Custome that will ruine it eternally and when he shall bring against us an instance out of Hell here and the kindnesses of one among the Devils shall come in Judgement against us where we see the Rich man thought not of his own condemnation so much he thought of the averting that of his Brethren We might suppose a man in his condition could not consider any thing but his own Tortures O yes to preserve others from them yet when the man in Hell does so the men on Earth do think of nothing more than to entice others into them And is it not a strange Age then when to tempt is the only mode of kindnesse and men do scarcely know how to expresse themselves civil to their Friends but by pressing them to sin and so be sick with them as if this were the gentile use of Societies to season Youth into good Company and bring the Fashionable Vices into their acquaintance And 't is well if they stay there it happens so that Parts and Wit Faculties and Acquisitions do ingratiate men into these treacherous kindnesses and qualifie them for the desires and friendships of such persons as entertain them by softning them into loosnesse and then into prophannesse debauch their manners and then their Principles teach them to sport themselves with Vice and then with Holy things and after with Religion it self which is a greater Luxury than that their Ryots treat their Appetites withall the Luxury of wit And thus they educate them into Atheisme and these familiar Devils are call'd Acquaintances and Friends And indeed the Companions in sin a man would think should be dear friends such as pour an heart into one another in their common Cups shed Souls in their Lusts are friends to one another even into ruine and love to their own Condemnation are kind beyond the Altar-flames even to those everlasting fires such communications certainly cement affections so that nothing can divide them And let them do so but Lord send me the kindnesse of Hell rather one that will be a friend like this man in his Torments that with unsatisfied cares minded the reformation of his Friends Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent which brings me to the Choice the second part If a Ghost should indeed appear to any of us in the midst of our Commissions it would certainly hurry us from our enjoyments and there are no such tyes and unions by which the advantages of sin do hold us fixt and joynted to them but the shake and tremble we should then be in would loosen and dissolve them all and make us uncling from them if we may believe discourses that tell us such a sight is able to startle a man however he be fixt by his most close Devotions for what the Jews were wont to say we shall dye because we have seen an Angel of the Lord from Heaven most men do fear if they should see the Spirit of a dead man from the Earth Indeed the affrights which men do usually conceive at the meer apprehension of such an apparition do probably arise from a surprise in being minded hastily of such a state for which they are not then prepared so as they would wish or hope to be to which they think that is a call for we shall dye said the Jews But not to ask the reason of this now but find the reason why our Rich man thinks when Moses and the Prophets cannot make a man repent such a Ghost should We have it v. 28. they do but discourse to us but one from the dead could testifie he could bear witnesse that it is so as they say speak his own sight and knowledge and therefore though they hear not Moses and the Prophets yet if one went unto them from the dead they will repent For First one from the Dead could testifie that when we dye we do not cease to be and he would make appear that our departing hence is not annihilation and so would dash the hopes of Epicures such as I was and I may fear they are who as they live like Beasts do think to dye so too and who are rational in this alone that they desire to be but Animal And all the rest of men whether worldly or sensual that enclose their desires and enjoyments within this life and above all the Atheist that dares not look beyond it all these would be convinc'd by such an evidence Indeed this would take away the main encouragement of all ungodlinesse which upon little reasonings how thin soever that there 's no life after this does quicken and secure it self Wisd. 2. and therefore every Sect of men that did prescribe Morality did teach an after life nothing was more believ'd among the Heathen Their Tribunal below where three most severe Judges were appointed meant the same thing with our last Assize and their Elizian fields were but Poetical Paradise their Phlegethon River of Fire was set to expresse our stream of Brimstone flame Thus Resurrection in fable made them vertuous the ghesse at it made Socrates dye chearful and though his hopes had faint weak Principles they had Heroick almost Martyr resolutions And on the other side of those that among them deny'd an after life though we are told that Epicurus was a vertuous man yet his Sect did give name to Vice and is still the expression for it and all that did espouse the Tenents of it did the vices too the Sadduces among the Jews are call'd Epicures not onely for opinions sake because they did make God a body and totally denyed his Providence as Zakuth sayes but Epicures also for their practise sake For they used to scoff at the Pharisees for afflicting themselves by Fasting and Austerities in this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when