THE REPAIRER OF THE Breach A SERMON Preached at the Cathedral Church of GLOCESTER May 29. 166â— being the Anniversary of His MAIESTY'S Birth-day and happy Entrance into His Emperial City of LONDON By THOMAS WASHBOURN D. D. LONDON Printed for William Leak at the sign of the Crown in Fleet-street between the two Temple-Gates 166â— To the High and Mighty MONARCH CHARLS the Second By the Grace of GOD KING of Great BRITAIN FRANCE and IRELAND Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious SOVERAIGN THAT I assume the boldnesse to tender this Sermon to your Sacred MAIESTY is not from any the least thought I had that it could be worthy Your reading who daily hear the best that the best Learned of Your Clergy preach in-Your Royal Chapel but being preach'd upon that Day which is now made Yours because Your MAIESTY on that Day was made Ours first by Your Birth and then by Your happy Return to Your People and being now printed at the importunity of some of Your MAIESTY's Loyal Subjects that were my Auditors as also by the approbation of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Glocester my worthy and much honored Diocesan I humbly offer it at Your MAIESTY's feet hoping with it to gain the favour of kissing Your MAIESTY's Hands a favour which You have not denyed such is Your Benignity and Condescention to Your meanest Subjects though I have not yet been so happy as to obtain it Not that I wanted an heart ready with the foremost to wait upon Your MAIESTY and bid you welcome home nor that I wanted the like desires and affections perhaps without other men for who is totally free from them to reap some particular benefit in the first fruits of the Churches Harvest which till Your coming lay as it were fallow for many years yielding no encrease to the true Proprietary But as Imperante Augusto natus est CHRISTUS CHRIST was born in the Reign of Augustus so Imperante CAROLO renata esse Ecclesia CHRISTI this poor Church of CHRIST in England is new born or rather raised from the dead in the beginning of Your MAIESTY's Reign as if you were resolved to make good to us St. Paul's wish to the Corinthians Not to reign alone unlesse we also might reign with You and share in Your Triumphs as we had done in Your Sufferings Some such thoughts I say again I might be tickled with for 't is true which that learned Knight Sir Robert Cotton hath observed in the life of Your Predecessor HENRY the 3d That in every shift of Princes there is none either in Church or State so mean or modest that pleaseth not himself with some probable object of preferment But SIR so wonderful and beyond all expectation was Your Restoration to Your Kingdoms that it struck me with astonishment and I became like unto them that dream Great joy as well as great grief over-whelm the spirits as we read of the Patriarch Jacob And in this Deliquium or fainting fit I lay whiles all sorts crowded to see Your MAIESTY and most of my Profession which had not bowed their knees to Baal nor medled with them that were given to change but feared God and the King and suffered with and for Your MAIESTY and Your Royal Father of blessed memory had preferments answerable to their merits before I had the opportunity onely of beholding Your MAIESTY's face and even then I stood like Phaeton at his fathers Court at an humble distance admiring his glories Consistitque procul neque enim propriora ferebat Lumina My weak sight was satisfied with the reflex beams of Your MAIESTY afar off which at a nearer approach and in a direct line would have dazled if not blinded my eyes In this reverential posture I continued a good while saying within my self as Mephibosheth to David Let them take all forasmuch as my Lord the King is come again in peace unto his own house It will be honor and preferment enough for me if I may be but owned by Your MAIESTY for Your MAIESTY'S most humbly devoted and most obedient Subject THOMAS WASHBOURN The Repairer of the BREACH A SREMON c. Isa. 58. 12. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations and thou shalt be called The Repairer of the Breach the Restorer of Paths to dwell in IT is an Observation made by the Royal Preacher Eccles. 3. 1 2 3. To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted a time to break down and a time to build up Experience tells us 't is so with men and so with God too who is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the great Master-builder the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or chief Husbandman Joh. 15. 1. We find him planting his Church under the Parable of a Vineyard Isa. 5. 1. fencing it and planting it with the choicest Vines building a Tower in the midst of it vers. 2. And again vers. 5. we find him resolved to pluck down the hedge thereof and break down the wall and lay it waste But how or by whom would he do this Not by his own immediate hand from heaven as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah but by the hand of the Chaldeans of whom the Psalmist makes a grievous complaint to God whether by way of Prophecy as a thing to come or of History as already past is uncertain Psal. 79. 1. O God the Heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they defiled they have laid Jerusalem on heaps The Jews being by the just judgment of God carried Captives by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon where they did duram servire servitutem endure a long and miserable bondage began at last to bethink themselves which way they might pacifie Gods wrath and recover his favour to which purpose they ordâ—ined solemn Fasts Zech 7. 5. When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me And chap. 8. 19. there is mention of these two months fast and two more the fast of the fourth and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth But when they found that for all their frequent fastings God was not appeased nor they delivered they were moved to wonder and murmur at it vers. 3. of this chapter Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our soul and thou takest no knowledgt Whereupon God commands his Prophet vers. 1. Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins Let them know that their fasts as they are compounded and made up of the bitter ingredients of injustice and cruelty strifes and debates
