Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60140
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No peace to the wicked a sermon preached on the fast-day, May 23, 1694, being the day appointed by authority for a general and publick fast in London and Westminster, &c ... / by John Shower.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S3676; ESTC R454
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31,697
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42
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pleased than I should be with your eating and drinking You might as well have let it alone and bestowed your time otherwise Your very Confession of Sins will witness against you if you do not forsake them To what purpose is your Mourning and Lamentation and hanging down the Head for part of a day Is it unto me saith the Lord. It is not at all unto me except you repent and turn from your evil Ways Your Sighs and sad Looks your Confessions and Deprecations all your Complaints and all your Expressions of Sorrow Mourning and Humiliation without this avail nothing unless your Souls be humbled and broken unless you abhor your Sins and loath them and resolve against them and henceforward be watchful and diligent in earnest to overcome and mortify your Lusts and turn to God and live to him O that some may be able to say that from this Fast-day I began to turn to the Lord with all my Heart and put away the Evil of my doings from before his Eyes Believe it therefore and consider it that unless you put away the Evil of your Doings the Evil that is in your Tabernacles in your Houses in your Trades in your Families c. you cannot expect Peace We may go on lamenting one Calamity after another bewailing this and the other Grievance and be never the better while we neglect the Cause while those Lusts and Vices are still reigning spreading and increasing which provoke God to plague and punish an unreformed People If we would be rid of Judgments or prevent them we must begin where the Judgment begins Our Lord knew this when he saith to the Paralytick who came for Cure of his Disease Thy Sins are forgiven thee Let me urge and inforce this 1. By calling you to consider the Miseries of War and the Blessings of Peace Most of us know little what it is to live in a Country that for many Years is the Seat of War to have a Bloody Enemy at your Gates or rude Souldiers domineering in your Houses or to have them pillaged every Week or laid in Ashes at once to have your Children wallowing in Blood before your Eyes Virgins perishing under the Lusts of profligate Villains Widows mourning for the dead and hardly daring to show they mourn To have no Children left to the Father or Husband to the Wife or Money to the Rich or Clothing to the Delicate and they that were brought up in Scarlet to imbrace Dunghils weltering in their own Tears or Blood You would hardly have Patience to hear the recital of what others have suffered Look abroad and consider the Countries round about us behold and see what sad Characters of Misery and Ruin are engraven or rather plowed on the Persons Houses Fields Vineyards Cities Churches c. of our Neighbours Yesterday or a day or two ago saith one I and my Family were in Peace and Safety and had Food and Rayment Liberty and Plenty I have now no House to harbour me no Food to nourish me or Money to buy it and hardly Clothes left to cover my Shame and Nakedness A few days ago I slept quietly in my own House and Bed but now I have no Place or Pillow but Jacob's Pillow of Stone whereon to lay my Head My Father is kill'd or taken Prisoner saith another my dear and tender Father who nourish'd and sustain'd me and now he is not or is a miserable Captive and hath hardly Bread to sustain himself Or Parents bewail the loss of a beloved Son My Son that was the Staff of my Age the Joy of my Heart and Stay of my Family the Comfort of my Life he is imprisoned by a cruel Oppressor or he is mortally wounded or he is dead The Widow bemoans the loss of a tender Husband made nearer by God than Father or Mother snatcht away by an untimely Death whom she shall see no more So the Brother the Kinsman the Neighbour the Friend each lamenting the Desolation the Sword hath made Let us mix Thankfulness to God for our selves with our Pity and Compassion and Mourning for the Calamities of others who have hitherto suffered more than we We do not hear the Voice of the Spoiler in our Borders We hear not the murdering Pieces about our Ears We see not our Houses and Churches and Places of publick Worship flaming over our Heads We do not behold our pleasant and beautiful Dwellings in Ashes where we traded feasted and slept in Peace nor are turn'd out to the Streets or Fields for Shelter not knowing where to look for Security for our selves or nearest Relations seeing some of them slain before our Eyes or not knowing where they are whether alive or dead hearing the confused Out-cries and Skrieks of our distressed Neighbours mingled with the Noise of French or Irish Souldiers killing or encouraging to kill You have not seen tender Babes snatcht from the Breasts of their Mothers bleeding on the Stones or sprawling and strugling for Life on the Souldiers Pikes and the distressed Mother ravish'd it may be e're she have leave to die You have not seen the ghastly Visage of Death deform'd with Wounds and Men and Horses wallowing in their mangled Blood and the amazed helpless People running to and fro to escape but know not how or whither Others have seen and known such tragical Effects of War let us mourn for them and let us be thankful that as yet we do not Let us improve the Day of our Visitation our Civil and Religious Liberty lest the things of our Peace should be hid from our Eyes 2. Consider that it is God alone that can give Peace Our Business is with God in order to an happy Issue of this War It is he must prevent or conclude and shorten the Miseries of War He that is the Lord of Hosts who makes Wars to cease to the Ends of the Earth He must make our Officers Peace He that works all our Works for us must ordain Peace for us Isa 26.12 that Violence shall no more be heard It is He that strengthens the Bars of our Gates and makes Peace in our Borders Psal 147.14 c. and feeds us with the finest of the Wheat It is He who keeps our City and guards our Island and can prosper our Fleet and Armies He turns Swords into Plow-shares and Spears into Pruning-hooks and sheaths the Sword when it hath done his Work It is by the Restraint of his Providence that the Inhabitants of the Earth learn War no more He sits upon the Floods and stills the Waves and sets Bounds to the Raging of the Sea to the Lusts of Princes and to the Tumults of the People He can take the Obstacles of Peace out of the way when we expect it not He hurles Princes from their Thrones and sets up others in their room He breaks their Scepters in pieces as easily as you can a Venice-Glass He over-rules their Designs he can change their Counsels break their Measures blast