Judah that enter in at these Gates to Worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Amend your wayes and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Ah! Sirs if we desire the continuance of this great Mercy of entring the Gates to worship the Lord for Gods sake let us be reforming our Lives and turning every one from the Evil of his wayes that we may provoke the Lord no more to hate the Palaces of our Jacob or forsake the Assemblys in our Israel for hereby indeed can we only shew that we are glad of these great things that God hath done for us Fifthly We should be glad demonstrated in our satisfaction and contentedness of Spirit with what God hath done laying aside all needless fears and jealousies which tend only to disquiet the mind and render us uncapable of worshiping God as we should do Oh hear and tremble at the Apostles solemn Admonition 1 Exo. 10.10 Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer God hath influenced our Soveraign to do such great things for us which none of his Predecessors ever did largly expressed in his unparalleld Declaration A Declaration so full of Princely Love and Affection so full of Amazing Candor and Condescention that it deserves to be writ in Letters of Gold. Behold Majesty on the Thone veyling the Scepter and darting the Rayes of his Royal Favour into the poorest Cottage Behold a Crowned King Compassionating and Commiserating the Calamities of his meanest Subjects What shall I say Behold an Index pointing to the rich graces and vertues in the large Folio of the Royal Breast And shall we be yet murmuring and indulge discontents and fears Oh! this would be a very ungrateful Requital both to God and the King. Oh Beloved I earnestly beg you that we may Eat our Bread with Joyfulness and dwell in our Habitations with Gladness with what God and the King hath done for us Sixthly We should be glad demonstrated in our Dutiful Deportment towards our Soveraign God is the Efficient he is the Instrument of these great things let us therefore be like those of old who blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of Heart for all the goodness he had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People We are now under the indispensible Duty of Gratitude as well as of Law and Gospel to be a quiet and peaceable People Oh! that the King may never see any thing in our Carriages to make him Repent of the kindness he hath shown to us I will leave that word with you and I cannot but earnestly press it upon you which Solomon the wisest of men left in charge to his Son 24 Prov. 21.22 My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the Ruin of them both Oh! let us make good our Soveraigns good Opinion that good Christians will be good Subjects and herein shall we shew our selves glad in a right gladness I shall now in a few words shew you what a kind of gladness this should be and I have done First It should be a forgetful gladness I do not mean forgetful of the Mercies we receive but of the Miseries we have felt Oh! let them be Buried in the Grave of Oblivion let them be as though they never were and to that end I would commend the Spiritual Improvement of those words Prov. 31.6 7. Give strong Drink unto those that are ready to Perish and Wine unto those that be of heavy Hearts let him drink and forget his Poverty and remember his Misery no more Who ever hath been pincht by the late Persecution Oh! let him come and drink of the waters that are runing in our Sanctuaries so will he forget his Poverty and remember his Miseries no more God did not depress us so low but he hath now raised us again Dejicit ut relevei premit ut solatie praestet Denecat ut possit vivificare Deus He covered the head of our Zion with a Cloud in the day of his Anger that the Light of his Countenance and the Glory of his Presence might be now more sweet and precious He over-whalmed us with Sorrow that the Table he hath now spread for us and the Oyl wherewith he is Anointing our Heads might be the more fragrant and odiriferous He brought us down into the Valley of Death that after two days he might revive us and that in the third day he might raise us up that we may live in his sight that we may know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the Morning and that his coming to us is as the Rain as the latter and former Rain unto the Earth Oh then what-ever hardships we have undergone let them all be forgotten Secondly It should be a Charitable gladness We should so be glad for these great things as to put away all Anger and Malice and thoughts of Revenge against those that have done us wrong for so is the Gospel command 5 Math. 44. But I say unto you Love your Enemies Bless them that Curse you do good to them that Hate you and Pray for them which Dispitefully use you and Persecute you Oh! Remember that a Forgiving Spirit is a Gospel Spirit Thirdly It should be a Profitable gladness We should labour to be so glad for these great things as to get good by them improving the means of Grace we now enjoy for our Souls good saying with David 112 Psa 1 2 3 4 5 6. I was glad when they said unto me Let us go unto the House of the Lord. Our Feet shall stand within thy Gates O Jerusalem Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compact together whether the Tribes go up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord for there are set Thrones of Judgment the Thrones of the House of David Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Oh Sirs This gladness will