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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53927	A sermon preached at St. Edmonds-Bury, in Suffolk, at the assizes, March 18th, 1692/3 before Lord Chief Justice Holt and Judge Rokeby and William Hammond, Esq., high-sheriff for that county / by Samuel Peck, lecturer of Ipswich.	Peck, Samuel.	1693 (1693)	Wing P1037A; ESTC R35100	10,033	32

keep himself from his Iniquity And for Men in Authority not to bear the Sword in vain but to use their utmost Diligence and Power for the Punishment of Wickedness and Vice and maintenance of Religion and Vertue And here I Crave leave for a few Words to you My Lords the Judges and those Worshipful Gentlemen who help to fill up the Seat of Judgment Being hereto Encouraged by your Commendable and Religious Practice to Enter into the House of God to ask his Direction and Benediction before you proceed to Execute your Commissions Not that I shall Presume to dictate or Direct in the Discharge of your Honourable and Weighty Trust or to Meddle with things I understand not your distinct Offices and Duties And surely 't is no diminution to a Divine that he is not a compleat Lawyer But my desire as well as Duty is Right Honourable to excite your Zeal for God and his Cause for the Prosperity and Peace of their Majesties and their Kingdoms Your Lordships have heard somewhat of our publick Grievances and understand more than I can inform you and what the Consequences are like to be Now whether next to God should we betake our selves to offer our humble and earnest Addresses for help but to your Lordships and the rest of those Worthy Magistrates who have Power and Authority put into your Hands by God and the King that you would in your respective Places by a due Execution of our wholsom Laws for Laws not executed are as Laws repealed endeavour to put a stop to that Deluge of Wickedness that threatens our Destruction It is observable That God in Scripture ascribeth to Magistrates the most Honourable Names among Men as Great Men Nobles Princes Kings Chief of the People Heads over the People Dignities and Glories yea they are styled Angels 2 Sam. 14 20. nay they are called Gods Psal 82. 6. and that you answer these Titles of Honour Trust and Power God both requires and expects as you will answer it to Him who hath thus Honoured you in his Word And if you consider what the Apostle Rom. 13. saith of Magistrates their Office Power and Authority he seems to speak you no less than the Keepers of our Liberties the Safety of our Persons the Security of our Possessions the Terror of Sinners the Defence of Saints the Nerves and Sinews yea the vital Spirits of the Body Politick without whom all things would quickly run to disorder and Confusion now how becoming how necessary is Religion and Righteousness Courage and Zeal for God in such Persons which only can make your Authority serviceable to the Divine Majesty Wherefore we and the whole Countrey yea the whole Kingdom Cry to you and such as you Right Honourable and Right Worshipful in the Language of the distressed Disciples Save us we perish help or we are ruined Help us against Impostors and Seducers prophane Sabbath-breakers common and false Swearers against Swinish Drunkards Heaven-daring Blasphemers and bold Atheists who industriously labour in the Devils Service and who seek to laugh and banter all true Notions of God all practice of Religion yea all Honesty and Sobriety out of the World Let not my Lords be Angry if I say once more Help us against the Murmurers and unreasonable Male-contents at our present Governours and Government the greatest Blessing of that sort that ever our Kingdom enjoyed My Lords and Gentlemen Can you do any thing We know you can we hope you will and pray you may help us against these grand Impeders of our Peace and Tranquility who retard our full Deliverance and Salvation and hasten Misery and Destruction upon us more by their Sins than they could do by their Hands Conscience I Confess cannot be compelled to love Vertue but Restraints may and ought to be laid upon the openly Vitious Arise therefore Honourable and Beloved for your own sakes for the Lands sake for the Lord's sake arise put on a Spirit of Zeal and Resolution for God 't is good to be zealously affected in a good thing suppress all topping Vice and Profaneness and lift up fallen despised trampled-upon Religion and Godliness in your respective Stations and Places and shew your selves Valiant for God upon Earth The Sword of the Spirit the Word of God may do somewhat to the Amending the Manners of Men but it will do more when the Sword of the Magistrate is joyned with it A Magistrate Conscientious and Zealous for God may in his place do God more Service in giving check to open Vice and encouragement to Vertue than many Ministers can do most