Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A57933
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A sermon preached at the assizes at Norwich upon the fifth day of August, 1693 by J.R., M.A., Rector of Brundal.
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Russell, John, 17th cent.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing R2344; ESTC R5459
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16,711
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34
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be so firmly United to the Common Interest of their own Princes and Country as was necessary to its Freedom and Safety so if we transcribe the Errour that we have so often Renounced and they so Happily escaped it is but to make a very forward step to engulf our selves into the same Condition and Worse And certainly such a Prospect is not so very inviting but that the Dreadfull Confusions and Miseries that must usher it in and attend it might prevail with Men not to be so passionately in Love with it It is no standing to dispute Titles and to fall out about what God seems to have determined when without a Vigorous concurrence with the way that his Providence hath put us into for our Safety we are the most Unfortunate People in the World If all that are concern'd as even those also seem to be as much as any others that are so willing to run the adventure of another Revolution would but concur in the same Common Interest to partake of the Common Safety will certainly be a Greater Reward than they can expect for assisting the Ruine of their Country by Treachery and Perfidiousness Enraged Tyranny seldom makes Distinctions and General Confusion doth not always leave room for the Authors to escape especially if their Numbers are many and their Figures great so that their Reward is not like to be so much according to expectation as desert But to wave all Fears let us all lay aside that Discord and Falshood that are at once so great a Reproach and such Fatal forerunners of mischief Let us concert for the Publick Safety and Unite in the same Interest and by a Cheerfull and Honest rendring to Caesar the things that are Caesars let us strengthen the Hands of our Princes which is now the onely way left for the Preservation of the Church and State of our Country and Religion Thirdly But to conclude The last thing I am to perswade is that all that are concern'd in the Government would take a due Care that these things be done and that all Men render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods This is that Justice that all in Authority owe to God and their Princes and the Faithfull discharge of that Duty is to consult Wisely for their own Safety and Honour as well as for the Glory of God and the Establishment of that Government they serve To execute judgement between Man and Man and do justice is the Indisputable and Indispensable Command of God and without it Societies cannot be preserved nor States and Empire long upheld For Justice is the Stability of the Affairs of the World Prov 16.12 and the throne is established by righteousness But to neglect the just Interests of Princes and the Glory of God is to countermine the other Practice For to suffer the Affronts and Impieties that the Atheistical and Prophane temper of the Age is so very Pregnant with to go unpunished is to forfeit the Care of Heaven and bespeak all the Judgements of God And to suffer those Affronts to Princes and their Government which the perverse Humours of turbulent Spirits are so subject to is to give way to their fall Whereas a Faithful Discharge of those Grand Duties would as much as may be prevent those Dangers and not onely so but also would render such Noble Patriots names Great their Memory Honourable and themselves Blessed It is no wonder to hear Men despise dominion and speak evil of Dignities Jude 8. if they may do it without a check and it is no wonder if Men without controul Blaspheme the Most High to hear them revile the Gods Exod. 22.28 and curse the Rulers of their people But if the Power of Religion and the true Spirit of Government be so sunk that these Practices are common and unpunished it would be a Wonder indeed if they do not Ruine the Government that should suppress them and bring Confusion upon the Land To obviate therefore the Power of these Black Arts and in behalf of all that fear God and love their Country and Religion I presume in the Name of God to demand that Justice which is so evidently his and his Vicegerents due and whereupon the Common Welfare hath so Great dependance And because Magnanimity and Courage as well as Justice is requisite in this Case the Enemies of our Peace being so many and Impudent of both sorts let Almighty God the Author and lover of Justice and the Faithfull Rewarder of Good Men strengthen your Hands and Hearts to this Good Work and give Success to your Endeavours Thus have I endeavoured to assist the kind Design of our most Loving Friend and Saviour And so far as it succeeds there shall be Glory to God Peace on Earth and good will towards Men Which the Lord of his Infinite Goodness grant in our days for Jesus Christ's sake to whom onely with the Holy Ghost be Adoration and Glory for ever Amen FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Samuel Oliver Bookseller in Norwich DE Naturali Religione Liber in tres partes divisus ubi falsa candidè refelluntur vera probantur vel deteguntur ac Orthodox Eccles fratres ad concordiam vocantur Autore Petr. Chanvin Roterodami apud Pet. Vander Staart sumptibus Sam. Oliverii Norvicensis 1693. A Sermon preach'd at the Assizes at Thetford 1693. by J. R. A. M. Rector of Brundal in Norfolk Publish'd at the Special instance and Command of the Judges The Duty and Encouragement of Religious Artisicers describ'd in a Sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of Norwich at the Weavers Guild 1693. By J. Jeffery A. M. Minister of Saint Peters of Mancroft in Norwich
