge, and shall answer them in a word. The African Church made a direct separation from the Church of Rome for an hundred years at least, and their separation was grounded upon no other Judgment then the Judgment of a National Assembly in Africa, and occasioned merely by the usurping pride, and tyranny of the Pope. It is evident that all the Martyrs, which did suffer in the time of that bitter persecution under the Vandals▪ died in the time of this Separation. If we have more weighty reasons then any that are drawn from the Popes tyranny, we shall be no greater Separatist's then those glorious Martyrs, and those famous Fathers, Augustine, and Fulgentius, for they were Formal Separatists. Baronius was the first man that ever had the face without forehead, or reason, to call this truth into question; Binius follows him; Bellarmine saw that he must question; the most faithful, and famous editions of the Councils, if he denied a truth written with a Sun-beam, and therefore he had so much wit as to cry, Nihil affirmo, in his 2 ^d book de Romano Pontifice, & 25. Chap. It seems the great Cardinal was put to his wits end, when he had beat his brains and turned his books, he durst not deny it, & yet would not affirm it. The Archbishop of Canterbury, though no great friend to thē who separate from Romish corruptions, is so ingenuous as to subscribe to the convincing testimony of so many unquestionable editions of the Councils, you may read frō p. 172. of his Relation, to the 175. And it is well known how o • ten Germany hath made a Formal separation from the Antichristian faction.

But it will be further objected, That the Assembly which you intend to call, is no Convocation, and therefore it cannot be of so much Authority as a National Assembly.

To which I answer, That the Persons whom you have nominated, I except but one [myself,] are more learned & judicious, more pious, nay more peaceable, take so many for so many, then the members of the last Convocation.

Secondly, You have found by wosull experience, what it is to rely upon such as are the Standing Members of a Convocation, or such as are chosen after the ordinary manner, by persons as corrupt as themselves. St. Jerome hath a kind of prophesy in his Commentary upon Zephaniah; That in the days of Reformation, idle Bishops should be removed, for God will take away all Names of vain glory out of the Church, the names of Priests, nay the Priests themselves, who did vainly boast of the Episcopal Title, and dignity of Priesthood, but did nothing worthy of that Title or Dignity.

Thirdly, In these winnowing-times, when the chaff is in some measure separated from the wheat, the secrets of many hearts are discovered, and those that are approved are made manifest, the State hath good reason to approve those whom God himself hath approved, by making their fidelity manifest in this Day of trial, these distinguishing times: but the State hath no reason to trust them to Reform the Church, who have indeed corrupted the Church.

Fourthly, It cannot be denied, but that a Church may reform itself, per partes, if the whole will not join; Though Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend: if they will not amend with us, what reason have we to perish with them?

Fifthly, If a State should make choice of men of mean parts, and ordinary gifts to reform the Church, merely because they have been found faithful, must these men be contemned for their weakness, when they preach none but Catholic Doctrine, and press men to submit to Primitive Discipline? No sure, they should rather be respected and encouraged for their faithfulness. Sure I am, there is a kind of Majesty in Truth, and somewhat more then Majesty, to wit Divinity, in Scripture-truths, and therefore such Truths need not borrow anything from the speaker, for the single Vote of one that is Orthodox, is to be more respected then the Votes of many hundred learned Heretiks.

In the 6 ^th. place, give me leave to use their own Argument, which they commonly urge against the Council of Trent: they say, That Council was of no Authority, because it did consist of men that were professed enemies to all that called for Reformation or a free Council. This reason is alleged, and magnified by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and I believe it will conclude as roundly against a Convocation, rebus sic stantibus, as it doth against the Council of Trent: I hope, saith the Archbishop, an Assembly of enemies are no lawful Council, and the Decrees of such an Assembly are Omni jure nulla; give me leave to add, like the Decrees of the last Convocation.

Their last exception against the Assembly is, because you have named some men that are Schismatikes; their reason is, because they deny subjection to their Bishop or Metropolitan.

They shall receive an answer to this objection from Antonius de Dominis, a man Prelatical enough. It is not Schismaticall, saith he, to deny Jurisdictionall subjection to a Bishop, or Arch-bishop, by reason of some Personal exceptions against him, because such a man may embrace Communion with the Church, and yet separate from the Bishop, or Arch-bishop without breach of charity, if his exceptions against him be just, and necessary. But they will, I know, reply, That some men whom you have chosen, do not only except against the Person, but the Office of a Prelate. To which I answer, that they themselves do now confess, that Monarchy is not Jure Divino, because they see it is clearly proved, that Episcopacy is but Iure Humano; for they are resolved, that Episcopacy shall be at least as high as Monarchy. They acknowledge that there is sufficiency of power to govern in a State, where there is no Monarch; and why then by the same reason, is there not sufficiency of power to govern in a Church where there is no Bishop, I mean Prelate? They must not be angry, if we lay Episco • acy as low as they themselves have laid Monarchy. Besides, I would advise them to take heed how they call every man a Schismatike who denies Prelacy to be Iure Divino, lest by that censure they condemn their betters. Our Conclusion then stands firm, You may deliver yourselves from the Antichristian faction in this Kingdom, by a just and necessary separation.

