Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A56403
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A sermon preached before the Lord Bishop of Chichester at Lewes at his first visitation there / by Timothy Parker ...
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Parker, T. (Timothy)
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1676
(1676)
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Wing P484; ESTC R34545
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16,490
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40
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A SERMON Preached before THE Lord Bishop OF CHICHESTER AT LEWES At his First VISITATION there By TIMOTHY PARKER Rector of East-Hothley in Sussex IMPRIMATVR 27. April 1676. Georg. Hooper Reverend Dom. Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis LONDON Printed for John Baker at the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1676. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD RALPH BY DIVINE PERMISSION Lord Bishop OF CHICHESTER My Lord YOur Lordship 's favourable acceptance of this following Sermon and Commanding it to be Printed for such force Your desire carries with me have at length made me adventure to present it to Your Lordship's View with hope that what upon hearing had Your approbation will upon sight pass however for allowable After Your Lordship's declaring in favour of it I am little concern'd what Reception 't will find abroad believing with some reason that what such a Judgment disapproves not can not easily displease the Good and Candidly Judicious and 't is the good opinion of such only I have value for If some few of my Brethren by the Perusal of this plain Discourse may be in the least measure aided towards making themselves and others Better I have my end in it To contribute the best I was able to excite a greater sence of Religion amongst us by animating the Ministers of it to display its Beauty in their Lives as well as their Discourses was the Desâ—gn I proposed to my self And what ever the Success be I have the satisfaction that I did not take my aim amiss and how unproportionable soever the means be I used the defect was not from any want of Good will to lend the best assistance I was able Prompted thereunto by a Spark of that Zeal for the success and prevalency of true Christian Piety against the Licentiousness of this present Age that glows in the Hearts of all good men and that Your Lordship in Particular is all on fire with This my Lord it is that makes You Venerable this gains You the Hearts of all good men makes You awful to the bad This will make You a Publick Blessing whilst You live Embalm Your Memory when dead Nay make You live after Death on Earth in the Hearts and Memories of all good men that knew You in Heaven in the Joyes of our Lord. That God would long preserve Your Lordship for the Benefit of his Church and make all Your Endeavours for its Prosperity eminently successful is the Hearty Prayer of My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble And Dutiful Servant Timothy Parker MATTHEW 5.16 Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven THe greatest and most important Enquiry that ever was in the World was that of the Psalmist Who will shew us any Good Who will discover to us wherein true Blessedness lies and by what wayes and means we may be able to obtain it An Enquiry that every man is highly concerned to be satisfied in from that common Principle of Nature that inclines every thing to seek its own Preservation and Wellbeing But such Darkness had man's Apostacy brought upon his mind that he was utterly at loss how to arrive at any satisfaction in this Search as by the great variety of differing Opinions about man's chiefest good sufficiently appears Sad and deplorable was the condition of the World plung'd in misery and lost as to all Remedy within Nature's ken and reach when our blessed Saviour the true light of the World came from Heaven on purpose to discover that happiness that mankind was groping after in the dark and to this end communicated his light to those that were his first Hearers not only to guide their own feet in the paths of peace but that they by the light of their Doctrine and good example might illuminate a dark World disperse the beams of saving truth from one end of the Heavens to the other and by propagating it to their Successors make such a comfortable day to those Nations that had long sate in darkness and the shaddow of death as should know no night to the worlds end And to this purpose he enjoyns them here in the Text Let your Light so shine c. Which words whether they were spoken to the promiscuous multitude of the Disciples or appropriated to those that were to be the Stewards and Dispensers of the Gospel Mystery is disputed amongst Interpreters nor need it be determined by me 'T is sufficient for my present purpose that though the Charge here given belong not solely to the Apostles and their Successors yet it casts a peculiar aspect upon them it takes faster hold of them by an accession of peculiar ties and binds them to its obedience in a higher and more improved sence And that 's sufficient to warrant my addressing a Discourse to my Brethren of the Clergy from these words In which as they have a peculiar regard to them they contain a duty enjoyn'd with a reason enforcing it and in the duty enjoyned these three things 1. A knowledge of the Doctrine of the Gospel and that such a knowledge as may enable us to instruct others 2. A vigorous endeavour to propagate our light and to communicate this wholesome knowledge to others 3. A life conformable to this Doctrine Of these in their order beginning with the first 1. A knowledge of the Gospel Mysteries and that such a knowledge as may enable us to instruct others in them The great end why the Gospel Ministry was set up was to turn sinners from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God and the chains wherewith the Devil holds men in captivity are chains of darkness They are altenated from the life of God through the darkness that is in them All the affairs of this dark Kingdom are carried on by Falshood and Imposture All the Sophisticate Wares that he obtrudes upon men for which he gains their souls in exchange are put off by the advantage of darkness and obscurity hence sinners and fools are terms convertible in Scripture and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all sins in some sence are sins of Ignorance is good Divinity The Devil deals with sinners as Elisha with the Syrians first smites them with blindness and then leads them captive at his pleasure as the Philistims with Sampson first bores their eyes out and then they are fit for his drudgery T would spoil the Merchants of Hell to have their Merchandise seen by a true light And consequently he that would be instrumental to rescue sinners from under the Prince of darkness must be furnished with an excellent knowledge with a clear and bright understanding able to represent things in their true colours the beauty of holiness and the deformity of fin both stript of those disguises the Devil puts upon them to make the one lovely and the other hated A little knowledge with an honest heart may qualifie an ordinary Christian for Heaven But 't is no