Page 1
A THANKSGIVING SERMON before the Honourable House of Commons.
Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew the sal∣vation of God.
THe worke of the Lord in these times, and his word in this Psalme, do appeare unto me much alike: in our first warre the Lord made it his worke to a 1.1 sift these three Nations somewhat generally, and as it were, with a wider and courser sieve: so wide and course it was, that much chaffe and straw went through it with the wheat, and onely the grosser trash, as stickes and stones, did stay behinde. I meane (generally) the open profane and scandalous party in these Lands. And there was a speciall providence in that, for should the first sieve have been too shy and fine, it might have kept back so great a masse and weight on that side, as might have borne and broken out the bottome or floore of the sieve. There∣fore the Lord did then sort and sift us as the worke would beare at that time. But now, behold in this second warre, he is sifting the sifted againe with a much siner rince: The profane party was then sand out; but now he is separating between the faithfull and the formalist. Like that worke, runneth this Psalme: for it b 1.2 containeth the great Assise or Arraignment of the hypocrite. In which,
I. We read the convention of the Court, x 1.3 and sitting downe of the Bench: the witnesses are the whole earth, which is cal∣led from East to West, * 1.4 from the c rising of the Sunne to the