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A43456
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A sermon preached before the Right Honorable Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London at Guild-Hall Chappel, on January 30th, 1677/78 by Henry Hesketh.
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Hesketh, Henry, 1637?-1710.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing H1615; ESTC R10690
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24,525
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53
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no but to congratulate it rather and I take the so religious observation of this day to be a standing evidence of it And I can no way question but such wise men that have signalized themselves by their prudent Government of this City and preserving Order in it to such measures that no such City in Europe can boast the like and have received just marks of honor for it from a King that can never fail to reward Merit do very well understand their own duty and know how to demean themselves accordingly and will never sully the glory of these actions and the honour gotten by them by any thing unworthy of either It is justly to be hoped that as the late fire hath truly refined this City it rising up in a splendor much greater than was before so that it hath melted down all faeces and dregs of undutifulness that were formerly in the hearts of any of its Inhabitants And that as Justice seems written on your Gates so Lonalty will be the Imbellishments of your Palaces And I am the more confident in my hopes of these things because all considering men will clearly see these three great things to depend upon it and be secured by it 1. The honour and safety of the King 2. The honour and welfare of this City 3. The welfare and quietness of the whole Kingdom all these next to God's blessing will be secured by the Loyalty of this Capital City 1. The honour and safety of the King for as the honour of a King is in the multitude of his Subjects so his safety consists in the love and affection and loyalty of these Subjects and the greater the number of Subjects that are embodied is the more conducive to his safety is the love of them since they can always be more ready as well as able to yield him assistance and to strike despair into any that would attempt against him 2. The honour and welfare of this City it self he that will search into the causes of the decay or ruine of Royal Cities will soon find their separating from their King to be one great one I cannot multiply instances because I have not time of this I shall only beg you to call to your remembrance an instance in our next Kingdom of France it will be hard for any man without tears to read the misery of that City not very long ago but the cause is obvious it was being separated from their King by the Faction of the House of Guise and by the bewitching charms of a Holy League if you will recollect your own miseries in the late times which I have seen some of you weep for you will be able to ascribe it to the same cause effected also by the same means viz. the enchanting Sorcery of a Solemn Covenant Honourable and Beloved this is a great truth the safety of the King depends upon the welfare of this City and the welfare of this City depends upon the safety of the King And if men would look into the truth of things they would soon perceive that their interests are complicated and indeed the same The safety of all Bodies next ever to God's blessing consists in the firm cohesion of its parts And it is true in experience as well as speculation And who ever will trace either the ruine of the King or subsequent misery of this City to their first Origins will soon find the Artifice of some men in separating them from each other effected both And you may see the same things plainly still for these men that design now the same things again do pursue them still by the same method it is here that they first spread their Nets and place their Engins and their disappointment here will cause despair and unsuccesfulness ever to attend their mis-chievous devices And therefore my assurance that I speak to wise men gives me assurance also of their great care still to disappoint these men For as Solomon saith Surely in vain the Net is spread in the sight of any Bird So say I if we permit the same men by the same methods to trapan us again into the same crimes and make us serve to the same evil purposes again we then make our ruine our own guilt as well as our misery and must perish as unpitied fools for ever But God I hope hath reserved us to better purposes and will give us grace to pursue wiser Counsels A few days past have given good hopes that the Genius of the English Nation is recovering it self and your hearty compliance with those great and I hope wise Counsels will be mighty contributive in order to giving effect to these hopes 3. But the effects of your Loyalty will not be confined in so narrow a room but will be extended to the benefit also of all the Kingdom It is you that stamp the practice of all the Nation by your carriage they take their measures and make your Actions their Presidents So that you 'll not only save your selves by your signal Loyalty but you 'll be influential also in saving the many thousands of Israel The seeds of Loyalty sown in this plot of ground will quickly spring up into a Tree whose branches will extend to the distant shores which together with the Royal Cedar will make a Shadow under which your selves and all the Nation may sit safely and sing praises to God chearfully and be happy in the Contemplation of your great Bliss And now I have done but that methinks I see something in the countenances of this Audience which incourageth me not only to beg that you would but prophecy also that you will exercise your selves in these Tacticks sing this Lamentation with such hearty accents of pious sorrow as may reach even to the Throne of God and be accepted by him and prevail with him for pardon of the guilt of the death of the Father and a Blessing to descend upon the head of the Son and that God will graciously please to add those years to the life of this which he was pleased to suffer to be substracted from the life of the other That we will all learn to shoot skilfully in this Bow such Arrows as shall be sharp in the experience as well as midst of the Kings and our Enemies That as English Archers have been renown'd for their Chivalry in earth so they may ever be blessed for their Loyalty in Heaven That all our names may be recorded in the Book of Jasher and be found written in that Book of the Upright and Just Ones at the last day and our portions of Bliss be eternal with theirs in Heaven for ever more Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for Christ Jesus his sake To whom c.
