EIGHTEEN SERMONS Whereof Fifteen Preached before the KING The rest Upon Publick Occasions BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. AND CHAPLAINE To His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by Tho. Roycroft for James Allestry at the Rose and Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard M DC L X I X. A TABLE OF THE SERMONS A SERMON on 1. S. Pet. 4. 1. HE that suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from sin Page 1 A SERMON on Psalm LXXIII 1. Truely God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart p. 19 A SERMON on Leviticus XVI 31. Ye shall Afflict your Souls by a Statute for ever p. 37 A SERMON on S. John XV. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you p. 55 A SERMON on Ezechiel XXXIII 11. Why will ye Dye p. 73 A SERMON on Psalm LXXIII 25. Whom have I in Heaven but Thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides Thee p. 89 A SERMON on S. Mark I. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Page 105 A SERMON on 1 S. John V. 4. This is the Victory which overcometh the World even our Faith p. 125 A SERMON on Galatians II. 20. I am Crucified with Christ. p. 145 A SERMON on S. Luke IX 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of p. 163 A SERMON on S. Luke XVI 30 31. Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead p. 181 A SERMON on S. Luke XI part of the 24. Verse Behold this Child is set for the Fall and Rising again of many in Israel and for a signe which shall be spoken against p. 199 A SERMON on S. James IV. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you p. 219 A SERMON on Philippians III. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Crosse of Christ. p. 241 A SERMON on S. Mark X. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child he shall not enter therein p. 259 A SERMON on Acts XIII 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have called them p. 269 A SERMON on Hosea III. 5. Afterward shall the Children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his Goodnesse p. 295 A SERMON on S. Matthew V. 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 that despightfully use you and persecute you p. 315 SERMON I. VVHITE-HALL January 27. 1660. 1 PET. IV. 1. He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin SO great a flatterer is Man of himself that from all kind of Events how various soever ever he will adventure to conclude himself in the right way to Blessedness and rather than want Argument contradictions shall conspire to make him happy If he prosper then God allows his doings and the success of actions is his mark and Seal that they are acceptable and dear to him And if this Argument be good The Tribe of Benjamin while it conquer'd as they did Conquer those that fought Gods Battles and that by his immediate commission yet all that while those Sodomites and foul Adulterers the men of Gibeah were Saints But when calamity does take away this Argument then on the other side the Gibbet though the punishment of Villany is only execution of that Decree whereby God hath predestined them To be conform'd to the Image of his Son As if they died most like Christ who died with the most Guilt about them and they will needs be Martyrs when they suffer for their vices and if this Argument be good AEgypt was blest with all her Plagues and the consuming fire that ran upon the ground was the light of Gods countenance upon them Yet both these Arguments have been made use of lately by each several party of us in the variety of Gods dispensations to us now this each could not do of right Some parties of us made false and unjust pleas to them both Now to decide which did so not à priori from the cause though that alone does guild prosperity and that alone too makes the Martyr not the sufferings But men will never be agreed of that while whatsoever happens whether their cause prosper or be opprest still proves them in the right But I shall do it from a plain notorious effect nor do I know what else can be more seasonable than while some men seem to stand candidates for sufferings and choose Sedition and Schism rather than lose the reputation of not being afflicted with their party and while others plead the merits of affliction and Trumpet out their having suffered as a pretence for the ambition and the covetousness the luxuries and intemperance and all the other vices of prosperity which their late sufferings have before hand expiated while it is thus on each side to give both a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby to judge the Case which my Text here presents for He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The words make a single Proposition and therefore cannot well be taken asunder nor indeed need they the Terms being very well understood The Subject every one is willing to assume to himself no one I believe that hears me but will say he hath suffer'd in the Flesh. Therefore we have no more to do but to see whether the other Term agree as universally which certainly it must if our Proposition here hold good if He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin Therefore in order to this I shall offer at Three things First Discourse of the truth of the Proposition in General and see if we can discern how necessary and how effectual this Instrument of Reformation is whether it be such as may build a confidence of asserting That He who hath suffered hath ceased from Sin Secondly Because discoursing in General is not so practical and usefull I shall endeavour to discover in particular By what Artifice of method the Flesh engageth men into courses of sin and how it works them up to the height of it and then see how sufferings blast that method and make the Arts of the flesh either unpracticable or too weak Thirdly I will attempt to veiw our own concerns in all this propose to consideration Whether this method hath had this effect on us or Whether indeed it be as easy to confute God's Word as to break his Commandements and contrive that his truth shall no more stand than his will does but notwithstanding Scriptures bold affirmation here yet they that have suffered have not ceast from Sin and if so then to propose the danger and
faith why didst thou doubt couldst thou imagine I vvould not sustein thee in the doing vvhat I bid thee do In answering my call But vvhy seek we experience of so old a date There is a more encouraging miracle in these late calls themselves Had God sustein'd the Order in its Offices and dignities amidst those vvaves that vvrack'd the Church of late it had been prodigy of undeserved Compassion to our Nation but vvhenas all was sunk to bid the sea give up what it had so allowed and consumed this is more than to catch a sinking Peter or to save a falling Church The vvork of Resurrection is emphatically call'd the working of God's mighty power and does out-sound that of his ordinary conservation And truly 't was almost as easie to imagination how the scattered Atomes of mens dust should order themselves and reunite and close into one flesh as that the parcels of our Discipline and Service that were lost in such a vvild confusion and the Offices buried in the rubbish of the demolisht Churches should rise again in so much order and beauty Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deum This calling of the Spirit is like that when the Spirit moved upon the face of the abyss and call'd all things out of their no-seeds there or like the call of the last Trump Thus by the miraculous mercies of these calls God hath provided for our hopes and warranted our faith of his protections yet he hath also sent us more security hath given us a Constantine if his own be not a greater Name and more deserving of the Church for which it is well known to some he did contrive and order when he could neither plot nor hope for his own Kingdome and did vvith passion labour a succession in your Order vvhen he did not know how to lay designes for the succession of himself or any of his Fathers house to his own Crown and dignity Nor is the secular arme all your security God himself hath set yet more guards about his consecrated ones he hath severe things for the violaters of them Moses the meekest man upon the Earth that in his life vvas never angry but once at the rebellious seems very passionate in calling Vengeance on those that stir against these holy Offices Smite through the loines of all that rise against them and of them that hate them that they rise not again the loines vve know are the nest of posterity so that strike through the loines is stab the succession destroy at once all the posterity of them that vvould cut off this Tribe and hinder its succession Nor vvas this Legal Spirit Gospel is as severe Those in Saint Judge that despise these Governours that do as Corah and his Complices did vvho gathered themselves against Moses and Aaron and said You take too much upon you ye sons of Levi since all the Congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord vvords these that vve are vvell acquainted with and vvhich it seems St. Iude looks on as sins under the Gospel these perish in the gainsaying of Core vvhom God vvould not prepare for punishment by death but he and his accomplices went quick into it He would not let them stay to dy but the Lord made a new thing to shew his detestation of this sin and the Earth swallow'd it in the Commission and all that were alli'd and appertain'd to them that had an hand in it And truely they may well expect strange recompences who do attempt so strange a Sacriledge as to pull stars out of Christ's own right hand from vvhence vve have his vvord that no man shall be able to pluck any but if they shine thence on their Orbs below and convert many to righteousness their light shall blaze out into glory and they shall ever dwell at his right hand To vvhich right hand He that brought again from the dead the Lord Iesus that great Shepheard and Bishop of the sheep and set him there He also bring you our Pastors and us your flock vvith you and set us vvith his sheep on his right hand To vvhom vvith the same Iesus and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all blessing honour glory and power from henceforth for ever Amen FINIS A SERMON PREACHED AT HAMPTON-COURT On the 29th of May 1662. Being the Anniversary of His Sacred Majesties Most happy Return BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. and Chaplain to His MAjESTY LONDON Printed by Thomas Roycroft for Iames Allestry at the Rose and Crown