turn to a good account at the last day Fourthly It should be a Spiritual gladness Not in a Carnal way of Rejoycing as the World do nor upon the account of any Carnal or VVorldly Intrest but purely on a Spiritual account As our Saviour admonished his Disciples Luke 10.20 Notwithstanding In this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven I have not now time to apply it but so should our gladness be Fifthly It should be an Eucharistical gladness Oh! how should we be Blessing Praising Adoring and Magnifying the Lord our God in the Sense of these great things he hath done for us How should we be stiring up our selves to the Praise of him as David did 108 Psa 1.2 3 4. O God my Heart is fixed I will Sing and give Praise even with my Glory Awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early and I will sing Praises to thee among the Nations for thy Mercy is great above the Heavens and thy Truth reacheth unto the Clouds This will be a gladness truly becoming the Professors of the Gospel Sixthly It should be an Influential gladness Oh! what an Influence should these great things have upon our whole Man to serve our God more purely to live to him more holily and to walk before him more humbly then ever we have done as the Apostle urgeth the Romans Chap. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercy of God that you present your Body a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service If this Exhortation were well practiced by all that profess the Name of God in England Oh! How would Peace Triumph over Dissention in the Nation How would Plenty Triumph over Poverty in the City And that which is best of all how would Religion Triumph over Prophaneness in every Corner of the Land And thereby how would God have the Glory and we the solid lasting Comfort of these great things he hath done for us Amen Amen Hallelujah Hallelujah FINIS Advertisement THere will very shortly be Published for the gratifying the Desires of many another Sermon of this Reverend Authors the very first he Preacht at the opening of the Meeting-House in Spittle-fields being a most Seasonable Discourse of Gods hearing Prayer
Published with Allowance The Dissenters JUBILEE As it was Sounded in the Audience of A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY AT The Publick Meeting-Place in Spittle-Fields near London on Tuesday May 17. 1687. BEING A Day of Thanks-giving to praise the Lord for his VVonderful Appearance and Over-ruling Providence in the Present Dispensation of Liberty of Conscience By Charles Nicholets Preacher of the Gospel and Pastor of a Congregation there Judg. 10.16 And his Soul was Grieved for the Misery of sIrael Psalm 12.5 For the Oppression of the Poor for the Sighing of the Needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that Puffeth at him LONDON Printed by G. Larkin without Bishopsgate and are to be Sold by most Book-Sellers 1687. To the most August And Justly-Renowned-Monarch James the Second By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Dread Soveraign AMongst the Numerous Returns of Gratitude that flow from great Bodies of Your People in all Parts of Your Dominions for Your Majesties Gracious and most Healing Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Vouchsafe to admit this mean Discourse to be humbly Dedicated to Your Immortal Name For which if any censure me as highly presumptuous I must with Submission alledge that it was Your Gracious Clemency that not only Encouraged but in a manner Enforced me thereunto For since Your Majesty has been the Glorious Instrument in the Hand of God of Delivering us from those Shackles upon Conscience and the many Insupportable Rigors whereunto the Penal Laws and their severe Prosecution had long expos'd us I could not think we should fully discharge our Duty to the Almighty in that respect without some particular Expression of Thankfulness to Your Majesty his Vicegerent And withal to Evidence the Sincerity of our Hearts I was not unwilling to declare publickly what Doctrine and Sentiments we Endeavour to Impress upon our Hearers on this happy Occasion For however Dissenters may have been Misrepresented It has always been my Principle unfeignedly to Obey that Precept of our Blessed Saviour To give unto God and unto Caesar each their due Thus as I Preach'd the following Sermon to demonstrate that I fear God and desire to improve all his Providences to the great Ends of Christianity so I offer these poor Papers as a standing Testimony that I sincerely Honour the King. In which Application I forget not your Majesties Grandeur nor my own Groveling Condition Yet I cannot induce my self to apprehend a Frown from that Face which has spread such Irradiating Smiles throughout more than three Kingdoms or that Your Majesty can be Angry tho the meanest of your Subjects thank you for those Favours they can never be enough sensible of He that would not a Beggar should bow to him must with-hold his Hands from giving Alms. Had Your Majesty restrain'd your Goodness Your Throne had been too Dreadful for the Approach of such a Shrub as I. But now that You have dilated Your Clemency in so extraordinary a manner to every Corner of Your Territories whilst the Lofty Hills are Ecchoing Your Just Praises You cannot for the Harmony 's sake be offended that the Humble Valleys bear a part in the joyful Chore. 