desire to be told that we have other sins enough to deserve these and worser Judgements I know it too well and could wish mine eyes fountains of tears to weep for them But then I say it ill becomes penitents in their Humiliations and Mournings not to account for all known sins especially if great and heinous And it is a sad sign when those that would be accounted the only true Mourners in Israel and can be so exact in telling God their other crimes should never think fit to take this into their confessions and yet I am sure they have most cause to do so But because they do not I am sure we should and make up by our repentances and mournings what is wanting in theirs But I have something more to say to these men I suppose they will not be brought to say they suffer'd for this sin before the Restauration They were then indeed those that made others suffer and the sufferings of the King being by them thought too little they were made up in heaping them upon all those who either did or could be pretended to have adhered to him And since that time it seems in these mens account all our sufferings have been for other crimes Therefore according to them this sin hath never been punished at all yet and perhaps they think never must And yet they must either grant it to have been a great sin or else quit Humanity and consequently expect the punishment or by Repentance seek to avert it or else they must quit their claim to Christianity If it be said as I doubt not but it will that our most signal Judgements have been since the Restauration I readily grant it but yet think it a great advantage Indeed till then we were sufficiently punished by these men they made our loads heavy enough and God was pleased in mercy not to make them heavier And therefore since hath only been the time in which these Judgements could well be inflicted Especially if we consider that when the first means were used for the expiation of this guilt and Humiliations appointed to succeed them Then the murmurings of these men began and just like as after the execution upon Corah and his Complices complaints were made that the Lords people were slain and men lost the sense of their former sins and began to contrive how to commit them again So that it was then Gods time to step in and let an unthankful Nation feel his hand and reckon with them for their former dismal great miscarriages And therefore we may thank these mens murmurings and unthankfulness that this sin was so signally and yet is not sufficiently punished And because we have just cause to fear it is not we have as just cause to continue our most passionate Humiliations and Tears if thereby we may propitiate God and prevail with him for a final suspention of what is behind 4. For the deeper impressing upon us all a great care to beware of all future incidences into the same Sins This is the end and this is the effect of all godly sorrow for men do not sorrow in Gods account when they sin and sorrow and sin again but when they so sorrow as to sin no more And to let this days Humiliation have this effect upon us will render it truly Divine and procure Gods gracious acceptation and blessing But without this it will be but pageantry and and add hypocrisie to our other guilts and be but just like the Jews adorning the Sepulchres of the Prophets which their Fathers had slain when themselves retain'd the same Principles and were designing to murther the greatest of all Prophets themselves And truly if we lament the death of the Father and yet retain the same rebellious principles against the Son our very lamentations are but mocking of God aggravating our guilt provoking his anger and the more certainly assuring our own plagues Then only will our tears attone this guilt when they drown and take away those evil lusts that did occasion it And here I cannot but express my sorrow that there is any need to mention these things and certainly it is a wounding reflexion that all our great experiences should be no better improved and should not have long ago superseded all need of any addresses to us of this Nature A man might reasonably think that English men had tasted too largely the bitter effects of rebellion to hanker after it again and experienc'd the great blessings of Loyalty and Subjection so fully as to endear them to it and fix them in it beyond all possibility of being removed And if it be not thus it must needs be very strange But so that sottish people the Jews grew quickly weary of the mild Government of Moses and in their hearts yea and words too returned into Egypt whose bondage they so very lately groaned under and above all things wished deliverance from and it will fix the same reproach of sottishness or something worse upon those men who grow weary and impatient under the golden Scepter of a gracious King and are fond of the Iron Rod of an imperious Usurper To all such I must take liberty to say as Moses did to his people in much what a like a case Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Do you no better know your own mercies Have you so poor a sense of those Miracles of kindness that have blessed you with them Do you wish with the murmuring Jews that you had died in Egypt Take heed of provoking God you may have your wishes too soon But I would fain hope that I am needlesly invective against these things and I am loath to have any thing to accuse my Nation of I would fain in spight of the common proverb suppose them men that are able to apprehend and judge truly of things that do so widely differ And if so it will soon appear a great truth that Loyalty is the interest as well as duty of English men their being true to Monarchy is their happiness as well as their honour past experiences have attested how happy they have been under it and late experiences have demonstrated how impossible it is for them to live under any other Government and then the inference from both these one would think were easie And I cannot but congratulate the happiness of the English Genius in this for it is the just honour and prelation of Monarchy that its safety consists in the wealth and happiness of its Subjects when few instances can be given of any Common Wealths that have flourished much longer than while necessity and poverty were their ligatures and cements and it is the good hap of a people to be so naturally inclined to that which is much their interest and their felicity But I am called this day to speak before this Great City I would therefore crave leave to conclude with a short address to it I do not come to doubt the Loyalty of it