Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A03494
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A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse, August the 5. 1623. By Barten Holyday, now archdeacon of Oxford
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Holyday, Barten, 1593-1661.
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1626
(1626)
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STC 13615; ESTC S104169
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16,484
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48
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A SERMON PREACHED At Pauls Crosse August the 5. 1623. BY BARTEN HOLYDAY Now Archdeacon of OXFORD LONDON Printed by William Stansby for Nathaniell Butter and are to be sold at his Shop at Saint Austines Gate in Pauls Church-yard 1626. TO THE VNFAINED EXAMPLE OF GOODNESSE EVEN IN THIS AGE THE HONOVR OF NOBILITIE THE DELIGHT AND DEFENDER OF THE ARTS THE FRIEND OF PERPETVALL HOLDERNESSE THE REVIVER OF NOTINGHAM AND DRAKE THE HONOVRABLE SIR FRANCIS STVART HIS MOST DEVOTED BARTEN HOLYDAY WISHETH THE GLORIOVS EXTREMITIE OF HIS MERIT Most Noble Sir WHen I see you peremptory to be good I iudge your vnhappinesse no lesse then your Vertue and I thinke most men haue my thought though not my way They iudge you vnhappy because your Honour is not as large as your goodnesse and they thinke kindly though not exactly that being no part of your vnhappinesse because no part of your desire But I iudge you most vnhappy in that being a rare example of Vertue in our Age you want the comfort of that example which other good men enioy in the direct contemplation of you and you enioy not through your owne modestie which denyes you the reflectiue contemplation of your selfe And since it hath beene your fauour and my blessing to admit mee to the prospect of your faire actions I knew not how to returne a more cunning thankes vnto you then to present vnto you another prospect the gratefull prospect of our late Soueraigne and of your loued Holdernesse who may very well stand thus neere in fame hauing beene as much vnited in danger and deliuerance And still it is so farre from being an vntruth that it is not so much as a paradoxe to affirme that They both liue and by their preseruation out-liue not only the Gowries but also their owne Funerals By the Sword of the Gowries they could haue beene but proued to be mortall but by the execution of the Gowries they are prooued to bee immortall and because they did not die then they shall neuer die nay they are able to giue life to their Epitaphs And only by this aduantage of the argument perchance euen this trifle may steale into Posteritie though alas my desire is that it may only last till this story bee deliuered to Fame and Enuie by some nobler pen then this rude one of Your Honour 's most faithfull Barten Holyday PSAL. 18. Verse 48 49. Thou hast deliuered mee from the violent man Therefore will J giue thankes vnto thee O Lord among the Heathen and sing prayses vnto thy name IF the voice of ioy were not as loud as the voice of Treason wee could not vpon this day heare the newes of our owne deliuerance But gratitude Maiestie command the eare when the King preacheth Attention is Loyalty My Text is King Dauid's Sermon and his Text is his preseruation God saues him and he by an imitating thankfulnesse saues the story of God's mercy His speech testifies his safetie but his confession his goodnesse which the Lord protects and increases And it increases like the protection as if by a deuout emulation it would as much requite as acknowledge the fauour Which being aboue the faint thankes of prose he aduances by the art and courage of a Song His soule could no other way ascend but by death or triumph in which his iust exilience is so great that one may feare he ought after treason to feare a neerer violence from his owne ioy Yet hee venters this gratefull trance as if he were content to haue a disease for his sake that had freed him from death His Song is of deliuerance an act by which God repeates his creation and makes the same creature without death reuiue It is the friendship of his power whereby he makes our safety as eminent as his loue which by this vnfeigned Commentarie vpon our Creed workes in vs an easie faith that God is the Father Almightie If we view the purchases of men we may obserue that they who haue laid out most labour vpon opinion of mightinesse haue had their greatest Fame take life from Ruine and with a lamentable happinesse made the epitaphs of nations the best annals of their immortalitie and furie But the Almighty