Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A47369
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Sermons, preached partly before His Majesty at White-Hall and partly before Anne Dutchess of York, at the chappel at St. James / by Henry Killigrew ...; Sermons. Selections
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Killigrew, Henry, 1613-1700.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing K449; ESTC R16786
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237,079
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422
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and all the other endeavours that have been used for our Salvation though Christ by his Spirit by his Word and by his Example has essayed to take away our sins From us and to take them away In us I know not how they are not taken away from Among us Our Sins like Idolatry in Israel like the Groves and High-Places are continually taking away and still found remaining they vary and change according to the several Revolutions and Vicissitudes of our Condition but they are not abolished when Rebellion reigned in the Land Rapine Oppression Bloudshed Sacriledge were its complexion When this Evil by a singular Mercy was remov'd from us the Sins of Peace succeeded Ingratitude for past and Insensibleness of present Benefits Drunkenness Whoredom Irreligion Schism Faction c. So that as the Romans complained of old that after they had subdued the Nations themselves were subdued by their own Vices that these sly and silent Enemies Luxury Covetousness and Ambition revenged and retaliated the conquered World victumque ulciscitur Orbem We may in like manner complain that after the Violences and Outrages of War ceased the soft and soothing Sins of Peace crept in in their place and have tyrannized over us more fatally and destructively And who then can say our Sins are taken away when they are only transformed and have assumed new Shapes and Names when that which was Rebellion in 41. is Dissoluteness or Atheism in the Year 70 But though there be too much reason to bewail this yet I hope with the same Charity that I wish the thing that none that are guilty of the more enormous Sins I have mentioned are present in this Assembly but that it fares with my Complaint as it does with the Exhortations which are made out of the Pulpit to Non-Conformists those to whom the Speech is directed are never there So in my present Complaint of not forsaking our Sins but exchangeing them for others I do but inculcate a Doctrine to the Gracious already and that those that are otherwise are not here But if any chance to be I shall only mind them of those Words they find Psal. 10.17 Take away his ungodliness and thou shalt find none If after God has endeavoured so many ways to take away their ungodliness it shall still remain they are more incorrigible than the worst of men and their obstinacy may well fear not only what the Words in the Psalm sound but what they signifie viz. that God will not only confound their wickedness but themselves also the wicked Doers Christ was manifested in the Flesh to destroy Sin and we ought in compliance with this his gracious Design to put to all our Powers to destroy Sin in our selves that purifying our selves as he is pure we may hereafter be glorious even as he is glorious To the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour c. The Second Sermon 1 SAM xii 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King THE State and Commonwealth of Israel differed from all other States in the World it was neither Aristocracy nor yet Democracy but if rightly denominated a Theocracy or Divine Monarchy i. e. it was in subjection to no Man or Number of Men but immediately to God himself Ye have said Nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King v. 12. Again C. 10.19 Ye have this day rejected your God who himself saved you out of all your adversities God was the Commander Prince and Monarch of this State in his own Person But being a Spiritual King as well as a Temporal and exercising a Dominion over the Souls as well as Bodies of his Subjects though his Reign were as the Reign of Prosperity it self his Scepter not only a Scepter of righteousness but of felicity Plenty Victory and all other Blessings attending it they were impatient of it as of an intolerable and insupportable Yoke chose rather to be governed as the Nations of the Earth than even as the Angels in Heaven by a mortal than a Celestial King preferred an improsperous Condition together with a greater liberty of sinning before the most prosperous with a strict obligation to righteousness held it I say more eligible even to see their Enemies within their Gates than their God with narrow eyes continually prying into their actions God who saw this perverseness of their hearts in demanding a King punished their folly by complying with it defeated their wickedness by granting their request Ye shall says God for the future be governed as you desire after the manner of the Nations ye shall have a King the Court and the Sanctuary the Palace and the Tabernacle shall be separated my Divine Authority shall no more interpose in your making War or Peace in your marching or encamping in your Civil or Military Affairs all shall be in the power of your King But promise not your selves from hence a greater licence to sin for though I shall withdraw my former manner of Conduct from you I will have as near an inspection into your Actions as I had before and though my miraculous assistances are more rarely shewed I will visit your iniquity with Scourges Your King and new-modell'd State shall be so far from protecting you in your disobedience that they shall render your destruction only more signal and calamitous But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King In the Days in which God chiefly invited his People to Obedience by the Promises of temporal Blessings and deterred them from Disobedience by the threats of temporal Evils none were greater than those that related to their King As whether he were a Child or of grown Years a base Vpstart or the Son of Nobles one that eat in the morning or at due season for strength or for drunkenness as Solomon speaks Or as the Prophet Isaiah A wise and gracious Prince or a fierce and cruel Lord and a Fool. Again whether the Reign of a wicked King were prolonged or of a righteous cut short whether the Prince were often changed or many set up at the same time as those Words may be interpreted either way For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof I say no higher Marks of God's favour or disfavour to a People could be shewed than in what related to their King And no wonder For undoubtedly a good King is infinitely above the encrease of the Barn and the Wine-press of the Flocks and the Herds for he is the security of all these and whatever else makes a Kingdom happy and blessed Plenty is not Plenty Possessions are not Possessions Peace is not Peace Religion is not Religion without such a Guardian and Conserver of them Well therefore might God as being the highest of Judgments threaten his rebellious People with the destruction of their King I say his rebellious People for the King is not threatned in my
