Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A53432
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The best guide in the worst of times delivered in a sermon at the Guild-Hall Chappel on March 27, 1681 before the honourable the aldermen and several eminent citizens of the city of London / by William Orme ...
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Orme, William.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing O437; ESTC R23123
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28,642
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60
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THE Best Guide IN THE WORST OF TIMES Delivered in a SERMON AT THE GVILD-HALL Chappel ON March 27. 1681. Before the Honourable THE ALDERMEN And several Eminent Citizens Of the CITY of LONDON By WILLIAM ORME Vicar of S. Bartholomews the Less London LONDON Printed for Samuel Carr at the Sign of the Kings Head near the West End of S. Pauls 1681. To the Right Honourable Sir PATIENCE WARD Kt Lord Mayor Of the City of LONDON And to the Honourable Court of Aldermen MY LORD THe Honor and Obedience which is justly due and ought to be given to Magistratical Authority doth many times influence Men to do that which the sense of their own Vnworthiness and Imperfections doth reasonably disswade them from Vpon which Account this Sermon is Presented to Publick View with making its First and Humble Approaches to Your Honour For where should it properly go for Maintenance and Protection but to that Mansion-House from whence issued forth the Order which caused it to appear thus habited from the Press This Discourse indeed â—aâ—l not the Honour of Your Lordships Presence that being prevented by Your Lordships much condoled Sickness But now it lies under and before Your Lordships eye not only to be read and examined but to be taken care of and Defended MY LORD The Times are Dark and Slippery wherein a Wise man can hardly find his way and a Strong Man walk without fear of stumbles and falls how much more the Ignorant and the Weak In compassion therefore to such I endeavoured all I could to furnish them with the Best Guide and Surest Rule for their Conduct and Support And if Men would be but as ready and earnest to follow this Advice which St. Paul gives for their outward Carriage and Conversation as they are to observe what the Learned gives them for their Healths and Estates I am confident Our Clouds of Fears and Jealousies would quickly Vanish Our Storms of Strifes and Contentions would gather into a Calm And Our God would defend us from all sorts of Enemies or else force them to be at Peace with Vs In short I have only this to crave that my Readers will perufe this Sermon with the like Good meaning and Honest mind as it was Preached and seemed to be Heard And be so kind to me as to cover its faults with Charity and so kind to themselves as to put the rest in practice with Diligence and Perseverance To the zealous prosecuting of which we of this City especially have a double Incouragement and Obligation The First is the Direction of one that was an Infallible Apostle The other is the Exemplary Pattern of Your Lordships Piety Prudence and Peaceable Conduct To whose Fame and Merit I Offer this as my First-fruits with Hearty Prayers for Your Lordships Perfect Recovery and all Possible Assurances that I Am Your Lordship's And the Honorable Court of Aldermen's Most Humble and Obedient Servant WILL. ORME St. Bartholomews the less April 18. 1681. A SERMON PREACH'D AT Guild-Hall Chappel March 27. 1681. PHILIPPIANS I. 27. The former part of the Verse Only let your Conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ THE constancy and reality of a Friend is never so visible and known as in the time of straits and necessities The skill and courage of a Pilot is never so much tried and proved as when the Vessel is engaged with a Tempest In such like seasons as these S. Paul took the opportunity of shewing his admirable prudence and hearty love for and to his Philippians who were in a distressed and deplorable condition when he sent them this Epistle For first they were miserably rent and divided by the artifices of some ill-minded men who partly out of ambition of setting up themselves and partly out of envy to S. Paul's flourishing same and Ministry did all they could and that under the profession of Christianity too to allenate the Peoples minds and affections from S. Paul and to crumble them into parties Of these you read Verses 15 16 some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will The one preach Christ of contention the other of love Secondly They lay under the fearful apprehensions of being assaulted and persecuted by an Enemy from abroad For there were some at Nero's Court who out of inveterate malice to Christianity had represented to him the many mischiefs and dangers that would attend his Government if he suffered Christians to encrease and multiply Upon which suggestion Nero might possibly give orders to fall upon the Philippians with Sword and Violence And of these sort of Enemies S. Paul who was then a Prisoner at Rome and so might probably hear what was done at Court gave the Philippians notice with this annexed Exhortation But in nothing be terrified or affrighted at the adversaries for though they may think to root up Christianity by destroying your lives yet you shall be saved the Gospel shall flourish and they shall come to naught For this persecution is an evident sign or token of perdition to them but to you of Salvation and that of God Verse 28. And now if we consider these Philippians tortured with Intestine broils and convulsions and threatned to be set upon with Sword and Persecution we may reasonably conjecture that they knew not well what to do nor what course to take to save and defend themselves and their newly espoused Religion S. Paul therefore like an affectionate constant Friend and a most skilful Pilate took their condition so far into his pity and consideration as to give them the best advice and assistance and which none but an Apostle could give the like For if a Church or People are shaken and divided at home or menaced with ruine from abroad there is no such way for their safety and defence as retreating to the diligent practice of the Apostolical advice given in the Text Only to let their conversations be as becomes the Gospel of Christ In the Opening of which words I shall propose these Four things to be considered First That in evil and dangerous Times men ought to be very careful and prudent in the management of themselves and their conversations Secondly That the best and most prudent course we can take in the ordering of our Conversations is to guide and govern them by the rules and laws contained in the Gospel of Christ Thirdly We shall consider wherein the Agreeableness of a man's Life and Conversation to the Gospel of Christ doth principally consist Fourthly I shall give some Reasons why in evil and perillous Times we ought then more especially to be most prudent and careful in governing our Conversations according to the Gospel of Christ and then conclude with Application I begin with the First That in Evil and Perillous Times men ought to be very careful and prudent in the management of themselves and their Conversations It was in such a like case as this that S. Paul proposed this advice