does not spend a creature in vnmercifull vanitie the height of his glory being the humilitie of his compassion And though the Iew in his grammaticall deuotion trembles more at the found then the maiestie of his name of maiestie Iehouah yet God himselfe hath taught vs by a more canonicall Catechisme to pay our best adoration without precise sophistrie to his name of saluation his best name Iesus And if you would see how he delights to saue you may with delight see his varietie of saluations Sometimes you may see him saue an infant when hee must stay for thankes till by the leisure of nature the vnderstanding bee made as capable of the blessing as the bodie was Sometimes you may see him saue a mother as if he would make himselfe like his owne worke bee as tender ouer her as she ouer her babe Sometimes you may see him saue the mightie It was hee that deliuered Sampson from the captiuitie of the cordes which he did not breake by his owne strength The strength of his body lay in his haire but the strength of his haire lay in his Vow The Nazarite was stronger then Sampson Sometimes you may see him saue a family It was he that prepar'd Esau for Iacob and his pilgrim-houshold Esau that before lost his birth-right and now his malice Nature vainly thought to make him Iacob's brother but this was a taske that God kept for himselfe Sometimes you may see him saue a tribe It was he that in reuenge of his abused Leuite made Israel so ouer-act victory vpon Beniamin that they put sixe hundred of them to a happy flight whereby they preseru'd the tribe and conquer'd it They deliuered them from the Sword by bestowing vpon them too much feare of it Sometimes you may see him saue a nation It was hee that led Moses as well as Israel through the Sea which was more obedient then Pharaoh to let them goe and hurried on each side into such reuerent tumults to get out of the way that Israel scarce trembled more at the Aegyptian then at their owne deliuerance Sometimes you may see him saue a King and then he shewes the supremacie of his mercie whiles hee makes him perceiue that he is lesse then God by making him onely lesse then God Maiesty is a deputy-diuinity and to deny Royalty is ciuill Atheisme God hauing propos'd to man the visible Godhead of a King as his owne proportionall and lawfull image A King is as sacred as sublime and as great a part of God's iealousie as of his loue God therefore often confounds the treason but almost alwayes the traitour He places a King on high to make vs vnderstand how neere he is vnto protection He places a King on high to make vs vnderstand
accompanied a blessing is one God neuer giues vnto a good man a single blessing but at the same time makes him both happy and gracefull And it is societie of blessings our vnderstanding may obserue in those creatures that are without vnderstanding each good tree giuing thankes for his goodnesse by his fruitfulnesse Goodnesse is the looking glasse and gratitude the reflexion whereby the Creatour beholds and applaudes his owne worke Which worke was in Dauid so vnfainedly exact that God's goodnesse seem'd to bee reflected with as much similitude as delight and with as much expedition as similitude God deliuers him from death and straight hee deliuers himselfe from ingratitude He does not giue thanks vnto his speare or rather vnto Saul's speare which hee vsed not vnto victorie yet vnto triumph His happinesse made Saul his captiue but his mercie did onely take his speare captiue The speare in holy reuerence did not touch Saul but the dutifull mercie gaue him a loyall wound Hee does not giue thankes to the swiftnesse of his beast which might make his flight more speedy then his danger We know of no horse hee had but his feare Hee does not giue thankes vnto his sword He fled without one till hee came to Ahimelech the Priest of whom hee was faine to borrow one that was his one the sword which hee formerly wonne from Goliah Yet Dauid did no more hurt to Saul with it then Goliah did to Dauid with it Hee does not giue thankes vnto his wit which without strength may put a man in hope but seldome in safetie He does giue thankes vnto the Lord that in his flight affoorded him direction and defence and hee delights to disgrace himselfe to thankfulnesse whiles he makes himselfe no more part of the deliuerance then the argument If some politique Discourser were to censure this businesse hee would inuade it with the licence of phansie and deliuer vnto vs a new story of the same actions making Dauid as great a Politician as himselfe He would tell vs of his courtship with Ahimelech by whom he was both sed and arm'd He would tell vs of his