our great trespass Our evil deeds bring all other evils upon us 2. That great Sins have usually a proportionable punishment after all that is come upon us there is the greatness of our punishment for our evil deeds and for our great trespass there is the greatness of our Sin But when I say that great Sins have a proportionable Punishment I do not mean that any temporal Punishments are proportionable to the great evil of Sin but that God doth usually observe a proportion in the temporal punishments of Sin so that although no temporal punishment be proportionable to Sin yet the temporal punishment of one Sin holds a proportion to the punishment of another and consequently lesser and greater Sins have proportionably a lesser and greater Punishment 3. That all the Punishments which God inflicts in this Life do fall short of the demerit of our Sins and seeing thou our God hast punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve In the Hebrew it is and hast kept down our iniquities that is that they should not rise up against us The LXX expresseth it very emphatically thou hast eased us of our sins that is thou hast not let the whole weight of them fall upon us Were it not for the restraints which God puts upon his anger and the merciful mitigations of it the Sinner would not be able to bear it but must sink under it Indeed it is only said in the Text that the punishment which God inflicted upon the Jews though it was a long Captivity was beneath the desert of their Sins But yet it is universally true and Ezra perhaps might intend to insinuate so much that all temporal Punishments though never so severe are always less than our iniquities deserve 4. That God many times works very great Deliverances for those who are very unworthy of them and hast given us such a Deliverance as this notwithstanding our evil deeds and notwithstanding our great Trespass 5. That we are but too apt even after great Judgments and after great Mercies to relapse into our former Sins should we again break thy Commandments Ezra insinuates that there was great reason to fear this especially considering the strange temper of that People who when God multiply'd his blessings upon them were so apt to wax fat and kick against Him and tho he had cast them several times into the furnace of Affliction though they were melted for the present yet they were many times but the harder for it afterwards 6. That it is good to take notice of those particular Sins which have brought the Judgments of God upon us So Ezra does here after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and should we again join in affinity with the People of these abominations Secondly Here is a Sentence and determination in the Case wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Which Question as I said before doth imply a strong and peremptory affirmative as if he had said after such a provocation there is great reason to conclude that God would be angry with us till he had consumed us From whence the Observation contained in this part of the Text will be this That it is a fearful aggravation of Sin and a sad presage of ruin to a People after great Judgments and great Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Hear how passionately Ezra expresses himself in this Case verse 6. I am ashamed O my God and blush to lift up mine eyes to thee my God Why what was the cause of this great shame and confusion of face He tells us verse 9. for we were bondmen yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath extended his mercy to us to give us a reviving to set up the House of our God and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a Wall in Judah and in Jerusalem that is to restore to them the free and safe exercise of their Religion Here was great Mercy and a mighty Deliverance indeed and yet after this they presently relapsed into a very great sin verse 10. And now O our God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy Commandments In the handling of this Observation I shall do these two things First I shall endeavour to shew that this is a very heavy aggravation of Sin and Secondly That it is a fatal presage of ruin to a People First It is a heavy aggravation of Sin after great Judgments and after signal Mercies and Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Here are three things to be distinctly spoken to 1. That it is a great aggravation of Sin to return to it after great Judgments 2. To do this after great Mercies and Deliverances 3. After both to return to the same Sins again 1. It is a great aggravation of Sin after great Judgments have been upon us to return to an evil course Because this is an Argument of great obstinacy in evil The longer Pharaoh resisted the Judgments of God the more was his wicked heart hardned till at last he arriv'd at a monstrous degree of hardness having been as the Text tells us hardned under ten plagues And we find that after God had threaten'd the People of Israel with several Judgments he tells them that if they will not be reformed by all these things he will punish them seven times more for their sins And if the just God will in such a case punish seven times more we may conclude that the Sin is Seven times greater What sad complaints doth the Prophet make of the People of Israel growing worse for Judgments Ah! sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity children that have been corrupters a seed of evil doers He can hardly find words enough to express how great Sinners they were and he adds the reason in the next verse Why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more They were but the worse for Judgments This renders them a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity And again The People turneth not to him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts therefore his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still And the same Prophet further complains to the same purpose When thy hand is lifted up they will not see There is a particular brand set upon King Ahaz because affliction made him worse This is that King Ahaz that is that grievous and notorious Sinner And what was it that rendr'd him so In the time of his distress he sinned yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz who is said to have provoked the Lord above all the Kings of Israel which were before him 2. It is likewise a sore aggravation of Sin when it is committed after great Mercies and Deliverances
our lives and call our selves to a strict account for them that where-in-soever we have fail'd of innocency we may make it up by repentance and may get our Consciences clear'd of guilt by pardon and forgiveness And if we do not do this we cannot with confidence rely upon the testimony of our Consciences because many great Sins may slip out of our memories without a particular repentance for them which yet do require and stand in need of a particular repentance Especially we should search our Consciences more narrowly at these more solemn Times of repentance and when we are preparing our selves to receive the Holy Sacrament And if at these Times our hearts do accuse and condemn us for any thing we should not only heartily lament and bewail it before God but sincerely resolve by God's Grace to reform in that particular and from that time to break off that Sin which we have then repented of and have ask'd forgiveness of God for For if after we have repented of it we return to it again we wound our Consciences afresh and involve them in a new guilt In the last place We should reverence our Consciences and stand in awe of them and have a great regard to their testimony and verdict For Conscience is a domestick Judge and a kind of familiar God And therefore next to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth every man should be afraid to offend his own Reason and Conscience which when-ever we knowingly do amiss will beat us with many stripes and handle us more severely than the greatest Enemy we have in the World So that next to the dreadful sentence of the great Day every man hath reason to dread the sentence of his own Conscience God indeed is greater than our hearts and knows all things but under Him we have the greatest reason to fear the judgment of our own Consciences For nothing but that can give us Comfort and nothing can create so much trouble and disquiet to us And though the judgment of our Consciences be not always the judgment of God yet we have great reason to have great regard to it and that upon several Accounts which I shall but briefly mention and so conclude First Because the judgment of our Conscience is free from any compulsion No body can force it from us whether we will or no and make us to pass sentence against our selves whether we see reason for it or not Secondly The sentence of our own Consciences is very likely to be impartial at lest not too hard on the severe side because men naturally love themselves and are too apt to be favourable in their own case All the World cannot bribe a man against himself There is no man whose mind is not either distemper'd by melancholy or deluded by false Principles that is apt to be credulous against himself and his own interest and peace Thirdly The judgment which our Conscience passeth upon our own Actions is upon the most intimate and certain knowledge of them and of their true motives and ends We may easily be deceiv'd in our judgment of the Actions of other men and may think them to be much better or worse than in truth they are Because we cannot certainly tell with what mind they were done and what circumstances there may be to excuse or aggravate them how strong the temptation was or how weak the judgment of him that was seduc'd by it into errour and folly But we are conscious to all the secret springs and motives and circumstances of our own Actions We can descend into our own hearts and dive to the bottom of them and search into the most retired corners of our intentions and ends which none besides our selves but only God can do for excepting Him only none knows the things of a man but the Spirit of a man which is in him Fourthly The Sentence of our Conscience is peremptory and inexorable and there is no way to avoid it Thou mayest possibly fly from the wrath of other men to the uttermost parts of the Earth but thou canst not stir one step from thy self In vain shalt thou call upon the mountains and rocks to fall on thee and hide thee from the sight of thine own Conscience Wretched and miserable man when thou hast offended and wounded thy Conscience For whither canst thou go to escape the eye of this Witness the terrour of this Judge the torment of this Executioner A man may as soon get rid of himself and quit his own being as fly from the sharp Accusations and stinging Guilt of his own Conscience which will perpetually haunt him till it be done away by repentance and forgiveness We account it a fearful thing to be haunted by evil Spirits and yet the Spirit of a man which is in him throughly affrighted with its own Guilt may be a more ghastly and amazing Spectacle than all the Devils in Hell There is no such frightful Apparition in the World as a man 's own guilty and terrified Conscience staring him in the face A spirit that is thus wounded who can bear To conclude Let these considerations prevail with us always to live not with regard to the opinion of others which may be grounded upon mistake or may not indeed be their opinion but their flattery but with regard to the judgment of our own Conscience which though it may sometimes be mistaken can never be brib'd and corrupted We may be hypocrites to others and base flatterers but our Consciences when-ever they are throughly awaken'd are always sincere and deal truly with us and speak to us as they think Therefore what-ever we say or do let it be sincere For though hypocrisie may for a while preserve our esteem and reputation with others yet it can signifie nothing to the peace of our own minds And then what will it avail us to conceal any thing from other men when we can hide nothing that we say or do from our own Consciences The Summ of all is this If we would keep a Conscience void of offence let us always be calm and considerate and have the patience to examine things throughly and impartially Let us be humble and willing to learn and never too proud and stiff to be better inform'd Let us do what we can to free our selves from prejudice and passion from self-conceit and self-interest which are often too strong a byass upon the judgments of the best men as we may see every day in very sad and melancholy instances And having taken all due care to inform our Consciences a-right let us follow the judgment of our minds in what we do and then we have done what we can to please God And if we would always take this care to keep a good Conscience we should always be easie and good company to our selves But if we offend our Consciences by doing contrary to the clear dictate and conviction of them we make the unhappiest breach in the World we stir up a