in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1669. TO The Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of Clarendon Lord high Chancellour of England and Chancellour of the University of Oxford My LORD TO vouch your Lordships commands for the publishing this Discourse I might reasonably think would be to libel your judgment and the prefixing your Name to it and this mean address would look rather like revenge than homage or obedience if I did not know that low performances are due to the transcendency of such a subject as I then discours'd upon and such a Patron as I now dedicate to So I lie prostrate under my great Arguments here insufficiency is Art and Rhetorick And the truth is my Lord it was not this which made me so sollicitous to avoid your injunctions but apprehensions of the unusefulness of the Discourse itself When God's most signal methods of all sorts do not seem to have wrought much conviction vvhen neither our own dismal guilts nor miseries nor most express miracles of deliverance have made us sensible but after the equally stupendous 3 Oth of January and 29th of May and the black time that interven'd we are still the same perverse untractable people vvhen luxury is the retribution made for plenty license for liberty and Atheism for Religion vvhil'st miracles of mercy are acknowledged only by prodigies of ingrateful disobedience and on the other side vvhen factious humours swell against all Laws as they vvould either over-flow those mounds or make them yield and give way to them vvhen Declarations and Decrees which were infallible when they came only from a party of a part of a Parliament are neither of force nor esteem when they have all solemnity and obligation that just and full authority can give alas what hopes of doing any thing can a weak Harangue entertain But my Lord since you are pleas'd to command I give up both it and my understanding to your Lordship and the weaker the Discourse is so much the more pregnant testimony is it of the obsequiousness of My Lord Your Lordships most devoted and most humble Servant RICH. ALLESTRY SERMON XVII AT HAMPTON-COURT May 29. 1662. HOSEA III. 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness HE had said in the vvords before that the children
of Israel shall abide many dayes vvithout a King and vvithout a Prince vvithout a Sacrifice and vvithout an Image or Altar and vvithout an Ephod and vvithout Teraphim Now vvhen they shall have been for many years in such a state of helpless desolation shall have no King under vvhose shadow they their Laws and Rights might hope for shelter no Prince to guard them from the sad calamities of vvild confusion or usurping violence shall have no exercises of religion to allay and soften those calamities and give them comfort in the bearing of them no Altar to lay hold on for security against them or to stretch out their hands towards for deprecation of them no nor a God to put an end to this sad state nor any means of direction vvhat to do under it no Ephod to ask connsel at nor yet the pageantry the fallacy of these no Teraphim for Ephods nor Image for a God the same destruction having seized these and their worshippers the people and their Idols going into Captivity together and the only true God having forsaken them Now vvhen the Prophet had denounc'd this state of Woe which vvas to dwell vvith them so long as that their very expectations of deliverance should be dying having continued threescore years and ten a longer and more wearisome age of patience then life he then proceeds to so eeten all by telling them of a return and what things they shall doe in it and they are three First Seek the Lord their God apply themselves to his Worship and Odedience and cleave to him for so the word is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 19. 23. and Jeremy repeating this c. 30. 9. vvords it shall serve the Lord their God and David their King Which is the second thing they vvere to do As th◠Ecclesiastical state vvas to be setled so the secular too upon its just foundations Religion and Loyalty both running in their ancient current Thirdly They shall fear the Lord and his goodness not only tremble before him vvho is the Lord that did exert his power in their destruction but shall much more revere his goodness that did flow out in such plentiful miraculous expresses of delivetance Now these being not only prophecy vvhat in that juncture they vvould do nor only duties vvhat they were to do but also counsels and directions immediately from God vvhat they vvere best to do the only prudent and safe course according to the policies of heaven the direct view of these particulars in reference to that state of theirs is not an unconcerning prospect at this season which is the Anniversary of an equal return and therefore I shall lay them so before you and the reflection on them in our practice shall make the application 1. They shall seek the Lord their God is my first part and the Lord 's prime direction for the repairing of a broken Nation Neither indeed can any other course be taken for till we have found him while he does hide his face nothing but darkness dwells upon the land or if any light do break out 't is But the kindlings of his anger so he expresses Deut. 31. 17. This people vvill forsake me and break my Covenant then my anger shall be kindled against them and I vvill forsake them and hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they vvill say in that day Arc not these evils come upon us because our God is not amongst us This absence is only another vvord for desolation Be thou instructed ô Ierusalem saith God by Ieremy c. 6. 8. lest my soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate a land not inhabited As if without him there vvere nothing else but solitude in Cities and in Courts and all vvere desart vvhere he does not dwell Yea there is something beyond desolation Hos. 9. 11 12. As for Ephraim their glory shall flee away like a bird from the birth and from the vvomb and from the conception though they bring up their children yet I vvill bereave them that there shall not be a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea vvo also to them vvhen I depart from them And it must needs be so for let our state be never so calamitous if God be not departed there is comfort in it and a deliverer at hand If vve are in the place of dragons his presence vvill make heaven there and although we be covered vvith the shadow of death if the light of his Countenance break in vve are in glory and the brightness of that vvill soon damp and shine out the fiery trial But if the Lord depart then there is no redemption possible God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him Psal. 71. 11. But if there vvere deliverance some other vvay yet the vvant of God's presence is an evil such as nothing in the whole vvorld can make good the presence of an Angel in his stead does not When the Lord said to Israel I vvill not go up in the midst of thee but I vvill send an Angel vvith thee and drive out the Amorite the Hittite c. yet vvhen the people heard these evil tidings they mourned and no man did put on his Ornaments Exod. 33. 4. Nay more I shall not speak a contradiction if I shall say that the most intimate presence of the Godhead does not supply God's absence and such a small vvithdrawing of himself as may consist vvith being united hypostatically vvas too much for him to bear vvho vvas Immanuel vvhen he complained God vvas not vvith him I mean our Saviour on the Cross. He vvho although he did beseech against his cup vvith fervencies that did breath out in heats of bloody sweat vvith agonies of prayer yet when he fell down under it did chearfully submit to it saying Not my vvill but thy vvill be done yet vvhen God hides himself he does expostulate vvith him crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His God could no more forsake him than himself could be not himself and yet the apprehension of that vvhich could not be vvas even insufferable to him to whom nothing could be insufferable He seems to feel a very contradiction while he but seems to feel the vvant of the Lord's presence Such is the sad importance of God's not being with us and this same instant tells us vvhat drives him away 'T was sin that he vvithdrew from then Christ did but take on him our guilt and upon that the Lord forsook him God could no more endure to behold wickedness in him than the Sun could to see God suffer Iniquity eclips'd them both and sin did separate betwixt him and himself and made that person vvho was God cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And it will do the same betwixt God and apeople Isay. 59. 1 2. Behold the Lord's hand is not shortned that it
King The Lord saw this dependence and therefore counselled this course should be taken The Master of our Politicks discerned it too and therefore does advise that the first and chiefest publick cares should be about things of Religion that and the same profession of it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cement of Communities and the very foundation of all legislative and indeed all povver in the Magistrate and in the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a most efficacious philtre a charm a Gordian knot of kindness And as a Iew observed of their own Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To have one and the same opinion's of God and not to differ in their rites from one another breeds the best harmony in mens affections When on the other side no obligations though the most signal and divine vvill hold them in obedience and peace if their ambitions or interests look another way and if at any time present advantage or an expectation or some passion do encline them to seek David their King yet the appearance of a change of Interest that expectation defeated or a cross animosity will burst those bonds unless Religion and Communion in Worship help to twist them David had had experience of this Abner knew of God's oath to David that after Saul he should be King over all Israel but he vvas otherwise concerned and therefore he made Ishbosheth King maintained a long and a sore warr even against vvhat he knew God was engaged to bring about and made himself strong for the house of Saul 2 Sam. 2 3 ch But vvhen a quarrel happened betwixt Ishbosheth and him then So do God to Abner and more also except as the Lord hath sworn to David even so I do to him to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Iudah And he sent Messengers to him saying VVhose is the land make but thy league with me c. 3. 