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A30057
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A sermon preached at the Cathedral-Church of Hereford on May the 29th, 1684 being the anniversary day of His late Majesties birth and happy restauration, at a feast then first instituted by some of the loyal inhabitants of that country / by Richard Bulkeley ...
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Bulkeley, Richard, 1657 or 8-1702.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing B5406; ESTC R3336
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17,961
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32
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A SERMON PREACHED AT THE CATHEDRAL-CHURCH OF HEREFORD On May the 29th 1684. Being the Anniversary Day of His late MAJESTIES Birth and happy Restauration at a Feast then first instituted by some of the Loyal Inhabitants of that County By Richard Bulkeley M. A. and Prebendary of that Church LONDON Printed for William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar near Devereux-Court 1685. To the truely Honoured Sir John Morgan Baronet and Sir John Ernle Knight the Stewards of this Loyal Feast Gentlemen NOthing but a deep sense and just consciousness of my own Inabilities could have render'd me so pertinaciously backward even to a rudeness almost unpardonable in no sooner gratifying your repeated Commands for the Publication of this mean but well-intended Discourse which appearing in the World though after his Demise upon the Nativity and happy Restauration of a Prince who can no more dye in his Sacred Memory amongst us than an English Monarch in his Politick State makes it if ever at all now also equally seasonable And since I publish this Performance under your Patronage and with the License of my highly Honoured and Right Reverend Diocesan tho I need as many as any one that ever appeared in Print yet I shall make no Apologies for it God grant that all the Parts and Inhabitants of this Nation may by the knowledge of your most generous Example your most conspicuous steddy and signaliz'd Loyalty to his late be emulously influenc'd to their bounden Duty and Obedience to his present Majesty whom the God by whose especial Providence he rules over us long and happily continue unto us May He never want such Loyal Subjects as your selves nor such Loyal Subjects so Gracious a Prince who has given us his Royal Word to assure us that he will stand by and defend us both in Church and State and who never yet did and indeed which must needs conquer our Fears and remove our Jealousies knows not how and is yet to learn to recede from it may we never forget such unparallell'd Goodness may we in Gratitude comply with Him and readily satisfie him in every Demand we in Conscience can May every Feast celebrated throughout his Dominions like this of ours regularly end with Loyalty to our King with Charity to our Neighbour and with Piety to our God and in a word may every one of us as we are in Conscience bound endeavour to beget and propagate in all men The Fear of God and the Honour of the King on which two Foundations the Happiness and Welfare of our Kingdom is superstructed Which as it is the fervent Prayer so shall it ever be the constant and incessant Endeavour in his Sphere and Station of Gentlemen Your most Devoted most Obedient and Humble Servant Richard Bulkeley PSAL. 126. v. 3. The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad WHen God ever signally appeared in the behalf of his People the Jews to relieve them in their Wants to assist them in the day of their Distress and so exerted his Almighty interposed his own Sovereign Power for their Deliverance when ever he wonderfully preserved them from any Danger that did beset any Calamity that did befall them we still we as constantly find them tho a stubborn and head-strong People making their solemn and grateful Returns paying their most enlarged Thanks and just retribution of Praises Thus when the Depths of the Sea overwhelmed Pharaoh and his whole Host Exod. 1 Ver. 6. so that they sunk into the bottom as a Stone and as Lead into the mighty Waters when the right hand of the Lord became glorious in Power dashed their Enemies into pieces and might have involved them in the same Ruin and fatal overthrow but yet miraculously preserved them Ver. 19. so that they went on dry Land even in the midst of the Sea we have Moses composing his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his triumphant Song of Thanksgiving and in a most devout most dutiful manner landing and praising his God and acknowledging him v. 11. glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders And thus also not to mention any more instances when the Children of Israel were deliver'd and freed from twenty years Slavery and Servitude which they had suffer'd under Jabin King of Canaan we find Deborah and Barach the Son of Abinoam as you may read in the fifth Chapter of Judges magnifying God the Author of their Liberty And as this was their constant their general Practise so likewise in particular this Psalm as a Reverend Divine of our Church in his Argument upon it observes is universally thought to be a joyful Song compos'd by Ezra Dr. Patrick or some such good man wherein he celebrates the Jews happy deliverance out of Babylon a City to which they were carried Captives for their Sins wherein he ascribes the mighty the unexpected great things of their return to their Countrey of their restitution to their Laws Liberty and Worship wholly to the Lord looking upon this happy turn this Revolution of Affairs as well he might as a thing too great to be effected by bare Humane Power so wonderful so incomprehensible that it was judg'd impossible to be performed Insomuch that when the Lord stirred up the Spirit of Cyrus King of Persia to issue out his Royal Proclamation for their Return to Jerusalem Ezra 1. v. 2 3. we read in the first Verse of this Psalm that they were like unto them that dream that they could scarce be wrought into a belief of their Happiness and that they look'd upon themselves under some soft delusion some kinder Deception only in a Dream an imaginary fancy of such unhop'd for unexpected Felicity but then when they met with no obstruction or impediment when they clearly perceived and had sufficient demonstration and Conviction that God had wrought this for them and that the men of the place not only permitted them but also help'd them forwarded them to go when I say the truth and certainty of this appeared beyond denial or contradiction then as became them were their Mouths filled with Laughter and their Countenances with Joy their Tongues employ'd in singing and their Breaths in fashioning Hymns to their God who had magnified his Power in their Deliverance which justly filled them with Joy and Triumph so that they expressed themselves in the words of my Text The Lord hath done great things c. And sure if ever any People under the Copes of Heaven had cause to bless God for any Mercies conferr'd upon them then certainly we of this Nation have for those of this days Commemoration A day whereon we celebrate a double Blessing an Anniversary whereon we repeat our continued Thanks to Almighty God for the Birth and for the Return of our present Sacred Majesty A Birth next to that of our B. Saviour's the most beneficial most advantagious to us being the Nativity of the best of Princes A Return the greatest and most signaliz'd Mercy next