passages we may easily understand wherein these Monthly Fasts of the Jews were defective and what was the fault that God finds with them when he expostulates so severely in the Text When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh Month even these seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me In the general the fault which God finds with them was this that these Solemnities did not serve any real end and purpose of Religion but fail'd in their main design which was a sincere repentance and reformation of their lives For which reason he tells them that they were not at all acceptable to Him nor esteem'd by Him as perform'd unto Him because they did not answer the true intention and design of them My work at this time shall be First to consider in general what it is to fast unto God that is to keep a truly Religious Fast Secondly to bring the matter nearer to our selves I shall consider more particularly what the Duty of this Day appointed by their Majesties for a solemn Humiliation and Repentance throughout the Nation does require at our hands I. I shall consider in general what it is to fast unto God that is to keep a truly Religious Fast And of this I shall give an account in the following particulars First a truly Religious Fast consists in the afflicting of our Bodies by a strict abstinence that so they may be fit and proper instruments to promote and help forward the grief and trouble of our minds Secondly in the humble Confession of our Sins to God with shame and confusion of face and with a hearty contrition and sorrow for them Thirdly in an earnest deprecation of God's displeasure and humble supplications to Him that he would avert his Judgments and turn away his Anger from us Fourthly in Intercession with God for such spiritual and temporal Blessings upon our selves and others as are needful and convenient Fifthly in Alms and Charity to the poor that our Humiliation and Prayers may find acceptance with God I do but mention these particulars that I may more largely insist upon that which I mainly intended and proposed to consider in the next place namely II. What the Duty of this Day appointed by their Majesties for a solemn Humiliation and Repentance throughout the Nation doth require at our hands And this I shall endeavour to comprize in the following particulars First that we should humble our selves before God every one for his own personal Sins whereby he hath provoked God and increased the publick Guilt and done his part to bring down the judgments and vengeance of God upon the Nation Secondly that we should likewise heartily lament and bewail the Sins of others especially the great and crying Sins of the Nation committed by all Ranks and Orders of men amongst us and whereby the wrath and indignation of Almighty God hath been so justly incensed against us Thirdly we should most importunately deprecate those terrible Judgments of God to which these our great and crying Sins have so justly exposed us Fourthly we should pour out our earnest prayers and supplications to Almighty God for the preservation of their Majesties Sacred Persons and for the establishment and prosperity of their Government and for the good success of their Arms and Forces by Sea and Land Fifthly our Fasting and Prayers should be accompanied with our Charity and Alms to the poor and needy Lastly we should prosecute our Repentance and good Resolutions to the actual Reformation and Amendment of our lives Of these I shall by God's Assistance speak as briefly and as plainly as I can and so as every one of us may understand what God requires of him upon so solemn an Occasion as this First We should humble our selves before God every one for his own personal Sins and Miscarriages whereby he hath provoked God and increased the publick Guilt and done his part to bring down the Judgments and Vengeance of God upon the Nation Our Humiliation and Repentance should begin with our selves and our own Sins because Repentance is always design'd to end in Reformation but there cannot be a general Reformation without the Reformation of particular Persons which do constitute and make up the generality And this Solomon prescribes as the true Method of a National Reformation and the proper effect of a publick Humiliation and Repentance in that admirable Prayer of his at the Dedication of the Temple If there be says he in the Land famine if there be pestilence blasting mildew locust or if there be caterpillar or if their Enemy besiege them in the Land of their Cities what-ever plague what-ever sickness there be what prayer or supplication soever be made by any man or by all thy People Israel WHO SHALL KNOW EVERY MAN THE PLAGUE OF HIS OWN HEART and spread forth his hands towards this House Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his way whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men that they may fear thee all the days which they live in the Land which thou gavest to their Fathers You see here that in case of any publick Judgment or Calamity the Humiliation and Repentance of a Nation must begin with particular Persons What prayer or supplication so-ever be made by any man or by all thy People Israel WHO SHALL KNOW EVERY MAN THE PLAGUE OF HIS OWN HEART Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive Particular persons must be convinced of their personal Sins and Transgressions before God will hear the Prayers and forgive the Sins of a Nation And because we cannot perform this part of confessing and bewailing our own personal Sins and of testifying our particular Repentance for them in the publick Congregation any otherwise than by joining with them in a general Humiliation and Repentance therefore we should do well on the Day before the publick Fast or at least the Morning before we go to the publick Assembly to humble our selves before God in our Families and especially in our Closets confessing to Him with great shame and sorrow all the particular Sins and Offences together with the several Aggravations of them which we have been guilty of against the Divine Majesty so far as we are able to call them particularly to our remembrance and earnestly to beg of God the pardon and forgiveness of them for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ And so likewise after we return from the Church we should retire again into our Closets and there renew our Repentance with most serious and sincere Resolutions of reforming in all those particulars which we have confessed and repented of And if we would have our Resolutions to come to any good we must make them as distinct and particular as we can and charge it upon our selves as to such and such Sins for which we have declared our sorrow and repentance that we
the accidental Ornaments of our Fortune If they descend upon us they are the Privilege of our Birth not the effect of our wisdom and industry and those things in the procurement whereof we had no hand we can hardly call our own And if they be the fruit of our own prudent industry that is no such matter of glorying because men of much slower understandings do commonly out-do others in diligence and drudging their minds lying more level to the low design of being rich At the best Riches are uncertain Charge them says St. Paul that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches Men have little reason to pride themselves or to place their confidence in that which is uncertain and even next to that which is not So the wise man speaks of Riches Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings and fly as an Eagle towards heaven He expresses it in such a manner as if a rich man sate brooding over an Estate till it was fledg'd and had gotten it self wings to fly away But that which is the most stinging consideration of all is that many men have an evil eye upon a good Estate so that instead of being the means of our happiness it may prove the occasion of our ruin So the same Wise man observes There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt And it is not without example that a very rich man hath been excepted out of a general Pardon both as to Life and Estate for no other visible reason but his vast and over-grown Fortune So Solomon observes to us again Such are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain which taketh away the life of the owners thereof And why should any man be proud of his danger of that which one time or other may be the certain and only cause of his ruin A man may be too rich to be forgiven a fault which would never have been prosecuted against a man of a middle Fortune For these reasons and a great many more Let not the rich man glory in his riches II. I proceed to consider What it is that is matter of true glory But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. That he understandeth and knoweth me Here are two words used to express the thing more fully understanding and knowledge which seem not only to import right apprehensions of the Being and Providence and Perfections of God but likewise a lively sense of these things and affections suitable to these apprehensions That he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord that is the Creator and the Sovereign Governor of the World Which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth The best Knowledge of Religion and that which is the foundation of all the rest is the Knowledge of the Divine Nature and Perfections especially of those which are most proper for our imitation and such are those mentioned in the Text loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness which we may distinguish thus Loving-kindness comprehends God's milder Attributes his Goodness and Mercy and Patience Judgment signifies his severer dealings with men whether in the chastisement of his People or in the remarkable Punishment of great Offenders for example and warning to others Righteousness seems to be a word of a larger signification and to denote that universal Rectitude of the Divine Nature which appears in all the Administrations of his Providence here below for the Text speaks of the Exercise of these Perfections in this World which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth Several of the Perfections of the Divine Nature are incommunicable to a Creature and therefore cannot be thought to be proposed to us for a Pattern as self-existence independence and all-sufficiency the eternity and the immensity of the Divine Being to be the original Cause of all other things and the Sovereign Governour of the whole World For God only is sufficient for that and to be a Match for all the World a nec pluribus impar is not a Motto fit for a mortal man A Creature may swell with pride till it burst before it can stretch it self to this pitch of Power and Greatness It is an insufferable Presumption and a sottish Ignorance of the necessary Bounds and Limits of our Being to think to resemble God in these Perfections This was the Ambition of Lucifer to ascend into Heaven and to be like the most High In our imitation of God we must still keep within the station of Creatures not affecting an independency and sovereignty like God and to be omnipotent as he is Hast thou an arm like God and canst thou thunder with a voice like Him as God himself argues with Job For in these things I delight saith the Lord. God takes pleasure to exercise these Perfections himself and to see them imitated by us and the imitation of these Divine Perfections is our perfection and glory in comparison of which all humane wisdom and power and riches are so far from being matter of glory that they are very despicable and pitiful things Knowledge and Skill to devise mischief and power to effect it are the true Nature and Character of the Devil and his Angels those Apostate and accursed Spirits who in temper and disposition are most contrary to God who is the Rule and Pattern of all perfection I shall only make two Observations or Inferences from what hath been said and then apply the whole Discourse to the great Occasion of this Day And they are these First That the wisest and surest Reasonings in Religion are grounded upon the unquestionable Perfections of the Divine Nature Secondly That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness First That the wisest and surest Reasonings in Religion are grounded upon the unquestionable Perfections of the Divine Nature Upon those more especially which to us are most easie and intelligible such as are those mentioned in the Text. And this makes the Knowledge of God and of these Perfections to be so useful and so valuable Because all Religion is founded in right Notions of God and of his Perfections Insomuch that Divine Revelation it self does suppose these for its foundation and can signify nothing to us unless these be first known and believed For unless we be first firmly persuaded of the Providence of God and of his particular care of Mankind why should we suppose that he makes any Revelation of his Will to us Unless it be first naturally known that God is a God of Truth what ground is there for the belief of his Word So that the Principles of Natural Religion are
