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A32016
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Gods free mercy to England presented as a pretious and powerfull motive to humiliation : in a sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast, Feb. 23, 1641 / by Edmvnd Calamy ...
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Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing C253A; ESTC R19544
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47,198
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60
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judgement am I reserved if I repent not And this makes way for the second use If Englands mercies come from free grace let not England presume upon Gods mercies as iâ—… intailed upon them and their posterity for it is as free for God to take away his mercies as it was free to give them And thus Christ tels the Jewes in the forementioned place I tell you nâ—…y but except ye repent ye shall likewise perish and so they did within forty yeares after with a severe destruction And so doe I say to England Except England repent England also shall perish let not England be high minded but feare God hath a devouring sword for England as well as Ireland And therefore let England this day humble it selfe in dust and ashes for though God deferre Englands judgement longer than Irelands or Germanies yet as sure as there is a God in Heaven unlesse wee repent we also shall perish Gods forbearance is no acquittance It is one thing to forbeare a debtor and another thing to acquit a debtor The longer God is fetching about his hand the heavier will the blow be when he strikes What so calme as the Sea but yet when a storme comes what so tempestuous What so blunt as iron but when it is shâ—…rpned what more sharpe None so patient and mercifull as God but yet when he begins to strike and his anger is kindled how unexpressible is his fury Consider this you that forget God lest he teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver you If free grace hath preserved England let England blesse God for free grace and say as it is Lament 3. 22. It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions faile not not because our sinnes faile not for our sins are as many as our mercies but because his compassions faile not It is the Lords mercie that we sinfull men and women are not consumed O give God the glory of free grace as it is expressed Malachi 3. 6. I am the Lord I change not therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed Not because you have not changed your God not because you are good and righteous but because I am unchangeable therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed Let us say as David We have not got our peace and plenty by our owne sword neither hath our owne arme saved us but thy right hand and thy arme and the light of thy countenanâ—…e because thou haddest a favour unto us If thou art converted blesse God for free grace For who made thee to differ from another and what hast thou which thou hast nâ—…t received and if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Let us ascribe all our Deliverances and all our mercies the mercie of the Pacification the mercy of Reformation the mercy of the Union of both Houses of Parliament the discovery of all plots and treasons against this Church and State our freedome from all our yoaks and all the good things that God hath done for us unto free grace and say as God to Zerubbabel Not by might noâ—… by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts Who art thou O great mountaine before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plaine and he shall bring forth the head stone thereof with shouting and crying Grace grace unto it Let grace grace be our constant acclamation If free grace hath preserved England not free will Let England maintaine free grace above free will I find in history that Pelagius the greatest enemie to free grace that ever the world had was borne in England and I am sure that England of late yeares hath been too great a friend to Pelagianisme under the name of Arminianisme Bradwardine an Englishman complains of his time as Hierome before had done of Arianisme That almost all the world was gone after the errour of Pelagius and he cries out Exurge Deus judica causam tuam I am confident that this complaint and this prayer might justly have been taken up in reference to England these few yeares past for there was A mighty faction risen up in the Church so I dare now call it blessed be God who advanced free will above free grace and subjected the power of grace to the power of free will which faction prevailed so farre as that whosoever was not an Arminian was eâ—…mine A doctrinall Puritan as hee was then termed The Universities were poysoned with this doctrine and all preferment streâ—…med this way We were come to that height that the doctrine of Arminianisme was accounted the doctrine of the Church of England And therefore I beseech you right Honourable to take this into your most serious consideration Place free grace in its throne advance free grace that hath so much advanced you roote out Arminianisme settle our doctrine not only our discipline that there may be no shadow of plea in it for an Arminian King James of famous memory in a Declaration written to the States of Holland cals Arminius the enemy of God and a booke of Bertius of the Apostasie of the Saints A blasphemous booke whose very Title makes it worthy the fire and he perswades the Low Countries betimes to roote out those heresies and schismes which if they suffered to have the reines would bring the curse of God upon them infamy through all the Reformed Churches and a perpetuall rent and distraction in the whole body of their State I speake to wise men consider what I say And certain it is if temporall deliverances be the fruits of Gods free grace much more are spirituall and eternall Therefore we are said to be justified freely by his grace and to be Elected according to the good pleasure of his will and whereas the Apostle saith that the wages of sinne is death he doth not adde the wages of grace is eternall life but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord It is not free will but free grace that puts the difference between Jacob and Esau It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy It is an excellent saying of Augustine Timeo ego animae meae salutem aliqua ex parte libero arbitrio committere Iam afraid to commit the least Iota of my salvation to free will and the same Father doth much and often commend a saying of Cyprian In nullo gloriandum quoniaem nostrum nihill est We must glory in nothing because nothing is ours Bernard most sweetly Horreo quicquid de meo est ut sim meus I abhorre whatsoever is mine that I may be mine Bucer likewise hath these words Si vâ—…l tantillum boni a Deo non est Deus non est if the least beame of holinesse be in us without the efficacious worke of Gods grace he is no longer a God Now surely the act of assenting to the offer of grace is
