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A43460
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London at the Church of St. Mary le Bow, on September the 9th being the day of thanksgiving for the discovery of the late treasonable conspiracy against His Majesties person and government / by H. Hesketh ...
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Hesketh, Henry, 1637?-1710.
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1684
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Wing H1619; ESTC R12083
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19,863
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38
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from it that there is not a more excellent and certain way to credit our Holy Religion and to take off all Objections and scandals against it than the Holy and Good the Exemplary and Virtuous Lives of those that profess it This is that Adorning the Doctrine of our Saviour that the Scripture calls for and in the common Estimation and Eye of the World will signifie more than Ten Thousand of the best Arguments we can ever urge for it I pray God give us all Grace to consider it and to comply with the purpose of it But the Notion of Well-doing here is that Honest and Regular that Ready and Consciencious Subjection to Government that he had pressed in the preceding Verses Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake And then St. Peter's words may be thus Paraphrased whereas your Religion is Aspersed as an Enemy to Government and your selves Persecuted as Disobedient and Seditious Persons be sure you take care by your Submissive Obedient Temper your Respect and Honour to your Governors both Supream and Subordinate your ready Obedience to their Ordinances and Laws to let the World see how falsly these things are objected against you and how unjustly your Religion is Aspersed with Favouring or Influencing any such Practises There is another very considerable way of clearing Christian Religion from this Scandalous reflexion and it is one way that the Ancient brave Apollogists have taken in their noble Defences of it and it may not be very Impertinent to take notice of it And that is to appeal to the known Doctrines and Principles of it and challenge the World to Instance in any one saying in the New Testament that the utmost Art and Subtilty of Man can Interpret to any such purpose whether there be the least hint or encouragement given to Rebellion or any thing that can warrant the least undutiful carriage towards our Governours Or rather to say whether there be not directly the contrary whether there be not the utmost said there to secure all Princes from any fear of being Rival'd in their Power or Intrenched upon in their Prerogative by Christ or any of his Votaries And whether there be not enough asserted there to assure Government and to engage all Persons to Subjection upon better Arguments and stronger Reasons then any yet were ever made use of before for here the Reason of Subjection is laid deep and charged immediatly upon the Consciences of Men resistance is declared to be resisting the Ordinance of God and Damnation is expresly Threatned against it Obedience is not only Recommended upon the great Advantages of Quietness and Peace of Happiness and Order that result to the World from it nor backed with the Sanctions of Temporal Punishments to those that Rebel but it is pressed upon Reasons of Conscience and Duty to God and the danger of incurring that Eternal Damnation that is prepared in Hell for the Disobedient and Lawless Now this is one good way of Vindicating Christian Religion from this Aspertion and sufficient to convince all Considering-Men how invidiously and unjustly it is cast upon it and there is no reason to doubt but St. Peter knew this as well as any Man and yet this is not the Method that he prescribes in this Case but Well-doing he would have those Excellent Lessons of Obedience and Subjection that are in the Precepts and Doctrines of Christianity Transcribed into the Lives and Exemplified in the Practices of all Christians as the best way to clear Christian Religion from this Aspersion that the Ignorance of some Men cast upon it And it is certainly the most Effectual way For First All Men have not Parts to Examine what the Principles of a Religion are or to Understand what the Natural Consequences from them be and many that can do this yet are Idle or cannot spare time to do it and all these will go that near way of Judging a Religion to be such as they behold the Professors of it to be Secondly Actions are commonly and popularly more Convictive then Principles and Professions Quid verba audiam cum foeda videam said he in the Comedy and 't is the Temper of most Men. Kings will be better pleased and satisfied with the Quiet and Peaceable Lives of their Subjects their chearful Obedience to their Laws and their ready Compliance with their Pleasure then with all the fine Formal Caresses and Protestations of Loyalty and Love And I wish some Men of late had not given them too great cause to conclude that Mens Practices and Professions do not always go together Men it seems may fill the World with loud Protestations of their Loyalty and call God to Witness they mean nothing but the Honour and Safety of the King and yet at the same time be Conspiring against both they may seem wonderfully Sollicitous for His Life and Safety and fill all places with their Fears of His Danger even then when they are Complotting how to Intrap Him they may make Votes to Revenge His Death to the uttermost upon others when they are Designing to effect it themselves and cry God forbid that such a thing should happen when they mean only that any should Murther Him but themselves and in a word they may tell God and Man as many have done in their Canting Prayers and Protestations that all their dear Liberties and Properties and their dearer Gospel and Religion hang upon the single Thread of the King's Life and yet at that very Instant be Resolving to Cut that Thread off And Thirdly I must needs say to the Dishonour of some Men that they have Robbed Christian Religion of this way of Defending it self and Defeated the Effect of this Appollogy for it The Champions of Popery to their Eternal Shame have told the World that though these are the open Principles of Christianity and this the plain and express Doctrine of the New Testament that it might curry favour with the Roman Emperours yet there was a secret Cabala and Tradition to the contrary that while they were Weak it was fit such things should be said but when they got Power and Strength and their Religion was Invaded they might then stand up take Arms and Right themselves upon Princes and that the good of the Church and the Interest of Religion would not only Expiate but Legitimate and Justifie whatever was done for the Promoting of them A pretence then which never any reflected a fowler Reproach upon Christs Holy Religion But I do not much wonder that they that can so palpably pervert the Truths of Christianity do sometimes make bold with the Honour of it too that they that can Out-face a plain Doctrine of the New Testament with a pretence of an Oral Tradition in other Cases go about to Justifie their Unchristian Doctrines and Practices with the like Artifice and Fraud in this But I should not be Just should I leave this Reproach only upon them there are Protestant-Jesuits it seems