SERMONS PREACH'D UPON Several Occasions By JOHN Lord Archbishop of Canterbury The Fourth Volume LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill and W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV His Grace John Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Texts of each Sermon SERMON I. MAtth. XXV 1 2 c. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bride-groom And five of them were wise and five were foolish c. Page 3. SERMON II. Ezra IX 13 14. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the people of these Abominations wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping 43 SERMON III. Matth. V. 44 But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you Page 83 SERMON IV. Luke X. 42 But one thing is needful 123 SERMON V. Matth. 25.46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal 153 SERMON VI. Ecclesiastes IX 11 I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all 185 SERMON VII Jeremiah VI. 8 Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a land not inhabited Page 221 SERMON VIII Acts XXIV 16 And herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men 259 SERMON IX Zech. VII 5 Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years DID YE AT ALL FAST UNTO ME EVEN UNTO ME 297 SERMON X. Psalm LXXIII 25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 339 SERMON XI Jer. IX 23 24. Thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. 379 SERMON XII Tit. III. 2 To speak evil of no man 419 The Parable of the ten Virgins IN A SERMON Preached before Her ROYAL HIGHNESS THE Princess ANN of Denmark AT Tunbridge-Wells September 2 d. 1688. The Parable of the ten Virgins MATTH XXV 1 2. c. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom And five of them were wise and five were foolish c. MY design at present is to explain this Parable and to make such Observations upon it as seem most naturally and without squeezing the Parable to spring from it And then to make some Application of it to our selves Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the state and condition of things under the Gospel By the ten Virgins those who embraced the Profession of it which is here represented by their taking their Lamps and going forth to meet the Bridegroom in allusion to the ancient Custom of Marriages in which the Bridegroom was wont to lead home his Bride in the Night by the light of Lamps or Torches But this Profession was not in all equally firm and fruitful and therefore those who persever'd and continued stedfast in this Profession notwithstanding all the temptations and allurements of the World and all the fierce storms and assaults of persecution to which this Profession was exposed and being thus firmly rooted in it did bring forth the fruits of the Spirit and abound in the Graces and Virtues of a good life These are the wise Virgins But those who either deserted this Profession or did not bring forth fruits answerable to it are the foolish Virgins And that this is the true difference between them will appear if we consider how the Parable represents them vers 3 4. They that were foolish took their Lamps and took no Oyl with them But the wise took Oyl in their Vessels with their Lamps So that they both took their Lamps and both lighted them and therefore must both be suppos'd to have some oyl in their Lamps at first as appears from verse 8. where the foolish Virgins said unto the wise give us of your oyl for our Lamps are gone out They had it seems some Oyl in their Lamps at first which kept them lighted for a little while but had taken no care for a future supply And therefore the difference between the wise and foolish Virgins did not as some have imagin'd consist in this that the wise Virgins had Oyl but the foolish had none but in this that the foolish had taken no care for a further supply after the Oyl which was at first put into their Lamps was spent as the wise had done who besides the Oyl that was in their Lamps carried likewise a Reserve in some other Vessel for a continual supply of the Lamp as there should be occasion the wise took Oyl in their Vessels with their Lamps Now the meaning of all this is That they who are represented by the wise Virgins had not only embraced the Profession of the Christian Religion as the foolish Virgins also had done for they both had their Lamps lighted but they likewise persever'd in that Profession and brought forth fruits answerable to it For by Oyl in their Lamps and the first lighting of them which was common to them both is meant that solemn Profession of Faith and Repentance which all Christians make in Baptism By that farther supply of Oyl which the wise Virgins only took care to provide is signified our constancy and perseverance in this Profession together with the fruits of the Spirit and the improvement of the Grace received in Baptism by the practice and exercise of all the Graces and Virtues of a good life whereby men are fitted and prepar'd for Death and Judgment which are here represented to us by the coming of the Bridegroom This being plainly the main scope and intention of the Parable I shall explain the rest of it as there shall be occasion under the several Observations which I shall raise from the several parts of it And they shall be these
and that men who are resolv'd to continue in an evil course are glad to be of a Church which will assure Salvation to men upon such terms The great difficulty is for men to believe that things which are so apparently absurd and unreasonable can be true and to persuade themselves that they can impose upon God by such pretences of service and obedience as no wise Prince or Father upon earth is to be deluded withal by his Subjects or Children We ought to have worthier thoughts of God and to consider that He is a great King and will be obey'd and observ'd by his creatures in his own way and make them happy upon his own terms and that obedience to what he commands is better and more acceptable to him than any other sacrifice that we can offer which he hath not required at our hands and likewise that he is infinitely wise and good and therefore that the Laws which he hath given us to live by are much more likely and certain means of our happiness than any inventions and devices of our own Thirdly I observe that even the better and more considerate sort of Christians are not so careful and watchful as they ought to prepare themselves for Death and Judgment whilst the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept Even the Disciples of our Saviour whilst he was yet personally present with them and after a particular charge given them from his own mouth Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation yet did not keep that guard upon themselves as to watch with him for one hour In many things says St. James we offend all even the best of us And who is there that doth not some time or other remit of his vigilancy and care so as to give the Devil an advantage and to lye open to temptation for want of a continual guard upon himself But then the difference between the wise and foolish Virgins was this that tho they both slept yet the wise did not let their Lamps go out they neither quitted their Profession nor did they extinguish it by a bad life and tho when the Bridegroom came suddenly upon them they were not so actually prepar'd to meet him by a continual vigilancy yet they were habitually prepar'd by the good disposition of their minds and the general course of a holy life Their Lamps might burn dim for want of continual trimming but they had Oyl in their Vessels to supply their Lamps which the foolish Virgins had taken no care to provide But surely the greatest wisdom of all is to maintain a continual watchfulness that so we may not be surpriz'd by the coming of the Bridegroom and be in a confusion when Death or Judgment shall overtake us And blessed are those Servants and wise indeed whose Lamps always burn bright and whom the Bridegroom when he comes shall find watching and in a fit posture and preparation to meet Him Fourthly I observe likewise how little is to be done by us to any good purpose in this great work of Preparation when it is deferr'd and put off to the last And thus the foolish Virgins did but what a sad confusion and hurry they were in at the sudden coming of the Bridegroom when they were not only asleep but when after they were awaken'd they found themselves altogether unprovided of that which was necessary to trim their Lamps and to put them in a posture to meet the Bridegroom When they wanted that which was necessary at that very instant but could not be provided in an instant I say what a tumult and confusion they were in being thus surpriz'd the Parable represents to us at large vers 6 7 8 9. and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps that is they went about it as well as they could and the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out At midnight there was a cry made that is at the most dismal and unseasonable time of all other when they were fast asleep and suddenly awaken'd in great terror when they could not on the sudden recollect themselves and consider what to do when the summons was so very short that they had neither time to consider what was fit to be done nor time to do it in And such is the Case of those who put off their Repentance and Preparation for another World till they are surpriz'd by Death or Judgment for it comes all to one in the issue which of them it be The Parable indeed seems more particularly to point at our Lord 's coming to Judgment but the case is much the same as to those who are surpriz'd by sudden Death such as gives them but little or not sufficient time for so great a work because such as Death leaves them Judgment will certainly find them And what a miserable confusion must they needs be in who are thus surpriz'd either by the one or the other How unfit should we be if the general Judgment of the World should come upon us on the sudden to meet that great Judge at his coming if we have made no preparation for it before that time What shall we then be able to do in that great and universal consternation when the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory when the Sun shall be darken'd and the Moon turned into blood and all the powers of Heaven shall be shaken when all Nature shall feel such violent pangs and convulsions and the whole World shall be in a combustion flaming and cracking about our ears When the Heavens shall be shrivel'd up as a Scroll when it is roll'd together and the Earth shall be toss'd from its Center and every Mountain and Island shall be removed What thoughts can the wisest men then have about them in the midst of so much noise and terror Or if they could have any what time will there then be to put them in execution when they shall see the Angel that standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifting up his hand to Heaven and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever that Time shall be no longer as this dreadful Day is described Rev. 10.5 6. and chap. 6.15 where Sinners are represented at the Appearance of this Great Judge not as flying to God in hopes of mercy but as flying from Him in utter despair of finding mercy with Him The Kings of the Earth and the Great Men and the Mighty Men and the Rich Men and the Great Captains hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Earth and said to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb For the Great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The biggest and the boldest Sinners
