Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	david_n	king_n	people_n	14,785	5	5.1891	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60388	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margarets Westminster, on Wednesday the 5th of April, 1699 being a solemn day of fasting for imploring a blessing on His Majesty and all his dominions, and for averting those judgments we most justly deserve, and for the distressed Protestants abroad / by James Smalwood ...	Smalwood, James, d. 1719.	1699 (1699)	Wing S4009; ESTC R10065	13,377	29

Jovis 6 die Aprilis 1699. ORdered That the thanks of this House be given to Mr. Smalwood for the Sermon by him Preached before them Yesterday at St. Margaret's Westminster and that he be desired to Print the same and that Mr. Gerrard and Colonel Mountague do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cl ' Dom ' Com' A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. Margarets Westminster On Wednesday the 5th of April 1699. Being a solemn day of Fasting for Imploring a Blessing on his Majesty and all his Dominions and for averting those Judgments we most justly deserve and for the distressed Protestants abroad By James Smalwood Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Romney and His Majesties own Regiment of Foot-Guards LONDON Printed for Abel Roper and R. Basset in Fleet-street 1699. Mr. SMALWOOD's FAST-SERMON Before the House of COMMONS April 5. 1699. A FAST-SERMON BEFORE THE House of Commons PSAL. 80. last ver Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts shew us the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole IF we read over this whole Psalm we may plainly discover by it that the people of Israel were when it was composed under some great and heavy affliction Thou feedest us with the bread of tears ond thou givest us plenteousness of tears to drink Thou hast made us a very strife unto our neighbours and our enemies laugh us to scorn says the Psalmist v. 5. and 6. whereupon according to his usual custom he addresses himself to Almighty God for Relief and Succour Hear O thou shepheard of Israel says he v. 1. stir up thy strength and come help and us verse 2. How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that pray vers 4. and to mention no more of his pathetical Supplications no less than three times in this short Psalm which adds extremely not only to the fervency but also to the Beauty and Harmony of his Prayer he repeats the words I have chose for my Text Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts shew us the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole or as the old Translation renders it nearer the Hebrew Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved Now though the people of Israel's case at that time and ours at present is not altogether the same tho blessed be God we of this Nation do not now labour under any publick affliction neither have our Enemies any great reason to laugh us to scorn yet to shew that this Psalm is very suitable to the occasion of our present meeting we may observe the Holy Prophet prays particularly for three things in it wherein we may reasonably suppose he judged the welfare of the people to consist and which three things we are by publick Authority enjoyned this day to pray to God for 1. He prays for a Blessing upon the King let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand and upon the Son of Man whom thou hast made so strong for thine own self v. 17. 2dly He prays for the afflicted condition of the Church That God in his great meroy and goodness would relieve and comfort that and this he couches very elegantly under the Metapher of a vine Thou hast brought a vine out of Aegypt thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it thou madest room for it and when it had taken root it filled the land why hast thou then broken down her hedge that all those that go by pluck off her grapes the wild boar out of the wood does root it up and the wild beasts of the field devour it vers 12. 13. 3dly He prays to God to remove and avert those judgements which the manifold sins and provocations of the people had justly deserved and that is implyed in the words of my Text. These three things the Holy Prophet particularizes in this Psalm exactly agreeable to the duty required of us this day But what he chiefly sues for and lays the stress of his Prayers on as a means of procuring the other two and indeed all Blessings whatever is a general conversion and repentance of the people this is his chiefest aim this we find the main scope and burden of this his heavenly Song therefore it is he repeats these words so often and heigthens them still with greater vehemency and ardour every time than other Turn us again O God vers 3. Turn us again O Lord God vers 7. Turn us again O Lord God of hosts shew us the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole vers 19. The words are of themselves very plain and intelligible not to spend therefore any time in the explanation of them From the consideration of the circumstances which King David and his people were now in which was under the Judgments of God and the methods that he took to remove those judgments which was a general conversion of the people from sin I draw these two doctrinal conclusions 1. In respect to God that the chief end and design God aims at in sending judgments upon a People or Nation is to reclaim them from their sins 2. In respect to Men that the only way a People or Nation has to avert God's judgments is to turn from their sins I shall speak to these two Points and then apply them to the business of the day 1. The chief end and design God aims at in sending Judgments on a People is to reclaim them from their sins It may here be said that the end of all the dispensations of God to mankind is to convert them from sin For this very purpose did he send his Son into the World to draw and win us to himself by the promises of Heaven and Eternal Happiness and all the attractive motives that can be suppos'd to work upon Humane understanding and for this only reason does God daily bestow his mercies and benefits upon us according to what St. Paul tells us The goodness of God leadeth us to Repentance Rom. 2. 4. Why then if the gentler methods of lenity and mercy may have the same effect does God use the severer ways of reclaiming men by pouring Judgments and Afflictions upon them To this I answer The ways which God chiefly delights to deal with mankind in are gentleness Rom. 2. 4. Goodness Forbearance and Long-suffering God does not Lam. 3. 33. afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men says the Prophet Jeremiah nay the whole tenour of Scripture discovers this to be the nature of God and were it not that we are such perverse Creatures as not to be wrought upon by kindness so wild as not to be tamed by gentle usage God would not handle us in any other way I drew them with the cords of a Man with the bands of Love says the Holy spirit in the Prophet Hosea but the Jews but still so stiff-necked and untractable they would not follow so that v. 11. 4.