Prichard Mayor Martis xj die Septembris 1683. Annoque Regni Regis Caroli Secundi Angliae c. Tricesimo Quinto THis Court doth desire Mr. Hesketh to Print his Sermon Preached on Sunday last being the Day of Thanksgiving Appointed by His Majesty for the Discovery of the late Treasonable Conspiracy against His Majesties Person and Government at the Parish Church of St. Mary le Bow before the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of this City Wagstaffe A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable The Lord Mayor And ALDERMEN of LONDON At the Church of St. Mary le Bow On September the 9th being the Day of Thanksgiving for the Discovery of the late Treasonable Conspiracy against His Majesties Person and Government By H. HESKETH Minister of St. Hellens London And Chaplain to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by T. M and J. A. for Henry Bonwicke at the Red-Lyon in â—t Paul's Cburch-Yard 1684. To the Right Honourable Sir WILLIAM PRICHARD Lord Mayor of LONDON And the Honourable Court of ALDERMEN My LORD I Would not contradict the purpose of my Sermon in disputing your Commands for the Printing of it Whatever it is in it self you have render'd it considerable by making it your own and Publishing it as the Expression of your Gratitude and Praise to God upon so great an Occasion For my self I am not much concern'd nor greatly care what Interpretation some make of this Discourse I have the Innocency of my own Thoughts to acquit me which I regard more then a Thousand Censures from unthinking Men. I am sure I meant well and am not Sensible of having Transgressed any of the great Measures of the Gospel and therefore apprehend no Cause of being troubled at any thing but that I failed I Fear of Corresponding with the other great Solemnities of that August Festival And yet in that you are pleased to Releive me by your Favorable and kind acceptance of my Endeavours I do not know that I ought to Apollogize for the plainness or as some I hear are pleased to speak the sharpness of the Discourse My Lord This is a time that requires and warrants plain dealing Our Adversaries have been pleased to pull off their Visors appear bare-faced and tell us in plain English what they would be at and I think it high time for us to be plain with them and Mince the matter no longer they have superceeded a great deal of Pains that we were at before in perswading Men what their Doctrines and Principles are They have outdone us in this themselves and exposed both beyond all Arts of Concealment or Disguise I have no By-Designs of Passion or Revenge in any thing I have said much less to Incense Authority against any Mens Persons But I think I can never be too severe in Reflecting upon or too earnest in cautioning against such Principles and Practises as are so directly destructive to our Peace So greatly dangerous to our King So Dishonourable to the Reformed Religion and so Fatal to every thing that can be dear to Christian Men. But my Lord While I approve my self to your Lordship and your Honourable Brethren I know not that I ought much to regard Men so far below you from whom I expect no kind Treatment when I consider how they Treat those so far above me and Ridicule the whole Service of the Day as Hipocrisie and Trick I Heartily Pray for the Happiness of this City and of your Lordship and your great Brethren that have so happily steer'd it through its late Storms to its present Measure of Peace and Order I Congratulate the Honour that it begins to regain by its Loyalty and Love to so good a King I rejoyce and Bless God for your great Care and unwearied Pains in Râ—oting out the Seminaries of Sedition in Suppressing Irreligion and Profaneness and doing what lies in Men to the recovering Vnity and Concord once more among us In which worthy deeds that you may ever proceed and be succeeded by the Blessing and Concourse of the Divine Providence is and shall be the Daily Prayer of Right Honourable Your most Obedient and most Humble Servant Henry Hesketh 1 Pet. II. 15. For so is the Will of God that with Well-doing you may put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish-Men WE are Summon'd together Honourable and Beloved by the Providence of a Gracious God and the Command of a Religious King to double the Devotions of this Day and to add to our common Eucharist the most Affectionate and Cordial the most Intense and Signal Praises of our Souls for the Deliverance of our King and our Selves our Church and Government and what ever can be dear unto Christian Men from a Barbarous and Bloody Design to Rob us of all at Once by a Violence and Treason which though Papists have been counted Infamous for yet some that call themselves Protestants have been pleased to Transcribe from them and not only Rival'd but Excelled them in As if it were a Glory to exceed in Wickedness or that henceforth none should be Infamous for Conspiracy and Rebellion for Perjury and Treason but themselves only I do not think it a meet Entertainment for this Audience to play the Oratour upon the Foulness of the thing before those who know the whole Story of it as well as my self Nor to spend this time in Signallizing the Mercy of our Deliverance and striving to Enhanse and Raise our Praises for it the bare recollecting the Bloody Design of it will supersede all Art and Argument in both these Interest here will mingle and combine with our Devotion and our Respect not only to the Publick but to our Selves call loudly on us Most of you that sit there it seems were Marked out for Destruction and some of you intended to be made Barbarous and Lasting Examples of their Fury But you have been entertain'd already I doubt not with these Preludes and therefore I have Resolv'd upon another Method at this time And that is to offer such an Instancing your Gratitude as will signifie the Truth of it and put you upon such an Expression thereof as will infallibly assure its Acceptance with that God to whom you Offer it For as we then most truly Honour God when we express a great Sense of His Power and Soveraignty over us in our Lives So we then only Glorifie and Acceptably Praise Him when we Live according to his Commandments acknowledg the Reasonableness and Goodness of his Laws and Chearfully do those things that are Pleasing unto Him Among these there cannot well be a higher Instance then to Live up to the Principles of that Excellent Religion that He has appointed to be the Measure of all our Actions When we strive to gain Credit and Reputation to it and upon all occasions express a great Concern for the Honour of that which was Purchased at the Expence of His own Son's Blood And to bring us close to the purpose of this Day 's Service we shall then most