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A47026
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A farewel-sermon preached to the united parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth & St. Mary Woolchurch-Haw in Lombard-Street by David Jones
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Jones, David, 1663-1724?
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1692
(1692)
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Wing J934G; ESTC R32368
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28,884
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45
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all the Haters of God's People if they did but thus ingenuously confese that all their Hatred against Good Men proceeds from no other cause but their Hatred against the Truth which they profess For as our Condemnation will be the greater for Robbing Widows Houses under a pretence of Long Prayers So likewise to Hate and Undo a Man under a Pretence of Religion and Friendship is the height of Sin 't is to make the God of Love the Author and the Instrument of Hatred and Malice So then 't is plain that Ministers telling the Truth do oftentimes make their greatest Friends to become their Enemies As it is Matter of Fact Now the Question is How this comes about To which I answer thus As Christ who is the Prince of Peace is not of himself the Cause of War tho he accidentally sends a Sword upon Earth So likewise Telling the Truth is not of its self the cause of Hatred but it only proves to be so accidentally I shall explain this by a common and familiar Instance Solomon tells us Truly the Light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the Eyes to behold the Sun Eccles 11. 7. And yet take a Man that has sore Eyes and the Light of the Sun is so far from being either sweet or pleasant to him that he shuns it as much as possible and prefers Darkness before it All the Fault being in the Eyes and not in the Light that shines upon them And just thus it is in our case Truth is most sweet and pleasant to the Nature of Man in the state of Innocence the desire of Knowledge whereof Truth is the proper Object made our first Parents to forfeit Paradise and yet take a Man after the Fall in his corrupted state and Truth is so far from being either sweet or pleasant to him that he shuns it as much as possible and prefers a Lie before it He hates the Light because his Deeds are evil All the Fault being in the Man that cannot endure the Truth and not in the Truth its self A Plaister applied to a sound Member creates no Smart all the Smart comes from the Wound And that 's the manner how this comes about And the Reason why it comes thus about is this Every beloved Sin is a Mans Right Hand and his Right Eye and every Minister commands us to mortifie our most beloved Sins And what is this but the same in effect as to wound us in our most sensible Part and to cut off our Right Hands and to pluck out our Right Eyes And what is the usual Resentment of an angry furious and revengeful Man in such a case needs no proof Present Death or a Challenge is the least that can be expected And this is the true and the only Cause of all our Hatred in the World No Men are so much hated and persecuted and reviled as the faithful Ministers of the Gospel are They that would make an excellent Figure either in the Field or at the Bar or in any other Calling are despised as they are Ministers Their very Profession exposes them to scorn Christ himself and the Prophets before him and the Apostles after him were all of them thus barbarously treated Slander Malice Persecution and Death its self was their only Portion Nay further The Hatred of the World is made an inseparable Mark of a Faithful Minister for if he were of the World the World would love its own And the Love of the World is made a certain Sign of an unfaithful Minister For says our Saviour Luke 6. 26. Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their Fathers to the False Prophets To have the good Word of all Men and to be a false Prophet is all one in the Judgment of Christ Nay further yet This Hatred that attends telling the Truth has made many a good Man e'en afraid to enter upon this thankless and ungrateful Office It was the case of Moses Jeremy and Jonah Yea and it has made others that were entred upon it to resolve to give it over again or at least to give over their Faithfulness in reproving Sin and to do as other Men did leave their Flocks to Themselves the Devil and the wide World And this was the Prophet Jeremy's Case for says he Jer. 20. 7 8 9 I am in derision daily every one mocketh me for since I spake I cried I cried out Violence and Spoil because the Word of the Lord was made a Reproach unto me and a Derision daily Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his Name That is I am so much scorned for telling the Truth that I am resolved to give over Preaching And thus I have shewn you That Ministers telling the Truth do often times make their greatest Friends to become their Enemies Which was the Second Thing proposed And the Third is This It is unreasonable for Men to become Enemies to their Ministers for telling them the Truth For First of all It is unreasonable to find Fault with a thing for doing that which it ought to do For who will find fault with a Soldier for fighting well or with a Musitian for singing well And who will find fault with his Ear for hearing well or with his Eye for seeing well Certainly he must be a very foolish Man that will cut off his Ear because it hears well or that will pluck out his Eye because it sees well And yet just such another Folly are those Men guilty of who turn away their Ministers for telling them the Truth whose Business and Employment it is to do so upon Pain of Damnation And therefore St. Paul told the Galatians plainly that nothing but foolishness and bewitchery could ever have made them his Enemies upon that account For says he Gal. 3. 1. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you All the reason they had to hate him was no reason at all 't was perfect Folly and Bewitchery Secondly Ministers are but the Servants and Messengers and Ambassadors of Almighty God and their business is to tell Men the Truth and to tell them their Faults And canst thou be angry with a poor Servant for doing what his Master bids him Canst thou be angry with a Messenger for delivering his Message Canst thou be angry with an Ambassador for doing what the King his Master commands him and he dares not but do upon pain of Death And why then wilt thou be angry with thy Minister for telling thee the Truth and obeying God rather than Man Thirdly To hate a Minister for telling the Truth is a Sign of a Bruit For says Solomon Brov. 12. 1. He that hateth reproof is bruitish And yet they that do so most do take themselves for Men of the best parts and the best breeding and the most accomplish'd Gentlemen of the Age. Again To hate God's Minister for telling the Truth is a sign that