Many houses shall be desolate even great and fair without inhabitant This this was the cause that the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts that is the house of Israel and the men of Juda his pleasant plant was so eaten up so troden down vers. 5. This was the cause the Christian Church went to wrack by persecution under Heathen Emperors Almighty God making them his Rod to scourge his backsliding people into repentance and better obedience for we are not unlike a childs Top that never goes upright without whipping So St. Cyprian speaking of the times of Decius Quia traditam nobis divinitus disciplinam pax longa corruperat jacentem fidem pene dixerim dormientem censura coelestis erexit Because long peace had corrupted the good order and discipline of the Church delivered to us by divine Authority the wisdom of God thought fit by the hand of his justice to awake the dull and drousie and almost dead faith of Christians And from the same cause Eusebius derives the Original of Dioclesians persecution in whose words as in a glasse we may see the face of our own times with all its deformities take the Latine for want of the Greek Postquam vero res nostrae per nimiam libertatem ad mollitiem ac segnitiem degenerarunt alii alios sunt odio contumeliis prosecuti c. After that our affairs through too great a liberty degenerated into sloth and delicacy and that one began to prosecute another with hate and contumely and when we our selves onely opposed our selves with words of strife and contention when dissimulation and hypocrisie was grown to the heighth of malice Et qui pastcros nostri videbantur repulsa pietatis norma matuis inter se contentionibus fuerunt inflammati c. And they that were or pretended to be our Pastors and Ministers casting off the rule of piety blew the coals of discord among themselves till it grew to a flame and every one made his own ambition play the Tyrant as he listed when such was the hardnesse of our hearts that we were not touched with any sense or feeling thereof nor endeavoured to appease Gods wrath but as if we thought God did not regard and would not punish our sins but were such an one as the Heathen phansied him Nec ben pro meritis capitur nec tangitur ira We ceased not to add sin unto sin and then behold the divine judgment after its usual manner began to visit us by degrees Ita ut persecutio à fratribus qui in militia erant exordia sumeret So that our persecution took its rise and beginning from our brethren that were in the militia then then I say according to that of the Prophet Lam. 2. The Lord covered the daughter of Sion with a clowd in his anger and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his foot-stool in the day of his anger The Lord swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob and hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Juda he hath brought them down to the ground he hath polluted the Kingdom and the Princes thereof he hath encreased in the daughter of Juda mourning and lamentation and he hath violently taken away his tabernacle he hath destroyed the places of the assembly The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts to be forgotten in Sion and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the King and the Priest By this we have discovered what is meant by the old waste places the ruined foundations the breach or breaches that were made in the Israel of God with the reason thereof which hath opened my passage to my second Query By whom the waste places should be built the ruined foundations raised the breaches repaired the paths restored Ex te erunt And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places c. In the seventh chapter of Nehemia there is a long catalogue of the people the Priests and the Levites that had leave from the King of Babylon to go up to Jerusalem and build the waste places especially the Temple their whole number is computed to be forty two thousand three hundred and threescore vers. 66. among whom the grandees or chief are expressed by name vers. 7. and of those I find most honorable mention of two above all the rest as upon whose shoulders rested the main of the work Nehemia and Zerubbabel and therefore we shall insist somewhat upon both as we meet with them recorded in sacred story And first of Nehemias He was cup-bearer to King Artaxerxes as he himself tells us chap. 1. 