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A81578
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A sermon preached on the fast-day, December 22. 1680. In the Cathedral Church of Rochester. By Robert Dixon, D.D vice-dean of the said church
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Dixon, Robert, d. 1688.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing D1748aA; ESTC R225588
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42,897
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68
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will not believe upon such grounds and foundations as are laid in Reason and Religion from the Scriptures and Experiences of Faithful Men will never believe As for us that do believe if we be deceived as we are not God hath deceived us as he hath not nor cannot Therefore we hope we have taken the surest and safest side for God in the ways of Righteousness Because if we be delivered it is his Mercy if we be not delivered it is his Justice yet we dye in a good Cause and it is better to suffer for well doing than for evil doing We dye in a good Cause we dare venture our Faith is such For us to live is Christ and to dye is gain but whether we live or dye we are the Lords The Jews have a great Faith in their Messiah to come and they dye in it The Turks have a great Faith for their Mahomets coming and they dye in it The Millenaries have a great Faith for Christs Temporal Kingdom will the Saints alone for a Thousand years and they dye in it If these men have such hope upon such slender Grounds shall not we much more upon a surer word of Prophecy that hath hitherto come to pass and hath been fulfilled in every tittle This is our Comfort we will not let go our hold though Satan hath sifted us as the Wheat is sifted yet Christ hath prayed for us that our Faith shall not fail nor the Gates of Hell prevail against it and we will live and dye in this Faith by the Grace of God Obj. The Prophet is a Fool and the Spiritual man is Mad much Confidence as well as Learning hath made him Mad. What will this Babler say He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange things and he speaketh of a Resurrection Sol. We preach Christ Crucified to the Jews a stumbling Block and to the Greeks Foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God Because the Foolishness of God is wiser than Men and the weakness of God is stronger than Men God hath chosen the Foolish things of the World to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the World and things which are despised God hath chosen yea and things which are not to bring to nought things which are that no flesh should glory in his Presence I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek Ob. Every Tub shall stand upon its own bottom Sol. Provided it have a good Foundation not else Ob. I must answer for my self take you no care Sol. Keep there but reject not a charitable care and see that your Cause be good SECT XIII I thank God I have such thoughts as these David had them in his low condition Apology when he was as the man that had been long dead lying in the Grave and out of the mind of others but full of hope in his own mind God's Rod and his Staff comforted him and so it does me and being thus filled with God's promises I find no room for the vain and empty things of this World And as David's hopes came to pass at last so shall mine and the hopes of all that fear God I have studied all I can to find Comfort in Sorrows but I can find none but in God and a good Conscience all the rest is vanity of vanities and vexation of Spirit The Sum of all is fear God and keep his Commandments for that is the whole Duty of Man and that will bring a man peace at the last What did all our Wit and Wealth and Power do us good in Twenty years War We ruined our selves at the last They that fought so long could never obtain their ends all ended in destruction but God bringeth all things to pass at the last When shall we be setled and how Never till we embrace and hold fast the true Religion Christians were persecuted but they conquered still by suffering Jews trusted to Egypt for Chariots and for Horses but all was a broken Reed Leave thy Fatherless Children to me I will preserve them alive and let thy Widdows trust in me We shall have the better of it at the last When you see it you will believe it but we believe it before we see it Ye have not so much Faith it seems as we have according to our Faith so shall it be unto us Lord we believe help thou our unbelief Lord increase our Faith What is contended for among us A Temporal Kingdom The Good Old Cause who shall be greatest who shall be uppermost This will not do but whosoever will be least among us he shall be greatest he shall be uppermost this will do I like the Praying People as they call themselves for their Prayer I should like them better if they would leave their fighting I dare not trust them in their long Prayers to devour Kings Houses and Priests Houses and Widdows Houses and Fatherless Houses and Strangers Houses Let them lay down the Arms of Flesh and take up the Arms of the Spirit and we will pray with them and if occasion be fight with them and for them in a good cause when lawfully called not against Lawful Powers but against unlawful Rebels and Invaders And for the other Party were it not for the palpable intollerable Errors of Papal Supremacy Infallibility Transubstantiation Truce breaking Assassination c. In other Truths we would gladly give them the right hand of fellowship But what essential Doctrine do we Protestants differ in if we can tell Let there be no strife between us for God's sake for we are Brethren What my Brother the Son of my Mother that sucked the same Paps together my Mothers Children were angry with me and wounded me in my Mothers House Quò non penetras livor improbe quidne scabrae malignitatum clausum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O this is hard Who can bear it What not all the Enoticows Interims Confessions Comprehensions Condescentions Will nothing do A wide Door is opened for all Christians to unite against the Common Enemy the Turks that are as Hanibal at our Gates but we do not stir a foot to agree among our selves because of Pride and Profit to put by the Plague and Shame of Christendom There wants not a great price in our hand if we had a heart to take it Now is the time now is the day of Salvation or never Thus I poor wretch strive to settle and comfort my self and you all I can but all is nothing without God When the Woman in the time of Famine cryed out to the King passing by upon the Wall saying Help my Lord O King He said if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee Out of the Barn-store Or out of the Wine-press So we may cry our hearts out for help from
