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A90689 Englands season for reformation of life. A sermon delivered in St. Paul's Church, London. On the Sunday next following His Sacred Majesties restauration. By Tho. Pierce, rector of Brington. Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691. 1660 (1660) Wing P2183; Thomason E1027_17; ESTC R203182 21,118 38

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deliverance in how many respects we are the better for all that good that is done unto us The third Reason is because our dangers are greater in time of Peace and Prosperity then in time of distresse and persecution and so we have need of the greater caution Agur prayed against poverty for fear of stealth but he prayed against riches for fear of atheism If Jesurun wax fat he falls a kicking and quite forgets the God that made him Deut. 32. 15. If Nabal is drunk with the prosperity of sheering the Innocent and harmlesse Sheep it is no time to tell him that either David or God is Angry Nay David himself in his prosperity began to boast he should never be moved Psal. 30. 6. From fulnesse of bread ariseth Idlenesse and Pride and those we know were the sins of Sodom When God rain'd Manna upon his people and gave them all that they desired Then saith the Text they were not estranged from their lusts But when he slew them they sought him and enquired early after God Psal. 78. 24 35. If ever any mortall was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is the White boy of Fortune and speciall favorite of the Fates as the heathens phras'd it the Youth of Macedon was sure the Man But though he could not be overcome by the strength of all Asia he was by the Weakness and softness of it T was this made Cato cry out in Livy Quo magis imperium crescit eo plus horreo The more our Territories increase the more I tremble for fear the Kingdoms which we have taken do prove indeed to have taken Us He knew that where the Soul is not commensurate with the successe the Pride arising from the victory doth so defile and sully the glory of it that the prize may be said to lead the Triumph into Captivity It is so naturall for a man to be transported with prosperity that it extorted from Moses an extraordinary caveat before he could safely admit his people to the delights of Canaan When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the Land to give thee great and goodly Cities and houses full of all good things Then beware that thou forget not the Lord which brought the out of the land of Egypt Deut 6. 10. 12. and so again in the 8 chapter when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein Then beware least thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the house of Bondage T is a dangerous thing to be imparadis'd on Earth because in every such paradise there lurks a Serpent The Fourth reason is Because it is better to have a conquering then an untempted Innocence To live exactly in despight of solicitations to the contrary is more thank-worthy and more Rewardable then only to want the Importunity or Opportunity to offend A man may easily be submissive whilst he is under a persecution and study compliance when he is worsted But 't is as laudable as it is difficult if we who sought even for victory whilst we were trodden under foot shall sue for peace in our Prosperity That which makes us most high in the sight of God is our Humility for which there is hardly any place in our Humiliation But the Taller any man is by so much the lower he hath to stoop and so 't is the Benefit of success to be Remarkable for Modesty and Moderatien That especially is the season wherein our Armour of light is of most honorable Employment when the Prince of darkness hath most auxiliaries within and our Lusts are made Ablest to warr against us The fift Reason is because there is no other way whereby to prevail with God Almighty both to complete that happiness he hath begun and to continue it to us when so compleated I say to compleat it being begun because the night is farr spent but not quite over The day is dawning or at hand but not arrived at its Meridian Gods Anointed is setled but not his spouse Many are sorry for their sacriledge but do not earnestly repent Or they repent a fair way as farr as Ahab but not with Zachae the Publican as far as a four fold Restitution Many who sinned out of Ignorance in a very high and hainous manner do stifly argue their being Innocent from their not apprehending that they were guilty But because Repentance is better for them then a meer Temporall Impunity they should be intreated to consider and put it a little to the question whether their Ignorance was not caused by the Previous Dominion of some great Prejudice which had also its Rise from some Reigning