because I think the only Way for this Nation to flourish and be happy and for the Protestant Church to stand pure and uncorrupt is to remove if possible all those far from it whose Business and Study it is not only to distract our Government but also to pollute our Manners But I leave this next to God to the Great and Wise Council of the Nation I proceed now Thirdly To apply what has been said to the Business of the Day And because we have heard First That the chief Design of God's Judgments upon a People is to reclaim them from their Sins and Secondly That the only Way a People had to prevent and avert God's Judgments was to forsake their Sins therefore Conversion from Sin to God must be esteem'd a necessary Spiritual Duty And tho' this Duty is most certainly always very requisite and seasonable yet there are some Seasons when the Church does most chiefly require it and to name no more this present Season is the greatest now in the Time of Lent but more especially in this Magna Hebdomada this Great Week before the Resurrection we are call'd upon to make a strict Re-view of our Lives and to humble our Souls in God's Presence and to bewail our manifold Transgressions and to devote our selves afresh to his Service This Obligation the holy Church lays upon us But still there is another Engagement for our most solemn Humiliation on this Day Publick Authority has added a further Injunction on us To answer therefore this double Obligation and that we may perform the Office of the Day aright let us enquire what we have now to do and that I shall consider of after this Two-fold Manner First Generally What all Days of Humiliation do require of us Secondly Particularly What this Day distinctly requires First All Days of Publick Humiliation seem to require these Three Things at our Hands 1. That we should humble our selves before God every one for his own Personal Sins whereby he has provok'd God and increas'd the publick Guilt and done his part to bring down the Judgments and Vengeance of God upon the Nation 2. That we should likewise heartily lament the Sins of the Publick especially the great and crying Sins of the Nation whereby the Wrath and Indignation of God has been so justly incens'd against us 3. We should prosecute this our Humiliation with an Actual Reformation and Amendment of our Lives for the future I do but just mention these Particulars without any Enlargement on them that I may more fully speak to the Duties of the Day which are these Three 1. We are this Day to pray to God that he would avert those Judgments which our manifold Sins and Provocations have most justly deserv'd 2. That he would in his great Mercy and Goodness relieve and comfort such as suffer abroad for the Protestant Religion 3. We are to implore a Blessing from Almighty God upon His Majesty and all His Dominions 1. We are to make our Supplications unto God for the Averting of those Judgments which our manifold Sins and Provocations have justly deserv'd 'T is true we of this Nation have lately receiv'd no small Tokens of God's favourable Inclinations to us in bestowing upon us a Grateful and an Honourable Peace a Peace that I hope may prove a competent Recompence to us for all our Toils and Fatigues and Expences But if we continue to lead Lives unsuitable to such Blessings receiv'd how easily may God find a Way to let in the same Enemy afresh upon us King David tells us That the Lord gives Strength unto his People the Lord gives his People the Blessing of Peace That is God Almighty defends and protects his People but 't is only so long as they are obedient to him for he says in another place If a Man will not turn God will whet his Sword and will bend his Bow and make it ready and prepare for him the Instruments of Death God Almighty has dealt all along with this Nation as he formerly did with his own peculiar People the Jews He has exercised and made Trial of us by all the wise Arts of his Divine Providence we have felt the Powers both of his Mercy and his Justice Alternately Out of his Mercy he would never destroy us quite yet it has as it were puzzl'd his Justice how to save us We read of four sorts of Judgments wherewith God formerly used to endeavour to reclaim the Antient Jews Plague Fire Sword and Famine we in this Nation have in a few Years felt the former Three and indeed we have some Reason to fear from the remarkable Defect and Decay of the Seasons for some Years last past that if we do not repent in time and deprecare God's heavy Displeasure against us his Providence may be a preparing the Fourth and the most dreadful of them all a Famine for us Let us therefore with the greatest Importunities make our Addresses now to Almighty God that he would be pleas'd to avert those terrible Judgments which we so righteously have deserv'd and to which the great Sins of the Nation do now so justly expose us humbly beseeching him not for us but for his his own Name 's sake and because we are his People and are called after his Name and because his holy Faith and Religion are profess'd among us that he would be pleas'd to hear the Prayers and Supplications of his Servants which they have made before him this Day And together with our selves let us pray unto God that he would please 2. To regard our distressed Brethren in the Faith all the World over particularly to relieve and comfort those