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A61268
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen at the Guild-Hall Chappel, Jan. 20, 1683 by John Standish ...
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Standish, John, d. 1686.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing S5218; ESTC R13597
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15,137
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29
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A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Mayor AND Court of ALDERMEN AT THE GVILD-HALL CHAPPEL Jan. 20. 1683. By John Standish D.D. Rector of Therfield and Chaplain in Ordinary to HIS MAJESTY Published at the Desire of the LORD MAYOR and Court of ALDERMEN LONDON Printed by H. Hills Jun. for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1684. TO THE Right Honourable Sir HENRY TULSE Lord Mayor And to the Court of ALDERMEN My Lord IT was somewhat late before I received your Commands for such I ever account the Desires of my Lawful Superiours which is one reason that this short Discourse hath been so long in coming to your Hands And I shall not trouble your Lordship with any other Apology because it was not framed for nor fixed to any Solemn Time or Special Occasion but with an equal respect to every Day in the Year or rather to all the Days of our Lives Indeed the Subject thereof is Common but not therefore to be despised more then any other Common Good more then our Common Prayers Common Salvation or our Common Faith which the Apostle elsewhere calls our Precious Faith or Honourable as the Greek imports And the more Common things of Publick use and consequence are they should be so much the more Precious in our Eyes 'T is true the Scene is laid in LONDON yet not so confined thither but it may reach the remotest parts of the Nation for this little Mapp presents you with a Transient view of the present State and Morals of all ENGLAND England another Canaan for Beauty Wealth Prosperity Peace and Plenty 〈◊〉 all good things that a Loyal Heart can wish and yet I wish I could not truly say another Canaan too for Ingratitude and forgetting GOD their Saviour The happiest Nation under Heaven at this hour and only miserable in this that we do not know how Happy we are For we may fairly challenge all Europe for a more Gracious KING a more Glorious CHVRCH a more Peaceable STATE a more Gentle and Easie GOVERNMENT more Just and Wholesome LAWS and yet we cannot way we will not see it We are unthankful still and still murmuring and know not what we would have unless we would be Angels before the time This provoking ill Humour hath of late spread it self throughout the Kingdom and therefore my Arguments against it are so General and take in all sorts and degrees of Men all that would be thought good Christians or good Subjects the very Dissenters themselves are not a little concerned therein if they please to read them without that false Glass of guilty Prejudice However they deal with us for doing our Daty and speaking the Truth in Love so long as we have Patronage and Protection from your Lordships Chair and that Honourable Bench we shall never think our Labour lost or unrewarded The time hath been when Men in Your Lordships High Place would not endure sound Doctrine having itching Ears Thanks be to GOD and his Vicegerent that time is now past and the Case so well altered that sound Doctrine and sincere Loyalty will as easily go down and pass muster in the City as at Court With my hearty Prayers for the long continuance of GODS Blessing upon Your Lordship your Loyal Brethren and the whole Government of this City I am My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient Servant John Standish Deut. VI. part of the 11 and 12 verses When thou shalt have Eaten and be Full then beware lest thou forget the LORD PRosperity and Adversity are the great Theatres of Humane life the two famous Tests to prove what Spirit and temper Men are of for it is an Error of the Vulgar only that all is well when their Gold and Silver Flocks and Herds Corn and Wine increase and grow upon them Wiser Men find it as hard a task at least to command and manage a head-strong flowing fortune as to keep themselves from sinking and being desperate when they are reduced to their lowest Ebb last Shifts and Wits end It is an old Question amongst the learned Moralists which of the two Estates is most entangled with dangers and difficulties the great cry is out upon Prosperity who by her killing Smiles treacherous Enchantments and stealing Flatteries Effeminates and Robbs the Spirit of its due force and vigour She basely betrays the Fort by letting the Enemy in at a Postern and easily conquers those daring Heroes who never turned their backs of visible danger Whom no Adverse affair not Death it self in all its frigthful change of shapes could ever daunt or dash out