a name inferiour to beasts for so it makes a man for the time Austin saith that in his days drunkennesse was growne to that heigth as that there was no remedy against it but by calling of a Synod And in our dayes it is growne to that Gyant-like bignesse as that there is no hope of redresse but in the Parliament Woe to this Land because of this sinne this is that which will make us unable to stand before our enemies and to stagger like a drunken man For this sin God gives a Land over to the spirit of giddinesse Let us weepe for the blasphemous swearing that is in the Nation wherein if in any thing there is a pride taken in offending God for other benefit of it I know none For this sinne the land mourneth and let us mourne Weepe for the adultery and fornication which as an Epidemicall disease hath overspread the Nation Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge If man will not God will He that divorceth himselfe from his wife and joyns himselfe to a harlot God will divorce himself from such a man and divorce his mercies and blessings from him VVeepe for the covetousnes of the Nation This sinne is the root of all evill and for this sinne God will root out a Nation He that is swallowed up with earth as Corah and his company his eares stopped with earth his heart stuffed with earth God will give him earth enough when he dyes and they that love earth so immoderately are likely to have little enough of Heaven Weepe for the oppression Extortion Bribery Lying Griping Usury Cousenage and Deceit in trading These sinnes will cause a fourth Ocean to encompasse this Island and that is an Ocean of misery Let us shed teares for the innocent blood that is shed in the Land for the divellish pride that is amongst us Pride of heart pride of apparell in following the fashions of every Nation almost How justly may wee expect that God should make us slaves to that Nation whose fashions we so eagerly follow Mourne for the great prophanation of our Christian Sabbath-day how can we expect that God should give us rest in this Land if we will not give him a Sabbath a day of rest Oh let our eyes gush downe with rivers of teares Oh that our heads were fountaines of teares for the Idolatry that Land-devouring sinne of Idolatry for the superstition the Apostasie the contempt of the Gospel and of the Ministers and Ministery of it that raignes amongst us It is time for God to deprive us of Manna when we begin to be weary of it the time may come we may have Sermons few enough that neglect them so much as some doe The Confessors that fled for their Religion in Queene Maries daies acknowledged as Vrsinus relates that that great inundation of misery came justly upon them for the neglect of and unprofitablenesse under the Gospel which they had enjoyed in King Edwards dayes And if they were so severely punished for a few yeares contempt of the Gospel what a superlative degree of punishment doe we deserve that have had the Gospel of Peace and the peace of the Gospel for almost an hundred yeares and yet are so unlike the Gospel in our conversations The time would faile if I should make a catalogue of our Nationall sinnes Oh let us be one of the mourners in Sion for the abhominations of the Land that so we may be mark't out for safety And let us take this rule to perswade us Those sinnes which we know others to commit and yet mourne not for them these sins become our owne sins And therfore we may well pray with Austine Lord deliver me from other mens sinnes which for want of mourning and grieving for I have made mine owne A third bucket to draw the water of teares withall is the consideration of the great breaches that are in Church and State We are divided in minutula frustula as Austine of the Donatists Let these breaches break our hearts Let these rents rend our hard hearts For the division of England let us have great thoughts of heart A fourth helpe to humiliation is the consideration of the miseries that are like to come upon us as the woefull consequent of these breaches As our Saviour Christ when hee came neere Ierusalem and beheld the sinne of it and the desolation that was impendent over it he wept saying Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes c. So let us contemplate the sins of England and the destruction which wee may justly expect as the fruite of our sinnes and let us weepe over England and say Oh England England that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace It is reported of Xerxes that having prepared 300000. men to fight with the Graecians and beholding so great a multitude of Souldiers hee fell a weeping out of the consideration that not one of them should remaine alive within the space of an hundred years Much more ought we to mourn when we consider the abundance of people that are in England and the abundance of sin perpetrated among us and what shall become not onely of our bodies within these few years but what shall become of our souls to all eternity A fifth Bucket is the contemplation of Germany which is now become a Golgotha a place of dead mens sculs and an Aceldama a field of bloud Some Nations are chastised with the sword Others with famine Others with the man-destroying Plague But poore Germany hath been sorely whipped with all these three iron whips at the same time and that for above twenty yeares space Oh let us make use of this Bucket and draw out water and poure it out before the Lord this day let us send up our cries to Heaven for Germany It is a signe that we are not true members of the body of Christ because we have no more fellow-feeling of the miseries of the same body A dead member hath no sense of its own misery or of the bodies distemper If wee be living members we will simpathize with the calamities of Gods people A sixth helpe to Humiliation is the consideration of the bleeding condition of Ireland I need not relate you have great reason to know it better than my selfe the inhumane barbarous Canniballisticall and super-superlative out-rages butcheries and massacres that are there committed by those bloudy Rebels Oh let us send up one teare this day as an Orator to the Throne of Grace to plead for mercy for poore Ireland This is one chiefe cause of this generall Fast to pray and weep for Ireland Help it Right Honourable Oh helpe it vvith your Prayers and Tears Tears have voices as vvell as words
