of Israel shall abide many dayes vvithout a King and vvithout a Prince vvithout a Sacrifice and vvithout an Image or Altar and vvithout an Ephod and vvithout Teraphim Now vvhen they shall have been for many years in such a state of helpless desolation shall have no King under vvhose shadow they their Laws and Rights might hope for shelter no Prince to guard them from the sad calamities of vvild confusion or usurping violence shall have no exercises of religion to allay and soften those calamities and give them comfort in the bearing of them no Altar to lay hold on for security against them or to stretch out their hands towards for deprecation of them no nor a God to put an end to this sad state nor any means of direction vvhat to do under it no Ephod to ask connsel at nor yet the pageantry the fallacy of these no Teraphim for Ephods nor Image for a God the same destruction having seized these and their worshippers the people and their Idols going into Captivity together and the only true God having forsaken them Now vvhen the Prophet had denounc'd this state of Woe which vvas to dwell vvith them so long as that their very expectations of deliverance should be dying having continued threescore years and ten a longer and more wearisome age of patience then life he then proceeds to so eeten all by telling them of a return and what things they shall doe in it and they are three First Seek the Lord their God apply themselves to his Worship and Odedience and cleave to him for so the word is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 19. 23. and Jeremy repeating this c. 30. 9. vvords it shall serve the Lord their God and David their King Which is the second thing they vvere to do As th◠Ecclesiastical state vvas to be setled so the secular too upon its just foundations Religion and Loyalty both running in their ancient current Thirdly They shall fear the Lord and his goodness not only tremble before him vvho is the Lord that did exert his power in their destruction but shall much more revere his goodness that did flow out in such plentiful miraculous expresses of delivetance Now these being not only prophecy vvhat in that juncture they vvould do nor only duties vvhat they were to do but also counsels and directions immediately from God vvhat they vvere best to do the only prudent and safe course according to the policies of heaven the direct view of these particulars in reference to that state of theirs is not an unconcerning prospect at this season which is the Anniversary of an equal return and therefore I shall lay them so before you and the reflection on them in our practice shall make the application 1. They shall seek the Lord their God is my first part and the Lord 's prime direction for the repairing of a broken Nation Neither indeed can any other course be taken for till we have found him while he does hide his face nothing but darkness dwells upon the land or if any light do break out 't is But the kindlings of his anger so he expresses Deut. 31. 17. This people vvill forsake me and break my Covenant then my anger shall be kindled against them and I vvill forsake them and hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they vvill say in that day Arc not these evils come upon us because our God is not amongst us This absence is only another vvord for desolation Be thou instructed ô Ierusalem saith God by Ieremy c. 6. 8. lest my soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate a land not inhabited As if without him there vvere nothing else but solitude in Cities and in Courts and all vvere desart vvhere he does not dwell Yea there is something beyond desolation Hos. 9. 11 12. As for Ephraim their glory shall flee away like a bird from the birth and from the vvomb and from the conception though they bring up their children yet I vvill bereave them that there shall not be a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea vvo also to them vvhen I depart from them And it must needs be so for let our state be never so calamitous if God be not departed there is comfort in it and a deliverer at hand If vve are in the place of dragons his presence vvill make heaven there and although we be covered vvith the shadow of death if the light of his Countenance break in vve are in glory and the brightness of that vvill soon damp and shine out the fiery trial But if the Lord depart then there is no redemption possible God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him Psal. 71. 11. But if there vvere deliverance some other vvay yet the vvant of God's presence is an evil such as nothing in the whole vvorld can make good the presence of an Angel in his stead does not When the Lord said to Israel I vvill not go up in the midst of thee but I vvill send an Angel vvith thee and drive out the Amorite the Hittite c. yet vvhen the people heard these evil tidings they mourned and no man did put on his Ornaments Exod. 33. 4. Nay more I shall not speak a contradiction if I shall say that the most intimate presence of the Godhead does not supply God's absence and such a small vvithdrawing of himself as may consist vvith being united hypostatically vvas too much for him to bear vvho vvas Immanuel vvhen he complained God vvas not vvith him I mean our Saviour on the Cross. He vvho although he did beseech against his cup vvith fervencies that did breath out in heats of bloody sweat vvith agonies of prayer yet when he fell down under it did chearfully submit to it saying Not my vvill but thy vvill be done yet vvhen God hides himself he does expostulate vvith him crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His God could no more forsake him than himself could be not himself and yet the apprehension of that vvhich could not be vvas even insufferable to him to whom nothing could be insufferable He seems to feel a very contradiction while he but seems to feel the vvant of the Lord's presence Such is the sad importance of God's not being with us and this same instant tells us vvhat drives him away 'T was sin that he vvithdrew from then Christ did but take on him our guilt and upon that the Lord forsook him God could no more endure to behold wickedness in him than the Sun could to see God suffer Iniquity eclips'd them both and sin did separate betwixt him and himself and made that person vvho was God cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And it will do the same betwixt God and apeople Isay. 59. 1 2. Behold the Lord's hand is not shortned that it
his indignation by force I can but pity them in their own opinions and enjoyments but O my soul enter not thou into their counsels As for seeking their King I shall content my self vvith that vvhich Calvin saies upon the words Nam aliter verè ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin seetiam subjiceret legitimo â—mperio cuâ— subjectus erat For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects And I shall adde that they vvho do forsake their King vvill soon forsake their God The Rabbines say it more severely of Israel that they at once rejected three things the Kingdome of the house of David and the Kingdome of Heaven and the Sanctuary And truly if vve do consult that State from the beginning we shall find that vvhen they vvere vvithout their King they alvvaies vvere vvithout their God Moses vvas the first King in Jeshurun and he vvas only gone into the Mount for forty daies and they set up a golden Calf they make themselves a God if they vvant him vvhom the Lord makes so as he does the Magistrate if they have not a Prince that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Image of God then they must have an Idâ—l When Moses his next successor vvas dead vve read that the man Micah had an house of Gods and consecrated one of his sons to be his Priest and truly he might make his Priest vvho made his Deities And the account of this is given In those daies there vvas no King in Israel Iud. 17. 5 6. The very same is said ch 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan There vvas no heir of restraint as it is worded ver 7. It seems to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance vvhich till it be supprest he hath not what he is heir to But Vice vvill know no boundaries if there be no King vvhose sword is the only mound and fence against it for if vve read on there 19 20 21. ch vve shall finde those dismal tragedies of Lust and VVarre the one of vvhich did sin to death the Levites wife the other besides 40000. slain of them vvho had a righteous cause and vvhom God did bid fight destroyed also a Tribe in Israel these all spraâ—g from the same occasion for so the story closes it In those daies there was no King in Israel ch 21. 25. Just upon this when God in their necessities did raise them Iudges that is Kings read all their story you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry God still complaining the children of Israel did evill again after the death of such an one till he raised them another Those 450. years being devided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols After them Jeroboam he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince hath got no other character from God but this the a Man that did make Israel to sin at once against God and against their King Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State vvere ended vvhen their calves and their Kingdome vvere destroyed Ezek. 4. 4 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390. daies to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity But this vvas more then the years of their State vvhich vvere only 255. 390. years indeed there vvere betwixt the falling off of the ten Tribes and the destruction of Ierusalem by the King of Babel but those ten Tribes vvere gone their Kingdome perfectly destroy'd above 130. years before but their iniquity vvas not it seems that does outlive their State so long as that God's Temple that King's house did stand from vvhich they did divide As if Seditious men and Schismaticks sin longer then they are even while those are vvhom they do sin against in separating from 'T is true there vvas an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David but Hezekiah and Iosiah did succeed Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy as 't is upon rebellion and having no King It does appear their Kings vvere guards also to God and his Religion the great defendors of his faith and worship God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together Therefore St. