Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A71286
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A sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons at their late solemne monethly fast Januarie 29th, 1644 wherein these foure necessary considerations are plainly proved and demonstrated out of the holy Scriptures, viz ... / by George Walker ...
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Walker, George, 1581?-1651.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing W364; ESTC R6426
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39,735
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52
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Die Mercurij Januar. 29th 1644. ORdered that Sir Thomas Dacres and Master Whitacre doe from this House give thanks to Doctor Wincopp and Master Walker for the great paines they tooke in the Sermons they preached this day at the intreaty of this House at St. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publike Humiliation and to desire them to Print their Sermons and they are to have the like priviledge in printing of them as others in the like kinde usually have had H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I Appoynt Nathaniel Webb to Print my Sermon GEORGE WALKER A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemne Monethly Fast Januarie 29th 1644 Wherein these foure necessary Considerations are plainly proved and demonstrated out of the holy Scriptures viz. 1. The Bands of the brethren in iniquity the pernicious Brambles the Plague and curse of a Land and Kingdome 2. All the brethren in these Bands sharpe pricks of the cursed bramble sharers in the sinne and subiect to the destruction thereof 3 The righteous kept by God from the full sense and feeling of the mischiefe which they are sharpely set and cruelly bent to bring upon them 4. The terrible sudden and totall destruction of the Bramble and every hurtfull prick thereof by Gods dreadfull storme By GEORGE WALKER Batchelor of Divinity Pastor of Iohn Evangelists London and one of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of the House of Commons LONDON Printed by T. B. for Nathaniel Webb and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard 1645. TO The Honourable House of COMMONS Now Assembled in PARLIAMENT Renowned Worthies WHEN I received your Message sent to me by one of Your Worthy Members that you had appoynted mee to Preach before You at the Monethly Fast then next to come mine Insufficiency a Age and Weaknesse of Body began immediately to put a just excuse â—â— my mouth But the strong obligation in which the whole Land is obliged unto You being the onely powerfull b Saviours under God of Church and State from ruine and destruction when they were allready over-runne and at the poynt to bee swallowed up by the Bands of Antichrist did silence all Excuses Besides I was afraid to incurre the blame or suspicion of ingratitude to them who had delivered me from the paw of the Lyon which thirsted after my bloud and had set mee at liberty after two yeares imprisonment and Voted a just recompence of the wrongs done to mee and a Satisfaction from mine Oppressors for all my losses and dammages by their malice sustained Which recompence through your favour and forwardnesse to relieve mee I had certainely received if the multitude of Malignant spirits then too prevalent among you but now expelled out of your Assemblie had not opposed and hindred the transmission of my Cause in due time to the Honourable House of LORDS I saw also a speciall hand of GOD in calling mee to Preach to so Honourable an Assemblie and his power and providence in frustrating and bringing to nought the Counsells and purposes of the proud persecuting Prelate of CANTERBURIE who on the same day of the VVeeke of the same moneth of the Yeare six yeares before brought mee to answer Ore tenus in the Star-Chamber with full intent to lay a heavie Censure on mee And when the truth of GOD for which I suffered did beare mee out against all his Slanders and false Accusations hee most proudly affirmed and bid me assure my selfe of it That I should never come in a Pulpit to preach any more Vpon these Considerations I did cheerefully submit my shoulders to beare this burthen though it seemed farre heavier then my strength was able to sustaine and undergoe And now Yee Worthies of GODS Israel I humbly begge this favour at Your hands that You will accept of the willingnesse of the Workman to serve You not the worth of the Service it selfe Looke upon the pure precious matter here handled chosen out of a golden Psalme of DAVID the sweet Singer of Israel not on the weake handling of it I conceived it verie seasonable for the Time and Occasion For the present Calamities by which the LORD calls us to publike and generall Fasting and Humiliation proceed from the Bands of the Brethren in Iniquitie which are so many cursed Brambles of severall sorts pestering the whole Land and stinging us with their hurtfull pricks which abound in everie Band Sect and Faction The thing for which wee seeke unto GOD by Fasting and Prayer is Deliverance of