ENGLANDS Looking-Glasse PRESENTED IN A Sermon Preached before the Honorable House of COMMONS At their late solemne FAST December 22. 1641. By Edmund Calamy B.D. And Preacher at Aldermanbury LONDON EZEK. 18.31 Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new Spirit Why will yee die O house of Israel Published by Order of the House LONDON Printed by I. Raworth for Chr. Meredith and are to be sold at the Crane in Pauls Churchyard 1642. To the Honourable House of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT OBedience is a virtue of such great worth that Luther did rather desire to have grace to be obedient than power to work miracles Out of this very Principle it was that I first adventured to preach before such a grave and judicious Senate coram tam multis viris tam paucis hominibus And from the same Principle it is that I now present the Sermon to a more publike view The time allotted for the making of it was so short by reason of your more serious affairs that it might have been a sufficient Apology to excuse both the preaching and printing of it had not pure Obedience justly silenced all such Apologies And now it is printed the Sermon it self is so poor and mean that it may fitly be answered to me what Apelles once did to a Painter who having drawn many Lines in a little space of time and boasting to Apelles that he had done so much in so short a time it was replyed That he wondered that he had drawn no more But yet howsoever my humble request is That you would accept of this poor Mite this little Goats-haire which your commands like a Mid-wife have brought into the world And indeed the kinde entertainment it found in the hearing and the great acknowledgement of your Thanks farre above all expectation or desert afterwards is an abundantly sufficient incitement against all discouragement whatsoever The subject of the Sermon is of great concernment It is about the ruine and repair of Kingdoms and Nations a matter sutable for you that are the representative Body of the Kingdom Sin ruines Kingdoms When Nicephorus Phocas had built a mighty Wall about his Palace for his defense he heard a voyce in the night crying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Though thou build'st thy walls as high as Heaven sin is within and this will easily batter down thy walls Sin is like a Traytor in our own bosomes that will open the gates to the enimy Sin weakens our hands and makes them unapt to fight Sin taketh away the courage of our hearts It was not the strength of Ai that overcame the Israelites but Achans sin Sinne causeth a great Army to be overcome by a little one The Army of the Syrians came with a small company of men and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers The sins of England are the enimies of England These beleaguer our Walls and are as so many Canaanites alwayes rising up in rebellion against us But now on the contrary Repentance and Reformation repairs and upholds Kingdoms and Nations this is their Fortresse and Tower of defense their Munition Armour and Wall of Brasse to defend them Righteousnesse exalteth a Nation but sinne is a reproach to any People The Lord in mercy ruinate our sinnes and not the Nation the same Lord worke a Nationall Reformation and make you his Instruments in this great work Much hath been done by you this way already which is acknowledged in this ensuing discourse with great thankfulnesse The Lord enable you to perfect what you have begun He that is the Finisher of our faith finish this much-desired Reformation It is very observable that when God raised up Magistrates such as Nehemiah Zerubbabel and others to pity Sion that lay in the dust and to repair her breaches at the same time he raised up Prophets also such as Haggai Zechariah and others to strengthen the hands of the Magistrates and to encourage them in so noble a service and therefore it is expresly said Then the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied unto the Iews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the Name of the God of Israel even unto them Then and not before rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem and with them were the Prophets of God helping them And Ezra 6.14 The Elders of the Iews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah the sonne of Iddo and they builded and finished it according to the Commandment of the God of Israel c. By both these Texts it appears that the Magistrates began and finished the reparations of Gods House by the help of the Prophets of God Suffer me therefore as divers others have done before the unworthiest of all Gods Ministers according to my duty and place to beseech and exhort you to the consummation of those blessed good things which you have begun to do for the Church of God in England And the God of all blessings blesse you and yours So prayeth Your much obliged Spirituall Servant EDMVND CALAMY A Sermon Preached at a Fast before the Honourable House of COMMONS Jerem. 18.7 8 9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it If it do evill in my sight that it obey not my voyce then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them THis Text may fitly be called a Looking glasse for England and Ireland or for any other Kingdom whatsoever wherein God Almighty declares what he can do with Nations and Kingdoms and what he will do 1. What he can do He can build and plant a Nation and he can pluck up pull down and destroy a Nation And when a Kingdom is in the depth of misery he can in an instant if he but speake the word raise it up to the top of happinesse and when it is in the heigth and Zenith of happinesse he can in another instant speake a word and throw it downe againe into an Abysse of misery 2. What he will do God will not alwayes use his Prerogative but he will first speake before he strikes he will first pronounce judgement before he executeth judgement And if that Nation against which he hath pronounced the evill of punishment turn from their evill of sin then will God repent of the evill he intended to do unto them And not only so but he will build and plant that Nation and of a barren
