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A93313
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Reformation and union recommended, as the present duty and interest of the nation in a sermon preach'd at the assizes held at Hertford August the 1st, 1698 / by Ri. Skingle, vicar of Roydon in Essex.
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Skingle, Ri.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing S3941B; ESTC R42554
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9,577
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19
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Piety and Holy Living Something of this nature I hear is done in some places as also by some in this County to their great Honour And God's Blessing upon their Hearts for it Such are the Men that are likely to serve their Country and such are Persons that we are to have a Value for But alas What hath yet been done is by so few that still the Practical Language of the greater Number among us is like that of Pharaoh Who is the Lord that we should obey him Many live as if they question'd his Being and more his Authority Such Provocations are common with us as even dare God to his Face as if Men took Encouragement from the Influences of his Goodness to mount to a greater Degree of Sin after a fair Sun-shine of Mercy to entertain more unbridl'd Resolutions and to pass forward with more Licentiousness to bind themselves stronger to their Iniquity by that which should bind them faster to their Duty Now When will all our Magistrates be pleas'd to take notice of this and to the utmost Extent of their Power and Influence as they are in Duty bound put a Stop to it I know they will assuredly say unto us that Proverb Physicians heal your selves and first do your Parts herein And I most readily own that to be Ensamples to our People is very much our Duty and to let them know that Sin is the Ruin as well as the Reproach of any Nation and that for these Things the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Disobedience Nay to bring off our Hearers from all such Doctrines as but tend to the upholding them in their Evil Ways to deliver a wary and sober Sense of the Efficacy and Benefit of the Sacraments to warn them against taking up with Church-Privileges like those who cry'd The Temple of the Lord and bless'd themselves in their being Abraham's Children tho' they minded nothing less than the treading in the Steps of Abraham's Faith and Obedience of satisfying themselves with being within the Pale of the Church and a bare Performance of the outward Duties of thinking their Attendance on the Lord's Day a License to live loosly all the Week after and a quitting Scores with God for what was past In short That he that will acquit himself like a Christian must give himself to the Lord 1 Cor. 2.8 5. That is as our Church expresseth it most excellently * See the Communion-Office He must offer and present himself his Soul and Body to be a Reasonable Holy and Lively Sacrifice to God †The General Thanksgiving giving up himself to his Service and walking before him in Holiness and Righteousness all his Days All this with all the Encouragement we are able to give to Pious and Godly Living I acknowledge to be incumbent upon us But then there is also much lying before Magistrates in this good Work and this with Submission I take to be their proper Business who are to be a Terrour to Evil-Works Rom. 13.3 And were but one half of that Vigour exerted for the Suppression of Prophaneness and Immorality which was formerly express'd by some others for the punishing of Men in the Matters of their God we should soon see a blessed Alteration Shall I then speak freely of two or three of the fore-mention'd Evils tho' not of them with Desire to exclude or abate your Zeal against any of the rest of the same kind There is Cursing and Prophane Swearing 't is very sad that it should be so found among us and Parish-Officers not most strictly requir'd to take notice of it And whoever observes how carelesly and impudently Oaths are taken especially if to serve a Turn and what is frequently given in Evidence at such a time as this and what Oaths to discharge Offices are often swallow'd and how little if at all regarded will soon be convinc'd how needful it is to observe very strictly when any come within the Verge of Perjury and to punish it according to its due Merit And then for the Prophanation of the Lord's Day 't is plain that it is not only the thing that be-dwarfs Men's Religion by cramping the Advantages to be gotten by the publick Ministery but is a great Cause why the Attendance on it is so much neglected And now Right Honourable and much Honoured the King tells us once and again that he doth most earnestly desire and shall endeavour a general Reformation in the Lives and Manners of all his Subjects 't is obvious then where it must stick if it be not effected Be up then be up and a doing in this good Work I most humbly but earnestly beseech you and the Lord be with you And here will the Learned and Reverend Judges of the Nation allow me one Word to them in particular Why then it is this That they would be pleas'd to remember that there is much expected from them in this Matter not only from their High and Honourable Stations for they are always the same but from those high Thoughts the Nation hath of them and the mighty Veneration that is justly entertain'd for them There is no Man but will own that God exceedingly bless'd the Nation in directing the King to such an excellent and very extraordinary Choice of Persons when he fill'd those great Places Now as Nehemiah argu'd from his Place of great Trust and from the Graces and Gifts of the Spirit of God in him saying Shall such a Man as I flee Thus we are all ready to say Such Judges as the Nation is now favour'd with will go a great way in this Work Yea let every one do his part herein there is none so mean but may set an Helping Hand to this if not otherwise yet by Family or Personal Reformation Every one is a King a Priest and a Prophet in his own Family and the Neglect of Parents and Masters especially of such as have any way the Addition of Outward Greatness in setting good Examples and commanding their Children and Houshold to keep the Way of the Lord is the Rise and Continuance of all Prophaneness What a brave Change is it then in the power of such to make in the World And as for Personal Reformation every one in this Case hath a Corporation within himself and hath Authoriry to arraign and execute every Rebel against God and the Peace of his Soul And if he wants Help against his Trayterous Lusts he may call in the Divine Aid and if he will but be directed by it he will not fail to cut off the Heads of those Uncircumcised and to lay all those Sons of Anake flat Stir up your selves then stir up your selves in this manner against Sin Yea let those that profess above the common Rate see what is amiss see their Coldness and Formality in Religion their Compliances with the sinful Humours of the Age their making themselves free to all Companies and Customs their Loosness their Earthliness the Decays and sad