'T is Great Sir on these Considerations that I humbly beg leave by this Dedication to Express my own Thankful Acknowledgments together with those of that Little Flock whereunto I am more peculiarly â—elated for the Invaluable Happiness we enjoy through Your Majesties Benignity Now that that Great GOD who enclin'd Your Royal Heart to this Blessed Work may be a Glorious Canopy of Protection over You and bless You with the Dew of Heaven and Fatness of the Earth And that as He has given You to the Joy of Great Britain a Crown here He may fit You by His Grace for a Better an Immarcessible Crown hereafter Is and shall always be the dayly and most Fervent Prayer of Your Majesties most Dutiful most Obedient and most Thankful Subject CHARLES NICHOLETS THE Dissenters Iubilee PSAL. CXXVI 3. The LORD hath done great things for us whereof we are glad WHat our blessed Lord said to his Hearers concerning another Text relating to Himself I may say to you with respect to the first Verse of this Psalm When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion we were like them that dreamed This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears God has strangely wonderfully unexpectedly turned back our Captivity and we verily are even as those that dream Our hearts like the Babe in Elizabeths Womb leaping for joy and skipping like the young Vnicorns on Lebanon or dancing like David before the Ark in the sence of this amazing and stupendious Providence Now is the time that our Mouths are filled with Laughter and our Tongues with Singing for those that wish not well to us are forced to say among themselves The Lord hath done great things for them And if they say so much more reason have we to answer with the Church here by way of Concession The Lord indeed hath done great things for us whereof we are Gald The words are very plain and without much help of Logick or Grammar we may easily see through them as containing an Historical account of GOD's Acting in way of Mercy and his Peoples Rejoycing in way of Gratitude and exultation of Spirit My work is with respect to the occasion of our Meeting here this day to show you how obvious the one is and how congruous the other would be There can be no such stranger in our Israel as to be unacquainted with what great things the Lord hath done for us Oh! that there were never a Son or Daughter in our Zion backward in their Humble thankful and joyfull acknowledgment of it crying out from the very bottom of their Hearts Whereof we are glad Gaudia quae multo parta dolore placent Method obliges me to speak in order unto Four Things which lie before us in the Text. 1. The Agent or Person acting and that is the Eternal God The Lord hath done 2. The Object for whom he acts for us 3. The Predicate with its Amplification concerning his acting He hath done great things 4. The Influential Operation that this has upon all that fear the Lord Whereof we are Glad I begin with the first of these 1. The Lord Jehovah the Great and Powerful God the Creator of the ends of the Earth who can and does all things in Heaven above and on earth below according to the good pleasure of his own will That God who by his all-commanding Power brought Light out of Darkness extracted Order out of Confusion and dasht back the Waters from the naked Land. That God who made Almonds flourish upon Aarons sapless Rod That God who supplied his People with Water out of the hard Rock In a word that God who is glorious in Holiness Fearful in Praises and one that worketh Wonders in and among the Children of Men he it is that
pleasant things the loss of which we so much deplore Lam. 5.16 The Crown is fallen from our head wo unto us that we have Sinned for this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim because of the Mountain of Zion which is desolate the Foxes walk upon it Ponit symbolum verae contritionis And Oh! that we were as hearty and as violent in bemoaning of Sin the true cause as ever we were in complaining of Sorrow the genuine effect But we have sinned and behold we are delivered Oh! what a miracle of Mercy that the Almighty should appear in any way for us Sinners Were there any real manifestations of Repentance among us or any beginnings of turning from the evil of our ways the admiration of this day would not be so great But as we have Sinned we do yet Sin and are going on farther and farther in the paths of Sin without any remorse or reluctancy without any Humiliation or Contrition and yet that God the Holy God the Sin-hating God should do such great things for us great Sinners Oh! wonder wonder Fourthly For Vs despised and contemptible creatures who were low and vile in the sight of the whole World and so far following the steps of our dear Lord in his Sufferings that we were verily rejected of men a People of Sorrow and acquainted with Grief We were the Drunkards Song the Atheist Scorn and a scoff to all the Profane Ones So that the complaint of the Church was exactly true of us Psalm 79.4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us What flouts what jears were the sons of Belial making at us because and meerly because we defended the Kingly Office of Christ in his Church and in the defence of that with Moses esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches then the treasures of the World How odious hath the name of a Dissenter been in this Land How miserably have we been misrepresented in all our ways in all our actions in all our circumstances VVhat artificial tricks have been used to make us despicable even among them that never knew us VVhat contempt hath been poured upon us by the men of this Generation VVhat villanous