but too many whelps of that litter and you know where Yet these wars no more then this warfare of our life can last alwaies dabit Deus his quoque finem God in his good time will put a period to them and there will we may hope ere long come a day of refreshing for the Lord will not cast off for ever Lam. 3.31 But though he cause grief yet will be have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Adversity no more then prosperity is everlasting were either of them so there would be no heaven or no hell hereafter if both there would be neither but there is both both a heaven and a hell Mat. 25. at the latter end and prosperity and adversity are here both but for a while for a day or so and away In the day of prosperity and in the day of adversity And this Consideration that Neither prosperity nor adversity are for perpetuity nor of any Considerable permanency duration or Continuance that they are both but for a very little while for a day or time short as a day may humble us and may Comfort us Consider first That Prosperity is but for a day and be humbled Consider secondly That Adversity is but for a day and be comforted Why should prosperity which is but for a day make any one Proud Lordly and Stately Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not saith Solomon Who had more to boast of then any man either before or since his time as you may read Eccles 2.9 wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for Riches certainly make themselves wings they flee away as an Eagle towards heaven Prov. 23.5 he that is this day thy and my inferiour may to Morrow or next day be our Superiour for both he may rise and we may Fall either will suffice to set him above us and bring it to who would have thought this the examples and instances of this nature are so many and ready at hand that it is a businesse for me to make choice of them only in the Lump let me ask have you not of late seen many and strange alterations in diverse antient and Noble Families yea of Townes also and Cities have you not seene Folly set in great Dignity and the rich sit in low place Servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the Earth Solomon observed it in his time Ecclesiastes 10.16 and 17. ver and we may if we please much more in ours Quos dies vidit veniens superbes Hos dies vidit fugiens jacentes One Day the Valiant brood of Brutus sent to fight Thus sent one Day did see them all lie dead e're night And how many brave and hopefull branches have in some one Day been lopt off by preposterous and bloudy hands since the breaking forth of this intestine and detestable rebellion Yea and how many more may possibly be destroyed by the undistinguishing bullet and non-sparing sword before this all-Devouring warre be ended and a firme peace in these yet bleeding Kingdomes setled Oh I tremble to speak it How have some amongst us in one day stopt their owne breath and taken off his head who was ours Like the foole in the Embleme who being in a tree sawed off the bow on the which he sate And are not mens fortunes and estates in as much hazard and as little security as their lives and Liberties The Grounds Houses Lands Leases Livings and the like which now many of you call yours if there be any such things as meum tuum as property left they you know have had many a one and many another which called them theirs and may be soon again rent from you or your Posterity by some concussion change or prodigall heirs Yea how many mens estates and revenues are at this present by force and fraud detained from them so that they reap little or no benefit by them When Craesus glorying in his great riches led Solon into his treasury and shewed him all his wealth thinking thereby to extort not onely a bare applause and Commendation but even wonder and admiration the wise man slighted what the fond King so much adored and if my memory fail me not to this purpose replyed He that hath better Iron will soone be Master of all thy Gold And it was not very long after that this rich King proved his poore friends words true by wofull experience another King being a better Warriour or more fortunate Souldier taking from him all his treasure And who will not subscribe this with a probatum est that knows the proceedings of these times Wherein not He that hath most right but they that have most might carry the prize away See Nebuchadnezar proudly walking and vanting in his stately and new erected palace and in the height of his Pride puft up with Prosperity demanding is not this great Babilon that I have built for the house of the Kingdome by the Might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty Dan. 4.30 And see him once within an houre expelled thence yea Driven from the society of men and made a companion for beasts and then tell me if you know what a Day may bring forth Such strange alterations may one day produce that he who is this Day the highest in this worlds blandishments may or ever the Sun salute the East againe be as low as