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A56695
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A sermon preached at St. Pavl Covent-Garden, on the late day of fasting & prayer, Novemb. 13 by Simon Patrick ...
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing P840; ESTC R23234
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28,516
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39
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unto him in better words We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our Fathers for we have finned against thee The remembrance of these ought to be very grievous to us and the burden of them intolerable VVhich if we feel sensibly it will dispose us to cry to God with the greater fervency and frequency and to beseech him the more earnestly to spare us saying as Baruch a great Friend of Jeremiah teaches us III. 1 2. O Almighty Lord the soul in anguish the troubled spirit cryeth to thee Hear O Lord and have mercy for thou art merciful have pity upon us for we have sinned against thee And if he do condescend to our request we shall the more magnifie his mercy and his clemency will be the more admirable in our eyes when we have been made thoroughly sensible how little we deserved it nay how justly we had incurred his severest displeasure 3. The sense also of our ill deservings will help another way to make our Prayers effectual because it will move us wholly to depend upon God for our deliverance That 's a third thing necessary to make our supplications prevalent We must in this humble manner apply our selves to God and quitting all confidence in any thing that we can do even in our Prayers desire him to save us merely for his own sake there being nothing in our selves to move him to any thing but only displeasure against us This Jeremiah also teaches us in the next words to those now mentioned v. 21. Do not abhor us though we and our Fathers have been great sinners yet do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the Throne of thy glory Which argument he uses also a little before my Text v. 7. O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us do thou it for thy Names sake A most excellent Form for us to imitate who may and ought to say as it there follows Our backslidings have been many we have sinned against thee O thou hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble we have provoked thee to resolve that thou wilt save and deliver us no more but do it for thy Names sake do it for thy Truths sake disgrace not thy holy Religion here established among us though we be wicked that is pure though we deserve to be deserted that is worthy of thy defence and protection And may we take the boldness to add as thy Servants heretofore have done thou hast many holy devout Worshippers among us for whose sake we beseech thee to do it O look not upon the sinners of thy people but on them which serve thee in truth 2 Esdras III. 28.31.34 and VIII 26. Are their deeds any better who inhabit Babylon that they should therefore have the dominion over Sion Weigh thou our wickedness now in the ballance and theirs also that dwell in the world and so shall thy Name be found no where as it is in our Israel Psal CXV 1. Not unto us therefore O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth sake Remember not the iniquities of our Forefathers but think upon thy Power and thy Name now at this time For thou art the Lord our God and thee O Lord will we praise and for this cause hast thou put thy fear in our hearts to the intent that we should call upon thee These last are the words of Baruch III. 5 6. who imitates you see his Friend Jeremiah as they all do the Psalmist with whose words I shall conclude this particular LXXIX 8 c. O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Help us O God of our salvation for the glory of thy Name and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy Names sake Wherefore should they say where is now their God Let him be known among them in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy Servants which hath been shed That 's the third thing Let us profess our sole dependence on him and expectation meerly from his goodness and for his glory disclaiming all confidence in our selves and let me add in man too that is in all humane help and Counsels For which end let me recommend that Form of Prayer to you for perpetual use Psal LX. 11. Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man I say perpetually 4. For we must pray to God in this manner with perseverance continuing instant in Prayer as the Apostle speaks Rom. XII 12. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Ephes VI. 18. That is we must not be discouraged if we obtain not our suits presently but pray still with all prayer secret private publick and in the Spirit with earnestness and fervour watching thereunto i. e. borrowing some time from our sleep or our business rather than neglect this Duty of fervent prayer resolving not to be weary but with all perseverance to cry mightily to him till he have mercy upon us This is our Saviours Doctrine Luke XVIII 1. where he spake a Parable to this end that men ought always to pray and not faint or grow weary For if as he shews an unjust and impious Judge may be moved by importunity to do a poor Widow right shall we think that God will not avenge his Elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily v. 7 8. And this was the course that Jeremy here resolved to take in their great distress for want of Rain ver last of this Chapter Can any of the vanities of the Gentiles give Rain or the Heaven give showers Art not thou he O Lord our God therefore will we wait upon thee And so truly must we praying in the Psalmists words Psal CXXIII 2 3 4. Behold as the Eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the Eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress So our Eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us for we are exceedingly filled with contempt Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud Let every soul here present put up at least this short petition to God day by day for this Church and Kingdom besides those he makes for himself and Family And as often as you can set apart some time for more solemn importuning of his mercy towards us 5. And let us be sure to take care of one thing more without which all this labour will be lost viz. to make all our supplications with hearty resolutions to reform every thing that we know to be amiss in our hearts and lives This was the course to which the King of Nineveh directed his People by