there is nothing at all of recompence for them in any life to come Yea and Josephus sayes of them they were the worst of all Sects living like savage Beasts towards one another and uncourteous to their own Sect us to strangers and this sayes he was but a natural effect of their Opinion which wholly denyed the Immortality of the Soul and all Rewards and Punishments after this Life which Principle one coming from the dead would rectifie and so contribute to Repentance Especially if Secondly that one were Lazarus if he that at the Supper of the Lamb sits next the Father of the faithful and the Friend of God in one of the higher Seats of Paradise in Abraham's Bosom if he would go and speak his knowledge of the Pleasures of that Bosom which he tasts and of the glories of that place and but compare them with the little gayeties of my Fathers House shew them the difference betwixt their Structures and that Foundation whose builder and maker God is betwixt the entertainments of their riotous Palates and the Festivals of the Blessed Trinity then sure they would disrellish those and catch at these
is not enough to punish it all that while it must suffer with the Body but it must have an age of Vengeance besides particularly for it self to plague it for those things it could not execute and punish it for what it did not really enjoy onely because it did allow it self to desire and contrive them and it must be tormented for those unsatisfied desires And though indeed desires where they are violent if they be not allayed by satisfaction are but so much agony yet do they merit and pull on them more these torments shall be plagued and the soul suffer for its very passion even from Death to the last Judgment and 't is but just that being it usurp't upon the pleasures and the sins of Flesh it should also seize on and take possession of the Vengeance appointed for those sins it should invade and should usurp their condemnation But why do I stand pressing aggravations against uncleanness of Heart in an Age when God knows Vice hath not so much modesty or fear to keep within those close and dark restraints Instead of that same Cleannesse which the Text requires we may find Purity indeed of several sorts but 't is either pure Fraud or pure Impiety the one of these does make a strange expression very proper pure Corruption for so it is sincere and without mixture nothing but it self no spots of Clean to chequer it but all stain The other is pure white indeed but it is that of whited Sepulchres a Life as clean as Light a bright pure Conversation but it shines with that light onely which Satan does put on when he transformes himself into an Angell of light and it is but a glory about a fiend But yet this shines however whereas others do stand Candidates of Vice and would be glorious in wickednesse and that is such a splendor as if Satan should dresse himself with the shine of his own flaming Brimstone and make himself a glory with the streamings of his Lake of Fire And yet thus is the world we do not onely see men serve some one peculiar vicious inclination and cherish their own wickednesse but they make every vice their own as if the Root of bitterness branch't out in each sort of Impiety in them such fertile soyls of sin they are here insincerity were to be wisht and where there is not cleanness that there were a Mask that there were the Religion of Hypocrisie We may remember God was good to Israel of old by obligation and performance the one a◠great as he could enter the other great to miracle and astonishment when after seventy years Captivity and Desolation he did rebuild a Temple where there was no monument of its Ruines and raised a Nation and Government of which there was no Reliques And yet at last when the Religion of some turned into Faction of others into Prophanenesse when the strictest Sect of them the Pharises became most holy out wardly to have the better means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mischief those that were not of their party and got a great opinion of Sanctity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as to be believed in whatsoever they did speak against the King or chief Priests and that so far as to be able openly to practice against both and raise commotions They are Josephus words of them and when another Sect the Zelots the most pernicious of all saith Bertram did commit Murders Sacriledge Prophanations and all kind of Villanies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good Intentions saith the same Josephus and when those who did not separate into Sects but were the Church of Israel became lukewarme supine and negligent in their Profession yea and licentious and Prophane fit onely to be joyned with Publicans in Christs expressions when sin grewgenerally Impudent when they did live as if they would be Scandalous as well as vicious as if they lov'd the guilt as much as the delights of sin and cared not to be wicked to themselves but must debauch as if they did enjoy the ruine of other persons sinning just as the Devil does who does not taste the sin but feasts upon the Sinners Condemnation Then did God execute a Vengeance whose prediction was fit to be mistaken for that of the Day of Judgment and whose event almost fulfil'd the terrors of that day I need not draw resemblances shew how Gods goodness to our Israel does equall that to them applying to our selves their Raptures how when the Lord turned the Captivity