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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61811 A sermon preached at the assizes held at Chester, September XX. 1681 by N. Stratford ... Stratford, Nicholas, 1633-1707. 1681 (1681) Wing S5939; ESTC R33811 14,271 40

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A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES HELD AT CHESTER September XX. 1681. By N. STRATFORD D. D. and Dean of St. ASAPH LONDON Printed by A. G. and J. P. for Robert Littlebury at the Kings-Arms in Little-Britain 1681. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of CHESTER MY LORD SOme will perhaps think it a piece of Vanity to prefix so great a Name to so small a Thing but how mean soever the ensuing Discourse may be since it is Your Pleasure it should be sent to the Press it may justly take Sanctuary in Your Lordship's Patronage For what more reasonable than that He should answer for its manifold Defects who caus'd them to be expos'd to public Censure I thought indeed that I could not without some appearance of Rudeness resist the importunity of the Honourable Justices of Assize and other Persons of Quality who heard it preach'd yet I could not prevail with my self to publish it 'till to their Desires Your Lordship added Your Command and then I thought it my Duty no longer to Dispute but forthwith to Obey That it may be successful in promoting those important Ends at which it aims I humbly beg Your Lordship's Blessing and Prayers for it And as this Church is already bless'd in Your Lordship's most Pious and Learned Labours so that God would be farther Gracious to it in giving Your Lordship Health and long Life to perfect those other great Works You have begun and to add many more to them shall be the constant Prayer of Your Lordship's most humble and most obedient Servant N. STRATFORD A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES HELD AT CHESTER ACTS 24. 25. And as he reason'd of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled WHich words giving us a brief account of a Sermon preached by St. Paul concerning the Faith in Christ to Felix the Roman Governour of Judea in them we may observe 1. The manner of the Apostle's preaching He reasoned 2. Those points of the Christian Faith about which he reasoned Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come 3. The Effect wrought upon Felix by his reasoning upon these He trembled 1. The manner of St. Paul's preaching he reasoned As he did not entertain his Hearers with words and noise only instead of sense so neither did he Magisterially impose But whatsoever he commended either to their Faith or Practice as he deliver'd it in a plain unaffected dress of Words so he back't it with such strength of Argument as was sufficient not only to Court but even to Command their assent He knew 't was in vain to attaque the Will and Affections before the Understanding was subdu'd to the Faith that while Men follow the conduct of a blind or erring Guide 't is not likely they should be reduced from their Wanderings that no Man can be persuaded to abandon his Favourite Sin till he be indeed convinced that 't will be an evil and a bitter thing to hold any longer fellowship with it That therefore he might effectually translate Men from the Power of Satan to the Kingdom of God he first endeavour'd to open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light to convince them both of Sin and of Duty by solid uncontrollable Arguments and to give them the most forcible Dissuasives from the one the most quickening Incentives to the other This was the way of preaching that in St. Paul's judgment was the most powerful and therefore the method he here used in order to the Conversion of Felix I therefore humbly crave leave in imitation of our Apostle briefly to reason with you concerning Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come by shewing what indispensable Obligations we are under what potent Motives we have as to the practice of the two former so to the belief of the later And first for Righteousness As the word is not here to be extended to our immediate duty to God so neither shall I confine it to that scantling of Justice which relates to another's Estate only but shall take it in a middle Latitude as comprehensive of all the duty we owe to our Neighbour whether with respect to his outward or inward Man Which tho it be of vast extent yet 't is usually reduced to two general Heads the one Negative to do him no manner of wrong either in his Person or in his Relatives or in his Estate or in any other Capacity The other Positive to render him his due whether it be that which we owe to all Men indifferently as all common Offices of Humanity or to some in special by virtue of that particular Relation in which we stand to them as Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour And not only what is due by the Laws of Men which are contracted to a narrow compass but by the more extensive Law of God For the Apostle here reason'd of Righteousness as 't is a part of the faith of Christ who hath raised our Justice as high as Charity and made it our bounden Duty not only to do no Evil but as we have opportunity to do Good to all Men to feed the Hungry and cloath the Naked to give Eyes to the Blind and Feet to the Lame And that not meerly out of private Designs and sordid Motives but from a suitable affection and inclination of Will which is that alone by which all our outward acts of Righteousness are animated and render'd genuine and acceptable to God This being the Sum of the Righteousness here meant how easie a matter is it to reason about it To demonstrate that it is not only highly becoming us but our necessary Duty and that both as we are Men and as we are Christians For first this is no more than to do as we would be done to a Law which Nature it self teaches us Were it a Duty far from us were we to ascend to Heaven to bring it down from above or to descend into the Deep to fetch it up from beneath were we to toil and perplex our Brains either in lofty or profound enquiries to find it out we might then perhaps be excused in our neglect of it But when it is not only nigh us but within us that we need look no farther than our own Breasts to find our obligation to it what Apology can we make for our selves in case we be found Transgressors 'T is true Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even so to them we find among the injunctions of our Blessed Saviour not for that it was not a Law of a more ancient date but either because it was somewhat sullied by the long growing wickedness of the World or because Men were generally so biass'd by their corrupt Affections that they were not willing to take notice of it he therefore reprinted it in so fair a Character that he that runs may read it For certain it is that as it was at first impress'd