Be pleased to observe what I say, We have just and necessary cause of separation from the Antichristian faction in this Kingdom; under which Notion, many will be comprehended who call themselves Protestants; fo • admit these men are not of the Popish Religion, it is enough that they are of the Popish faction; they have received the mark of the Beast, if they have not received it in their forehead, yet they have received it in their brain, and in their hand too, for the grand Delinquents do plot for Antichrist, and fight for Antichrist, and that's more then enough. The Papists have Covenan • ed to protect these Capitall Delinquents, (in despite of the highest Court of Justice in the Kingdom) and they again in requital, must maintain the Catholic Cause, and promote the Antichristian Design, and therefore these men are of, or belonging to the Antichristian faction. I doubt not but that there is many a man in Italy, nay at Rome, who is not a Papist in his heart, the folly, and villainy of the Priests being so notorious as it is, and yet for some Temporal advantages, they receive the mark of the Beast, because no man is permitted to buy or sell (no nor to keep what he hath bought) save he that hath the Mark, or the Name of the Beast, or the number of his Name; as St. John hath it, Revel. 13. 17. And you know how it is now in England at this very day: Let us not then Complement any longer; to separate from them with whom we are forbid to communicate, is not Faction, but Religion. I would not be mistaken, I do not go about to seduce you to Brownism, I am far enough from that, for I willingly embrace communion with all Reformed Churches, or Congregations; but you know we must not communicate with any Church, or Congregation in their present error, though that Congregation be willing to be reformed, and have all things in it which are simply necessary to salvation; much less may we communicate with the Antichristian Faction, or with any company of men who do stubbornly maintain their errors, and reject communion with all men who will not communicate with them, even in their known and palpable errors.

Object. But such a separation as this would be exceeding scandalous. To which I answer in the words of Bernard, That the Delinquents indeed are scandalous, and the cause of all the scandal which arises upon the public reproof of their scandalous sins. I shall close up this point with a word of Caution: Proceed you may to a Separation, but proceed you must not to a peremptory damnation of all that do yet linger in Babylon; for some may remain there out of the simplicity of their hearts, and they that for the present are enemies, as concerning the Gospel, may be beloved as touching the Election, Rom. 11▪ 28. In the sixth of Zechariah, and the 6 ^th. I read of some black Horses sent into the North-country, that is, against Babylon, but there went out some white Horses after them, to show that God had still a remnant in Babylon; and these white Horses, these good Angels, were sent with a message of peace, to invite them to repentance, and bring them home to Zion; and what by the service of the black Horses, and the ministry of the white, the spirit of the Lord was quieted in the North-country, ver. 8. nay in the 14. verse crowns were prepared for some that were yet in Babylon; Let us then suspend our censures of this or that man's final estate, though if we consider his present estate, we have no reason at all to communicate with him, but all the reason in the world to separate from him.

3. Deliver yourselves from Babylon by a thorough Reformation: Do not wonder that I talk of a Reformation after separation, for you must separate before you can reform: there is an untoward generation, which will never be reformed; take St. Peters counsel, Acts 2. 40. Save yourselves from that untoward generation, and then reform; and consider withal, that you are like to find a great many men that will be forward enough to separate, and yet unwilling to reform. Do you think there are no States-men, who love the Mount of Moriah, better then Mount Zion? they would prefer the State, but no matter for the Church, they care not if it sink and perish; I could wish that these Secular men, just of Gallio's temper, would consider that when the Jews thought they might preserve their State, if they did curry favor with the Romans, and reject Christ, God made them slaves to the Romans for rejecting of Christ. 〈◊〉 need not apply. In the 11 ^th. Chap. of our Prophet Zechariah, we read of two staves, the staff of Beauty, and the staff of Bands, When the people broke Covenant with God, by disobeying the Ordinances of God, and rejecting Christ, then God cut his staff of Beauty asunder, and broke that Church-Covenant, the external Covenant which he had made with that people, ver. the tenth, he did unchurch them, deprive them of his Ordinances, which are the strength, the beauty, the glory of a Nation, and therefore are called the staff of Beauty. Observe a little farther, that when the staff of Beauty was broken, it was not long ere the staff of Bands was cut asunder: Then I cut asunder my other staff, even Bands, ver. 14. Then, When? Why, when they undervalued the Lord Jesus, they thought him worth but 30. pieces, a goodly price; read the 12. and 13. verses: Then I cut asunder my other staff, I broke the brotherhood between Judah and Israel: they were, in a word, deprived of God's Ordinances, and given up to Civil-wars▪ the ninth verse of that Chapter doth sufficiently express their misery. Then said I, I will not feed you, that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off: and let the rest eat everyone the flesh of another. If that be not full enough, read the sixth verse. I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but lo, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbors hand, and into the hand of his King, and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. A sad Text. Learn from hence: That when a people are Un-churched, they are undone; if you desire to preserve the State, be sure to preserve the Church, and if you desire to preserve the Church, O then reform it, and do it suddenly too, for fear the disease grow too strong for Remedies. Believe it, that part of England, which adheres to the Babylonish faction, and will not be reformed, that part must be deserted; there is good ground for it, Jerem. 51. 9. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; forsake her; that's plain-English.

