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LÈT TER

To the dearly beloved Minifters of the Gofpel, (much to be reverenced in Chrift) now at length, by the wonderful Providence of GoD, restored to Liberty: Addreffed as a humble Supplication to the more aged, and as an Exhortation to younger Ministers and Candidates.

Reverend Fathers, and Brethren in Christ,

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HOUGH it is not fit for us to coin metaphors, according to our fancy, yet we ought to have a great liking to those, which the Spirit himself hath authorised in fcripture. There he hath represented, and painted to the life, the deliverance of his fuffering church, by the fweet delights of the advancing Spring, Cant. ii. 12.

In the Spring, the Earth, like a moft bountiful parent, opens her bofom, produces variety of herbs, adorns the meadows with abundance of flowers; the trees, which had been ftript of their former green leaves, are clothed with new ones; the cold being now driven away, the air becomes warm, and the cattle bring home udders full of milk ;

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Then joyous birds frequent the lonely groves.

DRYDEN'S Virgil. All nature is renewed and fmiles; the feafon is kindly, favourable, and admirably well adapted to the benefit of all things, chiefly of thofe endued with life. All which things have been, in a very elaborate and ingenious manner, applied by our learned countryman Brightman, to that remarkable period, when Cyrus published that edict of his, (which can never

*This letter was originally wrote in Latin, the author judging it neceffary to be fo, as what allowed him a greater freedom of expreffion, than might feem convenient at that time in the common language; yet, that every reader might be profited by it, the publither of this edition hath thought fit to tranflate it into English. It has a reference to the troubles before, and the bleffings after the Revolution.

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be fufficiently commended) for fetting God's people at liberty. The enlivening beams of a like providential interposition, like the fun entering the fign of Aries, have made us, who were half-dead, to revive.

We are not infenfible, as our wounds are yet green, what great and sharp afflictions we have fuffered for many years, bypaft, for confcience fake. Alas, what fad things have we not feen! what oppreffions have we not unjustly endured, during this rough, difmal, and every-way deftructiye winter? We have' seen the sea swelling with dreadful storms, by reason of which, fome being amazed and confounded, they hoised fail to any wind whatsoever we have seen trees that excelled others, both in fruitfulness and comelinefs, beat down and laid low by the' ftormy winds; others, which bare neither fruit nor leaves, have been, as it were, blafted. Mountains have we feen be-' come white with hoar-froft, rivers locked up in ice, lands covered, nay, buried in fnow; flocks of fowls, and herds of cattle starved with hunger, wandering up and down in great want; cunning fowlers fpreading their nets, and infnaring many: In a word, we have feen Chrift's church (alas!) pierced with arrows winged with her own feathers; the civil state founded on laws, almoft fubverted by laws; every thing having a bad aspect, and growing daily worfe and worfe.

Long and fore have we been toffed in the sea of trouble; in our youth we were plunged into it, we are come out of it in old age: our cafe has been the fame with what happened at the fiege of Tyre, Ezek. xxix. 18. Every head is made bald, and every fhoulder is peeled; but yet all these things feem troublesome rather than wonderful, to any one who seriously confiders the things prophefied by the great apostle, 2 Tim. iii. 1. In the last days, perilous times fhall come. Of which perilous times, Lactantius writes thus: When the end of this worldis approaching, the ftate of human affairs must needs be greatly changed, and grow worse, through the prevalency of wickedness; in fo much that this prefent age, wherein fin and wickednefs have been arrived to the greatest pitch, may, when compared with that abandoned and incorrigible age, be juftly deemed the happy and golden one. For then righ teoufnefs fhall decreafe, and ungodlinefs, avarice, ambition, and luft increase: fo that whofoever fhall happen then to be fober and religious, shall become a prey to the wicked, and be greatly harraffed by the unrighteous; the vicious alone

* Lactan. tih, 70. de divino præmio, p. 578, 579.

. fhall be profperous and happy, while the people of God thall 'meet with every kind of bad treatment, and be reduced to 'extreme poverty. All right fhall be confounded, laws fhall perith; then no body fhall poffefs any thing but what is ill got, or what he is obliged to defend by force; rapine and vi⚫olence shall carry every thing before them: there fhall be no fidelity among men, no peace, no humanity, no fhame, no truth, and neither fafety nor order, nor any reft from trouble; for the whole earth fhall be in confufion, and the noife and ⚫ din of war heard every where; all nations fhall be up in ⚫ arms, and attack one another; neighbouring states shall war • among themselves; destruction shall run over the face of the

earth, cutting down every thing, and laying it along, as corn⚫ fields are in harvest. The reason of which dreadful calami⚫ty and strange confufion, will be this, That the Roman name, which has fubdued the whole world, fhall then (I tremble to utter it, but, fince it is certain, utter it I muft) be quite extinct.'

What think you, reader, is not this a defcription of our own times, or muft we wait longer, till that pernicious and wicked race of men fhall appear upon the ftage? That this hath been fulfilled in our late troubles, none fure can hesitate that hath any difcernment.

