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A61862
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A sermon preached at the assizes at Hertford, Jvly viii, 1689 by John Strype ...
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Strype, John, 1643-1737.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing S6025; ESTC R685
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13,242
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36
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A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES AT HERTFORD IVLY viii 1689. By IOHN STRYPE M. A. Vicar of Low-Leyton in Essex IMPRIMATUR Iulii 22. 1689. C. ALSTON LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX To the Right Worshipful Richard Hutchinson Esq HIGH-SHERIFF of the County of HERTFORD SIR I Acknowledge it a Satisfaction to me that this plain SERMON preached at the late Assizes found such a general good Acceptation both from the Iudges and Gentry insomuch that many of them put you upon obliging me to make it publick But it added much to the satisfaction that the subject matter of the Discourse was so well approved by so great a Body of Honour and Quality as then appeared Nor does it a little tend to the Reputation of that County that the Magistrates and Gentry thereof allow so well of Discourses of this nature shewing hereby their True Affection to the Protestant Religion and to Christian Peace and Love and how sensible they are of the singular Mercies and Deliverances vouchsafed by God to this Nation both in former times and of late especially Sir You have the honour to be reserved for the First Sheriff of Hertford-shire under the Auspicious Reign of KING WILLIAM and QUEEN MARY And it was your Happiness as well as your Honour that you were laid aside from serving that Office the last Year after you were pricked and published in the Gazette in the List of the High Sheriffs as being judged no doubt too good an English man and too true a Protestant to serue the Turn that was then driving on I have you see in compliance with your desire exposed what I preached to publick view praying God it may be of some benefit to you and all others that shall take the pains to read it for the promoting of Christian Wisdom and Sobriety and then I have my end I am SIR Your very much obliged humble Servant IOHN STRYPE A SERMON Preached at the Assizes at Hertford IVLY viii 1689. I SAM XII vii Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous Acts of the Lord which he did to you and to your Fathers I Come not here to instruct Judges not to teach Magistrates their Duty As this would not become me to do so neither I presume do they need it whose great Wisdom And Gravity is able to direct them in the Businesses that lie before them Their Office indeed is as Weighty as 't is Honourable to distribute Justice to see good Laws well executed to right oppressed Innocence to bring Wickedness to Shame in a Word to maintain the Kings Peace and the Churches Peace a Great and Divine Employment But where there be Principles of Loyalty and a Love of Iustice planted in the mind accompanied with Piety to God and a grave Iudgment and many Years Experience these are far better Monitors than the best Preachers can be And I am persuaded I have Men enriched with such Endowments to be my Auditors at this Time. That I may not therefore seem to misdoubt your Integrities or Abilities Right Honourable and Right Worshipful nor expose my self to the Censure of too much Assurance and Presumption and yet that I may speak in some proportion to this present occasion I have chosen these Words which are part of the Charge of a great Judg in Israel of whom the Scripture gives this Character That he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizâ—â—h and judged Israel in all those places And so you see the Words may be suitable in respect of the Person that spake them And they were delivered at a very great and solemn Convention of People as yours now is and so they are suitable in regard of the Auditory that heard them And the Matter of them being a serious Exhortation to reflect upon God's Goodness and their own Ingratitude can neither now not at any time else be unsuitable for Ministers to preach nor Christians to hear Here then we have Samuel the Judge beginning his Charge Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous Acts of the Lord which he did to you and to your fathers The Word which we translate Let me reason with you is a Law Term among the Hebrews signifies To plead and contend in Iudgment for some wrong done And is as much as if the should have said Let me plead on God's side against you A good Judg is alwaies an Advocate on God's behalf and zealous in his Cause Israel had wronged God dealt unjustly with him How so By sinning against him For every Sin is an Injury done to God. Samuel now stands and takes God's Part against them by shewing them how gracious God had been to them and how well he had deserved at their Hands by his Mercies and Favours expressed towards them for so the Word which we render Righteous Acts often signifies And by shewing them withal how illy they had requited the Lord disobeyed his Commandments and rebelled against their Heavenly King. And that his Expostulation with them from the Topic of God's Goodness might make the deeper impression upon them he descends in the following Verses to enumerate the Righteous Acts of God towards them When Iacob was come into Egypt and your Fathers cried unto the Lord then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron which brought forth your Fathers out of Egypt So that their Escape out of Egypt was one of these Righteous or Merciful Acts of God to them And then it follows And made them dwell in this place This place that is The Land of Canaan where they now were That was another of these eminent Favours or Righteous Acts of the Lord. And when they forgat the Lord be sold them into the hand of Sisera Captain of the Host of Hazor and into the hand of the Philistins and into the hand of the King of Moab and they fought against them And they cried unto the Lord c. And the Lord sent Ierubbeal and Bedan and Iephtbah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your Enemies on every side and ye dwelled safe They had Enemies it seems round about them that plotted and combined to destroy them but GOD alwaies interposed for their safety This is a Third Mercy of GOD vouchsafed them And upon these three signal Manifestations of GOD's Goodness to them the Prophet Samuel grounds his reasoning with them For indeed they were Favours of that nature that the Iews could not think of them but they must needs have been touched with a quick sense of the Distinguishing Love of GOD to them and under what mighty Obligations they were to Him as namely to review them again I. That GOD had brought them away from Egypt where they were a poor miserable oppressed People under intolerable Slavery crouching to an insulting proud Tyrant who laid
