a sinful Nation a People laden with Iniquity The Prophet Isaiah tells us that the Lord had left them such a remnant and all that notwithstanding they remained still a sinful Nation a People laden with Iniquity that their whole head was sick and their heart faint that from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there was nothing but Wounds and Ulcers stinking Leprosies and putrefied Sores Will it not be fit therefore for us to examine our condition to consider what we may expect and what is fit for us to do To search the Wounds and Ulcers of this Kingdom from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head To examine or expose the Condition of all Degrees Orders and States of men in this Kingdom The Clergy and the Laity the Gentry and the Commonalty the City and the Court in their Personal or Publique or Politick Capacities though I suppose that to some it might be acceptable yet it lies not in my Commission and I shall wave it My Commission reaches to those who have called me hither at least in that Capacity wherein they have called me And I hope they will not be offended at me in the conscientious discharge of that Commission I therefore take the humble boldness in the Name of God and our King and Country to enquire of my self and those that brought me hither Whether we also have not fallen into the way of Joram Whether we can wash our hands of the universal Irreligion and Debauchery which seems to have over spread the Land Qui non vetat peccare cum possit Jubet Have we employed the great and various talents wherewith we have been intrusted Publick and Private Personal and Politick the Advantages of Nobility and Education the Interest of our Persons and our Places our Authority Judicial and Legislative to prevent or to punish these horrible enormities Nay have we readily accepted and embraced such means as have been tendered to that purpose If we should be examined what good Laws in twelve years space have proceeded from us to bring our selves and others to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world What charitable Laws to prevent the Poverty and Beggery the Villany and Roguery the miserable ends and fatal destiny of such multitudes of people as daily perish by a fearful end should we not be puzzled to reply If Laws against Rioting and Drunkenness shall have been or shall be hereafter stifled left they should prevent Consumption and make an abatement of our Rents or the Excise Against Atheism and Blasphemy lest they should dull the Wits and hinder the exercise of Reasoning abate the disputacity of the Nation Against Swearing and Cursing Ranting and Tearing Hectoring and Rencountring lest they should abate the vivacity and take off the edge or spoil the mettle of the young Blades of the Kingdom Against Prophanation of the Lord's Day I do not mean tending to Judaism or Sabbatarianism lest they should intrench upon the Mirth and Jollity the Sports and Recreations of the People When God shall call us to answer upon such interrogatories how are we provided to reply Upon this occasion in this mixt Auditory to enlarge any further upon this argument I do not find my self obliged by my Commission But there is one thing which by virtue of another Commission I find my self obliged plainly and clearly to lay before your Lordships and it is this with which I shall conclude That as sure as there is a God in Heaven a Lord that is higher then your Lordships as sure as Christ is now sitting at his right hand as sure as holy men of old the Prophets and Apostles were Inspired by the Holy Ghost If we do not speedily break out of this way of Joram if we do not our utmost to redeem and rescue the Kingdom from it this our Iniquity will be our Ruine That if aftet so many loud calls to Religion and Virtue we shall resolvedly go on in the ways of Irreligion and Debauchery or which in our case is all one if we shall not do our utmost for the eradication of them we must expect a sure and a swift destruction In that day saith the Prophet Isaiah did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning to sackcloth and to baldness And behold jollity and gladness slaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep eating flesh and drinking wine Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die If when Gods Judgments are multiplied a Nation will not turn unto the Lord he hath sworn and sworn again four times together in one Chapter that though Noab Daniel and Job were there they should deliver neither Son nor Daughter from destruction Wherefore in one word to conclude return now O Shunamite return arise and bethink your selves Men Brethren and Fathers O ye Wise and Honourable among the People consult and consider what shall we do that the Blood of Jesus may speak better things for us then the Blood of the Righteous Royal Martyr What shall we do to be saved from ruine and destruction You have seen in some measure the folly and the madness of the wickedness and the wickedness of the folly and madness of this way of Joram Wherefore let us trifle no more let us sin no more let us fool no more lest we fall and perish under the condemnation of Joram when he said This evil is from the Lord Wherefore should I wait upon the Lord any longer FINIS ERRATA PAge 5. I. 14. dele there p. 11. I. 11. for indisposed r. incapable p. 12. 