11. and a great favourite he was as appears chap. 2. for when he commiserating the miserable estate of his native country presented a cup of wine to the King with a heavy heart which discovered it self in a sad face the King said unto him Why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sick this is nothing else but sorrow of heart vers. 2. To which Nehemia replied vers. 3. first praying for the King though a heathen as his duty was then telling him the cause of his sadnesse Let the King live for ever Why should not my countenance be sad when the City the place of my fathers sepulcher lieth waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire Then the King said unto me For what d dost thou make request vers. 4. It seems the King was willing to grant him whatsoever he should ask in reason Observe the piety of the man before he petitions the King he makes supplication to the King of heaven and that was the sure way to speed for the hearts of Kings are in the hand of God So I prayed saith he to the God of heaven and I said unto the King if it please the King and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight that thou wouldst send me unto Juda unto the City of my fathers sepulchers that I may build it Whereupon the King dispatcheth him with a Commission and credential Letters to the Governours beyond the River that they might convey him over to Juda and with a Letter to Asaph the keeper of the Kings Forrest that he might give him timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house and for the wall of the City and for the house of God vers. 8. and to secure him by the way for they that enterprise good and great designes as this was are like to meet with strong opposition the King sent Captains of the Army and Horsemen with him vers. 9. Notwithstanding he like a prudent man resolves to carry on the businesse more by policy than power He comes to Jerusalem the Metropolis or head City of Judea and was there some time before he told any man what God hâ—d put in his heart to do at Jerusalem vers. 12. Then he takes a private survey of the ruined walls
and when things were ripe for the work he said unto the Nobles the Rulers the Priests and the rest of the people Ye see the distress that we are in how Jerusalem lieth waste and the gates thereof are burnt with fire Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more a reproach Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me And they said Let us rise up and build So they strengthened their hands for this good work vers. 17 18. Yet could not he with all his assistants carry on the work so smoothly but that he met with some disturbance a phanatick party to hinder and oppose him and to head them they had a notable Leader one Sanballat vers. 10. When Sanballat the Hâ—romite and Tobiah the servant the Ammonite heard of it it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel And therefore they fall first to jeer and scoff at them vers. 19. They laughed us to scorn and despised us saying What is the thing that ye do But Nehemia answered vers. 20. The God of heaven he will prosper us therefore we his servants will arise and build but ye have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem From scoffs they proceed to secret plots and force of arms vers. 7 8. But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdoties heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped then they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it And this they contrived in a clandestine way saying They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst amongst them and slay them and cause the work to cease vers. 11. Whereupon Nehemiah plays the part of a pious and vigilant Commander falling to his prayers and setting a strict watch vers. 9. Neverthelesse we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night and raised a new militia vers. 13 14. Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall and on the higher places I even I set the people after their families with their swords their spears and their bowes And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people Be not afraid of them remember the Lord is great and terrible and fight for your brethren your sons and your daughters your wives and your houses When all this would not make him desist he receives an intimation that they intended to assâ—ssinate his person chap. 6 10. They will come to slay thee yet he still retains his wonted courage saying Should such a man as I flee Thus he stood like a Colosius unmoved and undaunted till he had done the work And now we have found the man that in the singular number may well be stiled Reparator ruinarum the Repairer of the Breach But can we find out ne'r another Yes we have him Ezr. 1. 8. by the name of Shesbazzar the Prince of Juda or chief Governor deputed to that office by King Cyrus and commissionated to build the Temple chap. 5. 14. and build he did vers. 16. Then came the same Shesbazzar and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem This Shesbazzar is the same with Zerubbabel who as a Prince is named in the first place among those that came from Babylon as the Captain General chap. 2. 2. and chap. 5. 2. Then rose up Zerubbabel c. And Hag. 1. 14. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governor of Juda c. If we look into his genealogy Matth. 1. 12. we shall find him like Moecenas descended from antient Kings Josias begat Jechonias and Jechonias begat Salathiel and Salathiel begat Zerubbabel This Zerubbabel whose spirit God stirred up to this grand employment went through his work with all alacrity and activity Ezr. 3. he re-edifieth the Temple in despite of all adversaries the manner and means how it should be done by him is foretold Zech. 4. 