an House and the power of preserving and defending a City when built not unto the Men themselves but unto the Great God who is the Maker and Upholder of all things Except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it Except the Lord keep ' the City the watchman waketh but in vain Psal 127.1 After the same manner he attributes all Conquests and Victories not to the courage and conduct of Generals and their Armies but unto the God that goes along with them and fights for them Psal 108.11 12. If thou O Lord go not forth with our Hosts we cannot be saved from trouble for vain is the help of Man Nay though David was considerably assisted sometimes by Princes and Allies and though he had often seen the undaunted briskness and courage of his own Souldiers in many Battels yet he at last found it experimentally true That it was better to trust in the Lord than to put any considence in Man That it was better to trust in the Lord than to put any considence in Princes And at another time when this Royal Prophet was in the greatest straits and dangers and few would side with him or fight for him yet even then he was confident of Deliverance and Victory and that because he sound God to be his Friend The Lord is on my side I will not fear For what can Man do unto me The Lord taketh my part with them that help me therefore shall I see my desire upon mine Enemies Psal 118.6 7. And as all the power and force of Armies without God's favour and assistance is frail and weak so the most subtil and deepest contrived designs of the ablest Politicians without Divine help and approbation withers and proves abortive With what wrath and malice did Sanballat and Tobiah the Arabians the Ammonites and the Ashdodites sit in Council and secretly conspire to surprize and fall upon Nehemiah and the Jews just as they were employed and busie in building the walls of Jerusalem But God saith the Text defeated this stratagem for God brought their Counsel to nought Nehem. 4.7 8 15. In all David's Kingdom there was not a greater States-man than Achitophel and we find he proved a good Counsellor as long as he was Loyal to his Prince But when he entred into a conspiracy with Absalom to raise a War and Rebellion against his King and Father how soon was all his wisdom turned into foolishness And the Text tells us it was God himself that did it 2 Sam. 17.14 For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good Counsel of Achitophel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom Now then if God's love to us and helping of us be so absolutely necessary as that without it we cannot either do what we design nor finish what we are doing nor be released from what we suffer nor be secured and saved from what we fear then it will be our highest wisdom and greatest Interest to engage God if possibly to espouse our Cause and take our part For according to the measure of God's will revealed and the usual proceedings of Providence in this World we shall find that Good and Holy Men have never been forsaken of God in any portion of their Lives For God is such a Lover of Goodness and Righteousness and what is like himself that he hath given us all possible Assurances of providing for the Innocent defending the Helpless relieving the Oppressed and of favouring the Righteous dealings of Men. Upon which account it is that God is so oft in Scripture call'd a Tower a Castle a Fortress a Rock of Defence a Refuge in due time of Trouble a Saviour and Mighty Deliverer And if we can but in any reasonable measure imitate David in his sincere Piety and Holiness we shall then have the same cause and occasion to say with him That the Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Tent round about them that fear him That the Lord never faileth them that put their trust in him That he is a Sun and a Shield that he will give grace and glory and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Psalm 84.11 Suitable to which are those words so confidently spoken by St. Paul We know that all things work together for good to them that love God Romans 8. 28. To which may be adjoyned the assurance of Christ himself If ye seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. 33. Seeing then that a Holy Religious Life is so beneficially operative and prevailing with God we ought in evil and perilous days to be then most carefully employed in it For then is the time we stand most in need of God's Power Love and Protection when we see our selves forsaken of all worldly helps and assistances And when there is nothing but Clouds and Darkness round about us then is the light of God's countenance most chearing and refreshing Nor doth Divine wisdom and Power so much delight and ravish our Souls as when it discovers the Snares that were laid for us and saves us just upon the brink of falling into them And that a good and holy Life is thus prevalent with God to protect and defend save and deliver us in evil and dangerous times we have the Testimony of Men in all Ages both of the Jewish and Christian Church who by one signal Demonstration have declared it to be an undoubted Truth and the constant matter of their Faith And this Demonstration was their usual exercise of one solemn Religious Duty or Service peculiarly appropriated to the particular time of worldly Adversity and Temporal Judgments call'd by the name of Fasting and Humiliation For we all very well know that publick or private Fasts are never appointed or kept but when a Kingdom or Person is under some heavy Pressures and Afflictions or the fear and apprehensions of some approaching danger and misery or for the commemorating some signal Judgment and Calamity that is past and we were mercifully saved and delivered from Now what is this Fasting or Humiliation but a taking a Revenge on our Sins which caused God to be our Enemy A putting our selves upon bettering our lives and to be for the Time to come more Godly Righteous and Sober in this present World And what is the end and design of exercising these Religious Duties upon such particular Days but only to seek and find if possibly God's favour to reconcile our selves to him and to prevail with him to stand our Defence and become our Saviour So that we can never religiously observe days of Fasting and Humiliation but it 's with a belief that if we do amend our ways and better our lives then God will be favourable to us and deliver us from all the Judgments we groan under and prevent the Sorrows and Calamities which we justly fear are coming upon us But against what I have said I know it