Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A91815
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A sermon preached in Christ's-church, Dublin, on the 23d of October, 1695 being the anniversary thanksgiving for putting an end to the Irish Rebellion, which broke out on that day, 1641 : before the House of Lords / by Henry Lord Bishop of Killaloo.
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Rider, Henry, d. 1696.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing R1441; ESTC R15253
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11,158
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20
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of this Countrey and set up a King of their own and when they were well flesh'd and blooded they made no doubt of Transporting their victorious Arms into England of making that Kingdom such another Shambles and not leaving the Memorial of the English Name under Heaven How far those Instruments of Cruelty might have prevail'd to what a height they might have swell'd the Rivers of that Land too with blood had not an over ruling Providence interpos'd and stay'd their hands who in three Months had turn'd this Island of Saints into a Wilderness of ravening Woles Murder'd and destroy'd an hundred and fifty thousand Souls God knows But blessed be his holy Name Their hopes were in agreat measure Bafled and Defeated and we have yet a Gracious King a Nursing Father to the same Church they then made such Havock of and Persecuted with so much Rage and Violence That Vine which Gods own Right Hand hath Planted Flourishes in the Land and after that excellent way which they still call Heresy we even now Worship the God of our Fathers And for those great Incendiaries and Promoters of that unnatural Rebellion those Blood thirsty and Deceitful Men who would not that the English Monarchs should Reign over them Few of them liv'd out half their Days or went down to their Graves in Peace their Cruelties have been Repay'd unto their own Bosoms as they have done so God hath Rewarded them And now if there be any Persons here present who persist in the same Designs act under the same Disguises and truly bear Witness that they allow the Deeds of their Fathers what can become of all their Hopes either in this World or in that which is to come God forbid that we should prescribe any Bounds to his Infinite Goodness and Mercy but without true and unfeigned Repentance we may without breach of Charity Conclude That they who have been Saints only in shew shall be sav'd only in appearance that their Expectations are all mere Notion Their hopes a Golden Dream and that they of all Men shall be most Miserable But let us who have better Principles be perswaded to act honestly and sincerely in all things to let our Thoughts be always agreeable to our Words our words consistent with our actions to retrieve again if possible that plainness and openness of Heart which a few years ago seemed to be the best part of our Tempers and Constitutions to take care that there be no secret Hipocrisy lurking in our Hearts nothing of Judas his design mixt with our concerns for the poor of Jezebel's with our Fasts of the Scribes and Pharisees with our long Prayers An Hypocrite I told you signifi'd an Actor or a Player and now must ad that the Play will shortly be done and we must all take our leaves of the Stage for ever A time will certainly come when our Masks Veils shall be pull'd off all our Habits and Disguises laid aside and we shall have no more Cloaks for our Sin but shall appear in our own Shapes and Colours the same wicked Persons we were behind the Curtain and all our Iniquities shall be openly expos'd to the Eyes of God Angels and Men. It will then be strictly inquir'd not how long we have Liv'd but how Well not in what Pomp and Splendor but in what Religion and Devotion not what Estates and Fortunes we have left behind us but what Souls and Consciences we have brought along with us and happy then shall we be If we are able to say with good Hezekiah Remember O Lord we beseech thee that we have walked before thee in Truth and with perfect Hearts That so we may at the last hear the Musick of that blessed Euge. Well done Good and Faithful Servants enter you into the joy of your Master Amen and Amen FINIS
been exemplary and the Copy taking seeing no Man knows the defects of the Original That he has brought as he vainly dreams no blemish to his Profession nor done any publick dishonour to his God Tho He cannot pretend to that great Reward due to the sincere honest and good Heart to them that have born the heat and burden of the Day yet he sees no reason why he may not hope for his Penny in the Evening why He may not gather up some of the crumbs that fall from his Masters Table why God may not dispence with a Commutation and accept the formality of holiness for real and substantial Vertue and Religion These may be some of the Reasons which the Hypocrite gives for the hoes that are in him These the Reeds on which He loans the feeble props which shore up his tottering Expectations for after all the poor Apologies he can make for himself He is in a lost and undone condition he must be miserable he and all his hopes must Sink and Perish together and that for these following Reasons All he aim'd at in the whole course of his Life was to be popular to insinuate himself into the good esteem and to get the praise and commendation of Men