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A27356
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City security stated in a sermon preached at St. Pauls August 11th, 1661 before the right Honourable the Lord Mayor / by William Bell ...
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Bell, William, 1626-1683.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing B1809; ESTC R12348
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22,139
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32
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men besides women and children and purified besides the unclean the captives ninety seven thousand slain and died of the plague during the siege an hundred thousand And the City lost and razed through the factions of the seditious and zealous They are Josephus his words And indeed sedition and blind zeal will go far toward the destruction of a City In grand Cairo Historians tell us there died in one year of the plague no lesse than eighteen hundred thousand persons And what havock it made not long since in the Westerne parts Rome Naples Genoa c. your weekly News Books could inform you To come nearer home how hath God harassed these Lands by incursions of Romans Scots Picts Danes Saxons and Normans by Civil dissentions betwixt King and Barons York and Lâ—ncaster when as one wittily alludes the red Rose blushâ—d for the bloud it shed and the white Rose grew pale through the blood it had lost What depopulation and waste hath the plague made in severall parts of the Nation to instance but in one at a distance fifty seven thousand and more in the City of Norwich in six moneths where now is scarce the fifth part of that number of inhabitants To come home to this City in the year 1593 there died of the plague seventeen thousand eight hundred and ninety among which the then Lord Maior and three Aldermen In the year 1563 twenty one thousand five hundred and thirty In the year 1348 fifty thousand were buried in one Church-yard that of the Charter-house The vast numbers of those that were hereby gathered to their Fathers in the first of King James and King Charles the first is within the memory of many of you and therefore needs not my record And but gently to touch the yet green wounds of our last twenty years contracting how hath this City been sindg'd in severall limbs of it by fire and scar'd by triumphant enemies marching through the bowels of it and some Swords and blood drawn in it And there are and have been new diseases new feavers gleaning and reaping in it And though the plague God be thanked hath not yet War and its daughter poverty hath shut up many houses in it And though I am confident no City in the world is better constituted for the Ecclesiastical Civil and Military Polity of it yet all these unquestionable experiences will peremptorily convince us that Except the Lord keep the City c. 2. Reasons But 2. this truth may be as experimentallâ— so also rationally asserted Wherefore to back this strength of History we shall bring up a reserve of six Arguments three whereof immediately refer to God and the other three respect the Magistrate 1. From God or Watchmâ—n Three Attributes of God especially give in a valid testimony to this truth that Except the Lord keep c. 1. His Omniscience 1. His Omniscience God and God only knowes all the enemies of a City and all the designes of those enemies All things are naked and open before him Heb. 4.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anatomiz'd as every capilâ—â—ry vâ—in to the Hawks eye of the accurate Chyrurgion Verse 12. No such dissecting knife as the wisdom of God it pierceth to the dividing asâ—â—nâ—er of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts John 2.25 and intents of the heart He needs not that any should testifie of man for he knows what is in him better than the Artificer doth the springs and wheels of any movement One man cannot judge anothers heart but by some overt â—ct It therefore is a very blasphemous expression to say We know such an one as well as he that made him There are three Indexes or discoverers of the mind The Countenance the Tongue the Hand All these may and have Matth. 6.16 put a fallacy upon man The Pharisees were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of most mortified countenances but corrupt principles and they caught the people in this net who could not see the graves for the painting 1 Kings 13.18 That lying Prophet by a smooth tongue and a well couched story betrai'd the man of God to a sodain and sad destruction And the rough hands of Jacob cheated the dim sight of Isaac Gen. 27.22 How often have these combin'd and a well dressed lye an innocent look and siding for a while with a party let in a Spye and Traytour into a Garrison past all the Guards to the ruine thereof Thus Judith captivated thâ— heart and then cut off the head of Holofernes Judith 13. And what walls are proof against a golden Ass or the wooden horse of an insinuating Sinon The Philosoper conscious of his sincerity wished he had a window to his breast that his very thoughts might be visible to all the world Man is diaphanous or transparent to God who made the eye without such a window The heart of man is deceitfull above all things to others to himself Jerem. 17.9 but he that framed it knows every winding in that labyrinth and can trace it without a clue The Watchman passeth him that can give the word But how many have had the word in their mouths who yet have betray'd the City But there is no word save that of Immanuel God with us that can preserve it The Lords all-seeing eye can pierce into a Spanish Council a Romish Conclave an Hellish Vault and discover and scatter an insolent invasion and Powder-treason He knows all thoughts before they are every embryo stratagem against a City and no ambush is hid from nor is there any counsel against him No such overseer than as God who is never overseen 2. Omnipresence 2. Except the Lord keep c. Because of his Omnipresence Entèr praesenter Deus est ubique potentèr present to all times for this King indeed and personally never dyes and to all places he fills Heaven and earth Jer. 23.24 Magistrates below are forced to delegate Officers under them to see by the perspective of others eyes and hear by the Otacousticon of others ears and eâ—k out their short armes with others hands To ape an omnipresence by Lieutenants Judges Vice-royes Deputies Constables and the like And treachery in one of these may bring ruine on the whole body The Governour of a Garrison endeavours to be every where by his Council Orders Officers Main-guard Ouâ—-guards Reserves Centinels Perdu's Scouts Spyes Peâ—â—ols Rounds and Grand-rounds But God is all these and above them and they are all nothing without him He is a Centinel at every door a Master a Father in every Family in the City Maâ—â— 1.6 Ephes 3.15 for except he build every particular house they labour but in vain that would raise it He is present to every person and to every action of that person He is not as a Watchmaker who having fram'd and put together a piece of Clock-work winds up the springs or draws up the