iudicious and wel-expressed madnesse before Achish the King of Gath He would tell vs of his foure hundred Bankcrupts and discontents whole despaire he raised into courage by making himselfe Captaine ouer them at Adullam He would tell vs how hee wrought vpon the King by nothing vpon his children Ionathan and Michel making him his friend and her his wife by whom hee made a discouerie aduantage of the King's hate and feare He would tell vs that hee spared Saul not for Saul's sake but his owne since hee might expect most certaine 〈◊〉 from the guilt and as certaine pardon by the loyaltie Lastly he would draw out such a necessitie of deliuerance in all his troubles from the vnited causes circumstances and dependances of the actions that both the danger and the glory would be all Dauid's and he would tell vs that to oppose this were to deny the principles of the great Patriarch Achitophel and Saint Machiauel and thus would make God almighty so vnacquainted with the businesse as if hee were wholy imployed about some other piece of prouidence But Dauid's gratitude does abhorre this guiltie wisedome and hee is so farre from not rendring thankes vnto God that he proclaimes them making them of as great extent as the libertie God brings him into Hee counts it an ingratitude to prayse God without witnesse and he makes himselfe more thankfull whiles hee makes others thankfull Their silence is a part and an increase of his speech which is pointed by the respites of their admiration No lesse then the whole people can bee an auditor equall to Dauid's ioy wherein you may behold a happy contradiction of Philosophie extending an accident beyond a subiect Dauid's ioy is larger then his heart and yet his heart is larger then all the people's and his thankes likewise must not haue the same bounds with his Dominions He will commit his Psalmes to fame and deuotion which shall faithfully deliuer them vnto the Nations And the Nations shall reioyce to studie God in Dauid and God shall reioyce to heare Dauid in the Nations and Dauid shall reioyce to fore-know the ioy of God and the Nations This day in the Christian posteritie of the Heathen Dauid's Prophesie is made storie and his Psalme is made our Psalme whiles Dauid giues vs the words wherewith we giue thankes for him vnto the Lord. But Dauid cannot rest content with the tame thankes of words Hee is not made more actiue by his feare then by his ioy which sometimes moues his hand vnto his Harpe as if it would make the soule by the finger impart harmony to the instrument and by arte not adulterate yet multiply thankes Sometimes it moues his whole body which by the obedience of a deuout Daunce keepes time with the excitations of his soule And sometimes it moues his voyce by a song by which the soule whiles in the body seemes to mount higher then the bodie Dauid could not alwayes carry the pleasant burden of his Harpe with him but his voyce was an easie and faithfull companion The most instructed pensill that can expresse all passions cannot yet expresse a voice but the voice by a naturall cunning can without the pensill expresse all passions It can prolong it self into the slow not of sorrow and teach the eare to suffer with the heart It can sharpen it selfe into the cleere accent of joy and by purifying motion seeme to make the spirits of the heart as light as the soule When we sing we commit an innocent flattery of our selues our owne melodie being the gratefull coozenage of our minds without abuse But when we sing a Psalme we chastize the errour of delight and so please our selues that we please God To sing Psalmes is to preuent the joyes of Heauen but to sing Psalmes of prayse is to increase the joyes in Heauen The Angels rejoyce at out godly sorrow how much more doe they rejoyce at our godly joy The Church triumphant makes vp the antheme of the Church militant Yet all our songs doe not make God more great but more gracious Hee makes his prayses our blessings Thus we can then onely with a modest and lawfull wisdome prayse our selues when we prayse God And this was an art wherein Dauid was no lesse skilfull then happy his whole life was but a blessing and a Psalme If he kill a Lion or a Beare hee will straight be as thankfull as strong and confesse that though it were by the arme of Dauid yet it was by the strength of God If he kill a Gyant with the weapons of a sheepheard he will straight confesse that God was the sheepheard which gaue the weight course vnto the sling-stone If in the Wildernesse hee lie hid from Saul by the protection of a rocke hee will straight confesse that God is the rocke and rather want an auditory then a Psalme