1. 13. r. signature p 20. I. 18. for of r. if Books sold by James Collins SEven Sermons Preached at Whitehall By the Right Reverend Father in God Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum In octavo Holy Rules and Helps to Devotion both in Prayer and Practice By the Right Reverend Father in God Bryan Duppa late Bishop of Winton In twelves The Blessedness of being Bountiful or our Saviour's usual Proverb opened asserted and practically applied By Simon Ford D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 5. 6. Acts 17. 28. Deut. 28. 52 53. Job 37. 7. Isa. 41. 20. Rom. chap 1 2. Gen. 42. 21. I Kings 1. 8. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Psal. 107. Joel 2. 15. Joel 2. 12. Psal. 109. 6. 2 Chron. 7-13 Prov. 3. 32. Dan. 7. 10. â—â—â—lication Chap. 1. Isa. 22. 13. Ezek. 14. 14. c.
Who is the Lord that I should concern my self about him You talk of God and think to draw me into a vain and pucillanimous devotion and so to drill me into a frivolous hope and expectation You talk of Waiting have I not waited all this while You speak of Praying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to what end should I pray I have spoken and he will not hear I have called and he will not answer I have clothed my self with Sackcloth Lo here it is upon my loins and he laughs at it The more I court him the more he slights me The evils that are upon us are of his own sending 'T is evidently his hand that is upon us and he that hath cast us into all our misery Wherefore I 'le Seek to him no more I 'le Pray no more I 'le Wait no longer This evil is from the Lord Wherefore should I wait upon the Lord any longer You see now the absurdity involved in this instance which that it may make a better impression upon us we will consider it more particularly In the words are I. A Supposition or Concession and that Sober and Rational This evil is of the Lord. II. An Inference or Conclusion and that Absurd and Irrational intimated in the form of a deliberative Question or Interrogation Wherefore should I wait c. The Supposition or Concession may be considered either 1. Absolutely and simply and then it will afford us this Observation viz. Publique Judgments or Calamities proceed from the hand of God 2. Relatively as proceeding from Joram and then it offers us this Observation viz. The most wicked and distempered persons are sometimes forced to discern and acknowledg the hand of God in the dispensations of his Judgments My business will be First to evince the Truth of the Observations Then to shew the Absurdity of Joram's inference And so to descend to Application 1. The first Observation is this That Publique Judgments and Calamities proceed from the hand of God That is to say They do not arise out of the Dust as Job speaks They are not scattered into the world by the uncertain distribution of blind and improvident Contingency nor thrust upon it by an ungoverned overbearing force of a Brute Fatality They proceed not from a casual coincidence of various senseless Atoms Nor from the overpowring influence or combination of the Planets or the Stars Nor from the malignant ardours of ill-boding and portending Comets all which are the foolish imaginations of Atheistical or Superstitious persons But they are sent out of the Armory and Magazine of him Who hath made all things by his Word susteins them by his Power and rules them by his Providence I may not upon this occasion be permitted to enter upon a Philosophical or Theological discourse concerning the Providential Administration of the world or the Properties or Attributes of God from whence it ariseth upon which it is founded or the manner of his concurrency with secondary Causes how that insinuates its influence and performs its operation so as the Contingency of Events and Liberty of Agents may be maintained I shall here content my self only to suggest thus much to your Notice and Observation That As the Providential Administration of the world proceeds immediately from the Efficacy of the Divine Wisdom Power and Presence So there is not any thing in nature wherein every one of these may not by a considering Person be discerned Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum And as the smallest Rivolet attentively and constantly followed will direct and lead one to the Sea so the most fortuitous event being traced through the chain and series of it's Causes will bring the mind at last to the original Fountain and Ocean of all causality and force an acknowledgment of a wise voluntary providential administration of the world And as for this part of Providence in the dispensation of Publick Plagues and National Calamities it is so obvious to common reason that it hath forced an acknowledgment not only from men of Philosophical and deep consideration whether of the Graecanic or Barbaric Families But from Historians Rhetoricians and Poets persons not obliged by their profession to so severe an enquiry or so deep a penetration into the works of nature Homer refers the Calamities of the Trojan War to the will of Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virgil to state the original of the Contest between the Romans and the Carthaginians