But what needs a Reformation? (say some) were not our Fathers wise and honest men? what need we be more wise, or pure then they were? they lived happily here on earth, in peace and plenty, and they do now triumph gloriously in heaven, what can be desired more?

1. I answer, Many of our Fathers were honest, and some of them very wise in their generations, considering their light, and their means; we enjoy their labors, the fruits of their wisdoms, and God be praised, a more glorious light, and therefore no marvel, if we see some things more clearly then our Fathers did.

2. Again, our Fathers saw many things amiss, which they were not able to reform.

3. Had our Fathers enjoyed the same happy light which shines round about us, and those fair opportunities which God hath let fall from heaven into our lap, there is no question but they would have reformed more in one year, then we have done in two.

Parsons observes, that the Parliament of England, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, rejected the Catholic Doctrine, Popish Doctrines he means, but saith he, they retained something of the Catholic use in the whole government of their Church; and therefore Mr. Cartwright found fault with them, and shown them what was yet farther to be reformed: but Scotland, saith Parsons, Holland, Zealand, and some parts of France, followed M ^r Cartwrights way; but Bishop Bancroft was the principal opposer of this faction, he means Reformation in England, You see M ^r Cartwright did what he could, but Bishop Bancroft and the Babylonian faction were too potent, & contrary to the judgment of Zion, of the Reformed Churches abroad, Bancroft prevailed, for he suggested that this discipline of Zion would not only overthrow the Babylonish Monarchy, but the English Monarchy also. But it should have been considered, and let it be considered now,

1 That the government of the Church is not Monarchical, no Monarch save Christ alone is Head and King of the Church, though every Monarch that's truly Christian be a King in the Church; For it is one thing to be a King in the Church, and another to be King over the Church.

2. Every King as a member of the Church, is in an Ecclesiastical sense subject to the discipline of the Church; for such a kind of subjection will well consist with his Civil Sovereignty, because it is not a Civil Subjection. Judicious Cameron was a man very tender of pitching upon any conclusion which might be prejudicial unto Kingly power, and he useth an excellent similitude to illustrate this point: As it is in the cure of the body, so is it in the cure of the Soul; now a King for the Cure of his body, must patiently yield himself to his College of Physicians, for though he rule over them as a King, yet he must be ruled by them as a patient. In like manner a wise King will (and every King ought to) be persuaded by the College Ecclesiastical in point of discipline to obey the Rules and orders of Jesus Christ; for the King in this point doth not obey the College, but Christ himself.

3. It is well known that Kings and Emperors have been subjected to Episcopal, and too often enslaved by Prelatical power. Who knows not that the Bishop of Millaine would not admit the Emperor to the Communion till he had repented of that outrage, and bloodshed at Thessalonica, which was occasioned by the Emperors passionate Command? It is generally confessed, that Ambrose did well in rejecting the Emperor from the Communion, and that the Emperor was no less an Emperor, and a far better man by submitting to a Minister of the Gospel, preaching, and administering some part of the discipline of Jesus Christ. All the world knows that Babylon grew great at first by claiming an universal Jurisdiction in Spiritualls over the whole Church of God, by virtue of that usurped, and Anti-Christian title of Universal Bishop. I have not breath or strength enough to tell you the story of Boniface the third at large, nor am • at leisure to relate how Pope Hildebrand laid aside the two-edged sword of the Word, & took up the twohanded sword of Temporal & Spiritual Jurisdiction; it is clear that by the power of these two swords, Babylon was raised to such an height, that the Popes have ever since tyrannized like Babylonian Monarchs, over Kings and Emperors, as if the Pope had been Nebuchadnezzar's successor, whose Title is confessed by Daniel to be King of Kings, Dan. 2. 37. Much less can I relate what violence hath been used for the oppressing poor Protestants in every corner of the world, by this Beast of Babylon: but give me leave in the name of all the Churches to renew that charge of the Prophet, The violence done unto me, and to my flesh, be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say, shall Germany say, and France say, and my blood upon the Chaldeans, shall Jerusalem say, shall Ireland say, nay England, poor England, doth this day join in the Charge against all the Antichristian Protestants, (give me leave to call them so) who are of the Antichristian faction, and join with the popish army, in shedding the blood of Saints, under the notion of Parliament dogs, and Rebells; the blood of England, and Ireland, be upon all them who have shed the precious blood of Protestants out of a presumptuous and malicious wickedness. This scruple being removed I shall now proceed, if my voice will hold, to give you some plain Directions for a thorough Reformation: the first Direction is Negative.

1. You must not build Zion with the Materials of Babylon, with anything that may truly, and properly be said to be fetched from Babylon; as old Babylon was not to be built anymore, so was there no stone to be taken from thence to build any other place: They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but everlasting desolations shall be upon thee, saith the Lord, Jerem. 51. 26. Beware then how you receive any Principles, any Fundamentals, or Cornerstones from Romish-Babylon, let everlasting desolations dwell upon it. Let us not receive the Babylonian-Creed, the Trent-Creed, nor the Romish-Liturgy; the Church of God hath a spirit of Prayer, and therefore needs not send to Babylon, to Rome for prayers.

