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A32826
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A sermon preached on the fast-day, November the xiiith, 1678 being appointed for fasting and prayer / by Benjamin Camfield ...
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Camfield, Benjamin, 1638-1693.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing C385; ESTC R1375
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24,011
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55
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A SERMON PREACHED ON THE Fast-Day NOVEMBER the xiii th 1678. Being appointed for Fasting and Prayer BY BENJAMIN CAMFIELD Rector of Aylston near Leicester LONDON Printed by J. Macock for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St Pauls MDCLXXVIII Imprimatur Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã Sacris Domesticis A SERMON ON PSALM xviii v. 2. but in the last Translation v. 3. I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised so shall I be safe from mine Enemies IT is not long since we were Assembled on the fifth of this Month to Bless and Praise God for his wonderful Mercies to this Kingdom in the seasonable Discovery and Defeating of our Romish Enemies most wicked and accursed Powder-Plot which had it taken effect all had been Entomb'd on a suddain in one common Ruine And now upon notice publickly given That the same kind of Agents are at work again in another way to Destroy both His Sacred Majesty and with Him our Liberties and Religion we are by the warrant of Authority met together here this day to call upon that God who alone is able to protect and save us and whose undeserved goodness we have had so much experience of hitherto that he would be pleased graciously to continue yet to defend both our King and Country and bring to light still more and more all secret machinations against his Majesty and the whole Kingdom To which purpose therefore I could not think of any thing more pertinent and agreeable both to Direct us in our present Duty and Encourage us to the same than the words I have read from the Royal Psalmist I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised so shall I be safe from mine Enemies This Psalm was a Publick Form of Devotion Composed and appointed by King David for the solemn seasons set apart to Commemorate his manifold Deliverances and Victories for all the dayes wherein God had delivered him as the Chaldee Paraphrast hath it And it hath the Honour to be twice Registred in Holy Writ with very little variation in the words of it For you may read it in the 22d Chap. of the 2d Book of Samuel as well as here in the Book of Psalms From whence we may plainly collect That however some of This Generation quarrel and except against set Forms of Divine Worship and Service to cast dirt upon the established Religion and make way for New-fangled Devices of their own rather than Godly Edifying in Love and Unity yet it was not so in the Church of God from the Beginning but both a publick Form was wont to be prescribed and upon like occasions one and the same Form was without scruple made use of And that by the Counsel and Countenance of no meaner a Person than King David himself who is recommended to us as an eminent Servant of God both in his private and Regal Capacity Acts 13.22 a man after Gods own heart as he himself hath testified of him So much we have sufficiently intimated in the very Title of this Psalm which was inscrib'd to the chief Musician or Prefect of Musick the Master of the Choire to be sung upon publick Solemnities To the chief Musician A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord who spake unto the Lord the words of this Song in the Day that the Lord deliver'd him from the hand of all his Enemies and from the hand of Saul And he said See Dr. H. in loc Viz. as followeth that is A Publick Form of Worship or Religious Acknowledgment indited by David that eminent Servant of the Lord in Commemoration of those many Preservations and Victories which God had vouchsafed him and his now quiet settlement in the Kingdom of Israel and Judah by the interposure of the Divine Providence in subduing the Philistines Syrians Moabites and Ammonites that rose up against him in quieting the Rebellion of Absalom his son Absalom soon after which it is recorded 2 Sam. 22. but especially in rescuing him out of the malicious bloody hands of Saul This he composed and committed to the chief Musician as a suitable service for those solemn Dayes wherein there should be occasion to commemorate his Deliverances and Victories And to that purpose it continues registred in the Book of Psalms among many other as a Pattern and Example unto all Posterities and a Justification as I said beyond all contradiction both of the lawfulness and expediencie of Publick Forms of Devotion and the use or Repetition of the same Forms upon like occasion I shall not now go about to unravel the Contexture of the whole Psalm because I would not divert your attention from that plenty of good and proper Meditations which the Text alone suggests unto us Wherein we have these two principal parts 1. David's holy Resolution or Practice I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised And 2. The Motive he had thereunto from the assured success of it So shall I be saved or safe from mine enemies Of which therefore now by God's help I shall treat in order as they lie And First of the Psalmist's holy Resolution or Practice I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised Wherein we may consider yet more distinctly these three Particulars 1. The Person whose Example we have before our eyes together with the Circumstances of his Condition I King David the Servant of the Lord preserved and deliver'd by him from many potent Enemies already and yet not without the Fear and prospect of others succeeding afresh and growing up in the room of them 2. The Act or Practice it self resolved upon Calling upon the Lord which as I shall take occasion to shew you was all along his most Religious Custom as well as Resolution in like Cases for the Future And then 3. The special Character here annexed unto the Object of his Invocation Worship and Devotion The Lord who is worthy to be praised I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised First The Person here spoken of the I in the Text. That is David a pious and Religious King styled in the Title of the Psalm The Servant of the Lord as I told you Religion we see is not a vile or mean Performance is not a thing below the Highest and most eminent Monarchs of the World no disparagement at all unto their Greatness but that which is indeed the chiefest Ornament in their Diadem and Crown of Glory They have the same Essential Dependence upon God with other men and He the same Right and Title of Soveraignty and Dominion over Them being King of Kings and Lord of Lords Nay They have an Obligation above others to serve and Honour God Almighty not only as his Reasonable Creatures and Dependents like unto others but as his peculiar Ministers and Servants in their Sacred Office as Kings exalted and upheld by him in that their Dignity Again Their Necessity as well as
