unto him in better words We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our Fathers for we have finned against thee The remembrance of these ought to be very grievous to us and the burden of them intolerable VVhich if we feel sensibly it will dispose us to cry to God with the greater fervency and frequency and to beseech him the more earnestly to spare us saying as Baruch a great Friend of Jeremiah teaches us III. 1 2. O Almighty Lord the soul in anguish the troubled spirit cryeth to thee Hear O Lord and have mercy for thou art merciful have pity upon us for we have sinned against thee And if he do condescend to our request we shall the more magnifie his mercy and his clemency will be the more admirable in our eyes when we have been made thoroughly sensible how little we deserved it nay how justly we had incurred his severest displeasure 3. The sense also of our ill deservings will help another way to make our Prayers effectual because it will move us wholly to depend upon God for our deliverance That 's a third thing necessary to make our supplications prevalent We must in this humble manner apply our selves to God and quitting all confidence in any thing that we can do even in our Prayers desire him to save us merely for his own sake there being nothing in our selves to move him to any thing but only displeasure against us This Jeremiah also teaches us in the next words to those now mentioned v. 21. Do not abhor us though we and our Fathers have been great sinners yet do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the Throne of thy glory Which argument he uses also a little before my Text v. 7. O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us do thou it for thy Names sake A most excellent Form for us to imitate who may and ought to say as it there follows Our backslidings have been many we have sinned against thee O thou hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble we have provoked thee to resolve that thou wilt save and deliver us no more but do it for thy Names sake do it for thy Truths sake disgrace not thy holy Religion here established among us though we be wicked that is pure though we deserve to be deserted that is worthy of thy defence and protection And may we take the boldness to add as thy Servants heretofore have done thou hast many holy devout Worshippers among us for whose sake we beseech thee to do it O look not upon the sinners of thy people but on them which serve thee in truth 2 Esdras III. 28.31.34 and VIII 26. Are their deeds any better who inhabit Babylon that they should therefore have the dominion over Sion Weigh thou our wickedness now in the ballance and theirs also that dwell in the world and so shall thy Name be found no where as it is in our Israel Psal CXV 1. Not unto us therefore O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth sake Remember not the iniquities of our Forefathers but think upon thy Power and thy Name now at this time For thou art the Lord our God and thee O Lord will we praise and for this cause hast thou put thy fear in our hearts to the intent that we should call upon thee These last are the words of Baruch III. 5 6. who imitates you see his Friend Jeremiah as they all do the Psalmist with whose words I shall conclude this particular LXXIX 8 c. O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Help us O God of our salvation for the glory of thy Name and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy Names sake Wherefore should they say where is now their God Let him be known among them in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy Servants which hath been shed That 's the third thing Let us profess our sole dependence on him and expectation meerly from his goodness and for his glory disclaiming all confidence in our selves and let me add in man too that is in all humane help and Counsels For which end let me recommend that Form of Prayer to you for perpetual use Psal LX. 11. Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man I say perpetually 4. For we must pray to God in this manner with perseverance continuing instant in Prayer as the Apostle speaks Rom. XII 12. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Ephes VI. 18. That is we must not be discouraged if we obtain not our suits presently but pray still with all prayer secret private publick and in the Spirit with earnestness and fervour watching thereunto i. e. borrowing some time from our sleep or our business rather than neglect this Duty of fervent prayer resolving not to be weary but with all perseverance to cry mightily to him till he have mercy upon us This is our Saviours Doctrine Luke XVIII 1. where he spake a Parable to this end that men ought always to pray and not faint or grow weary For if as he shews an unjust and impious Judge may be moved by importunity to do a poor Widow right shall we think that God will not avenge his Elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily v. 7 8. And this was the course that Jeremy here resolved to take in their great distress for want of Rain ver last of this Chapter Can any of the vanities of the Gentiles give Rain or the Heaven give showers Art not thou he O Lord our God therefore will we wait upon thee And so truly must we praying in the Psalmists words Psal CXXIII 2 3 4. Behold as the Eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the Eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress So our Eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us for we are exceedingly filled with contempt Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud Let every soul here present put up at least this short petition to God day by day for this Church and Kingdom besides those he makes for himself and Family And as often as you can set apart some time for more solemn importuning of his mercy towards us 5. And let us be sure to take care of one thing more without which all this labour will be lost viz. to make all our supplications with hearty resolutions to reform every thing that we know to be amiss in our hearts and lives This was the course to which the King of Nineveh directed his People by
be thus zealous both in our prayers and in our endeavours to fortifie our selves and one another to rouse up our courage to maintain what God hath so long by many wonderful providences maintained and preserved because he doth not seem to have a mind to leave us if we will not basely desert him and his cause For mark I beseech you what incouragement he gives us to hope that notwithstanding our vile requitals of all his loving-kindness we may be delivered if we will at last take such a pious course as I have described First of all he hath graciously heard the Prayers of his faithful people who have often besought him that he would bring to naught all the evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us He hath strangely when we lookt not for it detected their secret Counsels and thereby delivered our Soveraign whom God long preserve from the detestable design which was against his life This was the Lords doing alone and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes and excite us to do all we can for our own preservation seeing he hath done so much already For unless the Lord had been our help our souls had quickly dwelt in silence Ps XCIV 17. Another incouragement is the happy agreement hitherto between the two houses of Parliament who both are industrious to make further discoveries of those ungodly devices which are in part come to light and to provide the best means they can think of for our safety His Majesties gracious Declaration also that he is ready to joyn with them in all the wayes and means that may establish a firm security of the Protestant Religion as our own hearts can wish is a further encouragement But the greatest of all is that God hath done all hitherto for us himself for his own Names sake notwithstanding our high provocations There hath been little of man seen in all this business or in any of our former deliverances which have been a succession of Miraculous works for the preservation of this Church and Kingdom We cannot say that it was the prudence the diligence the watchfulness of our Councellors which brought to light the deeds of darkness but Gods infinite mercy alone who toucht the heart of one man to reveal those secrets which for the present hath dasht their designs in pieces As confident as they were they are faln short of their aim and the prey is snatcht as it were out of their very teeth They opened their mouth against us they hissed and gnasht their teeth but have not as yet been able to say we have swallowed them up certainly this is the day that we looked for we have found it we have seen it Lam. 2.16 No Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Which we may very well look upon as a token for good saying with David Psal XLI 11. By this I know that thou favourest me because my enemy doth not triumph over me When they were in so fair a way to it then to be disappointed of their triumph is a manifest sign I think that God hath a kindness for us And may incourage us to say when we see them rave and hear them still brag that the day shall be their own Talk no more so exceeding proudly let not arrogance come forth out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed He will keep the feet of his Saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength shall no man prevail 1 Sam. II. 3 9. Did we thus religiously depend upon him and trust in him I am very confident he would still defeat our enemies and not suffer them howsoever they may boast to triumph over us even for this very reason because they are so insolent and barbarous That 's a new thing to be considered for our encouragement The savage cruelty and bloodiness of their designs against those among whom they live peaceably and who have been kind as well as gentle to them is an argument that God abhors them as much as we can do and that he will confound them if we do not provoke him to abhor us and cast us off for our ingratitude and gross negligence in that Religion which hath been so often most wondrously preserved We may make the same complaint to God that David did and thereby move him to pity us that they are not only our enemies wrongfully but have rendred us evil for good and hatred for our good will which is the character of the worst natures in the world It would have been easie for us were we so disposed as we find them to be to have destroyed them all long ago Our Numbers and strength being so vastly greater that nothing could have restrained us from it but only this that our Religion is better Which may make