The Papists seem to acknowledge, that their Liturgy is corrupt, because they have often pretended, and as some boast, have really made several Reformations of their Liturgy. You see then, that those men have steeled▪ their brows with a more then Babylonish impudency, who have been ever and anon altering the English Liturgy for the worse, as if the Missal had been Jure divino, and therefore the Liturgy could never come near enough to the Roman Mass. Believe it, if the Faction that is now up in Arms prevail, we shall have that Service book which was prepared for Scotland, or a worse, some Babylonian-Service, imposed upon us as Divine-service; and can any man that hath but an English-heart within him, bear such a Cheat? If we had but the noble valor which dwelt in the Britain's of old, whilst they worshipped the Goddess of Victory, before they knew Christ, it is impossible but our spirits should rise against such grand Impostures. But I forget you and myself. Be sure that there be no Babylonian gods, no Romish Idols tolerated in England; let it be no longer counted the piety of the times, to make our Churches houses of temptation, let that prophesy Micah 1. 7. be fulfilled in our days: Let the graven Images be beaten to pieces, and the hires thereof burnt with fire, let all the Idols be laid desolate; for all was gathered of the hire of an Harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an Harlot: You know there is hire taken for both kinds of Harlotry at Rome. Let us have no more Babylonian Ministers, Priests, (so they would be called) let us have no more Babylonian Altars, for fear they bring in the Babylonian Sacrifice: You know how many English Martyrs did sacrifice their lives in protesting against the sacrifice in the Mass, and though some black-mouthed Priests of late have called them Foxes-Martyrs, yet I will be bold to call them the Martyrs of the Lord Jesus, and the Martyrs of the Holy Ghost. I must beg time to prove what I say, it is a weighty truth, and we know not how soon we may be called to seal this truth with our dearest blood. The Apostle proves it undeniably, by sundry arguments, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in the 7. 8. 9. and 10 ^th. Chapters. I will pitch upon the tenth, because there you have the sum of all. There is no other Sacrifice which can take away sin, but the Sacrifice which Jesus Christ himself offered upon the Cross; read the tenth verse. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering: of what? of a wafer-cake? no, of the body of Jesus Christ: But how often must his body be offered? once for all, not as often as there is a Mass, but once for all. But who must offer the body of Christ? why, Christ himself, this Man, verse the 12 ^th. a Mass-Priest cannot offer up the body of Christ, for Christ is both Priest, and Sacrifice. But may not a Mass-Priest offer some other sacrifice for sins? No, there is but one sacrifice for sin, ver. 12. But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, and that one sacrifice is to be but once offered; the Apostle repeats this, that we might not forget it, this sacrifice was offered once for all, verse 10. once forever, verse 12. once for all sins, once for all times, it is of perpetual virtue and merit, once forever: Is not that plain and full? Oh but Christ is gone to heaven, and we are not yet perfected. Why vain man, Christ hath finished his work, and therefore is gone to heaven, he is sat down, ver. 12. and he hath done his work, or else he would not sit down, he hath not left any part of the Service to be perfected by a Mass-priest, and therefore do not expect to be perfected by any other offering in the Mass, or out of the Mass: read the 14. verse, For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified: Ye are sanctified by that one offering, verse 10. and perfected by it, verse 14. But who is the witness of this truth? why, the Holy Ghost, in the very next verse, the 15 ^th. verse; Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. Judge now, whether they that did bear witness to this truth, be not Co-martyrs with the Holy Ghost, and therefore Co-heirs with Jesus Christ. You see what reason we have to Protest against that Babylonian sacrifice in the Mass. You have now received the knowledge of this truth, and if you sin willfully after you have received the knowledge of the truth, it is principally meant of this truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin, because ye have willfully and maliciously rejected the Only All-sufficient Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, trusting upon some other Sacrifice, that of the Mass, or the like, and done despite to the Spirit, by a most malignant contempt of the witness of the Spirit. What argument can be more prevailing, to persuade us to hold fast the Profession of our Faith, the Protestant Faith, lest we fall from a coldness and neutrality in Religion, into a desperate malignity, and unpardonable Apostasy. Away with Babylonish Gestures, Names, and Titles, Rites, and Ceremonies, away with Babylonish Garments too: our professed Babylonians begin now to air the mouldy Copes, they wear the Babylonish Garment that they may have the wedge of gold, and in their own phrase, they dissemble under a Cope, and are, if you will believe them, Protestants in their Hear • s. Our Prophet Zechariah will inform you how to deal with these men, Put them into an Ephah, that they may be kept within compass, within their bounds, by severe discipline, and clap a talent of lead, a weighty censure, upon the mouth of the Ephah, Zech. 5. 8. Let the Ephah be lifted up on high, between heaven and earth, verse 9. that is, let the sentence be so Public that all may take notice of it, and then let the Ephah be carried away quite out of Zion, and let an house be built for it in the land of Shinar, that is Babylon, ver. the 11 ^th. let their Habitation be there, from whence they drew their Corruption, for there they may settle upon their own Base, their own Lees, their own corrupt Principles. If such as are Notorious, and Incorrigible, were Excommunicated by an Assembly of Divines, and some Civil-punishment inflicted upon such as are within your reach, by an Ordinance of Parliament, the sin would not be National, men would see and fear, and do no more so wickedly in England. For the sharpest punishments are inflicted only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by way of Prudence, for terror, and reformation, not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by way of retribution; for no punishment inflicted by man, can possibly countervail a sin against God.