up the planks of the Vessel to build their own Cabins Remember you judge for God and shall be judg'd by him It was a condescending expression of the best of Princes to a late Parliament upon their Dissolution that during their Intervals in all his publick Resolves he should propose to himself what a Parliament would judge of them and if his actions would not bear that test it should be for want of judgement in him In every sentence you are to give remember the sentence you must receive and so pronounce that that you may not dread to undergo this Thus faithfully trading with the Talents of your piety Luke 19.17 and justice wisedom courage and integrity in the trust of the Government of this City God shall at last give you authority over many Cities 2. To the Citizens 2. To the City that is to the Citizens by a Metaâ—â—â—y of the continent for the contents Acts 13.44 the City that is the Inhabitants came together to hear the word And to you as therefore so conven'd I shall speak a word for the Lord and for the Watchmen There hath been formerly among you a great cry for truth and peace so great a cry that we lost both in the mist of that breath They are two Jewels that when gone are worth a siquis an enquiry Let us call home these banished too Let righteousnesse and peace meet and kisse each other 2 Sam. 14.13 Psal 85.10 Matth. 19.6 Gal. 5.12 And cursed be they that part what God hath put together I wish they were even cut off that trouble you in either Let me therefore exhort you to the prosecution of truth for the Lords and peace for the Watchman's sake and of both for your own sakes the safety of your City being the result of both 1. To get truth for Gods sake 1. Truth and if any shall put to me Pilate's question to Christ what is truth and hath more patience than he to stay for an answer John 18.38 that I shall give proper to our present purpose is that by truth is mean'd either the word of God thus his Law and Commandments are truth Psal 119.142 151. 2 Peter 2.2 or our conformity to that word called the way of truth That is truth of Doctrine this of life and practice Now 2 Peter 2.2 as the same Ocean takes various denominations from the severall shores it runs by so truth in cogitation is sincerity in communication veracity in conversation integrity And for these truths contend in Gods name Col. 3.16 Let the word of truth dwell plentiously in you not as a guest for a night or a servant for an Apprenticeship or a child during non-age but as the Master of the house even aeterno vestro for life Be frequent in searching these evidences for your freehold of grace and glory and so copy them out that they may be legible in your lives to him that runs Psal 51.6 Ephes 4.25 Prov. 12.19 Dan. 4.37 Let there be truth in the inward parts truth in thoughts And speak every one the truth to his neighbour truth in word called the lip of truth And let your works be the works of truth truth in deed It God's Omnipotency that he cannot lye Let it be yours that you can do nothing against the truth 2 Cor. 13.8 but for it Maxima summa est virtus neminem decipere It is the greatest chiefest virtue to deceive none Oh that all that hear me were thus Prov. 23 23. and alwayes thus virtuous Buy the truth and sell it not and never sell but bâ— it Let it as a thread in a neck-lacâ— of Pearl run through all your duties to God and man your worship let it be suited to the God you serve John 4.24 He is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth He that would not have the skin requires the heart in sacrifice And let your respect be to all the Commandements of God and all his Ordinances to the truth and all the truth and in the whole inward and outward man and this is integrity as it is deduc'd from timber that is strait without and sound within Take heed of that malicious proud sin Luke 12.1 that sowre and swelling leaven of the Pharisees hypocrisie that infectious Aguish vice first it trembles and then it burns Prov. 26.23 that potsheard cover'd with silver dross And be true in your civil contracts with men and let not Turks and Infidels rise up in judgment against you Let your Omer and Epha your Shekel and Cubit agree with those of the Sanctuary Your weights and measures correspond with those of the Standardâ— The Heathen used to chain their Gods in their Temples Fasten God by truth of holinesse to your Churches and truth of justice to your Shops and you have him a sure keeper of your City 2. Peace for the Watchmans sake 2. Having taken into your bosomes this Leah this eldest daughter of grace truth and it is fit she should have precedence Gen. 29.26 it being also not our custome to give the younger before the first born make roome too for the beautifull Rachel of peace so beautifull that she reflects a beauty on the feet of her messengers Rom. 10.15 This bigamy is not only lawfull but dutifull In the old Law the Jewes were not to take a wife with her sister Lev. 18.18 to vex her But you cannot vex these sisters nor your selves worse than by parting them He is a Jew that would do it For truth without peace is a constant persecution and peace without truth is a wicked combination Peace is the walls and truth the Guard of a City and these are a mutuall a counter-security to each other Oh that this City like Jerusalem might be called the City of truth Zech. 8.3 Psal 122.3 Isai 59.14 And like Jerusalem might be as a City at unity in it self That truth might not fall in the streets by guile and extortion nor peace be shut out of your Church and City-gates by schisme and faction Weaken not the hands of your Magistrates by your intestine divisions and strife about words and things that profit not 2 Tim. 2.14 least you loose the substance of Religion Love in your bitter altercations about the dresse and shadow of it Indifferent Ceremonies Committing an undoubted sinne disobedience to the powers in waving a scrupled duty submission to a prescrib'd Forme of Worship where liberty of Conscience is not intrench'd on for the thing still remains indifferent there though liberty of practice be as it may be confin'd for unities and which is the hedg to that for uniformities sake Let me therefore prevaile with you since God hath vouchsaf'd you a mercy as much above your expectation as your merit in giving you Judges as at the first Isai 1.26 and Councellours as at the beginning that you would prove a City of righteousnesse