[2.] For the multitude, an enraged, headless, lawless,
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godless multitude, gathered out of inns, taverns, alehouses, stables, highways, and the like nurseries of piety and pity. Such as these having got their superiors under their power, governors under their disposal, their restrainers under their restraint, their oppressors, as they thought, under their fury, what was it that kept in their fury, and their revenge, which upon the like occasions and advantages hath almost always been executed ? Search your stories, you will not find many that speak of such a deliverance. For a few governors pre- vailed on, unto durance, by a godless rout, in an insurrec- tion, and yet come off in peace and safety, is surely a work of more than ordinary providence.
(2.) Consider the season of your surprisal ; when all the kingdom was in an uproar, and the arm of flesh almost quite withered as to supply, the north invaded, the south full of insurrections, Wales unsubdued," the great city, at least suf- ferino- men to lift up their hands against us ; so that to the eve of reason, the issue of the whole was, if not lost, yet exceedingly hazardous, and so your captivity endless. Had they gone on, as was probable they would, whether you had this day been brought out to execution, or thrust into a dun- geon, or carried up and down as a pageant, I know not; but much better condition, I am sure, rationally you could not expect.
(3.) The end of your surprisal. Amongst others, this was apparently one, to be a reserve for their safety, who went on in all ways of ruin. You v/ere kept to preserve them in those ways, wherein they perished. Whether could reason reach this, or no, that you being in their power, kept on purpose for their rescue, if brought to any great strait, with the price of your heads to redeem their own, that they should be brought to greater distress than ever any before in this kingdom, and you be delivered, without the least help to them in their need ? It was beyond your friends' reason, who could not hope it; it was beyond our enemies' reason, who never feared it; if you believed it, you have the com- fort of it.
(4.) The refusal of granting an exchange for such per- sons, as they accounted more considerable than yourselves, and whose enlargement might have advantaged the cause
^ Idcinliuic urbi doniinandi finis erit, qui pnrendi fuerit. Senec. do Rom.
OF ESSEX COUNTY, AND COMMITTEE. 155
they professed to maintain exceedingly more than your re- straint, what doth it but proclaim your intended ruin ? This was the way of deliverance, which for a long season reason chiefly rested on, the main pillar of all its building ; M'hich when it was cut in two, what could be seen in it but deso- lation ?
(5.) The straits you were at length reduced to, be- tween your enemies' swords and your friends' bullets, which intended for your deliverance, without the safeguard of pro- vidence, might have been your ruin, piercing more than once the house wherein you were. Surely it was then an eminent work of faith to ' stand still, and see the salvation of God.'
The many passages of providence evidently working for your preservation, which I have received from some of your- selves, I willingly pass over. What I have already said is suffi- cient to declare that to reason's eye, you were as dead bones upon the earth. Forour parts, who were endangered spectators at the best, we were but in the piophet's frame, and to any question about your enlargement, could answer only. The Lord alone knows. And now, behold, the Lord hath chosen you out to be examples of his loving-kindness, in fetching mercy for you from beyond the ken of reason, yea, from above the reach of much precious faith. He hath brought water for you out of the flint. Reckon your deliverance under this head of operations, and I hope you will not be unthankful.
Use 2. You that have received so great mercy, we that have seen it, and all who have heard the doctrine confirmed, let us learn to live by faith. Live above all things that are seen; subject them to the cross of Christ. Measure your condition by your interest in God's all-sufficiency. Do not in distress calculate, what such and such things can effect ; but what God hath promised. Reckon upon that, for it shall come to pass. If you could get but this one thing by all your sufferings and dangers, to trust the Lord to the utmost extent of his promises, it would prove a blessed captivity. All carnal fears would then be conquered, all sinful compli- ances with wicked men removed, &c.
Use 3. Be exhorted to great thankfulness," you that have
y Erunt lioinicidee, tyranui, furcs, adulter!, raptores, sacrilegi, proditores, infra ista omnia, ingratus est. Seaec. Benef. lib. 1. Giatiarura cessal decursus, ubi recursus, r.on fuerit. Bern. Scrm. 30.
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been made partakers of great deliverances. In great dis- tresses very nature prompts the sons of men to great pro- mises. You have heard the ridiculous story of him, who in a storm at sea promised to dedicate a wax candle to the blessed Virgin, as big as the mast of his ship, which he was resolved when he came on shore to pay with one of twelve in the pound. Let not the moral of that fable be found in any of you. Come not short of any of your engagements. No greater discovery of a hypocritical frame, than to flatter the Lord in trouble, and to decline upon deliverance in cold blood. The Lord of heaven give you strength to make good all your resolutions : as private persons, in all godliness and honesty, following hard after God in every known way of his; as magistrates, in justice, equity, and faithful serving the kingdom of Christ. Especially let them never beg in vain for help at your hands, who did not beg help in vain for you at the hands of God.