1645 FRANCIS CHEYNELL. The Man of Honour. A Rip-Roaring Sermon Against Popular Alignment with Christianity

Written in the throes of the English Civil War, and delivered before Parliament, where the vast majority had taken oath to the Solemn League and Covenant, Cheynell spares not. The Presbyterians felt assured, via their postmillennialism, that God was going to use the Presbyterian Protector, Oliver Cromwell, the professedly Presbyterian Parliament, and the Westminster Assembly [along with the transparently Presbyterian military, now combined with the Scottish Covenanters] to usher in a a millennial age in England. 

But the war dragged on. It seems Cheynell is suspicious that some or many of these "men of honour," i.e. the men of Parliament, have not Covenanted in earnest, but simply sensed the shifting mood and power of England, and thus sworn falsely. And having falsely sworn the Covenant, God has not been able to bless the combined Covenanted Armies of the Three Kingdoms. 

Insightful sections on the methods of God in dealing with His people, his modes of communicating with people [Scripture, Conscience, Nature, and His Providences], etc. 

Cheynell, Francis. The Man of Honour, Described in a Sermon, Preached before the Lords of Parliament, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, March 26, 1645. The Solemn day of the Publique Monethly-Fast. London. Printed for J. R. for Samuel Gellibrand, dwelling in S. Pauls Church-yard, at the sign of the Brasen-Serpent, 1645. 67pp + imprimatur.

Very crisp, clean example, at some point removed from a larger sammelband. Small probably 18th century ink number at head of title, a couple of pencil marks in margins, remains of personal label on rear of title. 

Francis Cheynell [1608-1665] seems to have been one of those persons born without ability to shrink from duty. One author says of him that the Civil War revealed that “he seemed, indeed, to have been born a soldier, for he had an intrepidity which no dangers could shake, and a spirit of enterprise which no difficulty could discourage.” Dr. Calamy says, during his engagement as Chaplain, that “his commands were as readily obeyed by the colonels in the army, as were those of the general himself.”

Cheynell was a true believer in the Covenant. Chosen to the Westminster Assembly in 1643, it is recorded that his most consistent and earnest daily prayer was that God would unite the king and parliament in the cause of Christ. “Lord (said he) be pleased to decide this calamitous controversy, and let that side prevail which most sincerely desires thy glory, the king’s good, and the nation’s welfare, by a happy reformation and a Christian peace.” He preached frequently before the members of parliament, took and was a zealous advocate for the Covenant, and zealously endeavored to promote that harmony it was expected to produce in the three kingdoms.