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for Kings that we might live in godliness and honesty and still they vvere the same vvho sought the Lord their God and David their King But vvhy David their King for could his Kingdome disappear and be to seek of vvhom the Lord had said I have sworn once by my Holiness I will not fail David Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore vvas as sure as God is holy But yet the Lord had said to the people of Israel If ye do wickedly ye shall be destroyed both you and your King There are other sins besides Rebellion and Treason that murder Kings and Governments Those that support their Ills by their dependencies and use great shadows for a sâ—elter to rapacity oppression or licences or any crying vvickedness these prove Traitors to Majesty and themselves strike at the root of that under vvhich they took covert fell that and crush themselves National vices have all Treason in them and every combination in such sins is a Conspiracy If universal practice palliate them we do not see their stain it may be think them slight but their complexion is purple Common blood is not deep enough to colour them they die themselves in that that 's sacred Nay these do seem to spread contagion to God as if they vvould not let the Lord be holy nor suffer that to be which he swore by his holiness should be for the Psalmist cries out Where are thy old loving kindnesses which thou swearest unto David But sure some of God's oaths will stand if not those of his kindness those vvill by vvhich he swears the râ—ine of such sinners and God that is holy will be sanctified in judgement upon them Yea upon more then the offenders for the guilty themselves are not a sacrifice equal to such piacular offences Innocent Majesty must bleed for them too If you do wickedly you shall be destroy'd both you and your King Thus when God vvould remove Judah out of his sight good Josiah must fall and the same makes them be to seek David their King But how David their King vvhen 't was Zorobabel for with Theodoret and others I conclude he must be meant in the first literal importance of the vvords It vvas the custome of most Nations from some great eminent prince to name all the Succession so at once to suggest his Excellencies to his followers and to make his glory live Now vvithout doubt David vvas Heroe enough for this and his â—lour alone sufficient to ground the like practice upon And
EIGHTEEN SERMONS Whereof Fifteen Preached before the KING The rest Upon Publick Occasions BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. AND CHAPLAINE To His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by Tho. Roycroft for James Allestry at the Rose and Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard M DC L X I X. A TABLE OF THE SERMONS A SERMON on 1. S. Pet. 4. 1. HE that suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from sin Page 1 A SERMON on Psalm LXXIII 1. Truely God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart p. 19 A SERMON on Leviticus XVI 31. Ye shall Afflict your Souls by a Statute for ever p. 37 A SERMON on S. John XV. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you p. 55 A SERMON on Ezechiel XXXIII 11. Why will ye Dye p. 73 A SERMON on Psalm LXXIII 25. Whom have I in Heaven but Thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides Thee p. 89 A SERMON on S. Mark I. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Page 105 A SERMON on 1 S. John V. 4. This is the Victory which overcometh the World even our Faith p. 125 A SERMON on Galatians II. 20. I am Crucified with Christ. p. 145 A SERMON on S. Luke IX 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of p. 163 A SERMON on S. Luke XVI 30 31. Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead p. 181 A SERMON on S. Luke XI part of the 24. Verse Behold this Child is set for the Fall and Rising again of many in Israel and for a signe which shall be spoken against p. 199 A SERMON on S. James IV. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you p. 219 A SERMON on Philippians III. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Crosse of Christ. p. 241 A SERMON on S. Mark X. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child he shall not enter therein p. 259 A SERMON on Acts XIII 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have called them p. 269 A SERMON on Hosea III. 5. Afterward shall the Children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his Goodnesse p. 295 A SERMON on S. Matthew V. 44. But I say unto you love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you p. 315 SERMON I. VVHITE-HALL January 27. 1660. 1 PET. IV. 1. He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin SO great a flatterer is Man of himself that from all kind of Events how various soever ever he will adventure to conclude himself in the right way to Blessedness and rather than want Argument contradictions shall conspire to make him happy If he prosper then God allows his doings and the success of actions is his mark and Seal that they are acceptable and dear to him And if this Argument be good The Tribe of Benjamin while it conquer'd as they did Conquer those that fought Gods Battles and that by his immediate commission yet all that while those Sodomites and foul Adulterers the men of Gibeah were Saints But when calamity does take away this Argument then on the other side the Gibbet though the punishment of Villany is only execution of that Decree whereby God hath predestined them To be conform'd to the Image of his Son As if they died most like Christ who died with the most Guilt about them and they will needs be Martyrs when they suffer for their vices and if this Argument be good AEgypt was blest with all her Plagues and the consuming fire that ran upon the ground was the light of Gods countenance upon them Yet both these Arguments have been made use of lately by each several party of us in the variety of Gods dispensations to us now this each could not do of right Some parties of us made false and unjust pleas to them both Now to decide which did so not à priori from the cause though that alone does guild prosperity and that alone too makes the Martyr not the sufferings But men will never be agreed of that while whatsoever happens whether their cause prosper or be opprest still proves them in the right But I shall do it from a plain notorious effect nor do I know what else can be more seasonable than while some men seem to stand candidates for sufferings and choose Sedition and Schism rather than lose the reputation of not being afflicted with their party and while others plead the merits of affliction and Trumpet out their having suffered as a pretence for the ambition and the covetousness the luxuries and intemperance and all the other vices of prosperity which their late sufferings have before hand expiated while it is thus on each side to give both a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby to judge the Case which my Text here presents for He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The words make a single Proposition and therefore cannot well be taken asunder nor indeed need they the Terms being very well understood The Subject every one is willing to assume to himself no one I believe that hears me but will say he hath suffer'd in the Flesh. Therefore we have no more to do but to see whether the other Term agree as universally which certainly it must if our Proposition here hold good if He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin Therefore in order to this I shall offer at Three things First Discourse of the truth of the Proposition in General and see if we can discern how necessary and how effectual this Instrument of Reformation is whether it be such as may build a confidence of asserting That He who hath suffered hath ceased from Sin Secondly Because discoursing in General is not so practical and usefull I shall endeavour to discover in particular By what Artifice of method the Flesh engageth men into courses of sin and how it works them up to the height of it and then see how sufferings blast that method and make the Arts of the flesh either unpracticable or too weak Thirdly I will attempt to veiw our own concerns in all this propose to consideration Whether this method hath had this effect on us or Whether indeed it be as easy to confute God's Word as to break his Commandements and contrive that his truth shall no more stand than his will does but notwithstanding Scriptures bold affirmation here yet they that have suffered have not ceast from Sin and if so then to propose the danger and
when he cannot give a Lamb for his Transgression he gives some of himself he offers Hunger for Shewbread and Thirst for a Drink offering he consecrates a Meal instead of a Beast and sheds a sower fasting sigh for Incense and this he hopes God will accept as Sacrifice And truely the Text sayes no day of Expiation could be kept without it Noâ— does the Scripture want great instances of its effect towards Atonements of Gods wrath How when Judgment was given on a Nation or Person and Execution going out against them yet this rever'st the Sentence Ahab is a great proof of this 1 King 21. 