A SERMON PREACHED At St. MARGARETS in WESTMINSTER before the Honourable the House OF COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT Assembled Upon the 29th Day of MAY being the Anniversary Day of the KING' 's and Kingdomes Restauration BY THOMAS PIERCE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Timothy Garthwait at the Little North-door of St. Paul's Church 1661. DEUT. 6. 12. Then beware lest thou forget the Lord who brought thee out of the Land of AEgypt WHen I look back upon the Church in all her motions out of the East observing how Monarchy and Learning have been at once the two Shoulders to bear her up and withall the two Legs to bring her hither And when again I do reflect upon our twenty years sins which were the complicated Cause of our twelve years sufferings I mean our drunkenness and luxury which were deservedly prescribed so long a Fast the rashness and vanity of our oathes which gave us a miserable option betwixt a perjury and an undoing our profanation of the Quire which turn'd us out of the Cathedral our gross neglect of Gods Service which helpt to vote down our publick Liturgie our general idleness and sloth which often cast us out of our Houses and as it were set us to eat our Bread in the sweat of our brows or of our brains our unprofitable walking under all God's methods and means of Grace which left us nothing but his Iudgements for many sad years to work upon us And yet again when I consider That God hath turn'd our Captivity as the Rivers of the South and cast the Locusts out of our Vineyards that we may sit under our Vines injoying our Iudges as at the first and our Counsellors as at the Beginning And that the use we are to make of so miraculous a Recovery is to be sedulous in providing against the Danger of a Relapse To sin no more after pardon for fear a worse thing happen unto us I think I cannot be transported with a more innocent Ambition because I cannot be ambitious of a more profitable attempt then that of bringing down the Heads of certain Hearers into their Hearts that what is now no more than Light may by that means become Fire That we may All in this sense be like the Baptist not only shining but burning Lamps not only beautified with the knowledge of Christian duties but zealous too in the discharge as unaffectedly punctual in all our carriage as the greatest Enemies of Godliness are hypocritically precise And though Heresies are to be hated as things which lead unto destruction yet that Vice may be reckon'd the worst of Heresies by how much the error of a mans practise is worse then that of his bare opinion Last of all when I consider That though Peace is a blessing and the greatest in its kind yet many consequences of Peace are but glittering Snares and that the things which are given us as helps to memory are apt to make us forgetful of Him that gave them I cannot think of a fitter Text for the giving advantage to my Design then This Remarkable Caveat to the People of God against forgetfulness and ingratitude amidst the pleasant Effects of a Restauration When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the Land to give thee great and goodly Cities and Houses full of all good things when thou shalt have eaten and art Full THEN beware that thou forget not the Lord who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt AT the very first view of which holy Caveat there are five particulars of Remarque which presently meet my observation As first the Downfal of a Nation 2ly the Deliverance 3ly the Author of that Deliverance 4ly the Duty by him injoyn'd and lastly the Iuncture of affairs wherein this Duty is most in season And of all these Particulars each is the greatest in its kind too For First behold the greatest Curse that any poor Nation can struggle under A yoke of Bondage and Captivity impos'd by the hardest and worst of men A yoke so insupportable to some mens Necks that I remember Hegesistratus a captive Souldier in Herodotus would rather cut off his legs then indure his Fetters that by the loss of his Feet he might be enabled to run away So insufferable a thing is the state of Thraldome very significantly imply'd in the Land of Egypt and exegetically express'd by the House of Bondage But yet the Curse is so set like Shadows in a Picture or Foyles with Diamonds as to commend and illustrate the greatest Blessing A Deliverance brought about by such a miraculous complication that nothing but the experience that so it is can extenuate the wonder that so it should be A People groaning under the pressures of several Centuries of years and so accustom'd unto the yoke as to have made it a kind of acquired Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Galen speaks de Terrâ AEgypti eductus est is now at last brought out of the land of Egypt And yet the wonder begins to cease Because The Author of this Deliverance is so much the greatest to be imagin'd that he is Dominus the Lord the Lord that stretcheth out the heavens the Lord that layeth the foundations of the earth the Lord that formeth the spirit of man within him The Lord in whose Hand are the hearts