and of the bloudy Wars and Miseries consequent thereupon enquires Quo Numine laeso With Euripides rhe usual Epithet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sent from God And to convince the Epicuraeans and the Stoics i. e. the Assertors of fortuitous or fatal Administration St. Paul himself appeals to the testimony of one of their own Heathen Poets namely to a saying of Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But why should I detein you in the out-skirts of humane reason or testimony seeing we have a surer word of Prophesie which plainly assures us both in general and in particular by way of Assertion and Prediction in reference to Nations Plagues and Persons that Vengeance is the Lord's and the Distribution of Plagues and Judgments is within his own peculiar Jurisdiction That it was he that let loose the Cataracts of Heaven upon the old World and sent down the fire and brimston upon the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha That the plagues of Wars of Pestilence Famine Wild beasts c. are all of them his Messengers and he sends them where he sees cause That there can be no evil in a City or a Kingdom which the Lord hath not done That he it was that prepared and ordered and marshalled out the Plagues of Egypt and the Burdens of Moab and Ammon and Dumah and all the other Nations mentioned in the Prophets That he gave Jacob to the spoil and Israel to the robber And to come yet nearer to the Case of Joram in the Text to shew that he was the dispencer of these things he punctually foretold the fate of his Father Ahab and concerning Jezebel his Mother That Dogs should eat her by the Wall of Jezreel And he may seem long before to have pointed at this very particular instance of the Judgment in the Text. If thou for sake the Lord thy God thine Enemy shall besiege thee in all thy Gates and thou shalt eat the fruit of thy body the Flesh of thy Sons and of thy Daughters in the Siege because of the straitness wherewith thine Enemies shall distress thee So that I shall say no more in proof of the first Observation arifing from the Concession of Joram absolutely considered He said This evil is from the Lord. 2. I come now to the second Observation drawn from the consideration of this Concession in reference to Joram from whom it did proceed viz. The most wicked and most distemper'd sinners are forced sometimes to acknowledg the hand of God in the
prescribed by the Prophets is to blow the trumpet in Sion to proclaim a Fast and call a solemn Assembly For the Priests to weep betwixt the Porch and the Altar That men turn unto the Lord with all their hearts and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning But as for Joram's way the ranting cursing swearing blaspheming way God hath declared That because of Swearing and of Cursing the Land mourns He loved not blessing and it shall be far from him he delighted in cursing and it shall happen unto him it shall come into his bowels like water and like oyl into his bones And for the blasphemy wherewith mine Enemies have blasphemed me I will up saith God and I will ease me of mine Enemies and avenge me of mine Adversaries 2. As to Elisha's way of meekness and humiliation God hath declared That he will have respect unto the lowly and give grace and favour to the humble And though he dwells in the high and holy place he will dwell also with him that is of an humble and contrite heart More particularly as to the case in hand he hath expresly promised If I bring upon the land Famine or Pestilence or Sword or any other plague and my people humble themselves then will I hear from heaven and will remove their plague But in reference to Joram's way he had declared that he hateth the proud looks and will destroy the sturdy sinner That he will pull down the stoutness of their hearts and the haughtiness of the haughty shall be humbled 3. Lastly he hath declared on one hand that the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever but on the other that the frowardness of the froward is an abomination to him And now the case being clearly stated one would think certainly that Joram without any haesitation should submit to the proposals of the Prophet and come to a quick and a speedy resolution to pursue them But now behold and wonder stand amazed all ye that pretend to sense and reason He cannot deny any one of Elisha's premisses yet he adheres and sticks to his own conclusion and roundly resolves that he will neither fast nor pray much less betake himself to whining he will not humble nor submit himself he will not attend or wait upon the Lord any longer Very well and wisely But what then becomes of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how shall this same calamity be removed To remove the calamity there are but two ways imaginable 1. The way of Address or Accommodation or 2. The way of force and compulsion and the former of these he hath declined and will he therefore betake himself to the later What King being to make War sits not down first and considers whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand The Lord is a Lord of Hosts and a Man of War thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him We see him coop'd up by the King of Syria and will he now make War