27. And it came to passe when Ahab heard those words that he rent his Clothes and put Sackcloth upon his flesh and Fasted and lay in Sackcloth and went softly And the Word of the Lord came unto Elijah the Tishbite saying Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his dayes One Fasting-day secured a Life the weaknesses it brought upon the body upheld it against all Gods threats Vengeance pronounc't and coming out against him falls to ground if Ahab humble and Afflict his Soul Gods stretcht out Arm will not strike Sackcloth nor wound through Fasting Garments One fit of it removes his Judgments a whole Age and had it been sincere and persevering how had it wip't them out to everlastingnesse Nineve is another instance of the practice and successe of this even among the Heathens Nor should it seem to have lesse Efficacy among Christians The Primitive Fathers call these severities Satisfaction for sin and Compensations the Price with which they are bought off the things that cover them and blot them out and which Propitiate and appease God for them not in their sense who force up these Expressions to a strange height of meaning and yet have quite beat down the Practise as to the publique wholesome use of them out of the Church But though these sayings assign not the Power and just Efficacy of that discipline in it self yet they do the acceptance and effect of it by virtue of Christs Satisfaction A Fainting Body cannot bear indeed the weight of our iniquities nor will lowest prostrations in the dust bury them in the dust or Tears alone blot out our Guilt but Christ having done that which is effectual to all this and requiring no more of thee to make that thine as he does every where most solemnly avow but faithfull humbling of thy self in an afflictive sorrow for what 's past and so to mortifie as to work out Repentance the doing this is doing what he does require and consequently will accept These satisfie the Command and therefore God though not by a condignity of performance yet as Conditions which his Covenant of Grace hath set us which when they are fulfilled then God is satisfied thy sins are expiated and thou art pardoned And so in this lower sense these are thy Satisfactions with which God is well pleased And thus these self Afflictions of the Sinner supply Gods Indignation and divert it They leave no place nor businesse for it and by these short severities upon himself he does make void he does expunge the Sentence of eternal Torments saith Tertullian As thou becomest severe against thy self so will the Lord abate of his severities and he will spare and he will pitty thee in that he sees thou wilt not spare thy self How can he choose but be appeased towards thee when he shall see thee executing his Sentence even upon thy own self and punishing his Enemies although they be thy Members so that by this means thou dost censure thy self into Gods Absolutions afflict thy self into his Pardons and dost condemn thy self into eternal Life Our Church sayes the same thing That in the Primitive Church there was a Godly Discipline that at the beginning of Lent such persons as were notorious sinners were put to open Pennance and punished in this world that their Souls might be saved in the Day of the Lord and she does wish if her wishes be of any force and value when her Orders and Constitutions are not that Discipline could be restored But this I shall not presse if all those whom the Primitive Church Condemned or S. Paul sentenced were so used if every Schismatick that lyes tearing himself and others off from the Lords Body were rejected and if the Fornicator that joyns himself to his unclean Accomplice were disjoyned from Christ and not suffered to make his members be the members of an Harlot if every scandalous debauching offender that lyes corrupting Christs Body spreading contagion thrusting the gangreen forward were cut off and these and all the rest delivered up to Satan alas what part would Christ have left of his own Body Sed illos defendit numerus junctaeque umbone phalanges and that I fear too in more senses than the Poet means Therefore I shall not urge the Churches Wish but only see whether the Statute in the Text sayes any thing to this and whether the for ever do reach us Which is my third and last Enquiry Thirdly Divers of the Jews Rites are said to be and be prescribed for ever although those very Rites and the whole oeconomy of their Covenant were to be chang'd and cease among other reasons as the Fathers say because they foresignifie and point at things in the new Covenant which were to last till Covenants and Rites shall be no more and so their meaning and signification was to be for ever Now truely that their Expiation Performances those which I am upon did so the whole Epistle to the Hebrews is employ'd to prove the Margent of your Bibles in this Chapter so refer you to the places that I shall not need to make it out Christ did fulfill the Temple and the Altar part yea and the refuse outcast part of the Atonement satisfied the Religion and the contempt of that dayes offices He was the whole true Expiation Now does this Expiation as theirs did require afflicting of the Soul in its attendance or was that but a Ceremony of their Rite and though a Jew must mourn and Fast to see his sin killing a Beast and when he does behold his wickednesse eating up a Goat for a Sin offering he must deny himself his daily bread and suffer thirst if his Iniquities drink but the blood of Bullocks yet when we behold ours embrew themselves in the Blood of the Son of God not onely lay hands and confessions on his head but drive Thorns into it make him cry out almost despair and Dye we need not be concern'd so much as to do ought of that either in order to the better Celebration of that Expiation or on the very day of it Indeed if we consider most mens practises it would appear most probable that if we were to expiate our sins as the Jews did by sacrificing of our Flocks not of our Jesus
Opiniastres and so violent in their way as to deny humanity to those that would not joyn with them they would not grant the Civilities of Passage to one that intended for Jerusalem to Worship They refuse it to our Saviour here because his Face was thitherward v. 53. A Schismatick will reject a Christ if his Face be fromward their new Establishment if he but look towards the Antient Worship At this the Sons of Zebedee are offended zealous for their Master as being most particularly concern'd in him two of his neerest intimates and their zeal would needs break out into flame And why not a rudenesse to Eli jah was reveng'd by him with Fire from Heaven which consumed twice fifty Souldiers and their Captain though they came to do the King's Command And shall these hated Schismaticks be rude to Thee and reject the Messiah and yet go unpunished Lord shall we command fire to come down from Heaven to consume them even as Elias did Which our Saviour answers with this sharp rebuke Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of Not to divide but to explain my Text and so instead of parts present you with some Subjects of Discourse By Spirit here is meant that disposition and complexure of Christian Piety and Vertues that course and Method of Religion which the Spirit does prescribe to Christ's Disciples and does guide them in or in a word the temper of the Gospel is so called And this in opposition to the Law the difference of these being exprest by a diverse manner of Spirit the one is called Spirit of Bondage the other Spirit of Adoption so here Ye know not of what Spirit ye are ye do not judge aright if you believe the temper of the Gospel is like that of the Law The course that I prescribe to my Disciples differs much from that of Prophets under the old Testament you must be guided by another Spirit than Elija's was in calling for Fire if my Spirit dwell in you For I came not to destroy â—â—ens lives on any such account In this sense it affords these propositions First To destroy Mens lives or other temporal rights on this account meerly because they are Apostates Schismaticks or otherwise reject the true Religion or Christ himself is inconsistent with the temper of the Gospel This is that which Christ reproves here telling them that would do so Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of Secondly Because the Spirit of Elias which the Gospel Christian Spirit here is set in opposition to oppos'd the Magistrate destroy'd those that came commission'd from the Prince and Christ designedly does say ye must not do now what Elias did therefore to attempt upon or against the Magistrate on the account of Christ or of Religion is inconsistent with the Spirit of the Gospel First of the first that to destroy mens lives c. But here I must observe that since these fiery Disciples that did give occasion for our Saviours rebuke here were no Magistrates nor did Christ himself that gave the rebuke assume but renounce openly all such Authority therefore no observation grounded on these words can controul the Magistrates just power in punishing offences done against his Laws although pretences of Religion and Conscience give colour to those offences the Gospel does diminish no rights of the secular Powers Now Supreme Magistrates though as such they have no right to judge in Articles of Faith to define what is true Religion what not for then the Pagan Princes who had never heard of Christ and yet are as much Magistrates as any would have right to judge what Doctrines Christ delivered down to be believed But certainly when Christ Commission'd his Faith to run through all the World not onely independently from all the powers of it but in perfect opposition to them they can have no right to judge in that which whatsoever they shall Judge we are a like bound to receive the Faith of Christ without any the least difference to their judgment But though they have no right to judge of this they have Authority to determine what Faith shall have the priviledges of their State and what shall not which shall be publiquely profest and which they will inhibit with Penalties For sure the Priviledges of the State and power of Penalties are the proper rights of the Supreme Power and therefore none but that can judge and determin of them In a word since it is most evident that the tranquility of a State does depend upon nothing more than the profession and priviledging of Religion it follows that those Powers to whose Judgment and Decrees the care and Tranquility of the State is committed must have the power to judge and to determine what Faith shall be publiquely profest and priviledg'd by the State In which Judgment and administration if they erre and priviledge a false Faith and inhibit the true they use their Powerill and are responsible to God for doing so but they do not invade or usurp a Power that is not their own Rather 't is most certain if the Principles of any Sect or else if not they yet the pursuance of any Principles do tend directly towards or are found to work Commotions and Treasonable enterprises the Supreme Power hath as much right to restrain yea and Punish them although with Death according to their several merits as he hath to punish those effects in any other instances wherein they do expresse themselves Nor must Religion secure those practises which it cannot sanctifie but does envenome For by putting an everlasting concern into mens opinions and actions their undertakings are made by it more desperate and unreclaimable What wounds and what Massacres must the State expect from them that stab and murder it with the same Zeal that the Priest kills a Sacrifice that go to act their Villanies with Devotion and go to their own Execution as to Martyrdom 'T were easie for me to deduce the practise of this Power from the best Magistrates in the best times if that were my businesse who had onely this temptation to say thus much that I might not seem to clash with the Magistrates Power of coercion in Religious causes when I did affirm that to destroy mens Lives or other temporal Rights on this account meerly because they are Apostates Schismaticks or otherwise reject the true Religion or Christ himself is inconsistent with the temper of the Gospel If you would discover what the temper of the Gospel is you may see it in its Prophecy and Picture in the Prophet Isay The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den and the Serpent shall eat the dust Whatever mischief these have in themselves there 's nothing of devouring or of hurt to one another in this state 't is like Paradise