Blessed Saviour who knew what was in man better than any man that ever was knowing our great reluctancy and backwardness to the practice of this Duty hath urged it upon us by such forcible and almost violent Arguments that if we have any tenderness for our selves we cannot refuse Obedience to it For he plainly tells us That no Sacrifice that we can offer will appease God towards us so long as we our selves are implacable to Men Verse 23 d. of this Chapter If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first go and be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift To recommend this Duty effectually to us He gives it a preference to all the positive Duties of Religion First go and be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Till this Duty be discharged God will accept of no Service no Sacrifice at our hands And therefore our Liturgy doth with great reason declare it to be a necessary Qualification for our Worthy Receiving of the Sacrament that we be in Love and Charity with our Neighbours because this is a Moral Duty and of eternal Obligation without which no positive part of Religion such as the Sacraments are can be acceptable to GOD especially since in this Blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood we expect to have the Forgiveness of our Sins ratified and confirmed to us Which how can we hope for from GOD if we our selves be not ready to forgive one another He shall have judgment without mercy says St. James who hath shewed no mercy And in that excellent Form of Prayer which our Lord himself hath given us He hath taught us so to ask Forgiveness of God as not to expect it from Him if we do not forgive one another So that if we do not practice this Duty as hard as we think it is every time that we put up this Petition to God Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us we send up a terrible Imprecation against our selves and do in effect beg of God not to forgive us And therefore to imprint this matter the deeper upon our minds our Blessed Saviour immediately after the recital of this Prayer hath thought fit to add a very remarkable enforcement of this Petition above all the rest For if says He ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses And our Saviour hath likewise in his Gospel represented to us both the reasonableness of this Duty and the Danger of doing contrary to it in a very lively and affecting Parable deliver'd by him to this purpose Concerning a wicked Servant who when his Lord had but just before forgiven him a vast Debt of ten thousand Talents took his poor Fellow-servant by the throat and notwithstanding his humble Submission and earnest Intreaties to be favourable to him haled him to Prison for a trifling Debt of an hundred Pence And the Application which he makes of this Parable at the end of it is very terrible and such as ought never to go out of our minds So likewise says He shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye do not from your hearts forgive every one his brother his trespasses One might be apt to think at first view that this Parable was over done and wanted something of a due Decorum it being hardly credible that a man after he had been so mercifully and generously dealt withal as upon his humble Request to have so huge a Debt so freely forgiven should whilst the memory of so much Mercy was fresh upon him even the very next moment handle his Fellow Servant who had made the same humble submission and request to him which he had done to his Lord with so much roughness and cruelty for so inconsiderable a Sum. This I say would hardly seem credible did we not see in experience how very unreasonable and unmerciful some men are and with what confidence they can ask and expect great mercy from God when they will shew none to Men. The greatness of the Injuries which are done to us is the reason commonly pleaded by us why we cannot forgive them But whoever thou art that makest this an Argument why thou canst not forgive thy Brother lay thine hand upon thy heart and bethink thy self how many more and much greater Offences thou hast been guilty of against God Look up to that Just and Powerful Being that is above and consider well Whether thou dost not both expect and stand in need of more Mercy and Favour from Him than thou canst find in thy heart to shew to thine offending Brother We have all certainly great reason to expect that as we use one another God will likewise deal with us And yet after all this how little is this Duty practis'd among Christians And how hardly are the best of us brought to love our Enemies and to forgive them And this notwithstanding that all our hopes of Mercy and Forgiveness from God do depend upon it How strangely inconsistent is our practice and our hope And what a wide distance is there between our expectations from GOD and our dealings with Men How very partial and unequal are we to hope so easily to be forgiven and yet to be so hard to forgive Would we have GOD for Christ's sake to forgive us those numberless and monstrous provocations which we have been guilty of against His Divine Majesty And shall we not for His sake for whose sake we our selves are forgiven be willing to forgive one another We think it hard to be oblig'd to forgive great Injuries and often repeated and yet Woe be to us all and most miserable shall we be to all Eternity if GOD do not all this to us which we think to be so very hard and unreasonable for us to do to one another I have sometimes wonder'd how it should come to pass that so many persons should be so apt to despair of the Mercy and Forgiveness of GOD to them especially considering what clear and express Declarations GOD hath made of his readiness to forgive our greatest Sins and Provocations upon our sincere Repentance But the wonder will be very much abated when we shall consider with how much difficulty men are brought to remit great Injuries and how hardly we are perswaded to refrain from flying upon those who have given us any considerable provocation So that when men look into themselves and shall carefully observe the motions of their own minds towards those against whom they have been justly exasperated they will see but too much reason to think that Forgiveness is no such easy matter But our comfort in this case is That GOD is not as Man that his ways are not as our ways nor his thoughts
and learned a man as Origen was should be positive in an Opinion for which there can be no certain ground in Reason especially for the punctual and precise term of a thousand years and for which there is no ground at all that I know of from Divine Revelation But upon the whole matter however it be be it for a thousand years or be it for a longer and unknown term or be it for ever which is plainly threatned in the Gospel I say however it be this is certain that it is infinitely wiser to take care to avoid it than to dispute it and to run the final hazard of it Put it which way we will especially if we put it at the worst as in all prudence we ought to do it is by all possible means to be provided against So terrible so intolerable is the thought yea the very least suspicion of being miserable for ever And now give me leave to ask You as St. Paul did King Agrippa Do you believe the Scrâ—ptures And I hope I may answer for you my self as he did for Agrippa I know you do believe them And in them these things are clearly revealed and are part of that Creed of which we make a solemn profession every day And yet when we consider how most men live is it credible that they do firmly believe this plain Declaration of our Saviour and our Judge That the wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life eternal Or if they do in some sort believe it is it credible that they do at all consider it seriously and lay it to heart So that if we have a mind to reconcile our belief with our Actions we must either alter our Bible and our Creed or we must change our Lives Let us then consider and shew our selves men And if we do so can any man to please himself for a little while be contented to be punish'd for ever and for the shadow of a short and imperfect happiness in this life be willing to run the hazard of being really and eternally miserable in the next World Surely this consideration alone of the extreme and endless misery of impenitent Sinners in another World if it were but well wrought into our minds would be sufficient to kill all the temptations of this World and to lay them dead at our feet and to make us deaf to all the Enchantments of Sin and Vice Because they bid us so infinitely to our loss when they offer us the enjoyment of a short Pleasure upon so very hard and unequal a condition as that of being miserable for ever The eternal Rewards and Punishments of another Life which are the great Sanction and Security of God's Laws one would think should be a sufficient weight to cast the Scales against any Pleasure or any Pain that this World can tempt or can threaten us withal And yet after all this will we still go on to do wickedly when we know the terrors of the Lord and that we must one day answer all our bold violations of his Law and contempts of his Authority with the loss of our immortal Souls and by suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire What is it then that can give men the Heart and Courage but I recall that Word because it is not true Courage but fool hardiness thus to out brave the Judgment of God and to set at nought the horrible and amazing consideration of a miserable Eternity How is it possible that men that are awake and in their wits should have any ease in their minds or enjoy so much as one quiet hour whilst so great a danger hangs over their heads and they have taken no tolerable care to prevent it If we have any true and just sense of this danger we cannot fail to shew that we have it by making haste to escape it and by taking that care of our Souls which is due to immortal Spirits that are made to be Happy or Miserable to all Eternity Let us not therefore estimate and measure things as they appear now to our sensual and deluded and deprav'd Judgments but let us open our eyes and look to the last issue and consequence of them Let us often think of these things and consider well with our selves what apprehensions will then probably fill and possess our minds when we shall stand trembling before our Judge in a fearful expectation of that terrible Sentence which is just ready to be pronounced and as soon as ever it is pronounc'd to be executed upon us When we shall have a full and clear sight of the unspeakable Happiness and of the horrible and astonishing Miseries of another World When there shall be no longer any Veil of Flesh and Sense to interpose between them and us and to hide these things from our eyes And in a word when Heaven with all the Glories of it shall be open to our view and as the expression is in Job Hell shall be naked before us and Destruction shall have no covering How shall we then be confounded to find the truth and reality of those things which we will not now be persuaded to believe And how shall we then wish that we had believed the terrors of the Lord and instead of quarrelling with the Principles of Religion and calling them into question we had lived under the constant sense and awe of them Blessed be God that there is yet hope concerning us and that we may yet flee from the wrath to come and that the Miseries of Eternity may yet be prevented in Time And that for this very end and purpose our most Gracious and Merciful God hath so clearly revealed these things to us not with a desire to bring them upon us but that we being warned by his Threatnings might not bring them upon our selves I will conclude all with the Counsel of the Wise Man Seek not Death in the error of your Life and pull not upon your selves destruction with the works of your own hands For God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the Living But ungodly men with their works and words have called it down upon themselves Which that none of us may do God of his infinite Goodness grant for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Dominion and Power Thanksgiving and Praise both now and for ever Amen Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes A FAST-SERMON Preached before the House of COMMONS ON Wednesday April the 16th 1690. Jovis 17. die April 1690. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls for the Sermon Preached before this House Yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same And that Sir Edmund Jenings do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cler. Dom. Com. Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes Ecclesiastes IX 11 I
gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and deliver thee I am weary of repenting By our obstinate impenitency we harden the heart of God against us and make him weary of repenting And when his soul is thus departed from a People nothing remains but a fearful expectation of ruin Wo unto them saith God by the Prophet when I depart from them Therefore be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited Having given this account of the Words I shall observe from them three things well worth our consideration First The infinite goodness and patience of God towards a sinful People and his great unwillingness to bring ruin and destruction upon them lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited How loth is He that things should come to this extremity He is not without great difficulty and some kind of violence as it were offered to himself brought to this severe resolution his soul is as it were rent and disjointed from them Secondly You see here what is the only proper and effectual means to prevent the misery and ruin of a sinful People If they will be instructed and take warning by the threatnings of God and will become wiser and better then his soul will not depart from them he will not bring upon them the desolation which he hath threatned Thirdly You have here intimated the miserable case and condition of a People when God takes off his affection from them and gives over all further care and concernment for them Wo unto them when his soul departs from them For when God once leaves them then all sorts of evils and calamities will break in upon them I shall speak as briefly as I can to these three Observations from the Text. First I observe the infinite patience and goodness of God towards a sinful People and his great unwillingness to bring ruin and destruction upon them lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited How loth is God that things should come to this He is very patient to particular persons notwithstanding their great and innumerable provocations God is strong and patient though men provoke him every day And much greater is his patience to whole Nations and great Communities of men How great was it to the old World when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah for the space of an hundred and twenty years And did not expire till he saw that the wickedness of man was grown great upon the earth and that all flesh had corrupted its way not till it was necessary to drown the World to cleanse it and to destroy Mankind to reform it by beginning a new World upon the only righteous Family that was left of all the last generation of the Old For so God testifies concerning Noah when he commanded him to enter into the Ark saying Come thou and all thy house into the Ark for thee that is thee only have I seen righteous before me in this Generation The patience of God was great likewise to Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them For when the cry of their sins had reached heaven and called loud for vengeance to be poured down upon them to express the wonderful patience of God towards such grievous Sinners though nothing is hid from his sight and knowledge yet he is represented as coming down from Heaven to Earth on purpose to enquire into the truth of things and whether they were altogether according to the cry that was come up to him And when he found things as bad as was possible yet then was he willing to have come almost to the lowest terms imaginable that if there had been but ten righteous persons in those wicked Cities he would not have destroy'd them for the ten 's sake Nay he seems to come to lower terms yet with the City of Jerusalem Jer. 5.1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if ye can find a man if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth and I will pardon it What can be imagin'd more slow and mild and merciful than the proceedings of the Divine justice against a sinful People God is represented in Scripture as taking a long time to make ready his bow and to whet his glittering sword before his hand takes hold of vengeance as if the instruments of his wrath lay by him blunt and rusty and unready for use Many a time he threatens and many a time lifts up his hand before he gives the fatal blow And how glad is he when any good man will step in and interpose to stay his hand As we read Psal 106.23 Therefore he said speaking of the People of Israel that he would destroy them had not Moses his servant stood in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them And how kindly doth God take it of Phinehas as a most acceptable piece of service done to him and which he hardly knew how sufficiently to reward that he was a means of putting a stop to his anger against the People of Israel Insomuch that the Psalmist tells us that it was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations for evermore I will recite the whole passage at large because it is remarkable When the People of Israel were seduced into Idolatry and Whoredom by the Daughters of Moab Phinehas in great zeal stood up and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi in the very act By which means the Plague which was broken out upon the Congregation of Israel was presently stayed Hear what God says to Moses concerning this act of Phinehas The Lord spake unto Moses saying Phinehas the son of Eleazer the son of Aaron the Priest hath turned away my wrath from the Children of Israel whilst he was zealous for my sake that I consumed them not Wherefore say Behold I give unto him my Covenant of peace and he shall have it and his seed after him even the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the Children of Israel That which God takes so kindly at his hands next to his zeal for Him is that he pacified God's wrath towards the Children of Israel And thus did God from time to time deal with the People of Israel that great Example of the Old Testament of the merciful methods of the Divine Providence towards a sinful Nation And an Example as St. Paul tells us purposely recorded for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come Let us therefore consider a little the astonishing patience of God towards that perverse People After all the signs and wonders which he had wrought in their deliverance out of Egypt and for their support in the Wilderness and notwithstanding
their gross and stupid infidelity and horrible ingratitude to God their Saviour and all their rebellious murmurings and discontents yet he suffer'd their manners for the space of forty years And when they were at last peaceably settled in the promised Land notwithstanding their frequent relapses into Idolatry with what patience did God expect their repentance and the result of all the merciful messages and warnings given them from time to time by his Prophets as one that earnestly desir'd it and even long'd for it O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee that is how long wilt thou delude thy self with vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God by any other way than by repentance And again O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be And chap. 8. ver 6. says God there I hearkened and I heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done Where God is represented after the manner of men waiting with great patience as one that would have been glad to have heard any penitent word drop from them to have seen any sign of their repentance and return to a better mind And when they made some shews of repentance and had some fits of good resolution that did presently vanish and come to nothing how passionately does God complain of their fickleness and inconstancy O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee for your goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away And at last when nothing would do with what difficulty and reluctancy does God deliver them up into the hands of their Enemies How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Judah How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me and my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not destroy Ephraim What a conflict is here what tenderness and yerning of his bowels towards them He cannot find in his heart to give them up till he is forced to it by the last necessity And when the Nation of the Jews after their return from the Captivity of Babylon had in the course of several Ages greatly corrupted themselves and fill'd up the measure of their sins by crucifying the Lord of Life and Glory yet how slow was the patience of God in bringing that fatal and final Destruction upon them Not till after the most merciful warnings given to them by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour not till after the most obstinate impenitency of forty years under the most powerful means of repentance that any People in the World ever enjoyed I proceed to the Second Observation from the Text namely What is the only proper and effectual means to prevent the ruin of a sinful People And that is if they will be instructed and take warning by the threatnings of God to become wiser and better then his soul will not depart from them and he will not bring upon them the desolation threatned Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited intimating or rather plainly declaring to us that if we will receive instruction and take warning the evil threaten'd shall not come For what other reason can there be why God should threaten so long before he strikes and so earnestly press men to repentance but that he might have the opportunity to spare them and to shew mercy to them And indeed as I observ'd before all the denunciations and threatnings of God to a sinful Nation do carry this tacit condition in them that if that Nation turn from their evil ways God will repent of the evil which he thought to do unto them For God never passeth so irrevocable a Sentence upon a Nation as to exclude the case of repentance Nay on the contrary He gives all imaginable encouragement to it and is always ready to meet it with a pardon in his hand How often would I have gathered thee says our merciful Lord when he wept over Jerusalem as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not therefore your House is left unto you desolate God is very merciful to particular persons upon their repentance When the Prodigal Son in the Parable after all his riot and lewdness came to himself and resolv'd to return home his Father seeing him yet afar off coming towards him came out to meet him and had compassion on him and kissed him And can any of us be so obstinate and hard-hearted as not presently to resolve to repent and return and to meet the compassions of such a Father Who after we have offended him to the uttermost is upon the first discovery of our repentance ready to be as kind to us as he could possibly have been if we had never offended him And much more is God ready to receive a Nation upon their sincere Repentance when his Judgments must needs make great havock and so many are like to suffer under them This consideration God urgeth and pleads with his froward Prophet in behalf of the great City of Niniveh And shall not I spare that great City of Niniveh wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons who cannot discern their right hand from their left that is so many innocent children by which we may judge of the vast number of the rest of the Inhabitants For this is a great consideration with God in his sending of publick Calamities the multitude of the Sufferers and that not only the guilty but the innocent also without a special and miraculous Providence must be involved in a common Calamity Sometimes God respites his Judgments upon the mere external humiliation of a People and some formal testimonies and expressions of their repentance When the People of Israel sought God and enquired early after him though they did but flatter him with their mouth and their heart was not right with him yet the Psalmist tells us that being full of compassion he forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not that is he forgave them so far as to respite their ruin And much more will a sincere and effectual Repentance stay God's hand and infallibly turn him from the fierceness of his anger Insomuch that after he had fix'd and determin'd the very Day for the destruction of Niniveh and had engaged the credit of his Prophet in it yet as soon as he saw their works and that they turned from their evil ways and how glad was he to see it he presently repented of the evil which he had said he would do unto them and he did it not In this case God does not stand upon the reputation of his Prophet by whom he had sent so peremptory a message to them but his mercy