us hope God will be farther merciful to us and not let them prevail who are emboldned by nothing else to attempt to destroy us but by this alone that we are taught to be so kind to them as not to destroy them If David made this an argument why God should defend him from those that rose up against him because they were gathered together not for my transgression nor for my sin O Lord as he speaks Psal LIX 3. We may much more urge the same motive with a little alteration of his words saying Deliver us from the workers of iniquity save us from bloody men For lo they lie in wait for us the mighty are gathered together against us not for our transgression nor for our sin O Lord but quite contrary because our fear of thee forbids us to destroy them They run and prepare themselves without our fault awake to help us and behold the danger wherein we are Thou therefore O Lord God of hosts the God of Israel awake to visit them be not merciful to any wicked transgressor Consume them in wrath consume them that they may not be and let them know that God not they ruleth here and unto the ends of the Earth And it is a singular comfort surely to know and stedfastly believe that as the Psalmist saith elsewhere Psal XCIX 1. according to the old translation The Lord is King be the people never so unpatient he sitteth between the Cherubims i. e. governs the world be the earth never so unquiet Upon him therefore let us depend and commend our selves piously to his protection and we need not fear all the power on earth that they can raise against us As for their interest in heaven we are sure it is very small For if the Lord had not been on our side when they rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at us They depended it's like very much upon their supposed interest in the Saints whom they ply hard with their prayers and it is probable besought their help
A SERMON PREACHED AT S. PAVL COVENT-GARDEN On the late Day of Fasting Prayer NOVEMB 13. By SIMON PATRICK D.D. Rector of the said Parish and Chaplain in Ordinary to his MAJESTY IMPRIMATUR Guil. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. a Sacris Dom. Nov. 23. 1678. LONDON Printed by R. E. for J. Magnes and R. Bentley in Russel-street in Covent-Garden near the Piazza 1678. TO THE Inhabitants OF THE PARISH of S. Paul Covent-Garden THis Sermon being Printed meerly because many of you have desired it I hope you intend it shall not lose its Fruit but be imprinted in your Memories and on your Heart It is plain as becomes the Habit of a Mourner but what it wants in Ornament it makes up I trust in honest affections and substantial endeavours to do you good and if it be received into honest and good hearts may conduce much to your happiness here and hereafter I pray God it may and beseech you every day to commit the custody of your selves so seriously unto him in well-doing that you may every one of you be able to say boldly The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me Nay you may have that comfortable hope which S. Paul had and say with him 2 Tim. IV. 17 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me to his Heavenly Kingdom Amen Jeremiah XIV 9. latter part Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not THE occasion of our solemn meeting at this time is an Information that hath been given as we are told in the Proclamation which called us hither of an horrible design against the life of his Sacred Majesty which must needs have drawn along with it such fatal consequences had it succeeded as would have endangered the subversion of the Protestant Religion and Government of this Realm which God of his infinite mercy hath hitherto prevented and it is to be hoped will prevent for the future These Reasons have moved the Parliament to desire and His Majesty to grant and appoint that this day be set apart for the imploring the mercy and protection of almighty God to His Majesties Royal Person and in him to all his loyal Subjects and to pray that God would bring to light more and more all secret Machinations against his Majesty and the whole Kingdom For the obtaining these great blessings we ought in the devoutest manner to lift up our hearts and our hands as this Prophet speaks elsewhere to God in the Heavens Acknowledging indeed that we are a very sinful Generation a people laden with iniquity who deserve if he should punish us according to our provocations to be utterly abandon'd by him but humbly beseeching him of his infinite clemency to have patience with us and spare us and not to cut us down as barren Trees that cumber the ground but to try us at least a while longer whether we will bring forth the fruit he justly expects from us Which though we have often promised and not performed and thereby made our selvs the more obnoxious to his heavy displeasure yet since he hath not taken the forfeitures we have made of his favour but still continues it to us nay in a wonderful mannner defeats the attempts of those who would subvert our Religion we have incouragement to importune him in such words as these I have now read and to say though we have been false to thee and to our own vows Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy Name leave us not Which are part of an humble deprecation of Gods displeasure which the Prophet Jeremy makes in the behalf of Judah and