resisting Princes and disturbing States in the behalf of Holy Church When such actions make men fit to be joynt purchasers with Christ in the Redemption of the World But when the French Histories say 't was disputed long after in Paris whether he were Damn'd or Sav'd that the Church in her publique Offices should pray to go thither where he is gone to have his Society though it expresse their most infallible assurance of the condition of those men who for their sakes resist the Secular Powers yet O my Soul enter not thou into their counsels in this world neither say a Confederacy to whom they say a Confederacy Much lesse pray to be in their Society who by resisting S. Paul sayes do receive unto themselves Damnation Secondly It is notorious that in their first General Counsel at Lyons Anno 1245. the Emperour Frederick the second by the Sentence of the Pope and the whole Councel after long deliberation and producing several Arguments which they say are not sleight but effectual to prove the suspicion of Heresie is depriv'd of his Empire all his Subjects are absolv'd from their oath of Allegiance and by Apostolical Authority forbidden to obey him Therefore that such things may be done in the cases of Religion hath the Authority of a General Council 't was that Councel that Decreed Red Hats to Cardinals Hats red it seems not onely with the Royal Purple but with the Blood of Kings and of Royalty it self Thirdly I should have urg'd the well known Canon of the General Councel of Lateran the greatest their Church ever boasted of which sayes That if the temporal Lord shall neglect to purge his Territories from such as the Church there declares Hereticks he shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan if he do not mend within a year complained of to the Pope that so he may declare his Subjects absolv'd from their Allegiance expose his Lands to be seiz'd by Catholicks who shall exterminate the Hereticks saving the right of the chief Lord Provided he give no impediment to this But the same law shall be observed to those that have no chief Lords that is who are themselves Supreme This I should urge but that some say that penal Statutes which are leges odiosae tantum disponunt quantum loquuntur Therefore this Canon since it does not name Kings it does not they say concern them although 't is plain it do sufficiently enough But that there may be therefore no evasion Fourthly In the General Councel of Constance that part of it I mean that is approv'd by their whole Church The Pope and Councel joyn together in commanding all Arch-Bishops Bishops and Inquisitors to pronounce all such Excommunicate as are declared Hereticks in such and such Articles and that of Transubstantiation half-Communion and the Pope's Supremacy are among them or that favour or defend them or that Communicate with them in publique or in private whether in sacred offices or otherwise â—tiamsi Patriarchali Archiepiscopali Episcopali Regali Reginali Ducali aut aliâ quâvis Ecclesiasticâ aut mundanâ praeâ—uâ—geant dignitate And Commands them also to proceed to Interdicts and deprivation of Dignities and Goods and whatsoevâ—r other Penalties vias modos Thus that Councel though it took away the Peoples right to the Blood of Christ denying them the Cup in the Sacramcâ—t gave them in exchange the Blood of thâ—ir own Kings making them a right to that And that they extend the force of these Canons to the most absolute Princes even to him that pleads exemption most to the King of France is plain because when Sixtus the fifth thundred out his Bulls against the then King of Navarre afterwards King Henry the fourth of France and the Prince of Conde depriving them not onely of their Lands and Dignities but their Succession also to the Crown of France absolving their Subjects from their Oaths forbidding them to obey them he declared he did it to them as to relapsed Hereticks favourers and defenders of them and as such fal'n under the Censures of the Canons of the Church Now there are no other Canons that do take in Kings but these which can touch him for that of Boniface the eighth which sayes the Pope hath power to judge all temporal powers is declared not to extend to France Cap. merâ—it de priviledg in extravag communibus Thus by the publique Acts of their Church and by the Canons of their General Councels we have found in causes of Religion Deprivation of Princes Wars and Bloodshed and the other confequent Miseries are establisht Rebellion encouraged by a Law And if Rebellion he as the sin of Witchcrast then we know what manner of Spirit they are of that do encourage it sure witches have no spirit but the Devil for familiar But the Church of England on the other side in her publique Doctrine set down in the Book of Homilies establisht in the 39. Articles of her Religion says in expresse words that it is not lawful for Inferiours and Subjects in any case to resist and stand against the Superiour Powers that we must indeed believe undoubtedly that we may not obey Kings Magistrates or any other if they would command us to do any thing contrary to Gods Commands In such a case we ought to say with the Apostle we must rather obey God than Man But nevertheless in that case we may not in any wise withstand violently or rebell against Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumults either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Annoynted of the Lord or any of his Officers 1 Book of Hom. 2 part of Serm. of Obed. Not for Reformation of Religion for what a Religion 't is that such men by such means would restore may easily be judged even as good a Religion surely as Rebells be good men and obedient Subjects 2 Book of Hom. 4. part of the Serm. against wil ful rebellion The very same thing is defined in the first of the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical of the year 1640. for Subjects to bear Arms against their King offensive or defensive upon any pretence whatever is at least to resist the Powers which are ordâ—in'd of God and though they do not invade but only resist S. Paul tells them plainly he that resists receives unto himself damnation This was the Doctrine of the Church in those her Constitutions although there was no Parl. then sitting to enact these Canons into Lawes yet since that time the Law of England is declar'd to say the same and we obliged by it to acknowledge that it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King by this Parliament whose memory shall be for ever blessed And now it is not hard to know what manner of Spirit our Church is of even that Spirit that anoynts the Lords Anoynted that is which
only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing As if argument and reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion only those who were the institutors of each Religion did deliver it others had no more to do but to believe it that is to receive it as a little Child Whether these reproaches and the oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so I shall not now enquire But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christian Corinthians that they be not children in understanding that they be in malice Children but in understanding Men. Now a man and a child differ not in this that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul and the other hath not but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason and the other where he acts as man does So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men does require of us that we use our reason in it And since assenting to a thing as truth is an act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable namely as it understands and judges it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unlesse he fatisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing Yea whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for that the will though free is bound and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills yet it is sure that he who with his understanding which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so And were it possible for any man to believe so there could be neither grounds nor rules for such a ones belief for there is nothing in the world so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so but he might assent to it for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason but this were onely wish or fancy and imagination not belief And to prevent such childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of Doctrine Eph. 4. 