low may be in another worlds torments Thou foole this Night shall thy soule be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Was besides the exprobation and objurgation an unwelcome intimation and prediction of a most strange and sudden change and must needs strike cold to his heart you will say who was at this with himselfe Soule thou hast much good laid up for many years take thine ease Eate Drinke and be Merry Luke 12.19 O Consider then of this all ye that are troubled with the tympany of pride through a little worldly Prosperity all ye that are therefore proud because ye prosper in this world and as some Translations read my Text Vse well the time of Prosperity and remember the time of Misfortune Scilicet ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est diciquebeatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet You know not what may happen before the night of your life come some that have beene borne in a palace have died in a dungeon Hear ye and give eare be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Jer. 13.15 For the day of the Lord of Hoasts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty and upon every one that is lifted up and he shall be brought low Esay 2.12 Prosperity is but for a day let this therefore even in the height of thy Prosperity humble thee Neither secondly is adversity for any more for any longer then a Day and this may comfort us in our miserie Saeva noverca dies nunc est nunc mater amica
Heavinesse may indure for a night but Joy commeth in the Morning Psal 30.5 and a good Day may make amends for an ill night I may after an ill fit be the better for it Why then should I sit disconsolate under so short a vexation Nubecula est transibit It is but a little shower it will soone blow over though it wet me a little it cannot drowne me Many a faire afternoone followes a foule morning There is a certaine and continuall vicissitude and interchange of day and night of light and darknesse and shall I in adversity despaire of ever being happy It is good that a man should both hope and quietly waite for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3.26 and shall I choose the evill and refuse the good not hope not waite for the salvation of my God The same that brings down high looks will save the afflicted people Psal 18.27 O carry then the Lords leasure be strong and he shall comfort thine heart and put thou thy trust in the Lord Psal 27 last Was I in the dust or which is worse on the Dunghill there was no reason I should count my selfe a cast-away some that have beene taken from thence have beene set among Princes and made to inherit the throne of glory 1 Sam. 2.8 and if it be not my fortune here it will be if it be not my fault hereafter For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall Adversity is but for a day let this therefore comfort thee in the depth of misery These things premised we come now to handle the two maine things considerable in this day of adversity namely the cause and the cure of the great and many distempers that make us thus miserable as we are And as for the cause the efficient I have shewed you is God the materiall Sin the finall repentance as for the formall I told you we would wave it for the present The evills which we feele proceed from God procured by Sin and inflicted to the end we should repent and amend And so this consideration affords us this point of Instruction That Gods indignation moved against sinne calls for our Repentance In the second place the cure we have found upon enquiry to be Humiliation and Reformation Humiliation under the mighty hand of God Reformation of our evill lives and corrupt conversations And from hence ariseth this Observation That Humiliation and Reformation are the onely meanes to pacifie Gods indignation and to remove our afflictions And these are the things which we are chiefly in this day of adversity to consider Of which in their order as briefly and plainly as possibly may be and first of the first the cause of the evils under which we now suffer God Sin Repentance God the efficient sin the materiall repentance the finall they proceed from God procur'd by sin and inflicted to the end we should repent and amend Gods indignation moved against sinne calls for our Repentance Micah 6.9 The Lords voice cryeth unto the City and the man of wisdome shall see thy name Hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it As our sins cry to God for Judgments so his Judgments cry to us for repentance Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem Jer. 18.11 behold I frame evill against you and devise a device against you returne ye now every one frō his evill way and make your wayes and your doings good Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so Iniquity shall not be your ruine Ezek. 18.30 What ever evills we suffer under God is the author of them all Lam. 3.37 Who is he that saith and it commeth to passe when the Lord commandeth it not out of the mouth of the most high preproceedeth not evill and good yes doubtlesse evill as well as good proceeds from God But here we must distinguish of Malum poena and Malum culpae the former is from God and the latter from Man No evill of punishment but from him nor any but for the evill of Sin Sinne is the procurer of all our woe Woe woe unto us but why because we have finned Lam. 