2. Make God's Authority your Foundation, build upon it, it is an Impregnable Rock; though the winds blow, the rain beat, the waves roar and dash themselves into Foame, yet your House will stand and your Orders can never be disanulled, if built upon the Rock. Make God's word alone the Rule of Reformation, and keep close to your Rule, and then all your Orders will be acknowledged to be Responsa prudentum, and such as deserve to be Rescripta Principum: this is the way to make your Orders prevail, not only by your Authority, but by their Own Authority.

3. Pray for the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit gives both Light, and eyes: You will meet with so many new sins, new dangers, new temptations, new mercies, new troubles, that you had need beg hard for a spirit of Prayer, that you may be able to make new Prayers every hour, several Prayers upon several occasions. Zion must prevail by Prayer, Zion was the Mount of Prayer, there was the house of Prayer; this is, as they use to call it in some Reformed-Churches, a Prayer-day, but every day must now be a day of prayer, extraordinary prayer, we must spend more time then ordinary in our private devotions. Get ye up to Mount Olivet, and there pray for Mount Zion, join heads, and purses, and forces, and prayers together; Joshua's sword will not prevail without Moses his prayer: Be of good comfort, though your enemies can out-swear you, yet they cannot out-pray you: If they be a thousand thousand strong, and march against you with all their might, Call upon the Name of the Lord, and rest upon your God; Asa did so, and by the prayer of faith prevailed against a thousand thousand Ethiopians, and three hundred Chariots, 2 Chron. 14. 9, to the 12 ^th. verse: Oh send to France, and Ireland, and Germany for their experimental Prayers.

4. Humiliation is an excellent Preparative for Reformation, and there is no duty more pertinent to the Text, and proper, not only for this day, but for these times: In those days, and in that time, saith the Prophet Jeremy the 50. Chap. and the 4. verse; what times? what days? why, when the children of Israel shall come out of Babylon, they and the children of Judah together; going and weeping, they shall go and seek the Lord their God. Honorable, and Beloved, let us this day seek our God with tears; if ye would be Princes with God, and have power with him, as Prince Jacob had, you must weep and make supplication in Bethel, the house of God, there God will be found, and there, here he hath spoke with you today; read the twelfth of Hosea, the third and fourth verses. Blessed be our great God, who did put it into your hearts, to draw up a Catalogue of the sins of this Nation: O that you would weep over every sin in that Catalogue, before you sleep. O let us read our sins in those miseries which are come upon us. We have nourished Malignant lusts within us, which rebel against the spirit, and fight against the soul; we have made sport & past-time with those sins which shed the blood of the Lord Jesus, O let those sins draw tears from us, which drew blood from Christ. We have grieved the holy Spirit, and therefore well may the Spirit refuse to comfort us, who have grieved him. Well may the God of heaven bathe his sword in our blood, and make the land • at with our carcasses, for we have forfeited our very Estates, and lives; we do not deserve one bit of bread, or drop of water; justly may God feed us with the bread of sorrows, and give us tears to drink. We would not serve God with joyfulness, for the abundance of all things, and therefore well might God send us to serve our enemies in the want of all things; Deut. 28. 47▪ 48▪ Behold, the heaven is as brass, and the earth as iron: because we have had a brazen brow, and there is an iron sinew in our necks, we have gone on impudently, and stubbornly in our sins: God's Doctrine hath dropped as the rain, and distilled as the dew, but not as the dew upon the tender herb; for our hearts have not been tender, our lives have not been fruitful, well might our unfruitfulness be the cause of the lands barrenness. We have abused God's blessings for the maintenance of our pride, luxury, wantonness, we have sought against God with his own blessings, and therefore he hath good reason to disarm us.

Oh let us weep for Ireland & weep for England, weep for the King, and weep for the Parliament: you know that all the Politicians in the Christian world are now beating their brains, and studying how to seduce our beloved King, his Throne is compassed about with snares, and he is even wedded to a Temptation, his very Counselors are, too many of them, Seducers, or flatterers, like the house of Achzib, a lie to the Kings of Israel, & therefore it is no marvel if our King be misled. O then let us weep for our tempted King, for our seduced King; Be it known to all the world that we do still Reverence both his person, and Authority, and are ready to obey any lawful Commands which he shall send us in a Legal way. Be it known to our enemies, that we weep for our King, and pray for our King, only we dare not flatter him, we dare not strengthen that party which doth seduce him, because we do truly love and honor him.

