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A43065 A sermon preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons, at St. Margaret's Westminster, January the 30th, 1695/6 by Gregory Hascard. Hascard, Gregory. 1696 (1696) Wing H1117; ESTC R25418 14,412 31

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Allies which tye Mankind together have been snapt in sunder when Superstition hath been in its raving fits and freaks witness the Valley of Hinnom the Romish Massacres and this mournful Day The Prophet had reason to cry out Wo is me when he saw Religion dwindle into Superstition and no real Goodness left He could not but foresee how this would affect the civil Part of Jerusalem and when the Temple was made a den of Thieves instead of Israelites indeed there would be violence and complaining in the Street so necessary a Connexion there is between Peace and true Religion and Disorders and Superstition For when once true Religion is hair'd and frighted out of its Wits it grows giddy and foams is quarrelsome and clamorous and calls every thing Christianity but what really is so Faith upon God and Universal Charity These two Essential Parts the Soul and Body of Religion make Men meek and peaceable good-natur'd and obliging which are fruits of the Spirit and the great Pleasure and Security of Kingdoms and Conversation And whereas Christianity is first pure and then peaceable Superstition which wears its Colours is earthly and vexatious made up of whimsy and vapour is contentious and fierce implacable and revengeful enough to make the compassionate Prophet use this Exclamation when true Goodness was gone out of the World and only Superstition left Wo is me 2. Wicked Lives in the Professors of the true Religion which will certainly cause Misery and Ruin in a Nation which so comes to pass not only by Divine Decrees passing Sentence upon a wicked and profligate People but from the natural tendency of Vice which is as much the direct Cause of Misery as Poyson is of Death We curiously inquire and ask the question why the Strength and Reputation the Riches and Courage of a Nation are gone And we ascribe it either to the hand of Providence determining the Fates and Periods of Kingdoms the Influences of the Heavens or such more secret Causes or we answer as our present Fancy Peevishness or Faction do suggest but forget the nature of Vice and Wickednes which do as fatally destroy as the Devil and the Stars the Sword and Enemy and in Conjunction Secret Fires and a raging Pestilence the Blasts of Heaven and unexpected Defeats are many times sent by the invisible Hand of Providence by the just Provocation of our Follies yet as ill Effects as they are conceiv'd in the natural Womb of Vice The genuine Issue of Pride and Lust Ambition and Revenge Idleness and Injustice and other Vices are so deform'd and monstrous that they would create an horror to describe and view them From whence come Wars but from your Lusts St. James doth hint to us to ask the questions a little further From whence generally come Poverty and Contempt weak Bodies and weaker Heads Divisions and Treacheries Cowardise and Meanness and other sad effects but from the Spawn of Vice it robbing Subjects of that just Temper and Qualification which alone make a Kingdom to flourish And if we look back upon the Calamities of all Ages past the Miseries and Troubles that now vex the present you will find the chief Spring and Original to be prophane and vicious Living Real Goodness and Religion being Prudence and true Policy Strength and Courage and every thing that gives Lustre and Security to a Nation And when the Wise and Ingenious have drawn their Schemes and Projects for advance of Trade and Power the Honour and Interest of a Nation they always suppos'd Virtue and Religion to be the first step otherwise they began at the wrong end And what can we expect from the Justice of God if we be real Christian as we pretend to be but that if we prophane his Temple he will blast our Vineyards And it hath been look'd upon by all wise and good Men as sure a sign as a Voice in the Jewish Temple Let us be gone and more certain than a blazing Comet or a monstrous Birth that the ruins of Kingdoms and Families then drew on when Religion by ill living was contemn'd and no real Goodness left And therefore when the Historian describes the Causes of the Destruction of our Ancient Britains he tells us They were Proud and Luxurious haters of a plain Truth and lovers of an handsome Lye and indifferently concern'd for what pleased or displeased God and then concludes Non igitur mirandum est tales degeneres parriam suam à mittere quam predicto modo maculabant 'T is no wonder that such degenerate Britains who nothing of their brave Ancestors in them but their Name should lose that Country which they defil'd in such a manner and now spued them out Our Prophet therefore seeing Vice to thrive and grow fashio able and some Sins to be esteemed good Breeding and Education 't is no wonder he cries out Wo is me as tho from his Tower he saw Armies and the Plague Wild Beasts and Inundations to invade and destroy the Land So dismal are the fruits of Vice or want of real Goodness Lastly Atheistical Persuasions prevail'd or there was no Religion at all As Vice naturally leads ot Atheism and Superstition often concludes in it so Atheism is very kind to Vice again and often ends in Superstition such dear Relations are these three to one another and such a circle do men make when once they are giddy and out of the way of this substantial Religion And what greater Calamity can betide Mankind than a contempt of Providence and that folly to imagine that there is not a Being we call a God but that all things tumble up and down in great uncertainty and darkness and the thing we worship is only a Creature of Fear and Custom Policy or Fiction Government and Friendship Relations and Trust and other great things which make Mankind happy have lost their vital Spirits because Reverence of a God checks of Conscience and the hopes and fears of Rewards and Punishments in the other World are gone And publick Laws are too scanty to recompence the loss of real Goodness and Religion and Fame and Honour to keep Men in due Bounds will prove but airy things when respect to God and Virtue is laid aside The Man of Revenge may assassinate his Neighbour if it can be but a work of darkness with security and may defraud and cozen if by Privacy and Art he can keep his Fame and Reputation he fears no Punishment in the other World for all this Villany and 't is his safe Interest and Pleasure in this 'T is the Imperfection of Humane Societies in making Laws not to be able to reach many private Sins and such is the skill of men to baffle the plainest Laws if there was not the dread of an higher Hand Laws would lose their Edge and Mankind would be in a state of War For tho the force of Religion doth not prevail upon every Man yet it doth upon many upon most in some degree and