of all men who turneth man to Destruction and again who saith Come again ye children of men In a word It is the Lord to whom Miracles are natural and by whom impossibilities are done with ease 'T is He that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt And therefore The Duty in proportion must be superlatively great too however hid in this place by a little Meiosis of expression Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God that is Remember what he hath done and thank him for it by thy obedience Let thy gratitude be seen in thy conversation Be sure to love him and to serve him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Forget him if thou canst unless thou canst forget thou wert Pharaoh's Bondman Nay forget him if thou dar'st unless thou art so stout that thou dar'st be damn'd And yet beware lest thou forget him whilest thou art swimming in prosperity the stream of which may either drown thee or make thee drunk if thou art not fore-arm'd with circumspection And therefore beware that thou forget not the Lord that brought thee out of Egypt And that thou mayst not forget him write the Favours which he hath done thee upon the posts of thine House and place them as Frontlets between thine eyes tell them out unto thy children as thou walkest by the way at thy lying down and thy rising up Let them be as a Signet upon thine Arm and as a Seal upon thine Heart That the pleasures of thy Deliverance may not make thee forgetful of thy Deliverer forgetful
of the Rock out of which thou wert hewn and kicking like Iesurun at him that made thee keep an Anniversary Feast a standing Passeover in May whereby to fix him in thy Remembrance Lastly a Duty so indispensable should be inforc't upon the soul by the present season A season of peace and prosperity succeeding a season of Persecution The greatest incitement to the Duty should be the manifold enjoyment of this Deliverance For so 't is obvious to infer from the particle THEN so strongly implied in the Hebrew that in the English 't is well express'd upon which there seems to lye the chiefest emphasis of the Text if we observe how it stands in a double Relation to the Context When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the Land to give thee great and goodly Cities and houses full of all good things when thou shalt have eaten and be full THEN beware that thou forget not the Lord that brought thee out of Egypt The Text is so fruitful of particulars and each particular is so apt to administer matter of Discourse that it hath really been my hardest Question whereabouts I should begin and how I should end my meditations And after too much time lost in stating the Question within my self I have thought it at once the fittest and the most useful to be resolv'd as most immediately complying with the solemnity of the time not to yield to the temptation of comparing our Land with the land of Egypt for fear of seeming to have a pique at the Act of Indempnity and Oblivion otherwise 't were easie to make a Parallel because however our native Countrey yet for twelve years together it was a very strange Land But not advancing one step beyond the Threshold I shall bestow my whole time upon the little word THEN as being a particle of connexion betwixt our Duty and our Deliverance betwixt the business of the Time and the time it self betwixt the occasion and the end of our present meeting looking like Homer's wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a visible prospect on all that follows and with as visible a retrospect upon the words going before When Prosperity breaks in like a mighty stream in so much that I may say with our blessed Saviour This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears Then beware that you forget not the Lord that brought you out of Egypt Beware you forget him not at any time but especially at this For the particle Then is an important Monosyllable and that especially in three respects First because of the difficulty of having God in our Remembrance much more Then than at other times Next for the dignity of the Duty rather Then than before or after Lastly by reason of the danger of not performing the Duty Then when it becomes incumbent on us by many unspeakable obligations These especially are the Reasons of the particle Then in this place on which alone I shall insist in this morning's Service For should I adventure upon the rest not only the hour but for ought I can conjecture the day would fail me ANd first of all let us beware amidst the pleasant effects of our Deliverance that we forget not the Author of it because it is difficulter THEN than at other times For the Flattery and Dalliance of the world hath perpetually been the mother of so much wantonness or so much pride that Adam found it dangerous to be in Paradise yea and Lucifer to be in Heaven Do but look upon Solomon in the Book of Kings and again look upon him in Ecclesiastes how was he there lifted up by his prosperity and how does he here preach it down I know not whether as a Prince he more injoy'd his pleasures or as a Prophet more condemn'd them whether