5. Let us enter into a covenant of Reformation; this was the stratagem of Zion, when they came out of Babylon; see whether their case be not ours, you may read it, Neh. 9. 36. and following verses. For the Land which thou gavest our Fathers, to eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof: behold, we are servants in it, and it yieldeth much increase unto the Kings whom thou hast set over us, because of our sins; also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our Cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress; And because of all this we make a Sure Covenant, & write it, and our Princes, Levites, & Priests seal unto it▪ The people of this land have made a general Covenant by taking the Protestation, but we want such a distinct, and special Covenant as this was, you may read the particular points of the Covenant, Neh. 10. Oh that you would be pleased to make as distinct a Covenant, as you have made a Confession. Let us come to particulars in our Protestation, there will be but little Reformation till this be done, nay there can be no Safe, Rationall, Christian Pacification till this be done: That you may be fully convinced of this truth, be pleased to peruse a book of Christian Pacification, and Reformation, printed about 80, years since, but lately published by judicious, and learned D ^r Rivet, you shall find it at the end of D ^r Rivets Animadversions upon Grotius his Annotations on Cassander. In that book you will find what errors we must protest against, and what points we must stand upon when we come to conclude a Pacification. For, saith that Reverend Author, our enemies know that we shall never have peace if they can seduce us from the Author of peace, and if they can prevail with us to let go one truth, they will hope to prevail with us in due time to let go all. For when men do willfully let fall any truth, God doth usually give them up to believe lies. Think sadly of this business; believe it, no business is of higher concernment, you had need have a Choice Committee of both Houses, and an Assembly of learned, pious, and experienced Divines, to consult about it; till Articles of agreement are drawn up, it is impossible we should ever agree, and therefore there is no way like this to settle truth and peace at once, and make them greet and kiss each other. Be pleased to take some course that this Covenant may be National: you know the godly part of a Nation are the National Church. You see a Reason why I do not medle with particulars, that's not the work of one man; only let us be thus punctual for the present, let us everyone in our several places & callings resolve to do all that lies in our power to Reforme particular Congregations, and our own particular Persons. First for particular Congregations, you know the great grievance in every parish. Zion dwells with Babylon, with a profane ignorant multitude who are all borne with a Pope in their belly, and are not yet redeemed from that gross superstition and vain Conversation which they received by Tradition from their Fathers. We have a little Temple, and a great Court, as it is, Revel. 11. 12. Give me leave to speak unto you as Jotham spake to the men of Shechem, Iud. 7. 9. Hearken unto me, you Worthies of England, that God may hearken unto you. I beseech you by the tender mercies of God and the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ, that there may be some course taken to keep back Dogs from snatching away the children's Bread: my Soul melts within me when I consider that men that are scandalously ignorant & profane men that have not knowledge enough to discern the Lord's body, or grace enough to Examine, or prepare themselves, are suffered to eat and drink their own damnation. Oh consider what it is for so many thousands in England to remain guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus: can a deluge of our blood wash away a guilt of so deep a die? You know our chiefest happiness doth consist in communion with God in Christ, and therefore we should consider to whom we deliver the seals of this Communion. Why should any that are not yet Saints be admitted to one of the highest privileges of Saints, Church communion in the highest? The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a distinguishing Ordinance, and therefore it is not fit that men should come as promiscuously to the Sacrament as to an Ordinary The Canaanite of old was a thorn in the eyes and sides of God's people, but in the day of Reformation, the Canaanite was to be turned out of the house of the Lord of hosts, they are the last words of our Prophet Zacharias. They who have no union with Christ can have no Communion with him; they who have not yet tasted of the special love of God the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the communion of the holy Ghost, can have no right to this communion, this Sacrament; for he can never eat the Body of Christ who hath not the Spirit of Christ, because it is to be spiritually eaten. There were of old Communicatory letters sent from one Church & Country to another; and why might there not in perplexed Cases be some Communicatory letters sent from an Ecclesiastical College to direct poor simple congregations, and doubting Pastors, who should be admitted, and who rejected? I cannot omit one Caution, which is briefly this, that no man must be excommunicated merely because it doth not evidently appear that he is regenerate, because a man may be regenerate, and yet not able to evidence his Regeneration to himself, much less to others. In some cases a regenerate man may be secluded for a while, and one that is not known to be unregenerate may be admitted, till his scandalous conversation doth set some black mark, or brand upon him: For some men's sins go before to judgment, and others follow after; glorious hypocrites, and close Malignants cannot long be hid, 1 Tim. 5. 24, 25.

