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A78063
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A sermon preached on the 30th. of January, 1683/4. Being an anniversary for the martyrdom of King Charles the First. / By John Buttler, B.D.
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Buttler, John.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing B6274A; ESTC R173343
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29,365
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40
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Metropolis will pay for our Repairs within a few Years after even Fire for Fire and Bloud for Bloud For 't is but a Factious and Seditious Crew of them who as it were marked for Vengeance are so haunted by an evil Conscience and diabolick Furies that they cannot rest till they pull down Judgments upon their own heads and ruin upon their Families But so soon as Gods Work shall be done on these there is a Virtuous Breed of Loyal Hearts who never yet bowed knee to Baal who shall at once rise up and destroy the Destroyers and burn the chastizing Rods. And thus have I mingled hopes and fears among my humble Conjectures and Prayers and all to this end that beâ—t possible evil Men may be drawn in to see and repent their grievous Sins and good Men may be prepared to glorifie God and to give him the praise of all his glorious Works And so much for this second form of Tribulation The 3d. is described in respect of the Wrath and Bitterness and the Torments that are to attend it Wo be to them saith our Saviour who shall be with Child shall give Suck in those days Intimating that the Bitterness of the Distress and Wrath shall be Lu. 21. 23. so great that People shall not know which way to turn them or what to do in hopes to have help When Wars shall come thick and Barbarous Souldiers shall range about like roaring Devils seeking whom they may devour Robbing VVounding and Killing all they meet then Old and Young will be forc't to Fly as they can and leaving their Goods to save their Lives in those days what shall the poor VVoman do with a small Child at her Breast or a smaller in her Body Loath she is to hazard the Fruit of her VVomb to save her own Life and therefore She Flies with the Babe in her Arms till tyred with the Burthen in her Bosom when 't is too late with an heavy heart she leaves it to the Mercies of the Merciless and becomes her self at the next step an Object of the same wrath VVithin the walls She is rather worse than without where preserving Life a few weeks the longer the Famine bites worse there then the Sword did in the Fields Here the Mother has not Food to satisfie her own Hunger and yet is fain to feed her tender Infant from her Heart-Bloud until violent Hunger constraining necessity of Nature draws her in to flay and eat the Fruit of her VVomb to allay the fierce Bitterness of incessant Hunger And such was the hardship in Jerusalem that one Miriam a rich Matron after many constraints having sodden the Flesh of her Child to quallifie her hungry Appetite was rob'd of it when ready to sit down and eat by the rude and Seditious Rabble led in by the smell to find the Prey and finally She dyed as Thousand others did the painful lingring death of Famine But our Saviour has not intailed the whole Flock of Woes on teeming Women alone but rather instanced in one case leaving us to judg of the rest and of the whole Body of Hercules by his Foot Hence therefore are we to conceive or saying to our selves woe also to the great Rich Men mighty and wealthy in Mony and Land whose Heart 's glued to the World as fast as the good Womans bowells to her sucking Infant when they shall see their Barns full of Corne all of a light Flame and their Feilds full of Cattel quite emptyed drove and cleared their Chests full of Mony Rifled their Daughters ravished their Sons Slain in the VVars themselves shut out of doors Languishing in some Ditch as full of Care and Grief as their Hearts can hold ignorant for Anguish of Spirit whether be best for them to Dye of Hunger Languishing in obscurity or to be Slain by the Sword or to expose themselves a Captive at the Enemies Mercy For when the Rich Man looseth his VVealth it is as if his Armes were tearing from his Shoulders or as his Soul driven out of his Body and Flying for refuge into the Arms of De vils But to go on we may conceive in that Day Woe also to the Voluptuous and loose Livers Adulterers Drunkards Gamesters and such like who know nothing to make discourse on but their fond Pleasures of Vanity and Folly These are they whose God is their Belly whose Glory is in their shame who mind Earthly things Philip. 3. 1. Who can no more Live without Wine and VVomen Chambering and VVantonness then they can Swear and Swagger without an Head VVhen these therefore shall see the Days that they must be kik't and Spurnd like Dogs and may not Budg one Word of answer nor turn again that they must be Stript and Rifled both of Mony and Cloaths and all the Cringing Fawning and Flattery that every they were bred up to cannot gain them one Meals Meat nor an half-peny to Buy one Corn of Tobacco or a lick of Brandy Woe therefore to those Quondam Blades who were wont to Huff and Hector all they met and who but they where-ever they came but then barefoot and barelegd with match-cord on their Arms crouching and beseeching like Beggars leading to the Stocks shall be fain to sneak and shrink before every Ragged Boy who drives them with a VVhip as a Pedlar does his Ass VVoe to them that do now call Evil Good and Good Evil for that in those Days they shall find the difference But yet again to go one Step further VVoe also to the Proud and Scornful ones who are us'd to take State upon them and were never yet made to stoop nor to bow the Knee for that in those Days the Kings of the Earth and the great Men and the Rich Men and the cheif Captains and the mighty Men and every Bondman and every Freeman shall Rev. 6. 15 16. hide themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Mountains and shall for great fear and anguish of Spirit beg of the Rocks and Mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the Pursuing VVrath Oh that such might call to mind the Nobles of Jerusalem in the Siege of that Famous City who when the Temple was on Fire and they standing on the VValls had fair means to escape and yet desperately possest with bitter angush of Spirit and confounded in the perplexity of their woful State threw themselves headlong into the Burning Flames of the Rubbish of the Holy Temple rather then make escape to lengthen their desperat Lives Joseph of the Wars Lastly VVo VVo to the whole Crowd of the Prophane VVorld because in those Days all their whole Hopes shall at once expire and turn to Dust Oh how unspeakably Lamentable was that Agony of all People at once in the Holy Land at what time the Flame of the Temple like the blaze of a mighty Bonfire ascended with violence up to Heaven then was there an Universal Shriek all over the City and
