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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92852	England's preservation or, a sermon discovering the onely way to prevent destroying judgements: preached to the Honourable House of Commons at their last solemne fast, being on May, 25. 1642. By Obadiah Sedgwicke Batchelour in Divinity and minister of Coggeshall in Essex. Published by order of that house.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1642 (1642)	Wing S2372; Thomason E150_22; ESTC R212706	31,012	58

England's PRESERVATION OR A SERMON discovering the onely way to prevent destroying JUDGEMENTS Preached to the Honourable HOUSE of COMMONS at their last solemne Fast being on May 25. 1642. BY OBADIAH SEDGWICKE Batchelour in Divinity and Minister of COGGESHALL in Essex Published by Order of that House JEREMIAH 13. 27. O Hierusalem wilt thou not be made cleane When shall it once be LONDON Printed by R. B. for Samuel Gellibrand at the Brazen Serpent in Pauls CHURCH-Yard 1642. To the Honourable House of Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT THis Sermon which I preached by your command and you harkned unto with much acceptance and is now printed by our Order I most humbly present unto your Gracious Patronage and Religious practice It hath this only in it that it is seasonable what one once writ to Aegidius the Abbot of Norinberg concerning Davids words in Psalme 118. They are verba vivenda non legenda That may be affirm'd of the Text I preached on the pith and matter of it should be lived and not heard only Repentance is a living word Alexander as Plutarch Orat. 1. de Alex. 〈◊〉 reports demanded of Porus whom he had surprised what his thoughts were of him he answered I thinke of Alexander Regaliter and that 's enough said hee for in that word all other things are contained the same I may say if any man demands what our sinfull and distracted Kingdome should doe I answer Repent and in that word if lived and done all our safeties and hopes are contained There were 3. things most Honourable Sirs which Luther did feare would prove Melchior Adam in vita Luther p. 157. 158. to bee the Ruine of Religion 1. Oblivion 2 Security 3. Carnall policy The good God overthrow these in our Land least our land be overthrowne by these Though Ministers discover all sorts of sins and though a Parliament discovers all sorts of plots and dangers yet people are setled on their Lee's they will not see nor feare nor humble themselves nor turne to the Lord at all O pray said a dying man in the beginning of the German reformation that God would preserve the Gospell pontifex enim Romanus Concilium Trident. mira moliuntur For the Pope and Councell of Trent are hatching of strange things Ministers say as much and more to people pray be humbled reform For you see what the bloudie Papists have done in Ireland and you heare what they are plotting against England we do thus speak and weepe but man will not hearken and obey They who will not easily see their sins will as hardly beleeve their dangers Fuge fuge Brenti cito citius citissime so friendly did a Senatour of Hala advise Brentius hast hasten make all the hast you can your life is lost else He embraced the advise preserved his life by it O that Gods advises so frequent so earnest so and more safe to humbling and reforming might once bee regarded and followed we shall never be safe if wee ever remaine impenitent As for your selves Honourable Sirs wee have all cause to blesse God for the worthy Acts already done by you and for your further intentions of most excellent good to our Church and Kingdom Ripen these intentions wee pray you into Actions That our Church may be glorious and our State safe and both flourishing and stable good actions are excellent though evill men oppose them nor shal they be therfore the lesse successeful remember that Christ hath conquerd all the world and a world conquerd by Christ shall never be able to conquer truth I have one request which I earnestly present to your selves and the House of Lords It is onely this Hasten what you can Englands Reformation and Irelands preservation In these the good and Almighty God unite strengthen protect and prosper you All To whose everlasting armes you and all your pious endeavours are commended by your daily Oratour Obadiah Sedwicke Die Mercurij 25. May 1642. IT is this day Ordered by the Commons now Assembled in Parliament that Master Harris and Mr. Obadiah Sedgwicke who this day being the day of the publike Fast at the intreaty of the said Commons preached at Saint Margaret Westminster shall have thankes returned them for the great and worthy paines they have taken and that they bee desired to print their Sermons and that no man presume to print them but such as they shall appoint till the House shall take further Order H. Elsyng Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Samuell Gellibrand to print my Sermon Obadiah Sedgwick A Sermon Preached at the late Fast to the Commons House OF PARLIAMENT JEREM. 