according to his own Institution and therefore cannot reasonably doubt of receiving there all the fruits of his dying love Whereas they that glory most in his favour have an imperfect representation of him a lame and defective ministration of that Divine Grace which he there communicates to his people 2. We believe also and are sure that our Lord is so nigh us that we may immediately address our selves to him and be confident of finding access though we take no Saints or Angels in our way to his blessed presence We need none to intercede with him for us like those of the Church of Rome who beg the assistance of this or that Saint especially of the blessed Virgin his Mother to introduce them into his favour and to recommend them and their suits to him Which manifestly supposes him at a distance and not to be nigh to such Supplicants who depend upon I know not how many men and women whom they suppose to be great Favourites in the Court of Heaven and whose Mediation they must use before they can approach him This one thing alone is sufficient to entitle us to this priviledge of being a People nigh unto the Lord and having him in the midst of us above all those Churches of that Communion It is no fansie but a real Truth that we stand in a nearer Relation to him and may be confident of his favour more than they can be who dare not go to him but by the intercession of others whom they desire to procure them acceptance with him Which very thing also is such an Offence to him that I am confident it sets them still at a greater distance from him For it is an imitation of that Worship which God abhorred so much in the Heathen world that he sent his Son on purpose to destroy it and to bring them to the acknowledgment of this truth that there is but one God and one Mediator between God and man the Man Christ Jesus This Truth blessed be God we have received and hold as it hath been taught us by his holy Apostle St. Paul 1 Tim. II. 4 5. And by virtue of this our glory ought to be great in his Salvation and we should triumph in his praise saying What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for We may lawfully look upon our selves and most thankfully acknowledge it as having the most High in the midst of us after a peculiar manner to bless save and deliver us in one word to be our God and singular Benefactor Which as it is the greatest glory so it was ever accounted the greatest safety and security Zach. II. 5. For if God be for us as the Apostle speaks who can be against us We need not care that is who opposes us nor fear what man can do unto us But though all Nations should compass us about as the Psalmist speaks Psal CXVIII 10 c. we might say with the same courage and resolution that he doth could we but be assured that God is with us In the Name of the Lord will we destroy them They compass us about yea they compass us about but in the Name of the Lord will we destroy them They compass us about like Bees but they shall be quenched as the fire of thorns for in the name of the Lord will we destroy them They may thrust sore at us that we may fall but the Lord will help us The right hand of the Lord shall be exalted the right hand of the Lord shall do valiantly We shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. This is such a satisfaction that it is a wonder we are not all more solicitous to secure the Divine presence with us whereby we might live not only safely but confidently without those fears and dreadful apprehensions that are apt to possess and terrifie us Which would all vanish could we but rationally hope that we abide under the shadow of the Almighty and could say of the LORD he is my refuge and my fortress my God in him will I trust Surely he shall hide me from the Counsel of the wicked and from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity There is not a Man of us one would think but would put away all other fears and dread this alone lest God should not be with us did we not presume too much of his favour and vainly hope for his continued protection though we be so negligent as to remain utterly insensible of what he hath done for us and to take no care to behave our selves worthily as becomes those who have the honour to be so nearly related to him II. III. Let me therefore briefly awaken you as I propounded in the Second place to a due use of Gods singular grace to you by representing how far the extraordinary presence of God among a people will be from exempting them from the severest punishments if they prove ungrateful and disobedient to him There is so little reason for any presumption of such immunity 〈…〉 we may rather justly expect as I said in the third thing I propounded to your consideration which for brevities sake I shall joyn with this that he should punish them sorely nay utterly forsake them if they will not be reformed by those punishments The Israelites are a woful example of this who fancied indeed strongly that God was tyed to them so fast by his promises that they were in no danger to lose him though they took no care to keep him with them but found their error to their cost and paid dearly for it throughout all generations When he first manifested himself to them at their coming out of Aegypt into the Wilderness you know how many of their carcases fell there till they were all consumed but two men who were the only persons that followed God fully The cloud which you heard stood over them as a shelter to them while they were obedient to his word would defend them no longer when they rebelled against him but poured down fiery indignation upon them and destroyed them From that Lord who was in the midst of them from that dwelling place which they had built for him out of the house of his glory in which they trusted there came forth several sorts of sore judgments and smote down the choisest of them For that without all doubt is the propriety of such phrases as that in Numb XVI 46. Wrath is gone out from the LORD the plague is begun From the glory of the Lord i. e. which appeared then to all the congregation at the door of the Tabernacle v. 19.42 there issued out the tokens of his divine displeasure in a noisome pestilence by which and other such-like punishments Their dayes did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble For he who had been so kind to them was so incensed by their repeated rebellions that he