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned for this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim ver 17. All would be well without us were all well within us From whence come warres and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Jam. 4.1 cast but these with Jonah over-board and the sea of our world which now worketh and is tempestuous will forth with cease her raging and be calme Sinne with Acha◠is it that troubles all let us but take away this accursed thing from amongst us and God will turne from the feircenesse of his anger and returne in mercy to the many thousands of his people The REBELLIONS are strengthned against us yea triumph over us but how by our multiplyed rebellions against our God let us but make our peace with him and he will soone make them to be at peace with us When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him Prov. 16.7 We have transgressed and we have rebelled and the Lord hath not pardoned but punished us with many and sore evils yet we must believe all for our good for our conversion not for our confusion for he hath no pleasure at all that the wicked should die but that he should returne from his wayes and live Ezek. 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God and not that he should returne from his wayes and live No the Lord our God desires rather our life and salvation then our death and damnation he hath no pleasure at all in this latter but delights much in the former yea there is joy amongst his Angels in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth Luke 15.10 Give me leave then I beseech you to apply this that I have spoken with the words of Tertullian in his tract of repentance Bonum est poenitere an non quid revolvis Deus precipit At enim ille non precipit tantum sed etiam hortatur Invitat praemio salutem jurans etiam vivo dicens cupit credi sibi Tell me is it good to repent or not what dost thou study of God commands thee so to doe nay more he doth not onely command but perswades and exhorts thee also he invites thee to Heaven with a promise of a reward swearing as he lives that he desires thy salvation and he would have thee to
KING SOLOMONS DIRECTORY OR The REFORMED CATHOLICKS RUBRICKE Shewing a Christian how to demeane and behave himselfe both in Prosperity and Adversity As it was set forth in a SERMON at St. Peters Pauls-wharfe London July the 8. 1649. By FRAN RIDDINGTON a loyall Subject and long Sufferer for fearing GOD and honouring the KING Prov. 24. v. 21 22. My Son feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1649. ECCLES 7. former part of ver 14. In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider TO every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven saith our Author the preacher at the 3 Chap. and first ver of this his Booke stiled Ecclesiastes And amongst other times for other things he tels us at the 4 ver of that Chap. how that there are proper and peculiar times for Mirth and mourning Joy and Grief Sorrow and solace There is a time saith he to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourne and a time to Dance And both these times for both these purposes are apart exprest and particularly applied in the words of my Text. The time of Mirth and Musick of gladnesse and rejoycing is the time of Gods revealing his Mercies unto us and bestowing his blessings favours and benefits upon us the Day of prosperity as it is here termed in the Text wherein we are admonished and exhorted to be joyfull In the Day of prosperity be joyfull The time of weeping and mourning of lamentation and sorrow is the time of Gods denouncing his Judgments against us or executing them upon us and afflicting us with Warres Famine Pestilence or such like Calamities the Day of Adversity as it is here also termed wherein we are commanded to consider In the Day of adversity consider In the day of prosperity c. In the words there is no such great difficulty as that I should neede to trouble you with much variety of senses and expositions yet are they not so very facile and easie neither to every capacity as that they may fully be understood without as well as with this short paraphrase and explanation In the day of prosperity be joyfull that is enjoy thy portion of blessings with cheerfulnesse In the day of Adversity consider that is be well advised fall not to impatient murmuring or ungodly shifting but stay thy selfe in expectation on God In the day of prosperity when thy affaires be prosperous thy successe in just undertakings happy when it goes well with thee thy King and Country be joyfull and merry But in the day of