Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A47026
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A farewel-sermon preached to the united parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth & St. Mary Woolchurch-Haw in Lombard-Street by David Jones
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Jones, David, 1663-1724?
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1692
(1692)
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Wing J934G; ESTC R32368
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28,884
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45
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the better enter into and take root in them There is no Sowing without Plowing And there is no grafting without Cutting Nathan's Ministry wounded David and cured him Esay's Ministry humbled Hezekiah and raised him up And St. Peter's Sermon pricked the Hearts of Three thousand Men and healed them at the same time So then If the Minister tells you the Truth and that Truth wounds your Hearts and terrifies your Consciences with the odious sight of your past Sins then all is for your Good But if the Minister does not tell you the Truth yet the Truth will find you out God himself will tell it you with Thunder and Lightning For says he Psal 50. 21. I will reprove thee and set thy Sins in order before thine Eyes And therefore if thou wilt not be told the Truth by the Minister thou shalt be told it by another hand If thou wilt not be wounded by a Friend thou shalt be wounded by an Enemy And thy Wounds shall be unto Death and not unto Life They shall not be like Jonathan's Arrows shot at David for thy Safety but for thy Destruction And therefore certainly one way or other thou shalt be sure to be told the Truth whether thou wilt or no. And is it not better to have it told thee by a Friend than by a Foe Is it not better to have it told thee for thy Salvation than for thy Damnation Oh for Christ his sake do not take us for your Enemies who are your best and your only Friends Is he thine Enemy that cures thee of an ulcerous Leg or a sore Arm or a cankered Breast Is he thine Enemy that saveth thee from hanging or drowning or burning or stabing thy self And yet is the Minister thine Enemy for telling thee the Truth which is to save thee from greater Dangers the Bottomless Pit and the Gulph impassable and the perpetual gnawings of the never-dying Worm Is he that doth good to thy Body thine only Friend And is he that doth good to thy Soul thine only Enemy Is thy Body better than thy Soul Yea is thy Soul the only thing that thou takest no care for Is the Surgeon thy Friend tho he cutteth and launceth and probeth and putteth thee to an intolerable Smart for the recovery of thy Body And is the Minister thine Enemy for doing only the same things for the recovery of thine Immortal Soul Does the Surgeon use a blunter Launcet for the launcing his dear Wife or his tender Child Or does he not use the sharpest Launcet that he has and launces them the deepest too And is this any thing else but the greatest effect of his Love and the greatest sign of his Tenderness and Affection And why then shall the Minister be reckoned thine Enemy for doing that to thy Soul which the Surgeon does to thy Body Is not the sharpest Sermon the best Sermon Does not the sharpest Rebuke create the soundest Faith Tit. 1. 13. Does it not prick the Heart most and pierce and sink down deepest Is it not most like to that Word of God which is quick and powerful and sharper than any Two-Edged Sword Are not we the Salt of the Earth And is not that the best Salt which is sharpest Is there an taste in the white of an Egg Job 6. 6 Are not we the Light of the World And is not that the best Light that inflames the Heart most and makes it to burn within a Man and purifies him from all his Filth and Dross And yet still can you possibly take us for your Enemies for telling you these plain Truths and incurring your displeasure for the good of your Souls What do we get by this but your Hatred Certainly you hate these Truths extreamly when you hate us so much for only telling you of them And you are passionately and desperately in love with your Sins when you hate us so much for only telling you of them Oh what shall we do that you may take us for your Friends Yea what is it that we have not already done to convince you of our Love and Friendship Have not we lost your Love that we might love your Souls the better Have not we lost our Reputation in the World which we might easily have gained as well as others by the smooth inticing Words of Mans Wisdom that in the power and demonstration of the Spirit we might preach the Foolishness of the Cross of Christ and make the Meanest Capacity to understand us The Meanest Man has a Soul to save as well as the Greatest and perhaps it is more precious in the sight of God as is plain from Dives and Lazarus Have not we renounc'd all our Knowledg in the Tongues the Criticks the Fathers the Counsels the Schoolmen and Philosophers Have not we renounc'd all this and contented our selves with bare Scripture Proofs and determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him Crucified whatever our Learning is elsewhere Have we made a shew of any Learning which serves to commend our selves more than to build you up in your most Holy Faith Yea have not we utterly disclaimed it and preached up the quite contrary Preached the sincere Milk of the Word and the plain simplicity of the Gospel and the foolishness of Preaching that your Faith should not stand in the wisdom of Men but in the power of God Have not we become Fools to make you Wise Have not we become Poor to make you Rich and to Reign and to Abound in all things Have not we quitted even our necessary Food and Raiment to feed you with the Bread of Life and to cloath your Souls with the Righteousness of Christ What is there near or dear to us that we have not freely hazarded for your good Hare not we hazarded our very lives by our indefatigable Labours for you in the Lord Have not we labour'd hard to commit our Sermons to our own Memories that you might think them worth your remembring Have not we deliver'd our selves with all possible earnestness and affection that you might see the Travail of our Souls and learn to be in earnest your selves by our Example Have not we preached you awakening and searching Discourses that if possible we might keep you awake and hinder the Devil from Stealing away the good Word of God from all your Hearts when you were asleep And have we at any time by our own Laziness or Lolling or Unconcernedness or Indevotion or the insufferable affected Lightness of some Men disposed you to the same Indifference in God's Worship Nay farther Have not we done all this not only upon the Lord's Day but also upon every Day in the Week Have not we called and stretched forth our Hands and our Hearts unto you both Morning and Evening and that too of our own accord without the least acknowledgment Have not we labour'd and striv'n and wrestled with God in Prayers for you and yours Have not we openly rebuked those that have been bad And