14. First For want of rationall grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body and in judgement also taking all appearances for truths If men were only to believe there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infallible as that of Rome pretends to be yet since there are so many Churches and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks there must be disquisition before Faith and men must reason and examine ere they can believe upon good grounds for were they to receive Religion as a little Child be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesome mother or some other person for it knows not to distinguish And so may be nurst to death A soul like theirs that is but rasa tabula white paper is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast as the inscription of the living God just as the first hand shall impresse Therefore we are bid not to believe every Spirit not every Teacher though he come with gifts pretend and seem to be inspir'd but try them and our Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signes and wonders Something therefore must be known first and secur'd before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent And Captivate every thought into obedience as S. Paul directs Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected namely that he was the Christ that does require it And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to wit of that Christ who as he does himself professe that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done they had not had sin John 15. 24. If his demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had poynted out the Messiah the Son of the living God and this not only his Disciples had acknowledg'd but the multitudes yea when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confesse Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him Then if the Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law and the Disciples presse the inconveniences that will happen If the case of a man be such with his wife he may answer them He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute that is to say He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determine how we shall receive the Kingdom of God If he propose strange precepts to our practise It appears that he is sent from God and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope why yet he hath made proof he comes from God and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover things above our understanding and do things above the comprehension of our reason Therefore since we are as Children to all these it is but just we should receive them even as little Children With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls Here 't is most true what S. Austin says Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd unlesse there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying Si Christo etiam credendum negant nisi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt For to them that are convinc't of that 't is such a reason that he is the Christ. There is indeed no other name now under heaven to whom we are oblig'd to give
of their vicious worships had more force with them then miracle and reason And while the Christian disposest their Deities he was himself turned out of all his own possessions and although he made their God confess himself a Devil yet still poor he was made to suffer as a malefactour And 't is not strange if men now stick as closely to their vices as those did to the Gods that patronized them and it be as hard to exorcise the Devil out of their affections and practices as it was then out of Heathen Votaries or Temples They are as fierce against the Christian Religion for their lusts sake as those for their Venus and the very same account that made those Heathen customs or the lying wonders of false Christs or Pharaoh's Magicians signs be more persuasive then the other more real miracles namely because they sided with their inclinations and interests This very account makes little difficulties which Almighty God hath left in our Religion as he suffered signs and lying wonders heretofore for trials yea makes cavils mere exceptions pass for reasons most invincible be disputed urg'd with great concern and passion against all those methods of conviction which God hath afforded Christianity Now if this be to receive Religion as a little Child 't is with the frowardnesse of Children when they are displeas'd or ill at ease who resist and quarrell with the thing that is to make them well or please them and returne the Parents cares to ease and quiet them with little outrages and vexing And do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and establisht thee Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee Deâ—t 32. 6 7. Now have Children any other way to know their Parents then to let their Father shew them and their Elders tell them Or should we cast off the relation and tenounce all the obedience due to it because we are not sure of it our selves For ought we know those may not be our Parents we have only testimony for it Thus we serve our God on that account and yet Hath he not made thee and establisht thee As he began us so did he not nurse and bear us in his arms and carry us in all our weaknesses and difficulties till he brought us up to a full strength Till by a miraculous and signal providence he had establisht settled us and after all these cares bestowed upon us do we prove a generation of vipers onely such as do requite the bowels that did bear and nourish them by preying on them and consuming them Or like the of-spring of a Spider who when he hath spent himself with weaving nets and working of them into labyrinths to be the granaries and the defences of his brood to catch them prey and to secure them then the strongest of his young ones when he is by these his cares establisht and grown ripe to destroy makes those threads fatal to his parent which he spun out of his bowels to be thread of life to him And shall we be such children to our Father that establisht us make all his plenties turn to poison in us and invenome us against himself make his miraculous mercies furnish us for the abuse and provocation of him his blest Providence serve onely to afford us arguments against it self help to confute it self because it hath so prospered doth still suffer us But after all this is he not thy Father that hath bought thee who to all his titles to us his endearing obligations notwithstanding our despites and provocations of them yet did give the life of his own Son to purchase o're again the same relation to us that we might have right to the inheritance of his Kingdom And then however we have hitherto affronted let us be content now to be bought and hir'd to receive that Kingdom of God as his children for if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ who died to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father To whom be glory c. A SERMON PREACHED IN S. PETERS WESTMINSTER ON Sunday Jan. 6. 1660. at the Consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of Bristoll EDWARD Lord Bishop of Norwich NICHOLAS Lord Bishop of Hereford WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Glocester BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. Canon of Christ Church in Oxford and one of His Majesties Chaplains LONDON Printed by Thomas Roycroft for James Allestry at the Rose and Crown in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1669. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD GILBERT LORD Bishop of LONDON and Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal. My LORD WHEN I consider with what reluctancies I appear thus in publick I have all reason to suspect and fear lest this offering which like an unwilling Sacrifice was dragg'd to the Altar and which hath great defects too will be far from propitiating either for its self or for the votary But I must crave leave to add that how averse soever I was to the publishing this rude Discourse I make the Dedication with all possible zeal and ready cheerfulness For I exspect your Lordship to be a Patron not only to my Sermon but to my Subject Such a separate eminence of virtue and of sweetness mixt together may hope to ingratiate Your Function to a Generation of men that will not yet know their own good but resist mercy and are not content to be happy And for my self Your Lordships great goodness and obligingness hath encourag'd me not only to hope that you will pardon all the miscarriages of what I now present but also to presume to shelter it and my self under your Lordships Name and Command and to honour my self before the world by this address and by assuming the relation of My Lord Your Lordships most humbly devoted and most faithful Servant RICH. ALLESTRY SERMON XVI IN St. PETERS WEST MINSTER January 6. 1660. ACTS XIII 2. The Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them AND as they ministred to the Lord and fasted the holy Ghost said Although that ministring to God by prayer and fasting be the indicted and appropriate acts to preface such Solemnities as this and that not Sermons but Litanies and intercessions are the peculiar adherents of Embers and of Consecrations and those vigorous strivings with Almighty God by Prayer are the birth-pangs in which Fathers are born unto the Church Yet since that novv this Sacred Office is it self oppos'd and even the Mission of Preachers preach'd against and the Authority that sends despis'd as Antichristian vvhilst separation and pretence unto the Holy Ghost set up themselves against the strict injunction of the Holy Ghost to separate the Pulpit that othervvhiles hath fought against it must novv attone its errours by attending on the Altar and the bold ungrounded claimes of Inspiration that false teachers