breaks through all considerations and rejoiceth against judgment For he cannot find in his heart to ruin those who by the terror of his judgments will be brought to repentance And this surely is a mighty motive and encouragement to repentance to be assur'd that we shall find mercy and that when our ruin is even decreed and all the instruments of Godâ—s wrath are fix'd and ready for execution and his hand is just taking hold of vengeance yet even then a sincere repentance will mitigate his hottest displeasure and turn away his wrath And if we will not come in upon these terms we extort the judgments of God from him and force him to depart from us and with violent hands we pull down vengeance upon our own heads Thirdly and lastly the Text intimates to us the miserable case and condition of a People when God takes off his heart and affection from them when he gives over all further care and concernment for them and abandons them to their own wickedness and folly and to the miserable effects and consequences thereof Wo unto them when his soul departs from them For then all sorts of evils and calamities will rush in and wrath will come upon them to the uttermost as was threaten'd to the Jews a little before their final destruction and executed upon them in the most terrible and amazing manner that ever was from the foundation of the World These as our Blessed Saviour expresses it were days of vengeance indeed that all things which were written that is foretold by Moses and the Prophets concerning the fearful end of this perverse and stiff-neck'd People might be fulfilled And because my Text speaks to Jerusalem Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited though this was spoken to Jerusalem before her Captivity into Babylon yet because this first Captivity was but a faint Type of her last and final Desolation by the Romans when God's Soul was indeed departed from Her and Judea was left desolate a Land not inhabited I shall therefore briefly represent to you the full effect of this Threatning in her last final Destruction when God's Soul was as it were perfectly loosen'd and disjointed from Her That you may see what the fierceness and power of God's Anger is when he departs from them and wrath comes upon them to the uttermost because they would not be instructed and know the time of their visitation Thus it was with the Jews about forty years after the Passion of our Lord whom with wicked hands they had crucified and slain Then was God's soul departed from them Then darkness and desolation came upon them and they were in a far worse condition than a Countrey would be that is forsaken of the Sun and left condemn'd to a perpetual night in which darkness and disorder faction and fury do reign and rage together with all the fatal consequences of zeal and strife which St. James tells us are confusion and every evil work For when God is once gone all the good and happiness of Mankind departs together with Him Then men fall foul upon one another divide into Parties and Factions and execute the vengeance of God upon themselves with their own hands Thus it happen'd to the Jewish Nation when the measure of their iniquity was full and their final ruin was approaching And that we might know their Fate and be instructed by it God provided and preserv'd a faithful Historian on purpose who was an Eye witness of all that befel them I mean Josephus who was personally engaged and was a considerable Commander in the Wars of the Jews with the Romans before the Siege of Jerusalem And during the Siege was present in the Roman Camp and being a Jew himself hath transmitted these things to posterity in a most exact and admirable History such a History as no man that hath the heart and bowels of a man can read without the greatest pity and astonishment In the Preface of that lamentable History he tells us that all the misfortunes and calamities which the World from the beginning of it had seen compar'd with this last Calamity of the Jewish Nation were but slight and inconsiderable He tells us likewise that their Civil dissentions were the next and immediate cause of their confusion and ruin And this more than once For when Pompey about sixty years before our Saviour's birth sate down before Jerusalem he tells us that the Factions and divisions which they had among themselves were the cause of the taking the City and Temple at that time And when they rebelled afterwards that the Heads of their Factions provok'd the Romans and brought them unwillingly upon them and at last forced the best natur'd Prince in the World Titus Vespasian to that severity which he most earnestly desired by all means to have prevented And he further tells us that even before the Siege of Jerusalem the Cities of Judea had all of them civil discords among themselves and that in every City one part of the Jews fought against another And when Jerusalem began to be besieged What a miserable condition was it in by the cruelty of the Zealots under the command of John the Son of Giorah And presently after another Faction arose under Simon who enter'd into the City with a fresh Force and assaulted the Zealots in the Temple so that most miserable havock was made between them And then a third Faction started up under Eleazer as bad as either of the other So that infinite almost were the numbers of the People within the City that were barbarously slain by these Seditions And what an infatuation was this when the Enemy was at the Gates and ready to break in upon them to employ their whole strength and force against one another When the same courage and fury which they spent so freely upon themselves had it been turn'd with the like desperateness and obstinacy upon the Romans might have endanger'd the whole force of the Roman Empire Once or twice indeed they seem'd to lay aside their enmity for a little while and to unite in the common defence but as soon as the danger of a present assault was over they relaps'd into their former state of intestine enmity and dissention as if that had been their main business and the preservation of their City against the Romans only a work by the by and not much to be regarded And to add to all their other miseries they were so blinded by their own rage and madness that they wilfully brought upon themselves an extreme Famine For as the Historian tells us they themselves set on fire vast stores of corn and other necessaries sufficient to have serv'd them for many years and by this means the City was much sooner reduc'd even by a Famine of their own making and which could not have been brought upon them but by themselves This Famine besides all the other miseries and
will amend and do better for the future And we should endeavour also to fortifie these good Resolutions in the best manner we can by serious consideration and by solemn promises of better obedience and of a more conscientious Care of our Lives and all our Actions for the future And then with the greatest earnestness and importunity we should implore the Assistance of God's Grace and Holy Spirit to this purpose By this means the great End of a solemn Fast and Humiliation will be in some good Measure attain'd and not wholly defeated as for the most part it is by being hudled up and lost in a confused and general Repentance which commonly ends together with the publick Assembly without any real and permanent Effect upon particular Persons Perhaps a great part of the Congregation may have been in some degree sorry for their Sins but after all no man forsakes them nor is the better for his sorrow but leaves that behind him in the Church and carries home with him the same Affection for his Sins which he had before and a secret Resolution not to leave them Thus it was with the People of the Jews They had their solemn monthly Fasts in which they made a great shew of Humiliation hanging down their heads like a bulrush for a day and spreading sackcloth and ashes under them But there was no inward change of their minds no real Reformation of their Lives and assoon as ever the publick Solemnity was over they turned every one to his former evil Course So God complains of them I hearkned says He and I heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done but they turned every one to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel They spake not aright that is they did not take the right Method for an effectual Repentance They humbled themselves indeed before God and repented at random for the Sins of the Nation in general which they were all of them ready enough to acknowledge and to lay a heavy load of guilt upon the Community But all this while they never reflected upon themselves in particular they had no sense no conviction of their own personal faults and miscarriages without which there can be no true general Repentance No man repented of his wickedness saying what have I done And as they had no sense of their own particular Sins which they had been guilty of so they had no thought of leaving them but assoon as ever the publick Fasting and Humiliation was over they return'd to them again with the same eager and furious Appetite they turned every one to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel that is without any consideration or sense of danger Secondly We should likewise upon this Day heartily lament and bewail the Sins of others especially the great and crying Sins of the Nation committed by all Ranks and Orders of men amongst us and whereby the wrath and indignation of Almighty God hath been so justly incensed against us This hath been the temper and practice of good men in all Ages to be greatly troubled and afflicted for the Sins of others as well as for their own to mourn for them in secret as the Prophet Jeremy does for the obstinacy and impenitency of the Jews and for the terrible Judgments and Calamities which their Sins were ready to bring down upon them But if ye will not return says he to that obdurate People my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride or obstinacy and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's Flock is carried away captive And indeed almost the whole Prophecy of Jeremy and his Book of Lamentations are little else but a perpetual Humiliation and Mourning for the Sins of that People and for the Judgments of God which he saw already inflicted or foresaw to be coming upon them We reade likewise of Lot when he dwelt in Sodom how he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man saith St. Peter dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds Holy David also upon all occasions testifies his great trouble and grief for the Sins which he saw committed by others and was so affected with them that he trembled at the very thought of them Rivers of tears says he run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law And in the same Psalm Horrour hath taken hold of me because of the wicked which forsake thy Law And again I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy Word And how does Daniel humble himself before God and mourn and in the Name of all the People and of all Degrees and Orders of men among them take shame to himself and them for the great Sins which they had been guilty of We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day To our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee With what trouble and confusion does Ezra upon a solemn Day of Fasting and Humiliation acknowledge and bewail the Sins of the People O my God says he I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God For our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasses grown up unto the heavens Since the days of our Fathers we have been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our Kings and our Priests been delivered into the hands of the Kings of the Lands c. And thus also ought we the People of this sinful Land upon this solemn Day of Fasting and Humiliation to set our Sins in order before us with all their heinous Aggravations and in the bitterness of our souls to lament and bewail that general prevalence of Impiety and Vice which hath over-spread the Nation and diffused it self through all Ranks and Degrees of men Magistrates Ministers and People I shall speak something more particularly concerning each of these 1. The Sins of the Magistrates and those that are in Authority They that make Laws for others and are to see to the execution of them ought to be strict observers of them themselves For it must needs put a man not a little out of countenance to be severe upon those faults in others of which he knows himself to be notoriously guilty And yet how many are there whose place and duty it is to correct the vices and immoralities of others who are far from being examples of vertue themselves And therefore it is no wonder that there is so lame and unequal a distribution of justice in the Nation and that Magistrates are so cold and slack in the discountenancing of Vice and Impiety and in putting the good and wholesome Laws made against them
