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A47031
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A sermon upon Ember-Week, preached before the University of Oxford, at Christ-Church in Oxford, 1698 by David Jones ...
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Jones, David, 1663-1724?
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1699
(1699)
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Wing J939; ESTC R2427
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21,461
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34
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A SERMON UPON Ember-Week Preached before the University of Oxford AT Christ-Church in Oxford 1698. By DAVID JONES Master of Arts and Student of Christ-Church Oxon. Ezek. 44. 6 8. Thus saith the Lord God to the Rebellious House of Israel Let it suffice you of all your Abominations Ye have not kept the Charge of mine Holy Things but ye have set Keepers of my Charge in my Sanctuary for your selves LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheap-side MDCXCIX Mr. David Iones's SERMON UPON Ember-Week Matth. ix xxxvi xxxvii xxxviii When Jesus saw the Multitudes he was moved with Compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as Sheep having no Shepherd Then saith he unto his Disciples the Harvest truly is Plenteous but the Labourers are Few Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that he will send forth Labourers into his Harvest NExt Lords-day is Ordination-day That Day upon which Learned and Religious Men are to be Ordained Priests and Deacons And next Week is Ember-week That Week which is Emphatically called a Week of Embers or Ashes For these two Words do only signifie one and the same thing And the Reason why this Week is thus called is this The Church hath commanded us to Fast and to Pray upon three days in this Week That God would be pleased to give us such Ministers as are both Willing and Able both by their Life and Doctrine to set forth his Glory and to set forward the Salvation of all Men. And these three Days have been heretofore so strictly kept by holy Men and Women that they covered themselves with Sackcloath and Ashes and ate nothing till Night nor then neither save only a Cake baked under the Embers which was therefore called Ember-bread And from this strictness and severity which was formerly used upon the three Fasting-days in this Week the whole Week came to be called Ember-week And the Reason of all this strictness and severity upon this Occasion is this When men do Fast from Meat they acknowledge themselves to be Unworthy of the least Crumb of that Meat they Fast from And when they do in the time of their Fasting cover themselves with Sackcloath they acknowledge That to be far better than they deserve They call to mind that their Cloathing is only the effect of their Nakedness and that their Nakedness is only the effect of their Sin And therefore they are resolved not to be Proud of those Cloaths which ought to Humble them with the thoughts of their first Original and to put them in mind of those tatter'd Rags they are Now Cloathed with instead of that Glorious Robe of Righteousness which they Once had in Paradise When men do cast Embers and sprinkle Ashes upon their Heads they publickly tell God that their Sins are so Many and so great that they deserve nothing but Death they deserve nothing but to have Those dreadful Words in the Office for the Burial of the Dead constantly sounding in their Ears Earth to Earth Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust And when men do thus Openly dedeclare their inward Sorrow of Heart by these and the like outward signs of Fasting and Mortification they mightily move both God and Man to have Mercy upon them For when the Servants of Ben-hadad King of Syria girded Sackcloath on their Loins and put Ropes on their Heads and presented themselves to Ahab King of Israel in that humble and miserable Condition he could not chuse but have Pity upon him though God had appointed him to utter Destruction and though he and his people were to lose their Lives for saving him and his people from Death 1 Kings 20. 32 42. Yea and that very same Ahab by Humbling himself with Fasting in Sackcloath and Ashes moved God to take away from him one of the greatest temporal Judgments that ever was threatned against a mortal Man 1 Kings 21 17. with the following Verses to the end of the Chapter And here now let no Proud Sinner that despiseth the Ministers of God's Word imagine that the day appointed for the Ordination of Priests and Deacons is not of to great Concern to the Nation that it ought to be kept with so much Strictness and Solemnity Let no Graceless Person think so scornfully of Ember-week and Ordination-day For the Apostles thought themselves bound to Ordain no Elders in any Church without the Solemnity of a Fast Acts 14 23. And Christ himself before he entered upon his Ministerial Office Fasted forty days and forty nights Matth. 4. 2 17. And if Fasting and so long Fasting was Necessary to fit and prepare Christ for the Ministry how much more Necessary is it to fit and prepare Us for it who are Infinitly short of his Divine Perfections And thus I have shewn you what is meant by Ordination-day and what is meant by Ember-week And that you may all keep them as they ought to be kept I have purposely pitch'd upon these Words which are the Gospel for the Ordination of Priests as being most proper for this Great Occasion and our most Serious Meditation upon it When Jesus saw the Multitudes he was moved with Compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as Sheep having no Shepherd Then saith he unto his Disciples The Harvest truly is Plenteous but the Labourers are Few Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that he will send forth Labourers into his Harvest In which words there are several Doctrines But I can at present only Insist upon this One Though there be a great many Ministers in a City or Country yet the Common People may be ready to Faint and to Perish for want of Knowledge for want of Plain Affectionate Practical and Scripture Preaching Yea and their Case may be so desperately Bad that nothing but a Company of poor silly Sheep scatter'd abroad without a Sheperd can possibly represent their deplorable Condition And the Reasons which prove this Doctrine are these First There were a great many Scribes and Pharisees and Lawyers in our Saviour's time For he denounced more Woes and greater Curses against Them than against all others because They were more against Him and his Gospel than all others were Matth. 23. throughout the Chapter And yet notwithstanding there were so many Ministers and Doctors and Preachers of the Law at that time the Text tells us The Labourers were Few Few of them all would Labour in the Harvest and Feed the Flock of the Lord. And therefore The Multitudes Fainted Or as the Margine of the Bible has it They were Tired by going so far to hear an Awakening Preacher and they Lay down for Weariness and they were scattered abroad as Sheep having no Shepherd And what was their Case then may for any thing we know be the Case of several Thousands and Millions at this present time For The thing that hath been it is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall
