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A48851
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A sermon preached before the House of Lords, on November 5, 1680 by ... William Lord Bishop of St. Asaph.
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Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing L2712; ESTC R20309
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18,469
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46
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could not think Hereticks fit to be trusted with the Cure of Souls But otherwise as to Temporal things I do not find that they inflicted any kind of Punishment But when the Arians came to have the Power in their hands when theirs was come to be the Imperial Religion then Depriving was nothing Banishment was the least that they inflicted In many places they proceeded to Blood which was never drawn on the other side by the Orthodox Christians except once in a popular Tumult in Alexandria where George the intruding Bishop was torn in pieces and yet that was rather by Heathens than by Christians as Ammian himself a Heathen Writer confesses Except that if it need be excepted I do not remember any other instance of an Arian that was put to death in those days upon the account of Religion And to shew that likewise in case of Schism the best Christians always kept the best temper besides those instances I have already given which perhaps are not so proper to prove this because when they happened Christianity was not the established Religion When it was established by Law then there happened that famous Schism of the Donatists which gave an evident tryal of this With what folly and fury did they break out of the Church With what insolence and perverseness did they behave themselves towards it What out-rages did they commit nay what did they not commit even to blood in the Circumcellions case While the Catholicks on the other hand except in that case which forced rigor from them in their own defence treated them with all calmness and gentleness They called them Brethren in their Writings They wooed them to be Friends and offered them terms of Communion such as none would have offered but passionate lovers of peace such as none would have refused but the obstinate enemies of it and yet all this while the Catholicks had the Government on their side which since those Schismaticks could not get from them they took a course to destroy it by letting in the Vandals into the Roman Empire I have shewn so much of this Diabolical Spirit in every sort of the Enemies of the Church of God not only in Heathens and Unbelievers without but also in Hereticks and Schismaticks within And I have shewn so much of the Christian Spirit on the other hand the great patience and meekness of Gods people in dealing with all sorts of enemies that considering what advantage they have who lay about them with rage against those that stand still and are only ready to suffer one would wonder that long since true Religion had not been destroyed or driven out of the world But to this I have to answer and this is my second Doctrine that notwithstanding all this rage and malice of the Adversaries and notwithstanding all this meekness of Christians yet still God is concerned for the Christian Religion and he shews it by sending such seasonable Deliverances as preserve it often from hurt and always from utter destruction Destroyed it shall never be For so much Christ declared before he built his Church when he promised to make his Apostles the Foundation-stones in it saying to Peter in particular Upon thee will I build my Church He added this promise that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it And so to all his Apostles at parting when he was about to be taken up into Heaven he promised for all that I will be with you even to the end of the world If Christ be with his Church according to his promise that is enough to secure it against utter destruction I speak now as to the Catholick or Universal Church for there is no such Promise given to particular Churches They may be destroyed and perish for their sins We see many are so already almost all that were planted in the Apostles times The Church of Ierusalem where our Religion began The Church of Antioch where we were first called Christians the Six Churches to which St. Paul writ his Epistles The Seven to which St. Iohn writ in his Revelations where are they scarce a remnant remains most of them are quite perished from the Earth This is Gods judgment upon them for their sins A Judgment which God threatned long since that if they did not repent he would take away their Candlestick from them A Judgment so dreadfully executed to warn us that unless we repent we shall all likewise perish But then if we do repent we shall not perish this we know for an Exception strengthens a Rule We know that they which keep up the Power of Religion shall find it a strong band between them and God by which as we oblige our selves to him not to leave him nor forsake him so he obligeth himself to us that he will not leave us nor forsake us And therefore howsoever for our lesser transgressions he may punish our offences with a rod and our sin with scourges nevertheless his loving kindness will he not utterly take from us nor suffer his truth to fail Nay in this case if he suffer his Church to be oppressed his design may be not so much to punish as to purge them He may run them through the fire to melt out their dross to make them shine more glorious by having been for a while in Persecution But whatsoever his dealing may be which we are to resign entirely to his Wisdom whether he design to punish or purge us or whether only to shew us the rod we are sure in all conditions to be under the good Providence of God If our ways please the Lord either he will make our enemies to be at peace with us or he will not let them be able to hurt us at least they shall not have their will upon us they shall not say There there so would we have it They shall not be able to swallow us up quick though they are never so wrathfully displeased at us The ways that God hath to deliver us are many more than I am able to reckon and yet I can reckon more than I can bring within my time But so the thing be done what matter is it which way God uses whether by destroying his and our enemies whether by breaking their Combinations against us or by otherwise weakning their strength whether by infatuating their Counsels or discovering their crafty designs whether by raising us up friends or uniting us among our selves and so making us too many and too strong for them whether by giving means unexpected or by blessing what we have above expectation He can do what and which way he will and we are sure it is his will to deliver his People from their enemies for he is on their side and will shew it wheresoever there is need and when he sees it the fittest time to deliver them All that I have said hitherto hath been only upon such general heads as are equally acknowledged by all sorts of Christians among us and for this agreement
