Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A71286
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A sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons at their late solemne monethly fast Januarie 29th, 1644 wherein these foure necessary considerations are plainly proved and demonstrated out of the holy Scriptures, viz ... / by George Walker ...
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Walker, George, 1581?-1651.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing W364; ESTC R6426
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39,735
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52
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snares of the wicked the Lord suddenly brake the snares and we were delivered before their hooked pricks could fasten upon us or tear us Secondly though the Lord hath suffered us for our sinnes and for the tryall of our Faith to fall of late into the Bryars and we have undergone sharpe and cruell prickings in this bloudy civil war kindled in our Land yet he hath so armed us with Faith in Christ and strengthned us with courage and with confidence and with full assurance of his love that wee goe through all cheerefully and comfortably as if we felt no hurt yea in all the afflictions we feele no stroke of wrath and revenge at all but only chastisements of love fatherly corrections and tryalls which are the faithfull wounds of a lover better and more safe then the deceitfull kisses and embracings of our enemies Thirdly in the midst of Thornes and Bryers when the Lord suffers the swords of the enemies to cut our flesh and to wound and kill our bodies and to shed our bloud that they may fill up to the full the measure of their iniquities yet he suffers not their violence to reach unto our soules we stand firme and stedfast in faith and so far are we from wavering in Religion inclining to Popery forsaking the cause of Christ and suffering our soules to be betrayed wounded and slaine that wee have renewed our Covenant with God have bound our selves to stand for a more full Reformation of Church and State and to maintain the true Reformed Religion with our bodies lives and goods and to oppose popery and all other Sects and Opinions contrarie to true godlinesse O how are we bound to admire the love mercy bounty and goodnesse of the Lord our God in all these notable passages of his providence watchfulnesse and provident care over his Church and people in this land how ought we to love honour serve and obey him to seek continually to him for help and to call upon his name and to humble our selves even to the dust for our many sinnes and provocations by which we have most unthankfully borne our selves towards him and ill-requited all his kindnesses to us Let these our monethly Fasts heave us up every one a step and degree higher in our devotion zeale and reformation of life and the oftner we are put in remembrance of Gods mercies to us and our sins against his holy Majesty the more let us be humbled the more let us crye mightily to God in confession prayer and supplication which if he gives us grace to doe we shall have no need to feare or doubt but may be confident that he will scatter the bands of our enemies and all the cursed pricks of the cursed Bramble he will take away every one as with a whirle-winde as my Text here speaks Secondly this Doctrine is of use to strengthen the faith of vse 2 weake Christians and to put courage into them that are fearefull and cowardly in our Land now in these perillous times wherein so many pricking Bryars and grieving Thornes are suddenly growne up among us and severall bands of desperate sons of Belial are multiplyed within us and round about us on every side Gods love to his Church and his care for his people and watchfulnesse over them doth not alwayes consist and appeare in suffering no hurtfull Bryars to be at all or if such happen to grow up and increase in ridding the land of them speedily for this is the way to make us grow secure and cold in prayer and seeking to him sinne not corrected will increase and faith not tryed nor exercised wil grow rusty and there will be no manifestation of them that are approved But herein especially is Gods love and care for his people manifested when hee suffers Bryars and Thornes to grow up and multiply in the land till they grow terrible and dangerous and yet preserves his Church as a Lilly among thornes safe and untouched and his people from all sense and feeling of any hurt from them or if the sharpe hooked pricks catch hold of them they cannot enter so far nor strike so deep as to wound them mortally and to make them feele the smart of a wrathfull and revenging stroak because they are girded with the whole Armour of God or if they wound them mortally in their bodies and in their fraile flesh yet in their soule and spirit they feele no hurt at all they are so firmly built on Christ the Rock and sustained by his righteousnesse and by his spirit that they cannot waver nor be moved from their stedfastnesse Hereby God doth manifest himselfe to be our refuge and strength and a present helpe against all troubles never failing noâ— neglecting us in time of need and firme friend in all adversities Wherefore let no mans heart faile because of the Bands of the wicked Papists or prophane Atheists gathered together to make open war against us or malignants working under hand or hereticks and Schismaticks making rents and divisions which tend to weaken us and to expose us to the rage and fury of Antichrist and his Bands But let us all put on courage and strength in these perillous times and the more that evills and dangers encrease the more stout resolute let every man be to resist them in his place and ranke and according to his ability Feare not them that can kill the body and can doe no more but feare him rather who can destroy both soule and body in hell Matth. 10.28 Cowards and fearefull persons have no place in the new Ierusalem but are shut out with unbeleevers and the abominable and murderers and whore-mongers and sorcerers and idolaters and lyers which have their portion in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone for evermore Rev. 21.8 The fourth and last poynt in my Text is the destruction of the enemies and persecutors of Gods Church and people in these words He will take them away with a whirle-winde as well the green as the dry The Doctrine which hence ariseth is That when God Church is most dangerously beset and most fiercely doctrine 4 assayled by the bands of enemies and persecutors of all sorts the Lord will terribly suddenly and totally scatter and destroy them all and none shall escape First he will terribly scatter and destroy them as with a tempestuous whirle-winde which commeth with great violence and terrour as we all know by experience Secondly he will destroy them suddenly for nothing riseth up nor rusheth in more suddenly than a whirle-winde Thirdly he will destroy them totally all and every one aswell the green as the dry As all have a share in the persecution of the Saints and in opposing true godlinesse so all shall perish in the same destruction First that the destruction of the wicked who band themselves together against Gods Church and people shall be dreadfull and terrible the Scriptures aboundantly testifie For the day of Gods vengeance on them is sayd to be
