Mercy Rejoicing Against Judgment, Dedication
To the honorable Houſe of Commons aſſembled in Parliament.
Honorable and worthy Gentlemen,
WHEN you were ſolemnly met before God, to mourn over your ſins, it was my duty to further, what I could, the melting of your hearts, that you might powre them out before the Lord. I knew not a better argument for ſuch a purpoſe, then to ſet before you, God melting over ſinners, his repentings kindled together, and his bowels turned within him fer them: it cannot but prevaile upon an ingenuous ſpirit, and make it mourn after the Lord. Qui nolit impendere amorem, Aug.ſaltem rependat, ſaith a father.
And the voyce of Mercy (after the windes, and earthquakes, and fires of judgement, that have gone before, and have ſhaken the mountaines, and broken the rocks in pieces) be but a ſtill ſmall voyce, yet it may prevail more then thoſe, if God be in it; and I hope he is: For, if I miſtake not, Mercy is the preſent receipt which the great Phyſitian hath preſcribed to make up the cure of ſick England, a Cordiall after blood-letting, and many bitter pills, that have pul'd her down. God is now powring out one mercy after another upon us, and (as I may ſay) rubbing and working in the oyle of Mercy, to take away the ſtiffnes of our hearts and to make them pliable. Now that the language of providence herein, might be both more articulate and impreſsive, I have brought the Word, to ſet home upon the heart, Gods own diſpenſations, God makes the doctrine, in preaching Mercy, and that in most reall demonſtrations, I have endeavoured to make the application of Mercy unto our hearts, that by may of uſe, it might bring us to repentance, and teach us to feare the Lord and his goodneſſe. It ſeems to be a leſſon God would fain have us to learn at this time, I have therefore willingly delivered it unto you from the pulpit, where you heard it with patience. And likewiſe (at your appointment) I now deliver it unto you and the world from the Preſs, with prayer that by both or either (hearing or reading) the Spirit of God may bring it in, with a bleſsing, to reach the heart.
And whereas, when you had ſent up the cry of your ſouls unto God upon the faſting day, I preſented unto your eares the cry of many thouſand ſouls, out of the North, where they cry for food, but there is none to break unto them the bread of life, and you willingly hearkened: give me leave to renew my motion (as Nehemiah to Artaxerxes) for the place of my fathers Sepulchers, which lieth waſte. It is a work of ſo high importance and difficulty, that none are worthy to take it hand, but a Parliament, none can bring reliefe (under God) but you, who are the repairers of our breaches, and the reſtorers of paths to dwell in. The noble and worthy Gentlemen of your honorable Committee for ſending Miniſters into the Northern Counties, know, that they have long been in darkneſſe, even when the light of the Goſpel brake forth gloriouſly over all other parts of the Kingdome in former times of reformation; and yet, though that honorable Committee have been zealous and piouſly diligent in the truſt you have committed to them, (whereby they have procured and ſent ſome labourers into the Vineyards of York, and Dureſme, and Northumberland, as a happy fruit of reformation by this Parliament) ſomeaWeſtmorland & Cumberland of thoſe deſolate Counties have not ſo much as taſted of your charity in this kind, to reap the fruit of your religious Ordinance, wherein you have worthily provided for the maintenance of ſome godly Miniſters there.
The ſcarceneſſe of Miniſters, the remoteneſſe of thoſe parts, the ſmalneſſe of Church-livings there, and the generall backwardneſse in Miniſters to goe into thoſe cold Countries, are ſome of the chiefe obſtructions. For the firſt, I doubt not but your wiſdoms will find out a better Antidote againſt the ſcarcity of Miniſters, then liberty of propheſying (which ſome plead for upon this ground): if the Ark be ſhaken, Uzzah may not (under that pretence) put forth his hand to hold it. Rather your Parliamentary care, to reduce and reform our Univerſities, to view all publick Schools, whereby children of pregnant capacities, may bee brought up in a way of learning, to incourage the ſtudy of divinity in Colleges, to ſee that Scholars dwel not too long in Fellowſhips when they are fitted for the ſervice of the Church (according to the proviſoes that are made already in the ſtatutes of ſome Colleges in Oxford): your wiſe coſideration (I ſay) of theſe and like things, will beget great hopes of a plentifull harveſt (even of labourers) in the next generation. And in the mean time (as to the want of Miniſters in the North) a few bright-ſhining lights well diſpoſed of in thoſe dark places, ſet up (I mean) in the moſt eminent towns of Weſtmorland and Cumberland; by preaching there, and travelling about, would give great light every one of them ſeverally a great way in the circumjacent Countrey.
For the ſecond and third impediments, I need not tell you that their maintenance had need to be ſuch as may encourage Miniſters, againſt remoteneſſe and coldneſſe of the countrey, which may be ſufficiently provided for, if it may pleaſe this honorable Houſe, that the Impropriations which are ſequeſtred, and the ſmall Church-livings in thoſe Counties, be collected and treaſured up in faithfull hands, as one publick ſtock for the maintenance of ſuch as faithfully labour in the harveſt there. Touching the backwardneſſe of Miniſters to goe into thoſe Countries, ſince it is God that inclines the hearts of men, it hath been, and is my prayer, that God would ſtir up the hearts of his ſervants to undertake ſo glorious a work, as the planting of the Goſpel in thoſe barren parts, wherein ſome faithfull Miniſters have in former and later times laboured with abundance of bleſſed ſucceſſe.
In the firſt reformation of Scotland, when godly Miniſters were ſo few, that, many places of the Kingdome were like to be unſuppli d, the Miniſters adviſed the great Councell of that Kingdom, to uſe their authority (with conſent of the Church) for the ſending of Miniſters of ability to beſtow their gifts where was moſt need. I preſume not hereby to preſident your godly wiſdomes, but in all that I have ſaid, my deſire is to provoke your zealous and mature conſultations, to find out ſome effectuall way, for the ſetting up of a godly Miniſtery in the North: wherein, as alſo in all other your weighty undertakings for the Church or Common-wealth, that the bleſsing of heaven may crowne your unwearied labours, with ſucceſs, hath been, is, and ſhall be the prayer of
From my ſtudy in Broadſtreet, Nov. 29. 1645. The meaneſt of them that ſerve you in the Work of the Goſpel. John Strickland.