9 10 11 12. Do but look forward and you find when Abner vvas cut off and Ishbosheth vvas slain and Israel had no leader then they came to David saying Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh and the Lord said to thee Thou shalt feed my people Israel c. 5. 1 2. They knew all that before yet vvould not let him do it till they had no other leader Nay vvhen they had done that by Absalom's insituations who in a vvay of trecherous pitty did instill dislikes against the government and did remonstrate in good wishes as some men do in prayers c. 15. 3 4. they vvere all drawn into rebellion against this David and made him flie out of the land and became Subjects to that Absalom When he vvas dead indeed they spake of bringing back the King c. 19. 10. and vvhen his own Iudah had done it quarrell'd ver 43. because that their advice was not first had and though Iudah had nothing but their service for Have we eaten at all of the Kings cost or hath he given us any gift say they ver 42. yet Israel is is angry because he came not back upon their score for they forsooth have ten parts in him v. 43. and yet the next day every man of Israel went after him that said we have no part in David Sheba a man of Belial ch 20. 1. Thus no allegiance no tie however sacred and divine vvill hold them vvho follow not upon God's score Nay at the last because that Rehoboam vvould not ease their taxes all Israel cry out VVhat portion have we in David see to thiâ—e own house David And to make this secession perpetual vvhich all the former did not prove Ieroboam did use no other policy but to change the VVorship and the Priests He knew he should divide their hearts and Nations for ever vvhen he had altered once the Service and the Officers and if he could but keep them from seeking God at Ierusalem he vvas secure they vvould not seek David their King And so it proved Now the Lord to prevent divisions had provided so far for Vniformity in his vvorship that he required a single Vnity and that it might be but in one manner he let it be but in one place And truly when men once depart from Uniformity what measures can they set themselves of changing what shall confine or put shores to them vvhat principle can they proceed upon vvhich shall engage them to stay any where and why may not divisions be as infinite as mens phansies And though vvhen those are but in circumstantial things those vvho are strong and know them to be such are no otherwise concerned to contend for them than on Authorities behalf to vvhich every change is a Convulsion fitt and on the account of decency and of compliance vvith the universal Church yet vvhen others do dogmatize and put conscience in the not doing them and stand at such a distance from them as to chuse Schisme Disobedience and Sedition rather and therefore must needs look upon damnation in them these differences make as great a gulfe and châ—sme as that vvhich does divide Dives from Abraham's bosom It is one God one Faith one VVorship makes hearts one Hands lifted up together in the â—emple they vvill joyn and elasp and so Religion does fulfill its name à religando binds Prince and Subjects all together and they vvho thus do seek the Lord their God vvill also seek David their King God's next direction and my second part 2. And here three things offer themselves a King their King and David their King I am not here to read a Lecture of State policy upon a vie of Governments vvhy seek a King not any other sort of Government and vvhy their King one that already was so by the right of Succession not vvhom addresses or election should make so And though I think t were easie to demonstrate only Monarchy had ever a divinâ— or natural original and that elective Monarchy is most unsafe and burthensome full of dangerous and uneasie consequences and this so much to sight that choice for the most part bounds it self proves but a ceremony of Succession yet this I need not do for I am dealing vvith the Jews vvho had God's judgement in the case and his appointment too and to me that is argument enough And vvhen God hath declard for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof many at once as in a Common-wealth or many several families successively for so God reckons also one or many 't is still vve see David their King while 't is in David's line and so the King does truly never die while his race lives If either of these many be Gods punishment for the sins of a land I vvill not say that they vvho love the many Princes love the transgressions which God plagues so but I will say they who do chuse that which God calls his plague that quarrel for his vengeance and vvith great strife and hazard take
his indignation by force I can but pity them in their own opinions and enjoyments but O my soul enter not thou into their counsels As for seeking their King I shall content my self vvith that vvhich Calvin saies upon the words Nam aliter verè ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin seetiam subjiceret legitimo â—mperio cuâ— subjectus erat For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects And I shall adde that they vvho do forsake their King vvill soon forsake their God The Rabbines say it more severely of Israel that they at once rejected three things the Kingdome of the house of David and the Kingdome of Heaven and the Sanctuary And truly if vve do consult that State from the beginning we shall find that vvhen they vvere vvithout their King they alvvaies vvere vvithout their God Moses vvas the first King in Jeshurun and he vvas only gone into the Mount for forty daies and they set up a golden Calf they make themselves a God if they vvant him vvhom the Lord makes so as he does the Magistrate if they have not a Prince that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Image of God then they must have an Idâ—l When Moses his next successor vvas dead vve read that the man Micah had an house of Gods and consecrated one of his sons to be his Priest and truly he might make his Priest vvho made his Deities And the account of this is given In those daies there vvas no King in Israel Iud. 17. 5 6. The very same is said ch 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan There vvas no heir of restraint as it is worded ver 7. It seems to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance vvhich till it be supprest he hath not what he is heir to But Vice vvill know no boundaries if there be no King vvhose sword is the only mound and fence against it for if vve read on there 19 20 21. ch vve shall finde those dismal tragedies of Lust and VVarre the one of vvhich did sin to death the Levites wife the other besides 40000. slain of them vvho had a righteous cause and vvhom God did bid fight destroyed also a Tribe in Israel these all spraâ—g from the same occasion for so the story closes it In those daies there was no King in Israel ch 21. 25. Just upon this when God in their necessities did raise them Iudges that is Kings read all their story you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry God still complaining the children of Israel did evill again after the death of such an one till he raised them another Those 450. years being devided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols After them Jeroboam he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince hath got no other character from God but this the a Man that did make Israel to sin at once against God and against their King Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State vvere ended vvhen their calves and their Kingdome vvere destroyed Ezek. 4. 4 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390. daies to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity But this vvas more then the years of their State vvhich vvere only 255. 390. years indeed there vvere betwixt the falling off of the ten Tribes and the destruction of Ierusalem by the King of Babel but those ten Tribes vvere gone their Kingdome perfectly destroy'd above 130. years before but their iniquity vvas not it seems that does outlive their State so long as that God's Temple that King's house did stand from vvhich they did divide As if Seditious men and Schismaticks sin longer then they are even while those are vvhom they do sin against in separating from 'T is true there vvas an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David but Hezekiah and Iosiah did succeed Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy as 't is upon rebellion and having no King It does appear their Kings vvere guards also to God and his Religion the great defendors of his faith and worship God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together Therefore St. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for Kings that we might live in godliness and honesty and still they vvere the same vvho sought the Lord their God and David their King But vvhy David their King for could his Kingdome disappear and be to seek of vvhom the Lord had said I have sworn once by my Holiness I will not fail David Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore vvas as sure as God is holy But yet the Lord had said to the people of Israel If ye do wickedly ye shall be destroyed both you and your King There are other sins besides Rebellion and Treason that murder Kings and Governments Those that support their Ills by their dependencies and use great shadows for a sâ—elter to rapacity oppression or licences or any crying vvickedness these prove Traitors to Majesty and themselves strike at the root of that under vvhich they took covert fell that and crush themselves National vices have all Treason in them and every combination in such sins is a Conspiracy If universal practice palliate them we do not see their stain it may be think them slight but their complexion is purple Common blood is not deep enough to colour them they die themselves in that that 's sacred Nay these do seem to spread contagion to God as if they vvould not let the Lord be holy nor suffer that to be which he swore by his holiness should be for the Psalmist cries out Where are thy old loving kindnesses which thou swearest unto David But sure some of God's oaths will stand if not those of his kindness those vvill by vvhich he swears the râ—ine of such sinners and God that is holy will be sanctified in judgement upon them Yea upon more then the offenders for the guilty themselves are not a sacrifice equal to such piacular offences Innocent Majesty must bleed for them too If you do wickedly you shall be destroy'd both you and your King Thus when God vvould remove Judah out of his sight good Josiah must fall and the same makes them be to seek David their King But how David their King vvhen 't was Zorobabel for with Theodoret and others I conclude he must be meant in the first literal importance of the vvords It vvas the custome of most Nations from some great eminent prince to name all the Succession so at once to suggest his Excellencies to his followers and to make his glory live Now vvithout doubt David vvas Heroe enough for this and his â—lour alone sufficient to ground the like practice upon And