does excommunicate them only in desire And again 2 Cor. 10. 6. and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfil'd It becomes therefore every one that hath good VVill for Sion to labour to fulfill his own obedience that so the Church may be empower'd to use Christ's Method for reforming of the rest And they that vvill not do so must know they shall not only answer for their sins but for refusing to be sav'd from them that they resist all medicine as men resolv'd that nothing shall be done towards their Cure as men that rather choose to perish and prefer destruction And for the seasons and degrees of putting this work into Execution Wisdom must be implor'd from that Spirit of VVisdom that calls unto this work The last Part VVhereunto I have called them The Nature of the calling of the Holy Ghost is a Subject that would bear a full discourse But waving those pretensions which Necessity and inward incitation do make to be the Calls of the Holy Ghost I shall positively set down that the call of God and of the Holy Ghost to any VVork or Office for I enquire not of his calling to a priviledge or state of favour is his giving abilities and gifts qualifying for that VVork or Office he call immediate when the gifts were so but mediate and ordinary when the abilities are given in his blessing on our ordinary labours 'T is so in every sort of things Exod. 31. 2. See I have call'd Bezaleel and I have fill'd him vvith the Spirit of God in VVisdome and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of VVorkmanship to devise cunning vvorks and to vvork in all manner of VVorkmanship and behold I have given him Aholiab and in the hearts of all that are vvise hearted I have put Vvisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee And he repeats the same again Chap. 35. 30. adding that he hath put in his heart that he may teach both He and Aholiab so that giving this skill to vvork and teach is nam'd Gods calling So in another case the Lord does say of Cyrus I have call'd him Esay 48. 15. vvhich he explains in the 49. I have holden him by my right hand to subdue Nations before him to loose the loyns of Kings I have girded him So vvhen Isaiah saith the Lord hath call'd me from the VVomb or rather sayes that of our Saviour Isa. 49. 1. he tells you how ver 5. he form'd me and prepared me from the VVomb to be his servant to bring Jacob to him And throughout the New Testament as his Call to a priviledge is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace in allowing such a state of favour so his calls to a Work are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts enabling for it The Gifts of these Apostles by vvhich they vvere enabled for their Office and vvhich made up their call are set down those of Barnabas in the fore-cited 11 Act. He was a good man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost and Paul's call vvas a little Extraordinary If vve look into times vve shall find reason to believe those revelations in 2 Cor. 12. vvere given to Paul a little before this consecration of him in the Text. That Epistle vvas vvrit saith Baronius in the second year of Nero and this separation vvas in the second of Claudius as may be gathered also in some measure from the famine mention'd in the 28. verse of the 11. chap. betwixt these two vvere fourteen years now saith Saint Paul vvhen he vvrote that he had his revelation somewhat above 14. years before a little therefore before this solemnity Here vvas a call indeed call'd up to the third heaven to receive instructions for his Office and for ought he did know call'd out of his own body too that he might be the fitter for it whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knows verse 2. and that again verse 3. They vvhom Gods Spirit qualifies for Consecration to separate to these diviner Offices may be stil'd Angels well vvhen they are call'd from all regards or notices of any body that belongs to them their gifts and graces set them above the consideration of flesh In the entertainment of these qualifications the Soul is swallowed up so that it cannot take cognizance whether it have a body of its own and is not sensible of that deer partner of it self it is so onely sensible of this Employment 'T is not for an Apostle or for his Successor to think of things below vvith much complacency When these have all their uses all their glories on they but make pomp to dress the body vvhich an Apostle does not designe for nor knowes vvhether he be concern'd at all in He becomes something without a body and above the Earth vvho for a preparative must be taken up to Paradise and call'd from all commerce and all intelligence with his own body Saint Paul vvas call'd from Heaven to preach the Gospel but he vvas call'd to Heaven to qualifie him for this higher separation to an Apostle and Church Governour And now you see your calling Holy Fathers and to pass by such obvious unconcerning observations as at first sight follow that those vvho are not qualified are not call'd I shall onely take notice hence of the counter-part of this call the charge God takes upon him when he calls to this charge and that is he owns and will protect whom himself calls 'T was that he promised to the Pounder and â—od of your Order I the Lord have call'd thee and I will hold thine hand and I will keep thee Isaâ— 42. 6. And vvhen he said of Cyrus I have call'd him he said also he shall make his way prosperous Isai. 48. 15. And so he shall be the vvay vvhat it vvill for thus he said to Jacob I have called thee when thou goest through the VVater I am with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee Isai. 43. 1 2. There was Experience of all this in one of the chief Princes of your Order vvhen the Apostles vvere scarce safe within their ship they vvere so toss'd with vvaves and fears yet if our Lord vvill call him Peter is confident he shall be safe even in the sea Lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the Water saith he and the Lord did but call him and he vvent down and walked on the vvater safely as if the swelling billows did only lift themselves to meet his steps and raise him up from sinking And vvhen his own doubts vvhich alone could vvere neer drowning him and he but call'd the Lord immediately he stretched out his hand and caught him He answers his call if vve answer ours if we obey vvhen he sayes come then vvill he come and save vvhen vve call to him And so Peter receiv'd no hurt but a rebuke O thou of little
faith why didst thou doubt couldst thou imagine I vvould not sustein thee in the doing vvhat I bid thee do In answering my call But vvhy seek we experience of so old a date There is a more encouraging miracle in these late calls themselves Had God sustein'd the Order in its Offices and dignities amidst those vvaves that vvrack'd the Church of late it had been prodigy of undeserved Compassion to our Nation but vvhenas all was sunk to bid the sea give up what it had so allowed and consumed this is more than to catch a sinking Peter or to save a falling Church The vvork of Resurrection is emphatically call'd the working of God's mighty power and does out-sound that of his ordinary conservation And truly 't was almost as easie to imagination how the scattered Atomes of mens dust should order themselves and reunite and close into one flesh as that the parcels of our Discipline and Service that were lost in such a vvild confusion and the Offices buried in the rubbish of the demolisht Churches should rise again in so much order and beauty Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deum This calling of the Spirit is like that when the Spirit moved upon the face of the abyss and call'd all things out of their no-seeds there or like the call of the last Trump Thus by the miraculous mercies of these calls God hath provided for our hopes and warranted our faith of his protections yet he hath also sent us more security hath given us a Constantine if his own be not a greater Name and more deserving of the Church for which it is well known to some he did contrive and order when he could neither plot nor hope for his own Kingdome and did vvith passion labour a succession in your Order vvhen he did not know how to lay designes for the succession of himself or any of his Fathers house to his own Crown and dignity Nor is the secular arme all your security God himself hath set yet more guards about his consecrated ones he hath severe things for the violaters of them Moses the meekest man upon the Earth that in his life vvas never angry but once at the rebellious seems very passionate in calling Vengeance on those that stir against these holy Offices Smite through the loines of all that rise against them and of them that hate them that they rise not again the loines vve know are the nest of posterity so that strike through the loines is stab the succession destroy at once all the posterity of them that vvould cut off this Tribe and hinder its succession Nor vvas this Legal Spirit Gospel is as severe Those in Saint Judge that despise these Governours that do as Corah and his Complices did vvho gathered themselves against Moses and Aaron and said You take too much upon you ye sons of Levi since all the Congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord vvords these that vve are vvell acquainted with and vvhich it seems St. Iude looks on as sins under the Gospel these perish in the gainsaying of Core vvhom God vvould not prepare for punishment by death but he and his accomplices went quick into it He would not let them stay to dy but the Lord made a new thing to shew his detestation of this sin and the Earth swallow'd it in the Commission and all that were alli'd and appertain'd to them that had an hand in it And truely they may well expect strange recompences who do attempt so strange a Sacriledge as to pull stars out of Christ's own right hand from vvhence vve have his vvord that no man shall be able to pluck any but if they shine thence on their Orbs below and convert many to righteousness their light shall blaze out into glory and they shall ever dwell at his right hand To vvhich right hand He that brought again from the dead the Lord Iesus that great Shepheard and Bishop of the sheep and set him there He also bring you our Pastors and us your flock vvith you and set us vvith his sheep on his right hand To vvhom vvith the same Iesus and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all blessing honour glory and power from henceforth for ever Amen FINIS A SERMON PREACHED AT HAMPTON-COURT On the 29th of May 1662. Being the Anniversary of His Sacred Majesties Most happy Return BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. and Chaplain to His MAjESTY LONDON Printed by Thomas Roycroft for Iames Allestry at the Rose and Crown in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1669. TO The Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of Clarendon Lord high Chancellour of England and Chancellour of the University of Oxford My LORD TO vouch your Lordships commands for the publishing this Discourse I might reasonably think would be to libel your judgment and the prefixing your Name to it and this mean address would look rather like revenge than homage or obedience if I did not know that low performances are due to the transcendency of such a subject as I then discours'd upon and such a Patron as I now dedicate to So I lie prostrate under my great Arguments here insufficiency is Art and Rhetorick And the truth is my Lord it was not this which made me so sollicitous to avoid your injunctions but apprehensions of the unusefulness of the Discourse itself When God's most signal methods of all sorts do not seem to have wrought much conviction vvhen neither our own dismal guilts nor miseries nor most express miracles of deliverance have made us sensible but after the equally stupendous 3 Oth of January and 29th of May and the black time that interven'd we are still the same perverse untractable people vvhen luxury is the retribution made for plenty license for liberty and Atheism for Religion vvhil'st miracles of mercy are acknowledged only by prodigies of ingrateful disobedience and on the other side vvhen factious humours swell against all Laws as they vvould either over-flow those mounds or make them yield and give way to them vvhen Declarations and Decrees which were infallible when they came only from a party of a part of a Parliament are neither of force nor esteem when they have all solemnity and obligation that just and full authority can give alas what hopes of doing any thing can a weak Harangue entertain But my Lord since you are pleas'd to command I give up both it and my understanding to your Lordship and the weaker the Discourse is so much the more pregnant testimony is it of the obsequiousness of My Lord Your Lordships most devoted and most humble Servant RICH. ALLESTRY SERMON XVII AT HAMPTON-COURT May 29. 1662. HOSEA III. 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness HE had said in the vvords before that the children