sin Alas The Jews were too guilty of killing Christ although they knew not what they did for had they known him they would not have crucified to themselves the Lord of glory But yet I say they were guilty because their Ignorance was not invincible It was their guilt that they were Ignorant they might have known what they did if they had not stood in their own Light If men will either wink hard or fling dust in their eyes It is not only their Infirmity but their fault that they are blind Saul the Pharisee was excused indeed a Tanto for having blasphemed against God and also persecuted the Church because he did it in Ignorance and unbelief But however it did alleviate it did not nullifie his sins For to become the Apostle Paul he stood in need of a Conversion Now if we do not only earnestly but also rationally desire to see a sutable end or rather no end at all of these fair Beginnings that the Temple of Janus may so be shut by our Augustus as never more to be open'd by any Caesar and that this Day of our Deliverance may never more be overcast with a cloud of darkness but happily lost into Eternity we cannot better give Thanks to God for the present breaking in of our glorious day then by an annuall day of Fasting for the clamorous sins of our tedious Night I mean the Profanation of Holy Places the sacrilegious perversion of Holy things the monstrous Harmony of Oaths which some have fancied to arise from the greatest discord the effusion of innocent and not only so but of Royal blood with all the Preparatives and attendants of that unspeakable Provocation which of it self doth deserve and that for ever a monthly day of Humiliation It was the policy of Balaam saith Philo the Jew to make the Moabitish Women sell the use of their flesh to the Hebrew Men and that for no other price then their sacrificing to Idols As knowing that the Hebrews were not otherwise to be worsted then by their own breaches of Gods Commandements And we know not how soon our dawning day may grow dark if we do not cast off the works of darkness Which implies a good reason for the word therefore in the Text as 't is a particle of connexion betwixt the Duty and the Deliverance Now unto the King Eternall Immortall Invisible the only Wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever 1 Tim. 1. 17. FINIS Act. 5. 41. Heb. 12. 3. John 7. 12. John 8. 34. John 3. 20. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1 Thes. 3 3. That no man should be moved by these afflictions for your selves know that we are appointed thereunto Heb. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 6. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 4 13. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Diod. Sicul Rom. 1. 30. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Eph. 4. 31. Eph. 4. 3. Psal. 82. 6. Exo. 22. 28. 2 Cor. 7. 11. * Matth. 24. 40. † Mat. 24. 38. * See Doctor Hammond of blessed memory upon the place and the texts by him referred to * In Allegoriâ ●enendum est hoc ut quo in genere incipias eodem desmas aliter consequentia fit turpissima Quintilian * Vers 13. † Eph. 5. 8. Matth. 6 24. Luk. 4. 21. Haec olim meminisse juvabit * 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. † Cappadoces inquit Strabo {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Strab. l. 12. p. 540. c. Thucdy l. 3. p. 227. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. * Isa. 14. 23. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Polyb. l. 6. p. 458. * Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Polyb. Megalop l. 6. p. 456 457 458. † Salvae sint Episcopis omnes Libertates suae Mag. Chart. c. 1. ult. * 1 Tim. 5. 17. Rom. 13. 1. Heb 13. 7 17. Deut. 4. 32. See the first and last Chap. of the 42. of Edward the third * Cum adversus Rempublicam Lacedamoniorum conspirationem ortam noctu comperisset Leges Lycurgi continuo abrogavit quae de Indemnatis supplicium sumi vetabant Val Max. lib 7 cap. 2. pag. 208. Luke 1. 71. 74 75. Amos 6. 3. Verse 6. Psa. 50. 14. James 4. 7. Eph. 6. 13. Gal. 5. 14. 1 Joh. 1. 5. 1 Joh. 4. 8. 1 Pet. 2. 23 Eph. 4. 32. Jude 22. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 11. Lev. 19. 17. 2 Joh. 10. 11. Isa. 42. 3. Mat. 12. 20. Mat. 18. 22. Herodot. l. 1. p. 17. Heb. 12. 29. Eccles. 12. 13 2 Pet. 1. 19. Joh. 13. 15. Luk. 9. 54. Mat. 26. 50. Rom. 8. 26. Ecclus. 3. 18. Ps. 119. 71. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Philo {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 552. 2 Cor 5. 10. Prov. 30. 8 9 Ne illae magis res nos ceperint quam nos illas Liv. lib. 34. p. 849. Deut. 6. 10 11 12. See Deut. 8. 10. to 18. Sueton. l. 2. c. 22. p. 66. Florus l. 4. c. 12. p. 136. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Philo p. 501 cenfer cum Num. 25. Num. 31. 16.