Adversity in the time of any private or common calamity consider bethink thy selfe of the cause and of the cure of that disaster Consider wherefore it is inflicted and how it may be removed Use prosperity and adversity to the ends appointed by God unto thee and be thou a constant and conscionable observer of the Churches both Feasts and Fasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.15 Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep In the day of Prosperity send up joyfull acclamations to the high Court of heaven in testimony of thy thankfulnesse for those free and undeserved favours and blessings which thou dost enjoy In the day of Adversity send up strong cryes and present thy Supplications before the mercie-seat of Gods offended Majestie in token of thy repentance and contrition In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider So that my Text I may terme the Schoole of a religious deportment In it that great Master of all Arts and Sciences that learned Doctor in all Professions Sol hominum Solomon that Mirrour of Men Wisdomes eldest sonne reades all his Scholars a Lecture of Divine Morality or Morall Divinity if I may so say teaching and instructing them what their manner of behaviour must be at all times and so what it must and ought to be at this present how we ought to demeane and behave our selves now and alwayes In it we have Oppositio mutatio temporum Oppositio mutatio tonorum An opposition and change of Times An opposition and change of Tunes And this latter fitted to the former the tune to the time the duty and ditty to the day Weeping Mourning Sighing Sobbing and the like sad expressions of a sorrowfull spirit are as unseasonable and unseemly at a Feast and on the day of prosperity as unnecessary eating drinking laughing playing dycing dancing and their like are at a Past and in the day of adversity And therefore our Author the Preacher the wisest of men King Solomon where he tells us of different times there also he tells us of the different tunes that we are to observe and keep in those times As in my Text. Where we have two severall and opposite dayes The day of prosperity and the day of adversity There also we have the severall and Apposite businesse of them both Joy of the former Consideration of the latter In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider Which of these dayes This day is is easie you will not deny to determine It is well knowne far and neare that we of this Nation have nothing to doe this day with the first day in the Text the day of prosperity these are not dayes and times wherein it goes well with us our King and Country and therefore not dayes and times wherein to be so frollick joyfull and merry We as if we had liv'd too long have our-liv'd that day and God he onely knowes whether we shall ever see it againe before we die O if we had known even we at least in that our day the things which belong'd unto our peace but now ah now Quid nisi vota supersunt what remains saving only prayers that they be not hid from our eyes As our Saviour said of Jerusalem bemoning and prophesying its destruction Luk. 19.42 This day every day that now goes over our heads is Hezekiahs day such another day as that day 2. Kings 19.3 A day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy for the Children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth Such are the pangs of this Sin-sick-land as of a woman in travaile where the poore Infant is altogether unable to deliver it selfe and the pained Mother to be delivered of it Such another day as the Prophet Ezekiell sets forth with an Ecce at the 7 Chap. and 10. ver of that his prophesy Behold the day behold it is come the morning is gone forth the rod hath blosomed pride hath budded violence is risen up into a rod of wickednesse Or such a day as the Prophet Zephaniah speaks of at the first Chap. of his prophesy 15. and following verses A day of wrath a day of trouble
confesse and forsake our sinnes correct and amend what ever is amisse in us redeeme the time we have vainly spent and work out our salvation with fear and trembling Fear God honour our King and love as Brethren and then we need never fear what man can doe unto us Luke 12.4 5. Let all of us in the fear of God in this day the latter day the day of Adversity thus consider and God it may be may be intreated and once againe restore unto us the former day the day of Prosperity wherein we may lawfully yea must and ought thankfully to be joyfull and merry To which purpose let us pray This Prayer was omitted because the Glass was run and the Season then almost as hot as these 8. years persecution but being it was really intended it is therefore here verbatim inserted O Lord God of Hosts God of the spirits of all Flesh who for a long time hast sorely afflicted us with the devouring scourge of a most unnaturall War And in the depth of thy displeasure hast suffered us to proceed to that height of impiety as unsatisfied with the bloud of our