A sermon preached in St. Pauls Church London ... February 28, 1659 being a day of solemn thanksgiving unto God for restoring of the excluded members of Parliament to the House of Commons ... / by John Gauden.

To the right Honourable THOMAS ALEYN Lord Mayor of the City OF London. THE Court of Aldermen and Common-Counsel.

AS by your Desire I was induced to preach the following Sermon; so by your Order in Common Council I was re∣quested to print what I preached; I have obeyed you in both, and su∣pererogated in the later: adding something prepared, but omitted for want of time, and a respect due to your expectation of a second and better course on that Festival. This I have done not only as compliant with your Christian

Commands, but as solicitous to conform all my endea∣vours to the publick Good of your City, and our com∣mon Countrey; which a great part of the Church of Christ, and many precious souls, as well as mens bodies, Lives, Liberties, Honours and Estates are embarqued: All which have for our sins been long engaged in a tempest of War and sea of Blood; nor have they been able to make any fair Port or happy Haven these many years, since they lost their Pilots and Compass, their King and Par∣liaments, by the various Euroclydons of mens passions, Lusts and Interests; which have tossed them to and fro with every wind; & made great waste of all that is pre∣cious for Religion, Justice and Honour, besides Estates and Lives of men in the three Kingdomes; threatning all either with speedy and utter Shipwrack by forreign In∣vasion, or an everlasting storm by domestick confusions; untill the unexpected and undecerned providence of God began to open to your and the Countryes prayers some door of hope, by the prudent, valiant and succesfull Conduct of the present Lord General Monck: from whom all good men expect all good things: nor can he deceive them without deceiving and destroying himself and his Countrie.

Your gratitude to God for this seasonable dawning of Mercy (which seems to bespeak a great calm) oc∣casion'd your solemn Convention that day; and my preaching to you. In which work you cannot wonder if I endeavoured to shew my self a Work-man that needed not to be afraid or ashamed; being very sensi∣ble with you of the great, many and long hurts of the daughter of my people, both in Church and State: I then freely declared them to you: I deplored them

with you; I proposed the methods of cure to you, as fully as the time will permit; and as freely as became my duty to my God and my conscience. As I would not injure any man, or fester the times: so I abhor to flatter them, which is the greatest injury a Preacher can do to Church and State.

Some I hear were offended (then late of Christs, of John Baptists, and Saint Pauls preaching) at the plain dealing I used (which possibly was from thier over∣rawness and soreness, more then from my roughness) As I aim to do things faithfully, personally, so decent∣ly and discreetly: Nor do I think I am to learn of those Censorious Catos how to preach, any more then they will learn of me how to buy and sell; or how to fight and war. No man may wonder if I dare to reprove those sins which some dare to do, or approve, but dare not hear of, or repent.

The parrhesie or freedom of my speech as a man, a Christian, and a Preacher was such, as became my feeling of the publick miseries; my desire of the pub∣lick tranquility, and my sense of that fidelity I ow to God, to my Countrey, to you, and to my own soul.

These are not times to palliate and speak smooth or soft things: Never age had fouler humours or prou∣der tumours; more felt and more painfull; more hard, and less mollified; These I would help to cure, that so we might recover publick health, together with our wits, and reason; our Laws and Religion, our good Confidence and Government: our Peace and Unani∣mity: all which we have lost, since we lost our heads in Church and State. Our full and free Parliaments, consisting of King, Lords and Commons; in which

the soule and life, the honour and happiness of these Nations are bound up.

And no part of it is more concerned then your fa∣mous sometime flourishing and still populous City; in whose happiness the whole Nation will be happy, and in its misery all must be miserable. Since Lon∣don is not only as a ponderous Byas to the great bowl, (which draws all parts towards it) but it is as the Mis∣tress, Lady or Queen, to which every Village, City and Countrey of the Nation (as officious Hand-maids) stu∣dy to present all manner of costly comlyness, not only feminine, as the superfluity of peace and plenty, but also masculine; for London like Pallas is furnished as with men of Counsel and Conduct, with Treasure and Strength, with all sorts of Armes and Aminition; be∣ing a Camera Imperii Britanii, a vast Magazine of men and money, a nursery of all Arts, Mechanick, Ingenuous and Military: a great entertainer of Learning, and a no∣ble encourager of Religion, wanting nothing to make it self and the Nation happy, if it have such heroick minds and honest hearts, and become so rich, so great, and so Christian a City.

'Tis true, like plethorick bodies, great care must be had how ill humours, yea and good ones too, are put in∣to motion; since the first cannot well be long kept in, nor may the second be purged out: The first threat∣ning dangerous inflamations; the second no less dange∣reus Evacuations. Here Prudence, Order, Moderation, Confidence and Unanimity are required, besides Zeal and Courage, in order to recover your and our former health in Church and State, which was made up of an admirable temper and constitution, till sin, tumults, vi∣olence,

and war cast us into these Feavers, Convul∣sions and Confusions, with which we have wrestled for ma∣ny years. Indeed your City ows some Reparation (now payd it) to the whole Nation: not only for the ad∣vantages it hath from all parts, but for the disadvanta∣ges which all have suffered: not from the ill intentions, but from some tumultuating dispositions, which as Por∣pusses were pregnant in your sea of people, when our troubles first began.

I hope God hath prepared blessings for you, and by yours for the whole Nation, by opening your eyes, humbling your hearts, disposing your minds, and exci∣ting your spirits to thoughts of Justice and Piety; of Repentance, Restitution and Peace: We have had wounds and hurts enough; healings, and strong Delusions too many. It is high time (if it be Gods time) to speak comfortably to Zion, and tell her Warfare is ac∣complished; to pour in the Balm of Gilead by sober and aquanimious Counsels, to bind up by orderly & just pow∣er, what hath been long broken; to make up the grand defects in our Government, and to lay foundations of fu∣ture peace and happiness in Righteousness and Truth: That the enemies of our now Religion, and this reformed Nation may not rejoyce in our continued miseries, and say, So would we have it.

I have sought to do my duty: if some think I have overdone it. I must crave your patrociny to assert that, which by your acceptance seemed to be your sense as well as mine; and is, as I hope, the sense of all honest and judicious men: For men that are fanciful & fanatick, we need them not, to make us happy: I am sure they have made a shift to make us very miserable. And

if God had not in mercy set bounds to the rage of that sea, and the madness of that people, they would have made your City an heap of ashes, and our Countrey a field of Blood; It will be your Wisdom, Honour and Happiness to keep in the bounds of just, moderate, re∣ligious and sober Counsels; to aim at legal, honest and tried wayes of settlement: to apply to such Physici∣ans as you find most able and faithfull so will health and salvation break forth upon you, and the three Nations, which is the earnest prayer

Of your humble servant in Christ, J. GAƲDEN.