of Countenance And indeed 't is a Truth which the Oracles of GOD have vouched to us by no mean Instances to put it beyond all dispute For whilest Gideon was a private man the least in his Fathers house and threshed Wheat by the Wine-press he was a very Good man and a great Favourite in the Court of Heaven the Text says that the Angel of the LORD visited and communed freely with him as a Man does with his Friend but then when once He grew Great and was fleshed with a miraculous victory over the mighty Kings of Midian the same man was not the same for he abused his prosperous fortune and made him an Ephod of the Ear-rings taken in spoil and put it in His City Ophrah and all Israel went a whoring after it which thing became a snare to Gideon and his house Thus one bewitching Dalilah subdued the invincible Sampson when all other Arts and Arms of Palestine could neither withstand no nor find out his strength Before I was troubled I went wrong saith King David And It is good for me that I was afflicted that set him right But then again when He sat still at Jerusalem in a profound Peace and had nothing else to do He fell into those two grievous Sins which cut him out work for Repentance all the days of his Life His son Solomon the wisest Prince that ever swayed That or any other Scepter under the Sun yet stands charged with very great folly towards the end of his peaceable Reign for living in all ease and pleasure and having no manner of Enemies but those most deadly ones of his own house his False Friends he unadvisedly suffer'd them in his Old declining Age to tempt him to Idolatry To add no more Israel in general who found the land of Egypt that house of Bondage and hardship a wholesome School of Vertue made the blessed Land of Canaan a Nourse of all Vices a mere Land of forgetfulness which Moses the Man of GOD here having a clear prospect of he lays in early caution against it in these words When thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware lest thou forget the LORD For our due handling of these words I shall endeavour 1. To state the genuine sense and full importance of the caution 2. To back and enforce it with some proper Considerations 3. And Lastly To tender some short
Name in Vain And for all other lawful Diversions take that one Counsel of the Wise experienced King Prov. 25. Hast thou found Honey Eat so much thereof as is sufficient for thee and no more lest thou be filled therewith and womit it up again There 's no other way but that to prevent a Surfeit whether in Body or Mind But you 'l say perhaps what must I them do with mine Abundance For after this rate of Dieting my self I shall never live to spend it Why yes there is another a more excellent way to be rid of the overplus to better advantage and that shall be my 4. Direction Be Hospitable Charitable and free to Communicate what thou canst well spare to Relieve the Wants and Supply the Necessities of others For GOD hath made thee Rich on purpose to be their Steward and Almoner and as little as some Men heed it will one day expect a good Accompt of that Stewardship It is the Misers great mistake to think at his Choice and Liberty and purely in his own Power whether he will expend his Superfluities in good works or no for the Law of Justice requires it of him although from the mannor end and some other circumstances we commonly call it Charity That Fool in the Gospel needed not to have put himself to so much trouble and Charge in building his Barus bigger to lodg his plentiful Crop there was Barn-room enough in the World if he would have seen it for as St. Austine observes the Bellies of the Poor are GODS Granary If therefore thou hast any Bread to spare cast it upon the Waters as Solomon adviseth that is venture it among the Multitude rather then fail though never so troublesome and unworthy and thou shalt find it again after many days for however Men may be ingrateful yet GOD is not unrighteous to forget any work or labour of Love St. Paul bids us Charge them that are Rich in this World that they be Rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to Communicate And again that as they have Ability and Opportunity they do good unto all Men especially to them who are of the Household of Faith he means chiefly those that Minister at the Altar and daily watch over your Souls For this is pure Religion and undefiled before GOD whereby a Man shall not only preserve himself Innocent and impregnable to all the Temptations of a full and prosperous Estate but also make himself Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness who when he faileth here may receive him into those everlasting Habitations of GOD and his Son JESUS CHRIST and all his Holy Saints and Elect Angels 5ly and lastly For yet thou lackest one thing without which all other directions will prove Vain and Useless and that is this Resolve with Penitent David to give thy self unto Prayer