4. 3. Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem breake up your fallow ground and sow not among Thornes THere is a learned writer who speakes of foure dayes for a sinner Bernard The first is Dies Faetoris A day of loathsomenesse 4. Dayes incident to man and this is the time when the sinner lies rotting in the grave of sin 2. The second Dies Timoris a day of anguish and this is the time when Conscience begins to bee awakened with the sight and sense of sinne 3. The third is Dies Doloris a day of mourning and this is the time when the heart begins to melt into Teares for sinning The fourth is Dies Laboris a day of Combat and this is the time when the penitent and converted soule sets it selfe against the temptations of sin The first of these is the worst of our dayes and yet too common the dead in this sense are more than the living The second of these is a bitter and turbulent day and yet it may prove happie and cheerefull there being more hope of a sore Conscience then of a seared Conscience The two last are like precious Jewels very good but very Rare It is an easie thing to finde sinners but it is not an easie thing to finde mourning sinners and penitent sinners So blinde is the minde of man so perverse is the will of a sinner so prevalent is the love of sinne so desperate is the resolution of an hardned heart that neither the Golden Scepter nor the Iron Rod neither the sweetest mercies nor the sharpest miseries will easily prevaile with sinning man to become a penitent man But though God be leaving though mercies be setting though wrath be approaching though life be short though hell be fearefull yet it is a thousand to one but the sinner remaines under all these constantly wicked or onely deceitfully good A cleare instance whereof you have in the Iewes in this Chapter who notwithstanding they had almost sinned away their God their Country their lives their helpes their hopes And notwithstanding all their warnings by variety of Prophets and all their sufferings by variety of punishments and all their threatnings in variety of Judgments though there was but a step twixt them and death only one mercy twixt them utter destruction by the enemy yet either they totally

neglected the worke or would not bee perswaded throughly to act the duty of Repentance The Lord saw this dangerous obstinacy and pitties it and strives with them to save their soules that they might by this meanes save their Countrey The way he spreads before them is expressed Partly in verse 1. If thou wilt Returne O Israel saith the Lord Returne unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight then thou shalt not Remove q. d. leave thy sinnes and save all Thou hast made many overtures and semblances thereof by Fastings by confessings by prayings Adde now one thing more Repent in good earnest This will bee life to your solemnities and safetie to your Nation Partly in ver 3. Break up your fallow ground and sow not among thornes q. d. If you do not Repent you are undone if you doe repent but not throughly you wil be undone too hypocrisie in good duties as well as profanenesse in bad wayes may ruine a person and Nation A man may as surely be drowned in a ship that hath a leake as when he hath no ship at all Therefore pretend Repentance no longer but act it and when you doe act it act it not slightly but exactly become good and do good to purpose If you regard and follow this Counsell Then as in ver 1. you shall not remove but if you will not hearken unto it then as in ver 4. My fury shall come forth like fire and burne that none can quench it because of the evill of your doings The words of my Text containe in them the principall works of this day which are two 1. A serious humiliation unto which the Iewes are exhorted in these words Break up your Fallow ground 2. A dextrous Reformation delivered unto them by way of caution And sow not among thornes There must bee not a little rasing but a breaking nor a meere breaking but a breaking up and when that is done there must bee a sowing too but every sowing must not serve the turne It must bee such a sowing as may