place engageth them hereunto for they are surrounded with those Dangers and Troubles which none but God alone the Supreme Potentate can preserve or deliver them in and from No sooner have they escaped one Plot and Contrivance of mischief but another Snare is laying for them The Hydra of Treason and Rebellion hath many Heads and when one is cut off another perks up in its stead Such was David's Condition And we need not to look further than This Psalm for an ample proof of it Here we read of the sorrows of Death and Hell compassing him Verses 4 5. The snares of Death preventing him The Floods of ungodly men making him afraid The Sons of Belial men impatient of the Yoke of Government and Restraint coming like a mighty Torrent upon him Verse 16. Many waters threatning to overflow and drown him Blood-thirsty powerful and malicious Enemies such as hated him Verse 17. and were too strong for him Verse 39. rising up against him And those not only of Forraign Nations but amongst his own People Verse 43. The strivings of the people nor only making open Insurrections but endeavouring private Assassinations by men of violence Verse 48. and those too secret and unknown Dissembling and False-hearted Subjects Verse 44. such as yielded feigned Obedience such as lied unto him in all their fair professions and dissembled with him as the old Translation hath it Verse 6. No wonder therefore that we find him in his Distresse and in a Day of Calamity and as it were in Prison and Confinement Verse 18 19. in great straits sometimes in a state of War and at other times in great Perils Such is the condition of all Kings especially of Pious and Religious Kings For the King is the head of Order and the very life and soul of Laws both Civil and Sacred So many Enemies therefore as there are abroad to a State or Kingdom their level is chiefly neither at small or great but at the Head and Soul of all the rest The Devil and his Agents are all Adversaries to Order and Quiet and Peace with Piety and Virtue and therefore must necessarily impugn and strike at the grand Conservator of all these And then in his own Dominions if we reckon up how many there alwayes be that are in ill Circumstances themselves and have their hopes only in a Change in fishing as we say in troubled Waters in disturbing all that they may scramble for somewhat How many Ambitious of Rule and Power themselves that would fain be uppermost How many envious at all above them who therefore are ready to pull them down or undermine them How many thirsting for Liberty unbounded Liberty to do whatsoever is good in their own Eyes How many cross'd in their undue Desires and Lusts by the severity of good and wholesome Laws How many whose Faith and Allegiance is easily corrupted by the popular insinuations and pretences of wheedling Demagogues or to be bought and sold with Bribes and Pensions How very few of Courage and Honesty enough to stick by a Prince in his low Condition How many Powers and Policies and Devices he hath continually to watch over and to struggle with How many he must of necessity trust and imploy whom he hath but little or slender assurance of If we consider I say but these and the like obvious Circumstances we cannot but see the manifold Troubles and Miseries and Calamities that every Prince every good and Religious Prince especially is beset withal As David we read was But the greatest comfort is He hath a Refuge and Sanctuary near at hand notwithstanding all this to betake himself unto namely that of the Text. I will call upon the Lord. This we find upon all occasions was our Royal Psalmists stay and security When He knew not what to do nor whither to betake himself his Eyes were still unto God God Psal 46. saith he is our refuge and strength a very present help in Trouble Therefore will we not fear c. Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae Thus at Ziklag 1 Sam. 30.6 David saith the text was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning of him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his Sons and for his Daughters and when any thing goes amiss or succeeds ill in Government the blame and complaints usually fix and center on the chief Governour but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God He becalmed himself as we read elsewhere with such like expostulations as These Psal 42. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God Psal 43. for I shall yet praise him who is the Health of my countenance and my God Observe therefore by how many different Names and Attributes of security he calls God in the Verse before our Text on purpose as it were to declare That he was All in All in his account My Strength saith he and my Rock Psal 18.1 and my Fortress and my Deliverer my Buckler and the Horn of my Salvation that is according to the Hebrew Idiom wherein Horn is used for Power and Plenty my most Powerful and All-sufficient Saviour and my High-Tower In weakness my Strength against the Storm and Billows of Adversity and that Ocean of Calamity which beats at any time upon me my Rock impregnable against all manner of Violence or Assaults my Fortress or Bul-work my Shield and Buckler invulnerable whatever Hosts or Armies invade me my High-Tower and Castle at all Times and in all Cases a most mighty and abundant Saviour and Deliverer They are excellent words of the Prophet Habakkuk Hab. 3.17 18 19. which I the rather mention because the later part of them is taken out of this Psalm Psal 18.32 33. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall Fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Fields shall yield no meat the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herd in the Stalls that is all visible help and relief shall fail Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds feet and He will make me to walk on my High-places There can be no possible want of provisions to this High-Tower or Garrison We see by the way what an utter Enemy the profess'd Atheist is to all publick Governments and the best security of Kings and Princes †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. Chrysost in Psal 143.2 10. who by denying God and Providence takes away this most Comfortable Refuge and Sanctuary which amidst all Perils and Dangers they are to betake themselves unto It is the Character of such profane ones That they call not upon God themselves Psal 14. and that is not all