unconscionable Tasks and Burthens of hard Labour upon them Their Task-masters saith the Scripture made their Lives bitter with hard bondage in Mortar and in Brickâ— and in all manner of service in the Field All their service wherein they made them to serve was with rigor Insomuch that it is said They sighed and groaned by reason of their bondage From all this Severity and Anguish did their gracious GOD in due time give them an eminent and famous Freedom II. Another of God's Righteous Acts towards them was the planting them in the Land of Canaan where they were not only free from the former Servitude but lived plentifully and prosperously A Land therefore it is described to be flowing with Milk and Honey fruitful and yielding all things for their service use and delight And here they lived under their own Laws in a wise and well constituted Government having the true standing divine Service of God settled among them Oh what a blessed Change was this to them to exchange Egypt for Canaan the unmerciful Impositions of a Tyrannical Prince for the sweet and good Laws of their Gracious and Heavenly King. III. The third Favour of God to Israel that Samuel here mentions is not so much one single Mercy as a Constellation of them namely Their many Deliverances after their settlement in Canaan from their Enemies round about them that envied their Peace that were jealous of their Happiness and that laboured and contrived and combined together either to reduce them to their old Slavery again or totally to ruine and root them out But as often as they rose up against them so often did their good God appear on their behalf and by strange and miraculous means sheltered this people from their Malice and continued their Church and preserved their State in spight of all attempts to the contrary And these are the Righteous Acts of the Lord upon which this holy and good man is going to reason with them This is the Foundation upon which he builds the strength of his ensuing Discourse That considering these great Vouchsafements of God how obliged they were to fear him and cleave unto him with their whole Hearts And Of what an high nature would their Transgressions be after all this kindness and What shame what sorrow what repentance would suffice to ballance their ingratitude And this is the method of Samuel's arguing with the Iews from the Mercies of God to them and no doubt it made a very notable impression upon their Hearts An excellent Platform and Direction this is for us to follow in our Exhortations and when we call upon Men to consider their waies and to amend them We cannot take a better course more probable to have a good effect than this which the Prophet Samuel here useth that is To set before Men the gracious dealings of God to them and their Fathers what Comforts and Refreshments he hath bestowed on them what Deliverances and Salvations he hath wrought for them what visible and remarkable Tokens and Footsteps of his Grace and Goodness they have seen and felt and then hereupon to argue and expostulate with them And seeing my Christian Brethren we of this Nation with the Iews have received great and eminent Mercies at the hand of God and with the Iews also our carriage and behaviour towards him hath been no waies correspondent I shall therefore at this time follow the same course and method that Samuel here does and for this purpose give me leave in the first place to bespeak you in Samuel's very words Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord which he did to YOU and YOUR Fathers And here I shall set before you the Mercies of God to you and your Fathers and then reason with you in the presence of the Lord concerning them I. Let me recollect the Righteous Acts or the Mercies of the Lord. As for private and personal Mercies I shall not at all insist upon them but limit my Discourse only to those that are publick and national such as have happened to us as a Nation for such are the Righteous Acts meant in the Text. And here let us reflect a little upon what God hath done for us of this Nation And upon search and examination we shall soon find That his Goodness hath been marvellous and abundant towards us Certainly whatsoever great things other Kingdoms may boast of as received from the hand of God we of this Kingdom have had our share And truly I think if a man should go all the World over and take an account of every People and Language this Island of our Nativity would be found to be the Happiest And tho' doubtless all others have reason to be sensible of the Goodness of God to them in many respects yet we of this Nation have far greater reason We have swam in a greater Sea of Mercies and our Cup hath more overflowed God hath given more notable and famous marks of his Favour to us English-men It will be convenient to mention some of them because particulars do more affect and as Samuel in this Chapter insisted chiefly upon three sorts of Mercies vouchsafed to Israel so by way of Parallel I will at this time reduce the Mercies of God to our Nation under three Heads I. The Deliverance of our Force-fathers from the Spiritual Egypt viz. The Bondage of Popery II. The placing us in a good Land a second Land of Canaan III. The Protections that God hath given us from our Enemies round about us that combined together against us like the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the rest of the seven Nations against Israel I. I begin with the Deliverance of our Forefathers from the Tyranny of Rome and the bondage of the Popish Religion A Yoke which our Fathers both Kings and People many a year had grievously laboured under when a foreign Bishop had usurped Authority over our Estates and Liberties our Souls and Consciences in that sort as tho' we had all been made only to serve the ends of his Ambition and Covetousness and which was saddest of all our immortal Souls were in imminent hazard by reason of the wretched Ignorance Superstition and false Worship Men were then nursell'd up in But the good GOD in due time looked down upon us pittied our Bondage and brought us up out of this Egypt moving and emboldening the Hearts of our Governours to vindicate themselves from the Usurpations of Rome and to dismiss Superstition and Idolatry from among us and to set on foot a blessed Reformation from those notorious Abuses and Corruptions in which our poor Church had been so long wrapt up before The Scriptures that shew unto us the Way of Salvation lockt up before were now opened Our Prayers that were hidden in an unknown Tongue before made intelligible Worshipping of Saints and making Addresses to Wood and Stone abrogated The Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper