Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A71251
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A sermon preached upon the XXXth of January S.V. 1684/5, at Paris in the chappel of the Right Honourable the Lord Vicount Preston, His Majestie's envoy extraordinary in the court of France
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Wake, William, 1657-1737.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing W262; ESTC R4537
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16,931
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58
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the Tribes of the Lord and shall worship in his House with a holy and united Worship The Throne of Judgement shall be established even the Throne of the House of David for Ever and Ever Thus shall we render this great Solemnity truly such a Fast as the Lord hath chosen Our weeping and our mourning shall come up before him as the Incense acceptable in his sight he will receive our Confessions with Favour and mercy and answer our requests with Peace and security I shall say no more to the Second particular The Preparation with which we ought to sanctify the Fast Our last Business now to be considered is III. Being thus prepared How we ought to keep the Fast. And for this it is certainly impossible to pursue any better method than that form of Confession the Prophet Joel has here proposed to the Jews viz. To implore the favour and mercies of Heaven 1. For the forgiveness of this great sin Spare thy People O Lord. 2. That our miseries may never be turned by the Application of wicked men either 1. To the Scandal of God's People And give not thine Heritage to reproach Or 2. To the ruin of our Church or State That the Heathen should rule over them Or 3. Finally To the Reproach of God's Providence Wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God 1. We must implore the Favours and mercy of Heaven for the forgiveness of this great sin Spare thy people O Lord. And here we are arrived at the proper business of this day to implore the pardon of a crime which my soul trembles to remember and which I should doubt had exceeded the power of any Repentance to expiate had not the Apostles left us an Example by exhorting the Jews to labour for a forgiveness even of their crucifying the Lord of Glory For indeed What flouds of tears can ever be sufficient to wash off the stain of so much Innocent and Royal Blood as our late civil confusions have brought upon us Is it possible for our sorrow ever to equal those Violences and Oppressions those Ruines and Devastations the Murders the Sacrileges those Sins which our Eyes have seen and which it may be our Hands have acted How shall I recount the most flourishing of States brought to Desolation A Church the Envy and Hatred of Hell the Delight of its Friends and Terrour of its Enemies So pure and orthodox its Canons and Confession so learned the Pens so exemplary the Lives of its Professors and when the fiery tryal came on so firm and constant their Sufferings that the most Primitive Christians could not have desired any thing more conformable to their own Piety persecuted profaned thrown down by Enthusiastick Zeal and a thorough Reformation In a word a King so Primitive too that He seem'd to have revived some Constantine or Theodosius or Marcian again among us so just and brave that he was worthy to have ruled though he had not been born to Empire Cut off by the villainy of his own Subjects a Martyr to his Religion a Sacrifice to his Country and the Everlasting reproach as well as guilt of both This is but a light description of that sin which we are here assembled to commemorate and to lament and I must beg leave to add yet more For however it will easily be imagined that all this wickedness could not be accomplished but through innumerable Crimes which neither can any tongue express nor any thoughts conceive yet such unusual Villainies then acted us which Antiquity never knew nor will Posterity believe that we might well be esteemed to fail in that duty which this Fast requires should we not make some more solemn and particular remembrance of them Through what treachery did our Anointed first fall into their nets When those perfidious men to whose trust he had committed his Sacred Person contrary to all the Laws of Nature and Nations as themselves whilst not yet Villains enough to commit so black a treachery confess'd contrary to all the sentiments of Honour and dictates of Religion sold him into the hands of his Enemies who even then design'd his destruction With a supplication indeed for his security but such as a Popish Inquisitor uses when he delivers the poor Heretick to the secular power intreats for a life which he both desires may not and which he infallibly knows shall not be granted And accordingly How soon did all things conspire to his destruction When the violence of the Faction broke off those Treaties that had almost restored us to our peace The lower House that had usurped the power of the Government it self before now becomes its self reformed And to accomplish a Villainy which an ordinary Malignant's conscience was not thought proof enough to go through with only a few confiding men were to be trusted with so desperate a design A Court of Justice was erected and Majesty arraigned to answer for treason committed against his own Rebels How shall I recount the wickedness of their process A tryal only to make the condemnation the more grievous for being the more solemn and publick In which their King was not allowed that liberty of defence which every ordinary Subject claims as his right and which they themselves enjoyed for this notorious this undeniable Conspiracy Nay in which their President durst plainly tell his Sacred Majesty That he was now in a Court where reason was not to be heard With what Noise and Insults was all the action carried on When the clamours of the people for Justice first and then for Execution was the only voice that was heard in our Streets And as if with our Loyalty all sence both of Religion and Humanity had been lost too Some spit in his Royal Face as he past by Others press'd upon Him with the smoak of their Tabaco for which they knew he had a particular aversion and even threw their Pipes in his way The least expression of Reverence to Him was punished with all the Violence a populer fury could execute And One who more compassionate than the rest only wish'd him well was kill'd upon the place for his unseasonable piety When at last the fatal Sentence was pronounced How hardly were they brought to allow him any Assistance to prepare him for his death His prayers continually disturbed by the Rudeness of those Guards that intruded upon his most secret retirements His last thoughts diverted with Propositions to save his Life which they knew neither Honour nor Conscience would permit him to receive What Shouts what Acclamations when the cruel stroke was given that finished the Tragedy How greedily did they thirst after his Blood when some plunged their hands into his wound Others dipt their staves in it The very block on which he rested his Sacred Head cut in pieces that every one might satisfie his cruelty with some memorial of their villainy and even the very boards and Earth Stain'd with his blood distributed as a mark