the luxury of his Table made him a wanton or whether the vastness of his wisdome made him a Fool 'T was that betrayed him to his Concubines and this permitted him to his Idols Since then a prosperous condition hath such a secret poyson in it as against which no medicine hath been sufficiently Alexipharmacal and from the force of whose contagion there is no sort of men that hath been priviledg'd no not Adam the Innocent nor Solomon the wise nor even Lucifer the beatified who were so hugely swell'd up with this venom and so quickly burst not the first in a state of sinlesness nor the next in a state of grace nor yet the third in a state of glory since there is no other man then the man Christ Iesus that hath been ever temptation-proof Lord how wretched a thing is happiness on this side Heaven and how dangerously treacherous are our enjoyments I suppose we are taught by our late experience how easie it is to be over-joy'd and how equally hard to be truly thankful for all those wonders of salvation which God hath wrought and is working for us the grateful commemorating of which is religiously the end of our present meeting Sweet-meats indeed are pleasant but then they commonly turn to choler 'T is sure the state of humiliation which though we can worst feed upon we are notwithstanding best nourisht with we are such barren pieces of clay that our fruits will be wither'd with too much laughter if Grace does not water them sometimes with tears It should be matter of gladness to a considering Christian that in the midst of his prosperity he can see himself sorrowful that as he was destitute with comfort so he abounds with moderation and that he does not live rejoycingly is many times a chief reason for which he ought It was Davids resolution at such a time as this is to serve the Lord with fear and by a pious Oxymoron to rejoyce unto him with trembling And if we reflect on the abuses which many have made of a Restauration we may charitably pray that God will give them some tears to drink and having given them some tears that he will put them into his Bottle that they may serve for this end to blot their merriments out of his Book That the pleasant effects of a Delive rance which are peace and plenty living securely and at ease are apt to make us turn Atheists provoking the Author of our Deliverance to correct us once more in the house of Bondage appears as by many other reasons so particularly by this that it is hard for us to prosper and not to lye snoring in our prosperities For 't is the natural language of a prosperous man as our Saviour implies by way of Parable Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry for thou hast much goods laid up for many years Luk. 12. 19. And therefore Agur's wisdome was never more seen then in his prayer Give me not Riches lest I be full and deny thee lest I say who is the Lord Prov. 30. 8 9. He knew by manifold experience that the friendship of the world is
perfect enmity with God and tends immediately to practical if not to speculative Atheism He did not therefore pray thus Give me not Riches lest I be liberal to my Coffers or Give me not Riches lest I be bountiful to my Lusts but for fear of a greater mischief Give me not Riches lest I be full and deny thee lest I say in my heart who is the Lord that is for fear I turn Atheist and only sacrifice to my flesh So also Solomon when he was wisest that is to say when he repented and of a very vicious Prince became a Preacher of Repentance concluded all under the Sun to be but vanity of vanities as having found by all his trials who sure had made more trials then ever any man did that peace and plenty with their two daughters which are idleness and ease are exceedingly great though glorious dangers But we need not go further for an instance then to the people in my Text whom though God might have called a very wild Tamarisk he was pleased to stile his Beloved Vine Lord how carefully it was manur'd with Rain and Sun-shine with Quailes and Manna and water squeez'd out of a Rock with the Dew of heaven and with the Fatness of the earth and yet when all was done that could be they either brought forth no Grapes or if they did they were commonly wild ones And when sometimes they yielded good 't was rather for fear of cutting down then for the fertility of their soil or for the manifold helps of their cultivation 'T was their frequently being prun'd which more especially made them fruitful 'T is true that God did not evermore punish although that people was still offending For as he own'd his being as well their Father as their God so he was pleas'd to make use of either Method for their Amendment I mean incouragement as well as terror God dealt with them as with us of this Nation As he prescrib'd them a Law so he promis'd them a Canaan As he led them into Egypt so he deliver'd them out of Egypt As he thundred from on a cloud so he whispered out of a Bush. As he pincht them with scarceness so he feasted them with plenty And if the one was even to famine the other was even to satiety But if we compare them with our selves in another instance by