Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A60350
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The protectors protection, or, The pious prince guarded by a praying people a sermon preached at St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk, upon the 13 Octob. 1658, being a day set apart for solemn fasting and humiliation and seeking a blessing upon His Highness the Lord Protector / by Sam. Slater ...
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Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing S3968; ESTC R22448
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38,832
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77
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are of a sweet smelling savour so be it they are offered up with pure hearts and clean hands You need not fear that God will cast these petitions out of doors no no you shall be very welcome when you come upon such errands Christ our Savior is so far from opposing civil Government and earthly Princes as that your praying for them is exceeding acceptable unto him It is our duty to pray for our Rulers and such as are in Authority over us We have a proverb among us Honest men will pay their debts this is no less and though we pray for them fervently with all our hearts and our desires of their good is the common cry of all within us though we pray for them continually and in every one of our approaches to God yet we must say It was no more then our duty This is no matter of choice not left to our selves whether we will do it or no if we neglect it they may put in their Bill against us in Gods Court and recover damages Prayer is a debt which we owe unto our Governors upon a three-fold account First we owe it unto them as they are men The Apostle here would have prayers made for all men for men of all Nations Jews and Greeks Barbarians Scythians men of all sorts whether they be high or low rich or poor honorable or base good or bad yet as they are men pray for them For all men even your enemies that hate you and persecute you and speak all maner of evil of you and do all maner of mischief to you For this we before gave you Christs precept and pattern let me shew you how others of the Saints being acted by the same spirit have done the same thing Moses stood up in the gap for those that shewed little love to him The children of Israel murmured against him and Aaron Numb. 14.2 yet he prays for them verse 19. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this peoâ—le according unto the greatness of thy mercy Miriam and Aaron speak against him Num. 12.1 yet if she be leprous he will desire God to work a cure verse 13. He cryed unto the Lord saying Heal her now O God I beseech thee The ungrateful Israelites reject Samuel were weary of his Government chose them another Head yet he will wish them well still if he may not exercise the power of a Prince he will not fail in doing the office of a Priest if he may not give Laws to them he will put up Prayers for them and give wholesom instructions to them he will be their Counceller if not their Commander 1 Sam. 12.23 God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way Though Davids enemies rejoyced in his adversity yet when the wheel was turned when Providence favored him and frowned upon them he was so far from trampling upon them down as that he could run to God for them so far from rejoycing in as that he had tears to shed over their calamities 35 Psal. 13 14. As for me when they were sick my clothing was sack cloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother Stephen was earnest with God for his persecutors Lord lay not this sin to their charge Thus we should pray for al men though wicked though haters of God though enemies to us yet they are men Men who were made for the enjoyment of and communion with God and if they be strangers to it the more to be pitied and prayed for Men whose hearts are in the hand of the Lord so that he can turn them as the rivers of water Men who may for ought we know belong to the election of grace and so in due time be effectually and savingly wrought upon For God hath his number among the worst and Divine Grace loves to shew it self omnipotent in conquering the greatest proudest and most stubborn enemies Thus pray for all men Princes are but men and therefore pray for them Secondly We owe it unto them as they are Magistrates Men in place of Power and Authority there is not the meanest servant in a family not the Groom in the Stable the Scullion in the Kitchin but he should be cared for provided with necessaries when well and lookt after when sick but all in the house one and other should contribute towards the good and advantage comfort and contentment of him who is the Master thereof If he be ill the whole family suffers and is out of order and therefore they do all desire his recovery and are willing to run and go thinking no pains too much for him And so it is in the natural body there is not the meanest member but it shares in the care of the other members if one member suffer saith the Apostle all the members suffer with it but they will all much more joyn together and unite their forces and act for the good and welfare of the Head So it is in a nation the Body Politick the meanest and lowest persons in it should be prayed for and their good should be studied and promoted you do or at least should look after the poor in your parishes who live upon alms whose miseries are not felt by others whose death would be no loss to others when they being sick and weak put up their Bills in our Assemblies and beg our prayers it is our duty to remember them and to set in with God for them and spread their conditions distempers and wants before the Lord how much more then ought this to be done for him who is the Head of this Body from whom the whole hath guidance direction Thirdly we owe it to them as our Benefactors whom God is graciously pleased to make instrumental for our good and advantage they are the golden pipes through which precious and comfortable mercies are conveyed to us I know this age affords those among us who will not subscribe unto me herein but overlook the mercies which they receive because they do not like the hand by which they are sent A discontented spirit possesseth the mindes of too too many which either blindes their eyes so that they will not see the blessings which they enjoy or hardens their hearts so as not to own and be thankful for what they see Very few are truly affected with Gods goodness or truly thankful for National mercies Certainly there is never a gracious and considerate person in England but will readily acknowledge that many things are out of order and for this they groan and wish it otherwise For the divisions among Brethren for the errors heresies and blasphemies that abound among us for the want of an established Government in the Church according to the minde of Christ and for other things good