or I shall Live to go out of this Church or ever to come into it again to be told of and stirred up to the consciencious discharge of our Ministerial Office thus Plainly thus Impartially thus Convincingly and I heartily Pray to God Effectually Oh my Beloved Brethren do not think that I am too earnest ot too much concerned for you and your peoples Immortal Souls For I know I know that your Souls have cost Christ very dear they have cost him his Hâ—arts Blood they have cost him his Life And can I be too much Concerned or can I ever be Concerned enough for the Salvation of those Souls which have cost my Lord my God and my Saviour which have cost Christ Crucified so much Oh those Emphatical Words of His to Simon Peter are always sounding in my Ears and deeply Rooted in my very Heart and Soul Lovest thou Me Feed my Lambs Lovest thou Me Feed my Sheep Lovest thou Me Feed my Sheep John 21. 15 16 17. And does Christ repeat this Thrice that it may make the Deeper Impression upon us And are we so Insensible and so Seared and so Judicially Hardned as not to take the Least Notice of it Does Christ here try a Ministers Love to him Onely by Catechizing his Lambs and Preaching to his Sheep And can I pretend to Love Christ when I neither Catechize nor Preach in my own Parish all the Year or perhaps all my Life long Or can I ever be too strict in recommending these Duties wherein my Love to Christ does Onely consist My Love to Christ who Loved Me and gave himself for Me when I was Dead in Trespasses and Sins Gal. 2. 20 compared with Ephes 2. 1. Oh these Eyes of mine these Eyes of mine have seen how poor Country people do Sit in Darkness and the Shadow of Death and are as Ignorant of Christianity as if Christ had scarce ever been Preached to them And I am verily perswaded that if You who have Great and Rich Places in the Countrey would but do as Christ did would but Go and See how the Multitudes committed to your Charge do Faint and are Tired and Wearied and lie down and are scattered abroad as Sheep having no Shepherd you could not possibly chuse but be moved with Pity and Compassion on them unless your Hearts are all Stone and your Bowels are all Brass and You your selves are more Barbarous than the Sea Monsters which draw out the Breast and give suck to their Young Ones Lam. 4. 3. Oh my Beloved Brethren do not think that I am too earnest or too much concerned for your and your peoples Immortal Souls For whether we be besides our selves it is to God or whether we be sober it is for your cause For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if One died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto Themselves but unto Him which died for them and Rose again 2 Cor. 5. 13 14 15. Thirdly The Holy Ghost has caused the Faults of God's Ministers to be written in Scripture And the same Holy Ghost assures us that the Faults of us Ministers are the Cause why our People do not Repent of their Sins and Reform their Lives For says the Lord Jerem. 23. 22. If the Prophets had stood in my Counsel and had caused my People to hear my Words then they should have turned from their evil Way and from the evil of their Doings Where you see that the Cause and indeed the Onely Cause here mentioned why the People did not turn from their evil Way and their evil Doings is because the Prophets had not stood in the Counsel of the Lord and had not caused them to hear his Words And if you will turn to Malachi 2. 6. You will there find that the great Success of Levi's Ministry in the Conversion of Souls unto God is Onely attributed to his Holy Preaching and Holy Living For the Law of Truth was in his Mouth and Iniquity was not found in his Lips he walked with God in Peace and Equity and therefore he did turn many away from Iniquity And if thy Bad Life be the Cause and the Onely Cause here mentioned why thy Parishioners are so Bad Good God what will become of thy poor Soul Is not thine own Badness enough to Damn thee but thou must also Add all the Badness of thy whole Parish to make thy Damnation the more Intolerable Can not thine own Sins sink thee deep enough into Hell but thou must also Add all the Sins of all thy people to sink thee deeper and deeper into the bottomless Pit and the Gulf impassable Oh thou hast Sins enough of thine own to answer for though thou art the best Man upon Earth and therefore be not thou Partaker of other Mens Sins 1 Tim. 5. 22. Fourthly The Holy Ghost has caused the Faults of Gods Ministers to be written in Scripture And the same Holy Ghost assures us that the Faults of us Ministers are the true and the Onely Cause Why God does curse our very Blessings and corrupt our Seed and spread Dung upon our Faces even the Dung of our solemn Feasts and make us Contemptible and Base before all the people Malachi 2. 2 3 9. Where you see that all the Seed both of your Body and Ground all your Estate all your Land all your Money all your Cattle and all your other temporal Blessings are Cursed by God himself because you do not perform the Work of your Ministry without Fear or Favour but are Partial in the Law of the most High ver 9. You either Fear such a Mans Person and Dare not or you Admire such a Mans Person and Will not tell him of his Sins in Hope of getting something from him by your base and cowardly Silence And because you are thus Partial in Gods Law having Mens Persons in Admiration because of Advantage and Preferring one before another therefore God will certainly curse all your Blessings yea and he has cursed them already ver 2. And therefore if the common Observation that is in every ones Mouth be really True I do not say It is True But if it be really True That Clergy-mens Children are more Vnfortunate than other Mens then One Great Cause of it is this Their Fathers do not faithfully discharge their Ministerial Office And therefore God according to his Threatning does corrupt all the Seed both of their Body and Ground and lays a dreadful Curse upon all their Blessings and Estates And those Estates and God's Curse are Entailed together upon their Children as the Leprosy and Estate of Gehazi descended together upon his Posterity 2 Kings 5. 27. And therefore the Meat Drink Cloaths Portions and all other things which the Children of such ungodly Ministers have are cursed with the Curse of God And how then can such Children possibly Thrive and Prosper in the World For if the Blessing of