Jerusalem And are the fittest I could think of to put into your mouths at this time for the averting of Gods Judgments from this poor Church and Kingdom The Jews for whom the Prophet was so importunate in those dayes languished under and were in danger to be devoured by a most miserable Famine which in that Country was wont to come from want of Rain as here in this part of the world from overmuch moisture Thus the Chapter begins as the words run in the Hebrew The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the restraints which were upon the clouds that is by the command of the Almighty who detained their showers and so brought a dearth upon the Land This dearth is described in a very dreadful manner from thence to the 7th v. But looks nothing so terribly to my apprehension as a famine of the word of God would do which we may fear would have followed here in these Countreys if God had permitted our Enemies to accomplish their designs against us For they would have shut up the holy Scriptures from you and laid a restraint upon that Heavenly Doctrine which hath so many years to use the words of Moses Deut. 32.2 Dropt upon you as the rain and distilled as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herb and as showers upon the grass Our unfruitfulness indeed under such sweet influences of Heaven may bring upon us this sore punishment For we must confess as Jeremy doth in the 7th v. That our iniquities testifie against us They are open and apparent they accuse us heavily and demand judgment upon us they plead for our condemnation and the severest executions For our back-slidings are many and we have sinned against God most grievously And therefore unless he will be favourable to us as the Prophet there speaks for his own Namessake we must look for nothing but utter destruction That is our only hope as it was theirs But alas such was the sadness of their case that they had too much reason to fear he who was the hope of Israel as it follows v. 8. and the Saviour thereof in time of trouble would not regard them nor take any farther care of them For that 's the meaning of those questions why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land and as a wayfareing Man who turneth aside to tarry for a night That is as one that minds not what becomes of us no more than a man is concern'd for a place where he intends not to inhabit but only to pass thorough in his way to some other Country Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied as a mighty man that cannot save Or as some render it like one that is weary with his former labours and toils for the good of his neighbours which he finds have been bestowed to so little purpose that he hath no incouragement to do any more to help them God seemed that is to be resolved to send them no more deliverance but to abandon them to inevitable destruction or matters were come to such a pass that the Prophet feared he would soon be so resolved their behaviour towards him being so
his Proclamation requiring all in the place I mentioned before high and low to fast and put on Sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let them turn every one from his evil way saith the Royal Edict and from the violence that is in their hands Who can tell if God will repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not A Heathen Prince you see had more sense than to hope he should prevail meerly by fasting humiliation and earnest cryes to God for mercy And therefore it would be a burning shame as they speak if we who are better instructed should trust to these things alone without a sincere and thorough repentance and amendment of life This was the unpardonable stupidity of the Jews whom I hope you will no longer imitate that when they had fasted and cryed to God and implored the intercession of the Prophet also who here beseeches God not to leave them they imagined the business was done and took no further care to bring forth the fruits that God expects from Penitents For which reason God bids Jeremiah hold his peace and say no more in the behalf of such a naughty Generation as it follows immediately after my Text v. 10 11 12. Thus saith the Lord unto this people thus have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord will not accept them c. Read the rest and you will see his resolution was this that if they intended no more than they had done neither their cries nor Jeremy's should obtain his mercy though they were never so importunate The main thing was still wanting which is this I am pressing upon you most humble addresses to God with hearts fully purposed to amend This and this alone will do the business and undoubtedly prevail though the condition of a Nation seem hopeless For it is plain Jeremiah doth not cease to pray for his people as you may read here v. 19 20 21. but notwithstanding the prohibition now mentioned in the 11. v. continues to be their Intercessor with God Which is a sign that he did not understand it as if he were absolutely forbidden to pray for them but only in case they remained impenitent Let them but forsake their sins and love no longer to wander in forbidden paths and he was confident God would hear his Prayers and not depart from them To this remedy therefore we must fly as the chiefest of all if we would have Gods gracious presence still continue