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A93313
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Reformation and union recommended, as the present duty and interest of the nation in a sermon preach'd at the assizes held at Hertford August the 1st, 1698 / by Ri. Skingle, vicar of Roydon in Essex.
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Skingle, Ri.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing S3941B; ESTC R42554
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9,577
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19
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Piety and Holy Living Something of this nature I hear is done in some places as also by some in this County to their great Honour And God's Blessing upon their Hearts for it Such are the Men that are likely to serve their Country and such are Persons that we are to have a Value for But alas What hath yet been done is by so few that still the Practical Language of the greater Number among us is like that of Pharaoh Who is the Lord that we should obey him Many live as if they question'd his Being and more his Authority Such Provocations are common with us as even dare God to his Face as if Men took Encouragement from the Influences of his Goodness to mount to a greater Degree of Sin after a fair Sun-shine of Mercy to entertain more unbridl'd Resolutions and to pass forward with more Licentiousness to bind themselves stronger to their Iniquity by that which should bind them faster to their Duty Now When will all our Magistrates be pleas'd to take notice of this and to the utmost Extent of their Power and Influence as they are in Duty bound put a Stop to it I know they will assuredly say unto us that Proverb Physicians heal your selves and first do your Parts herein And I most readily own that to be Ensamples to our People is very much our Duty and to let them know that Sin is the Ruin as well as the Reproach of any Nation and that for these Things the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Disobedience Nay to bring off our Hearers from all such Doctrines as but tend to the upholding them in their Evil Ways to deliver a wary and sober Sense of the Efficacy and Benefit of the Sacraments to warn them against taking up with Church-Privileges like those who cry'd The Temple of the Lord and bless'd themselves in their being Abraham's Children tho' they minded nothing less than the treading in the Steps of Abraham's Faith and Obedience of satisfying themselves with being within the Pale of the Church and a bare Performance of the outward Duties of thinking their Attendance on the Lord's Day a License to live loosly all the Week after and a quitting Scores with God for what was past In short That he that will acquit himself like a Christian must give himself to the Lord 1 Cor. 2.8 5. That is as our Church expresseth it most excellently * See the Communion-Office He must offer and present himself his Soul and Body to be a Reasonable Holy and Lively Sacrifice to God †The General Thanksgiving giving up himself to his Service and walking before him in Holiness and Righteousness all his Days All this with all the Encouragement we are able to give to Pious and Godly Living I acknowledge to be incumbent upon us But then there is also much lying before Magistrates in this good Work and this with Submission I take to be their proper Business who are to be a Terrour to Evil-Works Rom. 13.3 And were but one half of that Vigour exerted for the Suppression of Prophaneness and Immorality which was formerly express'd by some others for the punishing of Men in the Matters of their God we should soon see a blessed Alteration Shall I then speak freely of two or three of the fore-mention'd Evils tho' not of them with Desire to exclude or abate your Zeal against any of the rest of the same kind There is Cursing and Prophane Swearing 't is very sad that it should be so found among us and Parish-Officers not most strictly requir'd to take notice of it And whoever observes how carelesly and impudently Oaths are taken especially if to serve a Turn and what is frequently given in Evidence at such a time as this and what Oaths to discharge Offices are often swallow'd and how little if at all regarded will soon be convinc'd how needful it is to observe very strictly when any come within the Verge of Perjury and to punish it according to its due Merit And then for the Prophanation of the Lord's Day 't is plain that it is not only the thing that be-dwarfs Men's Religion by cramping the Advantages to be gotten by the publick Ministery but is a great Cause why the Attendance on it is so much neglected And now Right Honourable and much Honoured the King tells us once and again that he doth most earnestly desire and shall endeavour a general Reformation in the Lives and Manners of all his Subjects 't is obvious then where it must stick if it be not effected Be up then be up and a doing in this good Work I most humbly but earnestly beseech you and the Lord be with you And here will the Learned and Reverend Judges of the Nation allow me one Word to them in particular Why then it is this That they would be pleas'd to remember that there is much expected from them in this Matter not only from their High and Honourable Stations for they are always the same but from those high Thoughts the Nation hath of them and the mighty Veneration that is justly entertain'd for them There is no Man but will own that God exceedingly bless'd the Nation in directing the King to such an excellent and very extraordinary Choice of Persons when he fill'd those great Places Now as Nehemiah argu'd from his Place of great Trust and from the Graces and Gifts of the Spirit of God in him saying Shall such a Man as I flee Thus we are all ready to say Such Judges as the Nation is now favour'd with will go a great way in this Work Yea let every one do his part herein there is none so mean but may set an Helping Hand to this if not otherwise yet by Family or Personal Reformation Every one is a King a Priest and a Prophet in his own Family and the Neglect of Parents and Masters especially of such as have any way the Addition of Outward Greatness in setting good Examples and commanding their Children and Houshold to keep the Way of the Lord is the Rise and Continuance of all Prophaneness What a brave Change is it then in the power of such to make in the World And as for Personal Reformation every one in this Case hath a Corporation within himself and hath Authoriry to arraign and execute every Rebel against God and the Peace of his Soul And if he wants Help against his Trayterous Lusts he may call in the Divine Aid and if he will but be directed by it he will not fail to cut off the Heads of those Uncircumcised and to lay all those Sons of Anake flat Stir up your selves then stir up your selves in this manner against Sin Yea let those that profess above the common Rate see what is amiss see their Coldness and Formality in Religion their Compliances with the sinful Humours of the Age their making themselves free to all Companies and Customs their Loosness their Earthliness the Decays and sad