considering how ingrateful and how unmalleable they were how repining under their yoke and how mutinous in their Liberty How like some amongst us in this very day of our Deliverance they fell a hungring after the Garlick and the Flesh-pots of Egypt quite forgetting the Bondage and tale of Brick how they murmur'd at their Moses as if he were worse then a Pharaoh to them like some repining at their King as if he were worse then a Protector For that you know was the Euphemismus whereby to express the most bloudy Tyrant How like so many untam'd heighfers they were exceedingly hard to be brought to hand or like a stable of unbackt and unbridled Colts how apt to kick at their Rider who gave them Food How God Almighty was forc't to discipline this stiff-neckt Rabble first of all by committing them to the hardships of Egypt and then by sending them to wrestle with the difficulties of the wilderness And how when all this was done they were fain to miss of their Canaan whilest they were taking it into possession for of so great a multitude to whom the Promise of it was made no more then a Caleb and a Ioshua had a Capacity to inherit it we must conclude they were a People who deserv'd to be whipt with a Rod of Iron not so easily reducible by the allurements of Mount Gerizzim as by the curses and the threats to be thundred out from Mount Ebal So far were they from considering what they suffer'd a while agoe in the house of Bondage that they forgot this very Caveat as many will do this very Sermon which was meant to bring it to their Remembrance when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land to give thee great and goodly Cities and houses full of all good things c. THEN beware that thou forget not the Lord that brought thee out of Egypt Passe we now if you please out of the Vineyard into the Fold from the People under the Law to Us who live under the Gospel whom though our Lord out of goodness was pleas'd to call his Flock of Sheep he might have stil'd out of Iustice his Herd of Swine For if He the great Shepherd withhold his Crook Lord how quickly we go astray And for here and there one who will be led into the Fold how many are there that must be driven like the Prodigal in the Gospel who would not return unto his Father untill he was brought to feed on Husks we seldome care for our Physician until the time that we are sick and then as soon as recover'd are very glad rather then thankful And this may point us out a Reason why for so many years together before this last our heavenly Father made use of his sharpest Methods for our amendment even placing us as Israelites amongst Egyptians like so many flowers amongst thorns of which the principal design was not to torture but to defend us To defend us from the danger of carnal security and presumption of pride and wantonness of forgetfulness and ingratitude And since the way to be thankfull for our twelve moneths liberty is very soberly to reflect on our twelve years thraldome Let 's so transcribe a fair Copy of God's Oeconomy on the Iewes as with a grateful commemoration to consider it also in our selves We who flourish at this day like a goodly Tree not only planted by the river of God's rich Mercies but surrounded like our Land with an Ocean of them we who stretch forth our branches not only for our own but for foreign birds also to build their nests and whose Spring blessed be God doth promise at last to be as lasting as once our Autumn was like to prove we who flourish like a Myrtle how like a Willow did we droop How was our verdure almost exhausted and our boughs how deflowr'd How did we fall after the measure our sins had risen First God blasted our noblest Fruits then he despoyled us of our leaves next he hew'd down our branches Nay how strangely were we fed on by those very vermin which we did feed how greedily eaten up by all those Caterpillars and Locusts which though ingender'd perhaps by a Northern wind I am sure were bred out of our Body It is not easie to recapitulate how many Mercies we now enjoy which our iniquities had withheld for so many years and how many good things our sins had turn'd away from us And now if after our Restitution we shall be found to be a barren unfruitful tree or fruitful only in our impieties so as that which was intended to make
for saving a people so ill deserving we must add to our verbal our vital Prayers nor only keep an annual Day but even an age of thanksgiving for our Deliverance And then with a greater force of Reason we must beware that we forget not the Lord our God who if he brought us not out of the land of Egypt did yet deliver us this day from the house of Bondage We must not any of us forget him in whatever represents or presents him to us But You especially must not forget him presented to you in his Vicegerent whom the more you do enable to be indeed what he is stiled Defensor Fidei by so much the greater will be your Glory and the better you will provide for your childrens safety The more you strengthen that Hand which under God is to brandish the Sword of Iustice which ceaseth to be a Sword of Iustice when