The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

2 There is a stand-still, out of ignorance; Because I do not know which way to take; and this is not in the text neither: Thus many in our time, they stand still, they plead ignorance; they stand still, they will be of no side, and they plead ignorance, they know not what to do; they say, they know not what to do, one saith one thing, and another saith another thing, the King commands one thing, and the Parliament another, they know not what to do; to go against the King, is it not Rebellion? and so they stand still because they plead ignorance, & their consciences are not informed. It hath bin the work of divers Ministers, that have hazarded themselves in this, to open to you the Counsel of God, and to set your consciences at liberty; divers things I have spoken in this place, but certainly men do blind their own eyes, and are willing to stand still, to plead ignorance, after so much light revealed: It is strange that any rational man should speak of rebellion now, when as we know, that the King himself sent aid to the Rochellers, and that (we know) in the case of their liberties, and Religion; they took up arms to defend themselves against their own King, & he sent help to them, surely he did not himself take them to be rebels, & King James in his answer to Byron ⟨p. 305⟩that inveighs against the Protestants in France; he doth stand to justify what the Protestants in France did, even King James himself in that book of his, in his answer to Byron; and besides we must acknowledge all the Protestant Churches in the world to be Rebels, if it be Rebellion, merely to take up arms. Know we not that our own King hath matched his Daughter to the young Prince of Orange, now we know the Prince of Orange is the General of the States in their fields, as the Earl of Essex is the General of our forces here; and their business against the King of Spain (it was their praise) to defend their Liberties, and Religion, and still they maintain the same quarrel, and the Prince of Orange he is their General, and undertakes it: We desire nothing but the maintenance of our Liberty and of our Religion, though things be not gone so far yet, as to take our estates, yet the Cause that they began withal, it is our Cause, and what the General was there, the same in a kind (there is no great difference) here;

2 There is a stand-still, out of ignorance; Because I do not know which way to take; and this is not in the text neither: Thus many in our time, they stand still, they plead ignorance; they stand still, they will be of no side, and they plead ignorance, they know not what to do; they say, they know not what to do, one saith one thing, and another saith another thing, the King commands one thing, and the Parliament another, they know not what to do; to go against the King, is it not Rebellion? and so they stand still because they plead ignorance, & their consciences are not informed. It hath bin the work of divers Ministers, that have hazarded themselves in this, to open to you the Counsel of God, and to set your consciences at liberty; divers things I have spoken in this place, but certainly men do blinde their own eyes, and are willing to stand still, to plead ignorance, after so much light revealed: It is strange that any rational man should speak of rebellion now, when as we know, that the King himselfe sent aid to the Rochellers, and that (we know) in the case of their liberties, and Religion; they took up armes to defend themselves against their own King, & he sent help to them, surely he did not himself take them to be rebels, & King James in his answer to Byron