come to something It must not be a sowing among thornes The field which I am at this time to worke upon and goe over you see is very large there is much more ground in it then I can conveniently breake up and sow I shall though by that Gods assistance who only is the Maker and breaker of hearts set upon the whole worke and Hee in tender mercy so accompany and water and prosper His truths this day that all our Fallow grounds may bee broken up and then so graciously sowne in righteousnesse that wee and all the land may shortly Reape in mercy I begin with the first part Breake up your Fallow ground That these words are to be understood not literally but metaphorically I make no question that any who heares me doth question Interpreters though do vary something in their conjectures Tertullian by fallow ground understands the old Law which hee Adversus Iudaeos c. 3. saith is to be broken up by the new Law he meanes the Gospel an exposition much impertinent and too wide Cassianus understands by it the Heathens and Pagans and other secular persons nor is this conjecture apt to the Text. Cyprian drawes nearer to the sense who by fallow ground understands Mores popusi the conversations of the Iewes and Cyril of Alexandria who by it understands Animum sylvescentem an heart like the wildernesse wilde and destitute of all pious culture and Chrysostome yet more exactly by fallow ground understands cordis profundum the very Core and depths of a sinfull heart So then to stop all quotations the fallow ground The Fallow ground is the sinfull heart is nothing else but the sinfull estate of a person or Nation And it is very aptly so described by reason of that consimilitude which the one hath with the other For First Fallow ground is a barren piece of earth a Tohu and Bohu as at the first voyd of all excellency and beauty There is not one graine of good seed So resembled in three re in it nor any one delightfull flower such a desart is mans sinfull heart It is a very Inane Nihilum vanity and vanity no divine excellency is to be found there Not any one effect nor any one seed of spirituall inclination For this It may answer as the depth did for wisedome It is not in me Iob 28. 14. Secondly Fallow ground is usually an indigested Thicket lumbred all over with weedes and Briars and Thornes and Thistles that originall curse which befell the Earth for mans transgression And such a piece also is mans sinfull heart Though it bee but a barren Wildernesse for any good yet it is an ample Ocean for all that is evill and hurtfull The upper part of his field hath in it an abundance of thornes unprofitable thoughts hurtfull cares wounding errors and the lower part of his field is as full of stinking weedes vile affections as the Apostle calls them the best fruits of him are but as a briar to scratch himselfe and to catch and intangle others with sin Lastly Fallow ground is an hardned part of earth extreamly compacted by the influences of the sun and windes and by its owne native inclination so that it is not an easie thing to sever it and dispose it for a better use just so is a naturall or sinfull heart It is so troden and seared obdurated partly by the frequent repetition of sinful acts and partly by the intension of sinfull delights that it is not only defective of good but also very active against it unyeelding resisting and fighting against all heavenly counsels and motions The man is evill and will be so he is not good nor will he be so unlesse God by an insuperable vertue of his own spirit makes him to be so We have found what the fallow ground is let us in the next place inquire what the breaking of it up The breaking up what is Then the Fallow ground is broken up when the Husbandman comes with his Plow and enters that plow into it deepely enters it even into the Bowels of the ground and then rents and teares it and turns it upside downe Not in one Furrow but in every Furrow once twice perhaps thrice if need so requires Even so the sinfull heart is broken up when the Almighty and gracious God whom Christ calls the Husbandman comes with his Word and Spirit and Alta voce as St. Austine speaks or virtute magnifica Iohn 15. 1. as Ber. speaks enters into the heart or soule of a sinner by irresistable convincings and by efficacious humblings which are as rentings and tearings to the ground and by rooting up the dominion and love of all sins The Scriptures sometimes call this worke a touching sometimes a pricking sometimes a troubling Acts 2. 37. 1 Sam. 1. 5. Psal 34. 18. Prov. 18. 14. Isa 42. 3. Ioel 2. 13. 2 King 22. 19.