6 7. This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying Not by might nor by tower but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts What art thou O great mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings crying Grace grace unto it Two great blocks were in the way to discourage Zerubbabel in the work the one was the weaknesse of his party that should assist him the other the strength of the enemy that would oppose him First The weaknesse of his own party they were but a small remnant of the poor captive Jews whose spirits were dejected with their tedious servitude and extream oppression and this might make Zerubbabel diffident of the event and reason thus against it The work is great that we are to undertake and our strength but little and therefore in all probability our endeavors are like to be frustrated and we to perish in the undertaking To this God speaks Not by might or army as 't is in the Margin nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts Know this work is not to be effected by human help meerly but by divine power not by strength of man but by the Spirit of God whose strength is made perfect in weaknesse by his Spirit who is Lord of hosts and commands all the Armies of heaven and earth Though you had no strength at all though you had no life at all left in you though you were but an heap of dead and dry bones God can bring you together put new life in you and cause you on a suddain to start up a numerous Army as in Ezekiâ—ls vision chap. 37. 10. yea though these bones were laid in the grave covered never so deep in the earth God can raise you thence To such a desperate condition was Israel reduced at that time that God was fain to quicken and revive their dead hope by the parable of those dry bones vers. 11 12. Then he said unto me Son of man these bones are the whole hovse of Israel behold they say our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Therefore prophesie and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel The argument holds a majori ad minus he that can raise the dead out of their graves can bring you out of captivity Nay more not onely from dry bones but from very stones God can raise up children unto Abraham rather than his Church should not be builded This block thus removed out of the way the other yet behind was the mighty power of Zerubbabels enemies which is therefore called a great
and our Soveraign The stone which our late builders refused if I may call them builders that were destroyers is become the head stone of the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad it And that he might be Charles the Great indeed the great repairer of our breaches he hath publickly declared his great Mercy in granting a general Pardon and passing an Act of Oblivion yea and pressing this present Parliament to a confirmation thereof He hath manifested his great Charity in abolishing all notes of discord and difference of parties conjuring all his subjects to a perfect union among themselves He hath shew d his Pitty in indulging a liberty to tender consciences in matters of Religion which disturb not the peace of the Kingdom He hath exprest his great Justice in being himself sworn to govern not by his arbitrary will as our late Masters did but by the known Laws of the Land leaving all his Subjects to be tryed by them But I cast water in the Sea His own gracious Messages Letters and Declarations both before and since his coming speak him much better than I can and therefore to them I commend you To conclude all How shall we praise this our Zerubbabel whose renown is great who hath set up the Sanctuary of the Lord again for an everlasting worship and laid the foundations of our houses made both Church and State rise out of their ruines as the world out of a Chaos and become glorious to the wonder of our own and other Nations How shall we praise him as he deserves We will call him the Repairer of our breaches the Restorer of paths to dwell in and we will wish him all prosperity in the Psalmists words Good luck have thou with thine honor ride on because of the word of truth of meeknesse and of righteousnesse and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things I will dismisse you with the words of Nehemia to the people chap. 8. vers. 10. Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto our Lord Now to the King of Kings that brought our King this day to us be ascribed all honor and glory and thanksgiving this day and for ever AMEN FINIS These Books are lately come forth and sold by William Leak at the Crown in Fleet-street between the two Temple-gates An exact Abridgment of the Records in the Tower of London from the Raign of K. Edward the second to K Ri hard the third of all the Parliaments holden in each Kings raign and the several Acts in every Parliament by Sir Robert Cotton Kt. and Baronet An Apology for the Discipline of the antient Church intended especially for that of our Mother the Church of England in answer to the Admonitory Letter lately published by William Nicolson Arch-Deacon of Brecon and now Lord Bishop of Glocester Le Prince d' Amour or the Prince of Love With a collection of several Ingenious Poems and Songs by the Wits of the Age 8. A learned Exposition of the Apostles Creed delivered in several Sermons by William Nicholson Archdeacon of Brecon and now Lord Bishop of Glocester The Solemne League and Covenant Arraigned and Condemned by the sentence of the Divines of London and Cheshire c. by Lawrence Womack now D D. and Arch-deacon of Suffolk The Result of False Principles or Error convicted by its own evidence with Diotrophes his Dialogues by the Author of the Examination of Tylenus before the Tryers whereunto is added a learned Disputation of Dr. Goads sent by King James to the Synod at Dort 1 Cor. 8. Gen. 45. 26. Ovid Met. l. 2. 2 Sam. 19. 30. Vid. Dr. Ham in locum Division St. Hierom in locum St. Chrys. in Psal. 136. Cyprian de Lapsis Euseb. l. 8. Eccles. Hist. c. 1. Knolls his Turk hist. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 27 Minutius Felix l. 5. Eccl. Poâ— Sen. Trag. Lucan Psal. 119. 126. Martial * Lambert * â—â—omâ—â—â—