that suffer abroad for the Protestant Religion 'T is a mighty Scandal to the Christian Religion and what all Jews Turks and Pagans may justly reproach the Followers of Christ with that there are such implacable Divisions and such barbarous Persecutions practis'd and kept up among us The Doctrine of the great Author of our Faith was made up all of Love this was the distinguishing Character his Disciples were to be known by If they lov'd one another Yet in a certain Church and a Church too that boasts it self the only true Church of Christ we find that Badge and Character quite worn off for instead of loving those who cannot persuade their Consciences to swallow such gross Absurdities as they do themselves these Men think they do God good Service if they kill them I might produce many Instances of this outragious Zeal against the Romish Church The cruel Inhumanities against the Vaudois the Butcheries of the Albigenses and the Poor of Lyons the total Extirpation of the Protestants in Moravia Silesia Bohemia and Hungary the Massacre of the Hugonots in France and the English Protestants in Ireland not to mention those Ignominious Flames that were kindl'd in our own Queen Mary's Days and that terrible and unparallell'd Design that was laid to destroy the Lords and Commons of our Nation at

one Blow in the succeeding Reign are all Memorable Examples of the Popish Cruelty But we need not look back into History to furnish us with Instances of this kind how many living Objects of our Compassion are still under great Pressures from them in the neighbouring Countries to us And how many Thousands have fled from thence to us for Refuge There indeed the Vine of the Lord does most apparently suffer there the Wild-Boar of the Wood does root it up and the Wild-Beasts of the Field devour it But let us with King David say Turn thee again O Lord God of Hosts look down from Heaven behold and visit this Vine and the place of the Vineyard which thy Right Hand hath planted and the Branch that thou madest so strong for thine own self 3. The Third Duty of the Day is to implore a Blessing from Almighty God upon His Majesty and all his Dominions And here I think it altogether unnecessary to use any Arguments to excite your Zeal or to heighten your Affections Interest which is the first Spring and great Director of all our Actions if not Gratitude will recommend this Duty to us The great Benefits and Advantages we have already receiv'd from him are sufficient Motives to pray for his long and happy Reign over us He that has preserv'd our Rights and Liberties that has rescu'd our Religion that has maintain'd our Laws that has defeated the Designs of our Enemies that has subdu'd the Disturbers of our Peace he that has run all Hazards of his Life often cross'd the Seas travers'd many Countries ventur'd his Person in Battel and sometimes very narrowly sav'd it he that has opposed and stemm'd too the Tide of a Power generally thought irresistible In a Word he that has settl'd us in Peace at home and procur'd us Honour abroad if he does not deserve our hearty good Wishes and most sincere Prayers I know not what Obligations can extort that Duty from us The Kingdom of England is now in as hopeful a Condition as any Nation can be if we are not wanting in some Cases to our selves If we can preserve our Peace with as much Prudence and Unanimity as we carry'd on the War with Heartiness and Courage if we keep our Country as quiet within our selves as we defended it bravely against others in a Word if we live up to the Rules of our Religion as well as we fought for it then will England in time not only recover its Strength and Riches flourish and grow great within it self but it will be able to give Laws to all its Neighbours round about it And indeed not to flatter our selves there is no Kingdom I know of in the World so every way capable of being made Great and Glorious as we are now at this time and that upon these Two Accounts 1. We have a King whom God seems to have brought into the World to have train'd up and preserv'd on purpose for us A Man of our own Religion and indeed of a true English Temper and Genius a Man skilful and courageous in War wise and satisfy'd in Peace a Man that reposes a great Trust in the Fidelity of his Subjects and a Man in whom they may repose theirs a Man so wholly dispos'd for the Good of his People that he is always ready to hearken to their Counsels and to comply with them a Man in short altogether inclin'd and every way qualify'd both to serve and to protect his People a Man to sum up all of whom I would not be thought to speak too great a Thing if I say he is as brave a Warrior as either Alexander or Caesar was because I design to speak yet a greater and that is that he is as good a Christian as either Constantine or Theodosius was 2. We have a People famous in the World for great Valour and Courage always having had a good Skill in Arms and of such undaunted Spirits that if we were united within our selves we are able perhaps to grapple with the most potent Kingdoms near us We are a happy Nation too in our Situation When the Prophet Ezekiel tells us of the Happiness of Canaan he describes it to be a Land of Unwall'd Ezek. 38. 