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A61574
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Occasional sermons preached by the Most Reverend Father in God, William Sancroft ... ; with some remarks of his life and conversation, in a letter to a friend.
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Sancroft, William, 1617-1693.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S561; ESTC R35157
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79,808
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212
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purpose to raise up our Hopes into some Confidence that we shall owe one day to those Sacred Hands next under God the healing of the Church's and the People's Evils as well as of the King 's Blessed for ever be that God who hath restor'd us such a Gracious Sovereign to be the Repairer of the Breach and the Nursing Father of his Church and hath put it into the King's Heart to appoint Titus as this Day to Ordain Elders for every City to supply all that is wanting and to correct whatever is amiss Blessed are our Eyes for they see that which many a Righteous Man more Righteous than we desired so much to see and hath not seen It. And Blessed be this Day Let God regard it from above and a more than common Light shine upon it in which we see the Phoenix arising from her Funeral Pile and taking Wing again our Holy Mother the Church standing up from the Dust and Ruins in which she sate so long taking Beauty again for Ashes and the Garments of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness remounting the Episcopal Throne bearing the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven with her and armed we hope with the Rod of Discipline her Hands spread abroad to Bless and to Ordain to Confirm the Weak and to Reconcile the Penitent her Breasts flowing with the sincere Milk of the Word and girt with a Golden Girdle under the Paps tying up All by a meet Limitation and Restriction to Primitive Patterns and Prescripts Apostolical A sight so Venerable and August that me thinks it should at once strike Love and Fear into every Beholder and an awful Veneration I may confidently say it 'T was never well with us since we strayed from the due Reverence we ought to Heaven and Her and 't is strange we should no sooner observe it but run a Madding after other Lovers that ruin'd us till God hedged in our way with Thorns that we could no longer find them and then we said I will go and return to my former Husband for then was it better with me then now Well Blest be the Mercies of God we are at last returned and Titâ—s is come back into Creet and there are Elders ordaining for every City But Hic Rhodus hic Saltus Reverend Father this is your Creet adorn it as you can The Province is hard and the Task weighty and formidable even to an Angel's Shoulders That we mistake not Titus was not left behind in Creet to take his Ease or to sheep out the Storm which soon after overtook St. Paul at Sea he might well expect a worse at Land Naufragium terrestre and a more tempestuous Euroclydon Believe it a Bishop's Roab is Tunica molesta as the Martyrs pitch'd Coat was call'd of Old and sits perhaps more uneasie upon the Shoulders The Miter is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to render invisible or invulnerable but rather exposeth to Enemies The Rotchet and the Surplice Emblems of Innocence indeed but Marks of Envy too and 't is in those Whites that Malice sticks all her Darts And therefore St. Paul was fain to entreat Timothy into this Dignity For this cause besought I thee to abide at Ephesus for there were Beasts to be fought with there and the Apostle had tried them both Tooth and Paw So that I cannot wonder if our Bishops say Nolo Episcopari in good Earnest and if any of our Zaras thrust forth a hasty Hand and be laid hold on and the Scarlet Thread cast about his Finger 't is not strange if he draw back his Hand and refuse the Primogeniture chusing rather to lye hid in Obscurity quà m vinctus Purpurâ progredi as the great Cardinal wittily alludes As in Creet new Founded so in England new Restored there must needs be many things wanting and much amiss not so easily to be supplied or amended When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion they made their thankful acknowledgments and said in the Psalm The Lord hath done great things for us already whereof we will be glad But then it follows immediately in the next Verse Turn again our Captivity O Lord as the Rivers in the South It seems their Captivity I am sure Ours is still to turn again even after 't is returned For there are Reliques of it still behind and the sad Effects remain an Age will hardly be able toâ— Efface them and which is the saddest of All we are still I fear in Captivity to the same Sins that occasioned that and they are able to bring upon us Ten Thousand Captivities worse than the former Plainly there are Riddles in our Condition and whose Heifer shall we plow with to unfold them Returned and not returned Restored and yet not so â—ully restored in fine with them in the Psalm We are like to them that dream With St. Peter the good Angel hath rouzed us indeed and our Chains are fallen off we have bound on our Sandals and begin to find our Legs again and we are past the first and the second Ward But methinks the Iron Gate that leads to the City is not over-apt to open to us of its own accord so that we wish not well if it be True and Real that is done by the Angel still apt to think we see a Vision still like to them that dream We have Ierusalem 't is true and the Hill of Sion in our Eyes Yet many look back to Babel and multitudes sit Captives still by those Waters encreasing them with their â—â—ars If any have taken down their Harps from those Willows they are not strong nor well in Fune and we scarce find how to sing the Lord's Songs even in our own Land And therefore let me advise you now in the Close of All Give not over but ply your Devotions still and whenever you sing In Convertendo Dominus in the midst of those Doxologies forget not to insert one Versicle of Petition Converte Domine Converte Turn again what remains of our Captivity and perfect our faint beginings Ay that 's the way if we would succeed Vot a dabunt quae bellae negârunt For God will hear the Prayers of his Church especially for his Church as he did those of David Psal. cxxxii Letâ— thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness that 's the Petition And what saith the Answer of God a few Verses after I my self will cloath her Priests with Righteousness Ay and with Salvation too Let the Saints shout for joy saith the Psalmist Her Saints saith God Shall shout aloud for joy So that there 's more granted in both parts than was asked St. Paul knew well that this was the Method And therefore before he took forth his Son Titus the great Lesson of my Text he first imparts his Apostolical Benediction To Titus mine own Son Grace and Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour St. Chrysostome