had defil'd his dwelling places to the ground and by his ancient gists of remove he vvas certainly gone There was indeed exceeding much Religion among us yet God knows almost none at all while Christianity was crumbled into so many so minute professions that 't was divided into little nothings and even lost in a crowd of it self while each man was a Church every single professor vvas a vvhole multitude of Sects And in this tumult this riot of faiths if the son of man should have come could he have found any faith in the Land Vertue vvas out of countenance and practice while prosperous and happy Villany usurped its name vvhile Loyalty and conscience of oaths and duty vvere most unpardonable crimes to vvhich nothing but ruine vvas an equal punishment and all those guilts that make the last times perillous Blasphemy disobedience truce-breakings and Treasons Schisms and Rebellions with all their dismal consequences and appendages for these are not single personal crimes these have a politick capacity all these did not onely walk in the dress of piery and under holy Masks but were themselves the very form of Godliness by which 't was constituted and distinguished the Signature of a party of Saints the Constellation of their graces And on the other side the detestation of such hypocrisie made others Libertines and Atheists vvhile seeing men such holy counterfeits so violent in acting and equally engag'd for every false religion made them conclude there vvas none true or in earnest And all this vvas because vve vvere without our King for 't was the only interest of all those usurpations that vvere to contrive and preserve it thus And vvhen vve had roll'd thus through every form of Government addrest to each mov'd every stone and rais'd each stone to the top of the Mount but every one still tumbled down again and ours like Sisyphus's labour was like to have no end onely restless and various Calamity Necessity then counsell'd us and we applied to God's directions in the Text I know not whether in his method but it is plain we did seek David our King And my heart is towards the Governoâ—rs of Israel that offer'd themselves willingly among the people bless ye the Lord yea Thou ô Lord bless them May all the blessings which this was the birth-day of all that my Text encloses all the goodness of the Lord be the sure portion of them and their Families may they see the King in his beauty and peace upon Israel and may their Names be blest in their posterities for evermore We sought him with the violent impatiences of necessitous and furious desires and our eyes that had even fail'd with looking for him did even fail with looking on him as impotent and as unsatisfied in our fruitions as expectations and he was entertain'd with as many tears as pray'd for as one vvhom not our Interests alone but our guilts had endear'd to us and our tears he vvas as necessary to us as repentance as vvithout vvhom it vvas impossible for us to repent and return from those impieties to him of usurping his rights of exiling of murthering him by wants because vve could not doe it by the Axe or Sword vvithout him ' t vvas impossible for us to give over the committing these and the tears that did vvelcome him vvere one of our best lavers to vvash off that blood that vve had pull'd upon our selves One endear'd also to us by God's most miraculous preservations of him for us We cannot look upon his life but as the issue of prodigious bounty snatch'd by immediate Providence out of the gaping jaws of tyrannous usurping mutherous malice merely to keep him for our needs and for this day One vvhom God had train'd up and manag'd for us just as he did prepare David their King at thirty years of age to take possession of that Crown vvhich God had given him by Samuel about twelve years before and in those years to prepare him for Canaan by a VVilderness to harden him vvith discipline that so the luxuries and the effeminacies of a Court might not emaseclate and melt him by constant Watches cares and business to make him equal for habituated to careful of and affected vvith the business of a Kingdome and by constraining him to dwell in Mesech vvith Aliens to his Religion to teach him to be constant to his own and to love Sion And hath he not prepared our David so for us and vve hope hath prepared for him too the first dayes of David having no Sheba in the Field nor Achitophel in the Councel nor an Abiathar in the Temple not in that Temple vvhich himself hath rais'd God having made him instrument of that vvhich he vvould not let David doe building his house and furnishing it vvith all its Offices and making it fit for God to meet us in vvhen vve do seek him also vvhich vvas the other perquisite of our Condition There never vvas so much pretence of seeking God as in those late dayes of his absence from us and it should seem indeed vve knevv not vvhere to find him vve took such several vvayes to seek him But if God did look down from heaven then as he did Psal. 14. to see if any did understand and seek after God should he not then have found it here as there They are altogether gone out of the way their throat is an open scpulchre with their tongues have they deceived the poison of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and unhappiness is in their wayes and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes They eat up my people as it were bread and vvhich is vvorse in these then them they even then call upon God as if they craved a blessing from the Lord upon that meal that did devour his people and when they did seek God they meant to find a prey Yet where were any others that did seek him or that do cleave to him novv The Schtsmatick does not seek God who shuns the place where he appears and meets and dwells nor does he cleave to God vvho tears himself off from the Lord's body Mark such as cause divisions saith S. Paul and avoid them and if all Christians must avoid them then I am sure God is not vvith them The other Schismaticks that divide from the World by cutting off the World from them do they seek God that are diverted by so many Saints and Angels that terminate divinest Worship in a creature or do they cleave to God when their devotion embraceth stocks and stones or did they seek God for the purpose of my Text who did not seek David their King but did apply themselves to several forein Princes and to others which they hoped would setup their Golden calf Incendiaries that make fires and raise commotions these are farre from God for
the Lord vvas not in the fire or in the Earth-quake but in the still small voice in the soft whispers of peace and love The Atheist he that says in his heart there is no God will not seek God you may be sure nor does he care to seek David hâ— King who is equally well under all Governments that will allow his Licences and who hath no Religion to tie him to any If he at all disliked the former it was upon reasons of Burthen or of Pride or Libertinism So much Religion though counterfeâ—t was a reproach to him and the face of such strictness was uneasie to him These are so far from seeking God that God says these did drive him out of Israel Ezek. 9. 9. And then when that hath so long been the Wit that it is now the Complexion of the Age and they who thought fit to shew their not being Hypocrites by License and â—o give it an easie word by drollery in sacred things have now made nothing to be sacred to them how shall the Lord dwell among such they are enough to exorcise God out of a Nation The Hypocrite also for all his Fasts and Prayers never did seek God for he is but a whited Sepulchre our Saviour says Now who would seek the Living God among the dead the Lord of Life sure is not to be found in Graves Golgotha was a plate to cruciâ—ie him in not worship him He takes not in the Ait of Funeral Vaults for Incense it was a Demoniack that used to be among the Tombs The subtle false and faithless men that walk in mazes never shall meet God these are the windings and the tracts of the Old Serpent and they lead onely to his habitation They that do climb as if they meant to finde God on his own Throne that follow Christ up to a pinnacle of the Temple or to the top of that exceeding high Mount whence they can over-look the glories of the World and pick and chuse these do not go to seek Christ there It is the Devil that does carry up â—nither upon his own designs Not is it possible to seek the Lord in the wavs that lead to the strange VVomans House for her House is the way to Hell Solomon says and he did know nay more Her steps take hold on Hell seise on those everlasting burnings which her foul heats kindle and begin In a word they that seek their own that turn all meerly to their advantage they cannot seek God too he will not be joynt God with Mammon And then where are the men that â—ought him that did retrive him to us or with whom does he dwell If he be not among us we do in vain flatter our selves in our prosperity and peace gawd it in all our bright appearances Have we not seen the Sun rise with a glory of day about him and mounting in his strength chase away all the little receptacles and recesses of the night not leave a cloud to shelter the least relicks of her darkness or any spot to checquer or to fleck the countenance of day when strait a small handful of vapor rais'd by that Sun it self did creep upon his face and by little and little getting strength bedasht his shine and pour'd out as full streams of storm as he had done of light till it even put out the day and shed a night upon the Earth in spight of him So may prosperity it self if the Lord and his blessing be not in it raise that which will soon overcast and benight the most glorious condition of a Nation That Wine which now makes your hearts glad may prove like that which did commit the Centaures and the Lapithae first kindle Lusts then VVars and at last onely fill a Cup of trembling and astonishment and that oyl that does make you chearful countenances may make your paths slippery and nourish flames that will devour and ruine all But God vvho is found of them that seek him not nay who himself sought the lost Sheep and carried him when with his straying he was wearied into impossibility of a return has also sought and found and brought together us and our great Shepherd For this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes These ways of his also are so past finding out that we may well conclude they are the meer footsteps of his incomprehensible goodness and we have onely now to fear that goodness But give me leave to say Those that despise his goodness do not fear it and they whom it does not lead to repentance do despise it S. Paul says Rom. 