is parallel to our case we may apply it to our selves and it does as truly belong to us as to whom it was made if we are under equal Circumstances and Qualifications For whether things present or things to come they all pertain to Believers because they are Christ's and Christ is God's 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All our Title to the Promises depends upon our Covenant-Relation Now the Covenant consists of Mercies promised on God's part and Duties commanded on ours which are so inseparably connected that the latter must of necessity be done to give us any rational inducements to hope the former For God doth not fulfill his Promises in us only but by us too and those things which in regard of his Word are his Promises are also in regard of his Command our Duties 3. From the Examples of the Faithfull who all along proceed upon this Topick and have left their Experiences of God's Deliverances for Documents to us we may draw the like comfortable inferences that they did Thus when the Israelites were afraid of the Giants of the Land Moses encouraged them with this Argument Dread not neither be afraid of them the Lord your God which goeth before you he shall sight for you according to all that he did for you in Aegypt before your Eyes And in the Wilderness where thou hast seen how the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his Son in all the way that ye went until ye came into this Place Deut. 1. 29 30. 31. And again I commanded Joshua saith he at that time saying Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two Kings So shall the Lord do unto all the Kingdoms whither thou passest ye shall not fear them for the Lord your God he shall sight for you Deut. 3. 21 22. So David argued when he was to fight Goliah The Lord that delivered me out of the Paw of the Lyon and out of the Paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine 1 Sam. 17. 37. And so the Faithful in the Prophet Art not thou he that didst cut Rahab and wound the Dragon Art not thou he that didst dry the Sea the waters of the great deep that madest the depths of the Sea a way for the ransomed to pass over Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head Isa 51. 9 10 11. To these and the like Examples which are written for our Learning that we through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope we may subjoyn our own Experience of God's goodness whereof no Nation ever had more and which the Apostle saith worketh hope Rom. 5. 4. and learn from the Passages of God's Providence to Dr. Reynolds cod loc our selves or others to treasure them up that they may be for Rules and Precedents to us for after-times Let us then though we are too apt to doubtfulness and diffidence look forward with Faith and Confidence banishing all despairing and uncomfortable thoughts to those Halcion-days that are coming on And resting intirely on him who hath promised not to turn away from his People to do them good that he will Ordain in his own good time that long wished for Peace in Church and Common-wealth which seems to be a work reserv'd for the WORTHY PATRIOTS of this Age and unto which appears a general Inclination in Protestants of every denomination The uses of this Discourse may serve 1. For Reproof 2. For Caution and 3. For Encouragement 4. For Reproof and that of two sorts of Persons The Bigotted Papist and The Titulary Protestant 1. The Bigotted Papist who obstinately shuts his Eyes and will not see the wonderful Hand of God in our Deliverance who turns all into Ridicule and chooses rather to attribute his disappointments to Cross-Accidents Perfidious Souldiers a Poyson'd Nation mistaken Counsels and the like than to that Eternal Mercy Wisdom and Justice which deny'd success to him and gave it to us Who continues in the Communion of that Apostatical Church which God hath visibly cast off and forsaken for her spiritual Adulteries and other detestable Crimes Whereas he should endeavour by Humiliation Fasting and Prayer to come to a right understanding of God in his Judgments and his in them that they are the fruits of Sin and should lead him to Repentance and teach him Righteousness There is a twofold use of God's Judgments the one sensual and the other spiritual the first is that which hardned Impenitents make of them but the second is appropriate to the truly Faithful These hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. 9. but they draw Judiciary upon their wilful Obduration St. Augustin saith of Pharaoh Deus induravit per justum judicium Pharao per Liberum Arbitrium He hardned himself Voluntarily and God Judicially Exod 7. 13 10 1 20 27. For God is often said in Scripture to harden the Heart but he doth it not by infusing any Evil Qualities but sometimes by forsaking and not hindering the Sinner and sometimes by delivering him over to vile affections and a reprobate Mind Rom. 1. 