the Looking-glasse of the Countrey where they live according to which most men dresse themselves If they be wicked the whole Countrey is much the worser by them The vices of Rulers are rules of Vices Quicquid faciunt praecipere videntur If the head be giddy the members reel If the liver be tainted the body is dropsie Ieroboam made all Israel to sin But when great men prove good men it is not to be expressed what good they do When Crispus the chief Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved on the Lord many of the Corinthians hearing beleeved also When the Master of the family was converted his whole family were also baptized The Lord make all great men good men and good men of parts and abilities great men 2 As this Reformation must be personall so also it must be nationall For so saith the Text If that Nation against which c. A particular man by turning unto God may turn away a particular judgement But when the sins of a Nation are generall and the judgements upon a Nation generall the turning must be generall If the Sea hath broken the banks and overflown the Countrey it is not the care of one or two men by repairing their banks that can prevent the inundation Even so when God is overflowing a Land with a generall destruction there must be a generall endeavour to make up the whole breach There must be a Court-Reformation a Countrey-Reformation a City-Reformation Church and State-Reformation a Generall-Reformation But how shall we do to obtain this generall Reformation Two wayes If you that are the representative Body of this Nation as you stand under this relation be reformed the Nation it self may be said to be reformed For you are the Nation representatively virtually and eminently you stand in the place of the whole Nation and if you stand for Gods cause the whole Nation doth it in you Oh let it not be said that the Reformers of others need Reformation themselves If the eye be dark how great is that darknesse c. If the Salt that seasoneth other things be unsavoury wherewithall shall it be seasoned This is the first way The second way to reform a Nation is when you that are the representative Body of the Nation do as much as in you lyeth to reform the Nation you represent This is a duty that God requires and expects from your hands It was the complaint of Nehemiah that the Nobles of Tekoah did not put their necks to the yoak of the Lord this was a great blemish to them Let not I beseech you the like brand of infamy be cast upon any of you It cannot be denied but that this Nation needs Reformation not onely in reference to the Common-wealth but also to the Church The Prophet in the ninth verse compares a Nation to a House that needs building and to an Orchard that needs planting And sure it is that the House of this Nation is much out of repair the House of the Lord lieth waste and there is much rubbish in it Many pollutions have crept into our Doctrine much defilement into our Worship many illegall innovations have been obtruded upon us the very posts and pillars of this House many of them are rotten the stones are loose and uncemented the House exceedingly divided and distracted with diversity of opinions the very foundation is ready to shake and the House to fall down about our ears The Garden of this Nation is over grown with weeds and there are many not onely unprofitable but hurtfull trees planted in this Garden Now this is the great work that the Lord requireth at your hands Oh ye Worthies of Israel To stub up all these unprofitable Trees and to repair the breaches of Gods House to build it up in its beauty according to the pattern in the Mount and to bring us back not onely to our first Reformation in King Edwards dayes but to reform the Reformation it self For we were then newly crept out of Popery and like unto men that come newly out of prison where they have been long detained it was impossible but our garments should smell a little of the Dungeon from whence we came It is said of Lazarus that when he came first out of the Grave He came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-clothes and his face was bound about with a Napkin So it was with us in our first Reformation it was a most blessed and glorious work like the resurrection from the Grave but yet notwithstanding we came out of this Grave bound hands and feet with our Grave clothes and eyes-blinding Napkins we brought many things out with us which should have been left behinde Our Saviour Christ rose from the dead and left all his linnen clothes behinde him So must we bury all superstitious Ceremonies in the grave of oblivion and perfect a Reformation according to the Word of God And as our Saviour Christ in the place forementioned commanded his Disciples to unbinde Lazarus and to take away his Grave-clothes Oh that you also would command the Apostles of Christ the faithfull and learned Ministers of this Kingdome to meet in a free Nationall Synod for to inform you about the taking away of these grave clothes and eiesblinding Napkins or whatsoever else shall appear to be prejudiciall to the piety and purity of of Gods Worship But then I do most earnestly beseech you to take heed that those whom you call to this Synod be not like unto the Cardinalls and Prelates who met at Rome to consult about Reformation of the Church of whom Luther speaks That they were like unto Foxes that came to sweep a house full of dust with their tails and instead of sweeping out the dust they swept it all about the house and made a great smoke for the while but when they were gone the dust fell all down again I doubt not but if this motion which I offer in all humility succeed your Wisedoms will be carefull to make such qualifications both of the Persons that are to chuse and to be chosen that no Minister lyable to any just exception shall have a voice in this Synod for fear lest our greatest remedy prove to be our greatest ruine But this by the way Oh that the Lord would make me an instrument this day to encourage you to go on in the work of Reformation For Sions sake I will not hold my peace and for Ierusalems sake I will not rest untill the righteousnesse thereof go forth as brightnesse and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth Arise arise have mercy upon Sion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come Let it pitty you to see Sion in the dust Let this be the product of this solemn Fast to quicken you to a Nationall Reformation When Moses had been conversing with God his face shone when he came down You are now conversing with God in the Mount