Men living more by Sense than Faith dreading a good Judge or Justice of Peace more than God and are more afraid of a present Temporal Punishment than of a future tho' an Eternal Misery Continual Experience proves it true that the Price and Penalties for Oaths Drunkenness Sabbath-breaking c. duly exacted and called for by you according to Law prevail more upon such Offendors than all the Penalties threatned against them in the Word of God So powerful is the Sword of the Magistrate where the Sword of the Spirit can make no Impression work no Reformation Wherefore with all Humility and Earnestness and as the Apostle speaks in Christ's Name and stead I once more Address my self to you Honourable and Beloved That you would afford us your Assistance in this great and necessary Work We preach against Wickedness and Vice and we beg of you to punish it We in our places press and exhort Men to the observation of the Laws of God and we humbly pray you in your Places to put in Execution the good and commendable Laws of the Land against open Enormities and Prophaneness For till this be done we are still in danger of Divine Judgments We may look for peace and behold trouble for salvation but behold destruction and tho' brought out of Egypt may perish in the Wilderness But if this be universally and heartily endeavoured we may yet hope to see Religion lifting up her languishing Head and recover a repute amongst us equal at least to what Looseness and Debauchery have had for divers years past We may then hope for success against our Enemies hope to see Mercy and Truth meet together Righteousness and Peace kiss each other yea and Glory to dwell in our Land However Your Reward shall be sure for them that honour me will I honour saith the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 30. A great Word a Promise whose Contents neither Words nor Thoughts can fully reach And he that spoke it hath Earth and Heaven too at his dispose and Heaven and Earth shall pass before it shall fail O that it may prevail with you to stand up for God for his Cause his Truth this Day Worship and People else were you greater than you are the following Threatning shall overtake you here or hereafter They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is not Iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of Persons nor taking of Gifts 2 Chron. 19. 7. FINIS There is Published by the same Author the 3 Books following sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside THe Best way to mend the World by perswading the Rising Generation to an Early and serious practice of Piety With Answers to the principal Cavils of Satan and his Agents against it c. A Dialogue between Timothy and Titus about the Articles and some of the Canons of the Church of England Wherein Super-Conformity is Censured and Moderation Recommended With a serious perswasive to all the Inferior Clergy of that Church By one that heartily wisheth Union amongst Protestants Jericho's Downfall In a Sermon Preached upon Jan. 31. 1688 9. Being a Day of Publick Thanksgiving to God for our Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power

A SERMON Preached at St. EDMONDS-BVRY in Suffolk AT THE ASSIZES March 18 th 1692 3. BEFORE Lord Chief Justice Holt and Judge Rokeby AND William Hammond Esq High-Sheriff for that County By SAMUEL PECK Lecturer of Ipswich LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower End of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel M DC XCIII Isa. LIX 11. We look for Salvation but it is far off from us THese Words require your Attention for they Treat of Salvation not Salvation Eternal which very few in our Dayes mind or regard but Salvation Temporal and National desired by and would be Welcome to us all and I Wish we were all as desirous of the right Methods to this Mercy as we are of the Mercy it self But amongst the manifold Fallacies which the Hellish Impostor who deceiveth the whole World imposeth Rev. 12. 9. upon People of all Times and States there are none by which a greater Number and with more apparent Danger are deluded than by the Predictions of his False Prophets who call Evil good and Good evil who put Darkness for Light and Light for darkness and boldly Prophesieth Peace when the Lord by his Prophets prophesieth Trouble Such was the Delusion of this People the Jews at this time when God by this and the following Prophets breaths forth several Comminations of severe Judgments for their Stubbornness and Rebellion even such as if not prevented by a sincere and speedy Repentance and Reformation would end in their Destruction But the False Prophets heal all Predict fair Weather assure them all was and would be well Crying Peace Peace when there was no Peace but the Voice of the Lord was Fury and Wrath Whereupon they grow regardless of the Lord's Prophets