their own accord This was the reason why St. Paul was so zealous about the conversion of Sergius Paulus who was Deputy of the Country and a prudent man that when Elymas the Sorcerer offered to withstand him he burst out into such speeches with such eagernesse as he never did at any time before for ought we can reade Oh thou child of the Devill thou enemy of all righteousnesse c. And some are of opinion that Paul had his name changed from Saul to Paul because he converted Sergius Paulus For indeed it is a matter of great consequence to convert one Sergius Paulus one Eunuch To take one such great fish is more then to take many little ones though the least of all is not to be despised There is one argument yet behind the last but not the least and that is from the holy and solemn Covenant you lately have taken to amend your lives The excellency of a Christian is not so much in taking a Covenant as in keeping of it when taken And therefore we reade of Iosiah 2 Chro. 34. 31 32. that he did not onely make a Covenant to walke after the Lord and to keepe his Commandements with all his heart c. but he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it For if that man shall never goe to Heaven that will not keepe his promises though made to his hurt how much more shall they be barr'd from Heaven that break those promises that they have made tending to their eternall good To breake Covenant is not only a brand of a Reprobate as you have heard but it is also a sinne that God hath a quarrell against and a sinne for which he will be avenged according to that Text Levit. 26. 25. And I will bring a Sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrell of my Covenant And this is one great reason why the Sword is now drawne in England and hath sucked so much bloud even to avenge the great breach of Oaths and Covenants which this Nation is deepely guilty of Let me make bold further to remind you that in this Covenant you have also vowed in order to the preservation of them to assist the forces raised by the Parliament according to your power and vocation and not to assist the forces raised by the King neither directly nor indirectly And I doubt not but you will make conscience to satisfie these two clauses and herein you shall expresse the reality of your thanks for this great deliverance this day celebrated Now because the speedy faithfull and couragious appearance in this great Cause of defensive Armes is one of the highest expressions that you can yeeld to the world of your love to God and his Gospell and to his service Give me leave to speake something about it not only by way of Exhortation but first by way of Commendation then Exhortation then by way of Incouragement and then I shall conclude First By way of Commendation Suffer me to speake that which is due to you and not in mine own words but to speake the sense of all the well-affected in the Kingdome We blesse God that though there are many fallen Starres many Lords that have deserted the Parliament that yet you Right Honourable stand firme like fixed Starres in your Orbes and have taken unwearied paines for the good of the Church and State and have ventured all for your Religion and Liberties and many of you lost a great part of your revenewes for the present and have passed many Ordinances very advantageous to the Kingdome The Lord be blessed for all the good you have done The Lord recompence it to you and yours The Lord grant you may find mercy from the Lord at that great day It is not the designe of the well-affected party to take away Temporall Lordships or the distinction between Lords and Commons and to bring all to a popular equality This is an Anabaptisticall fury I protest against it in the Name of all the Well-affected Ministers Indeed we would be glad to be rid of Spirituall Lords over our consciences But as for Temporall Lords we pray with David The Lord give you good successe Ride on and prosper Thus much for commendation Now for Exhortation Let me exhort you not only to choose to serve God and to serve his Church and his Cause in this most just defensive Warre but to doe it with those rare and remarkeable circumstances formerly mentioned in Ioshuas choise First Let me perswade you to appeare more and more publikely in this Cause There are many that thinke it fit onely for poore men that have nothing to loose to appeare openly in a good Cause but as for those that have great Estates it becomes them to be wary and circumspect and to seeke rather to save their Estates then to hazard all Such a one was Nicodemus that came to Christ by night though afterwards he repented and amended as you may reade Iohn 7. 50 Such were those chiefe Rulers Ioh. 12. 