on the Mountains all about far and wide every where within Sight of the Fire the doleful Noises answered with Mutual Outcrys and most bitter Moan And as if it had been their only remaining pleasure to bewail there was no end of their Lamentation For on the Temple of the Lord as they called it having fondly set their Hearts when they saw it on a Light Flame it represented in their Phantasies as if the Body it self had been an Hell-Fire where remained no more Hopes but that the Soul also must needs Perish Now in our Days we have no such Temple to Lament but yet every Man has his Diana which is as great in his Imagination as was Diana with the People of Ephesus which when it happens to be destroyed our whole hopes do fail therewith and when a Mans Heart fails it is as when the Foundation of an House gives way at what time besure the whole Building is to Perish therewith while the Spirit bears up it bears all Calamities but when the Spirit is once wounded then a Mans burthen immediately becomes insupportable For in such a Pro. 18. â—4 case dispair approaches and like a Storm oppresseth the Mind and Imagination after which follows such a Confusion in all Thoughts that a Man is no longer able to Govern himself by Council but Rashly exposes himself unto the Mercy of every Eminent Danger as the Jewish Nobles when they threw themselves head-long into the Fire or as Judas when he Hang'd himself And such is the like to be the Torment of the ensuing Threatning Times So much therefore may serve for this three-fold Description I come next unto Application If things stand thus as we have the warranty of Christ and of Daniel for it Then what kind of Persons ought we to be and that in all admonition of solid Reason as well as in Obedience to the Dictates of Conscience and Duty The answer is obvious For there is but one Path to follow that bespeaks safety all others being visibly defeated and that is to pursue the Peace of God which consisteth in these few Rules 1st Set your Affections upon things above and not on things here Col. 3. 2. below there is a necessity in the case this whole world is like to Perish the Heavens will be melted down and the Earth burnt to ' Ashes but the word of the Lord abideth for ever God is a present Psal 46. 1 2 3 help in time of trouble therefore saith the Psalmist we will not fear though the Earth be removed and the Mountains carryed into the midst of the Sea though the Waters thereof Rear and be troubled and the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof In God is safety and no where else Necessity therefore requires it that we set our affections on things above and not on things here below For Col. 3. 2. when such Tribulations come the like whereof were never known Riches Honours and Pleasures are but Bul-works of Straw that can make no kind of Fence no not at all or like Plaisters wrong applyed which vex the Wound but heal it not while the greater a Man is in Wealth and Honour he is but as it were the greater bait allowing to be the sooner devoured But in Christ Joh. 16. 33. there is Peace and in a good Conscience is true safety Now here will some say it may be so but the Virtues of Object Gods Peace and the Glory of things above are matters above us hard to be attained And though the things of this Life are failable yet the others not appearing unto our Eye we must lean unto what we can reach and let them go as far as they can and the rest we must adventure The truth is The Natural Man perceiveth not the things the An. good and great and glorious things of God because they are only spiritually discerned and he has not the Faculty of spiritual 1 Cor. 2. 14 1â— discerning But yet 1st He may perceive that there be some that have that Faculty and by Vertue thereof do despise the World in Comparison of those things of Heaven which by Eaith they do discern And 2dly If others have it why may not we also gain such a Joh. 16. 7 13. Ch. 3. 3 5 Ex. 36. 26. Faculty seeing Christ has promised to give us also of his Spirit whch shall teach us all things both by Enlightning our Minds and changing our Hearts And 3dly If so what great incouragement have we to try and improve our Faith that by using the means such as Reading Hearing and Prayer we may at last see how good the Lord is and so attain for our selves an Assurance of Safety beyond the Weak and Treacherous supports of Worldly Pomps and Vanities The importunity therefore of Eminent Dangerous Times Pregnantly requires and Commands as we hope to be saved and do render our own welfare both here and for ever to take and follow such an Effectual Course as may serve us come the worst come that can come But here again will some say and confess that it may be good Object Council perhaps that is given to look towards Heaven but that the setting of the Affection that way which is altogether superna-natural is matter of so great difficulty that we have no hopes to compass it and besides the Afflictions by the way thereto are so Sharp and Severe that without some incouragement from the things of the Flesh which naturally we understand there is no Subsisting In answer to this by our Saviour is proposed saying In your Patience An. 2 possess ye your Souls Intimating that Patience is a Remedy La. 21. 19. sufficient to support us under all Afflictions and Temtations and however miscarriages may befall our Bodies yet our Souls shall be Safe and Chearful and quit of all Dangers Patience is a Divine Vertue whereby a Man is enabled to bear his Cross with as much ease as if it were not the Essence and Strength of this Vertue consisteth in a Stock of Courage and the Power of Habit Facilitating endurance The Horse is a Beast of great Courage and crys Job 39. 20 21 22 23 24 25 c. Pro. 28. 1. A Ha at the sound of a Trumpet and rejoyceth at the Battel and the shouting of the Captains And when the Righteous are made by the Grace and Power of Gods Spirit bold as Lyons can not they Scorn at Fear think we as well as an Horse and endure the Wracking and tearing of Flesh as well as a Mastiff-Dog and if so then with how much the more ease shall they bear with the loss of Goods and Fond Pleasures And Habit consisteth in the Practice of use which makes endurance easie The Labouror by his use and habit of Labour can abide to dig all Day with as much ease as a Gentleman stands by and looks on The Philosophers and Pagan Men of old were enabled by meer acquired Habits to despise Wealth and Worldly