fearless of his Threatnings and consequently Bold and Presumptuous in their Sin 'till the Storm began to fall and then they Cry out and not without Cause We are deceived these False Prophets have meerly Deluded and Mocked us for according to their Predictions We looked for Peace but no Peace came for Salvation but it was far from us From which Words give me leave to recommend to your Consideration these two Seasonable Propositions 1. That a Nation or People may Expect and Look for Deliverance Peace and Salvation and God may delay and frustrate their Expectations 2. That when God doth frustrate and delay a People's Expectation of the Good of the Peace and Salvation they hope and look for Sin is the Cause of it Of the first briefly 1. A Nation or People may Expect and look for Deliverance Peace and Salvation and God may delay and frustrate their Expectations We looked for Salvation but it is far off from us They may expect to be Planted and God may Pluck them up to be Built and he may Break them down They may expect a Calm Jer. 45. 4. and God may send a Storm that the Shaddows of the Night of Trouble should flee away and the Sun of Peace and Healing should arise and God may lengthen the Night and encrease the Darkness they may expe Mount Gerizim and God may bring them to Mount Ebal as this People Complain Deut. 27. 12 13. here saying Verse 9 and 10. We wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness we look for Salvation but it is far from us we are in desolate places as dead men Yea more than once we hear them making the same Lamentation Jer. 8. 15 20. We looked for peace but no good came and for a time of health and behold trouble the Harvest is past the Summer is ended and we are not saved And that mournful Expostulation speaks as much Jer. 14. 19. Hast thou utterly rejected Judah hath thy soul loathed Zion why hast thou smitten us and there is no healing for us we looked for peace and there was no good for a time of healing and behold trouble And did not God deal thus with this People in the Wilderness when he had brought them to the very borders and skirts of the promised Land and they were in full expectation of a speedy Entry and Possession yet God brought them back and caused their Carkasses to fall Numb 14. 25. to 30. in the Wilderness dealing with them as with David's Enemies of whom 't is said They looked 2 Sam. 22. 42. but there was none to save even to the Lord but he answered them not Many more Instances there are besides what our own Experience can furnish to prove that God may be in a path-way of Mercy to a Land or Kingdom and being provoked may return again into the paths of Judgment The Hand of Mercy may be stretched out as Zarah's hand out of Tamars Womb and be pulled in again as his Gen. 38. 28 30. was 'T is true such Divine Dispensations may seem severe and such Delays and Disappointments hard and grievous to be born yet most righteous and just because deserved as the next General will more fully inform us which is this 2. When God doth frustrate a Peoples Expectations of the good of the Deliverance and Salvation they hope and look for Sin is the Cause of it Divine Mercies are always free Divine Judgments are always deserved Thus far this People justifie God and Acknowledge the Equity of his proceedings Jer. 14. 19 20. We looked for peace and no good came for a time of healing and behold trouble for we have sinned against thee And if they had not confessed this to have been the Gause of their disappointment yet it is sufficient that the Prophet declares it in the very beginning of this Chapter wherein the Text is saying Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save but your Iniquities a larger Catalogue of which follows have separated between you and your God As if the Prophet had said Do you complain that the hoped for good is delay'd the expected Salvation far off And what is the Cause where lyes the blame Not in your God who by a mighty Hand and stretched-out Arm wrought wonderful Salvations for your Fore-fathers and is able to work as great Salvation for you for there is no impotency in him his hand is not shortned the Fault or Blame therefore must be in you in your Sins your repeated Impieties and Rebellions which are the Interstitium that divides or separates between you and your God and hinder good things from you And of like import is that Divine Declaration Jer. 18. 9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation or Kingdom to build it and to plant it if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my Voice then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them Yea not only withhold the intended good from them but do them hurt and consume them after I have done them good saith the Lord Josh 24. 20. And divers ways may a People provoke the Divine Justice to such terrible and