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A44484
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A sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields to the natives of that parish upon the 29th of May, 1676 being the anniversary of His Majesties birth and happy return to his kingdoms : as also the day appointed for their yearly meeting and feasting together / by John Horden.
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Horden, John, 17th cent.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing H2788; ESTC R28693
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12,280
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32
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pretender but certainly what did so far prevail with them in an unrighteous cause ought much more in a good one to be of force and make us more firmly adhere to a Prince who is so nearly related to us whom however were he not so we could not without sin and treachery forsake If therefore ever yet again which God fore-fend any son of Bichri should arise any Benjamite of Belial should blow the trumpet of Sedition disclaim his part in David and endeavour to perswade others that they have no inheritance in the King let not in Judah there ever one be found who would go after him let not any of us ever stir an hand or move a tongue against the King let not us lift up any offensive weapon no not that little one which though little yet as David himself can tell Psal lii 2. is sharp as any rasor and makes wounds so deep that they go into the innermost parts of the belly But remembring who we are and what he is to us let us demean our selves suitably to our obligations employ every member in his service assist him with our heads pray for him with our tongues and hearts and after all act mightily for him with our arms And all this that as it is fit for Judah as it well becometh us we may to purpose do Let us in the second place take care that as Judah was so we continue having all our hearts bowed as the heart of one man this it is that will best fit us for and incline us to the foregoing duties preserve us firm in our allegiance to the King and enable us more effectually to do him service Whilst men separately and apart carry on their designs though each of them be well intended and all of them peradventure may have the same end and aim yet do they seldom prosper every man being ambitious that his own may succeed and they mutually hindering and crossing one another whilst the less likely to prevail repines at the others probability of success every one of them when behind still pulls him who appears formost back and each of them envying unto another the recompence and honour of the thing the whole of all their endeavours ends in an inglorious miscarriage and a too fatal disappointment but when hand joyns in hand and hearts too are united we cannot then but mightily prevail by this agreement strength and counsel meet together policy and power do kiss each other and what is there that we may not expect from such an assocration And to this unity and concord this amity and love that very consideration which from such distant places hath brought so many hither in this place to solemnize this day is a sufficient and will I hope prove a very successful obligation that we were all born in this Parish and had our first Education within the same precincts To be of one and the same Nation how strongly doth it bind what firm and yet what easie friendships in Countries that are remote doth this alone create between such as at home were strangers and upon no other accompt abroad have taken cognizance of one another And if to have been of the same Nation only doth tye thus fast together to have had more neighbouring Nativities to have been born in the same Shire or City ought certainly to link more closely yet to one another but to have been Natives of the same Parish must draw yet streighter much the knot and joyn us in so fast and near a friendship as nothing should excel but Brothers love who yet have had their births within a shorter compass and came forth from one and the same womb To these indeed we may yield according to the rule their affections must be proportionably more vigorous and strong for they are brethren and between such no strife should be none but for the mastery in love which of the two should be most kind and shew the greatest tenderness to one another But next to these are we near was the resemblance of our births and as nearly as we can our lives should represent them at least we ought to live like brethren and as them to love that which I hope ye all already do and that ye never may do otherwise but that the love sowell begun on earth may continue till it comes to be perfected in Heaven where when Hope shall terminate in enjoyment and Faith be swallowed up in vision the exercise of this shall still remain I should now come in the last place to give you some directions for its maintainance and preservation but you your selves have taken such a course as justly supersedes the necessity of any such advice and having appointed this day for the holding of your annual Feast you have prevented me of what I should prescribe This very meeting to rejoyce and feast together to eat the fat and drink the sweet as Nehemiah phraseth it ch viii v. 10. is of it self apt to mollifie and soften the harshness of our nature and to create good humour in us this will prepare and fit us to forgive offences insensibly disposeth us for reconciliation and will in one day compose the differences of a year This creates acquaintance where before was none renews it where it was decayed and so improves it by an annual increase till at length it grow to perfect friendship and become an union like that of soul and body which there is nought but death can break in sunder Let then the dissenting sons of discord as we know they oft have done fast for strife and debate and Drunkards tarry at their wine till that false fire which at their first meeting lookt like love break forth before they part into a flame and make them burn with anger instead of being warm with love These are the two extremes which like those of virtue we equally must flie both of them will destroy the business of this day the former is contradiction on a Festival and the latter ruines what thereby we pretend our purpose to advance Against the one I question not but the care of good and liberal Stewards most amply hath provided from the other I hope your own Virtue and Temperance will secure your selves so shall there need no future sorrow to expiate any madness or sin in this days Joy so may we hope to continue this innocent Society this Feast of Love on Earth till being made fellow-citizens with the Saints we are called to the Supper of the Lamb in Heaven where all these ways and needs of feasting happily shall cease and to love God and do his will that shall be our meat and drink for ever Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost three Persons and but one Eternal God be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS
A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields To the NATIVES of that Parish Upon the 29 th of May 1676. BEING THE ANNIVERSARY OF His Majesties Birth and happy Return to His Kingdoms AS ALSO The Day appointed for their Yearly Meeting and Feasting together By JOHN HORDEN Rector of St. Michael Queen-hithe London LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1676. Imprimatur G. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã sacris domesticis Jun. 6. 1676. TO Mr. John Clayton Mr. Charles Palmer Mr. Charles Titford Mr. John Heames Mr. Thomas Nicholas Mr. John Steel Stewards for the Day Gentlemen WHAT it was that should make you so earnest for the Printing of a Discourse which was only designed for that particular Audience unto which it was preached I cannot possibly imagine unless it were thereby to make your Meeting more publickly known in hopes that your good Example might prevail upon others and stir up a forgetful People to celebrate the Day with that Solemnity which is due unto it If so I must confess your Design is necessary and good and I am content thus at the expence of my own Reputation to become serviceable unto it though I could wish you had made choice of some better Pen for that purpose and laid your commands on such a person as was able to have spread abroad your Fame without the imminution of his own However you see I have obeyed and which is all I do pretend to shew'd in that how much you have at your command Gentlemen Your most affectionate Countryman and very faithful Servant John Horden II. SAM xix 14 15. And he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah even as the heart of one man so that they sent this word unto the King Return thou and all thy servants So the King returned and came to Jordan and Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet the King to conduct the King over Jordan THAT on those days which as the Psalmist speaks Psal cxviii 24. the Lord hath made we may rejoyce and be glad that at such times as God hath made more especially remarkable by the then vouchsafement of great and signal favours we ought to manifest our joyous acceptance to evidence our grateful resentments of them by the most full and demonstrative expressions there are none I think who will deny but such as are professed enemies to Gratitude avowedly against all returns unto the mercies of their God and do for being so deserve to have their choice become their punishment as they delighted not in joy so to have it far from them as they have sullenly chosen a sinful and unseasonable melancholy here so to have their future portion where there is weeping and wailing for evermore If then the present day be such if it appear that the Lord hath been pleased to signalize it by Kindnesses of such note Mercies of such a rank and quality as the revolution of many years hath seldom been crowned with the solemnity of this present Meeting is sufficiently justified and Reason will warrant so righteous an indulgence of our Joy And though to entitle any day unto so great an honour as is that of being the day which the Lord hath more particularly made it be enough that on it we have received any single instance of his extraordinary Goodness yet here to ascertain the claim of this beyond the questioning of the most scrupulous and doubtful for greater sureness the thing is doubled and a succession of Mercies hath confirm'd this Glory to the Day For first It is the Birth-day of our King a Name which methinks it self affects and cannot be mentioned without emotion The morn which did first give light to him who is the breath of our nostrils and the light of our eyes the day which brought forth an universal blessing to the Land but did confer particular honours on this place such as should reach unto its after off-spring such as doth give to us the Natives of this Parish such a more especial relation to our King as doth I 'm sure ennoble us and will I hope for ever endear him make him precious as our eyes and more desirable than life unto us And certainly if we think fit to observe the time of our own Nativities and gladly keep the day on which we wept out the first beginnings of life as an omen of those future miseries unto which then we were born with much greater reason we ought to celebrate the Birth-day of our King to the prudence of whose Government under God we owe the correction of our evil fate to whose care we are indebted that under it we may live peaceable and quiet lives to whose Authority it must thankfully be referr'd that we are restrained from that violence and evil whereby we are naturally prone to ruinate our own and our Neighbours felicity to make our selves and others miserable And upon this very account have all good Subjects in all ages solemnized the Birth-day of their King with far greater Religion than they have done their own thought themselves more obliged then to enlarge their Praises and Thanksgivings unto God Nor was it ever otherwise till over this latter Age Impiety and Rebellion together did prevail when men began to lay aside all Respect both to the Lord and his Anointed and thought it equally superstition to celebrate the Nativity of their Saviour and Birth of their King But secondly As it is the day of his Birth so is it also the day of his Restauration the day whereon he was Restor'd a second time to breath that Native Air unto which he had been so long a stranger and bless our eyes which too long had wanted their dear delight And here we cannot make enquiry into this other happiness of the day without bringing our faults to mind we cannot reflect upon our present joy without calling also to our remembrance a foregoing sorrow the darkness of that long and gloomy night which clouded the former Glories of this Day and rob'd us of all the Joy that his Nativity had given us He was indeed born with us but like the greater prodigies of goodness which the Heavens for a shew do only drop on Earth and soon again resume unto themselves he quickly disappear'd so much still the more for our guilt and shame that the hand which gave him took him not away that the Heavens which shew'd him to us did not him withdraw but when God who gave it was willing still to have continued the favour to us we wilfully forsook our own mercies would be wicked that we might be unhappy and did what we could to evacuate the blessing of his Birth That Royal Oak which with us Gods own right hand had planted we forcibly transplanted into a strange Land suffered it there to grow up in an unnatural Soil and might for ever have wanted the defence and comforts of its shade but that it pleased Almighty God this day again