26 28. This distinction is sound but the Blasphemy of Florinus and the Heresy of Pelagius must be carefully avoided It is one of the saddest Symptoms in the World when the Sinner is not softened under the mighty hand of God but Anvile-like grows harder under Blows and a most infallible sign that God will not desist but proceed in his Judgments against the Incorrigible because he will overcome when he judges and for that reason will judge till he overcomes If therefore the Papist will stop his Ears closeh is Eyes that he may neither hear with the one nor see with the other his Resolution is desperate and madness incureable and God will leave him to himself as he did Ephraim because he is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4. 17. But as he is not Spiritually wrought upon so neither is he to any degree of Common Civility for he is so very ingrateful to those that give him his Life that were it in his Power he would requite their Clemency with a barbarous Assassination And this he gives us occasion to believe not only by his unquiet deportment and inveterate Rancour which expresses it self in Groundless Calumnies False Reports Seditious Libels Bitter Invectives and Perpetual Plotting against the Government But also by the avow'd Doctrines and Authentick Principles of his Church for having implicitly resign'd his Soul to the Paternal Conduct of those Holy Fathers the Priests and Jesuits our Sacramentally-sworn Enemies he is under a Filial Obligation to destroy us as oft as those Blessed Guides shall see it good for the catholick-Catholick-Cause 2. The Titulary Protestant falls next under Reproof and deserves to be reprehended as publickly as he privately attacks us 'T is true he pretends to be of our Communion but seeing
A Second Defence OF THE Present Government UNDER K. WILLIAM and Q. MARY Delivered in a SERMON Preached October the 6th 1689. At St. Swithin's in Worcester Wherein is shewed What God hath done already for us by their Majesties Means in respect of our Civil and Religious Rights What present Supports he affords us under their Conduct The prospect we have of his future Care and Protection And the Invalidity of the Assertions of the REFVSERS of the New OATHS By R. CLARIDGE M. A. Rector of Peopleton in the County of WORCESTER London Printed for John Mountfort Bookseller in Worcester and sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Baily MDCLXXXIX Licensed Novem. 23. 1689. TO All that Cordially Love THE True Protestant Religion and Interest In the Parish of St. Swithin in WORCESTER Gentlemen I Presume to Entitle this Discourse to your Patronage not for any Correctness in it but because it was Well Meant and Preach'd among you And I do declare if any charge me with too much Keenness and Acrimony in my Reproofs that this is my Apology before God and the World I had no Intention to Expose but to Convince the Refusers of the New Oaths having no Pique or Quarrel at any Man's Person though I must be excus'd as to his Opinions and Actions I am fully satisfied in the Present Settlement and had no popular Applause or worldly Advantage in my Eye but the Justice of the Cause the discharge of my Conscience and sincere Affection to the true Protestant Religion and Interest I knew the Sores of my Country too well to bind them up with Lenitives when Lancing was more necessary St. Jude has told me that some must be saved with Fear pulling them out of the Fire and the Prophet was not to speak pleasing words but to Cry aloud spare not to lift up his Voice like a Trumpet and to shew the People their Transgressions and the House of Jacob their Sins When I considered the general Stupidity of the meaner sort the Indifferency and Luke-warmness of some of the better Rank and the Activeness and Intriegueing of the High-flown Monarchical Men I thought it not convenient to put Honey into the Sacrifice instead of Salt and to bring the smoothness and remisness of Eli when there was more need of the Zeal and Courage of Phinehas I am inform'd I shall meet with very severe Usage from some Men whose Names I purposely omit because we hope in due time they may see their Error and Retract Which is the hearty Prayer of Your most Affectionate Servant Richard Claridge THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE Present Government UNDER King William and Queen Mary c. ROM 8. 31. the latter part If GOD be for us who can be against us THOUGH God be the Soveraign Lord of All by Right of Creation Dominion and Providence in which Sense he is a God to the profest Enemies of his Truth as Jews Pagans Mahometans and Hereticks the Denyers of his Being not excepted they subsist and are maintained by his Bounty for he giveth them Life and breath and all things Acts 17. 25. and maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and sendeth Rain on the Vnjust Mat. 5. 45. yet he is in a more special manner the God of the Faithful he is their God in Covenant and they his People Jer. 32. 38. To these he imparts his Graces and deals out his more than common Favours These are his Elect his Chosen out of the World A peculiar Treasure a Kingdom of Priests and an Holy Nation Exod. 19. 