But God at length, pitying our diftreffes, hath raised up a man *, both zealous for the truth, and a lover of godliness, boldly to affert his cause in the face of danger and toil, and to put a new face on things. Concerning this time it shall be faid, What wonderful things hath God done? Now every impediment being removed, and the dreadful ftorm calmed, (which fcatters up and down like stubble) our gracious God doth in this manner befpeak us, Rife up, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the fing ing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. As if he had said, You have been long enough confined at home; come now (for you may safely come) abroad. There is the greatest appearance of fafety and incitement to labour every where. Thus the severity of the Winter recommends to us the pleasures of the Spring.

For my part, I had no fooner heard the joyful news of Liberty, than presently I began to prepare myself for my proper and much longed for work; for if so much pleasure is found

WILLIAM III. Prince of ORANGE.

in the ftudy of the mathematics, that when one has tafted of it, he is fo ravished and bewitched with it, that he cannot be taken off from the ftudy of them; it will certainly be the sweetest pleasure of all, to employ our labours, however much we are exhaufted, for the glory of Chrift, and good of fouls: it gives me therefore no fmall pleasure, that at length I may put in my fickle, which hath been long in difufe, into the Lord's harveft, together with the reft of my fellow-labourers. Thanks to my God, who hath not only feasonably opened a door of opportunity, but hath alfo (which I earneftly fupplicated for) given me to see the happy effects of found doctrine, and hath long ago bleffed it unto many.

These firft-fruits of Reftored Liberty, and which many have importuned me to publish, I now moft humbly offer unto you. Indulge a brother, the weakest of all, and one who reckons him felf justly inferior to all the fervants of Chrift; if, on this fig nal and most extraordinary occafion, Chriftian zeal fhould break forth a little more freely than may be suitable either to my small share of learning or experience.

Here your preacher hath not fought after the pomp of eloquence. Through the whole I have used a popular, not polite, ftile; pithy, not showy: for I thought it might be justly said concerning Theology, what Cicero fays of Philofophy, That to talk upon fubjects of that nature in an elaborate ftile, is childish; but to be capable of delivering with plainness and perfpicuity, is the part of a learned and knowing man. I fhould be juftly difpleafed with myself, if I preached the doctrine of a crucified Chrift, in a ftile unbecoming his crofs; which surely is the character of a ftile pompous and fwelling.

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These things being premifed,

I. Let us rejoice in our liberty, with a joy duely moderated; mean, with a joy equally balanced, and guarded on all hands by grief for past fins, and dread of future ones.

We read in

Jeremiah, of the voice of fighing and weeping, with which the faithful would, about the time of their deliverance, confefs their fins, by which they had provoked God, and would fincerely bewail them with contrite hearts. And how fuitable was that fong of the church, even at the laying the foundation of the fecond temple; a fong equally compofed of joyful shouting, and abundant weeping, Ezra iii. 10. "Many weeped with "a loud voice, many fhouted aloud for joy fo that the people "could not difcern the noise of the fhout of joy, from the noise "of the weeping of the people." Nor are the faints afhamed VOL. IV. Eee

to confefs their falls and fhameful deeds to the glory of God, for nothing is a lofs to us, which redounds to his glory. Our countenance must in his fight be comely and amiable, when he fees penitential tears mixed with thofe of joy and thanksgiving. It is the character of a true penitent to lament his faults, that he may not again commit things to be lamented.

Afaph has fet before us an illuftrious example of penitence, Pfal. Ixxiv. 8. Remember not (fays he) against us our former. iniquities. God is faid to remember iniquities, when calling fins to an account, and judging of their greatness and number, he refolves to punish. Afaph speaks of God after the manner of men; for they, when greatly offended, and about to punish. their children, do then call to mind all their former faults: let us, in like manner, reflect on ours, and fincerely bewail our past flothful conduct, an unhappy concomitant of liberty: Thus we have neither flamed with ardent love on the one hand, nor grieved with that degree of forrow which was requifite on the other: we have oftentimes spoken more from the head than from the heart. We have both prayed and preached too too coldly about matters the moft awful and important. We have not followed the footsteps of those worthies that went before us in the laft age, fo as to come up with them. We have been at finall pains to fupport the majefty of religion, by the gra vity of our converfation, and the ufefulness of our difcourfes. For which cause our God has conceived juft anger against us, and has manifefted that by the past calamities; and by fo manifesting it hath plainly admonished us to be on our guard for the time to come.

II. Therefore brethren, I earnestly beg of you, in the bowels. of Chrift, that you will not forget these words of the apostle, If it be poffible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men, Rom. xii. 18. There is added a twofold limitation, firft, If it be poffible, that is, consistently with juftice, piety, and truth: Such a regard is not to be had to truth, as that the study of peace be entirely neglected; nor is such unity to be fought after, as destroys truth; but fpeak the truth in love, as the fame apostle exhorts, Eph. iv. 15. For, as our countryman Mr. Davenant juftly obferves, they love neither from the heart, who love not both. Chriftians therefore, when they both live peaceably in owning the truth, and speak the truth in love, are a great ornament to their profeffion. The other limitation is, As much as lieth in you, that is, live in friendship with all, if it be poffible; and if they will not be friendly on their part, be fure you be fo on yours. Truth begets hatred among the