to the eighth verse of this Chapter you will see the great fitness of all I say and that my Text cannot be satisfied unless I say it For he that saith in this place by the Spirit of God Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers doth also say by the same Spirit Obey them that have the Rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God and who do watch for your souls as those that must render an Accompt And the Interest of the former is so entwisted with the later That untill our Bishops receive their Right though we are glad to have our King we may rationally fear we shall not hold him For ask I beseech you of the dayes that are past and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other if ever there were any such thing as This that a King could be happy without a Bishop Lord What an Epocha will it make in our future Kalendars when men shall reckon from this Year as from the signal Year of Restitution But then like that which Saint Peter mentions Acts 3. 21. The Restitution is to be general as well to God as to the People And you will find in Magna Charta which doth deserve to be imprinted in all your memories That all the Rights of the Church were entirely granted unto God They were granted unto God and that for ever Now of so sacred a force is the word For ever That if a Statute shall be made against the Liberties of the Church The Law of the Land hath provided against That Statute And by an Anticipation declares it Null Shall I guesse at the cause of so great a Caution It seems to be as for other Reasons so in Particular for This Because to alter that Government was as well against the Kings Oath as against the Oathes of both Houses which swore the Right of his Supremacy as well in all Ecclesiastical as Civil causes Besides that in the Judgement of the most eminent in the world for depth of knowledge in holy things The order of Bishops is by Divine Institution And if it is so in good earnest it will be dangerous to deal with the Laws of Christ as we reade * Agesilaus once dealt with those of Lacedaemon which he pretended onely to abrogate that he might not break them But whether so or not so a thing in Being and debate is to pass for good untill the Dispute shall be fairly ended And if an Errour must be adventur'd on either hand Religion tells us it ought to be upon the Right Would any know why I insist upon such a subject in such a place my Reasons for it are plainly These First I insist upon such a subject because my Text as I said doth exact it of me And because 't is my duty at least to wish That the day breaking forth may be full and lasting That the Repentance of the Nation may be impartiall and so to our SOVERAIGNS RETURN there may be added his continuance in Peace and safety I say in safety not more to his Person then his Posterity Not insafety for a season so long as men are well humoured but so long as the Sun or the Moon endureth And then for you of this Place who are an honourable part of the English Nation that which I take to be your Duty I think is your interest to endeavour The most I am pressing on you is this That you will labour for the means of your being happy If you think you cannot be happy with the establishment of the Prelacy I shall pray you may be happy at least without it and also wish I may be able to pray with Faith too Onely as often as I reflect on King JAMES his motto No Bishop no King and withall do consider its having been verified once and before our eyes I think it my duty to desire it may not be verified any more But that it may rather be here applyed what was spoken heretofore of the Spartan Lawes ut semper esse possent aliquando non fuerunt They onely ceased for a Time that they might continue to all eternity These are sincerely the very Reasons for which I insist upon such a subject Secondly I do it in such a place because I look upon This Assembly as on the Head and the Heart of the Royall City I look on the City as on a Sea into which the main stream of the nation runns Even the Parliament it self hath such a respect unto the City that if you plead for God's Spouse as you have done for his Anointed for which your names will be pretious with late posterity if you shall supplicate for a Discipline which is as old in this land as Christianity it self and stands established in Law by thirty two Acts of Parliament and without which you cannot live unless by living under the breach of your greatest charter they will not only be apt to grant but to thank you also for your Petition Having gone thus far in prosecution of the Advertisment That the Night of our suffring is fairly spent and that the day of our injoyment begins to dawn And having directed unto the means with submission be it spoken to all Superiours by which our Day is to be lengthned not only into a year but into an Age of Jubilee to be made a kind of perpetuall Sabbath a Day of Rest from those works which either wanted Light or were ashamed of it which either borrowed Darkness for their Cover or else which owned it for their Cause I humbly leave what I have said to his acceptance and disposall in the Hand of whose Counsell are all your Hearts T is more then time that I proceed to the general use of this advertisment to which I am prompted by the word Therefore as 't is a word of connexion betwixt the duty and the deliverance Our Apostle does not thus argue Because the Night of Oppression is now farr spent and the day of deliverance is hard at hand Let us therefore injoy the good things that are present let us stretch our selves upon beds of Ivory let us crown our selves with Rose-buds let us drink wine in bowles and let us dance to the sound of the viol let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every street let none of us go without his share of voluptuousness for this is our portion our lot is this I say he doth not thus reason like the swaggerers and Hectors in the second chapt. of Wisdom and in the sixt of the Prophet Amos but on the contrary That the serious consideration of an approaching deliverance should be a double enforcement to change of life for such is evidently the force of the particle {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as that looks back on the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Because the night is farr spent and because the day is at hand {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} let
