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A70902
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A sermon preached before the King and Queen at White-Hall, April XVI, 1690 being the fast-day / by ... Symon, Lord Bishop of Chichester.
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing P849; ESTC R22929
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18,665
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44
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were such an Heart in them that they would fear me and keep my Commandments always that it might be well with them c. Where he speaks as if it were not in his own Power to bless them unless they would fear and obey him always because God cannot do that at all which he cannot do consistently with his Wisdom Justice and Honour And however Divine Providence may please to order things in those Nations who are not so nearly related to him yet we cannot but think he will deal with us Christians who are now become what they were his peculiar People by the very same Measures he dealt with them that is Bless us or Curse us according as we observe or break his Holy Laws But I see no reason to question his making this distinction even among Infidels who know not the Laws of Jesus Christ if we may judge of what he doth now by what he did in ancient times When the Heathens themselves observed this difference as appears by the Writers of the Roman Story who take notice that while they were strict observers of the Law of Nations and continued Religious frugal industrious sober and moderate as they were in their beginning God's Blessing rested upon them and they prospered wonderfully whithersoever they went But when they grew impious luxurious broke their Faith abounded with all manner of Vice they soon dwindled grew weak and lost their large Dominions they had in the World And had they been at the first rise of their Empire as vain as the Greeks to use the Words of a great Divine of our own in the days before us Dr. Jackson as Luxurious as the Asiaticks as Perfidious as the Carthaginians as uncivil and Barbarous as many other Nations whom they conquer'd they could not have been so constantly fortunate in their Enterprizes at home and abroad as they were for many years God indeed is a debter to no body but such is his Bounty such his love to Righteousness of whatsoever sort it be That he will not suffer moral Vertue civil Justice Honesty and Truth and constant execution of Laws which in their kind and degree are good to be wholly unrewarded But by such means any Nation in the World may be exalted above those who are otherways disposed How much more then may Christian People expect this Favour from the Lord in the faithful observance of his holy Laws Did true Righteousness for instance prevail in this Christian Kingdom what an happy People might we be As happy as we have made our selves notorious to all the World for the Punishments God hath inflicted on us What were the late Civil Wars and the woful Effects of them but the Calamities which God sent upon a sinful People for our disobedience to him And since the wonderful Restoration of the Royal Family and the Monarchy What were the Pestilence the Fire and other Judgments which presently ensued but tokens of God's continued displeasure against us for our abuse of his loving-kindness We rioted upon his Mercies We waxed fat and kicked against him we abandon'd our selves to Lust Pride and Idleness and to all manner of Debauchery nay to Irreligion Atheism and Infidelity for which cause those heavy Calamities fell upon us And what was the effect of them After we had felt the smart of so many terrible Judgments we fell into such implacable Animosities and deadly Hatreds one against another that we drew upon our selves the greatest Plague of all that of Popery Which had set up its Chappels Schools and Convents among us and had not God's Mercy prevented by our late marvellous Deliverance would have brought in those Whipps and Gibbets and Racks and Fires and other Instruments of Crueity wherewith we have seen it torturing the Bodies and Souls of innumerable good Men and Women in France and in other places And shall we still adventure to continue an unreformed Nation because God hath spared us from utter ruine After all this is come upon us for our evil Deeds as Ezra speaks and for our great Trespass and after he hath given us such a Deliverance as this which we have lately received shall we again break his Commandments What a strange thing will it be not to believe our own Experience though we would not believe God's Holy Word Which now one would think should have greater credit with us when we have seen it so fully verified in our selves that Sin is a reproach to any People Which in reason should move us to try the Truth of the other part of my Text of which I have now treated and by working Righteousness satisfy our selves how it will exalt us As I have proved it will not only by its own natural Consequences there being no Vertue which tends not to greaten a Nation that lives in the practice of it but by the special Blessing of the Almighty whose Method this is which he constantly observes to bless the righteous and compass him with his favour as with a shield Hear this Wise-man once more Prov. x. 29. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity The way of the Lord that is this is the divine Method to give strength and power to upright men or the very observance of the Rules of vertue which may be meant here by the way of the Lord the keeping close to God's Laws and walking in his ways inspires the Upright with courage and resolution when any evil threatens them but the workers of iniquity are seeble and poor spirited and shall be broken in pieces by that destruction which is coming upon them His Father gives the reason of it Psal xii ult The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Let us love righteousness then that we may be beloved of the Lord. And if we have any Authority let upright men have our countenance and favour as the glory and strength of the Nation the Chariots and Horse-men for the safegard of their Countrey that the righteous Lord may countenance us in all our ways and proceedings and we may find him propitious to us on all occasions That 's the use we ought to make of what hath been said 1. First Let every one of us being convinced of these Truths and seriously reflecting on them resolve to consult the safety and happiness of the Kingdom of which we are Members by betaking our selves hereafter to a religious course of life in all holiness and righteousness all our days Let us begin it this day by making it a day not only of humiliation but of serious and unfeigned repentance Let it conclude in solemn Resolutions of amendment of life That as by Wickedness this Nation hath been laid low and made despicable in the eyes of all our Neighbours who neither loved nor feared us because we had forsaken both our own and their true Interest so we may raise the Reputation of it and make it great eminent