among us and not imagine we are safe because we have kept a solemn day of fasting and prayer and resolve perhaps to continue instant in prayer when this day is done We have been told often enough there is some thing more which God requires of us and cannot be ignorant that not all prayers not all importunate prayers but the effectual fervent prayers of a righteous Man avail very much Which makes it the more strange that of all things we cannot be perswaded to becom truly righteous and good men but are averse to nothing so much as to that which alone can do us any good It is a sad thing that we will still split upon the same rock where we see so many wracks before us And our condition let me tell you will be the fadder because we have no excuse left us if we will not beware and in time make use of this effectual remedy which hath been so long prescribed us We are in a far worse condition than the stupid Jews if we still neglect so powerful a means of our deliverance For mark I beseech you how much Jeremy had to plead for his Country-men Which God indeed would not allow for a sufficient reason to free them from blame and yet there is no such thing to be alledged in our behalf You read v. 13. how Jeremy sighed and said Ah Lord God behold the Prophets say unto them ye shall not see the sword neither shall ye have famine but I will give you assured peace in this place As much as to say this people are to be pitied for though they are bad alas for them they are very bad yet this is not so much their fault as the fault of their Prophets who have assured them they are not in such danger as I tell them and that none of the judgments I have threatned shall come upon them This he thought might at least alleviate their guilt that they were cheated and abused by their guides who soothed them up and dandled them in their sins But God would not admit of this Apology but declares that they and their Prophets should all perish together v. 14.15 16. Then the Lord said unto me this was the reply the Prophets prophesy lyes in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them c. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning those Prophets which say Sword and Famine shall not be in the land by Sword and by Famine shall those Prophets be consumed And the people to whom they prophecy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword c. For the people ought not to have believed those that flattered them in their vices which natural reason without the help of Prophecy teaches us to be pernicious And they ought not to have given up themselves so easily to beileve those who brought no sufficient testimonials along with them to convince serious minds that they were sent by God to them It was their love to wickedness which made them so readily assent to lyers and resign up their faith to bold deceivers who preached only the dreams of their own deceitful hearts What a case are we in then if we do not reform in whose behalf there is not a syllable of this though alas but a feeble refuge that can be pretended to diminish our crimes There is not one of the Ministers of God among us that hath preached peace unto us No they have said it over and over again with one voice that God is exceeding angry with us and that he is not yet reconciled after so many sore judgments as he hath sent upon us and that there is no way to atone him but by unfeigned repentance and that our repentance is but feighed and insincere without amendment of life They have caution'd the Nation also against all false Prophets as we may call them particularly against the Romish deceivers who would lull you asleep and promise no body knows what golden days if we would but return into the bosome of their Church They have discovered likewise all the impostures of mens own naughty hearts and have alarm'd the whole Kingdom and bid them beware of danger and uprightly shown the way to escape it And therefore if God would not spare such a poor deceived hood-winkt besotted people as the Israelites who were led blindfold into destruction because they loved to be deceived How can we think he will spare us who are
faithfully admonished and not in the least bolstered up in our wickedness if when we see ruine just before our eyes we will not go out of our way to avoid it You cannot name any one of this Church that hath confidently prophesied of glorious times Nor above one impious Writer of any note and he not pretending to the Ministry that hath laid down Principles to incourage men in wickedness and irreligion And therefore if we will notwithstanding run on in our evil courses it is a sign we have no heart to any thing else but that this is our inclination nay our resolution and that we being unreformable must perish because we have no mind to be saved in Gods way but to hurry on to destruction in our own Never any Nation perhaps perished if we must be undone against so much Reason against such plain warnings against so many mercies to invite us to do better and so many judgments to deter us from our evil ways against so many convincing instructions clear and rational arguments solid confutations not only of all leud and atheistical Principles but of Popery and of all Fanatical Doctrines There can be nothing therefore pleaded in our behalf but we must be left as the man without a Wedding