In the last place, let us make it our saddest business to reform our own particular persons. Honorable, and Beloved, are there no sins amongst you? even amongst you? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Have the Reformers no need of Reformation? turn your eyes inward, tell me sadly, what do you discover there? are there no Babylonish Inmates protected there? such as can never be defended? are there no unruly passions, no unmortified lusts, no self-ends, or sinister respects, such as beg your privilege, and enjoy your favor? These, these are the Brats of Babylon; O happy, thrice happy shall he be, who takes these Infant-lusts, before they are grown up, and dasheth them against the Rock; as it is in Ps. 137. ver. 9. This is the proper work of a Fast. What have you done today? You have sat here five or six hours, and missed a dinner; Is this the Fast that God hath chosen? is this all that he requires of you? Doth he not command you to humble your souls, to break your hearts, to afflict your spirits, to mortify your lusts, deny yourselves, reform your lives, take up your cross and follow Christ? Will you cut off your right hands, and pull out your right eyes? Will you take Christ's yoke upon your necks, his burden upon your shoulder? Will you lay down your honors, your estates, your lives at the feet of Jesus Christ? Will ye live to him, and if he calls you to it, will you die for him? If you have wrought your hearts to this temper today, then you have fasted to the Lord. God takes notice of your zeal; you beat down Crosses, and Images, but take heed you do not leave some idols standing in your own bosoms: Is there no lust of covetousness, or lust of uncleanness, no pride, ambition, envy, malice, enshrined within your hearts? Down, down, with these. You know there are Idola saeculi, as well as Idolatempl • : 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sunt 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; all your lusts must be Anathematized, Cursed, that they may, like the fig-tree, after it was cursed, die and wither at their very root. Tell me, is not self-love an Idol? is it not the great Whore? is not lust a Beast, a Monster with many heads and horns? Oh hate this Whore, mortify self-love, and you stab the Beast to the heart, for self-love is the very heart and soul of Original sin, it is the last enemy which will be destroyed: it was primum vivens, and it will be ultimum moriens: Come then, let us beat down our bodies, and cry to God to humble our souls, and beat down our corruptions, let not only Reason Vote down your lusts, but Faith and Zeal pray them down. The precious sons of Zion are most troubled with this same Babylon within, and therefore they do make most frequent and penitent complaints against themselves, and put up most zealous prayers to God, to give them power and victory over their head-strong and stomackfull corruptions: and in their prayers, their faith ever closes with such promises as assure them of grace enough to resist temptations, and mortify their corruptions; this is the way to keep a faithful, penitent, holy, zeaelous, heavenly Fast. This is to fast as our Savior did, who made it his meat and drink to do the will of his Father.

Be pleased to consider that you must not only beat down Babylon, but build up Zion, Zion is built by faith and holiness: In the first place then,

1. Look to your faith: The walls of Babylon, like the walls of Jericho, are battered down by faith: all the faithful prisoners in Babylon, whose hearts were sprinkled by the blood of the Covenant, were prisoners of hope, and therefore were sure to be delivered from the bottomless-pit, in which there is no water; for Babylon was a type of Hell. As for thee also by the blood of thy Covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water, Zechar. 9. 11. Beasts live by sense, Heathens live by reason, Christians must live by faith, they must mortify their lusts, renounce their merits, rest only upon Christ's perfect obedience, and full satisfaction for their justification; for we cannot be Constituted righteous but by the obedience of Christ, Rom. 5. 19. In this faith, let us live, in this, let us die.

2. Study Holiness: Holiness is the beauty of Zion, for there they were to worship God in the beauty of holiness, there can be no beauty in our souls, no glory in our Congregations without holiness. Zion was the Mount of holiness, Zech. 8. 3. Holiness is the end of Human society;