King The Lord saw this dependence and therefore counselled this course should be taken The Master of our Politicks discerned it too and therefore does advise that the first and chiefest publick cares should be about things of Religion that and the same profession of it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cement of Communities and the very foundation of all legislative and indeed all povver in the Magistrate and in the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a most efficacious philtre a charm a Gordian knot of kindness And as a Iew observed of their own Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To have one and the same opinion's of God and not to differ in their rites from one another breeds the best harmony in mens affections When on the other side no obligations though the most signal and divine vvill hold them in obedience and peace if their ambitions or interests look another way and if at any time present advantage or an expectation or some passion do encline them to seek David their King yet the appearance of a change of Interest that expectation defeated or a cross animosity will burst those bonds unless Religion and Communion in Worship help to twist them David had had experience of this Abner knew of God's oath to David that after Saul he should be King over all Israel but he vvas otherwise concerned and therefore he made Ishbosheth King maintained a long and a sore warr even against vvhat he knew God was engaged to bring about and made himself strong for the house of Saul 2 Sam. 2 3 ch But vvhen a quarrel happened betwixt Ishbosheth and him then So do God to Abner and more also except as the Lord hath sworn to David even so I do to him to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Iudah And he sent Messengers to him saying VVhose is the land make but thy league with me c. 3. 9 10 11 12. Do but look forward and you find when Abner vvas cut off and Ishbosheth vvas slain and Israel had no leader then they came to David saying Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh and the Lord said to thee Thou shalt feed my people Israel c. 5. 1 2. They knew all that before yet vvould not let him do it till they had no other leader Nay vvhen they had done that by Absalom's insituations who in a vvay of trecherous pitty did instill dislikes against the government and did remonstrate in good wishes as some men do in prayers c. 15. 3 4. they vvere all drawn into rebellion against this David and made him flie out of the land and became Subjects to that Absalom When he vvas dead indeed they spake of bringing back the King c. 19. 10. and vvhen his own Iudah had done it quarrell'd ver 43. because that their advice was not first had and though Iudah had nothing but their service for Have we eaten at all of the Kings cost or hath he given us any gift say they ver 42. yet Israel is is angry because he came not back upon their score for they forsooth have ten parts in him v. 43. and yet the next day every man of Israel went after him that said we have no part in David Sheba a man of Belial ch 20. 1. Thus no allegiance no tie however sacred and divine vvill hold them vvho follow not upon God's score Nay at the last because that Rehoboam vvould not ease their taxes all Israel cry out VVhat portion have we in David see to thiâ—e own house David And to make this secession perpetual vvhich all the former did not prove Ieroboam did use no other policy but to change the VVorship and the Priests He knew he should divide their hearts and Nations for ever vvhen he had altered once the Service and the Officers and if he could but keep them from seeking God at Ierusalem he vvas secure they vvould not seek David their King And so it proved Now the Lord to prevent divisions had provided so far for Vniformity in his vvorship that he required a single Vnity and that it might be but in one manner he let it be but in one place And truly when men once depart from Uniformity what measures can they set themselves of changing what shall confine or put shores to them vvhat principle can they proceed upon vvhich shall engage them to stay any where and why may not divisions be as infinite as mens phansies And though vvhen those are but in circumstantial things those vvho are strong and know them to be such are no otherwise concerned to contend for them than on Authorities behalf to vvhich every change is a Convulsion fitt and on the account of decency and of compliance vvith the universal Church yet vvhen others do dogmatize and put conscience in the not doing them and stand at such a distance from them as to chuse Schisme Disobedience and Sedition rather and therefore must needs look upon damnation in them these differences make as great a gulfe and châ—sme as that vvhich does divide Dives from Abraham's bosom It is one God one Faith one VVorship makes hearts one Hands lifted up together in the â—emple they vvill joyn and elasp and so Religion does fulfill its name à religando binds Prince and Subjects all together and they vvho thus do seek the Lord their God vvill also seek David their King God's next direction and my second part 2. And here three things offer themselves a King their King and David their King I am not here to read a Lecture of State policy upon a vie of Governments vvhy seek a King not any other sort of Government and vvhy their King one that already was so by the right of Succession not vvhom addresses or election should make so And though I think t were easie to demonstrate only Monarchy had ever a divinâ— or natural original and that elective Monarchy is most unsafe and burthensome full of dangerous and uneasie consequences and this so much to sight that choice for the most part bounds it self proves but a ceremony of Succession yet this I need not do for I am dealing vvith the Jews vvho had God's judgement in the case and his appointment too and to me that is argument enough And vvhen God hath declard for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof many at once as in a Common-wealth or many several families successively for so God reckons also one or many 't is still vve see David their King while 't is in David's line and so the King does truly never die while his race lives If either of these many be Gods punishment for the sins of a land I vvill not say that they vvho love the many Princes love the transgressions which God plagues so but I will say they who do chuse that which God calls his plague that quarrel for his vengeance and vvith great strife and hazard take
had defil'd his dwelling places to the ground and by his ancient gists of remove he vvas certainly gone There was indeed exceeding much Religion among us yet God knows almost none at all while Christianity was crumbled into so many so minute professions that 't was divided into little nothings and even lost in a crowd of it self while each man was a Church every single professor vvas a vvhole multitude of Sects And in this tumult this riot of faiths if the son of man should have come could he have found any faith in the Land Vertue vvas out of countenance and practice while prosperous and happy Villany usurped its name vvhile Loyalty and conscience of oaths and duty vvere most unpardonable crimes to vvhich nothing but ruine vvas an equal punishment and all those guilts that make the last times perillous Blasphemy disobedience truce-breakings and Treasons Schisms and Rebellions with all their dismal consequences and appendages for these are not single personal crimes these have a politick capacity all these did not onely walk in the dress of piery and under holy Masks but were themselves the very form of Godliness by which 't was constituted and distinguished the Signature of a party of Saints the Constellation of their graces And on the other side the detestation of such hypocrisie made others Libertines and Atheists vvhile seeing men such holy counterfeits so violent in acting and equally engag'd for every false religion made them conclude there vvas none true or in earnest And all this vvas because vve vvere without our King for 't was the only interest of all those usurpations that vvere to contrive and preserve it thus And vvhen vve had roll'd thus through every form of Government addrest to each mov'd every stone and rais'd each stone to the top of the Mount but every one still tumbled down again and ours like Sisyphus's labour was like to have no end onely restless and various Calamity Necessity then counsell'd us and we applied to God's directions in the Text I know not whether in his method but it is plain we did seek David our King And my heart is towards the Governoâ—rs of Israel that offer'd themselves willingly among the people bless ye the Lord yea Thou ô Lord bless them May all the blessings which this was the birth-day of all that my Text encloses all the goodness of the Lord be the sure portion of them and their Families may they see the King in his beauty and peace upon Israel and may their Names be blest in their posterities