of our Sion we also were like them that dream surprized with Mercy Indeed as in a Dream Ideas are not alwayes well connected there is no chain or thread of fancies and the thoughts are not joynted regular and even but there are breaches and disorder in them still the Images of sleep being like Nebuchadnezzar's made of such things as do not well unite So there is something I confess like this in our condition for with our gold and silver our precious things that are restored there is Iron and Clay not onely meaner mixtures but such things as will not close or be soder'd but do incline to part asunder and would moulder and tend towards dissolution and just as in a Dream the composure of things is not so undisturb'd but that there is some confusedness neither our affections nor practises do perfectly cement but yet I hope it is no dream of mercy 't is not a Phantasme or an Apparition of Gods kindness but the Lord will be truly good to us Yet if we do proceed as Israel and equal it in provocations But I will make no parallels publique clamors do that too loud these do display the factions of iniquity among us and muster up the several parties of our vices too and each man is as perfect in the guilts of all sides that he is not of as if their memories were the books that shall be opened at the Day of Judgment some men can point you out our Pharisees and Zelots others can shew you our prophane licentious Professors Lay and Clergy both and indeed we need not go far to seek any or all of these nor do we want our Sadduces Now if all this be true then as those were the signs of the Son of Man's coming to them in Judgment so we may fear they are his Harbingers to us If they be I am sure the onely way to make his coming good to us is to prepare for it by cleansing from all filthiness and insincerity then though he come clothed with a Glory of flaming Vengeance yet will those streams of Fire find nothing to consume or wash away in us but through that flame the pure in heart shall see God so as that that sight shall be the Beatick Vision Yea they shall see the Goodnesse of the Lord in the Land of the Living they shall see Jerusalem in prosperity all their life long and Peace here upon Israel and in his light they shall see light
may dye before the Crown fall to him but it is impossible that we should misse of ours except we put our selves by by such choyces except we change it thus And on the other side we know men will adventure the Sentence of the Law by Robberies and murders to provide for lusts while they hope to be undiscovered But sure a Prison made delightful by all arts of pleasure and all plenties of it will not hire a man to own those actions which shall forfeit him to certain shameful Execution the next Sessions and yet this is the sinners state exactly he is ti'd and bound in the chain of his sins they are it may be chains of Gold and softned with delices but they reserve him to the Judgment of the great Assise And yet he chooses these and puts them on as ensigns of delight and honour Once more Do not men choose a present Agonie to keep off an after evill they teare their bowels with a Vomit to prevent a Surfeit they cup and scarifie and with all artifice of pain upon themselves kill a Disease yea they are well content to prolong torment so they may but prolong life and though the preservation of it prove onely continued pangs and all they can effect is onely this that they are longer dying yet they are glad to be so in all cases except where the prescription is virtue and the death prescribed against Eternall Now why do you choose thus onely in Sin and Hell 'T is clear the very pleasure you change Heaven for cannot invite you from this Life and then you that will suffer any thing rather than you will dye Why against all resistance will you dye for ever Is it Secondly because you know not what it is to dye the second Death at least your notions of it are so slight and easie that they cannot fright you from a pleasure or cope with a temptation to it and so though present satisfactions are not able to engage you upon present ruin they can upon the after-death Indeed the Sinner would have reason if it meant no more than hath been taught of late by one that hath gained many Proselytes among the Virtuosi of Religion After the Resurrection the Reprobates shall be saith he in the state that Adam and his Posterity were in after his Sin i. e. the state we are now in Live as we do Marry and give in Marriage and cease to be when they have got some heirs to succeed them in Tophet Poor unhappy Souls these that never had any sin to merit being there nor any Sentence to condemn them thither but this mans Who must put them there succssively one after other to find employment for Everlasting-fire A Doctrine such as had an Angel Preacht from Heaven by S. Paul's award he must have been Anathema when the Devil made Religions and Theology came from the bottomless Pit he never found out such an Engine to conveigh men into it as this pleasant notion of the punishment of sin therein as if Leviathan were made to take his pastime in that Lake also by such interpretations which surely were contrived to make out the Assertion of that Romish Priest who sayes that those in Hell love to be there nay more that 't was impossible for God to do a kinder thing for them than to put them there Doctrines to be abhorr'd as Hell it self and yet upon these grounds he builds their Church by demonstration so