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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25204	Decus & tutamen, or, Practical godliness the ornament and muniment of all religion being the subject of several sermons preached at Westminster upon Titus ii, 10 / by V. Alsop ...	Alsop, Vincent, 1629 or 30-1703.	1696 (1696)	Wing A2907; ESTC R16042	63,995	144

be remedied The Apostle answers If any obey not the word they may be won by the conversation of the wives but the question is what Conversation will reach that end He answers again While they behold your chast conversation coupled with fear Are there any of you who have a Neighbour a Relation a Friend that is as your own soul for whose Conversion you have longed prayed mourned and added Counsel Entreaties to your Prayers and Tears add a holy humble consciencious Conversation keeping your Consciences void of offence toward God and Men and despair not of success 5. Reason There 's nothing more Provokes the wrath of God than to throw Dirt in the Face of the Gospel and the next Provocation is not to wipe that off which others have thrown upon it Which way God will vindicate his insulted Honour which way he will Avenge himself upon a careless or loose or indifferent Generation of Professors I cannot foretel whether he will take the Sword into his provoked Hand or give a Commission to Fire Plague or other Judgment to avenge the Quarrel of his Gospel but certain it is he will do it Levit. xxvi 25 26. I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant●… and when you are gathered together in your Cities I will send the pestilence amongst you and ye shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies and when I have broken the staff of your bread c. We have notoriously assronted the Gospel of our God and Saviour either by unmerciful Persecution or an unsuitable Conversation this Gospel has just cause of Quarrel against us God takes the Quarrel of his despised Truths Precepts Promises Ordinances into his own Hands he will avenge it He has already sent us a Challenge nay he has drawn blood on us but yet his patience waits and strives with us and calls to us to take up the Controversie what shall we do Either we must fight it out and carry on a vigorous War against Heaven or entertain O that we would entertain better wiser Counsels and Agree with our Adversary quickly whilst we are in the way with him and he in the way with us lest I tremble to mention what follows Let us then Repent and turn to the Lord with our whole Heart let us Reform our Persons Families our Lives peradventure the Lord may be nay certainly the Lord will be reconciled to us and have Mercy upon us § 5. The Improvement of the Point only remains and till we have done that we have done nothing but here we are usually under some mistake we think it is only the Preachers work to make Application when it 's the proper Duty of All to apply it All he can do is to Direct how it may how it must be appplied by all that hear it This Truth must be applied and improved two ways by way of Humiliation and Exhortation I. Improvement by way of Humiliation ARE we then throughly convinced that it ought to be the cautious care of all that Profess the Gospel to Adorn the Doctrine of it in all things Let us then be humbled Let us take up a bitter Lamentation over this bleeding gasping and if Grace prevent not this dying Gospel It has fared amongst us just as the poor Man Luke x. 30. Who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves they strip him wound him and leave him half dead but who could expect better quarter from bloody Thieves In this dying and desperate state there comes by a Priest he sees him but his Eyes did not affect his Heart but passes by A Levite next he bestows a careless look upon him but passes by on the other side Might not better things have been expected from the Priests and Levites Well! In the agony and pangs of Death comes by a Samaritan one abhorred both by Priest and Levite one that they damned for a wretched Schismatick but yet he had Bowels of Compassion for the expiring Man he binds up his Wounds and takes care for his Cure The Doctrine the Gospel of God our Saviour lies here a bleeding a dying 'T is in vain to inquire who has been the Assassin who has committed the Massacre For all will remove the guilt from themselves though all be guilty in the mean time Religion bleeds on and is ready to give up the Ghost Now it 's usual when a Person is found sore wounded in the Streets to ask who wounded him At least to describe them by such Characters that they may be pursued seized and brought to Condign Punishment But have we Courage enough Conscience enough to ask wounded Religion this question How readily would it answer though with the Accents of a languishing Voice It was you all and every one of you that are guilty and our own Consciences will accuse and convict us that we are the Men When our Saviour Matth. xxvi 21 22. Had told his Apostles that one of them should betray him They were exceeding sorrowful and began to say one by one Lord is it I Lord is it I He that knows his own deceitful Heart and the Corruption that lies dormant there will find Reason to suspect that a Temptation may awaken it to deny his Lord nay to betray and sell his Lord and Saviour Peter and James and John suspected themselves as much as Judas and none of us but have cause to say Lord was it I I that denyed thy Truth I that blemished thy Gospel And if so O let us mourn and mourn bitterly over him whom we have pierced as one that mourneth for an only Son Zech. xii 10. It was a cutting word that would have wounded the Heart of any but an Obdurate Judas Judas betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss Do we pretend to Kiss him and yet basely betray him The smiling Face aggravates the Rancour of the false Heart This was the baseness of Joab that he saluted A●…ner and stabbed him do we Complement Christ and Stab him The Gospel may say to us in the language of that Prophetick Scheme Zech. xiii 6. The Qucstion was asked What are those wounds in thy hands Religion will answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends This is that which wounds deeper than the Swords the Nails the Spear the Thorns that wounded Christ He has been wounded in the House of his Friends Let not our deceitful Hearts think to evade the charge by saying Lord when did I Buffet thee or Spit upon thee It was the Soldiers When did I Crown thee with Thorns or put a Reed into thy Hands Or nail thee to the Cross or pierce thy side with a Spear It was the Jews that Accused thee Pilate that Condemn'd thee the Souldier that Pierced thee Nay but it was thou even thou who pretending to submit to my Scepter didst make it at pleasure but a broken Reed It was thou that didst profess much love with thy Lips and yet