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-sufferance not knovving that the goodness of the Lord leads thee to repentance And now O Lord what sort of men among us hath thy goodness wrought upon and made repent Those whom it was directed to convince and came on purpose to to prove by their own onely argument they had of providential Miracles they were not in the right but that destruction and misery vvere in their vvays yet these chuse rather to deny their own conclusions and resist Gods goodness then to be convinced and repent For we have seen them as bold Martyrs to their Sin as ever any to Religion signalize their resolv'd impenitence with chearful suffering as if the fire they were condemn'd to were that Triumphal Chariot in which the Prophet mounted up to Heaven Others that did not go so far in condemnation nor guilt as they and therefore think they have no reason to repent of that do they repent of what they did contribute to it Of those that lifted up their hands to swear and fight how many are there that have made them fall and smite their own thigh saying VVhat have I done Do not all rather justifie as far as they themselves proceeded and if all that were well why do not we repent of our Allegiance and Lovalty if all that were well what hath thy goodness done O Lord that hath reverst it all And for the rest those that do not partake the plenties of thy goodness murmure and repine at it are discontent at having what they prayed for what they would have died for Those that have been partakers of it have turned it into vvantonness have made it furnish them for base unworthy practices such as have not the generosity of Vice have not a noble manly wickedness are poltron sins have made it raise a cry on the Faithfullest party the best Cause and the purest Church in the World While we have debauched Gods own best Attribute made his goodness procure for our most wicked or self-ends and the face of things is so vicious in every order and degree and sex that But the Confession is onely fit for Litanies and we have need to make the burthen of ours be Lord give us some afflictions again send out thy Indignation for we do fear thy goodness it
sleight and not so pressing But should it come to this pinch once that she must straight resolve to part with one of these however close her Arms would grasp her Child to rescue him to force whom thence were like the tearing of her bowells from her yet would she give those bowells to redeem her bosom guest the husband would be the Choyce so that although the other inclinations were more expressive these are the stronger and the better setled So it may happen we may be more sensibly affected to some dear things here below our thoughts and Eyes and our embraces cling and fasten more to these but if it come to this that we must leave one break with the Duty or the Passion if we resolve however not to part with God but lay hold there and let the other go then our affections are not only regular when we desire nothing in comparison with him but our desires are enjoyments seize and take possession of him and we have him So my Text implies here Whom have I in Heaven but thee importing that we have him Which brings me to the other parts that yet remain to be discourst of Three things are here to be considered 1. That Heaven is the place of Possessions in opposition to this Land of Desires 2. That God is the possession there 3. That the Pious man hath this possession in present The first of these is so much common place I shall not stay upon it those onely qualities that make this World to be a Land of Desires have no place there to wit the instability and emptinesse of all things in it he that lays hold on them does but grasp Mercury which the more he clasps the more he forces it to slip away and he retains onely the soyle and the defilement of it like Lightning which but passes by stayes not to cherish onely dazels and it may be scorches So the shine of Earthly glorys startles the mind amuses us inflames desires of them and goes out But then above the tenure is Eternity and that assures immutability yea if it be nunc stans an indivisible Infinity of permanent duration whose every poynt does coexist to every poynt a perfect and entire possession all at once of an interminable life that never can be all possest then nothing can passe by us or cease from us but we shall alwayes every moment have what we shall have in every any moment Our enjoyment also being like him that we enjoy all in the whole and all in every part being not onely endlesse in the mass but every moment of it is immortal And then there can be nothing but enjoyment no place for desire there where there is nothing absent where all past and all futurity is alwayes present and where also the Infinite and all sufficient God is the Possession which is my next Proposition and that God himself affirms Gen. 15. 1. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Yea this he hath present possession of which my third Proposition and my Text asserts in saying Whom have I in Heaven but thee importing thee I have The things we call most our possessions here both personal and real are our portions and inheritances Now David claims God under both these dues Thou art my portion O Lord and the lot of mine Inheritance as other men maintain themselves by these so I live upon thee And that we may not think that God is such but in Reversion those are present possessions which men reap the uses of in present to themselves Now what is there of God the Pious man hath not the present uses off His Eyes are over him and his Ears are open to his Prayers watch to attend each motion of his heart and underneath him are the everlasting Arms to carry and sustain him his right hand wears him as his signet and his left hand pours down Blessings on him his wings are spread for him to nestle in that warm security and hide him in the shadow of his bowels sound and turn within him with compassion over him and himself is about his Bed and about all his paths not so much to spy out his wayes as to preserve him in them all and he waits that he may be gracious In a word all the Securitys that Gods Preserving Mercies signifie the watches of his Providence the Blessings that fulfil his Attributes of goodnesse all are exerted upon his occasions are made the present objects and the satisfactions of his nearest senses and he may taste and see how gracious God is And then give me O Lord seizin of this the Pious man's Estate I shall not envy other mens possessions though one lay House to House and Land to Land till he become the Lord of his Horizon and his Eyes cannot travel out of his Demesne For notwithstanding that we may have known ill Courses or ill Accidents consume all this or Force throw him out of all and that great Lord have no House but a Goal nor Land enough to make a Grave But sure I am that I shall be provided for in all necessities unless there happen such a one for which there 's no relief in God nor can I be disseis'd they must void Heaven e're they can disfurnish me For thee I have in Heaven But yet though chance nor violence cannot put me out yet I may forfeit this Possession too for sin will separate betwixt me and my God cast me out of his presence and enjoyments as sure as it did Adaâ— out of Paradise And then alas if I had none but him in Heaven he is now become my Adversary holds possession against me as he did that of Paradise with flames so he does Rain sâ—ares fire and brimstone thence and this is all the Sinner's portion Psal. 11. All that I am like to get unless I have a person that will arbitrate the cause or mediate there is no hopes of a recovery for me if I have none in Heaven but thee Now here my last Consideration will come in If while my Soul lyes grovling under fearful Apprehensions of its Forfeiture casting about for help and finding none upon the Earth if it look upwards and enquire Whom have I in Heauen have I none there but my offended Adversary God it may resolve it self with comfort he hath other interests there For First I have an Intercessor there Rom. 8. 34. a Master of Requests one that will not onely hand in my Petitions get accesse for my Prayers and my tears to God but will make them effectual For saith S. Paul Seeing we have a great High Priest that 's passed into the Heavens let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace in time of need Heb. 4. 14. 16. For though my supplications have not strength nor ardour that can mount them into Heaven and are too impure however washt in my repenting Tears