wrested out of that Hand by the Hand of man the better protected your Peace will be from the ungainable enemies of each extream nor can you rationally hope to keep your Peace any longer then whilest the evil-ey'd Factions want power to break it Again beware that you forget not the Soveraign Author of your Deliverance wheresoever you shall find him presented to you in his Messengers and what I mean by that word I need not explain in so wise an Audience by whose continuing unrestor'd to their Ancient Priviledge and Right your own Restauration remains imperfect Again beware you do not forget him presented to you in his Members who are not only your fellow-members but were your old fellow sufferers in the very same Cause to which they ever have adhered with the very same constancy and for which they have been Actors with the very same courage and do rejoyce in the greatness at least of your Restauration how much soever they are mourners for the scandalous littleness of their own Prosperity I have shew'd is a dangerous weapon such as none but the merciful should dare to use And if ever there were a Parliament in which both Mercy and Iustice met this has the honour to be reputed so very exemplary for both that they who stand in need of both are very confident to obtain them now or never A Parliament so prepar'd by the special Providence of God for the perpetuating of Peace in our British world that nothing less then the presence of all perfections in a Prince can make us patiently think of its Dissolution Will you hear the Conclusion of the whole matter I shall deliver it to you briefly in this Petition That so far forth as you regard the Righteous Judge of all the world and are season'd by Him with the manifold gifts of the blessed Comforter with the Spirit of wisdome and understanding with the Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength with the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness and lastly with the Spirit of his holy fear you will consider what I have said by your own Authority because in absolute obedience to your own Order and Command ANd now the God of Peace and Power who brought you forth on this Day from the House of Bondage both defend and direct you from this day forward in all your wayes That every one of your Persons and the whole of every one both Body Soul and Spirit may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ. To whom with the Father in the unity of the Spirit who is abundantly able to keep us from falling and to raise us when we are down and to preserve us being raised and to present us so preserv'd before the presence of his Glory with exceeding Joy to the only wise God our Saviour be ascribed by us and by all the world Blessing and Glory and Honour and Power and Wisdome and Thanksgiving from this day forwards and for evermore Amen FINIS Psal. 126. 4. Isa. 1. 26. Joh. 5. 14. Joh. 5. 35. * Isa. 5. 12. Hab. 1. 13 16. Amos 6. 1 3. Hos. 13. 6. I. Herodot in Calliope II. III. Isa. 40 22. Psal. 104. 5. Zech. 12. 1. Psal. 90. 3. IV. * Deut. 10. 12 †Deut. 6. 20 21. Deut. 6. 7 8 9. * Deut. 32. 15 18. * Deut. 32. 15 18. †Exod. 13. 3 4 10 c. V. Amos 5. 24. Luk. 4. 21. I. * Psal. 2. 11. Psal. 102. 9. 80. 5. * Psal. 56. 8. †Ibid. which compare with Mal. 3. 16. * Jam. 4. 4. * Num. 13. 30. Hab. 3. †Deut. chap. 27. 28. 17 18 19. Jer. 5. 25. * 2 Pet. 1. 12. II. Aristot. eth Nichâ—â— l. 1. Quis abstinens diceiur sublato eo à quo abstinendum est Quae Temperantia gulae in fame quae Ambitionis repudiatio in egestate quae libidinis infrenatio in Castratione Tertul. advers Marcion l. 1. cap. 29. Heb. 2. 10. III. Thucyd. l. 1. p. 52. * Psal. 55. 12 13. 2 Cor. 8. 12. Luk. 12. 48. * Mat. 7. 19. * Mat. 25. 19. Ps. 116. 13. Eccles. 12. 13. Isa. 11. 2. * 1 Thes. 5. 23.
Restauration To sum up all in a word and to carry on my Metaphor the most I can to their advantage who will not be carried to any duty which is not honourable and brave The Battles of Leuctra and Mantinéa were not half so full of glory to that immortal Theban Epaminondas as the two victories of a Christian over his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That unruly Element of double fire his anger and his lust which his greatest felicities do most enkindle And this I hope may be enough for the second importance of the word Then as 't is a particle of connexion betwixt the business of the Time and the time it self LAst of all let us beware that the manifold enjoyments of our Deliverance do not make us forgetful of our Deliverer because of the greatness of the danger of not performing the Duty THEN when it becomes incumbent on us by many unspeakable obligations For let a man's sin be never so great in point of nature or degree ingratitude will give it an aggravation And ingratitude taking its stature from precedent obligations so as the sins we commit run higher or lower as the graces we receive have been more or less there are not any so very capable of provoking Gods Fury as the men whom he hath pleas'd to take most into his favour The reason of it may be taken from the Athenians in Thucydides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The least unkindness from a Friend is of greater smart then the hardest usage from an enemy The very sight of Brutus more wounded Caesar to the heart then all the rest of his Assassinates had done with Daggers David indeed was somewhat troubled that they who hated him did whisper together against him Psal. 41. 