and illustrious by the faithful practice of true Religion and Vertue 2. And let us not only make this Resolution but make it good by calling it often to mind by representing to our selves the advantages of sincere piety even in this present life by setling this persuasion in our mind that it is the Interest of the Nation to be religious Which cannot fail to sway our affection to it and what we love we always pursue till we have attained it If we love then our selves if we love our Nation if we love their Majesties our Government our Countrey we shall love righteousness 3. And since Righteousness exalteth a Nation it is our interest to do all we can to exalt righteousness and advance it to the greatest heigth by being zealous of good works We have been very zealous for things of little moment in comparison with the weighty matters of God's Laws very zealous to undo one another and to ruine our Country Let us now be as zealous for our common safety and preservation by bending our most earnest endeavours to provoke one another to love and to good works to be sincerely good our selves and to make others so likewise as much as lies in our power That is devoutly pious strictly just and merciful temperate and sober diligent and industrious in our several Callings and Offices publick spirited zealously concerned for the common good kindly affectioned one to another in brotherly love forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any as earnest against revenge as perhaps we have been for it studying the things that make for peace labouring to convince men of their errors with the meekness of wisdom bearing with those whom we cannot convince by no means quarrelling one with another about different Opinions but joining with one heart and one Soul for the defence of our Religion and our Countrey our Laws and Liberties Then we may promise to our selves the Divine Protection and Blessing God will make us great and powerful and we shall tread upon the necks of our Enemies He will hear our Prayers which we have now made unto him and I hope will continue to make every day because nothing as you have heard can prosper without his Blessing for the safety of Their Majesties and the Success of Their Arms in Their present great Undertaking for the necessary defence of Their People We need not fear what man can do unto us no nor fear the arrows of the Almighty I mean the raging Pestilence nor devouring Fire nor that Flood neither which St. John saw the Dragon pour out of his mouth to drown the Church that is Popish Persecution That grand Oppressor who hath raised himself by methods quite contrary to this of Solomon and as if he intended to disprove the truth of God's word hath indeavoured to exalt his Nation by nothing but Fraud and Forgery Perfidiousness and Perjury by breaking his Faith and violating Leagues and Solemn Treaties by Wrong and Robbery nay by the utmost degree of Cruelty and Barbarity this haughty Oppressor I say who hath ruin'd many other Countries as well as his own shall not be able to hurt us But God will succeed their Majesties in the War wherein we are now engaged against him and make them go on prosperously because of truth meekness and righteousness For since that Nation hath so highly affronted the Divine Majesty as well as abused all Mankind with whom they have had to do as sure as God is in Heaven he will lay them low because they have been so Atheistical as to advance themselves by all manner of Falshood and Treachery Injustice and Cruelty having mockt at those Vertues Truth and Honesty c. without which the World cannot subsist but must be turned into a Wilderness We cannot appoint Times and Seasons unto the Almighty Wisdom but if the universal desire of all Nations could prevail with God we might be confident the time is come wherein he will bring down the high looks of the proud if I may apply the words of the Psalmist to this matter and save the poor afflicted people upon whom he hath trampled with scornful pride and cruelty He and his Adherents cannot long prosper one would think by such impious Politicks as they have practised but the righteous Lord who sitteth in the Throne judging right will make all the World see by the judgment he will execute upon them that he loveth the righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth Vpon the wicked he will rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be their portion to drink But suppose God should defer this Vengeance for some time and suffer him to be a further scourge to a sinful World nay should let him be the rod of his anger to chastise us for our ingratitude to him yet these three things are certainly true 1. First That he will not always bear with impious Oppressors but though hand join in hand as Solomon speaks xi 21. though one oppressor join to help another the wicked shall not go unpunished 2. And that Punishment will be very terrible when it comes For though mercy will soon pardon the meanest as it is in the Book of Wisdom vi 4. yet mighty men shall be mightily tormented because being Ministers of his Kingdom they abused his Power and that wantonly having abundant means to please themselves without doing the least hurt unto others 3. And this Comfort in the mean time may be administred unto all those who have amended their lives and grown better by God's former Judgments or by our late Deliverance that they will find God favourable unto them to protect and deliver them in the needful time of trouble should it please him to let it come again to try them So we are assured by this Wise-man who hath left us Instructions of this kind also You may find a great many together in the beginning of the Eleventh Chapter v. 3 4 5 6. which are all I shall mention The integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness The Sense of all which is this That the highest Wisdom is to be sincerely good There is no Policy comparable to perfect Integrity Which in difficult times will guide and direct a man unto the surest way for his preservation When nothing else will secure him but contrary Courses inevitably lead him unto his ruin God of his Infinite Mercy grant That as we understand these things so we may consider them and lay them to heart yea lay them up in our heart and reflect upon them as frequently as they are repeated in this Book that we