A SERMON PREACHED UPON The XXX th of January S. V. 1684 5. AT PARIS In the Chappel of the Right Honourable the Lord Vicount PRESTON His MAJESTIE' 's Envoy Extraordinary in the Court OF FRANCE LONDON Printed for Moses Pitt at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. TO The Right Honourable RICHARD LORD VICOVNT PRESTON His Majestie 's Envoy Extraordinary in the Court OF FRANCE My Lord HAd I no other consideration in the publishing of this Discourse than to make an open acknowledgment of my duty to your Lordship and not be silent at a time when the Applauses of the most indifferent Persons declare their satisfaction at your continuance of that character which none can better sustain nor has any ever born it with greater Honour and Fidelity than all men must confess your Lordship to have done it I should think it sufficient to outweigh all those Censures which perhaps may pass with security enough both upon me and It. It was not to be doubted but that a Prince so Wise to understand so Gracious to reward the services of the meanest of his Subjects would have a particular regard to a Merit and Loyalty great as your Lordship 's and not so soon part with a Minister whom he knows to have been such as others promise they will be It is the Vanity of most men to speak great things it is your Lordship's Honour that you do them And I may without danger of any censure but your own truly say That in a Station which affords if any other tryals and opportunities to exercise the highest abilities you have exceeded not only your own Promises but even our Hopes and given us an Assurance that there is nothing now remaining that can equal the greatness of your Mind Permit me my Lord to render this short testimony to your Vertues so far from flattery that those who know your Lordship will confess it to be hardly the truth and if you please pardon my presumption in this address I believe as unexpected to your Lordship as I can justly say it was undesigned by me But my Lord it has been thought fit to give your Lordship this satisfaction that whilst you are rendring your Obedience to his Majestie 's Commands in England we have not been less careful both to shew our selves and to exhort others to be as firm to their Loyalty here and since we could not have the Honour of your presence to compleat the utmost Solemnity of this Day amongst us by this Address at least to joyn you in our service and return our acknowledgments for that Opportunity we have had under your protection to remember the captivity of Zion in a strange Land The only thing that might justly have deterr'd me from this attempt was the meanness of the performance did I not consider that Saints and Martyrs like that God before whom they stand are not so much taken with the Elegant composures of their Votaries as with their Piety and Sincerity and accept him who brings an honest heart rather than an accurate Discourse to their Memories And this my Lord were the Sermon it self silent yet the Honour I have to belong to your Lordship would undoubtedly confirm to as many as have ever known your character May your Lordship long have the happiness to continue your services to his Sacred Majesty and the Royal Family and encrease every day those applauses that are so justly paid to your great Vertues whilst I still endeavour by all the duties of my employ more and more to deserve that Title I most desire of being with all humble duty and respect My Lord Your Lordship 's Most faithful and most devoted Chaplain and Servant W. W. ECCL JOEâ— II. 15 16 17. Blow the Trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly Gather the People sanctifie the Congregation assemble the Elders gather the Children and those that suck the Breasts let the Bridegroom go forth of his Chamber and the Bride out of her Closet Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thine Heritage to reproach that the Heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God SO contrary is the mournful Appearance of this day to those Triumphs and rejoycings wherewith our Primitive Predecessors were wont to celebrate the Memories of their Martyrs that either the Spirit of Christianity seems very much decayed in Us or something must be thought to have been defective in that Saint whose death we thus Lament instead of magnifying his Conflicts and glorying in his Victory Indeed had we only to commemorate the Merits of the Martyr the Innocence and Piety wherein he lived and the Constancy and Magnanimity with which he died these funeral Obsequies would be very unbecoming the Solemnity of out Remembrance and we might esteem it a Crime to let our Hymns and our Praises fall any thing short of the most celebrated Festivals of the Saints of old when both the Excellence of the Cause and the Resolution of the Person and the Barbarity of his Sufferings so far exceeded the most of theirs And this Perhaps the Generations to come may think themselves obliged to do But alass the return of this day brings with it another and sadder Remembrance to us and when our Tongues would speak the Glories of this Martyr our Consciences confound us with horror to consider that we our selves were his Persecutors Had the death he suffered been the Sin of some other hand had an Infidel Nation risen up against him or had the Chance of War cut him off in our own we might have regretted the loss of so Royal a defender but should soon have turned our Sorrow into Joy and have giving him a name Superiour to the chiefest of those Hero 's that Fabulous Antiquity can boast of But that we who were obliged by all the ties of God and man to obey him should destroy that life for which we ought not to have refused any Hazard of our own that we who were certainly his Subjects and who pretend to be Christians too should violate all the rights of Majesty trample under foot all the Commands of that Gospel by which we are called and imbrue our hands in Royal and Innocent Bloud after so barbarous a manner that no Antiquity can afford a Parrallel This raises those Clouds that obscure so bright a day and instead of appearing at his Monument with Songs of Eucharist for his Victory calls us here between the Porch and the Altar to confess our own sins Spare thy People O Lord and give not thine Heritage to reproach that the Heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God And here would to God the Sincerity of our Repentance might in some degree answer the heinousness of our sin That out Piety this day might as effectually contribute to the