good may outrunne the due search of much evill Adde yet further That ingrained diseases are not easily stirred much lesse destroyed by one potion evills long in gathering and much baked into and setled in a State or Church are not so suddenly cured as vulgar people in their haste imagine shall I speake one thing more There is as much Art almost as sinne as much guilt as Guiltinesse The Lawes are ingenuous but offendors are fraudulent and subtile Sirs you deale with bold offenders and with cunning offenders too which if you looke not the better to it will quite delude and frustrate all your Religious and pious intentions Shall I tell you what I know and what the Countrey sighes and sheds Teares at that notwithstanding your Religious pittie to their soules yet their soules are as much abused as ever They have complained of some ill Ministers you hearken unto them but in the meane time the Minister exchangeth his living with another perhaps a far of unknowne to the people against whom there can bee for the present No legall exception and thus they perish still for want of bread Therefore Worthy Sirs Out with your plow againe you are by all these after-workes much more directed how to mannage and carry on your worke 4. Lastly Bee as earnest and active as possibly you can to send Labourers into the Field I meane 4. to plant all the Land with an heart-breaking ministery All will come to nothing unlesse this bee done Pluralities are Voted downe but what good will that bee when all comes but to this before that Order one bad man had two good livings and now two bad men have each of them one too good for them both I will say no more unto you but be serious and couragious in this worke in setling of a good Ministery with which joyne also an answerable Magistracie This to doe is your duty this is your honour this will bee our safety and happinesse This will bee Your great reward in Heaven Goe on thus in this breaking-worke and prosper There is no man ever did any thing for God and lost by it or to his Church but gained by it If you will goe on with an humble and unwearied zeale it shall shortly be said of this Parliament These were Scotlands Vmpire Irelands guard and revenge Englands preservation The Churches safety and religions glory And so I passe from the Plow to the seed from the plowing up of Fallow-grounds to the sowing of them being broken up expressed with its caution in the Text. And sow not among thornes c. Second Part. And sow not among Thornes THat a breaking up of the ground must goe before a sowing and then that a sowing must follow the breaking up is no question with any judicious man For as it were a vaine thing to sow when the ground is not broken up the seed would but be a prey so it were as foolish when the ground is broken up not to sow the labour would never prove an harvest breaking up of the ground being in it selfe only opus imperfectum respectivum a worke for another Sowing must follow breaking up worke And indeed as the Historian spake of the Emperor that he rather wanted vice then was vertuous so it may be said of a person and Nation if their Fallow grounds be broken up and yet be not sowen they are rather not wicked then good For Negatives alone make no estate to be gracious It must be some positive quality which gives perfection and denomination They say well in Philosophy that whiles the motion is passing from the Terminus a quo It is but in Fieri and till the terminus ad quem bee attained it is not in facto esse the worke is but on the way it is not at the end nor done The same is a truth in Divinity for cessation from evill is not sufficient Esay 1. 16 17. without an operation of good to pull downe wickednesse is not enough unlesse we also set up godlinesse Iosiah did pull downe Idols but then he did likewise restore and set up the true worship of God And our Saviour did not onely correct the false glosses wherewith the Pharisees had corrupted the law Matth. 5. 21 22 28 32 c. but also erected and established the true sense and genuine Interpretation of it Iehu to this day lies under the tongue and censure of Hypocrisie notwithstanding all his zeale against Baal and the Priests because after all this He tooke no care or heed to walke in the Law 2 Kings 10. 27 28 31. of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart It is I think a true maxime that all true quarrell with evill ariseth from the love of good and therefore the defacings and displacings of the former ought to end in the advancings and setlings of the latter and verily it were a weake designe to undoe the one and yet not to doe the other because 1. Morall evills will not be cured but by contrary qualities A state like water though for a time heated yet will slip backe to coldnesse will warp about after a while to its corruptions if care be not taken for its perfecting and preservation too 2. Againe though a Nation bee somewhat lesse miserable because evill is removed yet it will not bee happy till good bee planted you shall finde besides this that the soule of the publike state will answer that of the person To whom as the presence of Nocivum what oppresseth him is a burden so the absence of Honestum as they speake what is convenient will certainely prove a complaint Both Religion and nature instruct us in this Religion puts men on for holinesse as well as pulls men off from sinfulnesse and nature hath ingrafted in it not onely