fellow-members to cut off Him who was our Head and to take away His Life for the preservation whereof we ought all of us both by the Lawes of God and Man to have sacrificed our own O Lord we do confesse that we be even astonished and confounded with the apprehension of our most sinfull and most miserable condition O who can lay his hands on the Lords Anointed and be guiltlesse Had He been a Saul and His Subjects Davids Had He beene rejected and they elected They Righteous and He Wicked yet had they sinned against their own Soules and been guilty of the highest Treason for defiling their hands with the Bloud of their Soveraigne Of how much greater condemnation doth this sinfull Land stand guilty who have laid hands upon a David and are themselves Shimea's and Shebaes who have slaine a most pious prudent and peaceable Prince and are themselves a most perfidious rebellious and wicked People Yea and to fill up the measure of our iniquity that their might be nothing wanting to make our sinne compleat we have usurpt thy Authority who art the onely Judge of Kings and committed this horrid Murther under the specious colour of Justice We have if we may make use of His owne Expressions added the mockery of Justice to the cruelty of Malice So that now we may seeme even ripe for destruction and thou mayest justly thrust in thy sickle and cut us down destroy us root and branch as in one day and lay our Land waste into a Wildernesse or give it unto Strangers to be inhabited Thou mayst sweep us away with the beesome of Destruction and give us our portion with the Devil and his Angels as the worst of Hipocrites in the hottest place of that Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone But Lord in Judgment we humbly beseech thee to remember mercy and thou that takest no delight in the Death of one single sinner spare mercifull Lord spare a great though most sinfull Nation Pity a despised Church and distracted State heal up those Wounds which our sins have made so wide that none but thine owne hands can close them and in the tendernesse of thy unspeakable compassion set up the Sunne in his Fathers Throne that he may restore thy worship settle Peace and purge the Land of the Guilt of that innocent Loyall yea ROYALL blood wherewith it is Defiled which cries aloud for Vengeance in thine ears O Lay not this sin of bloud-guiltinesse unto the charge of this whole Nation which is committed by the hands of a handfull in comparison to the whole Neither let the Cry of that horrid murther committed upon the Person of thine Anointed by those who have graspt all power into their hands out-cry the cry of their prayers whose Loyall hearts abhorre the very thought of such a Heinous Treasonable Damnable fact and mourne in secret for it O Let it pity thee to see so flourishing a Church and State as this but lately was to be thus rent and torne in pieces by a rude rabble of Seditious Sacrilegious Rebellious Trayterous Men who have embrued their hands in the bloud of King Priest and People Who have Usurpt all authority trampled upon all Religion Violated all our Lawes infring'd all our liberties and destroy'd our properties and Father all their impieties upon thee because for our sins thou sufferest successe to attend their actions which have neither warrant nor president in thy Word But Lord we beseech thee for Jesus Christ his sake to be reconciled unto us to pardon our sins and heale our Land which for its transgressions hath many Princes yea Servants that rule over it And give us Him thy Servant our true and rightfull Soveraigne CHARLES Sonne and Heyre to his deceased Father to be our King maugre all the power and malice of thine his and our inhumane barbarous and bloud thirsty enemies Arise O Lord maintaine thine owne cause Remember how the Adversary hath blasphemed thy Name profaned thy holy places Murdered thine Anointed butchered his Subjects and now gee about to disinherit his posterity and convert a well-tempered Monarchy into a popular Anarchy This thou hast seen O Lord and because thou holdest thy tongue they think wickedly that thou art even such a one as their selves but doe thou reprove them and see before them the things which they have done That thou maist take the matter into thy hands the poore commiteth himself unto thee O be thou the helper of the friendlesse and breake the power of the ungodly and malicious Infatuate their Councells and divide them Infeeble their forces and Disperse them Impale their hearts weaken their hands and command Salvation and deliverance for thy Church the King and his people That thy worship may be restored Thine ANOINTED inthroned and Truth and Peace re-established in all our Borders and that for his sake who is the Prince of peace and that shed his most precious blood to purchase our peace even Jesus Christ the righteous To whom with thee and the blessed Spirit be ascribed as is most due All Honour Power Praise might Majesty Dominion and thanksgiving for ever and for ever Amen FINIS