strong as that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it and in truth they have no reason to assault it on these terms But to passe by such dolages and frenzies you will be able sure to check all those presumptions which grow from sleight impressions of the second Death if you but take that prospect of it which the close of this time gives look forward through this season which is designed for you to prepare the way of the Lord to his passion in and you shall see the Death that does await iniquity If you behold him coming to Jerusalem with Hosannas and Palmes about him as if Death were his Triumph his Passion so desirable that he rode to meet it which he never did at any other time and then complaining he was straitned untill it were accomplisht as he had throws of Longing after it and singing when he went out to it you would believe the sinner never chose his death sweetned by his most pleasant sin with a more cheerful eagernesse But then open the Garden and you see his apprehensions of it throw him on his Face to pray against it See how he sweats and begs his very Prayer is a Passion the zeal of it is agony and canst thou choose that he so dreads and deprecates and when he durst not meet the apprehensions wilt thou stand the storm see what a sting death hath when it makes outlets for such clots and globes of blood and stings the Soul so too that it pours out it self in Sweat And then he sinks again under the deprecation of it and prayes that that Cup may passe from him Blessed Saviour when thou hadst just now made thy Death thy Legacy thy Sacrament dost thou intreat to scape this death if this Cup passe from thee what will the Cup of Blessing profit us thou hadst but now bequeathed a Cup to us which was the New Testament in thy Blood and now wilt thou not shed that Blood But dost thou refuse thy Cup Oh 't was a Cup of deadly Wine red with Gods Indignation poyson'd with Sin And can the sinner thirst for the Abysse of this the Lake that hath no bottom and when he goes again and prayes the same words the third time be yet not only so supine as not ask to scape it seldom and very sleight in any prayer or wish against it but also so resolv'd to have it as to gape that he may swill it down to everlastingness Follow him from that Garden and you see him even dying under his Cross he cannot bear that when it is laden with sin who yet upholdeth all things by the word of his power 'T is said the time will come when the sinner will cry out to the Hills to fall on him any weight but that of iniquity the burden of that is intollerable 't is easier for him to bear a mountain than a vice and yet Christ saith he hath a beam in his Eye and can he shrink at any weight whose part that is most sensible tender to an expression can bear that which shoulders must fall under onely Pillars can sustain Oh yes that which did sink the shoulders of Omnipotence Then the Mountains rather and the Rocks to cover but in vain they will not cover for thy very Groans will rent them Christs were so sad that his did they tore the Rocks and that which is much more inflexible the Monuments Death started at them and the bonds of the Grave loosened and the Dust was
else to do and because while the world accounts it a Pedantick thing to be brought up by Rules and under discipline he cannbe learn how to imploy himself to his advantage to passe by these I say the universal strength against this Enemy is Faith Tour adversary the Devil like a roaring Lion goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast 〈◊〉 the Faith And that not onely as it frustrates all that the attempts by means of Infidelity but it also quenchis all his fiery darts whatsoever bright Temptation he presents to draw us from our Duty or whatever fiery trial he makes use of to affright and martyr with For the man whose Faith does give him evidence and eye-sight of those blessed Promises eye hath not seen and gives substance present solid being to his after-hopes and whose heart hath swallowed down those happy expectations which have never entred in the heart of man to comprehend what is there that can tempt or fright him from his station To make all that which Satan gave the prospect of prevail on such a Soul the Kingdoms of the Earth must out-vie Gods Kingdom and their Gauds out shine his Glory and the twinkling of an eye seem longer than Eternity For nothing lesse than these will serve his turn all these are in his expectations Or what can fright the man whose heart is set above the sphere of terrours who knows calamity how great soever can inflict but a more sudden and more glorious blessednesse upon him and the most despiteful cruel usage can but persecute him into Heaven 'T is easie to demonstrate that a Faith and Expectation of the things on Earth built upon weaker grounds than any man may have for his belief of things above hath charg'd much greater hazards overcome more difficulties than the Devil does assault us with For sure none is so Sceptical but he will grant that we have firmer grounds to think there is another World in Heaven than Columbus if he were the first Discoverer had to think there was another Earth and that there are for richer hopes laid up there in that other World for those that do deny themselves the sinful profies and the jollities of this and force them from their inclinations than those Sea-men could expect who first adventur'd with him thither For they could not think to gain much for themselves