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A43318 A sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast, Wednesday, December 27, 1643 by Alexander Henderson ... Henderson, Alexander, 1583?-1646. 1644 (1644) Wing H1439; ESTC R15067 23,280 40

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universall Kingdom of Providence and this watching and inspection of Princes and Magistrates is objective Ecclesiastica but formaliter civili● it is about matters of Religion in a civill manner and in a way sutable to the nature and qualitie of their place and power The faithfull custody and preservation of Religion is a part of their office for they are not onely keepers of the second but of the first Table of the Law To them appertaineth the vindication and defence of Religion against contempt corruption and abuses Religion also expecteth from them the Civill sanction that the worship of God and the wholsome constitutions of the Church about Religion be confirmed and setled by their Laws Coaction also is theirs for they by their power are to constrain their Subjects to the duties of Religion and to coerce and stop them that they do nothing to the contrary They also may and ought to call Assemblies of the Church when the case of Religion doth require praeside as Civill Presidents and examine Church-Constitutions not onely as they are Christians for satisfying their own souls but as Magistrates for the good of the people And when there is a necessity of reformation of Religion and the Ministery and Church-men like the sands of the Sea-shore are covered with a deluge of defection and corruptions they are by their Authority to endeavour a Reformation And yet in all this exercise of their power they are to do nothing but according to the Commandment of God so David Jehoshaphet Hezekiah Josiah and other good and religious Princes have done But when Jeroboam putteth his own commandment in place of the commandment of God when Ahaz setteth up the Altar of Damascus beside or in place of Gods Altar when the Kings of Judah and Israel did worship God or did command the people to worship God otherwise then God had commanded wrath was upon the Kingdom of the King and his Sons When we consider of this we have cause both to lament and rejoyce to lament that through the working of corrupt Church-men so many things concerning the worship and house of God should have been pressed upon the people of God without or against his commandment if Arminianisme for the soul and life and Popish Service and Ceremonies for the body of Religion had been received and admitted as they were offered and obtruded our condition had been more lamentable then it is at this time notwithstanding all our calamities and miseries We have also cause to rejoyce that in the one Kingdom a course hath been taken for doing every thing in the house of God according to his Commandment and that in this Kingdom it is ordered that a wise and holy Assembly of Divines shall search diligently into the Word of God That whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven c. The extent of this Reformation is Whatsoever God hath commanded for what God hath commanded must be done what he hath forbidden must not be done but abolished and what is in the nature thereof indifferent must be regulated according to the Commandment of God which is no lesse plain and peremptory in our practise of things indifferent then in other matters Reformation therefore of Religion must be a through and perfect reformation The particular reformations which were wrought by the Kings of Judah are noted and according to this rule do they receive a testimony from God Some onely destroyed the Temples of Baal some the golden Calves of Dan and Bethel and some also the groves and high places and we know what approbation is given to Hezekiah and Josiah There is a promise made to such a through Reformation Azariah saith to Asa Be ye strong therefore and let not your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded * By this shall the iniquitie of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take his sin when he maketh all the stones of the Altar as chalk-stones that are beaten asunder * The Lord hath promised a more speciall blessing Isa. 1.26 I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning afterward thou shalt be called the City of righteousnesse the faithfull City c. The reason is 1. Because God is not honoured by a begun imperfect and half-reformation He is readie to spew out the luke-warme person family or people If we love the Lord with all our heart and strength we will do every thing that he commandeth for what is it that hindreth but that our heart is parted or divided betwixt two and that we resolve to be almost but not altogether godly 2. Because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump saith the Apostle to the Galathians reproving them that having run well they did halt and not throughly obey the truth and telling them that this perswasion did not come of him that called them When any known corruption is kept it becomes a snare and like a nest-egge that bringeth us back again I know this is censured for precisenesse by the world but we see the best servants of God have been such Precisians Remember the hoof of Moses Mordecai his bowing of his knee Daniel his abstaining from idolatrous meat and the opening of his window Paul his houre and appearance of evill with many more examples of this kind They are Precisians indeed who are liberall in the matters of God and can find in their hearts to dispence with his commands his truth and worship but will not be content to want the least complement of their own worldly honour and dignitie nor the smallest penny of their gaine and worldly commodity Although it be true that some things in Religion be fundamentall and absolutely necessary unto salvation and other things not so yet to be obstinate against revealed truth or to mis-regard or despise smallest matters of Religion which are necessarie to be received if not for themselves yet for the authoritie of Scripture as some make the distinction bringeth as certain a curse and condemnation as ignorance and errour doth in matters more substantiall No Nation under the Sun hath more need to take heed to this then England No persons have reason more to consider this then the Honourable Houses of Parliament who have in their hands the work of Reformation at this time It is better known to this Honourable Audience then to me and yet who is so great a stranger that knoweth it not that Reformation was begun in the time of two Princes But because it was not a through Reformation according to the Commandment of God Superstition and Idolatry returned again like an inundation It was again begun and continued in the time of other two Princes but because they set up their rest in the Rudiments and beginnings of Reformation Idolatry Superstition and Heresie have assayed to enter again with ●ew strength and policie Now the third time the work is begun and there is a greater stir and shaking for