Declinings in Religion that are to be found in them truly reform these things and be always upon their Guard for the future even till they see every Egyptian dead upon the Shoar This is that which God expects from us and this is the way to have him go on to do us good And so I pass to the other Thing which I propos'd when I began this use which is That some offectual Course be taken for the uniting of us and the more to dispose unto this heavenly Work I beg that these following particulars be considered I. That Infallibility is not lodg'd with any Men we all know but in part and to bring it home to what I am speaking to let me use the Language of a Reverend Person before the King speaking of Dissenters Dr. Wake in a Sermon at Hampton-Court in 1689 p. 21. We saith he suppose them to be mistaken in the Things wherein they differ from us and perhaps they are so but yet we must consider that we our selves also are but Men and therefore may err and they as verily think us in the wrong as we do them and for ought I know we must leave it to the Day of Judgment to decide the Controversie which of us is in the right Amen good Lord Amen II. Consider the temper of the Gospel requiring Meakness and forbearing one another in Love when the Disciples were so fierce as to suspend one who was working a Miracle in Christ's Name only because he did not follow them our Lord immediately order'd a relaxation And for our Apostle we find the same mind was in him that was also in Christ Rom. 14. which whole Chapter if it were well consider'd would be of great use in this business and here let me give you the thoughts of a Right Reverend Divine of ours There is scarce saith he a more unaccountable thing to be imagined The Bishop of Sarum in his Preface to that excellent Book called The Life of God in the Soul of Man then to see a company of Men professing that Religion a great and main Precept whereof is mutual Love Forbearance Gentleness of Spirit and compassion to all sorts of Persons and agreeing in all the Essential parts of that Doctrine differing only in some less material and more disputable things yet maintaining those differences with a Zeal so disproportioned to the value of them prosecuting all that disagree from them with all possible violence and if they want means to use outward Force with all bitterness of Spirit This saith he must needs astonish every Impartial Beholder But III. If we are indeed what we esteem our selves to be the strong in the Faith then let it be remember'd that it is to such as we are that St. Paul addresseth himself Rom. 15.1 requiring us not to please our selves and in the seventh Verse of the same Chapter to receive one another as Christ also receiveth us to the Glory of God And in the third of Phil. seems to intimate that wherein any differ'd from them to leave them to God and as far as they were agreed to walk by the same rule and to mind the same things ver 15 16. IV. Consider the Mischiefs the want hereof brings the publick is deprived of the Labours of many Learned and Godly Men and upon this account also is it that instead of Loving one another as our Lord hath given us Commandment the one side crys out Persecutors and Men of cruel and bitter Spirits the other Schismaticks and as if Men of another Religion and no sooner is either side heated with this Coal but like a burning Candle whose Tallow is mixt with Brine spit up and down the Room And what advantages hath the common Enmity got by these Feuds And where are they so like to have an after-Game as from our Divisions V. And Lastly let the Things which are and have been the matter in Difference be well considered are they Things of absolute necessity to Salvation Dr. Wake in the formenticned Sermon Is Heaven at stake Indeed we must not destroy the Principles of Christianity out of Zeal to enlarge the Communion of Christians but it is always owned that these are Things that do not at all concern the Foundations either of Faith or Worship Let 's all then in what 's proper for our places shew a publick Spirit and contribute towards an Union yea he that can do no more yet by his Prayers for it And O Lord God help and give Men Underderstanding to consider the necessity of it I confess prudence must accompany our Zeal herein otherwise like ill order'd Physick it may exasperate the Disease rather than remove it but while we pretend Prudence let us take heed of Lukewarmness and indifferency herein There is too much Neutrality amongst us directly opposite to the temper of our Lord whose Zeal for Godliness and Purity of Worship even eat him up O that this were well considered by us And that we might also see Mens Zeal for Religion overpoise Ambition Secular Designs and Worldly Grandeur then would Christianity soon be reduced to this its Primitive temper And then the envy of Ephraim shall depart and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Judah nor Judah yex Ephraim but they shall flee upon the Shoulders of the Philistines towards the West and spoil them of the East together they shall lay their Hand upon Edom and Moab and the Children of Ammon shall obey them and the Lord shall utterly destroy the Tongue of the Egyptian-Sea and then Glory shall dwell in our Land all Hearts Heads and Hands shall be at Work to promote the welfare of the Nation utterly to root out Popery and Prophaneness and to countenance real Piety and Good Living Yea the Kingdom to the dear Son O Lord will then come and all his Enemies be made his Footstool Come then thus O Blessed Jesus come quickly FINIS