That was the recompence he principally had an Eye to and having had that in so large a measure he ought not to expect or hope for any other Had the Cardinal as he too late consider'd serv'd his God as faithfully as he did his Prince He would never have cast him off in his old Age nor have forsaken him when he was Gray-headed Had the Hypocrite courted the favour of Heaven with as much earnestness as he did the applause of the World had he been as ambitious of the Glory of God as of the fair Character of his fellow Servants he might have enlarg'd his desires and promis'd himself even all those good things which God hath prepared for them that sincerely love and truly fear Him But seeing that all his good Works were done upon no other account but to be seen of Men that that was the Grand design and drift of all his actions and that he made that his chief end God has made it so too he verily has had his reward and must never look for more he has had his Reward It is indeed one of the most terrible Sentences in all the Scriptures and as the Learned interpret imports thus much He has receiv'd all that was due unto him he has given God a Discharge subscrib'd an Acquittance in full satisfaction and can never in reason or justice demand and thing surther from him But then again The Hypocrites hopes must Perish for he provokes affronts God as much as the most leud and profligate sinner living He professes a great reverence for him it is part he tells you of his Creed That God is present every where that he searches the Heart and darts his Eyes into every corner of his Soul and yet he uses him worse then he would do the meanest Man and securely acts the greatest Villanies under his Eye which he would tremble to commit under the inspection of the poorest Child So that let the Hypocrite pretend never so much to believe There is something of Atheism in his Heart for without that he might dissemble with Men and Angels but never duâ—â—â— entertain one thought of prevaricating with his God of putting such tricks upon him as Michol did upon Saul of deluding him with an Image with a Puppet neatly dress'd in-instead of a David with a demure formal Saint in the place of a Man after his own Heart and after his own Will Certainly this must be a Sin of the very first magnitude God is in Honour concern'd to vindicate Himself to cut off the hopes of such a wicked wretch to make so daring a Sinner a dreadful monument of his Fury and Indignation But supposing our Hypocrite not Atheistically inclin'd That he is no stranger to the Principles of Religion that he believeth in his Heart that God regardeth not the outward behaviour of any Man when his inward parts are full of wickedness and then let him tell me what he thinks of his own condition what ground he has to hope for the Mercy and Favour of God with whom he has dealt so basely and unworthily Will not his own Heart tell him that his state is as desperate as that of the loosest Libertine will it not sink within him at the approaches of Death The very mention of Hell make him Startle fancy himself already there immagine that he smells the Brimstone and sees the Flames flashing in his Face and then what will become of all his hopes will not his first Reflections on the place of Torments fill him with black and melancholy Thoughts and make his passage out of this Life very uneasie and very uncomfortable Lastly vain are the hopes of the Hypocrite and all his fair pretentions to the happiness of another Life must fail and come to nothing because the Punishments of a peculiar Tophet are ordained of old and prepar'd for him in the World to come A Hypocrite among the Turks would willing compound for the easie pains of a Purgatory for they believe that there are seven Caverns or Vaults in Hell and assign the lowest and hottest for all such double Dealers and Dissemblers The Jews tell us that at the general Resurrection every body shall be forgiven but Men of Gibeon those vile Hypocrites who with their old clouted Shoes and ragged Apparel impos'd upon their Governour Joshua But if we suspect their Authority Christ himself assures us He who cannot lye has told told us that Hypocrites have a place of their own a Portion that do's properly belong to them where there is nothing but weeping and gnashing of Teeth He thunders out wo after wo against them no less than eight times in the 23d Chapter of St. Matt. And if Pharo's Dream was doubled unto him to shew that the thing was Established and that God would surely bring it to pass may we not very well conclude that the Repetition of those Woes against Hypocrites bespeaks the severity of their future Punishments and that the everlasting Furnace shall be above seven times hotter for them than for any other Transgressors And indeed it is but just with God to use them severely who have not dealt truly with Him That they should receive some special Mark of his just Resentments and Displeasure that they should for ever lye down in their shame and cover themselves with their own Confusion that they and even all their better hopes should unavoidably Perish And now as for the more particular hopes and expectations of our arbarous and inhumane Enemies indeed they promis'd themselves to do a very great and glorious Work to kill and take possession of all To suppress our Religion and Establish their Idolatrous Worship to wrest the Sword out of his Majesties Hands to make themselves absolute Masters