but onely to take seisin of the Land if any such there were for others covetous Cruelty could get little else but onely richer Graves and to lie buried in their yellow Earth Nor are we assaulted in our voyage with such hazards as they knew they must encounter with the path of Vertue and the way to Heaven is not so beset with difficulties as theirs was when they must cut it out themselves through an unknown new World of Ocean where they could see nothing else but swelling gaping Death from an Abysse of which they were but weakly guarded and removed few inches onely And as if the dangerousest shipwrecks were on shore they found a Land more savage and more monstrous than that Sea Yet all this they vanquisht for such slender hopes and upon so uncertain a belief A weak Faith therefore can do mighty works greater than any that we stand in need of to encounter with our Enemy It can remove these mountains too the golden ones that Covetousnesse and Ambition do east ùp Yea more it can remove the Devil also for if you resist him stedfast in the Faith he flies which is the happy issue and my last part Resist the Devil and he will Flie from you And yet it cannot be denyed but that sometimes when the messenger of Satan comes to buffet though S. Paul resist him with the strength of Prayer which when Moses managed he was able to prevail on God himself and the Lord articled with him that he might be let alone yet he could not beat off this assailant 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. When God either for prevention as 't was there v. 7. or for exercising or illustrating of Graces or some other of his blessed ends gives a man up to the affaults of Satan he is often pleased to continue the temptation long but in that case he does never fail to send assistances and aids enough against it My grace is sufficient for thee saith he to S. Paul there And when he will have us tempted for his uses if we be not failing to our selves he does prevent our being overcome so that there is no danger in those Trials from their stay But yet it must not be denyed but that the Devil does prevail sometimes by importunacy and by continuance of Temptation so that Resistance is not alwayes a Repulse at least not such an one as to make him draw off and flie It is not strange to find him fiding with a natural Inclination with the bent of Constitution still presenting Objects laying Opportunities throwing in Examples and all sorts of Invitation alwayes pressing so that when a man hath strugled long he does grow weary of the service not enduring to be thus upon his guard perpetually watching a weak heart which strong inclinations busie Devils do lay fiege to and so growing slack and carelesse he is presently surprised Or else despairing that he shall be alwayes able to hold out lays hold upon a tempting opportunity and yields by the most unreasonable and basest cowardise that can be yields for fear of yielding lest he should not hold out he will not but gives up and puts himself into that very Mischief which he would avoid meerly for fear of coming into it For which fear there is no reason neither For 't is not here as in our other Sieges where if it be close continuance most reduce men to necessity of yielding Strengths and Amunitions will decay Provisions fail and if the Enemy cannot their own Hunger will break through their Walls and make avenues for Conquest time alone will take them but in these Spiritual Sieges one Repulse inables for another and the more we have resisted the Temptation is not onely so much flatter and more weak and baffled but the inward Man is stronger Victory does give new forces and is sure to get in fresh and still sufficient supplies For God giveth more grace saith S. James And they shall have abundance saith our Saviour So that where the Devil after several repulses still comes on with fresh assaults we may be sure he does discern there is some treacherous inclination that sides with him And although the man refuse himself the satisfaction of the sin the Devil sees he hath a mind to it his refusals are but faint not hearty though he seem afraid to come within the quarters of the Vice he keeps it may be correspondence with the incentives to it entertains the opportunities plays with the objects or at best he does not fortifie against him Now this gives the Tempter hopes and invites his
faith why didst thou doubt couldst thou imagine I vvould not sustein thee in the doing vvhat I bid thee do In answering my call But vvhy seek we experience of so old a date There is a more encouraging miracle in these late calls themselves Had God sustein'd the Order in its Offices and dignities amidst those vvaves that vvrack'd the Church of late it had been prodigy of undeserved Compassion to our Nation but vvhenas all was sunk to bid the sea give up what it had so allowed and consumed this is more than to catch a sinking Peter or to save a falling Church The vvork of Resurrection is emphatically call'd the working of God's mighty power and does out-sound that of his ordinary conservation And truly 't was almost as easie to imagination how the scattered Atomes of mens dust should order themselves and reunite and close into one flesh as that the parcels of our Discipline and Service that were lost in such a vvild confusion and the Offices buried in the rubbish of the demolisht Churches should rise again in so much order and beauty Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deum