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us There are five things to be considered in these words which when they are explained will all be found applicable to our case Here is first The wrath and malice of the enemies of Gods people and that against Israel as being the people of God 'T is exprest in the last words of my Text They were wrathfully displeased at us Gods enemies are so at all times never otherwise but at some times they shew it more than at other and that is when they are ready to put their malice in execution which is the second thing in my Text. Secondly Their Conspiracy their attempt to execute their malice express'd in these words When they rose up against us Thirdly The extreme danger of Gods People at the time of such an attempt which was so great in the Israelites case that they acknowledged if it had not been for God they had been swallowed up quick The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used is either whole or raw or alive and it is interpreted all these ways by the Jewish writers They had eaten us whole without chewing saith Solomon-Melech They had devoured us raw saith David-Kinchi They had swallowed us up alive saith Aben-Ezra as the Earth swallowed up Corah Dathan and Abiram that went down alive into the Pit This phrase as it signifies the greatness and nearness of that danger that comes sometimes on Gods Church so it signifies also the eager passionate hopes of their enemies They had swallowed us up quick saith Israel in my Text They were in great haste to have us in their bellies that they could not forbear us till we were dead as one of them renders it that they fell upon us raw they could not stay the dressing of us saith another that they were for swallowing us up whole they had not patience for chewing saith a third Surely great was their haste when their wrath was thus kindled against us and great was our danger If God had not been on our side That is the fourth thing to be considered in these words Fourthly It is the providence of God that watches over his people that takes part with them against their implacable enemies that delivers them from danger even when things are come to extremity Lastly Here is a due return to God of Thankfulness from his people which as they have cause for at all times so especially upon such a deliverance on every thought or mention of it Now may Israel say with mouth and heart privately and in the Congregation If the Lord had not been on our side what would have become of us And Now what shall we render to him for being thus on our side Saying is put for Doing in Scripture-language all Gods words are actions and he expects something like this from us He expects that our actions should answer our words that what we say in our Thanksgivings we should do like it in all the course of our lives and that we glorifie God not only by offering praise but by ordering our conversation aright Here are five things observed First the malice of wicked men they are always wrathfully displeased at us Secondly Their endeavours to execute it when they rise up against us Thirdly The danger of Gods people that they shall be swallowed up quick Fourthly Gods providence over them in appearing on their side And lastly Their thankfulness to God in their grateful acknowledgment of it Of all these there are two things chiefly to be considered which I have made choice of for my subject at this time The first is The malicious designs of Gods enemies for the destruction of his people The second is The providence of God watching over his people to deliver them from his and their enemies Both these I shall consider First in other instances and then in the Gunpowder-Treason 'T is that which perhaps of all others is the greatest that ever was 't is that which particularly concerns us this day I shall shew therefore First how great a danger it was how near the point of execution how then God appeared for our deliverance how wonderful a deliverance it was and then how we ought to shew our sense of it in our zeal for that Religion which God was so concerned for and in adorning it by a life that may be exemplary to all other Christians The first thing that I observe is the malice and spitefulness of wicked men the enemies of God their proneness to hurt and to destroy his Church and all true Members of it This as soon as I name it is confest on all hands For all parties take themselves to be the Church of God and the worst Sects among Christians in my opinion are they that take themselves to be the only true Church Grant but this that they are the only true Church and they will not stick with us for my Doctrine They will acknowledge it and tell us we are instances of it that the enemies of God hate his Church and endeavour to destroy it But because this will signifie nothing till it appear who are the Church of God or at least who are the enemies of it I shall determine that by bringing it to this issue That they who are most given to hate and to destroy others especially those others who differ from them in Religion they are not the Church of God or at least they are so far corrupt in that particular I might say this of Men without any relation to the Church the worse they are in other respects the more prone they are generally to hate those that are better than themselves and to shew it by doing them all the mischief they are able Whereas on the other hand Good men are of gracious dispositions They may be displeased but not wrathfully as it is in my Text They are not prone to do mischief but are ready to do good even to enemies And the better they are the more they excell in these dispositions A good man is the only true Image of God who is good and does good to all his Creatures even to Sinners who is so far from willing the death of a Sinner that he does not willingly grieve the children of men Whereas on the other hand it is the property of the Devil to hate and to hurt and to destroy all that come in his way He is therefore called Abaddon and Apollyon in the Revelations He is truly so He was a Murderer from the beginning and will be so even to the end of the world And by these Characters of God and the Devil by their proneness to do good on the one hand by their proneness to do mischief on the other by these we are to distinguish men as the Apostle tells us 1 John 3. 10. By this the children of God are manifested and the children of