Die Mercurij Januar. 29th 1644. ORdered that Sir Thomas Dacres and Master Whitacre doe from this House give thanks to Doctor Wincopp and Master Walker for the great paines they tooke in the Sermons they preached this day at the intreaty of this House at St. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publike Humiliation and to desire them to Print their Sermons and they are to have the like priviledge in printing of them as others in the like kinde usually have had H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I Appoynt Nathaniel Webb to Print my Sermon GEORGE WALKER A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemne Monethly Fast Januarie 29th 1644 Wherein these foure necessary Considerations are plainly proved and demonstrated out of the holy Scriptures viz. 1. The Bands of the brethren in iniquity the pernicious Brambles the Plague and curse of a Land and Kingdome 2. All the brethren in these Bands sharpe pricks of the cursed bramble sharers in the sinne and subiect to the destruction thereof 3 The righteous kept by God from the full sense and feeling of the mischiefe which they are sharpely set and cruelly bent to bring upon them 4. The terrible sudden and totall destruction of the Bramble and every hurtfull prick thereof by Gods dreadfull storme By GEORGE WALKER Batchelor of Divinity Pastor of Iohn Evangelists London and one of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of the House of Commons LONDON Printed by T. B. for Nathaniel Webb and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard 1645. TO The Honourable House of COMMONS Now Assembled in PARLIAMENT Renowned Worthies WHEN I received your Message sent to me by one of Your Worthy Members that you had appoynted mee to Preach before You at the Monethly Fast then next to come mine Insufficiency a Age and Weaknesse of Body began immediately to put a just excuse â—â— my mouth But the strong obligation in which the whole Land is obliged unto You being the onely powerfull b Saviours under God of Church and State from ruine and destruction when they were allready over-runne and at the poynt to bee swallowed up by the Bands of Antichrist did silence all Excuses Besides I was afraid to incurre the blame or suspicion of ingratitude to them who had delivered me from the paw of the Lyon which thirsted after my bloud and had set mee at liberty after two yeares imprisonment and Voted a just recompence of the wrongs done to mee and a Satisfaction from mine Oppressors for all my losses and dammages by their malice sustained Which recompence through your favour and forwardnesse to relieve mee I had certainely received if the multitude of Malignant spirits then too prevalent among you but now expelled out of your Assemblie had not opposed and hindred the transmission of my Cause in due time to the Honourable House of LORDS I saw also a speciall hand of GOD in calling mee to Preach to so Honourable an Assemblie and his power and providence in frustrating and bringing to nought the Counsells and purposes of the proud persecuting Prelate of CANTERBURIE who on the same day of the VVeeke of the same moneth of the Yeare six yeares before brought mee to answer Ore tenus in the Star-Chamber with full intent to lay a heavie Censure on mee And when the truth of GOD for which I suffered did beare mee out against all his Slanders and false Accusations hee most proudly affirmed and bid me assure my selfe of it That I should never come in a Pulpit to preach any more Vpon these Considerations I did cheerefully submit my shoulders to beare this burthen though it seemed farre heavier then my strength was able to sustaine and undergoe And now Yee Worthies of GODS Israel I humbly begge this favour at Your hands that You will accept of the willingnesse of the Workman to serve You not the worth of the Service it selfe Looke upon the pure precious matter here handled chosen out of a golden Psalme of DAVID the sweet Singer of Israel not on the weake handling of it I conceived it verie seasonable for the Time and Occasion For the present Calamities by which the LORD calls us to publike and generall Fasting and Humiliation proceed from the Bands of the Brethren in Iniquitie which are so many cursed Brambles of severall sorts pestering the whole Land and stinging us with their hurtfull pricks which abound in everie Band Sect and Faction The thing for which wee seeke unto GOD by Fasting and Prayer is Deliverance of our Church and State from the mischiefe which they are sharply set to bring and inflict upon all that are Righteous and Religious in the Land This Deliverance cannot bee fully and perfectly obtained till the Lord our God bee pleased to cut downe these cursed Brambles and to ridde these three Kingdomes of them And this the LORD will doe verie speedily so soone as hee sees us made ripe for Deliverance by true unfeigned repentance and amendment of our lives For then he will take away as with a Storme and Whirle-winde not onely the great Faction of the Antichristian Papists Atheists and Malignants banded together and wageing open VVarre against us but also all the Sects of Anabaptists Antinomians Libertines and Schismaticall Separatists who by opposing the Reformation and union of our Church with the rest of the best Reformed Churches both in Doctrine and Discipline according to the written VVord of God do act strongly for Antichrist and by raising up Divisions and Distractions in the City Countrey and all our Armies doe as much as in them is to weaken us make breaches in our VValls and to lay us open and naked to the violence and furie of our open enemies All these things my Text as I have faithfully opened and expounded it doth offer to your grave and wise consideration and in this Sermon I have proved every particular by cleare testimonies out of holy Scriptures and in obedience to your command I have committed it to the Presse and here humbly present it to your Honourable Assembly with my hearty desire and prayer to God for you that by it and many other most godly and more learned Sermons which sound continually in Your cares You may take occasion to observe and note the danger in which our Land is by reason of those many Sects and Hereticks and Schismaticks which like so many cursed Brambles grow up and increase daily even to the over-spreading of the whole Kingdome which when you come to doe once seriously I doubt not but your zeale will stirre you up to curb so many of them as are curable and to cut off those that are incorrigible even such Thorns and Brambles as David describes in his last words saying The sons of Belial are all of them as Thornes thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands But the man that shall touch them must be fully fenced with Iron and the staffe of a Speare and they shall bee