THE PROTECTORS PROTECTION OR The Pious PRINCE guarded by a Praying People A SERMON Preached at St EDMUNDS BURY in Suffolk Upon the 13 Octob. 1658. Being a Day set apart for Solemn Fasting and Humiliation and seeking a Blessing upon His Highness THE LORD PROTECTOR By SAM. SLATER M. A. Preacher of the Word there Suspicientes in coelum Christiani manibus expansis quia in â—ocuis capite nudâ— quia non erubescimus denique sine monitore quia de pectore oramus precati sumus semper pro omnibuâ— Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam Imperium securum domum tutam exerciâ—us fortes Senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque Hominis Caesaris vota sunt Tertul. Apol. London Printed by T. I. for Wil. Fisher and are to be sold at his Shop at the Postern-gate near Tower-hill 1659. To the Worshipful THE JUSTICES of PEACE AND Other Inhabitants in St. Edmunds Bury who are Friends to the Churches Purity and Peace Worshipful and Beloved THe days into which Providence hath cast us are evâ—l because they are days of trouble dark and cloudy but especially because in them iniquity abounds and the loâ—â— of many is grown cold He that considers the mâ—â—strous Atheism and Profaneness of the Age the â—â—ghting of Ordinances Opposition to Truth 〈◊〉 of Ministers notwithstanding the purity of the first the clearness of the second the faithfâ—lness and iâ—dustry of the third must say We are faâ—â— into the drâ—gs of Time England may well 〈…〉 Gods goodness to her in her manifold Deâ—â—â—erances miraculous Preservation outward Peace and Plenty and Gospel-enjoyments God hath not dealt so with all Nations as with her nor with her at all times as now but she hath cause to be ashamed of and blush at the ingratitude wantonness fruitlesness and bad returns of her children Not long since Providence frowned upon us and seemed to threaten the laying of our Vineyard waste by taking away the principle Stake in its Hedge had the Foxes and wilde Boars then broken in and devoured it had been just But in rich mercy the Lord hath again made up the gap and raised up another to stand in the breach What duty you and all owe unto him the following Discourse tells you which was calculated for no â—ther Meridian than yours prepared onely for your Table intended onely for your Direction and Instruction The truth is I judge not my self sufficiently accomplished to walk abroad if my plain dress will please you my Friends and Neighbors at home it is as much as I can promise my self and I can say to Gods glory and your deserved commendation that hitherto you have given very friendly entertainment to my poor labors having learned to rellish plain Truth and to make muâ—h of the simplicity of the Gospel though it be not adorned and guarnish't with the gaudy and flanting words of mans wisdom Indeed your Town is not exempted from the common condition of all great places there are divisions among you under which let you and me groan We have many enemies to the Churches purity and we have some that are but small friends to the Churches peace some that would defile her with their sinful mixtures others that scratch her face and fetch blood with their causeless separations But blessed be God that you have learned to follow peace and holiness and to judge that these two are not inconsistent As for those who are godly but differ from you herein of what perswasion soever they be I shall pray for them long after them and wish that they were like-minded with you and shall wait till God shall reveal this unto them But since there are Divisions among us it would be a wonder if I should not meet with some opposition or not taste of that bitter cup which my Reverend Fathers and Brethren have haâ— so large draughts of nay which my dearest Lord and Master drank deeper of than any though he spake as never man spake I thought the ensuing Sermon had been so harmless and inoffensive as that it might have past without a censure It was not my design neither when I studied nor when I preached it to exasperate the spirits of any my intention was to kindle praying affections in all not to inflame the choler of any one and I hope those that peruse it will think it hath a Dove-like innocency and brings in its mouth an Olive-branch of peace But he that doth not like the Cook will finde some fault with the Provision if the Minister be not acceptable his Sermons will be unsavory I will not say that for this Sermon I have been called A Soweâ— of Sedition but because I there in spake against a lawless Liberty calling it as it is An accursed Toleration I have sate very heavy upoâ— the spirits of some But if this is to be vile I will God enabling me be yet more vile Not that I would call for fire from Heaven upon every one that is of a perswasion different from mine neither is my charity so strait-laced as to have a bosom open to none but those that jump in judgement with me I know Christ prayed that his people might be one as the Father and he are one and that prayer shall be answered because God heard him always but I am apt to think that a compleat oneness and perfect harmony will not be the happiness of the way but of the Countrey I verily believe there shall be a sweeter close among Christians here and that there shall be fewer differences than now if any at all and happy are they that live to see it in the mean while I condemn not every one that varieth from me nor dare I say all are out of the way that do not exactly tread in my steps Questionless we must bear one with another allowance ought to be given in matters controverted und of less moment But what then because flowers of several colours and different sizes ought to be continued and lookt to must weeds be suffered in the Garden Because we may without breach of charity differ about Circumstantials shall there be no hedge set about the Fundamentals Christians can you think it is pleasing to God that the Holy Trinity should be spoken against your Blessed Savior degraded your Publique Assemblies forsaken your Ministers made Antichristian I beseech you consult the Word and your own Consciences and then tell me whether that would not be an accursed Toleration which should suffer these and such like things What would become of Religion if that should be granted Surely the weeds if let alone will in time choak the Corn They need not be watered it is enough for them if they be let alone If I desire they may be rooted out I hope I am no enemy to Church and State neither to God nor Caesar and yet for so doing I am maligned and have been evil spoken of once and again So that being necessitated to vindicate my self and hoping