Abyssus depths of distasts against apprehended evills but also Hiatus vast desires for all throughly apprehended good Neither will it receive satisfaction in the one without the other Yea ordinary policy can discerne in a Common-wealth as great an aptnesse to tumult where conveniencie is with held as there is to impatience where misery is felt shall I adde one thing more That in all publike changes and alterations these ever goe in the thoughts of the vulgar yea of all Confident expectations that some other thing must succeed in the place of any thing that is removed especially in matter of Religion where corruption is discerned on all sides the ordination and plantation of which if publike authority doth not take in hand you shall finde that ordinary heades will presume to doe the which what confusion it will make amongst people and future difficulties to your selves I leave to your Religious wisedomes to consider of So then it is evident de jure that a sowing ought to follow the breaking up But yet any kinde of sowing is not a sufficient consequent the direction is given in the Text with a Caution sow but sow not among thornes

doe much hurt It is affirmed only of the godly man That whatsoever he doth shall prosper Psal 1. 3. Secondly you must put off irregular feares Ecquid hoc infort●●i age corpus quidem occidere po●unt animam non possunt they were Z●inglius his last words you will never be exactly serviceable to God nor Religion if you have any thing to lose should such a man as I flee said Nehemiah Chap. 6. 11. guilty persons who are contriving against the foundations of a Church and State they may well feare their consciences may read terrours and dangers and losses to them But persons royally Tibi adest nimia humilitas said Luther to Stanpitius summoned and piously employed for the right setling of a Church and Kingdome as their attempts are above all contumely so their hearts 1 Pet 3. 13. should be above all fancies and feares If yee Poene securus spectator sum 〈◊〉 minaces scroces Papistas non hujus facio si nos ruemus ruet Christus unâ scilicet ille regnator mundi said Luth. in lib. edit 1549. bee followers of that which is good who is hee that will harme you There can never bee any true danger nor losse by being good or by doing good in our callings The King of Poland when his servant Zelislaus lost his hand in his warres sent him instead thereof a golden hand you shall never expend your strength for God in vaine his service is good and reward sure Thirdly you must put off favours a publike man as hee should have nothing to lose so hee should have nothing to get he should be above Olim didici quid sint munera said a worthy man all price or sale Truth and publike good should only sway and command him he hath too impotent a spirit whose services like the diall must be set only by the Sunne who saith to advancement and respect as Tiberius once answered Iustinus though upon a better ground and end Si tu volueris Ego sum Si tu non vis ego non sum I am only thy clay and wax It was a brave commendation of Luther though not intended by that Cardinall who spake it That German Beast cares not for gold And Henry afterwards Duke Anno. 1539. of Saxony rather adventured the hopes of the Dukedome than that he would be bound not to change and reforme a corrupt Religion Fourthly you must put off prejudices If the great work of Church-Reformation seemes to any of you either fordid and contemptible or hopelesse and impossible or needlesse and idle or unseasonable and inconvenient you will either be formall in attempts or subtle to entangle or professedly opposite to crush the work and bring it to nothing But yet Worthies of our Israel know that Reformation is An Honourable work It is a work fit for a Honourable to you and honourable to the Church which the more pure it is the more excellent it is God fit for the greatest Monarchs on earth and the greatest Reformers in Religion have attained thereby to the greatest splendor and glory as Hezekiah Iehosophat Iosiah King Edward c. A possible work Though there be many knots and blocks and rubs and alarums yet doe you unanimously and strenuously act act and the work is done possunt said he quia posse videntur the Historians ascribe most of King Alexanders successe to his courage there was nothing he attempted but hee conceived it might bee done All works for God are both honourable and fecible As Tertullian in comparing the Resurrection with the Creation said it was more easie reficere quam facere to make up the body againe than simply to make it to be that same holds true in this case it is more easie to reforme than to forme a Church as the work is easier to cure a diseased body than to enliven a dead body A needfull work A Reformation is needfull when a Church is like to be poysoned with errours or to be rent with contrariety of opinions or is sick with manifold corruptions This is our condition and besides all this we see great judgements hanging over us which have befallen other Churches were it not better to reforme before judgements than under them who can tell but it may be an effectuall meanes to prevent them Lastly it is a seasonable work If you judge it a fit season for our Church to be humbled assuredly then it is a fit season for it to be reformed that which puts us upon the one directs us also to the other but I passe on Secondly If you would carry on this work for good then