with the King of Heaven Let the potsheard strive with the potsheards of the earth But who art thou O Joram that strivest against God what is the hope wherein thou trustest or wherein lies thy confidence that thou rebellest Did ever any man exalt himself against God and hath prevailed Call to remembrance things lately past and of ancient days how he hath formed it The success of the Giants of old the modern Fate of Ahab thy Father the Destiny of Jezabel thy Mother for the wickedness of the Father Ahab the Whoredoms and Witchcrafts of Jezabel thy Mother What doth this man intend to do and what doth this resolution signifie Will he arise in the power of his might and make a gallant sally and so scatter and confound his adversaries Will he cause the earth to open and swallow up this Benhadad and cover the Congregation of the Syrians Or will he cause Quails or Manna to fall from heaven and remove the Famine wherewith himself and people are distressed Judge in your selves Brethren were not this a foolish imagination an instance of stupidity and madness Well then Because the Lord hath vexed him by his plagues will he endeavour to plague the Lord by his wickedness Alas his wickedness extendeth not to him Is not this the folly and madness of wickedness But he will revenge himself upon the Church and wreak his spleen upon the Prophet God do so to him and more also if the head of Elisha the Son of Shaphat shall stand upon him Is not this the wickedness of folly and madness Briefly is not this case of Joram a monstrous and a prodigious case Doth he not deserve to be punished and tormented with many stripes To be tormented as it were in Bedlam for the madness of his wickedness In the Valley of Hinnom for the wickedness of his madness There it was that Tophet was prepared of old for the King it was prepared and certainly this seems to be the very King for whom it was prepared IS this now your Judgment and Determination Is this the sentence of this great and noble this wise and honorable Assembly Come then in the name of God I humbly pray you and let us reason a while together Hath this only been the case of that person of whom we have been speaking and is it not also the case of us that have all this while been speaking and hearing censuring and judging of him Plainly Was it only the case of that King of Israel and is it not the case of this Kingdom of England And we that have judged another have we not condemned our selves Is not this I say Englands case 1. In respect of Publique Calamities which have been brought upon us 2. Of our Behaviour in reference to those Calamities 1. How great and manifold have been the Calamities of this poor sinful Kingdom 2. And how plain and conspicuous have been the signatures and impressions of the hand of God upon those Calamities To look no further back than we are obliged by the occasion of this our meeting together What sort of Plague or Judgment hath not within the space of 20 or 30 years been inflicted upon this Kingdom What sort I say of Spiritual Judgment or Temporal Calamity The Judgment which we are here met to commemorate and lament had in it a complication of all manner of Spiritual Judgments of Injustice and impiety of carnal and spiritual Wickedness as well as Misery and Calamity It was a Calamity pregnant and productive of innumerable others wherewith it hath been succeeded and which are perpetually pullulating from it For this the Land hath mourned well-nigh 30 years and for all that God's anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still His Judgments have followed us and grown more and more upon us to this very moment still eating into our bowels and corroding into
our bones And if we be not more mad than Joram we cannot but acknowledge them to have proceeded from the hand of God This would evidently appear if I might be permitted to insist and animadvert upon the evils which have befallen us and trace them backward to that great and prodigious Judgment which was the cause of this days observation I shall not need to spend time to prove that our threatning and growing Famine our present Murrein or late Pestilence have proceeded from the hand of God Such plagues as these are so plainly and confessedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that David being left to his choice betwixt the Sword the Famine and the Pestilence thought it a plain expression of his mind when he only desired he might fall into the hand of God I shall therefore proceed to a few particulars of another nature That a novel and upstart Commonwealth of a Nation lately feeble and poor whining and submissive should in the space of not many years arrive at the ungrateful boldness to provoke a powerful and mighty Kingdom a Kingdom to which they had been in their weakness and minority so much obliged That they should be permitted to disappoint and baffle their strongest Preparations and come to such an height as to attempt and endeavour to fix upon them marks and characters of perpetual ignominy and dishonour That a fire should proceed out of the Bramble which should consume the Cedars of Lebanon That a spark should kindle in a corner and should be permitted to destroy all the stately Palaces publick Buildings and venerable Churches in one of the