prophetick and presage the Vertue they ascribe and make him the Person they proclaim him S t Paul says Charity believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things i. e. those who have this Grace are easily induced to believe the good of another which they do not know to hope that which they do not believe and to suffer even when they can neither believe nor hope And if any man be not able to walk upon this profound Sea of Charity why does he like Peter rashly and unbidden cast himself into it Why does he presumptuously Intrude into his Masters company Who supported by a Divine Power shall stride Majestically o're the Waves and march through the storm in safety while the other disorder'd by every Gust and amaz'd at every Billow poorly sinks in the danger his Fancy only fram'd Will not such an one another day like him in the Parable that wanted a Wedding-Garment be speechless i. e. have nothing to say for himself when he sees his Prince as far above him in Glory as he was in his Station in this life And when 't is objected to him as 't was to Peter O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt But to proceed God set David on his holy hill of Sion Not to say that instead of one Fort of Sion God has garded our King with many strong-holds and Castles or yet to boast the Advantages of an Island above a Hill which is not only to be ascended before it can be assaulted but to be Sail'd to before it can be approach'd and fought for before it can be Sail'd to being defended by moveable Bulwarks stout Ships which must be subdu'd before the Inhabitants can be grappl'd with upon equal terms But to come to the Point in which the chiefest strength of Sion consisted in that it was a Moral and Spiritual Fortification a holy hill and God's hill If the Church of Christ be not inferior to the Old Tabernacle the Gospel to the Law the substance to the shadow when God not only set our King upon his Throne but restor'd the True Religion and plac'd him within the Protection of it he set him upon as Holy and consequently upon as strong a Hill as he set David and we may rest assur'd he delights as much to dwell here and that 't is as desperate an Enterprize to assault this his Habitation as 't was to assault Sion But alas some will say with a deep sigh Would we found these things to be so But what for a long time has been more infirm and unstable than the Condition of this Nation Not only ready to be broken in pieces by any Impression of an Enemy but even to dissolve and fall asunder of it self and the supports of Religion have been as weak as those of the Arm of Flesh. To which I answer This has not happen'd from the Weakness of the Divine Assistances which God has given us but from our neglect and contempt of them Religion does not guard men like a Palladium or Charm preserve those who have the luck only to wear it and be possess'd of it but those who practise it and live according to its Precepts they are not Sextons and Sacrists that are chiefly protected by Heaven those that keep Divine things under Lock and Key but that treasure them up in a faithful heart When David by sin dishonour'd God and defam'd Religion his fourfold Fortification little profited him but that security which the power of the Heathen united with the disaffection of his Subjects could not shake his rebellious Son alone drove him from and he fled ingloriously and left his impregnable Sion and all the Pledges of Gods favour and residence with him behind him confessing that when he had violated their Sanctity he had invalidated also their Power of Protecting and though he possess'd still the Curtains of the Tabernacle the Deity was fled from him And little will it profit us to have the Gospel among us nay to have it more purely Preacht than to any other People under the Sun if we are the worst Auditors of it of any other People under the Sun to have the Sacraments more rightly administer'd if we are the wickedst Receivers of them 'T is the holy Use of holy Ordinances that makes them a guard and defence Righteousness as 't is the Honour of the Soul so 't is the best Armour of the Body and does not only as the Psalmist says Bring peace at the last but as the Apostle teaches safety at present For who is he that shall harm you says he if you follow that which is good 'T was the Custom of the Ancient Heathen when they Besieg'd a City in the first place to endeavour to entice out the Guardian Deity by alledging the Injustice of the Inhabitants and inviting it to reside with a more holy People ut habeat te Vrbs melior acceptiorque Holding it impossible to prevail against the Out-works when this Divine Inward strength stood firm The Sanctity of a Christian is this little retir'd Deity in the Chappel which if it cannot be charm'd or entic'd out by Temptation the Malice of Earth and Hell cannot prejudice the Person in whom it dwells The Prophet Eliah was call'd The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel but much more deservedly may Justice Piety and Sanctity be styled The Chariots and Horsemen of a Kingdom And when God by the Restauration of his Majesty and true Religion gave us the Opportunity of exercising all Vertues Civil and Divine he put it also into our hands to be as safe and well fortifi'd as we cared or desir'd to be he made our Condition as secure as a Mortal condition could be made and if our Mountain be turn'd into a Wheel our Rock into a Rolling-stone 't is our sins that have unfixt and loosen'd its Roots and while we are led by Vanity what wonder is it that the Kingdom fluctuates after the manner of the Seas that surround it If we consider Lastly how great and difficult the work was to set the Kingdom again upon its Basis after it was so utterly subverted to raise up the Truth and Splendor of the Church so long a time deform'd and Opprest by Schism and Sacriledge we may allow God also as high nay a higher cause of Glorying in our behalf than for establishing the Church and State of Israel But the time suffers me not to insist on this particular neither is it very necessary to do it we having all here been Witnesses and Partakers of what was pass'd and this will be the properer Task of another Age. Instead therefore of dressing up a Triumph for God into which also our own Vanity or Spleen may be apt to insinuate it self I shall imploy the few words yet allow'd me to speak to excite our Thanks for these things And if the Benefits we have receiv'd are such as are worthy of God's Glorying undoubtedly they are Worthy of our highest acknowledgments I say of Ours