Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A54872
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A sermon preached at the assizes at Lancaster, on Sunday, March 19, 1675/6 by H. Pigott.
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Pigott, H.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing P2219; ESTC R33409
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12,066
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41
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Wise Good and Pure Created man in a more Noble and Innocent Estate than that whereinto he hath plunged himself If we be in a state of War we are born so as we are corrupted we were not originally designed such by the Creator And it fares with those that should be repaired as it doth with men of tender Eyes sickly Ears and weak Stomacks in respect of the Light Musick and Delicates though these be grateful to sound faculties their disorder will not abide ' em Nor can Superstitious and Licentious men away with the Preaching of Truth and Righteousness When men are Conscious to themselves of their own ill-deserving they have ever a suspitious eye upon that which is of another Interest The Elders of Bethel though of the better sort of God's people trembled at Samuels comeing and solicitously enquired Comest thou peaceably And you may observe that even all those who are honoured with an Angels appearance to 'em must yet be cheared with a Noli timere fear not or else the message to 'em is lost for lack of courage to hear it And all because being Conscious of our own guilty we are still jealous of a Denunciation If so then by how much men are more wicked so much the apter will they be to be troubled for they are so much more like the Devil than others are and therefore jealous lest the Preacher of Righteousness torment 'em before their time These are of opinion that all Essays to cure 'em are but a trouble Laws Tracts of Philosophy and even their very Sacrifices if they had cost about ' em Their Natures were not subdued by Philosophy And that the nearer it came to true Divinity the more unwelcome was it and worse used he that vented it as was Socrates And all was nought among 'em as Hackwell in his excellent Apology makes manifest 2ly If you add the Apostles Argument Rev. 12.12 The Devil hath great wrath because his time is short The Prince of Darkness must needs detest the Messengers of Light no wonder if his Agents clamour on 'em that they turn all up-side down He is called in the New Testament the Devil which title I meet not within the Old Testament His time to rant in bad Language was when he felt his Kingdom totter 3dly Add the third Reason as more particular Saravia doth prudently begin his tract of the Right to Command and of Christian Obedience shewing that love of liberty is that which turns all up-side down Being in very deed but the proud stubbornness of an untamed mind arising from the high value which we set upon our selves by which our first Parents fell off from God and in with Satan when they desired to know what he hid and to do what he had forbidden It makes us resemble Brutes of which the worst will not be tamed the rest become useful So Men the more Bruitish they are the harder are they to be reclaimed by doctrin or by discipline And while they would serve themselves of and by all other men and living things yea by the Elements and influences of the Heavens Nay while the very Angels of God are Ministring Spirits and the Son of God in shape of a Servant not comeing to be administred unto but to serve not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him These alone would be free who have most extravagant passions and so least fit to be left at liberty Let the Magistrate urge Law and Equity as did Moses Numb 16.13 They twit him as did the Princes of the Congregation that he makes himself altogether a Prince over them But if the Divine urge Religion he is either snapt up as a Babbler a setter forth of new Gods or he speaks Treason Or at least to bring him into the peoples hate this is he that spoyles their plenty by denying the old worship of the Queen of Heaven Jer. 44.17 18. This mention of the Princes faulting against Moses as these sordid ones in the Text against the Apostles doth mind me of the consent of two excellent men upon this subject That Sedition ariseth both from Great plenty and Great want the one provoking by haughtiness the other by spleen That the one is apt to Out rages the other to petty Mischiefs For Greatness delights to shew it self by effects of power and baseness to help it self with shifts of Malice And both apt to affront their Guides Indeed remarque our Prophets and Apostles and you shall find 'em vext by the Great Women Act. 13.50 whether Devout or whether those Careless ones that are at ease as well as by the Rabble in the Text. And why should we think much if we receive alike opposition whilst to urge them forwards we have some Jesuitical Adversaries who value each their parts and skill as competent to govern a whole Kingdom And others kept so low as by a bare Monastique allowance or Contribution from private Purses If these share not only our Livings in imagination and hope but the Kingdom also as that which they accompt the Pope their Masters vere horius deliciarum for thither those think it should Revert while others expect it as a reward for their zeal as it was in the late times of Sequestration Add to these Arguments the natural Sloath of the World the tediousness of any good which hath long continued How a flighting humour is still maintained against those who out-vie in power them that set a great value on themselves As did he who acknowledged the Objections against the unreformed Churches good but would not abide that one poor Monk should prevail in urging ' em All will satisfie that 1. The best designers are oft worst spoken of 2. And the greatest clamour is from them who have least cause to make it or receive least hurt We may observe the same in reference to those who administer civil affairs as well as to Ecclesiastiques Let the Rabble be up and the Tax-gatherer Adoniram is sure to be stoned And for all Samuels Integrity they will grow weary of his Government If in the 4th of Hosh 4. you find 'em striving with the Priest look forward but to 7.7 and they devour their Judges Nay this unruly Beast the Many is always heady and humorous Please 'em awhile and what ever the King did pleased 'em 2 Sam. 3.36 Raise their pet and the time of the Greatest prosperity and plenty that ever was is carped at Make our heavy burthen lighter 1 King 12.3 Let 'em but be in tolerable fear of Tobia and Sanballat and Nebemia may pluck 'em by the beard Let 'em grow half desperate and the King himself Zedekiah can have nothing after him Let Moses shew 'em the Mount on Fire then what ever thou say'st we will do Let him be absent a-while and the fear over-blown and Aaron must please 'em with a Calf or fare-well his Priest-hood Hear their Language to the Magistrate the word Judge they like not 't is at their