42 That beleeved in Christ but durst not confesse him so feare of the Pharisees least they should be put out of the Synagogue And many such there are in our dayes But a true Christian is so far from being hindred by his riches and greatnesse from appearing for God that he is glad that he hath riches and Honours to loose for God he receives joyfully the spoiling of his goods He willingly parts with all for Christs Cause And if you aske him why he doth so he will answer with Paulinus Nolanus Vt levius ascenderet scalam Iacobi That he might goe the lighter to Heaven He saith as that famous Noble-man Hormisdas did who when he was deposed from all his Honours because he would not forsake his Religion and afterwards restored to his Honours again and then commanded by the King of Persia to renounce his profession Answered Si propter ista me denegaturum Christum put as i st a denuo acoipe If you thinke I will deny Christ for to keepe my Honours take them all back againe S. Austin in his Confessions relates an excellent Story of one Victorinus a great man at Rome that had many great friends that were Heathen but it pleased God to convert him to the Christian Religion and he comes to one Simplicianus and tells him secretly that he was a Christian Simplicianus answers Non credam nec deputabo te inter Christianos nisi in Ecclesiâ Christi te videro I will not beleeve thee to be a Christian till I see you openly professe it in the Church At first Victorinus derided his answer and said Ergone parietes faciunt Christianum Doe the walls make a Christian But afterwards remembring and often pondering that Text of our Saviour He that is ashamed of me before men I will be ashamed of him before my Father c. he returnes to Simplicianus and professeth himselfe openly in the Church to
better then the service of God For he that first served sinne and then turned to the service of God and afterwards falls againe to the service of sinne proclaimes to all the world that he esteemes the service of sinne better then the service of God which is an affront to God of an high nature There are others serve God but it is all in hypocrâ—sie We live in a complement all age our mouthes are full of service It is an ordinary phrase Your humble servant My humble service and yet it may be we intend no service at all but hate them in our hearts Even so we deale with God Many like the Souldiers that bowed to Christ and mocked him That give their outsides to God and their insides to all uncleannesse That as Luther saith of Cain give opus personae Deo but not personam their cap and knee to God but themselves to sinne and iniquity And indeed this is the capitall and crying sinne of this age Religion is that which is pretended on all hands The defence of the Protestant Religion this newes we heare daily from Oxford And for this purpose there is an Army of Papists raised to defend the Protestant Religion And in this horrid Conspiracy for the discovery of which we are here met to blesse God there was a Declaration framed to assure the people that the chiefe cause of their insurrection was to maintaine the Protestant Religion Just as the Gun-pouder Traitors that would have blowne up the Parliament for the good of the Catholick Religion Tantum Religio poterat suadere malorum the Lord lay not this great sinne of hypocrisie to the charge of this Nation For my part I am confident that the Popish Army and the plundering Army will fight no otherwise for the Protestant Religion then a Theefe doth for a true mans Purse which is not to preserve it but to take it away There are a fourth sort that serve God but it is so coldly as if God were a dead Idoll Where shall we find a man fervent in spirit as serving the Lord Where is our ancient zeale Oh the cold Prayers frozen Sacraments c. It is possible to find a living Christian but where shall we find a Christian lively and active in Gods service Remember God will spue out of his mouth a lukewarme Laodicean which is a remarkeable place For that which we spue out we doe it with delight we choose some dirty corner to ease our stomacks in and we never reassume what we once spue out And all this to signifie That God will for ever cast off with delight and with shame and confusion a cold dead lukewarme Christian especially in these active times Others serve God but it is with such horrible irreverence and negligence such sleepinesse such lazinesse as that we would account it a great indignity to be so served by any of our own servants I read that Caesar spake to one that was afraid to give him too much respect Hic homo timet timere Caesarem This man is afraid to be afraid of Caesar So there are many that are afraid to be too reverent in Gods service And indeed a man may be too reverent with superstitious reverence which is irreverence in Gods esteeme But to be Reverend with Scripture Reverence both inward and outward this is so necessary as that God will not accept of our service without it Augustus spake to one that entertained him with homely entertainement Who made you and I so familiar We must so serve