5 6. The School-men set forth their Relation to him in a three-fold Respect of his singular Care of them the Holy Service they perform to him and the great Reward where with he Crowns them And therefore with a little variation of the Words we may say to them as Moses did to Israel Happy-are ye O Believers Who is like unto ye O People saved by the Lord Deut. 33. 29. The eternal God is your Refuge and underneath are the everlasting Arms Deut. 33. 27. But though the Church be God's peculiar Favorite and under the watchful Eye of Heaven yet the Devil and his Instruments bear a mortal hatred to Her and render her Condition a perpetual Warfare upon Earth But her security being laid in the Divine Protection which still encompasseth Her with Favour as with a Shield Psal 5. 12. In vain are all Attempts and Designs of Her Enemies For If God be for us who can be against us I might consider these words with respect to the particular Cases of the Faithful and shew how God is with them by his Spirit Graces and Providence to Guide Assist and Protect them and how he secures them against the many Fears that arise from inward Corruptions and outward Assaults by strengthening their Faith against all that is formidable in the World and confirming their Hope in the Love of God in Christ Jesus from which nothing can separate them But having an intention to re-mind you of the signal Mercies vouchsaf'd this Nation no less shamefully abusted by some than unthankfully forgot or misapplied by others I shall handle them with relation to this Church and People And I. Give you the importance of this Phrase If God be for Vs II. Remember you wherein God hath manifested himself for Vs already III. Shew what Present Supports he affords Vs And IV. What prospect we have of his future Care and Protection of Vs I. Then this Phrase If God be for us imports two things God's Gracious Presence and His Particular Providence First by God's Gracious Presence with a Church or People I understand his being so with them as to set up and maintain Truth and Gospel his Worship and Ordinances amongst them and to gather to himself a willing and obedient People that desire to know him and his Law and to serve him with Reverence and Godly Fear and who diligently observe the Sacraments and Rites of his Institution against the apparent Encroachments made upon the Church by the Inventions and Traditions of Men For Humane Additions are not only Vncommanded but Forbidden in the Service of God and the Apostles Mat. 28. 20. and consequently the Church had the promise of God's Presence granted upon no other Terms but an exact Conformity to what he had Commanded There must be a Divine Warrant for our Faith and Practice let subtile Men devise what Distinctions and Evasions they can to reconcile the Scriptures and their Innovations or we cannot expect God's merciful Acceptance of our Services For to stamp any thing of but a Humane Original with a Divine Character and thrust it upon the Consciences of Men to bind unto Obedience is the advancing of our Own in Opposition to Christ's Supreme Authority who is the only Law-giver to his Church Secondly this Phrase If God be for us imports his Particular Providence over a People or Nation By which I mean his more immediate Concernment for them as when he visibly asserts their
Cause which he most commonly does by Instruments unthought of or perhaps despised by the Enemy but specially Commission'd by God to accomplish their Deliverance in the others overthrow Now the Providence of God may be considered either more largely which I call his general or in the former Restriction which may be termed his particular Providence To his general Providence are subject all things in the World the smallest and most inconsiderable in our Esteem are not excluded The very hairs of our head are all numbred Mat. 10. 29 30. and two Sparrows sold for a Farthing fall not on the ground without it They that have excepted Inferiour Matters from it as being in their Opinion derogatory to God's transcendent Majesty to stoop so low have instead of magnifying lessen'd his Royal Prerogative his Providence being as uncircumscrib'd as his Essence and Dominion It was therefore a gross Error in Aristotle to confine it to the Moon by shutting out all things below as Athenagoras Clemens Alexandrinus Epiphanius and Thedoret testifie but far more palpable in St. Hierom a Learned Father of the Church who in his Commentary upon Habak cap. 1. makes it an Absurdity Ad hoc Dei deducere Majestatem To bring down the Divine Greatness to such small things as the Flies Gnats and Fishes he there speaks of For we are not says he such foolish Flatterers of God to be injurious to our selves by granting to Irrational Creatures the same Providence with us When both Reason and Revelation teach us to believe the Universality of its Extent Reason informs us that God is the first Mover and the first Cause and therefore all inferiour Movers and secondary Agents must depend upon him and that no Creature is absolute and self-sufficient but would instantly dissubsist without his Concurrence The Scriptures ascribe even the most despicable things to him such as Frogs Lice Flys and Locusts Exod. 8. 