for evermore We sought him with the violent impatiences of necessitous and furious desires and our eyes that had even fail'd with looking for him did even fail with looking on him as impotent and as unsatisfied in our fruitions as expectations and he was entertain'd with as many tears as pray'd for as one vvhom not our Interests alone but our guilts had endear'd to us and our tears he vvas as necessary to us as repentance as vvithout vvhom it vvas impossible for us to repent and return from those impieties to him of usurping his rights of exiling of murthering him by wants because vve could not doe it by the Axe or Sword vvithout him ' t vvas impossible for us to give over the committing these and the tears that did vvelcome him vvere one of our best lavers to vvash off that blood that vve had pull'd upon our selves One endear'd also to us by God's most miraculous preservations of him for us We cannot look upon his life but as the issue of prodigious bounty snatch'd by immediate Providence out of the gaping jaws of tyrannous usurping mutherous malice merely to keep him for our needs and for this day One vvhom God had train'd up and manag'd for us just as he did prepare David their King at thirty years of age to take possession of that Crown vvhich God had given him by Samuel about twelve years before and in those years to prepare him for Canaan by a VVilderness to harden him vvith discipline that so the luxuries and the effeminacies of a Court might not emaseclate and melt him by constant Watches cares and business to make him equal for habituated to careful of and affected vvith the business of a Kingdome and by constraining him to dwell in Mesech vvith Aliens to his Religion to teach him to be constant to his own and to love Sion And hath he not prepared our David so for us and vve hope hath prepared for him too the first dayes of David having no Sheba in the Field nor Achitophel in the Councel nor an Abiathar in the Temple not in that Temple vvhich himself hath rais'd God having made him instrument of that vvhich he vvould not let David doe building his house and furnishing it vvith all its Offices and making it fit for God to meet us in vvhen vve do seek him also vvhich vvas the other perquisite of our Condition There never vvas so much pretence of seeking God as in those late dayes of his absence from us and it should seem indeed vve knevv not vvhere to find him vve took such several vvayes to seek him But if God did look down from heaven then as he did Psal. 14. to see if any did understand and seek after God should he not then have found it here as there They are altogether gone out of the way their throat is an open scpulchre with their tongues have they deceived the poison of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and unhappiness is in their wayes and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes They eat up my people as it were bread and vvhich is vvorse in these then them they even then call upon God as if they craved a blessing from the Lord upon that meal that did devour his people and when they did seek God they meant to find a prey Yet where were any others that did seek him or that do cleave to him novv The Schtsmatick does not seek God who shuns the place where he appears and meets and dwells nor does he cleave to God vvho tears himself off from the Lord's body Mark such as cause divisions saith S. Paul and avoid them and if all Christians must avoid them then I am sure God is not vvith them The other Schismaticks that divide from the World by cutting off the World from them do they seek God that are diverted by so many Saints and Angels that terminate divinest Worship in a creature or do they cleave to God when their devotion embraceth stocks and stones or did they seek God for the purpose of my Text who did not seek David their King but did apply themselves to several forein Princes and to others which they hoped would setup their Golden calf Incendiaries that make fires and raise commotions these are farre from God for
the Lord vvas not in the fire or in the Earth-quake but in the still small voice in the soft whispers of peace and love The Atheist he that says in his heart there is no God will not seek God you may be sure nor does he care to seek David hâ— King who is equally well under all Governments that will allow his Licences and who hath no Religion to tie him to any If he at all disliked the former it was upon reasons of Burthen or of Pride or Libertinism So much Religion though counterfeâ—t was a reproach to him and the face of such strictness was uneasie to him These are so far from seeking God that God says these did drive him out of Israel Ezek. 9. 9. And then when that hath so long been the Wit that it is now the Complexion of the Age and they who thought fit to shew their not being Hypocrites by License and â—o give it an easie word by drollery in sacred things have now made nothing to be sacred to them how shall the Lord dwell among such they are enough to exorcise God out of a Nation The Hypocrite also for all his Fasts and Prayers never did seek God for he is but a whited Sepulchre our Saviour says Now who would seek the Living God among the dead the Lord of Life sure is not to be found in Graves Golgotha was a plate to cruciâ—ie him in not worship him He takes not in the Ait of Funeral Vaults for Incense it was a Demoniack that used to be among the Tombs The subtle false and faithless men that walk in mazes never shall meet God these are the windings and the tracts of the Old Serpent and they lead onely to his habitation They that do climb as if they meant to finde God on his own Throne that follow Christ up to a pinnacle of the Temple or to the top of that exceeding high Mount whence they can over-look the glories of the World and pick and chuse these do not go to seek Christ there It is the Devil that does carry up â—nither upon his own designs Not is it possible to seek the Lord in the wavs that lead to the strange VVomans House for her House is the way to Hell Solomon says and he did know nay more Her steps take hold on Hell seise on those everlasting burnings which her foul heats kindle and begin In a word they that seek their own that turn all meerly to their advantage they cannot seek God too he will not be joynt God with Mammon And then where are the men that â—ought him that did retrive him to us or with whom does he dwell If he be not among us we do in vain flatter our selves in our prosperity and peace gawd it in all our bright appearances Have we not seen the Sun rise with a glory of day about him and mounting in his strength chase away all the little receptacles and recesses of the night not leave a cloud to shelter the least relicks of her darkness or any spot to checquer or to fleck the countenance of day when strait a small handful of vapor rais'd by that Sun it self did creep upon his face and by little and little getting strength bedasht his shine and pour'd out as full streams of storm as he had done of light till it even put out the day and shed a night upon the Earth in spight of him So may prosperity it self if the Lord and his blessing be not in it raise that which will soon overcast and benight the most glorious condition of a Nation That Wine which now makes your hearts glad may prove like that which did commit the Centaures and the Lapithae first kindle Lusts then VVars and at last onely fill a Cup of trembling and astonishment and that oyl that does make you chearful countenances may make your paths slippery and nourish flames that will devour and ruine all But God vvho is found of them that seek him not nay who himself sought the lost Sheep and carried him when with his straying he was wearied into impossibility of a return has also sought and found and brought together us and our great Shepherd For this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes These ways of his also are so past finding out that we may well conclude they are the meer footsteps of his incomprehensible goodness and we have onely now to fear that goodness But give me leave to say Those that despise his goodness do not fear it and they whom it does not lead to repentance do despise it S. Paul says Rom. 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-sufferance not knovving that the goodness of the Lord leads thee to repentance And now O Lord what sort of men among us hath thy goodness wrought upon and made repent Those whom it was directed to convince and came on purpose to to prove by their own onely argument they had of providential Miracles they were not in the right but that destruction and misery vvere in their vvays yet these chuse rather to deny their own conclusions and resist Gods goodness then to be convinced and repent For we have seen them as bold Martyrs to their Sin as ever any to Religion signalize their resolv'd impenitence with chearful suffering as if the fire they were condemn'd to were that Triumphal Chariot in which the Prophet mounted up to Heaven Others that did not go so far in condemnation nor guilt as they and therefore think they have no reason to repent of that do they repent of what they did contribute to it Of those that lifted up their hands to swear and fight how many are there that have made them fall and smite their own thigh saying VVhat have I done Do not all rather justifie as far as they themselves proceeded and if all that were well why do not we repent of our Allegiance and Lovalty if all that were well what hath thy goodness done O Lord that hath reverst it all And for the rest those that do not partake the plenties of thy goodness murmure and repine at it are discontent at having what they prayed for what they would have died for Those that have been partakers of it have turned it into vvantonness have made it furnish them for base unworthy practices such as have not the generosity of Vice have not a noble manly wickedness are poltron sins have made it raise a cry on the Faithfullest party the best Cause and the purest Church in the World While we have debauched Gods own best Attribute made his goodness procure for our most wicked or self-ends and the face of things is so vicious in every order and degree and sex that But the Confession is onely fit for Litanies and we have need to make the burthen of ours be Lord give us some afflictions again send out thy Indignation for we do fear thy goodness it