Decus Tutamen OR Practical Godliness THE ORNAMENT and MUNIMENT OF ALL RELIGION Being the Subject of several SERMONS Preached at WESTMINSTER UPON TITUS ii 10. By V. Alsop Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for John Barnes at the Crown in the Pall-Mall 1696. To all that Love the Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity especially to those who attend upon his Ministry Grace and Peace Beloved Brethren WHAT was once preached to your Ears is now presented to your Eyes accompanied with fervent Prayers that the God of all Grace would powerfully impress it upon your Hearts The importunity of Friends is a common Apology for publishing some Pieces which if Affection had not more prevail'd than Judgment might as well never have seen the Light How much of this I might plead to justify or excuse my appearing in Print upon this Subject many of you do know but I shall willingly wave those Reasons The Weight the Worth the Necessity of the Argument as they have been my strongest Inducements so are they all I shall offer for my Vindication The Age into which Sovereign Providence has cast our Lot does much boast of Light I wish that a proportionable measure of holy Heat had accompanied that Light that Grace Truth and Peace might have been the Glory of our Times But here we must bitterly lament that the holy Flame of Zeal for the Concerns of Jesus Christ that fervent Love to all that bear his Image in Righteousness and true Holiness has degenerated into or been expelled by another Fire not kindled from Heaven but if we may judge of the Cause by the Effects from a contrary Original The Spirit of Envy has almost eaten up holy Emulation and we have disputed so furiously about Truth that we have almost lost the other half of our Religion Charity The noise of Axes and Hammers in building the Temple has been as great as once it was in destroying it this Clamour has drowned the softer whispers of the Spirit of Holiness and Peace our Speculations about what is too high for our Reach and our Quarrels about what is too low for our serious Regard have insensibly worn out Practical Godliness and in the mean time Religion suffers its Enemies triumph it s few Cordial Friends mourn over it and suffer with it The Gospel of our blessed Saviour if it might have been heard would easily have compromised all our Differences but it has fared no better with Religion than with that charitable Person who interposing between two Friends engaged with drawn Swords was in the heat of passionate folly wounded by them both for an unkind Reward of his Kindness It is much to be feared that this will be the undeserved fate of whoever shall undertake to reconcile contending Friends to make them both his bitter Enemies for in an Age of Fiery mistaken Zeal he that is not Scalding Hot shall be censured for Lukewarm and not to be a Bigot will be to be reputed not a Christian The only Expedient I can recommend to you my beloved Brethren in this sad Case is To maintain Innocence in your own Souls Peace in your own Consciences to keep close to your Duty and if for endeavours of Love you must be so unhappy as to contract Enmity to retire with the Psalmist to your God Psal. cix 4. and give your selves unto Prayer But as the Holy Go●…pel of God our Saviour suffers unworthily by our Divisions and Contentions it suffers no less by our unsuitable Conversations which yet is but the evil Effect of an evil Cause the bitter Fruit of that poisonous Root For as when one part of the Natural Body grows great beyond its Proportion it robs the rest of their due Nourishment and Growth such is our deplorable Case we have furnish'd the Head so plentifully with Notions that we have starved the Members of their proper Supplies that they cannot perform their proper Operations We have laid out so much of our Zeal and Vigor upon Controversies that there 's little left to support the necessary things of Practical Religion Holiness towards God Repentance from dead Works and the exercise of good Works and a heavenly Conversation I Bless God from my Soul that most of you are of another Temper and Character though I cannot deny that the Enemy has studied to sow Tares among you and while we slept his Emissaries and Instruments have watch'd to bring in among you some Doctrines and Practices which would have Wounded if not mortally Stabbed our Holy Profession But blessed be the Great Superintendent of his Church who faithfully watched over you and against them and has prevented and defeated their subtle Malice It 's for the sake of humble sincere Ones principally that I have drawn up and sent forth these Papers who cannot perhaps wield a heavy Argument for the Cause of Christ and against its Opposers and yet their Integrity and Uprightness keeps them secure and the Grace of God on which they humbly and securely depend enables them to Live down all the Objections of Atheists Deists and Profane Persons by a regular and exemplary Conversation We Read of a Philosopher who when a subtle Sophister disputed zealously that there was no such thing as Motion in the World said nothing but rose up and walked You may possibly meet with such Profane Wretches who with great Noise and Clamour would bear you down that there 's nothing real nothing solid in Religion that its an empty ineffectual Notion a curious airy Speculation that has no power upon Mens Hearts no command over their Lives now if you shall meet with this importunate Clamour which is the best Argument they have say you nothing but rise up and Walk Let Men see your Holy Heavenly Conversation and this will silence all their Cavils and stop the Mouths of all their Objections better than you can do by fine force and Dint of Argument And indeed let us Dispute Write what and while we please nothing will vindicate Religion from the Reproaches thrown upon it by impudent Atheism but the Holy Walking of those that profess it And it 's a thousand pities that false Doctrine should be credited by a severe morose and rigid behaviour while Truth it self is blemish'd and brought into Contempt by a loose one Let me therefore Anticipate the following Discourse thus far as to assure you that the Credit of our Holy Religion can never be recovered without 1. A more Consciencious Sanctification of the Lord's Day all practical Religion Rises Falls Ebs Flows with that When a Generation of Men removed the Observation of that Day from Divine Institution and laid it upon the Churches Tradition or the Civil Sanction the repute of it sunk presently and the observation of it dwindled away to nothing 2. A more constant fixed Worshipping God in our Families As Personal Remisness will creep into the Family so will Family-Looseness easily infect the Churches It is in vain to Dream that Congregations will be Holy if