God as to remember our distance Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently There are others that serve God and enter into Covenant to serve him as you have lately done but it is with so many limitations qualifications reservations and distinctions that God connot but abhorre it Some will serve God with an If If they can keepe their promotions Some will serve God in some things and not in others such was Herod that did many things but still reserved his Herodias Such was Ananias and Saphira that kept back halfe Hundreds say with Naaman In this the Lord pardon me Some will serve God at some times and not at others in some places and not in others But the Lord abhominates all thy services if it be not universall in all things at all times in all places with all thy faculties Others serve God but it is according to their own fancies that are more zealous for one superstitious invention then for all Gods commandements You shall know such by this marke They that are so much for superstitious formes of godlinesse doe most hate those that have the true power of godlinesse The Pharisees were the deadliest enemies Christ had And the Iewes stirred up the devout women to persecute Paul Acts 13. 50. By all this that hath bin said you may perceive the reason 1. Why God hath so many servants and yet so few servants that he delights in because there are so few that serve him undividedly everlastingly inconditionally zealously Or 2. Why God abhorreth all our fastings and prayers and Sacraments or why God saith to our services as he did to the Iewes To what purpose is the multitude of your services I am weary of them c. Because we serve God with lip-service onely and knee service we serve him negligently and partially and coldly Or 3. Why so few goe to Heaven because so few make Ioshuas choice with Ioshuas Ingredients For unlesse we indeavour to serve him here with those fore-named Ingredients we shall never be saved hereafter But now I shall apply my selfe in particular to great men and yet not excluding others This Text reproves those that are advanced by God into great places of Honour and wealth and that thinke themselves priviledged by their greatnesse to be greater in iniquity then in greatnesse that make no other use of their greatnesse but to sinne without controule That are Great men and Great swearers Great adulterers Great Atheists Great scoffers and mockers at Godlinesse Let these men know if any such here That the great God is greater then the greatest Gods lawes are not like unto Cobwebs as it is said of mans Lawes to catch little flies and let the great flies escape but God will especially punish great men if they be great transgressours And therefore Elijah tells Ahab The dogs shall lick thy blood thine even thine And Obed tells the Princes of Iudah Are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God God made great Nebuchadnezzar to graze like an Oxe Great Agag was hewed in peeces God hath his hand-writing upon the wall to make the great Belshazzars of the earth to tremble whilest they are carousing in their sacrilegious cupps Great Herod to whom the people cryed It is the voice of God not of man was eaten up of wormes repeating these words in the midst of his torments as Iosephus reports Behold ye me
THE NOBLE-MANS PATTERNE Of true and reall Thankfulnesse PRESENTED In a SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable House of LORDS At their late solemne day of thanksgiving Iune 15. 1643. For the discovery of a dangerous desperate and bloody designe tending to the utter subversion of the PARLIAMENT and of the famous City of LONDON By EDMUND CALAMY B.D. Pastor of Aldermanbury in LONDON Published by Order of that House LUK. 1. 74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life LONDON Printed by G. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.XLIII TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE House of LORDS Assembled in PARLIAMENT IF all Noble-men were as good and religious as they are presented to the World in the Epistles prefixed to the Books that are dedicated to them we should not have so much cause to complaine of great mens Iniquities or of poore mens flatteries S. Augustine in his Booke of Retractations Retracts it as a great fault that when he dedicated a Booke to Mallius Theodorus he praised him more then he deserved though he confesseth that he was doctus vir Christianus a Learned and Christian man It is none of the least miseries of great men that they want faithfull friends to tell them their vices as well as their vertues King Ahab had 400. flattering Prophets who were the cause of his ruine Hence is that old Proverbe that there are onely two things that never flatter great men Death and Horses For Death seizeth upon great as well as small And a Horse will cast downe a great man as well as any other if he rides not well This