Certainly this Age is even grown Barbarous, or else Holiness, which is the end of Human society, and the life of Christian society, would never be contemned, and despised, as it is nowadays in this wicked generation. O what a base thing is it for a Nation to be ashamed of its glory, and to glory in its shame! Men think it a base thing for to be holy, and yet God himself is glorious in Holiness, Exod. 15. 11. Certainly if this Nation would be glorious in Holiness, God's right hand would be glorious in power, and dash our enemies to pieces, Exod. 15. 6. Without holiness we cannot have any intimate acquaintance with God, or good men: We long for Peace, but Peace is a Jewel which God gives to none but those that are of his acquaintance. Job 22, 21. Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at Peace, thereby good shall come unto thee. A godly life, is the life of God: those that were strangers to a godly life, are said to be alienated, or estranged from the life of God, Ephes. 4. 18. They then that strike at holiness, strike at the life of God, and have a kind of Atheistical murder in their thoughts, they would lay the Church a bleeding, let out the very heart-blood of Religion, and take away the life of God. If England will not be holy, it cannot be happy, if we continue in our lukewarmness, and profaneness, Woe, woe be unto us, though it go well with Zion, it will go ill with us; Zion was preserved, even when Jerusalem was destroyed and England may be destroyed for its unthankfulness, unfruitfulness, heresy, idolatry, lukewarmness, and profaneness, &c. and yet the Church preserved, for the Church is not confined to any place. It concerns us then to be such manner of men, in all holy conversation, 2 Pet. 3. 11. such pilgrims on earth, and citizens of heaven, that it may appear that we seek a better Country, an Heavenly, and then God will not be ashamed to be called our God, Heb. 11. 16. But if we go about spiritual duties, with carnal hearts, and worldly minds, if we lie at catch, waiting for a fair opportunity to return into Egypt, the God of heaven will be ashamed to own us for his people. Heb. 11. 15, 16. Brethren, if we live in the spirit, let us walk in the spirit, as the Apostle advises, Gal. 5. 25. let us March fair and straight, in rank and file, as the word signifies, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , walk according to the Canon given to Evangelical Soldiers, Gal. 6. 16. and if we walk according to Rule, this Rule of the new Creature, Verse 15. mortifying our lusts, crucifying ourselves to the world, and living unto Christ in righteousness and true holiness, Peace will be upon us, and upon Zion the Israel of God, verse 16. We must not conceive, that we may walk every man according to a Canon of our own devising, this man according to one Canon, and that according to another; no, it behooves us all 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to walk according to the self same Rule, or Canon, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to mind, savor, relish, the self same thing, to promote the great Design, namely the quickening, and seasoning this Kingdom with the Power of godliness; for we have been a great while sick of a Form of godliness, a mortal disease, for it was but a dead Form; The Lord quicken, and awake us out of our Dead-sleep, for if we content ourselves with this Dead-form, we are in danger to be buried in our own ruins. You see we are not afraid to discover our Plots, and truly I am guilty of no other, then what I have this day discovered: I shall employ my utmost strength, consecrate my Totum nil, blow my Rams-horn against Babylon, and study how to build up Zion, that's all I intend. Honorable, and Beloved, let us as it becomes men of Zion, devote ourselves to God, and spend our strength in the Practice of Piety: Let us be better acquainted with ourselves, and with our God; let us learn what sin, and what grace means; let us be watchful over our own hearts, with an holy jealousy; nay let us set a watch before our mouths. and all our sense • s, nay let us watch over one another, that we may provoke one another unto holiness, and good works. Let us beseech the God of heaven to kindle gracious desires in our hearts, that we may oppose and conquer all our filthy and unplacable lusts, for our lusts set us all in a Combustion. From whence come wars, but from the lusts of pride, envy, malice, ambition, covetousness? The Lord speak to our consciences, and convince them, to our implacable lusts, and mortify them, and we shall be all at peace. Believe it, we want peace, merely for want of holiness: Keep close to the rule of holiness, and I dare warrant you, you shall (as Josiah did) die in Peace, though you are killed in War.

3. In the third place, let us study Thankfulness: We may well sit down and consider how to be thankful to our good God, for the dawnings of our deliverance: The sons of Zion were very joyful in the House of thanksgiving, long before their work was finished. Should we not be thankful for Ireland? hath not God been the helper of the friendless? hath he not wrought miraculously, even without means, above means, and against means? And should we not be thankful for England? hath not God done wonders enough for our Nation, to stir up your hearts to enjoin a solemn • day of Thanksgiving quite throughout the Kingdom? Some of our Deliverances have been National; Oh let the Thanksgiving be National, as well as the Deliverance. You did not long since hear good news from the West, but were you thankful? if you were not, why then, sure you may conclude, that the sad news which you lately received from thence, was the just punishment of your unthankfulness. The very Heathens will condemn us for our unthankfulness; they never received a considerable victory, but they brought in their Opima spolia Jovi Feretrio. O let us sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, he is our strength and song, and is become our salvation: He is our God, our fathers God, and we will exalt him: Jehovah is a man of war, Jehovah is his Name. He hath redeemed us in his mercy, and he will guide us in his strength to his holy Habitation; The Lord will establish his Sanctuary amongst us, and he shall reign over us, and our posterity forever and ever. Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah, amongst the mighty ones, who is like unto thee? glorious in Holiness, fearful in Prayses, and doing wonders? Who is like unto thee, O Ireland? The Eternal God, who rideth upon the Heavens, is thy refuge, and underneath are his everlasting arms, he shall thrust out the Enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. O let Ireland be a land of Plenty, let the Heavens drop down their dew, and the fountain of Jacob be upon it. And happy art thou, O England; who is like unto thee, O people, saved by Jehovah, the shield of thy Help, and the sword of thy Excellency? thine Enemies shall be found Liars unto thee; keep Covenant with thy God, and thou shalt not be Confounded world without end.

In the last place let us keep a Charitable Fast today; here's a Bill presented for a Contribution to Maimed Soldiers, I want strength to publish it distinctly and audibly. I believe you will easily be persuaded to part with your money to them who have shed their blood for you; their bodies have bled already, now let your purses bleed; And here is an Order which concerns Ireland. Oh let Ireland live in your bosom! why do we not fast, three or four times every week, that we may send some provision to the poor Protestants in Ireland? If our fasting may keep the most considerable part of that kingdom from starving, are we not bound to Fast? And forget not the other Churches, they all come under this endearing Title [thyself.] Deliver thyself O Zion: Is not Ireland our self? & Scotland our self? and Bohemia our self? are not all the Reformed Churches our self? plot for them all, & pray for them all, love them & treat with them, & so far as the Scripture will give you leave, conform to thē in point of Disciplme, that we may all speak the same thing, and be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and the same Judgment. And the Lord preserve this resolution in the hearts of us, and all his people forever, that we may all live like Saints, or die like Martyrs. Amen, Allelujah, Amen, Amen.