This calling of the Spirit is like that when the Spirit moved upon the face of the abyss and call'd all things out of their no-seeds there or like the call of the last Trump Thus by the miraculous mercies of these calls God hath provided for our hopes and warranted our faith of his protections yet he hath also sent us more security hath given us a Constantine if his own be not a greater Name and more deserving of the Church for which it is well known to some he did contrive and order when he could neither plot nor hope for his own Kingdome and did vvith passion labour a succession in your Order vvhen he did not know how to lay designes for the succession of himself or any of his Fathers house to his own Crown and dignity Nor is the secular arme all your security God himself hath set yet more guards about his consecrated ones he hath severe things for the violaters of them Moses the meekest man upon the Earth that in his life vvas never angry but once at the rebellious seems very passionate in calling Vengeance on those that stir against these holy Offices Smite through the loines of all that rise against them and of them that hate them that they rise not again the loines vve know are the nest of posterity so that strike through the loines is stab the succession destroy at once all the posterity of them that vvould cut off this Tribe and hinder its succession Nor vvas this Legal Spirit Gospel is as severe Those in Saint Judge that despise these Governours that do as Corah and his Complices did vvho gathered themselves against Moses and Aaron and said You take too much upon you ye sons of Levi since all the Congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord vvords these that vve are vvell acquainted with and vvhich it seems St. Iude looks on as sins under the Gospel these perish in the gainsaying of Core vvhom God vvould not prepare for punishment by death but he and his accomplices went quick into it He would not let them stay to dy but the Lord made a new thing to shew his detestation of this sin and the Earth swallow'd it in the Commission and all that were alli'd and appertain'd to them that had an hand in it And truely they may well expect strange recompences who do attempt so strange a Sacriledge as to pull stars out of Christ's own right hand from vvhence vve have his vvord that no man shall be able to pluck any but if they shine thence on their Orbs below and convert many to righteousness their light shall blaze out into glory and they shall ever dwell at his right hand To vvhich right hand He that brought again from the dead the Lord Iesus that great Shepheard and Bishop of the sheep and set him there He also bring you our Pastors and us your flock vvith you and set us vvith his sheep on his right hand To vvhom vvith the same Iesus and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all blessing honour glory and power from henceforth for ever Amen FINIS A SERMON PREACHED AT HAMPTON-COURT On the 29th of May 1662. Being the Anniversary of His Sacred Majesties Most happy Return BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. and Chaplain to His MAjESTY LONDON Printed by Thomas Roycroft for Iames Allestry at the Rose and Crown in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1669. TO The Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of Clarendon Lord high Chancellour of England and Chancellour of the University of Oxford My LORD TO vouch your Lordships commands for the publishing this Discourse I might reasonably think would be to libel your judgment and the prefixing your Name to it and this mean address would look rather like revenge than homage or obedience if I did not know that low performances are due to the transcendency of such a subject as I then discours'd upon and such a Patron as I now dedicate to So I lie prostrate under my great Arguments here insufficiency is Art and Rhetorick And the truth is my Lord it was not this which made me so sollicitous to avoid your injunctions but apprehensions of the unusefulness of the Discourse itself When God's most signal methods of all sorts do not seem to have wrought much conviction vvhen neither our own dismal guilts nor miseries nor most express miracles of deliverance have made us sensible but after the equally stupendous 3 Oth of January and 29th of May and the black time that interven'd we are still the same perverse untractable people vvhen luxury is the retribution made for plenty license for liberty and Atheism for Religion vvhil'st miracles of mercy are acknowledged only by prodigies of ingrateful disobedience and on the other side vvhen factious humours swell against all Laws as they vvould either over-flow those mounds or make them yield and give way to them vvhen Declarations and Decrees which were infallible when they came only from a party of a part of a Parliament are neither of force nor esteem when they have all solemnity and obligation that just and full authority can give alas what hopes of doing any thing can a weak Harangue entertain But my Lord since you are pleas'd to command I give up both it and my understanding to your Lordship and the weaker the Discourse is so much the more pregnant testimony is it of the obsequiousness of My Lord Your Lordships most devoted and most humble Servant RICH. ALLESTRY SERMON XVII AT HAMPTON-COURT May 29. 1662. HOSEA III. 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness HE had said in the vvords before that the children