Sermon speakes plaine language and this is the only Reason for ought I know that it received such kind acceptance for otherwise it wants that neatnesse of phrase and eloquence of speech which such Noble Auditors are accustomed unto I have often heard of Great men that complained upon their Death beds that none would tell them of their faults but never of any that complained hee was told too much Theodosius the great Emperour confesseth of S. Ambrose notwithstanding his severe carriage towards him Solum novi Ambrosium dignum Episcopi nomine That he knew none worthy of a Bishoprick but Ambrose It is a custome to send Sermons out unto publike view under the Patronage of some Noble-man or other This Sermon hath this preheminence That it comes forth under the Patronage and by the commands not only of one Lord but of a House of Lords The Lord make it to obtaine that end for which it was preached That you my Lords may make Joshua's choise your choise The subject matter of the Sermon is very common and ordinary But herein I follow the example of Chrysostome who when he was made Patriarch of Constantinople the first Sermon that he preached before the Emperour Arcadius and the great Courtiers was a Sermon of Repentance This is the message that I have received saith Chrysostome from my Master Christ to deliver unto you Repent for the Kingdome of God is at hand Haec autem non dubitabo vobis assiduè revocare in memoriam Haec neminem reverentes neque potentes aut divites timentes ad vos loquemur The Lord bestow this great grace of Repentance upon you and inable you to serve God with all the ingredients mentioned in the following Sermon Two things I would desire your Lordships alwayes to remember 1. That the best way of thankfulnesse for mercies received is to serve the God of those mercies and to serve him with the mercies we receive from him 2. That the best way for the House of Lords to prosper is to indeavour earnestly and faithfully to reforme the Lords House your own houses and first your selves Some things I have added which were not preached which relate to all men in generall as well as great men which I then omitted for brevity sake but have here interserted I hope without offence that so this Sermon which is printed for a generall good might have somethings in it tending to the good of all men as well as great men The Great God make the House of Lords as the House of the Lord wherein service may be done to God and for Gods cause So prayeth Your Honours much obliged Spirituall servant Edmund Calamy A THANKS-GIVING SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable the House of Lords Iosh. 24. 15. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord WE are here met this day to keepe a day of Thanks-giving to keepe a Heaven upon Earth to doe that for a day which is the worke of Angels and arch-Angels to all eternity We have had many dayes of Hosannah's and now we are to keepe one day of Hallelujah's It hath pleased God of his great goodnesse to discover a dangerous and desperate Plot tending to the utter subversion of the Parliament of the famous City of London of the Army of the whole Kingdome and which is above all to the utter ruine of the true reformed Protestant Religion We are here assembled to give God the praise of this Deliverance Now that this duty may be performed after a pious and Christian manner to the praise of that God whom we come to praise I have chosen this Text For I am clearely of this opinion that as there is no duty more excellent then this of Thanks-giving For it is the duty of Heaven and not only so but the preferment of Heaven It is a duty that honoureth God and it is the highest honour that God can put upon us to give us leave to performe this duty It is a duty that Adam should have performed though he had never fallen It is a duty that shall last for ever and ever It is a comely duty It is a pleasant duty It is the highest expression of our love to God It is the surest evidence of our election For that man that loves the worke of Heaven upon earth shall certainely goe to Heaven when he leaves the earth Now the worke of Heaven is to praise God It is the only rent penny which God requires for all the blessings hee bestowes upon us And yet notwithstanding all this I conceive there is no one duty wherein God is more dishonoured or his name more prophaned then in this duty The world is full of Thanking of God blessed be God praised be God But I beseech yetell me Are we not formall in this duty Doe we not content our selves with the bare Carkasse and outside of praises Doe we not take Gods name in vaine while we are blessing his name Doe we not content our selves with a drop of praises for a sea of mercies Do we not praise him with our lips while we dispraise him with our lives Are we not like unto Actors upon a stage that now play one part and by and
be a Christian Let this Text of Christ alwayes sound in our eares He that is ashamed of me c. And that Text Revel. 21. 8. where the fearefull are put in the fore-front of those that shall goe to Hell before murderers whoremongers and Idolaters c. And remember also the publikenesse of Ioshuas choice Secondly Let me exhort you to goe on more and more resolutely in this great Cause Therefore my beloved bretheren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord It is not enough to doe the worke of the Lord and to abound in it but we must doe it stedfastly and unmoveably stedfastly as a Tree fastned in the ground that is not removed though the winds blow never so much unmoveable as a Rock in the Sea that stands fast though the Sea rageth and roareth round about it For there are so many and so mighty Anakims and Zanzummims that are your enemies so many temptations both of the right hand and of the left both flattering and frowning fiery tryalls and golden Apples So many mountaines of opposition lying in your way that unlesse you be indued with this excellent grace of spirituall resolution you will never be able to doe God any service in thesetimes But this admirable grace of divine fortitude and Christian resolution will make you like a wall of brasse to beate backe all the arrowes of strong perswasion that are shot against you This is Armour of proofe against all kind of temptations This is as the ballast of a Ship to keepe you steddy in this great Cause without which you will be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} men of double-minds unsetled and unstable in all your wayes This is like the Angel that rouled away the stone from before the doore of the Sepulcher this will inable you either to remove the great mountaines that lye in your way or to stride over them Excellent is the Story of S. Basill The Emperour sent to him to subscribe to the Arrian Heresie The Messenger at first gave him good language and promised him great preferment if he would turne Arrian To which Basill answered Alas these speeches are fit to catch little children withall that looke after such things but we that are nourished and taught by the holy Scriptures are readier to suffer a 1000. deaths then to suffer one syllable or title of the Scripture to be altered The Messenger offended with his boldnesse told him he was mad He answered Opto me in aeternum sic delirare I wish I were for ever thus mad Here was a stout Cedar Such another was Luther Vnus homo solus totius orbis impetum sustinuit Luther alone opposed all the world Such another was Nehemiah who met with so much opposition that had he not bin steeled by a strong and obstinate resolution he could never have rebuilded the Temple but would have sunke in the midst of it Such a one was David that would not be hindered from fighting with Goliah though he met with many discouragements The Lord make you such It is resolution that will make you valiant for the truth that will make Martyrdome as pleasing as a bed of Roses that will make you like men of fire and all that oppose you as stubble that will make you say with that good Martyr Though we had as many lives as haires on our head we would loose them all rather then loose our Religion The Lord fill your hearts with this grace Thirdly I am to beseech you that you would indeavour to approve your selves more and more faithfull to this Cause It is with us as it was with Nehemiah when he undertooke the great worke of rebuilding the Temple he was opposed by great men especially The Nobles of Tekoah refused to put their necks to the yoake of the Lord This is an eternall brand upon them Nehem. 3. 5. Many of the Nobles of Iudah did seeme to helpe Nehemiah but they kept secret correspondency with Tobiah and tarried with Nehemiah only to give private intelligence to the enemy and to weaken his hands from going on in the worke Neh. 6. 17. Thus it was in Nehemiah's dayes And this is one of the miseries of Civill Warre above all other kinds of Warre For there are alwayes some false brethren some Iudasses in civill Warre But I beleeve better things of you The Lord make you more and more faithfull to his Cause Remember what became of Iudas for his treachery Fourthly Suffer me to put you in mind of the speedinesse of Joshuas choice Ioshua had not his Religion to choose and therefore he did not demurre upon his choice Me thinks I heare the whole Kingdome beseeching you greatly and saying as the Ruler did to Christ in another case The Kingdome lieth at the point of death make haste oh make haste to heale us The whole Kingdome is on fire make haste to quench the flames that our sinnes have kindled Nothing will destroy England more then delay Fifthly Let me perswade you to doe some extraordinary service for the Kingdome that is now in extraordinary danger Ioshuas choice was extraordinary Though all Israel forsooke God Ioshua was resolved to