Flock what wilt thou say when he shall punish thee 3. The Sins of the People amongst whom there is almost an universal corruption and depravation of Manners insomuch that Impiety and Vice seem to have over-spread the face of the Nation so that we may take up that sad complaint of the Prophet concerning the People of Israel and apply it to our selves that we are a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity a seed of evil-doers that the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint and that from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in us but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores We may justly stand amaz'd to consider how the God of all patience is provok'd by us every day to think how long he hath born with us and suffered our manners our open Profaneness and Infidelity our great Immoralities and gross Hypocrisy our insolent contempt of Religion and our ill-favour'd counterfeiting of it for low and sordid ends And which is the most melancholy consideration of all the rest we seem to be degenerated to that degree that it is very much to be fear'd there is hardly integrity enough left amongst us to save us And then if we consider further our most uncharitable and unchristian Divisions to the endangering both of our Reformed Religion and of the Civil Rights and Liberties of the Nation Our incorrigibleness under the Judgments of God which we have seen abroad in the Earth and which have in a very severe and terrible manner been inflicted upon these Kingdoms that the Inhabitants thereof might learn righteousness Our insensibleness of the Hand of God so visible in his late Providences towards us and in the many merciful and wonderful Deliverances which from time to time He hath wrought for us And lastly if we reflect upon our horrible Ingratitude to God our Saviour and mighty Deliverer and to Them likewise whom He hath so signally honour'd in making them the happy Means and Instruments of our Deliverance And this not only express'd by a bold contempt of their Authority but by a most unnatural Conspiracy against Them with the greatest Enemies not only to the Peace of the Nation but likewise to the Reformed Religion therein profess'd and by Law established and to the interest of it all the World over So that we may say with Ezra And now O our God what shall we say unto thee after this And may not God likewise say to us as He did more than once to the Jews Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Thirdly We should likewise upon this Day earnestly deprecate God's displeasure and make our humble Supplications to Him that He would be graciously pleas'd to avert those terrible Judgments which hang over us and which we have just cause to fear may fall upon us and that He would be entreated by us at last to be appeas'd towards us and to turn from the fierceness of his Anger This we find the People of God were wont to do upon their Solemn days of Fasting and Prayer and this God expressly enjoyns Blow the Trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly gather the People sanctifie the Congregation assemble the Elders c. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach that the Heathen should rule over them Wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God And to this earnest deprecation of his Judgments God promiseth a gracious answer for so it immediately follows Then will the Lord be jealous for his Land and pity his People And thus likewise Daniel when he set his face to seek the Lord God by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes does in a most humble and earnest manner deprecate the displeasure of God towards his People and beg of Him to remove his Judgments and to turn away his Anger from them O Lord according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy City Jerusalem thy Holy Mountain Because for our sins and for the iniquity of our Fathers Jerusalem and thy People are become a reproach to all that are about us Now therefore O God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplication and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary which is desolate for the Lord's sake O my God incline thine ear and hear open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the City which is called by thy Name For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness but for thy great mercy O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do deferr not for thine own sake O my God for thy City and thy People are called by thy Name And thus also should We upon this Solemn Occasion cry mightily unto God and with the greatest importunity deprecate those terrible Judgments which we so righteously have deserv'd and to which the great and crying Sins of the whole Nation have so justly exposed us Humbly beseeching Him not for our Righteousness but for his great Mercy for his own Name 's sake and because we are his People and are called by his Name and because his Holy Truth and Religion are profess'd amongst us that He would be pleas'd to hear the Prayers of his Servants and their Supplications which they have made before him this Day for the Lord's sake Fourthly We should likewise upon this Day pour out our most earnest Supplications to Almighty God for the preservation of Their Majesties Sacred Persons and for the prosperity and establishment of Their Government and for the good Success of Their Arms and Forces by Sea and Land And more especially since His Majesty with so many Confederate Princes and States of Europe is engaged in so necessary an Undertaking for the Common good of Christendom and for the mutual preservation and recovery of Their respective Rights We should earnestly implore the favour and assistance of Almighty God in so just and glorious a Cause against the common Invader and Oppressor of the Rights and Liberties of Mankind And that of his infinite Goodness He would be graciously pleased to take the Person of our Sovereign Lord the King into the particular care and protection of his Providence That He would secure his precious Life from all secret Attempts and from open Violence That He would give his Angels charge over him and cover his Head in the day of Battel and crown it with Victory over his Enemies and restore Him to us again in safety And that He would likewise preserve and direct the Queen's Majesty in whose hands the Administration of the Government is at present so happily plac'd That He would give Her Wisdom and Resolution for such a Time as
indeed fain palliate this matter by telling us that by these direct and immediate Addresses to Angels and Saints to bestow Grace and eternal Life upon them they mean no more but only to pray to them that they would be pleased to intercede with God for these Blessings to be bestowed upon them by their Mediation But if they mean no mean why do they say more than they mean Why do they use such expressions as to the common sense and understanding of Mankind do signifie a great deal more than they say they mean such expressions as they themselves do acknowledge if they be understood according to the most obvious sence of the words would render them guilty of flat Idolatry Especially when they know that they are charged with Idolatry upon this account and since to clear themselves of it they will not alter their Prayers they justly lie under the suspicion of it And yet admitting what they say in this matter to be true and that by these expressions in their Prayers they intend no more but the solemn Invocation of Angels and Saints that they would intercede with God to bestow these Blessings upon them for the sake of their Merits and upon their Mediation Yet this surely is a great deal too much and cannot be done without a high entrenchment upon the Office of the only Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus But let them not deceive themselves God is not mocked The Lord our God is a jealous God and He will not give his Glory to another I have not yet instanced in the grossest part of their Superstition not to say downright Idolatry in this kind I mean in their extravagant Worship of the blessed Virgin and Mother of our Lord whom they blasphemously call the Queen of Heaven and whom by a new style unknown to the Scriptures and Primitive Antiquity they think to dignifie with the modish Title of our Lady as if that could be any addition of honour to Her whom the Angel declared to be blessed among Women Who if she know any thing of the follies of Her Worshippers here below with what disdain and indignation do we think She hears those infinite Prayers that are made to Her and that Sacrilegious Worship which is given Her in that Church and which makes both pages of their Religion and which for the frequency of it both in their publick and private Devotions is very much beyond what they give to God and Christ As if there were none in Heaven but She nor any thing upon Earth to be worshipped in comparison of Her Image Nay so far have they carried this extravagant Folly and how much farther they would have carried it had not the Reformation given a check to it God only knows So far I say have they proceeded in this Folly as in that famous Book of their Devotions called Our Lady's Psalter not only to apply to Her some part of this Psalm out of which I have taken my Text beginning it thus How good is God to Israel to them that worship his Blessed Mother But they have likewise profanely burlesqued I cannot afford it a better term this whole Book of Psalms applying to Her almost the highest things that are there said concerning God and our Blessed Saviour Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth and be ye horribly astonished to see the best and wisest Religion in the World transform'd into Superstition and Folly and to see the most learned Persons in that Communion set themselves in good earnest to justifie all these follies and absurdities by a grave and groundless pretence to Infallibility Thirdly and Lastly This shews us how necessary the favour of God is to every man's happiness And there is but one way to gain his friendship and favour by becoming holy and good as He is Then may we rejoice and glory in God as the Psalmist here does and say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee A wicked Man dreads God above all things in the World and he has great reason to do so For he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity When by sin we depart from God we forsake our own happiness Salvation is far from the wicked says David And again a little after the Text They that are far from thee shall perish but it is good for me to draw near to God Now by Holiness and Goodness we draw near to Him who alone can make us happy It is certainly the common interest of mankind there should be a God because we cannot possibly be happy without Him But then it is no man's interest to be wicked because thereby we make Him our Enemy in whose favour is life and upon whom all our hopes of happiness do depend To conclude If we would have God for our Happiness we must be sure to make Him our Friend and then we may promise to our selves all those advantages which the Friendship of so great and powerful a Patron can give us And there is but one way to establish a firm Friendship between God and us and that is by doing his Will and living in obedience to his Laws Ye are my friends saith our Blessed Lord if ye do whatsoever I command you This is the love of God saith St. John that we keep his commandments And to love God is the way to be made partakers of those glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love Him Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man Which God of his infinite Goodness grant we may all at last be made partakers of for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory dominion and power both now and for ever Amen A Thanksgiving-Sermon for the late Victory at Sea IN A SERMON Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL Octob. the 27 th 1692. A Thanksgiving-Sermon for the late Victory at Sea JER ix 23 24. Thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. THese words are a message from God sent by his Prophet to the People of the Jews who trusted in their own Wisdom and Might and Riches for their safety and preservation from that Destruction which in the former part of this Chapter God had threaten'd to bring upon them by the King of Babylon To take them off from this vain confidence is this Message sent to them Thus saith the Lord