God and consequently heir of Gods possessions which his Faith gives him a prospect of how will he look down on the tempting glories of this World on all that makes it gratefull and desirable as upon abject things and sleight and undervalue whatsoever worldly men poor Souls do fear or hope or long for and pursue The Mathematicks say that the whole Globe of Earth to one that looks upon it from the Firmament is but as a point and sure it is demonstrable it must be so And then how low and how contemptible must it needs seem to him that looks on it as from the Region of the Blessed from Gods Mansion and when his Soul having defecated and freed it self from all earthy muddy gross affections and become expedite and light expatiates through those unbounded unfathom'd extensions of Heaven and glory and looks upon all as his own that he is very shortly to come take the full enjoyment of and hath already seisin of it by his Faith how will he despise those narrow those ridiculous bounds which the great ones of this World with Fire and Sword contend for when he sees this little poynt half cover'd with the Sea almost as much too hid from us and not to be discovered by our arts or industry of that which is much Desart some parts Frozen some burnt up and not inhabited and then the little remnant of this poynt to be the strife and the vexation of Mankind while multitudes of Nations tear one anothers bowells spill the Blood and Souls of Myriads for some little patch or other of it and those that are not doing so yet in their sphere too they oppresse deceive do any thing to get and all the rest are in perpetual hurry of vexatious employments or of toylsome pleasures or of ruining vices Will he not look on this more unconcern'd than we do on the busie labours of a little World of Ants about a Mole-hill which Philosophers compare us to The spectacle is much more to be pitied indeed the crowds and Squadrons of those Ants though they should have as many traverses and walks as men have they have not Soul enough to have their guilt Probably had they Humane understandings they would then divide their Mole-hill into Empires would be false and treacherous to one another Cheat Defraud Oppresse and Murder one another for the greater share and had they Reason they would be more Bruits than now they are but Pismires For Beasts have lesse folly too because they are not Men. But he whose Faith mounts him to Heaven his Birth-place where he nestles in the secret Bosom of his Father he needs not be concern'd in any of the carriages of this World he is above them all without the sphere of their attraction or magnetisme without the dangers of temptations from them The World is but as his slave and it hath no command upon him he treads it all under his feet and therefore certainly hath overcome it the Condition and degree of which Victory is the next and last thing we are to enquire into If you ask the Stoick who is this great Conquerour that overcomes the World he will answer somewhat to this purpose It is not any of those great successful Robbers that with Armies forrage Nations it is not he that peoples the whole Sea filling it with his Navyes nor he that sets his Confines on the remotest parts of the Inhabited World that can call all his own that the Sun views so that it shines not out of his Dominions But the Man that hath conquer'd his own Inclinations to the things below he that hath rais'd his mind above the Crosses or Contents of this World that can march among them both dreadlesse and unconfus'd the man whose Soul is nothing dazled by the brightnesse of VVealth it shall not blind his Eyes but through the varnish or the glory that the shine of it does shed he can discover and will hate an evil action he that can severely look on all those blandishments that Prosperity furnishes and decks out pleasure in and can sit continent and abstemious in the midst of its delights that when it is all Halcyon day with him nothing but Sunshine and he swims in the calm streams of flowing Plenty is not melted by one or other does not become loose and dissolute at all the man also that is not shaken by the tumults of adversity when like an Earthquake she renverses all his mind then stands unmov'd that does not so much suffer as receive and welcome all that happens as if he would not have it happen otherwise In a word it is the man that hath rais'd his mind above all casualties the man that does but remember that he is a Man that is considers if he do abound and the world prostitute it self to his Delights that this cannot continue long or if the World conspire to make him miserable remembers that he is not so except he think he is so a man greater than his perils stronger than his desires And thus far the Stoick's Wiseman is victorious Christs Believer goes a little farther That man hath the World Subject to him but the Christian does not stay at that he must not treat it as a Subject but a Traytor one whose Service is Conspiracy that does attend on us onely to watch and to betray us to know our weak part and to storm us there Therefore as the Lord commanded Israel concerning Amalek that did by them as the World doth with us in our journey to Canaan comes upon advantages and smites the feeble Deut. 25. 17 18 19. Therefore said the Lord remember what Amalek did to thee by the way how he met thee by the way and smote the hindmost of thee even all that were feeble behind thee when thou wast faint and weary therefore thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven c. So must we also with the VVorld put all to death not spare the best and goodliest as Saul did yea more put all to the pomps and cruelties of Death as Gideon us'd the men of Succoth tear their flesh with thorns and bryars or as David us'd the Ammonites put them under Sawes and Iron Harrows so the Christian must serve the VVorld VVhat ever instruments of tyranny that us'd upon his Saviour on the Crosse those he most exercise on it again those Thorns those Nayles that Spear he must employ like Gideon's Bryars and like David's iron Harrows it must be Crucified and then he is a glorious Conquerour Gal. 6. 14. God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the World is Crucified to me and I unto the World He that does march under the Banner of the Crosse that Conquering Ensign as he thereby declares himself upon such terms of enmity with the VVorld that he does look upon himself as one despis'd by it counted as an accursed thing for so was that that was
of their vicious worships had more force with them then miracle and reason And while the Christian disposest their Deities he was himself turned out of all his own possessions and although he made their God confess himself a Devil yet still poor he was made to suffer as a malefactour And 't is not strange if men now stick as closely to their vices as those did to the Gods that patronized them and it be as hard to exorcise the Devil out of their affections and practices as it was then out of Heathen Votaries or Temples They are as fierce against the Christian Religion for their lusts sake as those for their Venus and the very same account that made those Heathen customs or the lying wonders of false Christs or Pharaoh's Magicians signs be more persuasive then the other more real miracles namely because they sided with their inclinations and interests This very account makes little difficulties which Almighty God hath left in our Religion as he suffered signs and lying wonders heretofore for trials yea makes cavils mere exceptions pass for reasons most invincible be disputed urg'd with great concern and passion against all those methods of conviction which God hath afforded Christianity Now if this be to receive Religion as a little Child 't is with the frowardnesse of Children when they are displeas'd or ill at ease who resist and quarrell with the thing that is to make them well or please them and returne the Parents cares to ease and quiet them with little outrages and vexing And do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and establisht thee Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee Deâ—t 32. 6 7. Now have Children any other way to know their Parents then to let their Father shew them and their Elders tell them Or should we cast off the relation and tenounce all the obedience due to it because we are not sure of it our selves For ought we know those may not be our Parents we have only testimony for it Thus we serve our God on that account and yet Hath he not made thee and establisht thee As he began us so did he not nurse and bear us in his arms and carry us in all our weaknesses and difficulties till he brought us up to a full strength Till by a miraculous and signal providence he had establisht settled us and after all these cares bestowed upon us do we prove a generation of vipers onely such as do requite the bowels that did bear and nourish them by preying on them and consuming them Or like the of-spring of a Spider who when he hath spent himself with weaving nets and working of them into labyrinths to be the granaries and the defences of his brood to catch them prey and to secure them then the strongest of his young ones when he is by these his cares establisht and grown ripe to destroy makes those threads fatal to his parent which he spun out of his bowels to be thread of life to him And shall we be such children to our Father that establisht us make all his plenties turn to poison in us and invenome us against himself make his miraculous mercies furnish us for the abuse and provocation of him his blest Providence serve onely to afford us arguments against it self help to confute it self because it hath so prospered doth still suffer us But after all this is he not thy Father that hath bought thee who to all his titles to us his endearing obligations notwithstanding our despites and provocations of them yet did give the life of his own Son to purchase o're again the same relation to us that we might have right to the inheritance of his Kingdom And then however we have hitherto affronted let us be content now to be bought and hir'd to receive that Kingdom of God as his children for if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ who died to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father To whom be glory c. A SERMON PREACHED IN S. PETERS WESTMINSTER ON Sunday Jan. 6. 1660. at the Consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of Bristoll EDWARD Lord Bishop of Norwich NICHOLAS Lord Bishop of Hereford WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Glocester BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. Canon of Christ Church in Oxford and one of His Majesties Chaplains LONDON Printed by Thomas Roycroft for James Allestry at the Rose and Crown in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1669. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD GILBERT LORD Bishop of LONDON and Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal. My LORD WHEN I consider with what reluctancies I appear thus in publick I have all reason to suspect and fear lest this offering which like an unwilling Sacrifice was dragg'd to the Altar and which hath great defects too will be far from propitiating either for its self or for the votary But I must crave leave to add that how averse soever I was to the publishing this rude Discourse I make the Dedication with all possible zeal and ready cheerfulness For I exspect your Lordship to be a Patron not only to my Sermon but to my Subject Such a separate eminence of virtue and of sweetness mixt together may hope to ingratiate Your Function to a Generation of men that will not yet know their own good but resist mercy and are not content to be happy And for my self Your Lordships great goodness and obligingness hath encourag'd me not only to hope that you will pardon all the miscarriages of what I now present but also to presume to shelter it and my self under your Lordships Name and Command and to honour my self before the world by this address and by assuming the relation of My Lord Your Lordships most humbly devoted and most faithful Servant RICH. ALLESTRY SERMON XVI IN St. PETERS WEST MINSTER January 6. 