serve God alone God hath done extraordinary things for you he hath advanced you above thousands in outward mercies hee hath done extraordinary things for this Cause which you stand up for he hath given us an extraordinary deliverance this day and therefore he expects extraordinary service from you He lookes you should say and doe as Esther If I perish I perish And let that Text I beseech you lye neare your hearts and reade it againe and againe Thinke not with your selves that you shall escape in the Kings house more then all the Jewes for if you altogether hold your peace enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jewes from another place but you and your fathers houses shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether you are come to the Kingdome for such a time as this He lookes you should venture your selves as Ioseph of Arimathea did of whom it is related that he was a rich man and yet was not afraid to owne the cause of Christ when Christ was dead upon the Crosse He went to Pilate and begged the body of Iesus He expects you should be like Ebedmelech that hazarded his life to helpe Ieremiah out of prison like to Noah who walked with God when all the world walked with iniquity and was like a sparke of fire in a Sea of water and yet continued his heate Like to David who when Michal mocked him for dancing before the Arke answered It is before the Lord and I will yet be more vile then thus c. When you are derided for hazarding lives and estates in this cause you must reply It is for God and his Religion I will yet be more vile then thus Oh that
was a designe to bring the Army up against London God did then deliver us And when we were in the valley of the red horse as it is called neare Edge-hill where the Enemy thought to have cast us downe the Hill as the Iewes would have served Christ then God did also deliverus And for this cause we are here this Day to praise God for a wonderfull and miraculous Deliverance And therefore wee may confidently say with the Apostle 2 Corinth 1. 10. Who delivered us this day from so great a death and doth deliver in whom wee trust that he will yet deliver us It is observable that when Moses went up to the Mount to pray hee tooke the Rod of God in his hand The reason is given because by that Rod God had formerly done wonderfull things for his people and the very sight of that Rod did incourage Moses to trust in God from the experience of his former goodnesse Let us never goe to our prayers but let us carry the Rod of God in our hand and heart I meane the solemne and serious contemplation of this dayes Deliverance and of Gods former wonderfull goodnesse and let us say with the Apostle 2 Tim. 4. 17 18. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthned me c. and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion And the Lord shall deliver me from every evill worke and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdome to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Amen FINIS Theod. Ps. 50. 23. Ps. 33. 1. Ps. 147. 1. 2 Chron. 33. 16. Doctr. The first part of the explication 1 Chro. 28 12 19. Mat. 15 9. Col. 2 23. Col. 2. 18. Quest Answ. 1. Ier. 17. 10. Mat. 14. 51. Act 16 7. Deut. 29. 1 Act. 13. 22. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The second part of the Explication Luk. 1. 74 75. 1 Cor. 9. 7. Phll. 2. 7. Rom. 1. 31 The third part of the Explicatiō Why great men are bound to serve God as well as others Isa 40. 15. Chrys. Reasons why great men are to serve God rather the others Eccl. 7. 11. Use of Reprehensiō First to all men not excluding great men 1 Cor. 7. 23. Thus Ambrose Thus Chrysostone Ioh. 18. 19 * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1 Chron. 12. 31. 1 Cor. 5. 5 Libera me Domine a me metipse Rom. 7. 21. Numb. 22. 18. 2 Pet. 2. 15. Rom. 6. 10 11. Object Answ. Vse 2. Of reprehension directed to all sorts Hos. 6. 4. 1 Sam. 25. 10. Lam. 4. 8. Mica 2. 8. Rev. 3. Heb. 1◠28. Mark 6. 20. Isa. 1. 12. Use of reprehension to great persons in particular 1 Kin. 2◠19. 2 Chro. 28 10. Act. 12. 1 Sam. 31. 5. Use of Exhortation First to all men not excluding great men Motives to perswade us to serve God with all the Ingredients Motive 2. Act. 5. 41. Phil. 1. 2◠Motive 3. Quest Answ. Quest 2. Answ. 1. Quest Answ. Motive Ob. Answ. Use of Exhortation to Noblemen in particular Ps. 149 8. Ps. 104. 32 Revel. 19. 20. Psal. 103. 20. Rev. 15. 2. Rev. 14. 4. Florus Act. 13. 10 Commendation Kingdom A sixe-fold Exhortation to Noblemen in particular Heb. 10. 37. Lib. 8. Consess Mark 8. 38. Iam. 1. 8. Theod. Ier. 9. 2. Mark 5. 23. Esth. 4. 13 14. Mat. 27. 57. 58. Ier 38. 7. Gen. 6. 2 Sam. 6. 22. Iam. 2. 10. Luk. 12. 6. This objection answer was added to the Sermon to comfort us in regard of the death of M. Hāpden the newes of whose death came just to me as I was transcribing the incouragements from Gods providēce