Garment perfectly speechless A sad and most wretched condition Sad because we shall be extremely miserable and sad because we shall not be able to say why we were so frantick as against so many restraints to cast our selves into such miseries Which I beseech you let every one of us for our parts endeavour to prevent by timely repentance never to be repented of For that 's the thing I have shewn you still wanting for our preservation And I must tell you further in the last place 6. That as the case now stands it is not an ordinary Repentance and Reformation that will serve the turn We are gone too far I doubt towards ruine to be delivered without some extraordinary endeavours to put a stop to it and therefore I must say to you for a conclusion of all as our Lord Christ doth to the luke warm Church of Laodicea Rev. III. 19. Be zealous therefore and repent Repentance is not sufficient for the recovery of a Church when there is a great Apostacy and defection in Faith and in Manners but we must join zeal with it which is a pious warmth in our affections for all that is good and vertuous and that will certainly do the business We need not fear then the most desperate Enemies no not our sins but look upon all the Judgments God hath sent upon us as tokens of his love to us if they awaken us to zealous repentance For so our Saviour there incourages us to hope in the words foregoing As many as I love I rebuke chasten be zealous therefore and repent There would be some hope of us if we could but see that indifferency that chilness nay deadness which is in too many spirits turn'd into a warm nay burning zeal both in the Service of God and for his Service I. Be zealous therefore first in your Devotions of which I have spoken something already But let me again beseech you to stir up your selves to make your supplications to God with more inflamed affection for the King for the Parliament for the Bishops and Pastors of the Flock of Christ for the Magistrates for one another that all and every of these in their several places may attend their duty and perform it faithfully and zealously Instead of finding fault as the manner is with this and the other person whose actions do not please us let us fall upon our Knees and with fervent prayers intreat the Divine Majesty that he will bend their hearts to study to do those things which are pleasing and acceptable in his sight and to do them with all their might remembring there is no work nor device in the Grave whither they are going We tell God every day in the Collect for our Soveraign Lord the King that we most heartily beseech him he may alway incline to Gods will and walk in his way O that there were indeed such a heart in us as Moses speaks and that we would constantly with more fervour than ever put up that Petition for his Majesty Beseeching him also by whom Kings reign to be his defender and keeper and not to suffer any of the Sons of violence to approach to do him hurt With the like ardent zeal should we daily say the following Prayer for the Queen his Royal Highness and all the Royal Family that he would endue them with his holy Spirit and enrich them with his heavenly grace Of which things did we make a greater conscience and were not careless and frozen in our Devotions we might hope to obtain that which we so much desire a clearer discovery of the snares our Enemies have laid for us For which I beseech you to pray with all the ardour that you are able to raise up in your hearts that God would bring to light still more and more the hidden works of darkness Be importunate with him who sees into the greatest secrets to lay bare to the very bottom all the wicked contrivances that are against us Call upon him likewise with the same fervour that he would endue his Ministers with righteousness and inspire them with such courage that they may behave themselves like men who have not received the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind Pray also that he would raise up the Spirits of those who are assembled in the High Court of Parliament to consult for our good unto the loftiest pitch of Christian resolution wisdom and integrity Beseech him to send among them a Spirit of might and power whereby they may act so resolutely and worthily that if any be false they may be daunted if any be faint-hearted they may be incouraged Finally pray that all the Lords people may Watch and stand fast in the faith quit themselves like men be strong and do all their things in charity loving one another with a pure heart fervently 1 Cor. XVI 13 14. 1 Pet. I. 22. II. But we must not content our selves meerly with this zeal in our devotions we must be zealous also of good works Tit. II. ult In order to this which is all the time will now give me leave to mention every soul of us must bestir himself to give a severe check to all vitious affections and actions and to root them out of himself and his family and wheresoever he hath any power looking upon these as the greatest Traitors in the Nation And since true zeal will always begin at home where we have most power to reform let every man search out with great care and cast out with great indignation whatsoever he finds in himself that is contrary to his Religion having a holy jealousie over himself lest any thing should escape his strictest examination For why should