1660. ACTS XIII 2. The Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them AND as they ministred to the Lord and fasted the holy Ghost said Although that ministring to God by prayer and fasting be the indicted and appropriate acts to preface such Solemnities as this and that not Sermons but Litanies and intercessions are the peculiar adherents of Embers and of Consecrations and those vigorous strivings with Almighty God by Prayer are the birth-pangs in which Fathers are born unto the Church Yet since that novv this Sacred Office is it self oppos'd and even the Mission of Preachers preach'd against and the Authority that sends despis'd as Antichristian vvhilst separation and pretence unto the Holy Ghost set up themselves against the strict injunction of the Holy Ghost to separate the Pulpit that othervvhiles hath fought against it must novv attone its errours by attending on the Altar and the bold ungrounded claimes of Inspiration that false teachers
though we do not find that done yet vve do find his piety and his uprightness made the standard by vvhich that of his Successors is meted Of one 't is said he walked in the waies of David his father of another he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not like unto David his father And because David vvent aside and vvas upright vvith an Exception once therefore it is said The Lord was with Iehoâ—haphat because he walkt in the first â— ayes of his father David But besides this his very name is given to two Zorobabel and the Messiah both vvhich vvere to be the restorers of their people the one from Sin and Hell to re-establish the Kingdome of heaven it self the other to deliver his people from Babel and to repair a broken Nation and demolish'd Temple And for this vvork God bids them seek David their King The vvaies from Babel to Ierusalem from the Confusion of a people to a City that is at unity in it self the City of God where he appears in perfect beauty and where the throne of the house of David is must be the first vvaies of David in those he vvalk'd to Sion and did invest his people in God's promises the vvhole land of Canaan In those Zorobabel brought them back to that land and Sion And in these our Messiah leads us to Mount Sion that is above to the celestial Ierusalem does build an universal Church and Heaven it self And all that have the like to do must vvalk in those first waies fulfill that part of David and must copy Christ. Such the repairers of great breaches must be these are the vvaies to settle Thrones the only vvaies in vvhich vve may find the goodness of the Lord vvhich to fear is the third direction and my last part They shall fear the Lord and his goodness 3. That Israel vvho came but now out of the furnate should fear the Lord vvhose vvrath did kindle it vvhose justice they had found such a consuming fire as to make the Temple it self a Sacrifice and the vvhole Nation a burnt-offering is reasonable to expect but vvhen his goodness had repair'd all this to require them to fear that does seem hard That that goodness vvhich vvhen it is once apprehended does commit a rape upon our faculties and being tasted melts the heart and causes dissolution of soul through swoons of complacency that this should be received vvith dread and treâ—bling is most strange Indeed the Psalmist saies There is mercy with God that he may be feared for vvere there not vve should grow desperate but how to fear those mercies is not easie 'T is true when God made his goodness pass before Moscs shewed him the glory of it as he saies in those most comfortable attributes the sight of vvhich is beatiâ—ick Vision Exod. 34. 6 c. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin if that vvhich follows there be part of it and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers up on the children unto the third and fourth generation if this be one ray of the glory of goodness if it dart out such beams alas 't is as devouring as the lake of fire his very goodness stabs vvhole successions at once and the guilty may tremble at it for themselves and their posterity But if those vvords do mean as vve translate those very vvords Jer. 46. 28. I vvill not leave thee altogether unpunish'd yet will not utterly cut off not make a full end of the guilty vvhen I visit iniquities upon the children but vvill leave them a remnant still then there is nothing dreadful in â—t but those very visitations have kindness in them and his rod comforts and this issue of his goodness also is not terrible but lovely To fear God's goodness therefore is to revere it to entertain it vvith a pious â—stonishment acknowledging themselves unworthy of the crums of it especially not daring to provoke it by surfeting or by presuming on it or by abusing it to serve ill ends or any other than God sent it for those of piety and obedience not to comply vvith vvhich is to defeat God's kindness and the designs of it If vvhen they sought the Lord he vvas found of them and came to his dwelling place onely to be forc'd thence again by their abominations if vvhen his goodness had restor'd all to them they had David their King but to conspire against an Altar onely to pollute and a Temple to separate from as Manasses the Priest Sanballat's son in law vvith his accomplices did doe this vvere both to affront and to renounce that goodness vvhich above all things they must dread the doing for if this be offended too ruine is irreversible thoâ—e is no other attribute in God a sinner can fly to vvith any hope His Holiness cannot behold iniquity his Iustice speaks nothing but condemnation to guilt his Power vvithout kindness is but omnipotent destruction but if vve have his Goodness on our side vve have an Advocate in his own bosome that vvill bear up against the rest for his mercy is over all his attributes as vvell as vvorks but if this also be exasperated and kindness grow severe there is no refuge in the Lord no shadow of him to take Sanctuary under for there is nothing to allay the anger of his Compassion and Bounty This sure is the extreamest terrour we are to dread his kindness more than his severity and wrath we have an antidote a buckler against these but none against the other if it be provok'd and if the heats of love take fire and rise into indignation 't is unquenchable flame and everlasting burning Therefore when God hath done all things that he can do or they can wish then most of all they must fear the Lord and his goodness My Text and I have spoke all this vvhile to the Iews nor do I know vvhether I need to address any other vvay all this did so directly point at us The glories of this day need not the foil of those calamities from vvhich this day redeem'd to set them off Or you may read them in my Prophet here and our own guilts will make too sad a Comment on his Text who were more barbarous Assyrians to our selves We also were without a Prince and without Sacrifice had neither King nor Church nor Offices because we our selves had destroy'd them and that we might not have them had engag'd or covenanted against them ty'd to our miseries so that without perjury we could neither be without them nor yet have them As we had broke through all our sacred oaths to invade and usurp calamity and guilt so neither could we repent without breach of Vows If â—â— is were not enough to make us be without a God too then to drive him away vve
wrong From his own eyes this Love too like that in the Poets cannot see yea covers all that is not fit for light suffers onely the graces to be naked near him and not to name all which you may find there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 7. believeth all things however incompatible to love and to be wise have been accounted yet this Love is 8. James his Wisdome that came down from Heaven Cap. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to inâ—erpret any thing to the most favourable sense and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easie to be persuaded still believes the best and where it cannot yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hopes the best Affection while it lives cannot despair for then it must deposite its desires which are onely the warmth of Love and till it die cool not but if all do not answer hopes yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does wait for it is not discourag'd with relapses and the repetitions of injuries but still expects and suffers all the contradictions of spite and wrong Now if all these acts and the many other there are essential to Love and all be under Obligation and S. Paul says there they are so much Duty that without these performances all Faith and all Graces profit nothing the preaching Rhetorick of men and Angels would be nothing else but tinkling and working Miracles but shewing tricks It follows then these acts must necessarily have a certain object there must be some body that we are bound to love thus and if that Object be our Neighbour as that is most sure 't is clear my Neighbours injury or hate or enmity to me cannot take off nor yet diminish in the least that obligation I have to all those acts but I must love him though he be mine enemy in every of those instances For it is plain his having wrong'd me does not make him cease to be my Neighbour nay more that enâ—ity does formally dispose and quallifie my Neighbour for the object of my love and many of its acts cannot relate but to a man that injures me it must be in respect to provocations that love is said to cool into such a temper as is not easily provokt For men are not provokt with kindnesses I cannot suffer any thing but wrong nor suffer long except there be continuation and frequency of wrongs Nor is it possible I should forgive unlesse it be offences done against me And so for divers of the rest Now it were strange the Enemy should supersede the obligation of that Duty which cannot be a Duty but in order to an Enemy that injury should give me a release from doing that which I can never have cause or occasion to do but in the case of injury that I should have leave not to obey the Command for that meer reason which alone makes it possible to obey it and which alone makes the Command whereas indeed because I must needs love in these expresses therefore he must needs be my Enemy whom I must love But if he be without all provocation very unjustly so if his hate be his sin so that he hath offended God too in it may I not then espouse Gods quarrel thus farre not to love his Enemy if I must mine own not to love the injurious the sinner Vice certainly is the most hatefull thing that is and therefore it must needs render the subject not to be belov'd accordingly 't is said that the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike hatefull unto God Wisd. 14. 