10. cap. and bring within the Line of his Providence not only intellectual and sensitive Beings but Plants Meteors and all things Psal 147. 8 16. But of all sublunary Things Man made after the Image of God falls more expresly under his Care For as he made him a little lower than the Angels so he hath exalted him above the other Creatures and crown'd him with Glory and Honour Psal 8. 5. And if Man singly considered be so near unto him then much more Man in Society Bodies and Communities of Men. His Particular Providence is conversant about Good Men and especially about a People or Nation professing and practising his Holy and Eternal Truth for 't is not a bare and abstract Profession 't is not the Pomp and Splendour of our Devotions nor the crying out with those Jews in the Prophet The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7. 4. but plainness and sincerity of Heart and a truly vertuous Uniform Life that will entitle us to his Gracious Favour And for a People thus Evangelically qualified the Right Hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass And as in Common Calamities the Good oft-times suffer with the Bad though with this difference the Good are better'd and refin'd thereby and the Bad become much worse so in Publick Mercies the Evil participate with the Righteous and are preserved for their Sakes Thus the Prayers of Moses prevailed for the Idolatrous Israelites Exod. 31. 7. to 15. and the Peoples requesting Samuel to pray to God for them that they died not 1 Sam. 12. 19. intimates their Safety lay in his Intercession And this shews though the Wicked are by far the major part what exceeding Love God hath for his People when his Mercy shall preserve the very Tares for the Wheat sake But now though the Wicked share with the Godly in Publick and National Mercies yet the uses are vastly different which they draw therefrom the Godly are excited to Humility Thankfulness and Obedience to closer Communion with God and warmer Resentments of his Love whereas the Wicked suck Poison out of his Goodness by unthankfully abusing it to Luxury Wantonness and taking occasion thereby to sin more confidently and securely I wish besides that other of murmuring and censuring grown too common among us the sin of prophane Ingratitude be not laid to our Charge For since our late Great Deliverance how few with the one Leper return Glory to God Luke 17. but how many with the other Nine forget him Nay do we not rather seem to have an Inclination to our former Slavery than any true Affection to our present Freedom as though to walk at large were less desireable than Chains and Confinement The old Romans were so foolishly superstitious as to build an Altar to a Feaver and so become Worshippers of their Diseafe and is not our Folly altogether as great to Idolize our Enemy and make inevitable Ruine our Sanctuary To put the Sword which we ought to keep for our Defence into an Adversary's Hand to protect us is as unpardonable a Weakness as to throw our selves into the Fire in hopes of being saved by a Miracle When God prescribes Means and secondary Helps we must obey his Order and implore his Blessing in the use of them Though God be pleased sometimes to Act extraordinarily not only without but contrary to means yet we must not leave the usual way of Providence and presently expect Wonders We know who hath said That man liveth not by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4. 4. and yet that word is annex'd to Bread and not to Stones and 't is not Trusting but Mocking and Tempting of God to fast till Stones should be converted into Bread. Nothing is impossible to God but what implies Weakness or Contradiction he can as easily defeat our Enemies without Fleets and Armies as he smote Sennacherib's Camp and made them in one night all dead Corps 2 Kings 19 35. But as the Sword of Gideon was to go along with the Sword of the Lord as a Testimony of Obedience not an Addition of Strength Judg. 7. 18. and as David though he confess'd The Lord saveth not with Sword and Spear yet took a Sling and a Stone for his Weapon 1 Sam. 17. 47 49. So must we depend upon God in the use of his appointed Means not in Confidence of their Help but in Obedience to his Divine Order And thus trusting in him in a dutiful Subordination to his Providence we may be sure of his Gracious Protection Then will he be with us as he was with Moses and Joshua He will not fail us nor forsake us Josh 1. 5. And in this Confidence we may safely acquiesce if II. In the second place we consider wherein God hath manifested himself for us already and in what Particulars we have tasted of his Goodness As the Mariner after a long and difficult Voyage being at last safe come Home looks back with wonder at those Rocks and Shelves those Storms and Pyrats