silken halters to hang himselfe withall and ponds of sweet water to drowne himselfe withall gilded poysons to poyson himselfe withall O let not your honors and riches c. be silken halters to strangle your soules let not your pleasures be ponds of sweet water to drown your soules let not your preferments be gilded poysons to poyson your soules Say as Nabal did but in a better sense shal I take my health which God hath given me to sin against my God with it God forbid Shall I take the wit that God hath given me to plot against God and his cause with it God forbid 3. Consider the patience of God towards us This is an argument that should drive us to repentance Rom. 2. There is no sin but it is committed in the very bosome of God For God fils Heaven earth and sees all your curtaine abominations And he is able to destroy you he is just and must wound the bairy scalpe of those that goe on in their wickednesse and he is a holy and a pure God that hates your iniquities from his very heart And yet behold how patient this God is towards you At such a time when thou wert in the act of adultery he might have sent thee to hell in the very act he might have made thy tongue to rot the last oath thou sworest Nothing with-held him but pure mercy O let this melt our hearts What a mercy is it to be out of hell Many in hell have not sinned the sinnes that we have done It is his free grace that we are delivered We might have been weeping in hell at this instant And then our teares should have beene our hell but now they will prove our heaven if God worke them in us 4. Consider the Lord Jesus Christ and his love in dying for thee If thy heart be as hard as an Adamant the blood of this scape Goate will soften it There were five men met together that asked one another what meanes they used to abstaine from sinne The first answered That he continually thought upon the certainty of death and the uncertainty of the time of death and that made him live every day as if it were his last day The second meditated of the severe account he was to give at the day of judgement and of the everlasting torments of hell and this kept him from sin The third of the vilenesse and loathsomenesse of sin and of the excellency and beauty of grace and this made him abhorre sinne The fourth of the everlasting rewards and pleasures provided for those that abstaine from sinne and this prevailed with him The fifth and the last continually meditated of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his love and this made him ashamed to sin against God This last is the greatest motive of all If the pacification betweene the two Nations of England Scotland will not affect us let the great pacification that Christ hath made for thee between God and thy soule move thy heart to be ashamed to offend God It is the greatest argument I can use to say For Jesus Christ his sake be ashamed and confounded for your evill waies 5. Consider the long enjoyment of the Gospel the powerfull and plentifull preaching of it joyned with peace and plenty And let us mourne for our Gospel sins for our unprofitablenes and unfruitfulnesse under such fruitfull meanes that we have beene like a barren ground which no plowing will make good Let us mourne for our unbeliefe and impenitency Let Gospel sins produce Gospel sorrow Teares are made onely for sin If we mourne our eyes out for worldly losses we cannot profit our selves But if we weep for sin this will quench the fire of hell There are 2 sorts of sins and 2 sorts of curses legall sins Gospel sins legall curses and Gospel curses Legall sins will bring legall curses But Gospel sins unlesse there be Gospel sorrow will bring a Gospel curse which is above al legal curses Of this curse the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha that is accursed for the present reserved for the vengeance which Christ will render to all unbelievers when he comes to judgement This is curse upon curse And this is the curse due to them that abuse mercies The Lord deliver us from this curse 6. Let every man consider the personal mercies that God hath bestowed upon him in particular take all these mercies lay them to his heart they wil dissolve the stone in his heart let our hearts be as wax these mercies as the sun to melt them into godly sorrow Make a double Catalogue One of thy sins The other of Gods mercies to thee binde them about thy heart to bring it into a religious frame Thus I have named six other mercies My humble suit is That you would pâ—…nder consider seriously what hath been said unto you Consider what I say saith the Apostle and the Lord give you understanding The Thessalonians had never understood what Paul had said if they had not considred it No more shall we profit by this Sermon if we do not consider what hath bin said And this consideration must have foure ingredients 1. We must consider these mercies distinctly and deliberately If a man hath a sweet Cordiall in his mouth and swallow it downe whole he wil not taste the sweetnes of it but if he chew it by degrees it wil be very pleasant to his taste So these mercies will doe us no good if we swallow them down without serious meditation But if we chew them and consider them distinctly and deliberately one mercy after another they will exceedingly affect us 2. We must consider them with reflexion upon our selves and application to our selves As it is reported of Plato that when he did walk in the streets if he saw any man disordred in his speech or any other way he would say to himselfe Num ego talis Am I such a one as this is So must we say Num ego talis Have I abused these mercies Have I sinned with these mercies And as the Apostles severally asked Christ Master is it I So mâ—…t we aske our hearts Am not I the man that ought to be ashamed and â—…nfoundid for my sins against mercies 3. We must consider these mercies in as neere a propinquity as we can possible It is a true saying of the Philosoper Things that are seen far off are as if they were not A great man a far off seems little or nothing An enemie a farre off or a serpent a farre off doth littâ—…e trouble us So it is with mercies If we looke upon them at a distance they will seeme little and little affect us but if we take them neere to us they will seeme as they are very great and will mightily worke upon us 4. Consider these mercies devoutly with prayer unto God to make them heart-melting