have not we openly commended those that have been good Have not we endeavoured to bring your Vertuous and pious Relations to the Sacrament both by Word of Mouth and by Letter And have not you hindered them even from coming to Church and openly traduced and branded us both through City and Country yea and even within these very Walls too And yet have not we preferred the Conscience before the Fame and Applause of all these good Actions Have not we chose to be discommended for doing our Duty rather than to be commended for neglecting it Have not we chose to do you good against your Wills and against our own advantage rather than do you any harm with your full consent and to our own Profit In a word Is there either Profit or Pleasure or Preferment Is there any thing that this World admires but what we have renounced for the good of your Immortal Souls And now as our Saviour said to the Jews For which of these good Works do you stone me So say we to you For which of these good works do you hate us and become our Enemies However This This is our comfort It is better to be hated for doing our Duty than to be loved for neglecting it It is infinitely more honourable in the sight of God to be turned out of a Place for discharging a good Conscience than it is to leave a Place for a little filthy Lucâ—es sake It is infinitely more Honourable in the light of God to be Hated for telling the Truth and Preaching against Covetousness Usury and Extortion than it is to be applauded and admired for cringing and sneaking and base complying to the Vices of this Place None but a Demas leaves a Place for a little greater advantage in this present World But even Christ himself may be turned out of his Place by Covetous Gadarenes and Swine may be preferr'd before him If any of you shall be pleased to call this the Foolishness of Boasting we answer with St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 11. I am become a Fool in glorying but ye have Compelled me All the Fault lies at your Door For I ought to have been commended of you For in nothing am I behind the very Chiefest Apostles though I be nothing Upon which Words the most Judicious the most Pious and the most Humble Bishop Sanderson has made this Remark in his Sermon upon Phil. 4. 11. Ad Aâ—lam Your undervaluing of me to the great prejudice of the Gospel but advantage of False Teachers hath made that Glorying necessary for me which had been otherwise but Vanity and Folly And then he addeth in the very next Words When his case falleth to be ours we may then do as he now doth purge our selves from false Crimes and Suspicious and maintain our own Innocency And he has these words in another place to the same purpose on the behalf of Job who was very often compelled by his false Accusers to proclaim his own Righteousness in his Sermon on Job 29. ver 14 15 16 17. Ad Magistratum Where Silence against foul and false Imputations may be interpreted a Confession there the Protestation of a Man 's own Innocency is ever just and sometimes necessary When others do us open wrong it is not now Vanity but Charity to do our selves open right And whatever Appearance of Folly or Vain-boasting there is in so doing they are chargeable withal that compel us thereunto and not we And 't was neither Pride nor Passion in Job but such a Compulsion as this that made him so often proclaim his own Righteousness And thus I have shewn you the unreasonableness of hating your Ministers for telling you the Truth And I have answered an Objection that might be made against my way of handling it in my own Defence which was the third thing proposed And the Fourth is this Ministers are not to forbear to tell the Truth tho they make their greatest Friends to become their Enemies by so doing For First of all These Galatians loved St. Paul as well as their own Eyes and yet he did not forbear to tell them the Truth and to give them their own tho they became his Enemies for it Christ himself did intirely love his Mother and he was intirely beloved by her And yet what a rough and what a severe Answer did he give her at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee Woman what have I to do with thee And so likewise when he tarried behind at Jerusalem to Dispute with the Doctors in the Temple he valued not his Parents Displeasure nor asked their leave to do his Father's Business which they wist not of And accordingly we find that he hath made it absolutely impossible for any Man to be his Disciple that is either ashamed or afraid to confess Him and his Truth in this Adulterous and Wicked Generation And therefore whoever does not leave both Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Houses and Land and all that he has for his Sake he can never be his Disciple And therefore certainly no Minister must forbear to tell the Truth though he makes his best Friends and his nighest Relations yea though he makes all the World his Enemies by so doing Telling the Truth is so great and so necessary a qualification in a Minister of the Gospel that St. Paul knew no greater Character to give Christ himself than that before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good Confession 1 Tim. 6. 13. Thus Elijah told the Truth before Ahaeb and Jezebel Nathan before David Daniel and the Three Children before the King of Babylon John the Baptist before Herod the Great and St. Paul before Felix his Judge when he made him tremble with his Discourse of Temperance Righteousness and Judgment to come But alas what do I say that Ministers must not when I may safely add Secondly It is absolutely impossible for them to forbear telling the Truth though they be sure to make all the World their Enemies by so doing For the Burden of the Lord is upon them and that presseth and constraineth and even forceth them to speak the Truth whether they will or no. The Dumb Ass could not chuse but speak the Truth and rebuke the Madness of the Prophet Yea and even Balaam himself who was more bruitish than his very Beast could not chuse but speak the Truth too He could not go beyond the word of the Lord to do either less or more though Balak would have given him his House full of Silver and Gold Numb 22. 18. Truth makes its own way and breaks forth like Light through a Cloud It breaks forth through all Opposition It opens the Mouth of an Ungodly High Priest to Prophesie by course and forceth him to declare that Truth which he had otherwise held in Unrighteousness Truth lays a Wo upon every one that Preacheth not the Gospel It is strong and mighty and will prevail and reign and triumph gloriously for ever more When Jeremy was