us therefore cast off those works of darkness and let us therefore put on the Armour of light As if he should have said At this very Time and for this very reason let us live better lives then we did before let us buckle up close to our Christian duties The Reformation of our manners will be the properest Answer to such a blessing Such also was the Reasoning which Moses used to the People Israel Did ever people hear the voice of God as thou hast heard and live Deut. 4. 33. Thou shall keep therefore his statutes that it may go well with thee v. 40. so again Deut. 8. 6 7. The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good Land Therefore thou shalt keep the Commandments of the Lord Such was the reasoning of Zacharie in his divine Benedictus That the use we are to make of being saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us is to serve the Authour of our deliverance in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life What now remains but that we go and do likewise Not arguing thus from our late great changes Because the Night of our suffrings is well nigh spent and the day of Restitution is hard at hand let us therefore put from us the evill day and cause the seat of violence to come neer for now it comes to our Turn to oppress the poor and to crush the helpless and to call Our strength the law of Justice let us never so much as think of the afflictions of Joseph Let our joy run out into debaucherie and surfet into the braveries of vanity and the Injoyments of our lust or at the best let us express it by the making of Bonfires and Ringing of Bells by solemn drinking of bealths and casting of Hats into the Air whereby to make the World see that we are glad rather than thankfull But let us manifest on the contrary and let us do it by demonstration that we are piously thankfull as well as glad Because the Day of good things breaks in upon us Let us Therefore offer to God thanksgiving and pay our vowes unto the Lord Our Vowes of Allegiance and Supremacy Our Vows to assert and maintain our Charters Our Vows to live according to Law and obey the Canons of the Church But above all let us pay him our Vow in Baptisme by forsaking the World before we leave it by subduing the Flesh unto the Spirit by resisting the Divel untill he Flyes That whilst God is making all new without us we may not suffer our Hearts within us to be the only things remaining Old But rather on the contrary that we may prove we are in Christ by that demonstrative argument of our becoming new creatures which untill we do become we cannot possibly be in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17. Do the two Twin Blessings of Peace and Plenty which have been for many years at so low an ebb begin to flow in upon you from every quarter Then let not your souls be carried away with the pleasant violence of the Tide Let not any Man seek great things for himself but rather study to deserve then to injoy them Make no provision for the Flesh whereby to fulfill the lusts thereof but put ye On the Lord Jesus Christ and adorne his Doctrine by a conformity to his Life Put on his Modesty and his Temperance in a perfect opposition to rioting and Drunkenness put on his chastity and his purenesse in opposition to chambering and wantonnesse put on his bowels and his mercy in opposition to strife and envy You know I told you in the beginning that Loyalty and Love are the two grand duties at which this Chapter doth chiefly drive And having been instant for the first in the former part of my discourse I think it a duty incumbent on me to be as urgent for the second For Love is part of that Armour my Text commandeth us to put on Nay considering that Love is the fulfilling of the Law in the next verse but one before my Text the armour of Light May be said to be the armour of Love too Love must needs be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the whole armour of God in as much as it comprehendeth the fulfilling of the law As one Scripture tells us that God is light so another tells us that God is Love and therefore the Children of light must be the children of Love too Then let the same minde be in us which was in Christ Jesus who when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to God who judgeth righteously And let us prove this mind is in us by our forbearing one another forgiving one another Even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us As we are stones of that temple in which the Head of the Corner is Christ himself He meant his Blood should be the Cement to fasten every one of us to One another and all together unto himself And since we see that Disloyalty is taking it's leave throughout the Land le ts rather shut the Door after it by Love and Unity then by breaches and Divisions open a way for its Return Let us effectually make it appear by the modest use of our Injoyments Pacem Bello quaesitam esse That we fought only for peace and Contended only for Union that the end of our strife was our agreement that we aimed at truth rather than victory or rather at the victory of Truth and Righteousness Let our generous deportment become an evidence that as the greatest of our calamities could not bow down our heads so the greatest of our injoyments cannot trip up our heeles That as Crosses could not deprive us of Hope and comfort so the Tide of our Prosperity shall but illustrate our Moderation But above all let us distinguish betwixt our weak and our wilfull Brethren Of some St. Jude saith we must have compassion making a difference But Others he saith we must save with fear pulling them Out of the fire That is we must save them even by making them afraid We must shew them the terrors of the Lord and fright them out of the way to Hell We must in any wise rebuke them and must not suffer sin upon them It is a rule amongst Musitians that if a string is but True 't is to be cherisht though never so grosly out of tune but to be broken if it is false because incapable of amendment Some are so Scandalous that we must not receive them into Our House nor bid them God speed For to bid them God speed is to partake of their Evil deeds 2 Joh. 10. 11. But there is nothing more Barbarous than not to hold from the breaking a bruized reed or from the quenching a smoaking flax Nothing but Pardon belongs to Penitents although they may have sin'd against us no lesse then seventy times seven It is an excellent