you must get into your hearts and cherish in your thoughts all those things which will quicken you to the perfecting of such a work First you must labour to possesse your hearts with those active industrious and unwearied graces of selfe-deniall of ardent love of God of enflamed zeale for his glory and of sublime faith which will raise your spirits above all difficulties and oppositions above all clouds and seas were men thus qualified they would then count nothing too deare or too much for God but would most cheerefully spend and be spent for him they would lend all their honours places gifts abilities all to the service of Christ And secondly you must cherish quickning thoughts I will make bold to propound some unto you only to adde at least to what you have and doe know already First minde much the dignity of the work and minde little the malignity of the opposers when the Temple was to bee re-built you know what opposition Sanballat and Tobiah and others made what accusations what letters what attempts and devices against Zerubbabel and the rest but they minded the work of the Temple the more their eyes were upon God and his service So when Luther began the Reformation in Germany you read that the Pope and his Cardinalls and their currs presently opened their foule mouthes crying out that he was mendax perfidus apostata tuba Vide Mel. Adam ia vita Lutheri pag. 144 145. rebellionis quod omnia quae de moliminibus Papae scripsisset ficta erant ementita c. a liar perfidious an Apostate a trumpet of rebellion and sedition and that all which hee charged on the Pope were but his owne vaine surmises and devices yet Luther went on with the work and maugre all contradiction prevailed and prospered The like we read in our owne Chronicles when King Edward set upon Reformation what scorns derisions oppositions sides tumults encountred it by the Friars and the Popish party yet hee kept on the work and greatly prospered in it the excellency of the work and a consciousnesse of his duty and confidence in God made his Arke to swim upon all those raging waters Secondly minde your encouragements more and all discouragements lesse Tolle Coelum Christ did once die for sinners but he ever reigns sor truth so Luth. in an Epistle to Melanchion nullus ero said Empedocles once Take away heaven and I am no body all serenity comes from above us the damps rise from that which should be under our feet Worthy Sirs as the Prophets charriots with him were more than the charriots of the adversaries against him so I may say there are more with you being in Gods work than can be against you In a good work you have a God commanding as once to Ioshua chap. 1. 9. See Iudges 6. 12 14. Have not I commanded thee be strong and of a good courage and a God protecting you as in the same place the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest and a God promising to blesse Read Esay 41. 10 11 12 13 14 c. and reward you me thinks all this should lift up your hearts and strengthen them much I have read a story of one Iulius Pflugius who had been employed by the Emperor but was much wronged and injured by the Duke of Saxony of which complaining Caesar returned him this answer have a little patience Tua causa erit mea causa thy cause and condition shall be mine owne and Causa ut sit magna magnus est actor author ejus neque enim nostra est Luth. Melan. this was heartning enough God saith the same to you make you the same in livening use of it weaknesse said he in Sophocles is strong enough if God will fight Thirdly minde the strength which you have by prayers more than the words that are against you and evill minded men the language of wicked men is but an empty breath it may declare malice but doth not assure us of power but the language of prayer is a mighty doing breath it can shake Heaven and Earth the prayer of one good man hath wrought wonders it hath conquered God and Men and Devils wicked adversaries may set men to work but prayer sets a God to work And you Right Honourable you have millions of prayers almost every day sent up to Heaven for you It cannot be said Saint Ambrose to Monica that a childe of so many teares and prayers should perish so say I it cannot be that such Worthies who are every day compassed about with so many prayers should miscarry you have the prayers of three Kingdomes for you and I am perswaded also the prayers of all the people of God throughout the whole world Fourthly minde the excellency of the issue and not the difficulty of the progresse We say in Philosophy that Finis dat amabilitatem virtutem the end maketh the work amiable and gives strength to the workman This I observe that great and choice services are more difficult when they are in agitation than when they are in action more when we are contriving of them than when we are doing them but though they be difficult to be wrought yet when they are finished they are glorious and excellent The Temple was long in building but when it was finished there was not the like in all the world for it was filled with the glory of the Lord from the Mercy-Seat O what a glory unto our good God what a beauty to our Church what an honour to our Nation what a satisfaction to all pious hearts what a safety to this Land what an influence to all the Churches of Christ will this Reformation prove if it could be once effectually wrought by Gods blessing and your successefull endeavours FINIS