A sermon preached at Aldermanberry Church, Dec. 28, 1662 in the fore-noon

Fifthly, I am to exhort you, That you would all of you contribute your utmost endeavour, to keep the Ark of God from being taken: And here I shall show you,

Fifthly, I am to exhort you, That you would all of you contribute your utmost endeavour, to keep the Ark of God from being taken: And here I shall shew you,

1. What the Magistrate should do. 2. What the Ministers should do. 3. What the people should do.

First, What the Magistrate should do, I shall say but little of them, because I am not now to ⟨p. 21⟩speak to them; they are to use their Authority for the settling of the Ark; for the Ark of the Covenant will be like the Ark of Noah, always floating upon the waters, until the Magistrates settle it. Thus David, 2 Sam. 6. 1, 2. he gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand to fetch home the Ark: So Solomon, he assembled the Elders of Israel, and the heads of the Tribes, the Nobles, the chief of the Fathers of the children of Israel unto Jerusalem, with a great deal of pomp, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord into its place. O that God would encourage our Nobles and Magistrates, that they might be solicitous to settle the Ark: Magistrates must not do as the Philistines, they had the Ark, but what did they do with it? they set it up in the house of Dagon, but Dagon and the Ark could never agree: where false Religion comes in at one door, the true Religion goes out at the other; you must not put the Ark and Dagon together.

First, What the Magistrate should do, I shall say but little of them, because I am not now to