be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will not make a final End now No a Remnant shall be left as the shaking of an Olive-tree and as the Gleaning Grapes when the Vintage is done Chap. xxiv 13. Nor shall they be only preserved but restored too The Lord God will in time wipe away every Tear from off all Faces and at last swallow up this Death too in Victory Chap. xxv 8. Hee 'l turn their Captivities and rebuild their City and their Temple too and all this shall be as it were Life from the Dead as the Apostle calls it so miraculous a Re-establishment at a Juncture so improbable when they are destroyed out of all Ken of Recovery that it shall be a kind of Resurrection and so like the great One that 't is described in the very proper Phrases of that both by the other Prophets and by Ours too a little below the Text Thy Dead shall live again My dead Bodies shall arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Dust c. And then which is of nearest Concern to us and to ou◠present Business the Prophet directs the Remnant that should escape how to behave themselves under so great a Desolation and he contrives his directions into a threefold Song that they may be the better remarkt and remembred tun'd and fitted to the three great Moments of the Event The first to the time of the Ruine it self Chap. xxiv where having set before their Eyes the sad prospect of the holy City and House of God in Flames When thus it shall be in the midst of the Land saith he there shall be a Remnant and they shall lift up their voice and sing for the Majesty of the Lord saying Glorifie ye the Lord in the Fires V. 15. And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song of Praise The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song of Degrees or Ascensions fitted to the time of their Return when All shall be restor'd and rebuilt again and that we have Chap. xxvii 2. In that Day sing ye unto her A Vineyard of Red Wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day The third of which my Text is a principle strain belongs to the whole middle interval between the Ruine and the Restauration in this xvi Chap. In tha◠Day shall this Song be sung in the Land of Iudah We have a strong City Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks c. As if he had said Though our City be Ruin'd yet God is still our dwelling place our Fortresses dismantled and thrown down but Salvation will he appoint us for Walls and Bulwarks Our Temples in the Dust but God will be to us himself as a little Sanctuary And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Song to give Instruction teaching them and in them us how to demean our selves while the Calamity lies upon us sc. to make God our Refuge ver 4. to wait for him in the Way of his Judgments ver 8. and in this 9. ver earnestly to desire him from the very Soul in the Night in the Darkest and Blackest of the Affliction to seek him early when it begins to dawn towards a better Condition and in the mean time as 't is in the Text to improve all this severe Discipline as he intends it for the advancing us in the knowledge of Him and of our selves and of our whole Duty For when thy Iudgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness A Text you see that supposeth Judgments in the Earth or upon a Land as its Occasions and so suitable to our sad Condition A Text too that proposeth our Learning as its End and Design and so suitable one would think to our Inclination too The Character and Genius of the Age we live in is Learned The pretence at this day so high and so universal that He is No-Body now who hath not a new Systeme of the World a new Hypothesis in Nature a new Model of Government a new Scheme of God's Decrees and the greatest Depths in Theology We are many of us acute Philosophers that must not be disputed us most of us grand Politics and Statesmen too All of us without exception deep Divines will needs be wiser than our Neighbours but however wiser than our Teachers and Governours if not wiser than God himself A kind of Moral Rickets that swells and puffs up the Head while the whole inner Man of the Heart wasts and dwindles For like the silly Women Disciples to the old Gnostics while we are thus ever Learning pretending to great Heights and Proficiencies we come never to the Knowledge of the Truth the Truth which is according unto Godliness In fine amongst so many Learners they are but few that learn Righteousness And therefore God himself here opens us a School erects a severe Discipline in the Text brings forth his Ferulas when nothing else will serve the Turn For he hath indeed four Schools or rather four distinct Forms and Classes in the same great School of Righteousness the last only that of his Judgments express in the Text but the rest too suppos'd at least or covertly implied For whether we look upon the latter Clause of the proposition The Inhabitants of the World will learn We find our selves there under a double Formality As Learners and as Inhabiters As Learners first and so indued with Faculties of Reason Powers of a Soul capable of Learning what is to be learned stampt and possest with first Principles and common Notions which deeply search'd and duly improv'd and cultivated might teach us Much of Righteousness And this is Schola Cordis in Domo interiori the School of the Heart God's first School in the little World within us Secondly as Inhabitants of the great World which is God's School too as well as his Temple full of Doctrins and Instructions Schola Orbis in which He takes us forth continual Lessons of Righteousness Seque ipsum inculcat offert Ut bene cognosci possit and that both from the Natural World and from the Political whether Schola Regni or Schola Ecclesiae Or if we return to the former Branch of the Text When thy Iudgments are in the Earth This when they are supposeth another time when they Are Not in the Earth and that time is the Time of Love as the Prophet speaks the Season of Mercy So that Thirdly here 's Schola Miseri-cordiarum the School of God's render Mercies inviting us gently leading and drawing us with the Cords of a Man with the Bands of Love And lastly when nothing else will serve here 's Schola Iudiciorum the School of God's severe Judgments driving us to Repentance and compelling us to come in and learn Righteousness A provision you see every way sufficient and abundant for our Learning were not we wanting to our selves But alas