our Church and State from the mischiefe which they are sharply set to bring and inflict upon all that are Righteous and Religious in the Land This Deliverance cannot bee fully and perfectly obtained till the Lord our God bee pleased to cut downe these cursed Brambles and to ridde these three Kingdomes of them And this the LORD will doe verie speedily so soone as hee sees us made ripe for Deliverance by true unfeigned repentance and amendment of our lives For then he will take away as with a Storme and Whirle-winde not onely the great Faction of the Antichristian Papists Atheists and Malignants banded together and wageing open VVarre against us but also all the Sects of Anabaptists Antinomians Libertines and Schismaticall Separatists who by opposing the Reformation and union of our Church with the rest of the best Reformed Churches both in Doctrine and Discipline according to the written VVord of God do act strongly for Antichrist and by raising up Divisions and Distractions in the City Countrey and all our Armies doe as much as in them is to weaken us make breaches in our VValls and to lay us open and naked to the violence and furie of our open enemies All these things my Text as I have faithfully opened and expounded it doth offer to your grave and wise consideration and in this Sermon I have proved every particular by cleare testimonies out of holy Scriptures and in obedience to your command I have committed it to the Presse and here humbly present it to your Honourable Assembly with my hearty desire and prayer to God for you that by it and many other most godly and more learned Sermons which sound continually in Your cares You may take occasion to observe and note the danger in which our Land is by reason of those many Sects and Hereticks and Schismaticks which like so many cursed Brambles grow up and increase daily even to the over-spreading of the whole Kingdome which when you come to doe once seriously I doubt not but your zeale will stirre you up to curb so many of them as are curable and to cut off those that are incorrigible even such Thorns and Brambles as David describes in his last words saying The sons of Belial are all of them as Thornes thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands But the man that shall touch them must be fully fenced with Iron and the staffe of a Speare and they shall bee
store with God for the wicked who provoke God every day and multiply their provocations without repentance and they after their hardnesse and heart that cannot repent heap to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and visitation Rom. 2. And such are all the enemies persecutors banded against Gods Church and people they are all impenitent persons they doe not persecute ignorantly as Paul did out of blind zeale for God and his Law But of purpose and with counsell being banded with desperate enemies and men of Belial and of the same faction and there is no hope of mercy to them that they may repent as Paul did Therefore all of them being pricks and thornes of the cursed Bramble they shall perish and be terribly destroyed even the best as well as the worst as well the green as the dry Fourthly it is Gods wisedome will and delight so to doe his great works that he may shew his justice and power in them and may have the glory to himselfe This he testifieth aboundantly Iud. 7. and in divers other places Now when he scattereth the enemies and persecutors suddenly terribly and totally in the height of their pride and power it appeares to all to be his worke and the honour and glory redounds wholy to his Majesty Therefore it is the Lords wisedome and delight so to scatter and destroy them First this Doctrine is a singular antidote and preservative against the poyson of envy impatience fretting and grudging vse 1 at the power prosperity and prevailing of the wicked against Gods people even to persecute vex and afflict them The Prophet Ieremies spirit was so stirred up in him at the sight hereof that he expostulated with God but yet in an humble and submissive way Ier. 12.1 2. Righteous saith he art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements Wherefore doth the wicked prosper and why are they blessed that deale treacherously Thou hast planted them they have taken root they grow and bring forth fruit thou art neare in their mouth but farre from their reines The Prophet Habakkuk useth greater boldnesse saying O Lord how long shall I cry unto thee and thou dost not heare even cry out of violence and thou dost not save Why dost thou shew me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance for spoyling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention Therefore is the Law slacked and judgement doth never goe forth for the wicked doth encompasse about the righteous But the hypocrites and carnall professors used more stout words against the Lord Mal. 3.14 and said It is vaine to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance and walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts And now we call the proud happy yea they that worke wickednesse are exalted and even they that tempt God are delivered