impossible to be done Elijah prayed for Rain and had it Manna came down from Heaven The Syrians Army smitten with blindness at the Prayer of the Prophet Elisha The Thundring Legion by Prayers got Rain when the Romans fainted for thirst Jobs latter end was greater than his beginning Jeremiah was drawn out of the stinking Dungeon The Israelites were saved in the Plagues and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched out Arm and walled on both sides in the Red Sea while their Enemies sank like Lead in the mighty Waves They were secured by a Pillar of Fire by Night and a Pillar of a Cloud by Day The Jews returned from Seventy years Captivity Christians secured at Pella and elsewhere from the Destruction when Jerusalem was taken The Ten Persecutions ceased and the Blood of the Martyrs was the Seed of the Church Satan bound for a Thousand Years Hitherto he must go and no further Manna and Quails rained from Heaven Water gushed out of the Rock and God prepared a Table in the Wilderness David was delivered from Cruel Saul and overcame Goliah with a Staff and a Sling Isaac was snatcht from the sharp Knife ready to cut his throat Noah c. escaped from the Flood Elijah was left alone and preserved from them that sought his life to take it away was fed by Ravens Hezekiah was healed of his Plague Sore and his days lengthned The Widdow of Sarephath had but a little Cake and a Cruse of Oyle and two Sticks all multiplied to save her life and to pay her debts Nebuchadnezar from a Beast became a man again The Shunamit's Son was raised to life Jonah was delivered out of the Whales belly Nineveh to be destroyed at Forty Days end was saved Lazarus after four days raised from the Grave Paul was let down in a Basket to save his life and many times saved beside both at Land and Sea especially from false Brethren Christ in his Agony was strengthned in the Garden as the Angels of God had ministred unto him in the Wilderness after the Devils Temptations Christ commended his Spirit into the hands of his Father after he uttered that bitter cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He trod the Winepress of God's Wrath alone and when he looked round about him and saw one to help him he wondred that there was none to uphold therefore his own Arm brought Salvation to himself and all his People The Invincible Navy of Spain in 88. was scattered with the Winds and broken in pieces after they had divided the Lions Skin before he was dead Twenty years Rebellion and Murder of Charles the First and the greatest and best of his Subjects and Devastation of Church and State was Seconded by such a miraculous Restauration of all things as the World hardly ever knew the like and Posterity will as hardly believe it and the Authors of these mischiefs that survived are as little sensible of it though so much for the Glory of God and the good of the Kingdoms and the strengthening of the Protestant Cause is for their own safety if they had hearts to understand it The Gunpowder Treason makes honest mans hearts ake to this day to think of it and the Devil and the Pope were shamefully foyled on that day Black to them but Glorious to us and our Posterity for ever The last Plot was come to the Birth but wanted strength to bring forth It is gon back into the Womb of Hell where it was hatched and we trust it shall be condemned to everlasting darkness and never O never see the Light All these Comforts and Examples and many more were written for our Instruction that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses let us lay aside every Weight and the Sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with Patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the Right hand of the Throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of Sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your Minds ye have not yet resisted unto Blood striving against sin and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto Children My Son despise not thou the chastizing of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastnâ—ng God dealeth with you as with Sons For what Son is he whom the Father chastneth not But if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye Bastards and not Sons Furthermore we have bad Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we give them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits and Life For they verily for a few days chastned us after their pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness Now no chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby Wherefore lift up the Hands which hand down and the feeble Knees and make strait paths for your feet lest that which is low be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed Think it not strange concerning the fiery Tryal which is to try you as the same strange thing hapned to them But rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding Joy If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified But let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief or as an evil doer or as a busy body in other mens matters for if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be asham'd but let him glorify God on this behalf wherefore let them that suffer according to the Will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator We know not what to do one way and yet we do know what to do another way For the Divisions of Reuben there are great thoughts of heart For the Union and Communion with God there are greater thoughts of heart 1. For our sins we cannot expiate the guilt of them Divisions we cannot explicate our selves from the miseries of them we shall be left in the lurch for them we shall be taken in their snares be lost and be at our witts end Because our sins are ripe at the full height Because our Consciences do sadly accuse us and