Reformation and Union RECOMMENDED as the Present DUTY and INTEREST OF THE NATION IN A SERMON PREACH'D at the ASSIZES HELD AT HERTFORD August the 1st 1698. By RI. SKINGLE Vicar of ROYDON in ESSEX LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVIII To the Worshipful JOHN BILLERS Esq High Sheriff Of the COUNTY of HERTFORD Honoured Sir THE Censures and Aspersions cast upon what you lately heard from me in the Pulpit have obliged me to present you with the same from the Press which I have here done without any omission or alteration When you first engaged me in that Honourable Service of Preaching before the Judges and many other Persons in publick Stations I thought I had a fit opportunity given me to recount the great Blessings of late bestowed on the Nation and to press Reformation and Union as the sutable return to God and the seasonable and proper Method for the continuing our Enjoyments to us And I hope what I then delivered will upon serious perusal find a kind reception by all that wish well to the Nation and desire to see Religion in the Life and Power of it Indeed I cannot but think we neglect both Duty and Interest while these Things are not seriously and in earnest undertaken what 's fit to be done as also the way and means to effect the same must be left to Authority but attempts of this Nature I hope to see and would willingly perswade my self that we are not so far left of God but that such a blessed Work so begun and followed will be surely accompanied with a good event I shall add no more but the acknowledgment of your favours to me and my Prayer to God to bless you and yours especially with all Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus and this is and shall be heartily done by Your Humble and Obliged Servant R. Skingle A SERMON PREACH'D at the ASSIZES HELD AT HERTFORD August the First 1698. Psalm 126.3 The Lord hath done great things for us WHEN the Grecians were set free by Flaminius the Roman General 't is said their Joy was too big for their Hearts they scarce believed their own Ears when the Cryer proclaim'd their Liberty but bad him say over that sweet Word Liberty again and look'd upon one another with wonderment Velut somnii vanam speciem Somewhat like hereunto was the case of the Jews upon the deliverance acknowledg'd in this Psalm When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream So great was the Salvation brought unto them that they could hardly believe it but when they saw 't was a real thing then say they our Mâ—â—thâ— were â—â—ll'd with laughter and our Tongue with singing yea then they own their Deliverance to the Honour of God and say The Lord hath done great things for us Hence then we are to make this Observation that God is pleas'd to work in a very eminent manner for the welfare of his People and when he doth so it s their duty to take notice of it So great was this deliverance that even their very Enemies could not but acknowledge it then they among the Heathen said The Lord hath done great things for them Yea so wonderfully hath God appear'd for his People that their Enemies have seemingly come over to them we read in the Book of Esther that God so disppointed their designs that many of them became Jews And so mightily did God shew himself for David that even Saul could think fit to speak him fair yea God so settled him in the Government and so prosper'd him That a People whom he had not known offer'd him service and strangers submitted themselves unto him Ps 18.44 Indeed prosperity-Proselites are not to be presently trusted for fear the sting should still be in then and that safety and opportunity might encourage them to thrust it out but yet however such forced tho' feigned submissions shew the greatness of a Deliverance and how wonderfully God is pleased to own his Servants But we need not go further for the proof of this then our own late Experience will carry us What a dismal condition was the Nation in when it was a dangerous thing to be truly Religious nay indeed truly Moral when he that parted from iniquity made himself a prey thereby When all the desires and attempts by just and due methods to make us happy were frustrated and the struglings of honest Men were but like those of Slaves which ended in a more cruel Bondage in short tho' we had then to do with those who went under the Name of Protestants yet were our Lives and Liberties in the Hands of violence and oppression And to help forward the glotious design of Popery and Slavery we were desired to believe that all must be submitted to the discretion of the Prince and so even life it self which is not in our own Power to dispose of must be tamely given up to the barbarous Will of another And according to this preparatory Work our most Holy Religion was soon after ready to be overwhelm'd with Popish Superstition and Idolatry our Nation swarm'd with Priests and Jesuits and Irish Cut-throats and why should we think they would have slipt such a merritorious act and lost such an excellent preservation against the pains of Purgatory as the murdering multitudes of us if God had not most miraculously put a stop to their fury Surely if the Lord himself had not been on our side when they rose up against us they had swallowed us up the proud Waters had gone over our Soul But blessed be the Lord he hath not given us as a Prey unto their Teeth our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Foulers the Snare is broken and we are delivered Deliver did I say Yea not only so but we have now a Prince set over us who designs good unto us even the glorious Instrument of our mighty Deliverance A Prince who is alone in qualifications for such an Heroick undertaking A Prince endued with great Wisdom and undoubted Courage and whom all Men justly admire in the Exercise of both and unto whom all Europe stand ready to pay their respects and duty A Prince by whose Hand God hath not only led us out of Egypt and given us a sight of Canaan but whom God hath enabled also to conduct us into the Land of Rest And who maugre the greatest efforts to the contrary is the Instrument of an honourable Peace a thing which our Enemies laugh'd at our expectation of and when actually concluded yet did think incredible These are proofs sufficient that God is pleased to appear in a very eminent manner for the welfare of his People The other branch of the Doctrine That it is their Duty to take notice thereof is also so plainly in the Text and doth so naturally result from the former that I need not enlarge in the confirmation of it he must be strangely lost to every thing that is manly and not have