base things have been told of us from one end of the Land to the other How have the Pulpits and the Benches been full yea running over with these vile and most untrue suggestions As if our Ministers were men without Learning our People without Sence and all of us a company of mad distracted creatures scarce fit to live How have we been Be-rebell'd and Be-traytor'd How many times have we been confidently accused to be no friends to Caesar implacable Enemies to all Government hatching of Plots contriving of mischiefs continually These with a thousand other shams have been industriously managed to render us Odious and Loathsome in the Eyes of our Soveraign Like the dealings the Prophet speaks of Jer. 20.10 11. For I heard the defaming of man fear on very side Report say they and we well Report it All my Familiars watched for my Halting saying Peradventure he will be Enticed and we shall prevail against him and we shall take our Revenge on him But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible One therefore my Persecutors shall stumble and they shall not prevail they shall be greatly ashamed for they shall not prosper their everlasting Confusion shall never be forgotten The Practice of our Adversaries these late Years past hath been much like this they have Reported the worst they could invent Calumniari audacter fortiter aliquid Hoerebit hath been their avouched Principle and indeed by their art of Lying they have keep us a long time under their hatches But now for us thus Abused and Slandered Creatures the Lord hath rouzed up himself to do great things for our Persecutors are now stumbling they can no longer prevail they are now greatly ashamed and confusion of Face is inevitably come upon them Fifthly For us distrustful unbelieving Creatures we were so worn out with Persecutions and bitter Sufferings that as we had almost forgot what a quiet comfortable State was so we had left it out of our Creed to believe that such a State should ever be our Portion again Oh! How much down and flagg'd was our Faith We were ready to conclude with Zion The Lord had forsaken us and our God had forgotten us and that he had quite shut up the tender Bowels of his Mercy and would be gratious no more to us Nay our distrustfulness of the possibility of deliverance and the All-sufficiency of God to bring it about came up parallel with that high Provocation of Israel we find mentioned Psal 78.19 Yea they spake against God they said Can God Furnish a Table in the Wilderness Therefore the Lord heard this and was wrath so a Fire was kindle against Jacob and Anger also came up against Israel Oh! Have we not tempted God in the very same kind Have not we made reflections on his Power Have we not thought it impossible Deliverance should be wrought cut for us and thereby highly dishonoured the Lord our God in the wilderness of our Troubles by disponding in his Goodness and by distrusting of his Power Our Hearts grew faint and our Spirits fail'd within us so that we gave up all for lost And through the extream sinking of our Faith we lookt upon our selves as a People wholly markt out for destruction In so much as we were ready to say with the Prophet Oh that we had in the Wilderness a Lodging place of Wayfaring men That we might go and live solitarily alone or that we might hide our selves in the Deserts of the Earth till the bitter Calamity were over past Indeed we knew not where to go or what to do so great was our Fear and so little was our Faith. Oh! what an unexpected change of Providence is now come upon us even upon us who were puting this great and glorious day of Mercy so far from us in our thoughts and apprehensions It was with us as with that Lord we read of on whom the King leaned 2 Kings 7.12 Then Elisha said Hear the Word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord To morrow about this time shall a Measure of fine Flower be sold for a Sheckle in the Gates of Samaria Then a Lord on whose hand the King leaned answered the man of God and said Behold if the Lord would make Windows in Heaven might this thing be And he said Behold thou shalt see it with thine Eyes but shalt not Eat thereof There requires more Faith then I doubt most of us were ever possessors of to see the Plenty of Deliverance in the midst of the pinching Scarcity of Persecution Tarda solet magnis rebus in esse fides Well but though our Faith could not behold it God hath graciously vouchsafed it He hath done great things for us who were great Unbelievers Sixthly
taring at a Meeting as though the Town were on Fire that were making such a horible hubbub with Clamours and Out-cryes as though some Treason of the first Magnitude were a committing Those who were a Prophaning the Sabbath Blaspheming God and his Ways that were indeed perfectly Drunk with Fury and Madness VVhere are they now Fortis ubi est Ajax ubi sunt ingentia magni verba Viri Alas altum silentium they are ashamed of their craft Their Huffing and Hectoring their Raving and Swearing their Threatning and Exclaiming is now forcibly quell'd and they are become as mute as the Idiot who keeps silent because he knows not how to speak Now verily is fulfilled that great word Psalm 3.7 Arise O Lord save me O my God! for thou hast smitten all mine Enemies upon the Cheek-bone Thou hast broken the Teeth of the Vngodly That is Thou hast brought them to great Disgrace and Reproach and who can expect a better end then that of Shame and Contempt who run in ways of so great abomination The Enmity and