escape the first Rule which yet cannot be till his teeth be knocked out for biting But you must knock out his brains too before he escape our second Rule I dare say the most learned Vsurer that liveth and they say some learned ones are Vsurers will never be able to prove that Vsury if it be at all lawful is so lawful as to be made a Calling Here all his Doctors and his Proctors and his Advocates leave him For can it possibly enter into any reasonable mans head to think that a man should be born for nothing else but to tell out money and take in paper which if a man had many millions of gold and silver could take up but a small portion of that precious time which God would have spent in some honest and fruitful employment But what do I speak of the judgment of reasonable men in so plain a matter wherein I dare appeal to the conscience even of the Vsurer himself and it had need be a very plain matter that a man would refer to the conscience of an Vsurer No honest man need be ashamed of an honest Calling if then the Vsurers Calling be such what need he care who knoweth or why should he shame with it If that be his trade why doth he not in his Bills and Bonds and Noverints make it known to all men by those presents that he is an Vsurer rather than write himself Gentleman or Yeoman or by some other stile But say yet our Vsurer should escape at least in the judgment of his own hard'ned conscience from both these Rules as from the Sword of Jehu and Hazael there is yet a third Rule like the sword of Elisha to strike him stone-dead and he shall never be able to escape that Let him shew wherein his Calling is profitable to human society He keepeth no Hospitality If he have but a barr'd chest and a strong look to keep his God and his Scriptures his Mammon and his Parchments in he hath house-room enough He fleeceth many but cloatheth none He biteth and devoureth but eateth all his morsels alone He giveth not so much as a crum no not to his dearest Broker or Scrivener only where he biteth he alloweth them to scratch what they can for themselves The King the Church the Poor are all wronged by him and so are all that live near him in every common charge he slippeth the collar and leaveth the burden upon those that are less able It were not possible Vsurers should be so bitterly inveighed against by sober Heathen Writers so severely censured by the Civil and Canon Laws so uniformly condemned by Godly Fathers and Councils so universally haâ—ed by all men of all sorts and in all Ages and Countries as Histories and Experience manifest they ever have been and are if their Practice and Calling had been any way profitable and not indeed every way hurtful and incommodious both to private men and publick society If any thing can make a Calling unlawful certainly the Vsurers Calling cannot be lawful Mark it If any thing can make a Calling unlawful certainly the Usurers Calling cannot be lawful Look to it all ye of this Parish whose chiefest Employment is Banking and Usury Suppose the Lord Chief Justice of England and all his Brethren the Judges of this Kingdom should purposely come and tell you out of pure Love and Friendship Sirs If ever any Man in the World had a bad Title to his Estate then you have a bad Title to your Estate Would not you readily thank them all for their Kindness and would not you presently look about you and endeavour to get your selves a better Title Without all doubt you would all do so And yet here comes one of the greatest Casuists that ever wrote and tells you plainly that the Grounds of Reason the Authority of Heathens Writers the express Texts of Scripture the Civil and Canon Law the Fathers and Councils and the History and Experience of all Ages and Countries do all unanimously agree That if any thing can make a Calling unlawful then the Vsurers Calling that is your Calling can never be lawful And now dare any of you call me singular in this Opinion which is confirmed and established by such a mighty Cloud of Witnesses Does not the whole World even curse and damn all Usurers to the Pit of Hell For says the Prophet Jer. 15. 10. Wo is me my Mother that thou hast born me a man of Strife and a man of Contention to the whole Earth I have neither lent on Vsury nor men have lent to me on Vsury yet every one of them doth curse me As if he had said If I had either given or taken upon Usury every Man Woman and Child throughout the whole Earth might lawfully have cursed me And dost thou make that thy Calling which all Mankind may lawfully Curse Oh what a tuff thing an Usurers Conscience is Can any thing equal it for Hardness but his barred locked Iron Chest Oh how hard is it for such a miserable Wretch to be saved whom nothing can convince of his Sin whom all the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit cannot perswade to prefer the Wisdom of God before his own silly Judgment Oh what wilt thou then say When thou shalt find thy self in the same miserable Condition with the Young Man in the Gospel Perfect in all things but One And yet damned for that alone for thy Covetousness And now Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you these and such like plain Truths Am I become Your Enemy Your Enemy who loved me so much when I first came here Your Enemy who chose me so unanimously and composed all your former Differences upon my Choice and which was never known before invited the other Parish to partake of your Vestry And am I become your Enemy for telling you the Truth Could you possibly have expected any other from me of all Men whatever Did you not know that I was e'en hindred to Preach for having told some of my Brethren the Clergy of such Faults as I thought my self bound in Conscience to do And did not you know it was reckoned a greater Fault in me to Preach against those Faults than it was in others to Live in them And yet could you possibly think that I who spared not them would ever spare you Or did any of you imagin that I hated the Church because I found fault with some Church-men who were breakers of their Subscription Do you imagin that I hate Christianity because I hate and abhor the Faults of all bad Christians Do you imagin that I preached that Sermon against Pluralities Non-Residence Removing from a poor to a rich Living the neglect of Catechising and Daily-Prayers and the preferring of Courts and Great Mens Houses before the Churches of the Living God Do you imagin that I preached that Sermon against all those Faults for to make the Clergy despicable Do you can you possibly imagin such a