the World of this nature will leave them without excuse at the great day of retrubution of all things And so I pass to my third and last undertaking to make some brief Application to the whole with reference to this Solemn this Loyal Appearance Has Almighty God done such great things for us Has he been exceedingly gracious to this Land wherein we live And has he by his miraculous Providence and wonderful Preservation of him after the fatigue and toil of a savage War and tedious Exile at last brought back at last restored our most gracious Sovereign to his own and most undoubted Rights Then let this engage us in return to such rich and tender Mercies to do something for his Honour and to his Glory and the best we can do do all we can is to leave off our Sins and to repent us of our Vices that Gods Hand may not as visibly be stretched out against our Sovereign as it was this day remarkably seen in his Deliverance that he might be at Peace with and reconciled unto us and still continue what he hitherto hath been Bp. Piers Ann. Cyp. our Tutelar God our Protector and Defender For as St. Cyprian answered Demetrius the then Proconsul of Africa who objected against the Christians that they were the cause of all the Evils that did befall them No said he the true reason why so many Calamities happen unto you is not because the Christians are among you but rather Quod à vobis non colitur Deus because God is not worshipped amongst you So as truly may we assign the cause of our Fears and Dangers to our manifold Wickednesses to our gross Impieties for could we be but persuaded to be truly Religious To worship God in Spirit and Truth which he indispensibly requires of us and but lead lives answerable to our Vows and Obligations we might be secure and safe we might enjoy Wealth and Plenty to the full like Solomons Peace on all sides round about us and we need not fear for God would be on our side who is greater than they though all the Devils in Hell and Presbyterians on Earth rise up and conspire together against us Secondly Are we we the Inhabitants tho not Natives of the County assembled together to give our best Testimonies and largest Attestations of our hearty Affection to the Government we so happily live under and are Subjects of And have we erected a Feast the usual and ancient way of Commemorating Mercies to render our Congratulations for his most gracious Majesties Birth and Restauration Let us then answer the design and intent which can be nothing less in the worthy and honourable Founders of it then truly good and loyal by a regular performance and due execution Let us crown our meeting as with Loyalty and Sobriety so with Bounty and Charity Heb. 13.16 for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased Let our abundance as the Apostle speaks be a supply to the wants of the Poor and then will our Feast be acceptable to God and Man then will it procure a Blessing for our selves and the County we are planted in Nusquam Dominus meritis nostris ad Praemium deerit Cyp. de Op. Eleemosynis God is never wanting always ready to reward our good Deeds Then will it give a Credit and conciliate repute to the Institution of it and then to say no more will it bear a Suitableness and Correspondency with the primitive purest and most ancient Feasts in which the Money that was collected as Tertullian informs us was not expended in eating and drinking to excess was not consumed in foul Epicurism and filthy Gluttony but was laid out and employed Tert. Ap. cap. 39. Egenis alendis humandisque Pueris Puellis re ac Parentibus destitutis and so on in feeding the Poor and burying them in comforting Children that were destitute of Parents and Patrimony and in helping old and decrepit Men that had spent the Vigour and Prime of their Youth and the best of their dayes in the Service of the Faithful To incite and stir us up to such good Duties I might propose several Instances of this kind I might propose several Objects of this degree and nature As our care of some poor and fatherless and helpless Children As our freeing and enlarging some necessitous and indigent insolvent Debtors and Prisoners or As which would be a very agreeable Constitution our establishing a Fund for the Relief of some poor Veterane Souldiers who had almost lost their Lives but altogether their Fortunes in the Service of our King and his Martyred Father in our late unhappy Wars and Contentions but I shall commit this to our further consideration and shall bespeak you once more for I never can too often that you would continually implore the Divine Majesty in the behalf of our Earthly one and beg of him who is the Fountain and Source of all good gifts that he would make his Reign to come prosperous safe and easie and his Days many that he would make him a King in the Wise man's Phrase Prov. 30.31 against whom there may be no rising up and influence with his heavenly benediction and blessing all his Affairs all his Counsels and all his Undertakings through the whole course of his Reign over us And lastly Let every one of us present as it is expressed in the Panegyrick spoken to Paulinus Bishop of Tyre upon the building of Churches With one Spirit and one Soul Euseb Ecc. Hist li. 10. cap. 4. never cease to give thanks and praise to the Author of these our so great good things keeping them fresh in our Memories both now and throughout all succeeding times and moreover setting before the Eyes of our Minds God the Cause of this present Day 's joyful Solemnity and the Master of this Feast both by Day and Night every Hour and as I may say every Moment wherein we fetch our Breath let us love him and worship him with all the strength of our Souls And let us now rise up and with the loud voice of our Affections beseech him that he would continually save and defend us within his Sheep-fold and that he would afford us his everlasting Peace entire and inviolable in JESUS CHRIST our Saviour by whom be Glory to him throughout all Ages Amen FINIS Books Printed for and sold by William Crooke 1685. Divinity 1. BRevis Demonstratio being the truth of the Christian Religion proved by Reason 12o. price bound 10 d. 2. The Primitive Institution shewing the antiquity and usefulness of Catechizing together with its suitableness to heal the distempers of the Church by L. Addison D. D. price 1 s. 6 d. 3. Mr. Howel's Visitation Sermon before the Bishop of Chichester quarto price 6 d. 4. Dr. Hascard's two Sermons one on the 5th of November and the other before the Lord Mayor of London In quarto 5. Mr. Manningham's two Sermons one before the Lord Mayor