most considerable Cities of the World besides 12000 private habitations This certainly is Digitus Dei This evil is from the Lord. When after the miseries of 20 years the Lord had caused Light to spring out of Darkness and Order out of Confusion Reduced all things to that state and position out of which they had been distorted Had Restored our Religion our Laws and Liberties Had Established the King the Church the Nobility Gentry Populacy in their ancient Rights and legal Stations Had fortified all these by new additional Laws and a Loyal and worthy Parliament That after all this without any disturbance by Foreign Invasion or intestine Rebellion meerly by the application of our own wisdom and policy and our most industrious endeavours in the short space of about a dozen years the same Parliament still continuing This goodly Fabrick should be shattered and all things e'ne ready to drop into Disorder and Confusion That out of Depth of Policy and Mystery of State the foundations of Government should be subverted and the Ligaments of it dissolved That for the establishment of Government every one should be permitted to do that which is right in his own eyes as if there were no King in Israel That for the Advancement of the Established Religion there should be permitted to assume to themselves a Toleration of all Religions or rather irreligions Schisms Heresies and Blasphemies in the world That out of Indulgence to tender Consciences the Principles of Atheism and Anarchy should be permitted to be disseminated countenanced watered cherished and fostered and all means used that conscience it self should be eradicated out of the Souls of men WIth fear and trembling horror and amazement to come up to the prodigious instance of this day That the vilest and the worst of men should be permitted in the most horrible and most impious the most impudent and brazen-faced manner under a form of Godliness and Justice in the sight of this Sun in contempt and defiance of Providence and of God himself to shed the Royal Blood and take away the Sacred Life of the Lord 's Anointed and of him that was the most Harmless and Innocent the most Meek and Gentle the most Virtuous and Religious the most Sober and Prudent Prince that ever sate upon the English Throne Lastly That after all this and all the rest that our eyes have seen After the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland The Covenant contrived in Scotland The Bloody Wars and Sacrilegious Judgment and Execution made here in England That after we have seen the end of the Lord the Vengeance of God so signally executed upon the Principal Authors Actors and Promoters the Judges and Executioners of all those things Matters should in so short a time be brought to that pass that according to the various Inclinations of men some should Fear and others Hope that the Monarchy of England and that Religion and those Laws and the very persons which uphold it should now be abandoned And that the great Interests of Religion and Government should be delivered up into the hands of the Irish or English Papists the Scottish or English Covenanters or other Sectaries and Fanaticks Are not all these things strange and wonderful are they not marvellous in our eyes In all this is not the hand of God clearly to be seen certainly we cannot but acknowledge that This evil is from the Lord. So that in respect of Judgments and Calamities you have seen the correspondence of our Case with the Case of Joram 2. Let us now reflect upon the National behaviour and examine Whether hath this been ordered according to the way of Elisha or the way of Joram When the Judgments of God have been so many so grievous so visible amongst us have the Inhabitants of the Land learned righteousness or unrighteousness Have they prevailed upon us to break off our sins by Repentance or to continue in them and increase them with a brisker and sturdier resolution As the Lord's hand hath been more and more lifted up have not we endeavoured with an higher and higher hand to sin against him As he hath smitten us more and more have not we revolted more and more Instead of being made a Religious and a Praying People are we not become an Atheistical and a Scoffing and Blaspheming People Instead of being a Sober and Fasting People are we not become a Riotous and Drunken People Instead of being made a Chast and Modest a Meek and Humble a Gentle and Composed People are we not become a Shameless and Immodest a Ranting and Tearing a Hectoring and God-damning People Briefly Instead of turning to the Lord with all our hearts and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning for our Sins Have we not turned from him with all our hearts and with laughing and with scoffing and with jeering at all Humiliation and Devotion and Religion It is not here my intention to charge every individual Person with these things No doubt there are thousands in this our Israel who have not bowed themselves to these enormities And it is well for them and happy for the Kingdom that there are so for Except the Lord had left us such a remnant we should have been as Sodom and made like unto Gomorrha Yet the exception of this remnant notwithstanding may it not be fit to consider whether we be not truly and properly