9. and David does comply with God in this Psalm 139. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate Thee yea I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies And when I reflect on mine under this Noâ—on or if mine be such as set themselves against Religion and the peace and quietnesse of the Church am I bound to love them if so then I may be allow'd to do it with a little regret sure But yet if we consider how these in the Text are designated by that Appropriation your enemies which means those that hate you my Disciples those that in the last words of my Text will persecute you even for your being mine and yet those they are bid to love we may conclude in the next place we may not hate our enemies as Sinners nor yet does enmity with God his Church or his Religion qualifie a person for our aversation or mischiefs I except here Apostacy and utter obduration in it a state that incapacitates for mercy and by consequence for love and kindnesse There is a sin which S. John would not say that we should pray for and the Church thought that there was such a sinner Julian but as to lesse degrees they that are suppos'd to persecute Disciples and in doing so persecute Christ himself may well be granted sinners enemies to God and Christianity but yet says he I say unto you love these your enemies Tertullian understood this so and writing to the Governour of Carthage who threatned all the Christians of that Province with Excision that he might persuade him from his purpose thus began his Proposals We do not write as fearing for our selves or dreading any thing that we are like to suffer for we did enter our Religion on the condition of suffering we covenanted to endure and staked our lives when we began our profession but 't is for you we fear for you our enemies whom our Religion does command us to love and to do good to And though we must hate Vice and do our best to root out Infidelity and Atheisme destroy Profanenesse irreligion and Heresie and Schism these are fit objects for the zeals of Hate and for the feavers of our Passion and if our enemies be such we may meetly endeavour they may have appropriate restraints yet not to exercise the acts of Charity and kindnesse to them we have no allowance no sins can make it lawfull for us to ruine or not to do good to the Sinners In fine the onely persons that the Jews pretended to have ground to hate were Enemies and enemies indeed to their Religion the Idolatrous Gentile-world therefore that being now forbid to us there is no sort of men nor any man whom it is lawfull for a Christian not to love and all the reasons urg'd here by our Saviour do prove that all mankind whether good or bad is the object of a Christians love because God does good to all his methods of Mercies are universall he makes his Clouds drop fatnesse even upon them that consume the encrease on their Lusts and sacrifice it to their Riots making their belly be their God he gives abundance of his good things unto those that love them onely as they advantage Vanity and Sin and that turn Gods store into provision for Vice and for Destruction He gives gold to them that make gold their Idol and bestows large portions of earth on them that are Children of Hell and them who
notation and effence imploy the being free yet are not so to hatred which hath by Christs Law just pretences to them I will not be too positive in my affirmings yet from the words will offer this that if a kindness lye before me and I have no reason to deny it a man but this because he hates me I must not deny it him and if Christs reasonings do inforce the other it will conclude this too For if we must relieve the wants of them that hate us that we may be children of our Father who does so upon the same account we must be good and kind too to them for he is and he will scarce prove a true lawful issue of this Father who is in this unlike to him that tries and owns his progeny by these resemblances So that what ever strength of argument there is in one the other hath it And truly we have reason to believe that there is more then motive in it when first Christ hath set this principle both to himself and us with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again Matt. 7. 2. As if the Lord had brought himself into that law of Justice with us men whatsoever ye would that others should do to you do you also to them and it be also whatsoever ye would that God should do unto you do ye also to others and Secondly when he practiseth just at the rates we do for with the froward God learns frowardness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is kind to the kind so Ps. 18. 25. recals a grace from him that would not do one Matt. 18. from 23 nay thirdly when he gives us leave to beg his kindnesses but just in the proportion we do ours forgive as we forgive we ask no more and praying so we undertake to have endeavoured thus assure God that we practice so and upon that score beg Now he that will forgive to the bounds of necessity but never into favour there he will stay his hand will so much serve his turn from God And can he be content with such a portion Take heed O severe man what thou dost ask when thou dost put up this petition As thou shouldest say I knew that notwithstanding we offend God constantly yet besides all the mercies of his Covenant and that 's a Covenant of Grace his kindness too is over all his works he does not onely furnish our necessities but serves our pleasures and our fancies prevents us with the blessings of his goodness and watches over us and waits to be kind to us in the rescues of his providence and beyond these gives us means of Salvation more than barely sufficient the plenties of his grace the five and ten Talents the expresses of his temporal spiritual and eternal favours towards them that provoke him are as immense and as innumerable as their guilts but all these I shall rather part with then be good and do favours to him that is mine Enemy I will never have any kindness for that man that hates me nor do I beg any of Thee O Lord. And wouldest thou say all this to God if it were put in words at length in thy petition Or dost thou think thou dost not say as much in praying so And thou that makest so ill requests for thy on self how wilt thou pray for them that despitefully use thee persecure thee which is the last particular command Pray for them that dispitefully use you and persecute you As in this character of enemies Christ hath not left out any thing that does express hâ—stility hating in heart cursing in word and persecution in deed and which to some is more provoking than a persecution despiteful usage for persecution may make them serious and look at their demerits the other onely stirs their splâ—en and gall all which all that an enemy canspeak or wish or do must be no â—ar to our affection so to express the unfeignedness of that he hath not left out any exercise of love we must speak well of them but that a crafty passion may do and blessing may be but more plausible and cunning hatred we must therefore also do good to them but this a generous pride may do as knowing it more glorious to raise up a distressed adversary thâ—n to trample on him when he is down and to make him my creature rather then my footstool All this I may do therefore yet love nothing but my vanity or my designs but when I take my enemy into my Closer and into my heart give him a share in the petitions of my soul devide the aâ—ms and interests of my devotion to hâ—m and make my prayers concern'd in the forgivness of his sins as of my own there 's nothing but obedience to my Saviour and the love of my enemy can make a man do this and truly t is a piece of kindness that is as necessary for our selves as those that injure us For them it is very necessary for persecution or despightful usage offending God as by a disobedience to his precept so also by the suffering it does inflict on man to forgive or require which that man hath right God does not use to put the injur'd person by this right or by his paramont Authority assume to pardon the mans part of the wrong but does retain the sin till that either in deed ordesire be satisfied for or remitted there being till then an obstruction to Gods forgivness for till then the man hath not repented but when the sufferer does pray for him in doing so he pleads that that obstruction is remov'd that his part is remitted and so leaves no bar in the way to that pardon which he begs for him of God and which that bar being gone the Lord is us'd to grant with all advantage the prayers of our Martyr in the seventh of the Acts are a demonstration to which the Fathers say the Church did owe not onely her deliverance from all the violent intentions of Soul but all that Christianity which St. Paul planted the dying voice of that petition Lord lay not this sin to their charge was answered by that voyce from Heaven which converted Saul in his career of fury one prayer for a persecuter puts an end to persecution si stephanus non orass et Ecclesia non habuisset Paulum Jobs miserable comforters whose visits prov'd afflictions to him could not at one themselves to God by their burnt offerings but Job must pray for them 42. Chr. 8. seven Bullocks and seven Rams cannot expiate but one petition from the sufferer will do it for him I will accept saith God and he accepted him not for them onely but for himself for the Lord turned the Captivity of Job when he prayed for them vers 10. These intercessions speed sooner then direct supplications and such a petition is heard to ourselves when t is made for others And reason good for such requests lay the condition of our