11. Villages where the People are at rest and dwell safely all of them dwelling without Walls and having neither Bars nor Gates So we of this Nation have no need of Walling and Fortifying our Towns as some of our Friends upon the Continent are forc'd to do because as the Prophet Nahum speaks of the City of No we have the Sea for a Rampart to us We are still Nah. 3. 8. happier by our Constitution and Government which by its excellent Laws and Administration so effectually provides for the Security Quiet and Comfort of the People that of no Nation under Heaven may it be more properly said that every Man may sit Mic. 4 4. under his own Vine and under his Fig-tree and no Man shall make him afraid And we are happiest of all in our Church a Church which for Purity of Doctrine Decency of Worship and all Advantages for Piety may compare with if not exceed any Church upon the Face of the Earth These are the peculiar Advantages of England and these are the Happinesses we at present enjoy there is but one thing wanting to continue and secure these Blessings to us and without that all our Skill in Arms all our Natural Courage all our Plenty and Security our wholsome Laws and wise Constitution will not be able to support and maintain us and that is True Godliness and Vertue Let us all therefore pour out our most Affectionate Prayers unto God to assist us with his Grace in the Attainment of these Accomplishments And to his Grace which he is never backward of affording us let us add out own Endeavours let us shew the good Effects of these our Days of Humiliation in all the other Days of our Life What shall it profit us to depend upon our Mortification and Fasting when God shall say as he speaks by the Prophet Zechary Did you at all fast unto me even unto me The proper Fruit of Fasting is to forsake our Sins and become better for the future without this all our Fasting will but fill us with Wind all our Tears will be but as Water spilt upon the Ground in a Word all our Penances will but create us Pain here and increase it hereafter But if we do now unfeignedly resolve to amend for the future and shall prosecute those Resolutions in the Series of our Lives we may then hope that God will incline his Ear unto us and hear In sure and certain Hopes of which we now according as we are appointed 1. Pray that God would bless preserve and keep our present King as the Instrument by which he himself has chose to work such wondrous Deliverances already for us May never any Foreign Forces or Intestine Conspiracies prevail against him May never any Jealousies be somented between him and his People May he always think himself secure in the Hands of his English Subjects and may they know they are so in his Together with himself May God bless all his Dominions May they grow in Strength increase in Riches and excel in Honour May he keep stedfast the true Friends to the Government and baffle the Hopes of those that are not May he give Wisdom to the Wise and stop the Mouths of the Foolish 2. As the Consideration of our own Welfare and Interest prompts us to wish our selves all the Good imaginable so let our Compassion stir us up to pray for the Relief of our distressed Brethren the Protestants abroad May God in his due time as he once did the Children of Israel lead this his People through those Red Seas of Blood through those Wildernesses of Pains and Troubles if not into some pleasant Land here upon Earth yet to the Heavenly Canaan at last May he give them Constancy in their Faith and Patience under their Sufferings and whatever Numbers he is pleas'd to suffer to be diminish'd from the Communion of his Saints here upon Earth may he add to the Noble Army of Martyrs in Heaven Lastly Let us pray unto God that he would look down upon this sinful People of England and that he would avert those Judgments which we must confess might be our due Reward But instead of Judgments God has heap'd Mercies upon us of late he has first sav'd us from the Slavery of our Consciences and indeed of our Persons next he has frequently deliver'd us from the Devices of Wicked Men who have used several Ways and Means to ruin us sometimes by endeavouring to take off our King sometimes by corrupting our Coin and by many other Ways which Restless Spirits are fruitful enough at inventing And now at last he has crown'd all his Mercies to us in the Blessing of a Peace Thou hast made Wars to cease amongst us thou hast broke the Bow and cut the Spear in sunder as holy David speaks Nation shall not now lift Sword up against Nation neither shall they learn War any more says the Prophet Isaiah of the Israelites when they repented and turn'd unto God May We also repent and turn that we may have the Benefit of this Prophecy too May this our Peace prove firm and lasting and may we never again be embroil'd in Wars and Blood However I heartily wish that the King may never want such Subjects of such Skill and Courage such Loyalty and true Honesty to defend him our Country and our Church upon any Occasion as his late English Army was But then I will crave Leave to add this one Prayer to end all and I believe every Soldier that was in the Army I am sure every true English-Man that loves his Country will join with me and that is How necessary soever an Army may be in Times of Exigency for the Defence of our King our Country and our Church yet God grant that neither of them may ever again have Occasion to make use of their Swords or to try either their Skill or their Courage FINIS