The Troubles of Jerusalems Restoration, Title page – Dedication
THE TROUBLES OF JERUSALEMS RESTAURATION, OR, The Churches Reformation.
REPRESENTED In a Sermon preached before the Right Honorable Houſe of LORDS, in the Abby Church Weſtminſter, Novemb. 26. 1645.
By JOHN WHITE, Maſter of Arts, and Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Dorcheſter in the County of Dorſet.
ZACH. 14.6.7.
And it ſhall come to paſſe in that day, that the light ſhall not be cleare, nor dark.
But it ſhall be one day, which ſhall be known to the Lord, nor day nor night, but it ſhall come to paſſe that at evening time it ſhall be light.
Publiſhed according to Order.
LONDON, Printed by M. Simmons for John Rothwel, and Luke Fawne, and are to be ſold at their Shops in Pauls Church-yard. 1646.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, The Houſe of PEERES, aſſembled in PARLIAMENT.
IN obedience to your Command (Right Honorable) I make bold to preſent unto your view theſe Meditations, which in part, I did, and intended fully, to have delivered in your ears, the day where…n, by your appointment, I was called unto this ſervice. I may truly ſay, I intended it, rather then performed it. For the Meditations themſelves being conceived (as womens children are, Gen. 3.16.) in ſorrow and pain, upon the bed of languiſhing weakneſſe, when they were come to the birth, wanted the help of ſtrength to bring them forth; I felt indeed ſo much, I will not ſay ſorrow, but extremity of pain, while I ſtood that day before you, that I was enforced to preſent you only the heads, for the moſt part, of what I intended to have delivered then unto you, if the infirmity then upon me had not hindered it. You well know (Right Honourable) that the infirmities of the body have a ſtrong influence upon the ſoul, and therefore I aſſure my ſelf you will not expect that from a minde diſtempered and diſtracted by the ſenſe of pain and griefe, which might be required of a free and enlarged ſpirit. I make no queſtion but ſome may be ready to paſſe that cenſure upon this meſſage of mine unto you, which old Cato gave once upon an Embaſſage ſent by the Roman Senate (wherein of the three Ambaſſadors, one had his head full of ſcars, by wounds received in the wars, the ſecond was lame in his feet, the third defective in his intellectuals) Eam legationem ne que Caput, ne que Pedes, ne que Cor habere, that Embaſſage (ſaid he) hath neither Head, nor Feet, nor Heart. I paſſe not for ſuch cenſures; I only deſire, that although theſe Meditations be the iſſue of an infirm Head and Body, they may not be taken to be aegri ſomnia, a ſick mans dreams, nor the illuſions of a deceiving Prophet, that cryes out, I have dreamed, I have dreamed, Jer. 23.25. The words which I ſet before you, are the words of truth, the Oracles of God, and if they be ſo eſteemed by you, and all that love the truth, I have my deſire, and God ſhall have the glory. The chief Subject handled, is the Troubles which accompany the Churches Reformation. In that particular God hath made my work ſuitable to his own, both the reſtoring of Jeruſalem, and my Meditations thereupon were caſt into times of trouble, if pains and infirmities may be ſo accounted. In the cloſe of this Sermon, you ſhall finde an humble Petition for the cheriſhing of poor Students, which if you be pleaſed to entertain with favour, as the laſt requeſt of a dying man, nay as an intimation from the Man Chriſt, who dyed for us, I know not whereby you may more ingage, not man, but the Lord himſelf to make good his promiſe to you, Mal. 3.10, 11, 12. to open the windowes of heaven, and to powre upon you and the Land, bleſsings more then you can receive, and to rebuke the devourer for your ſakes; ſo that all Nations ſhall call you bleſſed. That your care and endeavour may be, both in this, and all other ſervices for the Church, to fulfill the will of the Lord Chriſt, and that this may be your reward, is, and ſhall be, the prayer of
Your Honours humble ſervant in the Lord Chriſt, JOHN WHITE.