And this holy Psalmist David was overtaken in this kinde as himself acknowledgeth Psal 73.2 3 c. But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had welnigh slipt for I was envious at the foolish when I beheld the prosperity of the wicked for their strength is firme they are not in trouble pride compasseth them as a chaine violence covers them as with a garment they speake wickedly concerning oppression they set their mouth against heaven And it is an infirmity unto which we are all subject But this Doctrine is a remedy to cure this disease It teacheth the same lesson which David did meet with in the house of God viz. that God will terribly suddenly and totally destroy them He setteth them in slippery places and casteth them downe into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors And when the wicked spring as the grasse and the workers of iniquity flourish is then that they shall be destroyed for ever Wherefore let us beare this lesson in minde that we may not be over-taken with envy and fretting at the pride and power of ungodly persecutors for a little while but tremble rather to think of their wofull end And if we have slipt in this kinde let us here see our folly and condemne our selves as David did saying verse 22. So foolish and ignorant was I as a beast before thee Secondly this Doctrine which speaks nothing but terrour vse 2 to the enemies and persecutors of the Church affords matter of comfort to the faithfull in times most feareful and comfortlesse when they are beset with feares and dangers by reason of the multitude and power and the wrath of the enemies kindled against them and ready to swallow them up If their hearts be troubled and their soules grieved to see the world pestered and the Land over-growne with cursed Bryars and Thornes here is comfort that God will in due time take them away and rid the land of them and the more terrible they are to the godly the more terrible will the Lord be to them and more terribly will he destroy them If they be so multiplyed and increased in power and sharp set to swallow all up at once and we have no might to withstand their fury Let this comfort us that God is more ready at hand to scatter them in a moment suddenly and will doe it for his owne names sake he will bring suddain destruction upon them when we are in great extremity then it is Gods opportunity to make bare his mighty arme and to cut them off in a moment If we feare that after the old Lyons are destroyed the young will grow up and when the hardned pricks are consumed the green will remaine to continue our troubles feares and dangers let us pluck up our heart and be confident that God will take them all away both the green and dry none shall escape If there be any failing or any delay the fault is in us because we have not put away our sins we binde Gods hands that he cannot strike as he would speedily do if we were as fit to receive as he is to give deliverance Wherefore for a conclusion let us call upon the Lord and sue unto him earnestly in these dayes of publike fasting prayer and humiliation for the assistance and grace of his Spirit that wee may fast from sin and by true repentance wash our hearts from wickednesse that we may be saved We cannot more earnestly desire and long for the downfall and destruction of our desperate and deadly enemies those hurtfull and dangerous Thorns and Brambles which are the plague and curse that lyeth heavy upon our land nor more heartily wish for full deliverance from their rage and fury than the Lord wisheth and desireth that we by repentance holy obedience newnesse of heart and uprightnesse of spirit were ripened and fitted for deliverance so he himselfe sheweth and testifieth by his owne words Deut. 5.29 O that there were such an heart in them that they would feare me and keep my Commandements alwayes that it might be well with them and with their children for ever And Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise and understood this that they would consider their latter end How should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight And Ps. 81.13 14. O that my people would harken unto me and Israel would walke in my wayes I should soone subdue their enemies and turne my hand against their adversaries And now seeing the Lord is so ready so willing and so desirous to save us Let us take heed lest by not puting away our sins and amending our lives we put away salvation from us and judge our selves unworthy of it and so provoke the Lord to turne away his face and favour from us and leave us in the hand and to the will of them who are so ready to swallow us up in a moment and whose will is to cut off the name and remembrance of us from the face of the earth From which heavy curse and judgement the Lord deliver us for his mercies sake in Iesus Christ FINIS a 63 years b Nehem 9.27 and Obad. 21. Ianuar. 29. 1638. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 Sam. 23.2 1 Sam. 25. Psal. 64.5 Jer. 5.30 Ier. 15.17 Numb. 16. Deut. 13. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Exod. 15. Isa. 26 1â— Eccles. 9.12 Iudg. 1.7 Hab. 1.2 3 Vers. 18 19 Psal. 2.7