Inveteracy in some Mens Spirits has been beyond former presidents or examples What a Spirit of Madness was there against the poor Dissenters I remember what Laocoon said to the Trojans Quis furor O Cives quae tanta insania mentem occupat One would wonder in a Christian Land especially the very Idea of modesty and sobriety should be so wholly raz'd out of Mens Mouths and Hearts in speaking and acting in so plain a way of Inhumanity as scarce any Heathen but would have blusht at it But now God hath checkt this Hellish Spirit and hath sent it to the Bottomless Pitt from whence it came and I hope it will never have a resurrection more in England We may say of it as Jacob did of Simeon and Levi. Cursed be their Anger for it was fierce and their Wrath for it was cruell for in their wrath they killed a Man and in their Self-will they digged down a Wall. Oh! how true is that great word 76 Plalm 10. Surely the Wrath of Man shall praise Thee and the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain VVe had Sinned and God in Judgement let loose these Savages to worry us for a Season But now His Pleasure is performed concerning us He hath muzled and chained them in their places again God made use of as much of their wrath as served his own will and now he hath restrained the rest though they may have the same will and inclinations yet they have not the same Power and Opportunity and the God of Heaven grant they never may Oh Sirs what a great thing is this that God hath done for us He hath stayed the rough Wind in the day of the East-Wind He hath ceased the chilling full-mouth'd blasts of Boreas and hath made the gentle Zephirus speak peace in our Horizon So that in gratefull remembring the Lord our Maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth we may triumphantly say _____ And where is the Fury of the Oppressor Secondly He hath opened a way for the Ambassadors of Christ to walk abroad without danger and Appear in the Streets without fear of Apprehending what a terrible time hath it been with poor Ministers How have they been driven from their Families as not able to live at peace or with any safety in their Habitations And when they went abroad in what strange habits were they compell'd to go lest they should have fallen into the hands of unreasonable Men men of no Faith no Conscience no Christianity no Humanity But now they may shew themselves and appear as they are The faithful Servants of God and the King 's dutiful Subjects There is now no need of uncouth Garments to obscure them no need of flanting Periwigs to disguise them no need of changing their names to keep them from the Cognizance of the Sons of Belial Methinks I cannot reflect on the time past without observing how the Messengers of the Lord were much in the like condition with Elijah 1 Kings 1910. And he came thither unto a Cave and Lodged there and behold the word of the Lord came to him and he said unto him What dost thou here Elijah And he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts for the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets with the Sword and I even I only am left and thy seek my Life to take it away Oh! London London how will it remain as an Indelible mark of reproach upon thee that those Men who were once thy Beauty more then any of thy stately Structures who were once thy Glory more then any of thy Indian Spices or far-fetcht Treasures should yet be thought unworthy to live within thy Walls but were Hunted into Holes and Corners and searched for from House to House as tho they were Fellons or some horrid Flagitious Persons But God hath at length looked in Mercy on the Sons of Levi and lifted up their Heads in our Israel yea to so great an heighth that they may not only walk the Streets in safety but appear in their Pulpits publickly before the face of the VVorld discharging the Duty of their Places which they were solemnly set apart for Now the People may behold their dear Pastors that were rent and torn from them which inforced so much Heart-breaking Sorrow and Lamentation now the Blessed God is making good that Promise Isa 30.19 20. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem thou shalt Weep no more He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy Cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee And though the Lord give you the bread of Adversity and the Water of Affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more But thine Eyes shall see thy Teachers Ay they do see them and they are Rejoycing in the sight of them As there can be no greater Sorrow then when Minister and People parts so there is no greater Joy then when Ministers and People Meets and we have good ground to hope they will be removed into corners no more Non alis se induent they shall not flye away they shall not be forced from their Congregations and Families any more Our Dread Soveraign whose word is Inviolable hath gratiously Promised there shall no such havock be made in this Nation during His happy Reign as there hath been on this account Oh Sirs Is not this a great thing that God hath done for us even far beyond our expectation Thirdly He hath made way for People to live quietly in their Habitations Those peaceable Inhabitants who were so inoffensive in their Conversations that Malice it self could have nothing to say against them but as it was with Daniel in the matter of their God. These I say by this great Revolution of Providence may now live securely and quietly without being pulled and halled