To implore the Grace and Assistance of GODS Holy Spirit day by day whose proper Work and Office it is to Sanctifie all Conditions of Life to us As well to keep us down when we begin to be Elevated into Pride as to buoy our Spirits up and be our Comforter in extream Distress Prayer is that powerful Engine whereby the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence and the Violent take it by Force whereby Mortal Men wrestle with the Immortal GOD and will not let him go till he hath blessed them That Sedulous Importunity which once extorted Justice from an Vnjust Judge must needs be ever prevalent for Mercy with the Righteous Judge of all the Earth I had almost said that under GOD the KING ows his late never-to-be-forgotten Preservation in a great Measure to the Prayers of the Church offered up daily on his behalf that GOD would save him from all his undeserved Enemies whose tender Mercies are Cruel and their very Prayers and Preachments are of Cursing and Lies as the Psalmist speaks I 'm sure his Martyr'd Father of ever Blessed Memory whose Innocent blood perhaps GOD is making especial Inquisition for at this time hath left us an useful Note to this purpose amongst other his Sacred Reliques which I shall crave leave to Read you in his own Royal Words One of the Greatest Faults some Men found with the Common-Prayer-Book I believe faith that Great Good and Just Man was this That it taught them to Pray so oft for me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say AMEN nor yet Charity enough to forbear Reproaches and even Cursings of me in their own Forms instead of Praying for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 16. The Text is so very plain that it needs no comment were I worthy to make it and therefore so I shall leave it Mean while to return to may own Argument from this Digression I could not fairly avoid Who art thou O Man who upon any score canst trust to thine own strength It will betray and fail thee it is no better then a broken Reed for though the Spirit may be sometimes willing though thy Judgment be convinced and thy Will also made a Proselyte to resolve upon this or that good work yet it is often left undone in regard the Flesh is always weak Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor is the natural Mans true Motto it is all he can justly pretend to to commend Vertue in the notion but condemn it still in his own Practice and I must observe it to you for a great Truth however some may seem to Preach quite the contrary Doctrine or at least not to press this so often nor so earnestly as they should That Mens trusting to their own natural Powers and not regarding nor duly asking GODS special Grace and help as if they meant to bid despite to his Holy Spirit is one main if not the only reason of their persisting in their old impieties and particularly of their abusing and forfeiting their temporal blessings and hazarding their hopes also of Eternal Life For thus saith the Lord GOD Jer. 17.5 Cursed be the Man that putteth his trust in Man or maketh Flesh his Arm Be it the Man himself or any other mere Man all 's a case he is still accursed Wherefore let no Man living boast of his infirmities nor Glory in his shame let us not presume upon our own Strength or Weakness rather nor magnifie the powers of Nature in derogation to the Grace of GOD by which alone we must be saved but rather let us with Holy David as in utmost duty bound Make the LORD our only confidence the most High GOD the Rock of our Salvation And forasmuch as the Eternal Son of GOD our Saviour hath solemnly and freely promised us that whatsoever we shall ask the Father in HIS NAME He will give it us and particularly this inestimable and necessary Gift of his Holy SPIRIT recorded for our great and endless comfort St. Luke 11.13 and St. John 15.16 which by the way is the true reason that all our Publick Prayers run in that Name and Style and are shut up and bidden GOD speed for the sake and merits of JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD Let us humbly heartily and incessantly mention the Holy Name of JESUS before the Throne of the Eternal TRINITY that GOD would vouchsafe his Holy SPIRIT to dwell in all our Hearts to help our Infirmities and lead us into all Truth to subdue our natural Pride and sanctifie all our Mercies Spiritual and Temporal that we may use this World and not abuse it and ever be careful lest in the midst of the many and great Blessings we now enjoy we should forget the LORD the Author of them all that so he may not be provoked to forget but may in much mercy remember us in that day when he maketh up his Jewels and may bind up our Souls in the bundle of Life which GOD grant for the same JESUS sake our only Redeemer to whom with the FATHER and the Holy GHOST Three Persons and One GOD be all the Power and Glory Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever more AMEN FINIS