ridicules it But yet this is it that must be our Refuge at last We must either cease our Provocations or else we shall Experience that our iniquities will be our ruine 1 Sam. 12.25 Ezek. 18.30 We must either come to a more Pious Temper or else we must never expect the Blessing of God in this World or Mercy in the next neither Prosperity here nor a Lot among the Saints at last This hath always been the means that God himself hath propounded for the averting of his Judgements and attoning incensed Vengeance And those that have been so Wise as to make use of it have ever found it Successfull whilst a continued stubbornness in their Impieties hath never failed to accomplish his wrath upon wicked and unreclaimable People Those that have made the most Wise Observations in History of common Calamities and the Ruine of Empires and Nations have commonly assigned the cause thereof to the vices and wickedness either of the People or their Princes whereby as they have become too effeminate and soft to be either Valiant or Wise so they have at once lost their Courage and Conduct and incensed Divine Justice against them And if we look into the Holy Scripture which onely gives us an Impartial Account of such things we shall find that all the Desolations that are there mentioned to have been in the World were more owing to the vile Practices of Men and their sins against God than to the Power of Enemies Look upon the Destruction of the Old World and the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorra Gen. 6.5 6 7. Gen. 18.20 Chap. 19.24 25. Adma and Zeboim and you will find the true cause of all their Ruine was their continued Enormities and their Brutish Practises and because they would not be brought to Repentance and Reformation thò Noah and just Lot as well as their own Destruction so earnestly perswaded it And St Peter says 2 Pet. 2.6 these things were an ensample for those that should after live ungodly Look upon those seven Nations that God gave over to be destroyed before the children of Israel Levit. 18.25 28. and you will find that because they had polluted it with their abominations the land it self is said to have vomited them out And God chargeth his own People not to follow their Example That the land spue not them out also as it spued out the Nations that were before them Look upon the final Desolation of the Jewish State and Nation and their continued Obstinacy and Rebellions against God notwithstanding the repeated Calls of our Lord and his Apostles to Repentance was their Ruine Our Saviour had indeed before read them their Destiny under the Parable of the Husbandmen Matth. 21.23 c. that would not render their Lord the fruit of his Vineyard And they might well have taken the hint in our Text For not rendring to God the things that were Gods they to bring on their own Destruction were so besotted as not to render to Caesar the things that were Caesars but mutining about the Roman tribute under Florus and Albinus they lost their Temple Sacrifice and Service and after they had suffered the most Dismal Shock of Cruelty that ever fell upon any part of Mankind their State was utterly overthrown The old Persian Empire when sunk into Debauchery and stewed into Softness and Effeminacy by their abominable Lusts easily fell before the small Force of Alexander and that which made him Great was that he happened to extend his Arms where Luxury and Vice had made way for Conquest and Destruction before And nothing gives the present Scourge of Europe a clearer Prospect of an Vniversal Monarchy then the Universal Vitiousness and Impiety his most agreeable Harbingers that have prepared his way And he is certainly as much beholden to the Perfidiousness and Treachery to the Knavery and Falsehoòd that Irreligion and the Decay of Piety have so plentifully produced in this Age as he is to any thing else except it be the Divine Vengeance that is now Chastising this part of Christendom with that Firebrand for our great degeneracy in Religion and Manners These things are certainly very plain Admonitions to us upon whom the ends of the world are come as St Paul speaks And if such warnings and our own Ill State neither the Judgements of God upon others nor the Prospect of them upon our selves neither the present Discoveries of his Displeasure nor the terrours of the Wrath to come will prevail with us to consider our ways and to come to a more Pious Temper and more Christian Practice he that runs may read our Fate For what our Lord said to the Jews is as applicable to us both as to Particulars and as to the Nation in general Luke 13.3 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Let not therefore Religion and Piety which are a better Defence than either Walls or Bulworks and the onely means to save our Souls be the onely contemned things in the World and Traffick and Business be preferred before both Let not the Sacred Ordinances of God be treated as mere Diversions and less esteemed than Masks or Plays Let not his Holy Day be onely respected as a Retirement from Publick Employments to more Private Indulgence and Licentiousness and the rest esteemed most usefull to us Let not the Holy Name of God be more used to Swear and Curse with than to Adore and Praise Let not our Glorious Creator and most Mercifull Lord the Great Judge of Quick and Dead and the Almighty Revenger be treated as an Insignificant Being and left out of our thoughts Let not his Laws be contemned his Counsels slighted his Mercy abused or his Judgements be provoked But let us all Unite in his Fear and by a timely and through Reformation of such Horrid Provocations endeavour at once to prevent the pouring out of his Fury upon the Land and the Final Damnation of our own Souls Secondly I am to perswade a just rendring to Caesar the things that are Caesars that we come to a more united adherence to the Powers that be and to a more just Observance of those Duties that Gods word and the Necessity of Affairs requires in reference to them This is the most Rational and Natural Method to assist that means which God and Nature have ordained both for the Establishment and Defence of Humane Societies and the Common-wealth and next to the propitiating of Heaven by our returning to our Duty to God it is the most Proper Course to prevent and dissipate our Dangers Matth. 12.25 Our Lord hath given us too plain a hint of the Danger that divided States are in to be either overlooked or contemned and if we will not yet take warning it is too probable we shall find his words true When the Subjects of this Kingdom were so cullied in their Faith as to reserve a kind of Allegiance to the Prince of the Roman State as they could not