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. In the handling of these Words I shall abstract from the particular Occasion of them and only consider the general Truth contained in them Which I shall do under these two Heads First What we are not to glory in Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches Secondly What it is that is matter of true glory But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righousness in the Earth I. What we are not to glory in The Text instanceth in three things which are the great Idols of mankind and in which they are very apt to pride themselves and to place their confidence namely Wisdom and Might and Riches I shall consider these severally and shew how little reason there is to glory in any of them 1. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom This may comprehend both humane Knowledge and likewise prudence in the management of affairs We will suppose both these to be intended here by the name of Wisdom Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom that is neither in the largeness and compass of his Knowledge and Understanding nor in his skill and dexterity in the contrivance and conduct of humane Affairs and that for these two reasons First Because the highest pitch of humane Knowledge and Wisdom is very imperfect Secondly Because when Knowledge and Wisdom are with much difficulty in any competent measure attained how easily are they lost First The highest pitch of humane knowledge and wisdom is very imperfect Our Ignorance doth vastly exceed our Knowledge at the best Wisdom in any tolerable degree is difficult to be attain'd but perfection in it utterly to be despair'd of Where is there to be found so strong and found a Head as hath no soft place so perfect so clear an understanding as hath no flaw no dark Water in it How hard a matter is it to be truly wise And yet there are so many pretenders to wisdom as would almost tempt a man to think that nothing is easier Men do frequently murmur and repine at the unequal distribution of other things as of health and strength of power and riches But if we will trust the judgment of most men concerning themselves nothing is more equally shar'd among mankind than a good degree of wisdom and understanding Many will grant others to be superiour to them in other gifts of Nature as in bodily strength and stature and in the gifts of Fortune as in riches and honour because the difference between one man and another in these qualities is many times so gross and palpable that no body hath the face to deny it But very few in comparison unless it be in mere complement and civility will yield others to be wiser than themselves and yet the difference in this also is for the most part very visible to every body but themselves So that true Wisdom is a thing very extraordinary Happy are they that have it And next to them not those many that think they have it but those few that are sensible of their own defects and imperfections and know that they have it not And among all the kinds of Wisdom none is more nice and difficult and meers with more frequent disappointments than that which men are most apt to pride themselves in I mean Political wisdom and prudence because it depends upon so many contingent Causes any one of which failing the best laid design breaks and falls in pieces It depends upon the uncertain wills and fickle humours the mistaken and mutable interests of men which are perpetually shifting from one point to another so that no body knows where to find them Besides an unaccountable mixture of that which the Heathen call'd Fortune but we Christians by its true name the Providence of God which does frequently interpose in humane Affairs and loves to confound the wisdom of the wise and to turn their counsels into foolishness Of this we have a most remarkable Example in Achitophel of whose wisdom the Scripture gives this extraordinary Testimony That the counsel which he counselled in those days was as if one had enquired at the Oracle of God Such was all the counsel of Achitophel both with David and with Absalom It seems he gave very good counsel also to Absalom and because he would not follow it was discontented to that degree as to lay violent hands upon himself And now who would pride himself in being so very wise as to be able to give the best counsel in the world and yet so very weak as to make away himself because he to whom it was given was not wise enough to take it The like miscarriages often happen in point of Military skill and prudence A great Prince or General is sometimes so very cautious and wary that nothing can provoke him to a Battel and then at another time and perhaps in another Element so rash and wilful that nothing can hinder him from fighting and being beaten As if the two Elements made the difference and caution were great wisdom at Land and confidence and presumption great prudence at Sea But the true reason of these things lies much deeper in the secret Providence of Almighty God who when he pleases can so govern and over-rule both the understandings and the wills of men as shall best serve his own wise purpose and design And as the highest pitch of humane Wisdom is very imperfect in it self so is it much more so in comparison with the Divine knowledge and wisdom Compar'd with this it is mere folly and less than the understanding and wisdom of a child to that of the wisest man The foolishness of God says St. Paul is wiser than men that is the least grain of Divine wisdom is infinitely beyond all the wisdom of men But in opposition to the wisdom of God the wisdom of men is less than nothing and vanity Let men design things never so prudently and make them never so sure even to the Popish and French degree of infallibility let them reckon upon it as a Blow that cannot fail Yet after all the counsel of the Lord that shall stand and he will do all his pleasure for there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. And now we may ask the Question which Job does Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding And we must answer it as he does It is not to be found in
more particularly for a most glorious Victory at Sea vouchsafed to Their Majesties Fleet in this last Summer's Expedition For several great Mercies and Deliverances For a wonderful Deliverance indeed from a sudden Invasion design'd upon us by the inveterate and implacable Enemies of our Peace and Religion which by the merciful Providence of God was happily and strangely prevented when it was just upon the point of execution Next for the preservation of our Gracious Sovereign from that horrid and most barbarous Attempt design'd upon his Sacred Person And from those great and manifold Dangers to which he was exposed in his late tedious Expedition And for His safe and most welcome Return to us And lastly For a most glorious Victory at Sea The greatest and the cheapest that ever the Sun saw from his first setting out to run his Course The Opportunity indeed of this Victory was through the rashness and confidence of our Enemies by the wise Providence of God put into our hands But the improvement of this Opportunity into so great and happy a Victory we owe under God to the matchless Conduct and Courage of the Brave Admiral and to the invincible Resolution and Valour of the Captains and Seamen This great Deliverance from the design'd Invasion and this glorious Victory God vouchsaf'd to us at Home whilst His Sacred Majesty was so freely hazarding his Royal Person abroad in the Publick Cause of the Rights and Liberties of almost all Europe And now what may God justly expect from us as a meet return for his Goodness to us What but that we should glorifie Him first by offering praise and thanksgiving and then by ordering our conversation aright that he may still delight to shew us his Salvation God might have stood aloof from us in the Day of our distress and have said to us as he once did to the People of Israel so often have I delivered you from the hands of your Enemies but ye have still provok'd me more and more Wherefore I will deliver you no more He might have said of us as he did of the same People I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be For they are a very froward generation children in whom is no faith Our resolutions and promises of better obedience are not to be trusted all our Repentance and Righteousness are but as the morning cloud and like the early dew which passeth away Nay methinks God seems now to say to us as he did of old to Jerusalem Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited We are here met together this Day to pay our Solemn acknowledgments to the God of our Salvation who hath shewed strength with his Arm and hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart Even to him that exerciseth loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth In Him will we glory as our sure Refuge and Defence as our Mighty Deliverer and the Rock of our Salvation And now I have only to entreat your patience a little longer whilst I apply what hath been discoursed upon this Text a little more closely to the Occasion of this Day I may be tedious but I will not be long And blessed be God for this happy Occasion The greatest England ever had and in the true consequences of it perhaps the greatest that Europe ever had of Praise and Thanksgiving You have heard two sorts of Persons described in the Text by very different Characters The One that glory in their Wisdom and Might and Riches The other that glory in this that they understand and know God to be the Lord which exerciseth loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And we have seen these two Characters exemplified or rather drawn to the Life in this present Age. We who live in this Western part of Christendom have seen a mighty Prince by the just permission of God raised up to be a Terrour and Scourge to all his Neighbours A Prince who had in perfection all the Advantages mentioned in the former part of the Text And who in the opinion of many who had been long dazzled with his Splendour and Greatness hath pass'd for many years for the most Politick and Powerful and Richest Monarch that hath appear'd in these parts of the World for many Ages Who hath govern'd his Affairs by the deepest and steddiest Counsels and the most refin'd Wisdom of this World A Prince mighty and powerful in his Preparations for War formidable for his vast and well disciplin'd Armies and for his great Naval Force And who had brought the Art of War almost to that perfection as to be able to Conquer and do his business without fighting A Mystery hardly known to former Ages and Generations And all this Skill and Strength united under one absolute Will not hamper'd or bound up by any restraints of Law or Conscience A Prince that commands the Estates of all his Subjects and of all his Conquests which hath furnish'd him with an almost inexhaustible Treasure and Revenue And One who if the World doth not greatly mistake him hath sufficiently gloried in all these Advantages and even beyond the rate of a mortal man But not knowing God to be the Lord which exercises loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth How hath the pride of all his Glory been stain'd by Tyranny and Oppression by Injustice and Cruelty by enlarging his Dominions without Right and by making War upon his Neighbours without Reason or even colour of Provocation And this in a more Barbarous manner than the most Barbarous Nations ever did carrying Fire and Desolation wheresoever he went and laying wast many and great Cities without necessity and without pity And now behold what a terrible Rebuke the Providence of God hath given to this mighty Monarch in the full Carrier of his Fortune and Fury The consideration whereof brings to my thoughts those Passages in the Prophet concerning old Babylon that standing and perpetual Type of the great Oppressors and Persecutors of God's true Church and Religion How is the Oppressor ceased the exactor of gold ceased He who smote the People in wrath with a continual stroke he who ruled the Nations in anger is himself persecuted and none hindreth The whole Earth is at rest and is quiet and breaks forth into singing The grave beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee even all the Captains of the Earth it hath raised up from their Thrones all the Kings of the Nations all they shall speak and say unto thee art thou also become weak as we are art thou also become like unto us how art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning How art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my