7. but 't was his greatest cross of all that they who had eaten of his Bread should ingratefully lift up the heel against him And in that he said he could have born it from an enemy he did significantly imply he could not bear it from a friend And as it was David's Cordolium the Type of Christ so also was it Christ's the Son of David who did not weep over other Cities from which he met with an ill Reception but he wept over Ierusalem the Royal City which he had so much obliged yet found so cruel And no doubt but our Saviour is so much more keenly and nearly touch't that the most obliged Christians should break his precepts then that the ignorant Iewes should offer violence to his Person that we may rationally suppose him thus speaking to us Had the Iewes or Heathens spit upon me by their impurities and buffeted me by their blasphemies and stript me by their sacriledge and murder'd me by their rage from such as these I could have born it But that you should war against me and in the behalf of that base Triumvirate the World the Flesh and the Devil having sworn to me in Baptism that you would fight under my Banner against all Three That you who have the priviledge to be called by my Name to be admitted into my House to have a place at my Table to hear my Word and to partake of my Supper to be miraculously brought from the house of Bondage injoying your Kings as at the first and your National Councils as at the beginning and sitting your selves as so many Princes under your Vines and Fig-trees injoying the liberty of your persons the propriety of your estates the important benefit of your Lawes and the glory to be subjected by a most honourable obedience that such as you should despise me and cast my Law behind your back this is that I can least endure My greatest favour thus abus'd will be converted into fury And indeed if we consider that as God on the one side accepteth according to what a man hath so withall on the other side of them who have received much much in proportion shall be required we may with good Logick infer and strongly argue within our selves that an honest Heathen is far better than a Christian Knave And if an Heathen shall be extirpate for being barren much more the Christian if he is fruitless shall be cast into the fire A fruitless Tree which should by nature bear fruit being fit to make fewel and nothing else According to that of our Blessed Saviour which is at once of universal and endless verity Every Tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire And we who are grafted into the vine must not only bear fruit but such fruit too as Christ expects to reap from us A Bramble cannot be censur'd for not bearing fruit because it is in its nature to bring forth none It was therefore the Fig-tree and not the Bramble on which our Saviour bestow'd a curse Mat. 21. 19. Nor was it the Bramble but the Fig-tree which he commanded to be cut down Luk. 13. 7. we must one day be call'd to dreadful reckoning for all the uses we have made of our this daies talent God's injur'd Iustice must needs be satisfied and sure much more his injur'd Mercy either sooner or later either in this or another world And if in stead of being thankful for all the blessings we now enjoy more especially for that which we this day celebrate we shall but turn them into wantonness and grow the worse for the effects of so great a goodness what can we reasonably expect but that the powers of Hell should once again be let loose upon us and ours For since to continue in our impieties is the greatest dishonouring of God that can be a filling up the measure of our iniquities and so the vials of his wrath He must de stroy us se defendendo if for nothing but to defend and secure his Glory What then remains but that we take up the words of the Royal Prophet and together with them his resolution VVe will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. The Cup of Salvation that is to say the Cup of Thanks for that salvation which he hath wrought as Iunius and Tremellius do rightly explicate the Trope And mark the force of the Copulative by which these Duties are tyed together Without the Cup of Salvation that is the Cup of Thanks giving unto the Author of our salvation all our calling upon his Name will be quite in vain For when we spreadout our hands he will hide his eyes and when we make many prayers he will not hear Isa. 1. 15. And then to thank him as he requires is not only to entertain him with Eucharistical words with the meer Calves of our lips or a Doxologie from the teeth outwards but to imitate and obey him and to love him after the rate of his favour towards us that we may not forfeit all our interest in the temporal salvation we this day celebrate nor bring a reproach on the Author of it